6 month mark, A new nephew

Here's Elder Lyman's most recent email: "Monday again. Well that's definitely cool news about whatever his name is, hopefully I'll find out next week. I'm glad it sounds like everything is going good and all, congrats Jeremy and Heather and Livvy and Cohen. I can't wait to get pictures. Also congrats to the triathloners, that doesn't sound very fun.


Jeremy's and Heather's new baby McCoy



The "Triathloners"


As far as what my days are like, that depends on the day. Monday is p-day and then FHE, Wednesday night is english class, and Saturday morning we play soccer and have an activity at the church in the evening. Those are the only fixed things and other than that it just depends.

These last couple transfers we've been doing quite a bit of work and things with members, quite a bit more so than first transfer, so we have service and member rendez-vous and stuff quite often. We also contact and sometimes try to pass by investigators' and less-actives' houses. We also teach a recent convert quite often, generally a few times a week. So it just depends.

As far as who we are teaching, we have people but we are really having trouble getting a hold of people right now. We teach a less-active member and his non-member wife, he is an African guy from the Congo and she is French. We have a guy who we haven't taught for quite a while but with whom we are still in contact who is an African college student who is Muslim. We are now teaching a lady who is a friend of our recent convert that he brought to a rendez-vous one day, she's just a French lady. Then we have a Chinese guy and girl who just showed up to church one day, I think I've talked about that. And that's kind of it for now.

We had a kind of crazy thing happen yesterday with the Chinese guy and girl. For a few weeks we've been calling him and trying to set something up with them again but he hasn't answered and finally the other day we got a text from him that said he needs to think for a while about whether or not they want to keep seeing us. So that was just kind of that for now, and then yesterday we were walking home from our recent convert's house and we passed a man on the road who walked up and stopped us and started talking to us. He then suddenly went and open his door and pointed for us to come in and sit down, so we did. So we sat in his house and talked to him for like 45 minutes and he was kind of crazy and at some point he talked about how he rented a room out up stairs and how he had people from all over stay there and how at the time he had a Chinese guy and girl there. We asked what their names were and he told us and they were their full, long Chinese names but each had what sounded like the names by which our investigators went in the middle. So we kind of wondered and then they came down stairs and we could see them through a stained glass door and it looked like them. So we walked over and sure enough it was them and they were pretty shocked. They asked us how we knew where they lived and we said we said we didn't but their landlord had just invited us in. So that was all that really happened and we still don't know if we'll start teaching them again but it was pretty crazy and at least now we know where they live so they can't really hide. It was just pretty crazy that in a city with about 150,00 people and thousands of homes we just stumbled into theirs. So that was kind of crazy and took up some e-mail space.

But anyways other than that we didn't do a ton. We did have a really cool activity with the ward Saturday night which I don't really have time to talk about, but it was cool. Also tomorrow we have our interviews with president and it is also my 6 month mark, so that's that. Love you and miss you all."

Feeling good about the French language

Here's Elder Lyman's email which arrived Monday, July 20th, 2009!

"Monday again. To Answer questions: I'm feeling fine about my French, it's not great but it's not a real source of stress or anything usually, but some days are better than others. We haven't been able to contact our Chinese amis for a while but I think we will soon and will continue teaching them. Right now we are teaching them, a referal from a recent convert, a less-active guy and his girlfriend and trying to get ahold of other amis.

It has been really hot around here, it was really bad a couple weeks ago for a while but it's gotten better recently, but yes the humidity is what makes bad and I'm not sure how hot it has been exactly.

We've done a tiny bit of teaching this week but mostly have had a lot of trouble getting ahold of people. We did have zone conference which was cool because Elder Caussè, a seventy, was here. He is, I believe, the first French general authority. So he did the zone conference and he is really cool. He did all the training and stuff and it was really hot and everyone was tired, so to keep us from sleeping and being bored he switched back and forth from English to French. I was really impressed with him and it was really cool to meet him.

Elder Gerald Causse'

Yesterday after church we ate at a member's house and that was really cool. The family is kind of one of the big names in the church in France and they are really cool. I'm just waiting to hear some day Franck Poznanski announced as a new general authority. He is also President Staheli's counselor so you need to be on your best behavior around him. It was really cool though as it generally is there. Those were pretty much the noteworthy things that happened this week.

Anyways as usual I need to get going to FHE.

Love and miss everybody.

Celebrating the 4th of July in France

Here is part of Elder Lyman's email:

Well monday again. It sounds like it was a fairly eventful week there, it wasn't especially eventful here. It was a little difficult to realize that the 4th was happening there and I was missing it. We didn't do a whole lot to celebrate, though we did wake up first thing and listen to the national anthem sung by Jericho Road and waved around little American flags, which were provided by my Scottish companion, and that night we made hamburgers.

We did have somebody we hadn't even met just walk in to church this week, which makes 2 weeks in a row. A lady came who I believe was catholic but was too far away from a catholic church or something so she just brought her 2 kids to see what our church was. A member came and got us out of sunday school to tell us she was out there so we just went with here and her kids to primary and I think she really seemed to like it, then we went to sacrament meeting and I believe she seemed happy with that too. She wasn't way big on the idea of giving us her number and being taught just yet but she has ours and I think she might come again next week. And the week before we just had a chinese guy and girl come who had just heard about the church from a friend who we have taught before and we are now teaching them so that is cool. Then yesterday we went to another member family's house for lunch. They live rather far and since we don't have a car we had to just have them drive us and when we do that we are just kind of at their mercy as far as when we come back so we were there for about seven hours. They are a rather crazy family and it's always interesting with them so it was quite a day. This time they spent they whole day planning a wedding for a son and an adopted daughter, that's one wedding, not one for each of them. But it was really fun, though their lasagna made us all a little sick today. But there isn't really a ton else going on here. love you and miss you all.

Please send ideas of healthy meals!!!

Ok well it's monday again. This weekis the start of the new transfer and Iam staying in Angers with my same companion. Last tuesday at interviews with president I got a pretty good idea that I'd be staying but found out for sure on saturday when transfer e-mails came out. So I have six weeks left here and I would bet I'm out after that. I was happy to be staying here, the ward is awesome and me and my companion have gotten along great.

Thank you very much for the package. I got it at interviews & everything in it was greatly anticipated. So not a ton happened this week that I can think of. We had our interviews with president like I said, those were good. We did some service a couple days. Friday I did some gardening and Saturday a bunch of digging and shoveling stuff. Then yesterday after church we went to a member family's house for a barbecue, which was very good, though I was scared because the first time I ate there it was kind of crazy. That made us six for six for meals with members on Sundays for that transfer, which is pretty impressive.

So as far as the assignment to send simple, healthy recipes, the emphasis is probably more on healthy than simple, though they do probably need to be relatively simple. The thing is just that I don't know where to really start or what to even buy when I shop. As of now I get whole wheat pasta for one, lettuce for salads though I don't make them too often because I don't know of any healthy dressings that I like here, I also get tuna and a couple other things but I really don't know what I'm doing. Even with the pasta, it's whole wheat which is good but I don't really know what to put on it that is healthy. I use pesto sometimes because I heard that wasn't bad, I don't know about red sauce as far as healthiness but I could probably swing making that. Basically I just have no idea what I'm doing. But ya that is an assignment, to find healthy things that would be doable.

By the way I got Kristi, Marilyn, and Stacy's e-mails, but I didn't see them till today and I believe they were sent last week. So thank you very much for those, they were much appreciated. But I better cut thisoffquick, love and miss you all.

Eating mushrooms & other "gross stuff"!/Loving Angers

I believe in a letter I got recently somebody mentioned something about me having two meals in a row with members or something and asked if we do that often. That is actually one thing that we have been doing a lot of. Last week we had 4 meals or something with members, and we have more lined up and stuff. We've been having a ton lately, mostly because working with members is about all we've been doing lately. We haven't really had other appointments for a while. But this is a really good ward and I think we can pretty much set stuff up with members as we please it seems. I don't think most places, if any other places, will be this good as far as members and what not but as for now the members are awesome. I kind of don't want to leave Angers, and am kind of maybe even a little dissappointed that I started here, just because few other places will be close to this good as far as members etc. I'm sure other places will be great but I think Angers is really kind of special. So anyways, ya as for right now meals at members' houses are very common. They weren't nearly as common last transfer but now we are just scheduling more things with members and can just about have as much set up as we want i think.

By the way you'd be proud, because of all our eating places I think I'm maybe getting to where I can eat more gross things. The other day we went to a member family's house and they made a sort of pie thing with just chicken and mushrooms, so the mushrooms weren't really get-aroundable. So I just told myself I was going to have to eat the whole thing, and I did. Maybe not a big step for most people, but I can think of no other time in my life that I have eaten actual mushrooms. I have also eaten numerous other things I would have never eaten before and I kind of hope I will just start to be more tolerant of gross stuff.

Oh another meal we had was yesterday a family from my companion's ward in Scotland was here and they took us out to a chinese place. So that wasn't going along with the gross stuff necessarilly, but that was just a little interesting and kind of cool to have people he knew come. 

Sushi for dinner???

Here's Elder Lyman's email:

Ok, so it's Monday again. First of all, yes I know the Hitotos.  They live here and are in the ward. I couldn't remember Frere Hitoto's first name, but he is a black doctor and his wife is white, and they have 3ish kids. I haven't talked to them a ton but they are really nice, cool people.  She actually taught Sunday school yesterday.  I guess I'll have to talk to them next Sunday. As far as talking about my companion more, I don't know what to tell you.  I'll need specific questions probably. Yes, he has an accent & yes he is different than Elder Wagner. His name is Elder Snee. He is my only companion now because my other, temporary companion's companion got here. It's Elder Schwind as I told you, who me and Dane were pretty good friends with in the MTC, so that's cool. It's also cool to have someone newer than me.  I kind of feel like a normal veteran missionary, but not really. The French and everything is going fairly well though.  I think I see improvement. Yesterday we ate at a member's house and a bit to my surprise I just kind of talked and joked around with the family and the kids the whole time, so that was cool and I felt pretty good about it. They live like 45 minutes from Angers so that means we stay there for quite a while, so I was worried that after a few hours I might get burned out but it was good for the most part. But whenever that kind of thing happens I generally end up being brought down to earth soon after, and tonight we are eating at another member's house, so we'll see how that goes. Also I think he might be making us sushi, so I'm a bit worried. but it should be fine. If worst comes to worst, this member speaks English so I'll just tell him I’m going to vomit if I end up being disgusted by the sushi.

In other news, I finally got a letter from Dane so that was cool. You probably know I guess, but he is in a little city in France called Chalon (I believe that's correct). It doesn't look to be way far from here so letters will go pretty fast I think and that will be cool. He sounds like he's doing good. But anyways I don't have a whole lot else to say but I love and miss you all, Elder Lyman

 The couple that Elder Lyman talks about named Hitoto, are a couple that Jed’s brother Gordon and his wife Kay have met.  They have been friends with them for a few years.  Here is a picture that Kay sent to us in an email after she found out they are in Josh’s ward.  It is a small world.

 

 

Elder Lyman gets a new companion & has an unschedule train ride across France!!!

Here is Elder Lyman's email from this week..............

So I'm about 5 days into my second transfer. As I told you last week I have a new companion, who is Scottish. What I probably didn't tell you is that I now have two new companions, because I didn't know I would. As I believe I told you Angers switched back to four missionaries and the other missionary who was coming was training a new missionary. It is by the way the one I had mentioned, who me and Dane had kind of been friends with in the MTC, but he wasn't on the plane with Dane coming over. In fact he is still in America, or maybe in a plane right now. I guess he was sick or injured or something and so he didn't get released from the MTC, so he probably will come sometime this week, we're not sure when. So, he is supposed-to-be companion to me and also my companion for now, which is pretty different. Adding one more person makes things a lot weirder, but it's fine for now. So far things are going fine this transfer with the new companions, though it's quite a change and will be hard to get used to. One experience you may be interested in hearing is what happened on Wednesday when I took Elder Wagner to the train station to send him off. I took him and we found his train and so I was helping him get his stuff on it, but what i didn't know was you're not allowed to get on the train and help them without a ticket. so anyways i was on the train helping him and suddenly I heard the door close behind me, which wasn't good.  I said what do I do and we were kind of panicking and we got the attention of a train worker guy. Elder Wagner told him I needed to get off and I didn't have a ticket and he needed to open etc. and he just said, what? We can't open the doors now, there's nothing I can do. And sure enough the train started moving a few seconds later, headed for Paris, with me on it. So the worker guy said he would go talk to his colleagues or whatever and a few minutes later a couple of workers came and said (in english), so you are having a problem? So we explained what happened and they just kind of huddled for a second then said, ok generally you are not allowed to get on the train without a ticket, which didn't do me a ton of good at the time, but they said, what you can do is get off at Le Mans (the next stop, luckily only about 40 or so minutes away, and not all the way to Paris) and go with the worker guy (who we had originally talked to) and he is getting on the train there back to Angers and he'll explain that you don't need a ticket etc. So they were really nice and I did just that and it worked out fine. But I was late getting to the station in Angers to pick up my new companion so I had to have a member go wait for him and explain what was happening. It was interesting, but it was fine, in fact for some reason the guy told me to sit down in a first class seat when we got on the train back, so that was kind of cool, though not much better. So that was pretty much my experience of the week. Other than that not much has happened, except maybe ping-pong and pancakes. Ping-pong and pancakes is an activity that I guess the missionaries in quite a few places do here. They just invite investigators and members Saturday nights to come play ping-pong (the churches here have ping-pong tables rather than gyms and basketball courts I guess) and make and eat pancakes. We hadn't really done it here yet except one time with like 3 people, but the new missionaries wanted to get it going. So on Friday we told a few people at the church (seminary and institute people) we'd be doing it, so we thought a few people might show up but not many, since it was the next night. But it turned out that like 20 members and a few investigators came and it was really cool, so that was awesome. It was actually ping-pong, volleyball and pancakes, because we found out there are volleyball nets to set up in the parking lot. It was cool and hopefully we'll get people to come each week. Things are going good right now, the language might be coming a little bit and I’m feeling pretty good about things. They say every transfer is faster than the last, which will be pretty crazy if it's true. Sometimes 16 transfers seems like quite a bit, but when I look at how fast my first one went it doesn't seem like very long. I only have a few minutes so I guess I'll wrap it up. I love you all and miss everybody.