Zone Conference in Angers

October 20, 2014

Hey Everyone!!

First off, so I don't forget, I hope Dad's birthday went well a couple weeks ago. And also KAYSEN!!! (pretend like I'm singing at the top of my lungs and being a super, awkward creeper.) "15 Years ago you were born, yeah that's right it's your special day (on sunday). So have a happy birthday!!! Happy birthday!!"

Bon, buh this week went pretty well. We taught Mehdi (the ami) about the Plan of Salvation and the Gospel of Jesus Christ this week. He is such a smart guy. He understands everything perfectly. He's been such an example to me. Any time he has some kind of issue that comes up, he prays about it. And then he feels at peace. And then later he talks to us about it. And it's pretty cool. He resolves his own concerns. Most of his concerns tend to be more moral things, as in "a group of people that I was with started drinking and they started to get rather agressive, so I left. But they aggressed someone in the group that was drinking. Should I have stayed and helped out the person out? Or did I act well in leaving?" And he's noticing that he's changing as he's getting closer to Christ and Heavenly Father. He says that they've been really good changes. After our very first rendez-vous, he stopped drinking and smoking completely. He said he didn't smoke or drink very often as is, but he decided that doing those things didn't help him at all, so he decided to stop them completely.

Thursday we had Zone Conference in Angers. I love going to Angers it is probably the Utah of France, on a cleanliness level. Seriously, you could eat off the streets in Angers. All the formations (France-Paris Missionary lingo for presentations) were really good. The Zone Leaders' formation was about having a "Friendly Exchange" meaning making the most out of exchanges. And in the end the goal is to make every day a "Friendly Exchange".

The Babin's did a scripture chase with us to emphasize the importance of knowing scriptures. Reminded me of a game we used to play in Seminary. It was very fun and very instructive. :) Then the interviews went really well. The interviews were basically just nice, loving conversations. It didn't feel like an interview at all. :)

The Fitt couple rented a car to drive down in (because their car is, as they say, sick and needs to go to the doctor.) and they took us down, but we got to take a train back, because they needed to do appartement checks and so they were staying overnight in Angers. Our train left from Angers at 17h00. We had a correspondance in Tours, then took a train from Tours to Poitiers (which isn't in the Paris Mission...but it's okay. Missionnaires don't directly order tickets, we command them through an office couple, then they order the tickets for us. So I've been outside the mission boundaries twice now...once when I came to La Rochelle, and then this last trip.) Poitiers looks like a super cool ville. Elder Godfrey and I took pictures so we'll always remember our trip. Ha.

Sunday, I played the piano for sacrement meeting. We sang Because I Have Been Given Much, C'est Sur La Croix (don't remember what that one is in English), A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief, and Love One Another. It's been a great experience to play the piano for the ward. And my piano skills are improving. It's been pretty cool.

That was the week this past week. I'm glad you had a great laugh about my foot "disease." ;) I'll see if I can get some water proofing stuff. We're gonna go look for new shoes for Elder Godfrey today (he really, REALLY needs new shoes...) and the place we're going to will have some stuff I could possibly get.

Well I love you all!!

-Elder B. Stanton Wilson

Missing Letters

Here are a few weeks that hadn't been posted yet:

September 29, 2014

Hello Family,

So, this past week passed really well.

Monday, during our P day, we headed over to a store called Lidl to go and buy some juice...now, Lidl is like one of the cheapest stores ever...it's kind of like Ross, but for produce/food. BUT Lidl has THEE best juices ever. So on our way, our ami José saw us and stopped in his car to talk to us. Turns out he needed some help getting a website for his work online, so he asked us if we could help him. We said we could try, he ended up being able to get it up himself later though. But it was really cool to be in the right place at the right time.

Then later Monday night, we went to the Razamadraibe's house so that I'd be able to say goodbye to them, since it was a high possibility of me leaving. It was really fun. By the way, the game Cranium is very, very difficult in French. :)

Tuesday we had our last District meeting of the transfer. It was pretty good. It was mostly just a discussion on the Spirit and promptings from the spirit. We ate our lunch together afterwards, and then took some district photos. I forgot to bring my camera to emails today...so no photos for you. :/ Désolé.

Wednesday we met with the Swanepoel's at the Church in La Rochelle and taught them with Frère Forbes, who is a Rugby player for La Rochelle's team. Even though the Swanepoel's boys were screaming the whole time, Frère Forbes bore a powerful testimony on the truthfulness of the church and of Joseph Smith. It was really great. The Swanepoel's both talked about how they know that Joseph Smith was a prophet. They are definitely getting more and more ready for their baptisms.

Thursday morning, I had a rendez-vous for my second year legality in France. The RDV went really well...except, remember a year ago...the whole Afgahn thing? That came up again. Apparently I've been an Afgahn the whole past year. Bahaha!! The lady that was going through my papers and stuff was very kind and was able to change my nationality from Afgahn to American. So, I think I'll stay American for the rest of my life. :)

That evening we had a rdv with our ami Mehdi. We shared with him the First Vision and bore testimony on it. He said that what we told him really spoke to him. He also said that we are both smart and know our stuff, then he added, "It's not an intelligence from the brain, it's like...an intelligence from the heart. Like you've really reflected on this and pondered it, and that you know without a doubt it is true." That really was a cool compliment to receive. If our testimonies come off strong like that, it's not only because of us and our experiences we've lived, it's because of the spirit. The spirit was so strong during the lesson. Mehdi accepted the soft invite to baptism. He invited an invitation to come to church as well. He also had brought his guitar, because he wanted to hear me sing, and then he asked  for some help on a song that he's working on. It's in english, so he asked us if he is pronouncing everything correctly. He's pretty good. He held his engagement to come on sunday. :)

Friday, we met the less active Mehdi. We were originally going to meet at his house, but 10 minutes before the RDV he asked if we could just meet at the Chapelle, which was a GENIOUS idea! It was the first time he had walked into a church in the last 5 years. That was a really big step for him. We talked with him in the Sacrement room where he expressed his feelings that he had being there. He even came to church this sunday for the first time in 5 years!! The ward was SO great at welcoming him in. :)

Saturday we went to Niort to teach Christian, then to do a Samedi Sport with Josué, one of the Razamadraibe sons. During our lesson with Christian, he called us telling us that he had a music event and we'd need to push back basketball a bit, he then invited us to come and told me to come and play a couple songs. We came and I was able to play a couple songs. (I guess this was a rather musical week...haha) Then basketball ended up falling through. Josué's friends weren't able to come and play.

Transfers, we received a rather surprising call Saturday Morning from Président Babin, guess who is going to Tours as a Zone Leader? Elder Smith and I weren't expecting that, but he'll do a great job. So, it appears that I'll be staying at least 6 months in La Rochelle. We totally thought I would be leaving, but the Lord has higher ways and still has more for me to do and learn here in La Rochelle. I'll be welcoming in Elder Godfrey, who was at the MTC with me. He's pretty chill, so I'm excited. He is a beast of an Athlete. Or at least, he was in the MTC, let's hope a year on the mission hasn't changed that. ;)

With Elder Smith parting to Tours, I've accepted a new calling as the Ward Pianist. It's not really a calling, because we're not set apart for it, but I'll be taking over for Elder Smith. We trained each other. For two transfers, he was training me to become the Pianist of the La Rochelle ward and I was training him to become Zone Leader. (that's just the joke he and I have been cracking ever since we received that call.)

I'm pretty excited for this new transfer, the news was rather surprising, but it's gonna be great. It'll be sad to say goodbye to Elder Smith, he and I have become pretty good friends over these past 12 weeks.

Don't worry for you, I'll look for you at GC. Look for Elder Tripp during the Priesthood Session!!! He's going to be in the MTC Choir!!

Also, we just recently were given a Crock Pot, so could you send me some awesome crock pot recipes that you've already tried? I'd love to use it more. Elder Smith and I make Café Rio Pork last week and it turned out SUPER! We used a recipe that I got from an Elder in the mission. (I didn't want to try the one you sent me because the Salsa in France is gross. Tastes more like a very sweet, chili-powder jelly...ha) Also, could you send me the recipe for Rolled Sugar Cookie Dough? The pillsbury recipe. :) Thanks!

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Stay Fly!

-Elder B. Stanton Wilson

September 15, 2014

Hello Family!

It's good to hear that most all is going well. It's too bad to hear that momma was/is sick. Reposes-toi bien maman!

Last P day we went Bowling with the Fitt's. Guess who got over 100? :) I know that's not too high, but hey, for not bowling for QUITE some time, I'd say that bowling a 104 isn't too bad. I'll send you some pictures.

Buh, this week was a different week. The Fitt's went on a Tour de France all week, so it was rather odd being in La Rochelle with out a couple missionary. By the way, when I say Tour de France, I mean appartement checks in Bretagne. They seriously went through all of Bretagne in like 5 days. Bless their souls, that's TONS of driving. They were a little wiped out from their trip.

Meanwhile, In La Rochelle, Elder Smith and I had double exchanges (meaning that both équipes work in the same secteur) Tuesday/Wednesday with the District leader and his Comp in La Rochelle. I was with the DL, Elder Nielsen, from Tremonton. The exchange went well. It's very interesting how much the plans that are made, that may seem inspired at the moment they are planned, can change so fast.

After Dinner, we were going to go somewhere to do some porting, but as we started approaching the area on the bus, I felt like we should pass by Geni (the ami that got super offended when I was with Elder Rigby). So we did. He happened to be there, invited us in to talk and to eat dinner with him and his wife. He did mention that he was still offended at "Collin" (he likes to know our first names, then he likes to call us by them. Lucky for me, he can't remember mine to save his life!!) about not being able to come in our appartement, which being interpreted means, he is still offended at the missionary rules and doesn't understand them. He was very nice though!! We shared a scripture with him, something along the lines of "come unto Christ" (the one in Moroni 10 near the end of the chapter) and invited him to church. He said he might come, it depends on his sick mother. He did not attend church this week.

Even though Geni is still offended, he did seem happy to see us. I do feel like that impression to visit him was from the Spirit. It is SO important that we follow the spirit every time he prompts us.

Wednesday, we finished the exchange and sent the Elders back off to Nantes.

Thursday we went and printed off a picture of the Paris Temple (what it is supposed to look like) to go give it to a Less Active member, who, a few weeks ago, we had promised to bring her a picture of it after she talked about her experience when she was 15 in doing baptisms for the dead at the Geneva temple. When we gave it to her, her face lit up. It was pretty cool. I hope she will soon get the desire to come back to church.

Friday we finally were able to see the Swanepoel's!!! Yay!!!!!! We got to take a train to Niort, then a bus to Fontenay, then waited a bit for Bokke to come pick us up. They fed us lunch, which was a SUPER delicious spaghetti, and a millefeuille for desert. We then shared with them Moroni 7:13 and invited them to continue to pray about the Book of Mormon. Bokke says he hasn't really received an answer yet, and that he feels like it's more of a story than some kind of biblical record, but he agreed to continue to pray about it. Georget though, she said she has recieved her answer. Before they received the BoM in their native language (Afrikaans) they had it in English. They sat down together to read it after we talked about it, they struggled for 15 minutes trying to read one page. And didn't understand any of it (now, they speak english very well, but when it comes to reading Old English, it's a little harder). Georget prayed for something for God to give her a reason to keep reading the Book of Mormon. The next RDV, we gave them Books of Mormon (or is it Book of Mormons? *insert winky face here*) in Afrikaans. Georget said that that was her answer.

Interesting information on that, we could have given them the Books of Mormon in Afrikaans before they had their experience, but when the Fitt's asked us if we should give them to the Swanepoel's, we both said, hmmm, maybe, we'll see. Then at the last minute we decided not to, for some odd reason.

We also re-fixed baptismal dates. November 2nd! We've almost finished all of the lessons with them. It's been super great to teach them!!

Friday night, Sister Rigby invited us over to eat with her and her husband Allen, who isn't a member. Allen is SUCH a hoot!! He switches accents a lot and it is hilarious. At one point, Sister Rigby was talking about all the apostles that Allen has heard in person, and she mentioned Spencer W. Kimball. Allen then said in his American accent, "I had heard he was quite the Kimball Wizard." Elder Smith and I laughed pretty hard. :) Our spiritual thought we shared was Moses 1:39.

Saturday we took a train to Niort to visit Christian. We finished the Restoration with him. His youngest son was there, so we were able to teach him with Christian. It was pretty cool.

We were supposed to have another rdv with a potential ami, but he apparently was working. So since we had time, we passed by a member that lives not far from the Gare and talked with them for a couple minutes before catching our train.

Well, that was the week! I hope you enjoy the pictures. I also included a picture that we took while we were in Niort.

Have a great week!

Cheers!

-Elder B. Stanton Wilson

Comparison of Enseigner and le Seigneur

October 13, 2014

Hello family!!

It seems like all went well this past week.

For us here in La Rochelle, the week zoomed by!! Elder Godfrey and I were talking yesterday about how crazy it was. It was probably the fastest week in our missions.

Tuesday, we were supposed to do exchanges in La Rochelle after district meeting. Our district leader requested all the train tickets for us without first looking, so the total trajet time would have been about 4-5 hours for a trip that should only be 2 hours...so we stayed in Nantes for the exchange instead.

It's very interesting doing an exchange without a new pair of undies, a toothbrush, D.O. for the B.O., and a new pair of socks. We ended up buying new toothbrushes to use for the exchange. I was with Elder Tarbet, who is Elder Nielson's bleu. He was pretty cool and even though he had only been in Nantes for a week, we managed not to get lossed! That is a win! We ended up meeting someone in the street named Daniel and taught him about the Book of Mormon and prayed with him. It was pretty cool. And it was pretty cool to be with a new missionary to learn from him. Something I noticed about him was his humble willingness. He was so willing to go out and talk with people, even though proselyting by contacting and porting isn't the most efficient way to work, and he kept a great attitude despite the rejections.

Thursday was a pretty good day. Very interesting. So the Fitt's car broke down...and normally they would have taken us to the Swanepoel's...but they couldn't, so we ended up getting to buy last minute train tickets. We taught the Swanepoel's and that went very well. Elder Godfrey and I are super stoked for their baptism coming up. We taught them the last thing on the teaching record, fasting and honoring the law. After we talked about how there is opposition in all things and that opposition arises as we get closer to making covenants with God. We talked about that because they had been confronted by some anti-Mormon things online and were really concerned. We resolved their concerns then talked about opposition. Georgette said "the tallest trees catch the most wind." So true. I'm very thankful for the opportunity I've had to be in their lives and help them towards baptism and towards the temple.

Later we taught Mehdi about the Plan of Salvation. We just went through the Pre-earth life until the fall of Adam and Eve. Mehdi is a STUD! Seriously, one of the most intelligent people I've been privileged to meet and teach. He is progressing very well towards baptism. His sincerity to learn has really touched me. Also, he used to not really believe in Christ as the Savior of the world, but since we've been teaching him, he has grown a testimony of Christ. The Holy Ghost really does teach us truths.

That makes me think of back to Seminary, when I was going to early morning seminary with my friends back during sophomore year. Brother Baker always used many different names for Christ and for the Holy Ghost, one of which is Teacher. I find it really interesting in French, the word to teach is 'enseigner'. The Lord in French is le Seigneur. Very close to enseigneur. Cool right?

Back to Thursday. After our lesson with Mehdi we passed by Mbuta. Remember him? Elder Smith and I invited him to baptism and his first question was "Will I be naked?" Well, this rdv was very interesting as well. He let us in, plopped down on his coach, layed down, put his hands behind his head and confessed "J'ai fait la fête hier." as he groaned. (I partied last night.) We talked about Faith and repentance with him, and he was not really focused during the lesson because of his hangover. At the end, we asked him to pray, he started to pray, and then went to TOWN! He prayed for like 10 minutes. After the prayer, he jumped right up and was like "dang, that felt SO good!! I feel so much better now! When are you coming back, you coming back tomorrow night?" It was super interesting...ha.

And that was the week. It's interesting that it passed by so fast, because it was rather more of a finding week. Normally finding weeks seem to drag on, but this one just slipped by.

I'm glad to hear that everyone is doing well. I love you all!! Have a great week!

-Elder B. Stanton Wilson

P.s. Dad, could you please send me my line of authority? Thanks :)

Also, this year, while it's on my mind and since it's coming up soon-ish, for my birthday and Christmas, I don't really want any packages. I just want letters and money. It's fun to receive food and stuff, but I would prefer letters. :) The money is to replace shoes and such that have been ruined because of all the rain. See picture below. :)

An Instrument in His Hands

October 6, 2014

Salut la Famille!!

So, this past week was pretty cool.

Tuesday, we went and saw the Swanepoel's for Elder Smith to be able to get a picture and say good bye before he parted for Tours. They fed us a DELICIOUS lunch!! Seriously, it was so good. And I guess now I like butternut squash. Georgette made some...and it was SUPER great! We reviewed the Plan du Salut with them. They remembered it pretty well.

Wednesday, the Fitt couple picked us up around 7 and we went and dropped Elder Smith off at the gare. I then hung out with the Fitt's all day until my comp showed up. Sister Fitt made Pancakes for breakfast, she made around 15-20 pancakes. She at two, Elder Fitt at three...and they had me eat all the rest. We then went to the Church to help a lady clean the church. We got it done in an hour and 15 minutes, verses the 3 hours it would have taken her if she tried by herself. The Fitt's and I then went to a place called Celle-Sur-Bel which is east of Niort, to visit an ami. We taught him the first part of the Plan of Salvation, it went very well.

Elder Godfrey got in to La Rochelle around 15h30. We then took his stuff to the apartment and dropped it off, then went out contacting. Elder Godfrey had some incredible energy coming into La Rochelle. We contacted this old lady named Christian and shared some of the Restoration with her, then prayed with her. She didn't really want to learn more, though. But she did keep saying, "there's something different about you two. You're not like the rest of the youth. Your face just glows." It was a cool tender mercy to have met her. I hope we will have the opportunity to cross paths again.

Thursday, we taught our ami Mehdi. We talked about the Book of Mormon and invited him to read, he accepted. We gave him a baptismal date and he accepted as well. I really am so grateful for the opportunity that I've had to teach Mehdi. He is very sincere in his demarche to learn about the restored gospel. He came to General Conference this Sunday, many of his concerns were resolved in listening to the apostles and Prophet, as well as talking to the members of the ward. Mehdi definitely has been prepared.

We also taught the Less Active Mehdi. We talked about how he felt when he was at church. And we shared Helaman 5:12. It was a pretty great discussion. Mehdi is definitely coming back to church, every sunday he can.

Sunday was pretty great. So, for the schedule on General Conference, Saturday evening at 6 PM we watch the Saturday Morning Session live. Then Sunday Morning at 11, we watch the Priesthood session. 14h00 we watch Saturday Afternoon, then at 18h00 we watch the Sunday Morning session live. Then we are to fend for ourselves to watch the Sunday evening session.

Generale Conference was really cool this year. I saw Sister Potter, Sister and Brother Jensen, Tori Fawson, Breanna Eyre, Brother Dangerfield, my freshman photography teacher (Sister Autry), my calculus teacher (Brother Mouritsen), Sister Christensen (Anna's mom), Brother Bradfield, an old Swim coach (Kevin), Bishop, and you two!! Wow. And I have forgotten some others as well...but that was so cool to see you all on the télé!

I feel like General Conference just gets better and better each time. This time I really felt like the emphasis was on personal spirituality/testimony. It was a super great conference and afterwards, Elder Godfrey and I felt the spiritual power that came from it. As we worked for the last hour of the day, we were blessed.

We saw a guy in the street and contacted him. We were both overcome by the Spirit and were compelled to testify. The Spirit really took over, and we were as an instrument in His hands. We testified how He would have had us. Our contact wasn't too interested though. We both felt super great after that contact nonetheless. Because we had done our best. It was a really spiritual contact. Every contact should be like that.

We then started porting. We decided to just knock on the doors with lights on inside, since it was 20h00. We ended up frapping the port of a 19 year old Catholic, studying in La Rochelle. He let us in to show him how we pray and then to show us how he prays. We explained to him how we pray and then prayed. After he thanked us and said that was really cool. He then explained how catholics pray and then proceeded to recite 'Our Father in Heaven' and then did Mary's prayer (which is sung). It was really interesting. I am grateful for our knowledge of continued revelation though. I'm very glad I can express myself when I pray.

Well, I love you all! Thank you for the recipes!! :)

-Elder B. Stanton Wilson

Toilettes Episode 2

September 22, 2014

Hello Family!

This past week was a miracle week!! It was very difficult, but so worth everything.

The tone was first set last monday en faisant du Coeur-à-coeur (President Babin said that calling it Port-à-port is pessimistic, we should call it coeur-à-coeur which means heart to heart.) le soir. We "coeur'd" our way around this small town JUST outside of La Rochelle called Périgny. We ended up "coeur-ing" into this guy named José. He is from the Martinique and he is NORMAL!!! (inside joke with the Elders from Nantes. To explain, they have an ami named José...who has quite some problems/addictions that the Elders are helping with...and he kind of calls them 4+ times a day and asks rather bizarre questions. He's an interesting fellow.) So anyways, our José from the Martinique was rather skeptical of us and what we were doing, but agreed to pray with us. After the prayer, we asked him if we could share with him our message unique about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, so he agreed and allowed us to come back the next afternoon. We passed by and he opened right up and let us in. We shared with him the Rétablissement until after the First Vision and invited him to pray about the First Vision. We also invited him to baptism. He told us that he isn't ready to be baptized and he assured him that we will help him prepare to be ready, we also assured him that he won't be baptized this week or next, but that over time, as he comes to know this is true, he'll be prepared to be baptized. He accepted the "soft invite." We are definitely blessed to have been led to José.

Tuesday, before we went to José's we passed by Waka (remember her?) because we hadn't seen her for quite some time. Well, I'll just say that Waka is so open that she's closed...the lesson didn't go super well. She asked us first if there is a modernized version of the Book of Mormon, and we just kind of gave her a blank stare, not really understanding what she was asking. Then she brought out her bible, which happens to be a modernized version of the bible. She said it's easier for her to read. Cool thing, Waka believes that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, but then she also stated that she wants to know if there are more books like that from other people and then she started talking about how every religion is good and is of God...we shared with her Ephesians 4:5 (in her modernized Bible) and asked her what her thoughts were. She answered that she didn't know. She then said that maybe it means that we need to become as one through our faith with God, then she added that it can mean anything though and we can't know what it really means because we are not the writer. That's the first time either of us have recieved an answer like that to such a franche scripture...we both just felt like the best thing to do would be to close the lesson with a prayer and leave in hopes that maybe someday, another set of missionaries will be able to help her.

Wednesday we had district meeting. It went kind of short. It was great!! That reminds me of a quote Elder Fitt shared with us a while ago, that is "Brevity is charm. That which is good, if short, is doubly good. That which is bad, if short, is not so bad." Think of that in the sense of duration of talks/meetings/etc. Although, despite the meeting itself being short, the meal was rather strange. An équipe brought cereal, another brought beef stroganouf, we brought kool-aid (something that one cannot find in Europe), another brought a green salad, and there was dessert as well. Cereal and noodles are definitely a weird combo together.

Friday a miracle happened as we were walking to go to a less active members house to pass by. As we were walking, a potential ami that had contacted us on a bus (haha, that rhymes!) named Mehdi crossed paths with us. He asked us if we had time to talk right now, so we found a bench and started to talk. We found out about his beliefs and did some How To Begin Teaching (see chapter 10 of Preach My Gospel. Kaysen, get familiar with that, you'll use it with everyone you meet!!) Mehdi is one of our younger amis, he's 27. He is also in a Country/Folk band. After we got to know him a little bit better, he asked us some questions about us and what we'll do after our missions. I told him I'm going to study music and that I have a voice scholarship. He asked if I could play him something the next time we meet and I told him if he brings his guitar, I'll show him a couple of songs. I feel super blessed to be able to have this occasion to do that. It's not very often that I get to play music. It's my dream, you know, to help someone get interested in the Gospel through music. We set up a follow up rdv with him for this week.

Saturday in doing some more Coeur-à-coeur we found a guy named Thierry who is from Calais, which is up north, even further north than Cherbourg. He let us in to pray with him and agreed to let us come back to share our unique message about Christ and the family unit. He'll be leaving back to Calais this Thursday, so maybe while he's there, he could possibly meet with the Elders up there. That would definitely be a tender mercy for them.

Sunday, after church, we felt like we needed to pass by a non active member named Mehdi. We've had no luck getting in contact with him for about the past six weeks, but we felt like we needed to pass by him again. So we did. And he was there!! Mehdi has some changes to make in his life, we shared with him Alma 7:11-13 and that really set the tone. The spirit was so strong and all that could be felt was His love. We let Mehdi know that we love him and that we're all waiting for him to come to church. And that the bishop can help him through the repentance process, and above all, that Christ and Heavenly Father are there for him. We set up another rdv with him for this Friday, we'll come by with the Ward Mission Leader so that Mehdi has a friend at church this sunday.

This week, we were truly blessed by the Lord. You know, Elder Smith said something the other night that really hit me hard. It was saturday night and he talked about how amazing the feeling was when we prayed with Thierry, I stated that I didn't really feel that same way. And he described why he felt that way. He said, "It feels good to play in a basketball game for me, and I'd love to play basketball, or even watch an NBA game. For you, you'd love to play music or soccer. These things all end though. But what we are doing now is eternal." That is so true. A song ends, a concert ends, a game ends, a sport season ends, school ends, and even a mission ends. But this work is Eternal. What we do here will have an Eternal effect.

So you may be wondering about the toilet thing for this week. Well, one night this week, after I was done pee-ing, I went to open up the bathroom door, as I moved my leg, it hit the toilet seat...and broke the hinge...so there is another one of Elder Wilson's Toilette Adventures. We have a new toilette seat now, just FYI. :) I may send you pictures next week, don't worry, the toilette is very clean. I am a professional toilette cleaner. :D

Well, I hope this next week goes well. This is our last week of the Transfer. We'll find out the deets this Saturday.

I love you all!!

-Elder B. Stanton Wilson

Elder Wilson vs. la Toilette

September 8, 2014

Hello Family,

So first off, for the scripture. No, I don't want that scripture. That's not my favorite one. Could you put Alma 26:27,31? Or if not, just verse 27?

This past week went by pretty well. It was rather long, but it was still super great. :) Tuesday we had a nice big zone conference in Angers. It was pretty cool. Everything was all about teaching and was directed at helping us improve our teaching. It was supposed to end at 3 but went 40 minutes over...but it went by pretty well.

Not too much happened during the week...until FRIDAY!! We just had a super magical day. We combined forces with the Lyon mission. We did an all finding day, with the goal to find 1000 new amis/leçons. We were instructed to stop every 30 minutes to do a prayer with our companions. It made finding a lot more spiritual and uplifting than it usually is. It was rather great! Friday seemed to fly by SO fast!! I was actually rather amazed. Usually an all finding day seems to go by a little longer than normal. We did have to opportunity that day to stop finding for a bit to help our ami, Sonia, move. It ended up taking 2 hours, but it was so rewarding. She was so grateful and then she even gave us the phone number of her little brother to "go and pray with him and share with him our message." So we have a potential ami thanks to the service opportunity that was given.

I have learned that some of the best missionary work we can do, members and missionaries alike, is service. Service really is the way to open one's heart. It not only opens those whom have been served, but those equally that are serving. As we serve each other, our hearts open to one another creating new, lasting friendships that are founded on a base of charitable love. Ammon is a super great example of this in the Book of Mormon.

Saturday, we had a rdv scheduled with Anne, but she texted and told us that she was sick. We offered to give her a blessing and she accepted. We went over there with a member named Pierre Nicolas. We explained what a blessing is and how it is performed. And then asked her what was the reason of the blessing. She explained to us what had happened, and all I will let you know is that she was wronged very maliciously by a friend. She then chose Pierre Nicolas to do the anointing and I to do the blessing. After the blessing she said she felt better. We then talked to her about her smoking problem and proposed to talk about the stop smoking program we have. She agreed to read over it and expressed that she has a desire to stop. We then let her know we would put into initiation the program the next time, and she agreed to that.

We were able to see Raphael this week as well, we shared with him Alma 34:32 and then ended up talking about the atonement and how that can help us in our lives. He still hasn't been able to give up his last 1.5 cigarettes yet, and I think we found out why. He expressed that he said it was him who had started smoking and who continues to smoke, so it must be him who stops. And that Christ can't be the one who makes him stop. We testified to him about the Atonement and the healing power it has to help us over come temptations and addictions in our life. And then we ended with a prayer (comme d'hab). I do honestly feel like the reason he hasn't been able to make this last step is pride. He seems to feel like it's all up to him. Which, in a sense is correct, it's up to him to choose. He can choose to rely on Christ and come to the realization that he can't quit without His help, or he can continue to struggle through this like he is. We are hoping we can help him through this.

So Church yesterday went pretty well. Although, during Sacrament meeting, the microphone was having troubles, so l'épiscopat just turned it off. Well, even though the microphone was off, almost everyone that came up and bore their testimony still adjusted the mic. Finally, a member came up to bare his testimony and started off by saying how funny it was that despite the fact that the microphone was off, everyone was still adjusting it. After, people still adjusted the mic, then would realize that it was off and would stop touching it. It was rather funny. I thought certain among you might enjoy that little experience there. :) 

So, I had quite an interesting experience yesterday. We went to the gare to check out train times to be able to plan when we can go to Niort this week (the Fitt couple will be in Britagne all week doing apartement checks...so we're on our own this week.) and to find train times to go see the Swanepoels. Well, while we were there, I had to go...pretty bad. And they have this bathroom that is in the corner. It basically looks like a big wooden box. I had never used it before though. So since I had to go so bad, I decided to try it out. I walked in and locked the door, found a place to hang my bag when I started to notice. This bathroom stinks. But not like a bathroom...It smelled like a very clean chicken coop. Then I realized there wasn't a place to wash my hands...and then I looked in the toilet. The bowl was a plastic bag that had cedar chips in it...then I saw a dispenser that had cedar chips and a scooper to use. I wasn't sure if I should still use it or not...so I did anyways. I sat down, then I saw a sign that explained what in the world this odd toilet is. It's a dry toilet!! Made to save water. These toilets save 20,000 liters of water per year. What you do is, you do your buiseness, then you scoop enough cedar chips to cover your mess and leave it clean for the next person. Luckily, after I was done, I did see a hand santizer dispenser and used it. Very odd experience. I'll include the pictures I took. :) Just so you can really get the jist of this experience. :)

And that was basically the week here in La Rochelle. As for transfers, they were 3 weeks ago. So the next one will be in 3 weeks. The Wednesday right before General Conference. Elder Smith and I both think that I'll be transferred away...since there have been no missionaries in our mission that have served more than 2 transfers together. But we will find out in 3 weeks. Ha.

I love you all!! :)

-Elder B. Stanton Wilson

By the way, quick note, I got word from the Pettitt Family in Cergy. Dominique got her mission call!! She's going to Frankfurt!! How cool is that?

An Inspired Question

September 1, 2014

Salut, la famille!!

I'm glad that everyone is doing well. :) It's always great to hear good news from everyone. Bah, quoi de neuf?

This past week passed very well. Tuesday was district meeting. Our new district leader is Elder Nielson, from Tremonton. He came from being in the office for six months. Whew, I'm glad that wasn't me. He gave really great formation. At the beginning he had us teach someone a principle of the gospel, using only clay. It was rather tough. It was really cool though!

We then did exchanges with Elder Nielson and his comp Elder Cutshall in Nantes. I was with Elder Cutshall. We ended up having quite some bad luck haha, but it's all good. We went to someone's appartment for a rendez-vous we were supposed to have, but they weren't there. So we had a ratez-vous. (the verb rater [pronounced like rat-ay] means to miss. Ratez-vous isn't really a French term, it's an old missionary term that Elder Smith and I are trying to get other people to use as well. We heard it from someone who served in the Paris mission about 30 years ago.) Then for our second rendez-vous we were supposed to have, we got on the wrong tram to get there and would have gotten to the guy's house too late, so they rescheduled for the next day.

I was quite thankful that Elder Smith is my companion though. And I was also quite happy to get back to our own secteur to work. :)

Thursday, we went and saw the Swanepoel family. Things are rather difficult with them. Bokke has quite the crazy schedule with rugby and won't be able to come to church for a while, and since they only have one car, Georget isn't able to come with the kids to church. Although they are still progressing! We asked how quitting coffee was going, Georget is having troubles, Bokke said that it's no problem for him and then looked at Georget and said, "it'll be a lot easier for her once all our coffee is gone, because we will not buy anymore." with a super sly grin. When we go to see them this week, the coffee should be all done with, so that's super great!! :) We will be fixing a baptismal date with them this week.

There is this other ami that we were miraculously able to get in contact with a couple weeks ago, her name is Sonia. She is African. She will be moving to Orléans, which is the last area Elder Smith served in. We saw her yesterday and actually fixed a baptismal date with her. She will be getting baptized in Orléans though. It's been super great to have been able to meet with her. She has such great faith, and she doesn't forget about the commitments we give her. :)

We met with Raphael on Friday and talked about the Divinity. He kind of understood...his big problem is he feels like to believe that God, Christ, and the Holy Ghost are three different beings is like being polytheistic. We assured him that we are monotheistic and then we read in the Guide des écritures about God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. I think that helped him understand a lot better. We then shared with him Mathew 3:13-19 (I think it's to 19). It's when Christ gets baptized and the Holy Ghost descends in the form of a dove. And God the Father says "this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." His eyes lit up after reading those verses. We then asked him about more concerns he has, and apparently, he has a concern about the law of Chastity. He said that it's against human nature. He also doesn't like that fact that people can get excommunicated, he feels like that's against the love of Christ. He also stated that he didn't agree with excommunication nor the law of chastity in the Catholic church either. But good news is, he is still trying to quit smoking. He still can't seem to give up that last one and a half, but he claims he is making efforts. If only he wasn't so stubborn, and just follow the 7 day program, he'd have quit already.

We went porting last night and we ported into an old couple. At first, the wife talked for a bit but wasn't interested, then she started talking about her family, then she told us again she wasn't really interested to pray with us. Then, Elder Smith asked her, "we were wondering what there is to do around La Rochelle, could you give some ideas of some things we can do tomorrow?" She went into her house, door still opened, to look for something, then let us come in. She offered us each a beer, to which we replied that water would be fine. Her husband then came and started talking to us. We talked with them (or, rather, listened to them) for about an hour. Then before we left we asked if we could leave them with a prayer and they both agreed. It was super cool. I strongly feel like Elder Smith's question, though not really missionary nor gospel related, was inspired.

And that was our week this week. :) I hope you all have a great week!

I love you all!

-Elder B. Stanton Wilson