Elder Lyman is getting transferred and getting a new companion

Hi everybody. Well first of all I guess I better let ya know I'm being transferred this week. I'm going to Rennes, which is over in Bretagne. Rennes is one of the cities in the mission that everybody seems to love so it should be good. My new companion is Tahitian and his name is Elder Tehaai. I don't know him yet and don't even know how that is pronounced. My new address is 7, rue Bertrand Robidou (new line) 35000 Rennes France.

Anyways as for things here from the week, they were pretty good. It was really a quality rather than quantity week. The stats don't look great because we didn't teach a ton but we had some good stuff happen. We finally taught a guy we met a while ago who we had thought might not be as interested as we'd hoped, but he turned out to be awesome. We had been having a hard time getting ahold of him and I thought he was ignoring our calls but it turned out his phone was not working, like it actually wasn't for a change but now he has a new one. When we set the rendez-vous up with him I thought there was gonna be a decent chance he wouldn't come, but he came and he was so excited he was 10 minutes early, which doesn't happen really. He loved everything and was super excited to come to church on Sunday. He came, like 15 minutes early, and loved testimony meeting. Tonight we are seeing him at our ward mission leader's house. Our other ami, Jean-Marie who is awesome, came to church too. He had told us he had a friend visiting him from Africa this week and that he was probably going to bring him too. It turned out that his friend is actually a member and he and we didn't have any idea. He has been a member for 30 years but lives in a country in Africa where there isn't the church so he pretty much only goes to church when he visits here. He seems pretty strong though. Anyways Jean-Marie really loved church too and we'll be seeing him tomorrow. Then last night I called a guy who we've been wanting to teach but haven't really been able to yet and who we haven't seen at all in a long time to see if I could see him before I left. He was super sad that I'm leaving, as he has been with all the missionaries he's known, and said to come over. So he visited him real quick but couldn't really teach or stay but should be seeing him tomorrow or sometime before I leave. So I'm kind of sad to leave right now because a lot of good stuff should be happening but I guess I don't have a choice. Anyways I guess I better wrap up. Anyways I love and miss you all.

New Companion, conference in Brussels

09/13/10

Hey everybody. So this week was kind of crazy. Mostly just I got a new missionary and so that is a very different experience. So far it's going good though. His name is Elder Wozniak and he is from Riverside Cali. Him and a couple other missionaries didn't get VISA's in time so they served in the states for a few weeks. He was in Louisiana in the Baton Rouge mission. I guess that adds a new element to adjusting when ya get out here. Coming from the MTC you don't really have any idea what to expect but they come with an idea and then find out it is not the same here. I think it is probably pretty difficult to come here and expect things to just run like they do there but they just don't. Hopefully my companion won't have too hard a time.

Tuesday we went to Brussels for the conference thing with Elder Ballard, which was cool. He was there as well as Elder Caussé and Elder Rasband. They all talked and it was really good. I just love hearing from apostles, there is definitely something different about them. He can just tell us how to do things better without making us feel guilty for not doing them better now and things like that just better than anyone I've heard. So that was all really cool.

New area----New companion

08/23/10

.......as for things here, they're going well so far. My companion's name is Elder Anderson and he is from one of the Jordans, South or West or something. But ya, everything's going good so far. We've definitely been more busy since I got here than I have been in like 8 months. There have just been things to do since I showed up it seems like. I left Cherbourg at about 10:45ish on Wednesday morning and had a couple hours in Paris waiting for my train here and then got here around 5:00ish. When I got here we went straight to the church and I did a baptismal interview for an ami of the Lille elders who got baptized on Saturday. After that we had our meeting with the ward mission leader, who is a young guy who got back from his mission a little while before I got out but served in Paris. It's cool because he served in Cherbourg and I him by name and stuff and taught people he'd taught and stuff. Then Thursday morning we went to a less-active member family's house to do service and they actually live across the Belgium border, so I got to go to Belgium for the first time, though it was still just like a continuation of Lille suburb.

Elder Josh's Grandpa passed away

08/17/10

Hi everybody. So I'm sorry and happy to hear about grandpa. It will be hard to not see him anymore but since he hasn't been him for a while I guess it's better. Don't worry about me at all, I'm fine. If anything I feel like I should feel worse but I think I was ready for it and I'm sure he is much happier. I think is somebody can feel at ease about passing over to the other side, it's grandpa. I hope everything is going good back there with funeral preparations and everything. Tell everyone who comes (and has an idea of who I am) hi for me. I wish I could be there for that but I'm ok with being here. As for grandpa memories, of course riding in the LUV to the field and climbing on hay. For some reason I remember a few years ago when he was eating at our house on Sunday he passed some kind of vegetables and asked if I wanted some to which I obviously said no and that I just wanted meat, and he said, "well shame on you!" and then sang me the 2nd verse of "In Our Lovely Deseret". I didn't know that was a hymn till I got out here. I remember biscuits and gravy on Christmas morning and the story of Christmas at the family party. I remember frogger on his old computer. I remember hundreds of gallons of punch and tons of Dum Dums. I remember "Life's short, eat dessert first." And of course I remember him always being a perfect example in just about every way. So that's what first comes to mind. I hope all goes well this week.

08/23/10

Hi all. Well it sounds like everything went really well last week, I really wish I could have been there. I love the idea of using the truck instead of a hearse, and I'm sure grandpa does too. It would have been awesome to be able to see everybody and everything but I guess it's better that I was here. It's so awesome that grandpa is with grandma and everybody else that he hasn't seen for so long. I can't even imagine what it would be like right now if we didn't know what we know.

Transfer to Villeneuve D'Ascq

08/14/10

Getting transfered to a place called Villeneuve D'Ascq, which is a suburb of Lille.

The MacDonalds visit France

08/05/10

Anyways, this week was ok. I guess you know the craziest part of the week which was seeing some McDonalds stroll into the chapel on Sunday. I was sitting at the sacrament table to bless and suddenly I saw them walk in back. For some reason I expected a surprised look from them like they had just been staying in Cherbourg for some reason and then came to church having no idea I would be there, but they just acted like it was really normal. It was not normal for me however. I was so confused. It was cool though, Courtney even got up and bore her testimony (introduced herself in French then bore it in English) and it was just crazy seeing people who I know. Home and the real world usually don't seem very real so that kind of thing is really weird. If you talk to them tell them thanks again for me for stoppin' by and bringin' the jerky, and thank you for the jerky. So that was weird, and just fast and then they were gone, it didn't seem like I'd really seen people from home.

Elder Lyman's friend is going to the France, Paris mission!!

07/27/10

Hi everyone. So first of all, I knew it! I knew Pud was coming here, I've been feeling it for a while now. I didn't really want to say anything because I didn't wanna jinx it, but I knew he would be coming here. I have mentioned to companions that I was waiting to hear about him coming here. Wow, tell him I'll be waiting for him. I don't know if I could ever call him Elder Shumway however, but we'll see.

I just noticed the background of the computer I'm on is Monument Valley, that's kind of cool. love and miss everyone.

New Companion

07/07/10

I guess the news from here is we got the transfer e-mail on Saturday and as expected I'm staying and Elder Lee is leaving. My new companion is named Elder Cutler and I haven't met him yet. I'll be taking Elder Lee to the gare right after we're done e-mailing then going back in a few hours to pick up Elder Cutler. So I'm here for at least another six weeks,

06/30/10

Monday for p-day we went to Mont St Michel. We took a train down to where the other missionaries in our district are and they have a car so we drove from there. It was awesome still, and again really weird to feel this deja vu almost exactly 2 years after going there last time. Everything was so familier looking, it was weird. I could remember being in all those places with Kyle. I saw blocked off, restricted areas where me and Kyle may gone last time and it was just a weird feeling being back there, just like everywhere else I go where we went. So that was cool.

Zone Conference, Activities, Caen & cows!

Here's a portion of Elder Lyman's email from June 15th

So as for this week, it was ok. It was still slow but we were out of Cherbourg a lot so that actually is kind of good from time to time. We had zone conference Thursday in Paris and had to stay Wednesday night in Caen to get there on time. Zone conference was good as always. We found out we'll be changing things up a lot and won't have zone conference each transfer anymore but once every three months. Interviews with President will be the same. That probably doesn't mean much to you but it'll change things. Anyways that night we ended up having to stay in Caen again after zone conference before coming back the next day. Then Saturday morning we went to Caen again for an activity with our zone. It was a finding activity where the whole zone did exchanges with members and did various finding things like contacting, knocking doors and other things that you wouldn't know what they were. It was cool having a normal member as a companion, and I got paired up with a guy that I had met before and is way cool. Anyways after that and some other meetings and stuff in Caen we went home. Our train had problems on the way back and it took like an hour and a half longer than it should have, much of that time was just sitting in the train in the middle of nowhere looking at cows. Then Sunday morning we again went to Caen because it was district conference. The conference was a broadcast from Salt Lake and Elder Bednar, President Packer and others spoke, it was good. So we were gone like 3 entire days this week.

Mother's Day brought a special treat

What could be better than a phone call from your missionary? A video chat!!!

We had an extra special Mother's day call from Elder Josh.

We also got to have a video chat and see him plus talk to him.

He looked and sounded awesome!

A visit to the Normandy Beaches and Zone conference

Here's a part of Elder Lyman's email from last week:

So yesterday P-Day was pretty cool, the missionary couple here has a car and had told us that if we wanted to visit something to let them know and they would probably take us so we decided to go to the D-Day Beaches and cemetery. It was really cool obviously. I think I maybe appreciated it more this time than last time. I guess one of the last times the McMullins, the couple here, went they met the deputy director of the place and so they asked a worker if he was there right when we got there and he came out and talked to us for a while. He's actually now been promoted to director. It was cool he was a nice guy and asked us if we wanted to help them take down the flags later if we were there, which is something the missionaries have done a couple times since the McMullins met him. So that was cool, when they were taking down the flags me and my comp folded one of them, kind of took me back to scouting days. Probably not a whole lot of people can say they took down the flags at the D-Day cemetary. So that was cool. Also while we were walking through the museum part the director came and found us and said, "who was your last prophet?" So we said President Hinckley of course, then he pulled out a paper he had printed off with the name Stanford Hinckley and the information for where his grave was located, in a cemetary in Paris, and he told us it was President Hinckley's brother. He told us how President Hinckley used to come every year to visit his brother until he was 94 and told them it would be his last time probably. So that was pretty cool that that guy went and looked that up for us and stuff, he was a cool guy and thought it was really good what we're doing. I guess the other thing worth mentioning from the past week would have to be the big zone conference in Paris with Elder Teixeira. I'll spare you all the details of how ridiculous it was getting there and back because of trains strikes and things but it was definitely ridiculous and included us speeding in a car to get to a train in Le Mans and seriously parking and sprinting to the train and diving on. I am still blown away that we caught that train and we really probably shouldn't have. But I'm glad we did because the conference was really good. I decided I'm a big Elder Teixeira fan. For one his English blows me away, it is crazy how good it is. And more than that he is just awesome. He just talked to us for a few hours and gave us training and stuff and it was just cool. I think he did a good job of motivating the mission.

Elder Teixeira

Elder Lyman is being transferred to Cherbourg

Here's part of Elder Lyman's email from this week:

Hey everybody. So I guess the news for this week is transfers. We got the e-mail on Saturday and I'm leaving and going to a city called Cherbourg which is in Normandie. My companion is Elder Lee who was in the apartment with me in Nogent for a couple transfers and is probably my best friend in the mission. We've been talking about serving together since Nogent and we were actually talking on the phone a couple days before the transfer e-mail and he said that I would be coming up there, then he called Saturday morning before I had seen the e-mail and said I really was but I thought he was lying. It turned out the be true which is awesome. It's a small city on the coast with a small branch but I'm excited. We'll be able to go to the D-Day Beaches and Mont St Michel on p-days. It will take me about 8 hours total to get up there on Wednesday, with a 2 hour layover in Paris included. It'll be a good change I think, even though the work situation is pretty comparable to here I think. I'm gonna miss the ward here more than I think I anticipated, it was kind of sad saying goodbyes yesterday at church. They were all pretty surprised that I was already leaving because it was shorter than normal. Tomorrow night I'll be eating at the bishop's house before I leave which I'm excited for, they're Spanish and make really good stuff.

The missionaries need our help!!

From Elder Lyman's email:

One thing that is becoming very clear to me right now is that church leaders are right and we, as missionaries, shouldn't be the finders but the members should be sharing and finding so we can teach. I've always known that was ideal but have never worried too much about it because it is just not something that we see very much and I thought the chances weren't great that I would see much of that. In the past I guess it was ok because we had other stuff going on but now I really have the feeling that the work will go no where here until that is happening.

When we just find somebody it is very easy for them to feel the spirit while we're there and have a desire to change, but then between that and the next time we see them it's even easier to forget that and to think of how much easier it would be to just ignore us and not give us any of their time. I can't even believe how much I've seen that this transfer. So things aren't really moving here at all but I do feel a little good that I think that might help members get going here.

The members are great here and I love them, and they're certainly not different than any other members but it's just that here we have nothing else for the time being as where we got by elsewhere.

A French sentence to translate

Here's the sentence that Elder Lyman gave us to translate this week and the translation we came up with:

Dieu a appelé un prophète de nouveau pour que nous sachions comment retourner vivre avec lui

"God called a prophet again so we know how to return to live with him"

French sentence for this week

Hey everybody. Since you asked for more French here ya go; "Les adolescents se fatiguent et se lassent, Et les jeunes hommes chancellent; Mais ceux qui se confient en l'Eternel renouvellent leur force. Ils prennent le vol comme les aigles, Ils courent, et ne se lassent point, Ils marchent, et ne se fatiguent point."

This is what we came up with as the translation:

Teenagers get tired and weary, and young men stumble, but those that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They take flight like eagles, They run and not be weary, They walk and not faint.

New Companion

Elder Lyman got a new companion and is still "exiled" in Limoges

This is from his email dated 3/1/10

We got the transfer e-mail Saturday and I'm staying exiled in Limoges, as expected. Quickly, I learned this week that Limoges comes from the verb Limoger which actually means to exile. Anyways my companion is leaving and I am getting Elder Schwind, who if you remember was with me in the MTC and then lived with me in Angers for 3 months. If you remember I was super excited when he was going to be living with me in Angers because me and Dane were both good friends with him in the MTC. Well we're still friends and have actually joked a lot about being companions one day so it's cool.

Pictures from the baptism

We got pictures from this week of Cedric's baptism. They were so fun to see!!

Train Strikes in France....just a part of life.

Elder Lyman's email told about the adventures of the week:

Tuesday we had district meeting, for which we go to Poitiers, our district is us, La Rochelle, and Poitiers and Poitiers is the easiest for us all I guess. So we are here in the middle of nowhere far from everything so it takes a long time to get places and we have to get up way early for trains because there aren't a ton. So we woke up at like 5 and took a train a couple hours to Poitiers. It was our district meeting with the zone leaders and we did exchanges with them afterwards. So me and one of them came back to Limoges after district meeting. Generally exchanges are like 24 hours but since we're in France where they strike almost daily we got stuck here because of a train strike and they were a full couple of days, which was weird. Then we went to Poitiers Thursday to switch back, and again woke up at like 5. The travel took up more than half of that day.

Then yesterday we had interviews in Tours, so we again woke up at like 5 for a train. Then that train was cancelled and we took another one 8 minutes later, 8 minutes that made us just miss the connection we had to make to get to Tours. So we were stuck in the gare where we had to connect for an hour and a half or so after another train we needed to take got cancelled. We finally got a train to Tours and got there luckily right as things started, which we didn't think we'd be able to do. So that was our whole day yesterday and why we didn't have p-day.

A little more about Elder Lyman's transfer

Here's a map that shows Limoges where Elder Lyman has just been transferred. If you will notice just below Limoges is a town named Grenoble. This is where Josh's best friend Dane (another "Elder Lyman") was just transferred. He is serving in the Switzerland, Geneva mission. How crazy is that that they would be that close to each other!!!

Old Peopleish all around

Hey everybody. So I am here in Limoges and have been since Wednesday. It is definitely not Nogent but I think I'll adjust. It's good too, just in different ways. I guess this is too teach me I was just way too comfortable in Nogent, or maybe I underappreciated it. Nogent is one of the biggest, best functioning wards in the mission, and probably in France. It felt probably about as close to a ward back home as I could get here and just had tons of young adults.

That is not the case here. There are about 40 active members in the ward, and they're mostly old people it seems. In fact this just seems to be an old peopleish city to me. In Nogent whenever we taught with members it was almost always fairly recent RM's, but here we've taught a couple lessons with members and they were in their 70's or 80's both times, not to offend those in the family who are knocking on their 70's or 80's. It seems like about 80 percent of the doors we've knocked so far have been old people. That said, so far I love the old people we've taught with, they're definitely awesome old people. But it will definitely take some getting used to.

Limoges is pronounced Lee-moe-(second "g" in garage). As for any information about it, it is very famous for its porcelaine (I don't know how it's spelled in English, but if that's wrong, the stuff plates and toilets and things are made of). But anyways, I can't really think of other things to say for now. I guess I'll end it. Love and miss you all.

Being Transferred

Elder Lyman's email this week said: Hi everyone. So I guess the news from this week is transfers. I am getting transferred to a city called Limoges. It's way down south, the southest in the mission.

Christmas morning call from France

On Christmas morning the telephone call came from Elder Lyman in France.

The phone was passed around to his siblings, his nieces and nephews, his grandpa and his mom and dad. Everyone was so excited to talk to Elder Josh. He was happy and sounded great!!