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.