busy week, ragdoll, Louvre, worthless shampoo

So this week was pretty bunk in the fact that we didn't get to spend very much time doing missionary work. On Tuesday I went on splits with Elder Florence. He had to get his legality stuff taken care of so we had to take a train all the way to Lyon, then we walked up a million stairs, then he signed some papers in an office that reminded me of the DMV, then we had to walk back down the stairs, then we took the train back to Paris where I met back up with Elder Webber.  On Wednesday, he had to translate for the soeur (sister) conference, so i just studied while he was doing that.  Thursday was the elder conference from 10 until 4 and then from 4 until 8 we had a shift in the visitor's center. It takes us an hour to get to Paris so our whole day was taken up. On Friday we do weekly planing for like 3 and a half hours.  After that we taught some lessons and visited some less actives for the rest of the week. I gave someone a blessing, in French. and I've never even done it in english before, so that was nuts.  I had no clue what I was saying.  On Saturday night, when we were visiting this same family, there was a random dude there, he was another son that we had never met.  They came to church on Sunday and they brought him to church too and he was super cool.   He's a balla.

At the elder's conference we went to they told every equipe (companionship) to plan to have one impossible miracle happen  (and to write it down).   Elder Webber and I planned to find one person who has been prepared and is ready to be baptized before the transfer is over.   We had found a couple amis but none of them really seemed like the miracle we were planning for.  Last night while I was praying I had this strong feeling after I asked to find someone who is prepared that we had already done it, we had already found our miracle.  So now we just gotta find out who it is I guess. 

The pigeons i was talking about are like the size of seagulls but they don't have the same wingspan.  Elder Webber wants to go to the Louvre today.

 

While Elder Florence and I were walking around Paris waiting for a train I found Nicolas Flamel Street. you know, the creator of the sorcerer's stone!!!!

not sure these are "the stairs" but I found this on a google image search.

oh!!! so at Cergy St. Christophe there is a GIGANTIC hill with a million billion stairs and grass next to the stairs. We had a rendez-vous at the bottom of the stairs and we were running a little late, so Elder Webber takes off down the grass and makes it down super fast and I was at the top still, just watching him, then he's like "come on, hurry!" from the bottom of the hill.  So I started running down the stairs....slowly.  Then I was like forget this and I started running down the grass. I WAS FLYINGGGG.   I was running toooooooo fast.  I was running so fast that I couldn't control my legs.  I fell. hard. and roll. a lot.  I felt like a ragdoll.   I had to wash off my pants in a fountain. the rendez-vous guy didn't even show up. haha. 

French shampoo is worthless!!! (that's why no one uses it) so I'm gonna buzz my head.

 

Dad... I really want to go tuna fishing again and dove hunting.

We haven't heard much about the Paris temple.

Fasting, porting, lizard, bed bugs, exploded duck liver

I was going to set my alarm for 3:00 in the morning because that's about the time that Elder Guymon's last two e mails came, but I didn't because I needed my sleep (today was the first day of school, so the first day back to work for me) and I figured I should be able to wait until 7:00 to read his e mails.  When I got up, I rushed to the computer before my eyes were even focused.  There were two e mails from William in my in box, so that was exciting.  The first one was a short e mail.  Here are the highlights---

Cergy is pretty cool.   There's a lot of missionary work to be done. This Saturday was supposedly the hottest day of the year in France? and Elder Webber and I fasted (fasting is to go without food or drink). WORST IDEA EVER. haha.

We went bat porting yesterday in a bat that was BEYOND ghetto. (bat is slang for the french word for building).

The smallest lizard in the world got into my bookbag.

In the second e mail, he mostly just responded to the e mail our family sent to him Sunday evening. 

He talked to Andrew about a Playstation game.  To Bradley he discussed Bradley's desire to serve his mission in Russia.  He stated that he misses Bradley and he also didn't want Bradley to ruin any of his hats, then he corrected himself and instead said that he just wanted Bradley to buy him some new hats in two years. 

He told me that he loves his mission and that he is having fun (with an exclamation mark!).  I asked him if he teaches individuals or families and he said about half and half.  They are supposed to bring members with them when they teach lessons. 

He also mentioned that he was scheduled to go on splits in an area known as St. Ouen, but the Elder's apartment in St. Ouen had bed bugs, so he didn't go there, so they wouldn't spread.  He was happy about that!

He is worried that he wont be eligible to play soccer for SVU when he gets home. 

He sends us our e mail from the church building. 

I had asked him if he remembered his MTC teacher's story about being mugged, but he answered, "Yeah, D....... got "mugged" in Cergy, but he didn't even get punched".  (he was not impressed enough, I guess)

Then Elder Guymon wrote to his dad.  He told him that he has eaten an exploded duck liver.

They get around sometimes by riding on the subway, which is sometimes kind of scary, but he just walks past all the people who stare at him and/or give him a hard time. 

Gothic Cathedral, amis, pigeons, Nehemiah

We got our e mail from William at 3:00 in the morning again, our time.  I read it at about 7:00.  I don't think I will stay up until 3:00 next week, but since there is sort of a pattern, maybe I will set my alarm!!!! 

His letter makes his mission sound great.  He seems to be doing well except for his sore feet and foot odor problem (they have to take off their shoes in some houses there.) 

It takes about 9-10 days to get letters from here to there through the postal service.  So far, he's only received one of the letters we have sent him. 

Chartres Cathedral

He gets to travel to Paris quite often and he even did what they call an "exchange" in a city named Chartres, which is an hour away from Paris on train.  He loved the town and thought it was really pretty.  There is a Gothic cathedral that is bigger and cooler than Notre Dame there.  But, he said, the missionary work in Chartres was not going too well.  They walked and knocked on doors for FIVE hours without much luck.  He saw one positive come out of all that "porting" (porting is knocking on doors.  In french "porte" is "door") the positive was he got a lot of practice in his french speaking and his door approach. 

He said that he and his companion were the only "equipe" (team) to have a baptism last week in the whole mission, so the APs called them for the mission president and told them that they were doing a good job and to keep it up. 

 

He was super happy to have some "amis" (Amis de l'englise means "friends to the church") (which we call "investigators"). 

 

He said that since neither him not his companion know how to shop or cook, they decided to try to get more "mangez-vous" which is dinner at members of the church's houses.  He really likes those because they sometimes bring their amis with them to members houses for dinner and so then the members are present during their lessons. 

He also really enjoys visiting recent converts.  He met a husband and wife who have completely embraced the gospel and are the most faithful people he has ever met.  "The gospel changes people and brings a light into their home that nothing else can."

He got to say a prayer at church on Sunday and also was able to be in the circle for the person who was baptized confirmation. 

 

He is doing well with the language, but he said that everyone expects him to understand everything they are saying, but he doesn't yet. 

There are weird HUGE pigeons there that aim for people with their bird poop and sound like turkeys. These weird birds also fly right at you, so you have to dodge them because if they hit you they would actually do damage.  He didn't say if he's been hit by poop or a bird yet, though!  (Hope not!) 

He has noticed that so many people in France wear America stuff.  He said that it might be because of the Olympics, but it is also seems to be their style to wear stars and stripes.

 

Here's some of Elder Guymon's own words---

 

"I've been searching for a mission plaque scripture. haven't found one yet. but i found a new fav bible story. Nehemiah was commanded to build the walls of Jericho so he assembled a bunch of peeps and they started doing it. a lot of people were telling him to get down and theres no reason to be up there. he says, i dont remember the exact quote " i am doing a great work and i can not come down. why should i come down? for the work shall cease while i speak with you" i think that is a great saying for church work. as missionaries we are up on a wall, but we cant come down because then the work would cease. we need to stay clean and unspotted from the world. when we are set apart as missionaries, we are literally set apart from the world. the real quote is neh 6:3"

 

He told us about a video of a member named Nadja Pettitt on www.mormon.org . The people featured in the video are in hes ward and they help a lot.  So I went and watched it, and it's in English, so you should too.  You can see where William has been and see a wonderful, nice French mom, who I don't even know, but already really like because she has been nice to my son. 

He wants everyone to e mail him if they want to get the Monday e mail he sends out to us.  His e mail address is william.guymon@myldsmail.net .  He only has an hour each Monday on the computer, so send him letters too- 

 

Elder Guymon
Les Missionnaires
56 blvd. de l'Evasion Apt N° C301
95800 CERGY LE HAUT
France

baggettes, visitor center, meetings

So, this keyboard is all out wrong! 

Our address is 56 blvd de l'evasion N°301 95800 Cergy le haut FRANCE.

To answer dad's questions--- no, everyone LOVES Americans! They think we're the coolest. They ask me about music and politics and stuff all the time. They love talking about Mitt Romney. I always say he's Mormon. French teenagers think Missionaries are so cool. And another myth about the France missions is that people don't want to listen to the gospel and that they wont get baptised. We are going to have 5 baptisms this transfer. We have one this Saturday. The people in France are so ready for the gospel. I'm pretty much able to tell people what I want to say, but the language that they teach in the MTC is NOT FRENCH, not at all.

Something awesome that happened this Sunday was that french people use baggettes for sacrament bread.

And if you guys want to brag about me, you can tell people that I'm a visitor center missionary.

Since I'm in one of the Paris zones, I have to serve in the visitor center in Paris once a week. It is right next to the modern art museum and Notre Dame.

My companion is a wizard at french. He's from Orem Utah haha. The only big touriste thing I haven't seen is the Arc.

I didn't know dad's bee company even had a name.

French cheese is so good, but we literally have zero food in the apartment haha.  We've had canned rattitouille twice. That's what missionaries eat here instead of top ramon.

The flight here was so boring and it was only dark for a few hours because we went so high north. Right after I hung up with you guys I got on the plane because they were boarding, so I couldn't call Brad or Melanee.

We do most of our lessons in the parc, but the last few days it's been raining.

So we're going to go shopping.

I'm really sad because 3 of my super good friends reported to the MTC on August 1st, right after I left!

Our church's temples are beautiful and light up at night and are like pure white inside and our pictures are of Jesus teaching people and loving people. 

The first thing we did when we got to Paris was contacting in downtown. That was nuts. My "mom" was Elder Hoopes.  I gave out a Book of Mormon and got a guys number but I had to give it to the elders in Paris.

Since my companion is a DL, we have to go to a billion boring meetings.

The french food (or what I've had of it so far) is so good. I love the juice!!!!

He's There!

Here is the picture we got in an e mail today from Elder Guymon's mission president President Poznanski.  He said all is well and William has been assigned to the Cergy Area with Elder Webber as his companion.  William's smile looks read and the mission president and his wife look very nice! 

I looked up "Cergy" and found out that it is a town of 58,000.  It is located 17 miles north west of Paris.  I can't wait to find out more! 

Question Answer letter

As I did a few other times, (great idea Laurie!) (I think I used it more than YOU), I wrote William a letter where he just needed to circle the answer and send it back to me...simple, simple.  Here are his responses-
1.)  Did you get the yo-yo?  yes
2.)  Did you get the duck tie?  yes
                          like it?  yes
3.) Did you get the owl tie?  yes
                           like it?  yes
4.)  Do you now have 3 memory cards? yes
5.)  Do you still like us to write every day?  yes
6.)  Are you tired of the sports updates?  no
7.)  Are your suit cases going to be under 50 pounds?  yes
8.)  Is your under arm better?   yes
9.)  did you play more soccer?  yes
10.)  Do you and Elder Munns have to always do the same P.E. activity?  no
11.)  How was the hosting?  pretty good
12.)  Did the guy with the ruptured liver recover?  no
13.)  Did the guy with the Black Death recover?  no
14.)  Are all 18 of you going to the France Paris mission?  yes

AND, hey, he also wrote us a little bit of a REAL letter accompanying those questions!!!!-

yeah, everything is just super busy.  I got lots of stuff from uncle Mark like food, notes, and those pop things you throw on the ground  and they blow up.  Elder Chandler was supposed to go to Mongolia.  No, I haven't had to give a talk or speak or anything.  I twisted my ankle coming down the stairs.  It really hurts.  I miss you guys.  I'm ready to start loving real investigators.  Today was our last lesson with (he wrote "avec") Jeannine  and I was really kind of sad.  Jeannine is a really old grumpy 80 year old who took really slow baby steps.  She pretty much accepted everything except tithing.
-  Elder Guymon
p.s.  We baptized Chris

MTC pictures!!!

Elder Guymon's MTC pictures  (click on this link to go to the Picasa album of MTC photos!)