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.