Weird Food, Baptism, fun games

Hey, whats up? So, this week was really different because of all the holidays and stuff.

So remember how I was a super picky eater before my mission and you were like, "When you eat this it'll  practice for your mission because on your mission you're going to eat weird stuff"? When I got my mission call to France i was secretly like BOOM SHAKA LAKA - normal food.

nope.

France eats weird food on Christmas.  That's how they celebrate. We had muscles, oysters, mushrooms, and shrimp all together in a shell covered with cheese. We also ate the fois gras (exploded fat duck liver) that I told you about.   

We also did something realllllly fun at a member's house. We played the "change the rules game"!! We also player a game that is like the french version of Werewolf (a game that we played at SVU) which is really hard for me in french because I cant really strategize or lie or anything.

On the rosters that you sent Elder Burgess there is a guy from Le Mans, France and I went there on exchanges on Friday. On the rosters, there was another guy who played on the Cholet basketball team and I saw them get off a train at the train station!

The baptism on Saturday went super well, except A*** wanted us (the missionaries) to sing. It was AWFUL. I seriously may have one of the worst singing voices of all time. It was so bad that people didn't even pretend to compliment us afterwards... we sang "viens et suis mois" (Come  Follow Me)

It was really nice to hear from you on Christmas.

Are there other people serving missions in our ward?

This transfer ends the 10th 

I hope Bradley is doing well at basketball. He should do the Rubio Wrap. Can he even touch the net yet?

and elder Burgess and I decided that our favorite player in the NBA is Jason Williams.  

ON-Jay, car, Christmassy, no guns

Hey everyone! How you pronounce Angers is ON-Jay.  So Elder Burgess is from New Zealand. He's my second companion from there lol and its really fun. Angers is so nice. The ward is really nice and we're working really well with them. President and soeur Poznanski's families live there, so i feel like we're kinda under pressure, but there really nice so its ok. Before I came here prez old me that I'm going to the prettiest city in the mission and to not goof up in front of his mother in law. haha.

I dont really know the plan for Skyping home. I know that we can either do it the 24th or the 25th. 

This week we have the mission car and I'm going to drive. I'm pretty nervous and I had to learn how to drive in France. The laws here are sooooo weird. The driver on the right hand side has priority so if you're diving on a road (like the Esplanade) and someone comes and wants to get on, they have the right of way (and also in round abouts too). I'm afraid for my life!! and the car!!

Our Christmas party is on the 22nd. I'm pretty excited. Everything is really christmassy here. There is a HUGE Christmas tree that we can see from our house and a bunch of markets. I live in the middle of downtown. We have a Christmas tree. 

So there is a guy in our ward that told me that Aaron Brooks is on the Kings. What up with that?

and where is Dax going for training?

I'm so glad that they got haircuts! (Bradley and Andrew)

The first address I gave you is where the sister missionaries live. so they give me the mail that goes there. and Elder Flitton said he would send me the mail from cergy. (Phoenix's letter)

What number is Bradley at basketball?

and people in France dont have guns. at all. There are never shootings here, only stabbings.

Elder Burgess wants to know the rosters of the NBA (or at least the good teams). 

That is way crazy that David Maloney is home!!!!

31, rue de la Roë

Somehow, last week Elder Guymon gave us his new address, but it wasn't the correct one...oops, that's kinda bad since I've given it to a lot of people who wanted to send him Christmas cards and letters. 

I hope that other address is just some different missionaries and they will give him his mail.  But, also, those pictures I found on Google Maps were not where he lives,

these are---

Angers is soooo cool

Angers is soooo cool! It's such a nice and clean city. It's really pretty. Elder Burgess is a balla. he's the second companion I've had from New Zealand. haha

This week has been super crazy but super awesome. There is a lot of work going on here and I'm so glad to be part of it. A man contacted us and he really really wants to be a Mormon and he wants to have his family raised up in the church and that's what his wife wants too. As soon as they get a testimony of the Book of Mormon they will be baptized. He is from Cypress and she is french.  He is not working right now so he sits at home and watches Mormon messages and reads the Book of Mormon. He also watches American news.

So on Saturday we had 7 rendez-vous fixed and confirmed and they all, one by one, ended up not happening. I have never had to pray so much in one day just for the strength to not give up and go home, but then finally we found someone who was an answer to our prayers. He said he is going to get all of his friends together and we can teach them all too. At first I was kind of afraid because he was just talking about how if there is a God there would be no wars and how America is a religious country and we're always at war, but by the end of the night he really wanted to listen to what we had to say about the plan of salvation. He wants us to "put all of our knowledge in his head."

The coat that I was wearing was in our closet in cergy when I got there. kinda like manna.

I don't really know how much money I need for Christmas, but during the month of January there is a government enforced sale all month long called soldes. So I might pick up some stuff then. I don't know like $40? (stuff is expensive here)

theres a big castle here that is super cool.

We live right in centreville and I really like it because when I look out the window in the morning I know that I am in France.

and also prez and his wife are from this city and their family all lives here, so there is a lot of pressure haha

31, rue de la Roë
49000 ANGERS
France

is actually our address

Transfer Pictures

New Home

Here is a picture of what came up when I typed Elder Guymon's new address into Google Maps.  The above is his apartment, below you can see the street his apartment is on and the roof of his apartment, right smack in the middle with a little red marker on it-

Please write to him, his new address is-
Elder William Guymon
les missionnaires
6, Square Alexandre 1er
49100 ANGERS
France

Sad to be Leaving

First of all on Thanksgiving we played real American football. Never in my wildest dreams I would ever dream of playing football under the Eiffel Tower.

There is a lot of ice on the ground in the mornings here so I slip a lot, but nothing major.

In Sacrament Meeting they announced that I'm getting transferred to Angers and everyone was pretty upset. I'm pretty upset too. I love Cergy. I had to give a going away testimony on Sunday and I saw some peeps tearing up. 

I'm pretty excited to start seeing France. Cergy doesn't have the french culture that you think of when you think of France, but I love it here. I'm so glad I was born (in this mission they call your first area "where you were born") here. There's a lot of people I'm going to keep in contact with.

Our mission goal is "bring a family to Christ for Christmas" meaning to baptize a family before Christmas and I'm kind of sad to be leaving because the family that may or may not get baptized is doing soooo well. I'm kinda sad I'm going to get shipped out, but that happens. 

This transfer went by sooo quick!

I got the hat. it is soooo cool!

This week Elder Flitton got sick. He looks really ill. 

We met a lot of our goals for this transfer. I'm really happy about that. I always happy when we set a goal and then it happens. 

We got to decorate for Christmas with a couple families which was reallly fun!

We walked a lot yesterday.

Google Earth

Can you see the base of the Eiffel Tower?  See the soccer field in the bottom left hand corner, with the track (I think) around it?  Well, that's where Elder Guymon and a bunch of other missionaries played their Turkey Bowl (I think they must have played soccer) on Thanksgiving day.

And this is a google map picture of Elder Guymon's apartment building.  (The letter "A" there.)  (But all that would come up was building 52 and he lives in 56, so I think it wasn't yet built when they took this photo or it is just one of those buildings, not specifically where the "A" is pointing.

Photos

William's mission president's wife has a Facebook page and sometimes I find William in her photos, so here are a few from last week.  Looks like a meeting and lunch.  He looks happy!

AWESOME week

So this week was AWESOME!!! We went over to one of our ami's house and he invited all of his homies over to talk to us. It was way cool. Then we ported into a family's home and she was really interested. She said she studied with the missionaries a long time ago but then she went on vacation and they never called her again. So she was way excited to see us and she has a bunch of kids. We taught a bunch of lessons to really cool people this week.

At the turkey bowl we played like right directly under the Eiffel tower. If you look at it on google maps there is a soccer field right next to it and that's where we played. It was real fun. I toe it up.  They voted me "The OLD SPICE impact player of the game" hahah, but then I was really, really sore. (So was everyone).

Sunday was full of awesome stuff. We had 5 investigators at church. It was really cool and it was the primary program. We gave L****a the gift of the Holy Ghost and we gave F****s the Aaronic Priesthood. Then after church we had two people invite us over for lunch and then someone invite us over for dinner. It was like Thanksgiving again. I was soooo full I thought  I would die. Then when I woke up this morning I thought there was a baby alligator tryna claw its way out of my stomach, but i took some Tums. =)

I didn't know that Duke got his mission call. For when?

Andrew-  I kinda miss being able to go on the computer, but I really don't have any time. When I get home I just want to go to sleep.

Who has what callings in our ward? I've been wondering that. 

And also this Christmas I want to skype you, but I forgot my skype password. Can you try to find it and then send it to me, or create me a new one?

I still haven't gotten the package from Emmett's mom.

I'm pretty sure that I'm going to be transferred next week but if I stayed I'd be really happy. I love Cergy and I love Elder Flitton. He's like my best friend that I've ever had and we are seeing a lot of miracles together.

France Paris Missionaries

This is a picture of all of the missionaries serving in the France Paris mission right now along with Neil L. Andersen and his wife and Elder and Sister Teixeira, who were all visiting.  It was a first time an Apostle had visited the mission (with this mission president) and the first time they had ever gathered the whole mission together for an event.

Neil Anderson, Baptism, Turkey Bowl, Catabombs

heyyyyyyyyyy! What's up?

 

This week was super awesome. So many just great things happened! Elder Neil L. Anderson came and gave an awesome conference. He told us a lot about how the church is changing and how missionaries are being sent to places that would surprise us (China). He also said that there are 19 year old girls who are coming here. He sent them here. haha

And also we had L***a's baptism.. and she chose me to baptize her! That was so awesome and she invited her friend and her friend was like.... I want to do that too. BOOM SHAKA LAKA

 

I have been learning more and more about how much God loves each of his children, and how he does things that we don't understand (or sometimes want) just to get his children home. My companion blew out his knee while he was skiing and then decided to come back to church and serve a mission. He said, "God broke my knee, but now I can have eternal life."

In our church there are like 150 people who attend. Our building is too small, so next year they're adding on to it.

I had a random thought that when I get back I want to drive to SVU. That'd be cool.

This Thursday all of the missionaries are having a turkey bowl and we're going to play football.

We didn't end up doing the USA presentation thing.

I think it would be better to just give me some money on my card for Christmas. orrrrr if they still have Chico State hats at lids... that'd be soooo cool!

I found some sweet duck ties at a thrift store!!!!

I still haven't got the package from Sister Norris.

We found these underground catacombs that connect a bunch of apartment buildings, so we can get into them now. but they are extremely scary. There's graffiti and slime and pipes and burn marks and bad smells. It makes me so scared down there.

Rough Start, but Good Week

This week started out way rough. We did a bunch of porting on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and found no amis. On Wednesday, we knocked on 91 doors and no one wanted to talk to us. Elder Flitton and I have been trying to tighten the screws because we know why we had such a bad week. On pday, we went to the one of the biggest (if not the biggest) mall in France because another elder had to buy a new suit. It took him a million years to pick one and then we got back late. We have planning and schedules for a reason and the lord doesn't bless us if we don't even follow our own plan. 

But then on Thursday we started finding some new amis. On Saturday night one of our amis decided to be baptized. It was her mom who we baptized last week. I found them both last transfer by knocking on doors. Her daughter wasn't there for a couple of rendez vous and she had a lot of doubts. (she's 15) and she wasn't prepared to be baptized on the same day as her mom. She even told me that she knew that our church was true but she just didn't need to be baptized. (She had been baptized when she was a baby). But on Saturday night we had a super super spiritual rendez vous and her mom was bearing testimony like nobodys business about how awesome she felt now that she had been baptized and that all her life she's been searching for truth because she knew the catholic church wasn't true because they don't baptize the same way Jesus was. I could tell she was feeling the spirit. She opened the window because she was feeling really hot (at night it is below 0 degrees) and elder Flitton asked, "How do you feel right now?" and she was feeling really uncomfortable and said, "I'm really hot!" and i said "What else?" and she said, "I want to be baptized."

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!

Then on Sunday I gave her mom the gift of the holy ghost (in French).  Afterwards I looked up and her daughter was crying. After church everyone I talked to told me how good I am at French compared to when I first got here.

OK so about Maddy. That is way awesome. I really, really wish I would have opened my mouth to her (and other friends) a lot more. I never really did.but it also shows that everything has to be right for someone to be baptized and truly converted. When I used to be good friends with her it wasn't really the right time for her, (even though a lot of her friends were Mormon).  It took her like 4ish years of being around the church, so I shouldn't get as discouraged when people don't want to get baptized in 3 weeks.

I'm so glad that Bradley's face is healing so well. Every morning and night, Elder Flitton and I pray for his face.

weird food, haircut, cold, creole

Some of the things in this latest Elder Guymon e mail were written because of the things we sent in our letter, so hope it's not too confusing---

Bradley's face got TOE up! and he needs haircut. (Bradley got in a bad bike wreck and we sent Elder Guymon e mail photos) but Andrew should keep his tail (Andrew is growing a piece of hair on the side/back of his head for as long as William is on his mission, I want it GONE).

 

 We had a baptism!!!!

 

I ate some weird things this week: fish bones and peanut butter fufu, horse, and couscous.

I don't really know what to say but I'm doing great.

 

I like the Louvre the best (Andrew asked him which he liked the best the Eiffel tower, the Arc de Triomphe, or the Louvre.)

 

Today I got a haircut by a gay french man.

 

It is so cold in France!

 

We found someone who told us that he is already a Mormon because he has a testimony of the Book of Mormon and of Joseph Smith and he had been waiting for the missionaries to come find him. So we have a lot to do this week.

 

I feel bad about writing such short emails, but I don't really have that much to say.

Cal skate is FUN! (He thinks we should go there on a double date with his friend's parents on Wednesday night.  I want to go to Outback Steakhouse.) 

The noob (newest missionary) in our apartment speaks creole, so he said he'll teach me. That'd be cool!

ski champ, b-day party, no trains, amazing experience

My new companion used to ski and was ranked 7th in the world for his age and then he blew out is knee. Now he is on a mission. We get along really well

The bleu (what they call brand new missionaries, here they are known as "greenies", their they are "blue" haha) in our apartment is so bleu, I hope i wasn't like that but he is really nice.

Our ward had a birthday party because the Cergy ward has been here for 30 years, so that's a big deal. We brought a lot of amis (french word for "friend", but also it's what missionaries in France call thier investigators of the church) there and it was really good. One of our amis is 15 years old, so I got to go to Young Womens (the class for the girls aged 12-18 in the ward) on Sunday. That was just weird. She's getting along really well with the YW in our ward.

yup.

We went porting and a man really wanted to pray with us, so we did. He sat crosslegged on his coffee table and put both arms up in the arm and started singing to the spirits.

We are having a really hard time getting around. Our metro line is under construction and it'll just not have any trains for hours.

Last night we didn't really have anything to do and it was really cold so i was like ummmmmm hey let's go visit a certain less active member of our ward. Turns out the night before she had a mini stroke at the top of the staircase and fell down and broke 6 ribs, an arm, and her sternum. She didn't have an money to go to the doctor so she just sat there and cried and prayed and read the scriptures all day and then we showed up. We gave her a blessing and cried with her for a little while. She was really glad we came. It was the most amazing and spiritual thing that has ever happened to me.

so I dont think ill send memory cards home anymore.  (The one he sent last week arrived here blank and broken and he hadn't backed it up or saved anything on it elsewhere.)

Staying in Cergy

The transfer news is that I'm staying in cergy and elder Webber is going to Le Mans. My next companion is going to be one of the elders from the other cergy equipe, and there is going to be another elder who will be training a noob, so there will still be 4 missionaries here.

 

Our sacrament meetings have been not so spiritual lately, and that is not good for our amis, and i brought that up with the bishop and he was not happy at first, but then he finally saw where i was coming from. When we bring amis to church, they expect to be nourished by the good word of God, not just hear funny stories about people's missions and a brief summary of the books of Moses and Abraham. I really want our ward to start having ami friendly sacrament meetings. So the bishop decided that sacrament talks are going to start to be based on Preach My Gospel, which will also be better for the members.

This week has been good, but our baptisms didn't happen. I still feel at peace about the things that we've done. Its not good to force someone to get baptized or to baptize someone who isn't ready, so we moved back their dates.

 

Besides that no big news. These next couple weeks are going to be great because we've been finding some legit people and since elder flitton and I are going to be companions next transfer we're going to have my amis and his amis.

Hardest, Most Awesome Week

This was one of the hardest weeks and one of the most awesome weeks of my mission. Actually, the hardest and the most awesome.  One of the things that president stresses a lot is obedience. duh. but yeah. So one of our amies that we contacted and then set a rendez-vous with tried to do the bizzou to me right when she walked up to me. (That's the kiss on the the cheek thing). Elders are not allowed to do that. So I did a barrel roll out of the way, not really but I like jumped away. It was mad awkward. I had to explain why I couldn't do it. Elder Webber made fun of me for hours and hours. The next day, we went bat porting (knocking on doors). The first door we knocked on, the lady let us in and we taught the family a lesson and she invited us back. Same with the second door. At the 3rd door we knocked on there was a woman who was baptized ten years ago in Portugal, but then she moved here. She didn't know that there was an LDS church here. So now she is going to come to church with us next week. She has tons of kids who want to be baptized! I know that we had so much success just because I didn't kiss a pretty lady.

We helped reactivate a woman who was in a bad situation and the ward loved it.  Everyone loves her and is taking care of her.

This week I started to realize how big of a deal missionary work is. God trusts a bunch of nerdy 19 (18) year olds to go find his children. That is such a big burden. There are some people who are very, very lost, but I have a testimony that God never gives up on anyone. He sends his missionaries to people who need it and I saw that so many times this week. It is true that missionaries walk under the hand of God.

So they say that the more days you work in the rain on your mission the hotter your wife is going to be. Awesome for me and even more awesome is that my umbrella broke.

There are going to be a lot of changes in my district at this next transfer day. Two elders are going home and I know that a lot are getting transferred. I'm pretty sure that I'll be staying in Cergy and  Elder Webber is leaving. He is district leader so we are getting a new one.

Time is going by so fast! Its halfway through October! I can remember the Halloween dance at SVU last year so well. That's cray!

http://www.templemormonparis.org/

One more thing! I'm doing a presentation at the college here about America. Can you email me a bunch of picture of me (or not) that represent the american life?

 

Conference Weekend Pictures

184 missionaries in the France Paris mission.  This is the board in the mission presidents office to help keep track of them! 

Brussels photos

I thought I posted these last week.  Elder Guymon had (got) to go to Belgium last week to sign legality papers.  While there he got to see his MTC district, his MTC companion, ride a fast train, eat Belgian waffles, and see parts of Brussels.  He really liked it and wished he could stay longer! 

metros, Conference, new suit, tomatoes

This week has been really messed up. Pretty much everything we do relies on the metros and this week 9 different people jumped in front of trains to kill themselves.  When that happens the whole line shuts down. Its pretty eerie, but also annoying. Its also really sad.  I wish that the people who jump had the gospel in there lives and knew the plan of salvation. If I didn't know about the plan of salvation, I know that the world would seem very glum. But its also selfish to kill yourself buy jumping infront of a metro because it ruins everyone else's life for like 5-6 hours. I wish that those people would have heard this General Conference.

 

I didn't eat anything that weird this week. Well, goat cheese pizza, but that's pretty normal.

We went to a couples house and they were watching "Legend of the Seeker" in French. Soo distracting!

The weeks are going by so fast now. Its crazy.

A girl who we found and taught, who was going to get baptized on the 20th, moved to England. She is going to get baptized there she says.

It rains everyday, so people don't really want to stop and talk to us on the street so we have to go porting, stereotypical missionary work.

We went to a thrift store to look at ties and I bought an awesome suit for 20 euros, which is good because prez said that we have to wear a suit until next conference.

Conference was sweet! We brought the man we baptized and he LOVED it. He told me that in 50 years I'm going to be an apostle. haha. He said that the prophet is full of wisdom and that he knows that God prepared him. Conference on Saturday was super hard to get to because someone jumped. We had to take buses and trams and we were pretty late.

We're making a lot of goals for these next two weeks because either Elder Webber is leaving or I am, either way we're splitting up. We want to baptize someone before then.

People in France watch "Once Upon a Time".

Hey Bradley, you neeeeed to play soccer all 4 years in high school and then go play at SVU. I wish I would have.  Are you going to serve a mission when you're 18?  Missions are awesome!

 

My feet are better.

 

FRENCH PEOPLE LOVE TOMATOES. Its pretty gross, but I eat them. I didn't know that we had a white baby rooster. 

 

Everyone has to get Belgium legality stuff done just in case they get transferred there. General Conference is like the Superbowl for missionaries. 

 

I think that I'm probably going to train an 18 year old, but the MTC is going to be outta control.

Brussels, Shakira, hot baptismal water, escargot

So this week I went on an exchange to Chartres and while I was there we got a call that said that I was going to Belgium the next day to do more legality stuff.  So we had to change the train tickets and go into Paris, then we went to Brussels which was pretty fun. The train we took went like a zillion miles per hour. We got to Brussels in like an hour and a half.  We had lunch (a sandwich called a "met triad" and a waffle) and then walked around in this crazy plaza surrounded by a lot of old buildings that where super tricked out. They were setting up a stage, because that night Shakira was going to perform. I WANTED TO STAY!! but then we had to go and sign some papers.

Our baptism was AWESOME! We brought a ton of amis and they all thought it was cool. So while I was filling up the font, the water was freezing cold, so I called the bishop and asked him how to make it hot. Then I pushed some buttons and made it hot. 2 hours later, when they got in the font, it was like boiling hot. I felt so bad, but it was ok. He said that he was baptized of water and fire at the same time. haha.

 

So twice this week we had a rendez-vous with someone who just wanted to bible bash. It is amazing how people have no logic. I didn't really know how to defend the book of Mormon so I just bore my testimony.  I really didnt want to lose and have those people think that they are better than us, so I just bore testimony and then we left. They said that all they need is a bible and that you dont need to add to it and its perfect. It's amazing how much they didn't know about the Bible and also its so cool to see how true the Book of Mormon is; Nephi tells about people like that.

 

I'm pretty excited about General Conference but we have to go to Versailles again and because of the time difference we're not going to see all of them live. I'm pretty sad about that.

 

Yeah I've eaten escargot... its like eating a hard lougie.

In France, some people, after they shake hands, touch their hearts. and I have accidentally started doing that sometimes.

We dont do anything fun on pdays.  We just clean.

I wish I would have done more missionary work with my friends, and went out with the missionaries more when I was younger.   I know that when I get home I'm going to be helping them out so much.

meeting photo

found another picture that had Elder Guymon in it....ahah, I love that his mission president's wife Facebooks! 

Zone Conference Photos

Legality, Singing, Eifell Tower- big whoop

So this week we spent a lot of time in Paris again. I had to go to a legality office in Versailles and that took all day long! I had to pee in a cup but I didn't have to pee.. so it took a couple hours. I also had to get lung x-rays.

This week was stake conference. At the Saturday night session all the missionaries in the Paris and Versailles zones had to sing. I stood right in the front and I didn't really know the words. I was super embarrassed. We also brought our ami, who is getting baptized, to the conference. He loved it. We rented out a big meeting hall next to Napoleon's huge house in Versailles. It reminded me of a big opera house. The baptism is this Saturday. Yesterday we also set a baptismal date for the éàth of october with a really cool guy that I contacted. He said that in every other church he's ever been to, he has felt that its missing something.

 

I'm pretty sick today and its pouring rain and windy.

We ran out of food again this week.

I saw Elder Munns (his MTC companion) at legality.

I've never been to the top of the Eiffel tower, but I've walked around under it. It's pretty weird just being in Paris, sometimes ill be walking and it'll just hit me, like... theres the Eiffel tower right there. big whoop. haha

On the 30th I will not be 1/6 of the way done (Scott wrote in a letter that William is almost 1/6 of the way into his mission), it'll be on October 30th.

We ate horse and a baby pigeon. (Our friend Richard Jones told him French people eat those)

You should get Bradley a "Preach my Gospel" and tell him to read it. I wish I would have done that.

 

I don't really miss hunting that much.

Leftover Quiche, Australian Accents, friends

This was William's e mail from Sept 17th--

This week was pretty odd. Well, first of all, yeah, the 2 other elders moved in. I think it'll be so good for our area to have 2 more missionaries. Our area is HUGE!

Everything is going great with the man we have a baptismal date with. He is going to be such a strong member! He has so many friends in the ward. The baptism is scheduled for the 29th.

 

Since the other 2 missionaries moved in halfway through the week, we didn't really think ahead to buy enough food for 4 grown people.  So towards the end of the week we had to get really creative with our dinner. We made a quiche with pineapple, onions, potatoes, and old spaghetti. The other elders are shopping right now while we're doing emails, so I hope they buy enough.     

                                                               

Something pretty weird happened. We got a referral from the missionaries in Versailles. so we went and taught them a lesson. That night we contacted a Thai girl on the street who barely spoke french or English. We told her that we could give her a Thai book of Mormon and bring it to her and she really didn't want to give her address or her number, so we just kinda thought we'd seen the end of her. Then at our next rendez vous with the referral family, guess who was there... that Thai girl! and her husband! we taught all 4 of them an awesome lesson! The 2 wives work together.

 

That's pretty much all of the news for this week. I'm pretty excited because we are having a legality thing for everyone from my mtc group, so I get to see my district this week.

 

I keep thinking about how different it must be to be a missionary in Chico, or at least speaking English.

And also dad, whenever we are out in public we speak in Australian accents. I thought that you would think that's funny. We do it because people can pick up on our American accent even in french, so we just speak English with an accent. It's so funny.

baking a cake, clean apartment, sheep cheese

We got the news the there's going to be a Cergy 2 equipe, so that means that a new companionship is going to be in Cergy.  So that means that they are going to be living in our scrawny apartment with us. So that means we have to clean our scrawny apartment!!!  So that's a big change.

 

Our ami, who has a baptismal date the 29th, came to church. He's a boss. He made so many friends.

Our goal to hit up the part member families is going pretty well. We have a bunch of people to visit. One of the moms told us that when we come we have to bring them a cake. I'm pretty scared to make it because I don't know how to follow directions to make a cake in french.  We'll see how that goes.

 

It's crazy that I've already done one transfer.  It went by so quick! but I'm also sad because I know that SVU is starting up and I really miss my friends.

I discovered my new favorite french food- brebis.   It's sheep cheese.   It taste so much better than chèvre (goat cheese).   After ever meal, French people get out some baggettes and their bucket of cheese and they force you to try soooo many cheeses.   My least favorite is roquefort.   You can see the green felty mold growing on it.   This guy that Elder Webber and I reactivated LOVES it and forces me to eat it.

This week was pretty slow but I'm really looking forward to the next transfer, now that I know what to expect and now that i have some friends in the ward and how to be a missionary.

no one writes me...

bradley.. the only thing that being tall is good for is seeing the dust on people's refrigerator

andrew... jak 2 is insanely hard, especially when you have to steal 5 of the police car things.  I never beat that part.

 

dad. yeah I hear that no birds can walk backwards, so if you make a cylinder with one end closed theyll never get out.

Mona Lisa, flaming teabag, Schwartzy

We found a guy who was like "I can tell that you are men of God and I know that what you are saying is true. You guys didn't even look at the 3 pretty girls who walked past because you were so focused on me."

 

I'm starting to actually contribute a lot in lessons so I don't feel like a worthless missionary anymore.

The members love me because at church elder webber goes and talks to people so I go and talk to people and just make a fool of myself. We're starting to get a lot more mangez-vous because I make friends with old ladies.   They are nice and help me with the language.

Do you remember the missionary trick with the burning teabag?  (how you hold it on you hand and burn it from the top it'll fly up in the air before it burns you? it shows that if you have faith then everything will turn out ok.)   I tried to do that to a less active member and it tipped over and fell on his hand and then on his mom.  It was my worst nightmare come true. BUTTTTTT, they came to church this week, so that's super cool.

The soccer team here (Paris st. germaine) is super, super popular.  Two out of five people on the street wear jerseys.  Who is good on that team?  Is there anyone that I know?

While we were at the Louvre we tried to take our picture with the Mona Lisa, but there were swarms of tourists taking pictures. We got some pictures but we didn't have time to really enjoy that it was the most famous painting in the world.  In fact, I don't even think I looked at it for a whole second.

dad- I remember you telling me about how there was an invasion of European doves and you're supposed to shoot them all.   There's a park that we teach lessons in that is rollin in them. theres so many. it s like one of your bee swarms.

 

 

We have an amie who calls me Schwarzy (like Arnold Schwarzaneggar) because she thinks I look like him. I don't.

 

Every month we buy an unlimited bus/train ticket thing called a navigo.   We take the train/bus/metro everywhere.  It's starting to get super cold and grey here.   It reminds me of winter in Virginia.

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 [email protected] .  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!)

Airport Phone Call

We just got to talk to William from the Salt Lake City airport. It was a little crazy at first because Scott was at work, so I wanted to get in a conference call so we could BOTH talk. Andrew had answered the phone so he got to talk to William first.  Andrew was sooooo excited! You should have seen the smile on Anrew's face!  I'm glad Andrew answered!!!! Then after I got on the phone, I asked William the phone number of his pay phone so that I could use my cell phone to call Scott, then William....so we could all be on a 3 way call....but that was a DUMBBBBBB idea, because I CAN'T hear and so I accidentally wrote down William's number wrong! SOOOO, when I called him back it was some lady, I called her three times, then tried to call different numbers near what I wrote...but finally William called us back, and gave the number to me again, (I had reversed a 9 and a 3)....so it worked the next time...we got to talk...we probably talked for near a half hour. It was great to hear his voice. His voice hasn't changed a bit. He sounded great!

His flight is going directly to Paris, but since the mission home is in Versailles, their luggage will be taken there by some vans or trucks and the missionaries will get to go into actual Paris for sight seeing and meeting people. They should arrive at the airport at 11:05 am France time.

They are traveling on this flight with a group of Elders/Sisters who are on their way to Hungary. Those missionaries will have another flight after the one to Paris. The group that is going to Lyon, France had to leave at 8 am, they were flying to New York, then London, then Geneva, then taking a train to Lyon...they will take a lot longer to get to where they are going. William's bags were both 45 pounds.  He is sitting in seat 35 A...which is a window seat! He has his camera with him, but it's strapped to his belt! He didn't know until TODAY that he got his VISA, but everyone in the group got theirs, too.

He spoke some French to us. It is a beautiful language. He asked for us to pray for the Paris temple to be built. 
He said the mission president has both written to him in a letter and an e mail.  The mission president said the missionary work over there in France is thirving right now!  He said that a part of his mission is Luxembourg and he didn't know that when he first got his call. 

He talked about his very first day at the MTC, when he was with a huge group of brand new scared awkward elders....they were being guided into the big meeting area room when he heard some people yell, loudly "Neil Diamond, Paris France"....he thought that kinda sounded like Wil Guymon, so he looked around to see where it was coming from and it was his friend Spud Chelson and Spud's companion! What a happy reunion!!! William and Spud have had MANY adventures together through their teenaged years, it's cool that they could add some MTC memories to those past memories!

He said there is a lot of crazy fun stuff always happening at the MTC and even though it is a very spiritual place, there is always irreverance taking place (in fun, not in a bad way) somewhere or another.  He also said every time anyone tries to take a picture there....someone photo bombs the picture!  EVERY TIME....and so I asked him if he had done that to others, he first answered, "no way" but quickly changed it to "yeah" and laughed. 

He told us a little about his San Francisco trip. He said they came in from the North and he could see the Sutter Buttes from far off. He said at the French Consulate they asked him questions in French and he answered in English and they understood him. He said as a group they went to Pier 39, ate clam chowder, went to the Giradelli chocolate place, saw where the Giant play, saw Candlestick park, and went to a museum...(I think it was for the bridge).

He said he didn't really drink Windex...he just used the Windex to clean his waterbottle....and must not have rinsed it out enough, even though he rinsed and rinsed and rinsed....the water still taste like Windex, but he drank it because he was super thirsty.

He said that one of his teacher's might come to Chico for a visit.

I told him about a guy on the Sharks who is dating Tiger Wood's ex wife! and he laughed a lot.

He said the people in the mail room were watching the men's team volleyball olympics and he really wanted to stay and watch!

He told us that his friend Elder Chandler (SVU cross country runner) had been at the MTC waiting and waiting to get his VISA to go to somewhere like outer mongolia (not really, but I can't remember where) but since it didn't come and didn't come, he was reassigned until it comes to Carlsbad, CA. He told me that he does know the two Elders whose mom's I made friends with in an e mail group.

He said that every building at the MTC has stairs and that he is not very good at walking up (or down) stairs, so he fell a lot and rolled his ankles a lot and now his ankle clicks all the time!

He got the stuff I sent him and loves the owl tie.

He wanted to talk to Bradley and Melanee, but Melanee was working and Bradley was swimming at a friends house.

He was hungry and wanted to eat before getting on the plane, so we let him go. I hope he got something to eat...he said the line was long....I KNOW the food will have been EXPENSIVE....but I still really hope he got something!