January 4, 2016
This past week was really interesting I'm sure you received my email that I already sent to dad that was very short haha sorry about that being so short but I didn't have anytime to write so yeah it has to be short. I am not getting transferred but Elder Sebra got moved all the way across the mission to mont de Marsan! So in place of him I will be getting a brand new blue. He will be coming in a week late for some reason though so for this week I am going to be going I between the two sectors of Annecy and Saleve. We will be splitting up the work and I am in a trio with Elder Duncan from Springville and Elder Lapointe from Vegas, it doesn't count that they are my comps... Cause I can't
have a Utah comp! I am worried that I am gonna get a Utah comp and break my streak! I haven't had one companion from Utah yet on my mission and I am not looking to ruin that record just yet.. Haha but we will see what blue I get.
But this past week was sort of like a favorites week where we go see all of our favorite members and everyone just in case we get transferred so we went and saw a couple families and got to share messages with them which was really cool! We had a lot of fun doing that. Then this week we didn't have a lot of time to go talk to people.. It's been like two weeks since I've had a real good day of
just talking to people and I'm starting to miss it, mostly cause I feel like I am not as good anymore as I was two weeks ago. Haha it's just like a sport, the more you do it the better and more fun it gets but
the longer you let it go the more you gotta get back in your rhythm so that was the low light of the week really. Nothing bad happened, oh besides the fact that we popped our tire.... Haha Elder Sebra tried to pass a car in front of us and idk why he didn't slow down to attempt this need for speed type of move but he didn't and hit the curb with our tire and it just exploded... So I got to get out and change the tire in the pitch black of night and freezing cold. Haha we got it fixed and replaced but that's ok. Oh and we loose the car because the sisters now have a permit and can drive again so they got to take the car back. So it's back to buses for me. And I also found out I have a hole in my shoe. It's right in the sole, so when I walk I am like walking on the actual ground haha my feet are usually pretty wet now that it's rainy season. But I will look at some new shoes.
I got the recording at it was very interesting! You'll have to let me know how everything goes with Nate! But I do t haves ton of time today I used all of it writing is one. Love you all and I am excited for Lake Powell! Make sure it is the best planned trip ever! Haha oh and can you send me more go pro things? Of like surfing and stuff? Just ask Brittany to do it. She should know. Or maybe of waterskiing.
EBS
January 11, 2016
So first things first this week was weird cause everything seemed to break on me or maybe I just realized that everything is wearing down. My watch is broken, my shoes have a couple holes in the soles now and some pairs of pants are on their last threads but still wearable haha the mission life is a crazy life I guess. But I will try and find some deals so I don't just blow through the money that I have in the account. So thanks for keeping that up to date. But my comp is delayed a week because of the holiday season I think that everything got changed around so he is coming in this week rather
than the normal week he was supposed to. But I went to St Julien this week and we did a lot of contacting and St Julien is like as close as you can get to Swiss without being inside, we would walk and contact until the border then turn around and walk back. It was pretty cool but not very pretty.
The other elders are pretty cool I was with Elder Lapointe from Las Vegas and Elder Duncan from Springville Utah, but he doesn't count as my real companion which means I have never ever had a comp from Utah yet! And it's been almost a year and a half.... Let's s see if we can keep this streak going! But we worked really hard this past week and got three engages or people who committed to baptism and two of them were 16 year old girls and one of their fathers. They are all super cool and I'm jealous that they aren't my Amis in Annecy but I know that the elders here are taking good care of them and they will progress well. But aside from that we got to Annecy for about a day and had lessons with Alexis and an ami named Harvey both of which are super cool, and came to church I guess (I wasn't there though, cause I was in Saleve ward) but it was really good news! Anyway we don't have tons of time sorry for the short email!
EBS
January 13, 2016,
Dear Parents,
Elder Wilkey has been assigned a wonderful trainer/companion, Elder Schettler They are serving Annecy, France. Their address is:
Les Missionnaires
Elder Schettler
Elder Schettler
24 Blvd du Fier
74000 Annecy
France
Please address all mail or packages in this format. See the attachments for a picture of Elder Wilkey with his Trainer/Companion.
We are grateful to have your wonderful son in our mission!
With Warmest Regards
Sister Sweeney, Mission Secretary
France Lyon Mission
With Warmest Regards
Sister Sweeney, Mission Secretary
France Lyon Mission
To Mom:
So first things first this week was weird cause everything seemed to break on me or maybe I just realized that everything is wearing down. My watch is broken, my shoes have a couple holes in the soles now and some pairs of pants are on their last threads but still wearable haha the mission life is a crazy life I guess. But I will try and find some deals so I don't just blow through the money that I have in the account. So thanks for keeping that up to date.
But my comp is delayed a week because of the holiday season I think that everything got changed around so he is coming in this week rather than the normal week he was supposed to. But I went to St Julien this week and we did a lot of contacting and St Julien is like as close as you can get to Swiss without being inside, we would walk and contact until the border then turn around and walk back. It was pretty cool but not very pretty.
The other elders are pretty cool I was with elder Lapointe from Las Vegas and elder Duncan from Springville Utah, but he doesn't count as my real companion which means I have never ever had a comp from Utah yet! And it's been almost a year and a half.... Let's s see if we can keep this streak going! But twe worked really hard this past week and got three engages or people who committed to baptism and two of them were 16 year old girls and one of their fathers. They are all super cool and I'm jealous that they aren't my Amis in Annecy but I know that the elders here are taking good care of them and they will progress well. But aside from that we got to Annecy for about a day and had lessons with Alexis and an ami named Harvey both of which are super cool, and came to church I guess (I wasn't there though, cause I was in Saleve ward) but it was really good news! Anyway we don't have tons of time sorry for the short email!
To Dad:
Just a side note, man to man I went and bought a new suit and it is that sort of grey and black hounds tooth pattern and it looks really good, it is a slim suit cause that's how all suits are here. And I think when we come back you'll have to look into getting one. I will take pics and send them later tonight cause I don't have it with me right this second. But thanks for putting money on my card so I could buy it! I went with a little bit cheaper one as to not break the bank.
Yeah I have had a lot of fun with the Saleve elders this past week we worked pretty hard and actually engaged three people to baptism and they all said yes so they went from having no engages to have three in one week! It was a big time play by the whole group! But we would contact from this city named St. Julien until the Swiss border and then turn around and do it again basically all day when we weren't teaching other people so I had the chance to talk to a bunch of weirdos and interesting people. Haha but I am excited to see who I train and how he is! This past week was fun cause we all speak French and understand more or less how to be missionaries, but teaching a new kid all the ropes and everything is gonna be another experience I am ready to take on. I had a little bit of that with elder Sebra but it will probably be more so with this new kid. I think I have come up with some jokes but I haven't confirmed anything! If you have any ideas you guys need to get those to me soon! I would love to get him with some pranks! But this week will be another busy week cause I will be in Lyon for half of it and then we have to go to Geneva for another part of it. So maybe next week we will have some time in Annecy? Haha oh and we don't have the car anymore cause it went to the sisters...
Gotta learn how to use the Annecy bus system now I guess.. Wish me luck!
EBS
January 18, 2016
To Mom:
Yeah keep up to date with Nate and everything that is going down with him and his hand it will be very helpful to me in the coming months to help me plan and prepare for the coming years of my life. I hope I have Mary a good story but if that doesn't work let me know and I will find a different one in my head that has a bunch of random stories to share.
So Elder Wilkey is really nice and really tall! Haha he is from England from a city named Bournesmouth or something like that., he sounds like James Bond when he talks and I'm trying to have the same accent when I get home! He is doing good for only being here a week! He has like no fear or anything so that in and of itself is awesome! I'd like to think I am the same way but I don't think I am, so maybe he will help me with that! His French is that of a blue... He can spit out a couple phrases here and there but when it comes to expression of his ideas it can be difficult to get what he wants to say across. It totally reminds me of when I was a blue! Haha I didnt understand people and people wouldn't understand what I said and it was sometimes pretty frustrating but he is handling everything very well! I took him contacting a couple times and he did very well, he would start the
conversation and then once he couldn't do anymore I would take over and fill in the rest of what needed to be said! It was a fun experience! His birthday was also this week and so I took him to
dinner and we had a piñata at zone training that I called in as a special order from Elder Fisk in Geneva and so we had a good time doing that and then after that it was basically a normal day! But this week has just been figuring out how to take the buses here and getting to and from places because it's all new to me! But I am getting it very well, this isn't nearly as bad as Marseille or Lyon so I think in another week I'll have it memorized and down to a science haha
I set an appointment with the eye people for next week so I can get the right prescription for my glasses and I asked how much it would be and he said probably around 30 for the test, and about 80 for each lens... So I might need a little more money on the card so that I will be able to read the road signs again haha 😊 sorry! But yeah... and I got new shoes on soldes that are very cool and very dry compared to my old pair! Thanks for the money for those! I love you all, have a good week!
EBS
Sounds like you had a busy week with everything from mates hand to a shooting in the neighborhood! Never thought I would see the day when Holladay would be run down gangtown with a shooting. I hope the best for the families of everyone involved. But they had to do the full transfer on Nate then? That is a big surgery! We will all have the same scars haha we could make our own little gang or something. But you'll have to keep me updated on how he is doing with it and everything, I know what he's going through and it ain't the most fun thing.
Yeah I was super stoked to hear about the U! It wasn't like a super big surprise to get into the university but the business scholars was a little bit of a surprise and a relieving one for sure! Now I can just relax and work knowing all will be ready for me to attack once I get home! I think I am going to really enjoy it as well! Thank you guys for giving me the opportunity to have that type of education. Something I have really grown to appreciate on my mission is all the means that we have as a family and the comforts we often take for granted. So thank you for working hard and being a good example.
But this week I was actually in Lyon for a couple of days getting ready to pick up my blue! His name is Elder Wilkey from the south of England! So we speak the same language... Sorta. Haha he is about 6'3 and likes playing soccer (like most British people) but it has officially been 12 transfers without one single companion from Utah! Haha Elder Wilkey (rhythms with milky) is a super nice guy and like to work so it's really fun to be with him, we are gonna get a lot of good things done here in Annecy I can feel it! His birthday was this week and he turned 20! So I took him out to dinner and we went with an ami, it was a super fun time and he got to practice his French a little bit with our ami who was just bombarding him with questions. Haha it was like a ww2 missed attack with no seize fire, he did pretty well! His French is that of a blue but we are working on it everyday so hopefully by the time I am through with him or his 12 weeks of blueness are up he will be ready to train a blue! That's the goal.
So lately we have been meeting with Yohannes and Alexis the most often and a couple other Amis that we see about once a week and everyone is progressing well, sometimes Alexis doesn't always understand or really retain everything we teach so that slows down the process sometimes, but other than that they are doing well! We are still on the look for more Amis though, we can never have too many! We went contacting to find some people and elder Wilkey killed it! He had no fear at all and it was so awesome! Haha I loved it, we had a good time even though it was snowing and I have a hole in my shoe. (But I just got a new pair) he is up and ready to do whatever the missionary life will bring him.
Just gotta work a little on the French...
EBS
To Mom:
Sounds like those long January weeks are getting the best of everyone
back home! And a little flu bug is spreading as well? That's not good
with Katie's baby coming up, everyone is gonna have to let Katie hold
the baby cause you are all sick! Haha but that is crazy that it is
getting down to crunch time sorta speak with Katie and the baby! I
remember when you guys told me about it and that seems like it wasn't
even that long ago.... But I guess it was like 6 months ago. But I'm
glad Brough likes Nate for trying haha just tell Nate not to try too
hard, we don't want him messing up his hand even worse. Then he will
never find a girlfriend! But that's cool you will be going back to
Pierre! Pass him the Bonjour on my part! Haha I hopefully will be able
to have him when I get back as well that way I can speak French to
him! That would be super funny, just everyone in the office would be
surprised I think. Maybe he will help Nate with his French homework as
well?
So our week was really good we met with Yohannes and had a really good
talk and taught a powerful lesson with him! We talked about eternal
families and presented him the temple that isn't too far in Swiss and
invited him to prepare himself to go there with his family once his
wife comes over to France. And he accepted! He said the first week his
wife is here he is going to bring her to the church and meet us! I
hope she can come soon! But he has very limited contact with his wife.
They can only send very short texts because Eritrea is a dictatorship
and he described it as 'they are trying to imitate North Korea' so
that's how shut down everything is. Even email or phone calls don't
work without being shut down. But he wants to wait for his wife to be
baptized with him as well as his other children so we will see how
long that takes to get them over. We have planned and prayed for March
5th. But eElder Wilkey is awesome! He invited someone to be baptized
this week his name is George he is from Nigeria and he has a family as
well! It's him and his wife and he has a baby boy. He invited him to
be baptized (cause we practiced that morning) and he nailed it haha it
was super awesome!.... It was in English... But still! So we have
hopefully another family lined up for March 5th! But we spent about
two days in Geneva one for finding day which I explained to dad, and
the other was for district meeting and a a worldwide missionary
training thing. It was cool! I learned a lot of the importance of
working through members and the role that they can play in lasting
converts to the church, so we tried to get a bunch of referrals this
week! We haven't gotten any yet, but hopefully soon they will start
coming!
EBS
February 1, 2016
To Mom:
This week was a pretty what we could call a tombez-vous week where as not many people showed up to planned rdv's that we had so it wasn't really all that eventful, it was sorta a pain sometimes when you have to plan a whole day to go do service for a member and get train tickets and plan out everything and they call you the night before and tell you that his wife just helped him do it instead that night so we didn't need to come anymore.. Like that was a classic. So that day what we did rather than spend our time helping him we got to go out and contact all day. Haha and we talked to some very interesting people that is for sure. Idk why Thursday was this way but it just seemed like the day everyone was trying to make us upset, so it started with our whole day being cancelled the night before and then literally everyone we talked to was like so anti religion, they were also all old and so it was not like they were saying it respectfully from young person to young person but rather they felt the need to sit me down, and tell me why I'm young and don't know anything. So that was quiet a day of stuff. I don't like disrespectful people at all.
But the funniest thing this week I think is when we were at a members house (the one thing that held this week) we were talking and they were asking Elder Wilkey how tall he was and Elder Wilkey, bless his heart, was trying to figure out how to say how tall he was in French and also using the metric system and the members were do the inverse trying to figure it out in feet and he got a little mixed up and he told them like 600 meters hahaha and everyone just looks and just started dying. But sorry I don't have a lot of time to reply to everyone, we were out trying to visit someone (who cancelled once we got there, it's half an hour on train) so we went and visited someone else. But yeah now we don't have a ton of time, but tell everyone I love them. And is week is the official 6 month left mark. It's actually tomorrow.... Weird....
EBS
February 8, 2016
To Mom:
So this week as you could probably see from dads email was pretty busy and I didn't have a ton of time to work in Annecy I only had really Friday and Saturday to do everything I needed to and so it was a little difficult to stay in touch with my Amis but the other elders were able to go see them and from what I was able to see and what they told me everything is going well. But we have an ami Patswa who is moving out of his house soon and so we might be able to help him with that this coming week, he isn't moving under the happiest of circumstances so that is sad, but I am super excited to try and help him. We haven't had too many discussions about the church in depth yet
and we just started this past week to get really into with him and he has a lot of questions and concerns about somethings (drinking wine is one) haha classic in France. This week we got a new investigator named Mimi she is from Nigeria and is friends with some of our other Amis from Nigeria and so it is perfect! She is about 27 and has a baby, she doesn't speak very much French at all so we are teaching her in English but hopefully she will learn French in the coming months and
hopefully we will be able to set a baptismal date for her soon. We had 6 Amis come to church this week! That is counting only our Amis, not the sisters as well. So we had a bunch come and it was super awesome cause the stake president came to visit and he was able to talk to some of our Amis. Our Stake President is super cool, he works for Rolex and has like 8 kids. His name is president Coppel (not sure if that's spelled right) but the highlight of this week was for sure the chance that I had to be in other people's sectors and working with new people, I love seeing new places and meeting new people and going on exchanges gives that chance to go around and see a little bit of places other than Annecy. You can get more details about my week from dads email I sent him a pretty long one, sorry for not writing back super well last week. We were in Geneva for p day today and I ran into a window that was open and cut my back I will send you a picture haha I
was to focused on the hockey we were playing....
EBS
To Dad:
So this week was pretty busy starting with our day on Monday, we didn't really take a p day cause we had to go to an outer city to see someone and once we go there he to,d us not to come over (again, he did that last week too) so we just called up a part member family and were able to go see them and share a message with them, afterwards they offered to take us back to Annecy and so they put us in a car and took us all the way back, it was a cool experience to go see their family it has been a long time since I've been over there. But they were doing very well. Then on Tuesday we went to zone conference in annemasse and I got to see elder haws and we listened to elder brown speak and give us some council on how to work better with our Swiss side of things seeing as people (Americans) will now be able to go serve in Swiss as before they weren't due to legality issues! So people will be able to go and serve ther which hasn't been done in a really long time. But that night I went on exchange in Geneva with Elder Fisk who is in his last transfer so he is now in the last week of his mission. We spent all day Wednesday helping the Geneva Spanish elders move into their new apartment little need to say that the exchange was pretty low key and not a whole lot of real missionary stuff out there. But we got back Wednesday night and en thursday morning I was on exchange in the saleve sector where I started this transfer while waiting for my companion to get here and we did a lot of contacting haha like all day actually, and it was super cold and raining sorta. But it was a good time, I was with elder Duncan from springville Utah. We got to go see some members and when we got there to share a message we found out the sisters had been there the night before and had given them the exact message we were going to give them using the family proclamation. So we had to quickly change plans and go another route. But when I got back to our sector I found out that we had a new ami, we had already seen her but they were able to teach her and now we are going to start teaching her, her name is Mimi and she is a friend of one of our other Amis named George who is getting baptized soon. And this week we had like 6 Amis that came to church and 4 of them speak English so I was translating for all of them at the same time which got complicated cause we didn't have like headphone things, but next week it should be a little bit easier cause they will get the head phone things. But this week was pretty busy on my side of things.
EBS
So this past week was a pretty busy week, we had a bunch of stuff
planned and had to take a trip out to Annemasse for district meeting
which is on the last week of the transfer for some reason... I would
think they could plan it better but... Whatever. But this week was
sorta just like any other week you have on the mission, rainy,
cancelled lessons, and contacting haha nothing really changed this
week for us. We went around and contacted in the rain like all day one
day cause we had nothing to do, and Elder Wilkey didn't appose it so
we did that haha blues are funny in the sense that you can get them to
contact in the rain all day and they won't care at all. But this week
we met a referral that we had from a member in Swiss, his name is
Nicolas and we met him on Tuesday night at the church during our
branch council meeting haha (cause he was leaving to America for work
and then vacation for two weeks so he had to see us that day) so we
skipped our council and just told our dmp what we needed and went and
taught Nicolas, he is super awesome! He was married to a woman from
holladay actually! She wasn't super active in the church but now he is
dating a member and wants to learn a little bit more about us so we
are going to start seeing him in a few weeks when he is back from
vacation. He has a few kids as well, so we are gonna try and see if we
can teach them as a family... Cause the gospel is for families. But
our engagés for right now are sort of hard to see, they have had a lot
of legality stuff they have had to do this week and it has been
raining (so they don't go outside, even to come to the church or
anything) but hopefully this coming week things will start to become a
little more sunny and they will have less things occupying their
attention. We have a few member baptisms this week, there are two
children that are being baptized this Saturday so that will be super
fun to go and watch! And we also recieved calls for the transfer and
me and elder Wilkey will be staying in Annecy together! I get to
finish training my blue! And sister tibbits who got here when I got to
Annecy is training again! She has now had three companions here two of
them are first transfer blues and the other was a third transfer...
Always young missionaries here in Annecy... But anyway I am excited
because we have a lot of cool Amis and things are going well here.
Hopefully we will find even more people to teach as well. Yohannes is
doing well, he is just waiting for his wife before he gets baptized,
and then George and faith are doing well but were busy last week. And
we have a bunch of other people as well, but we need more.
EBS
February 22, 2016
To Dad:
That is so crazy that Nate is getting so tall! He is almost my height! But I will still be able to take him when I get back! That is for sure, I have been practicing on all my comps. But I am also glad to hear that he will be playing football again and basketball! That kinda makes me wonder what I would have been able to do with sports if my hands were better, maybe I would have been a basketball kid or something.
But this week we had a bunch of lessons at the beginning of the week then things slowed down by the end! We had a couple people cancel lessons like normal but none were as lame as Alexis who cancelled twice on us, two days in a row! I was sort of annoyed and told him couldn't do that haha I probably could have said it a bit nicer but he has been throwing a wrench in our plans the past few days so we might take a slight break from him and try to see him in a coming week or so. But aside from that we were able to see our ami George who should be getting baptized in the next few weeks as well! We taught him a bunch of lessons and he is taking in everything very well and this week we are going to teach him all the word of wisdom and some other things so let's hope he doesn't get to stressed over those things! But as for other things, we had a baptism of a couple members children so we went to Annemasse and got to watch those being preformed and we rode up with the Giles family! They are moving back to Utah in three weeks I think and he doesn't have a job or anything set up quiet yet, but they were telling me that they felt like it was time to go and that they just are trusting in the Lord. They are seriously the coolest family! You'll have to meet them when they get back! They have a son Nate's age as well that love sports! But aside from that we just did normal missionary stuff, we met a couple people that we are going to help do a family night, that are actually from China! They are super cool, and we got a referral from another ami so hopefully we get a few new Amis this week! Pray for us!
Anyway love you!! Talk to you later!
EBS
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