Week 25 "Joyeux Noel, C'etait super!"

Hey! 

   Well, Joyeux Noel and a Bonne Année to everyone.  Christmas went really well here in France, and I hope all your Christmases went well too!  We are blessed to have a lot of nice families in our ward who fed us really well during the holidays.  I really enjoyed all of the food we ate this week, and some of the highlights include Foi Gras - Duck Liver, and Coquilles St. Jacques - clams with a delicious filling.  We also enjoyed a bunch of other delicacies, a few of which include mini hamburgers, fondue balls, yule log cake, cow tongue, fufu, and fried bananas.  When food gets put in front of you, it's just best to go at it and see what happens, haha.  

   Christmas morning, we woke up and opened presents!  I was happy to get some clothes and American snacks from the states, and also a dreamcatcher from Elder Sanchez.  I got the awesome opportunity to talk to my parents this week, and I was really just happy to see that my dad hadn't lost any more hair, and that everyone sounded the same as before.  If anything they all got better looking after I left.  I felt glad to hear the advice of my parents to just keep going at it, because apparently it only gets better from here.  

   I really love the mission so far.  The work doesn't exhaust me but I guess that means I need to work harder.  I enjoy making food on my own.  I love going to bed every night.  I think the French culture is really interesting.  There are a lot of miracles we see every day, and I have realized how important prayer is out here.  When we pray we can really receive some cool answers; they almost never come how I think they will but they come.  One of those miracles is the way I think/feel, because even though I don't know completely why I am here the Lord sees it's good for me to be here, so I'm here and I'm definitely imperfect at doing everything he wants but I see incremental improvement every day, so I try to be content with that for the time being.

Happy Holidays!

Elder Jamison Jones

Skype with Elder Jamison Jones

Week 24 "JOYEUX FETES"

Hello.  Once again it's time to write a good old letter of how the week is going.  Well to be blunt I wouldn't be anywhere else in the world doing anyting else with my life, the missionary life is pretty amazing.  Once again, the card on my camera has a virus but that should definitely be cleared up in two weeks for sure.  While I can still take photos the current SD card I have prevents them from showing up on the computer...nasty viruses.  Okay enough about viruses and time to get started talking about the week.
   Oh, what a busy week.  After emails last week Elder Sanchez and I went to a member family's house for dinner and a christmas-themed family home evening.  That night after we left we went to knock on some doors, and no one let us in to sing but that was okay; I'm looking forward to the day when we get let into a door to sing some Christmas songs.
   The 16th we went out contacting for a long time, and had an adventure going out to The Citadel.  This is a giant battlement created a couple hundred years ago as a military fortress, and today it is a giant star shaped park.  We walked the mile and a half perimeter and I enjoyed seeing a real french battlement, although the weather was probably below freezing! I enjoyed ending the night with dinner at another Member's house, the Jean Couple, where we ate some chicken and other yummy french food.  That night we returned and prepared for the big adventure we'd undertake starting wednesday morning.
   6AM, we woke up, and took a couple of trains to Epinal where Elder Sanchez had to pick up papers for legal acceptance in the country.  After he finished with that we walked around Epinal a little bit, then headed back to Paris, where we stayed that night before the Mission Conference.  The conference was super powerful, and I learned a lot from Sister Babin, President Babin, and Elder Texiera, the presiding area mission authority.  He shared an story about Indian Elephants, and how they are trained to act calmly because of a little band put around their leg since infancy.
   Initially the band restrains the baby elephant but as the elephant grows into an adult he behaves calmly whenever the band is around his leg, although he has the power to easily snap it.  He compared us as missionaries to the elephants, explaining that we have incredible power if we just realize the mental barriers we put on ourselves.  I loved that analogy, and made a personal goal to break one of my mental bands and talk to more people out here, and so far I feel like I have talked to more people!
   Friday morning we did some service, and once again, ate at a member's house.  This time it was mexican food, and I would just like to say that we have been so blessed this week to eat at so many member's homes.  I love food.  Saturday we had our Church Christmas party, which ended with all the missionaries singing 'Jingle Bells and Rudolph'  Which was super fun, french people like English music.  Sunday was filled with church, a baked chicken catastrophe for dinner, and some night-time contacting.  I felt satistied with this week and my increased efforts to find people to teach the gospel to.  I am also looking forward to the coming week and the opportunity to celebrate Christmas in France!

Love you all!

Elder Jamison Jones

Week 23 "JOYEUX NOËL, IL CAILLE"

The title means Merry Christmas, It's Cold.
   Bonjour tout le monde, c'est le saison de Noël, et, bien sur, c'est le meilleur moment d’être missionnaire, bien que il fait trop froid ici.  Honnêtement, parfois c'est plus facile a écrire en Francais, mais pour le plupart l'Anglais c'est mieux, haha. 

  So, I hope everyone back home and abroad is having a good Christmas season and sharing the happiness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and if you haven't seen the He Is The Gift Video, really go watch it, honestly I love it.  I have also enjoyed the general spirit of Christmas, it is such a happy time and me personally, I love just feeling the magic Christmas air, and sharing the real message of Christmas with people, and also I like cutting out snowflakes and singing like Michael Buble christmas around our apartment at night.  Whatever you do this Christmas season, do something to enjoy it yourself and also do something to help other people discover the happiness in the christmas season. 

   I will let you all know that we had a great week.  We had a lot of time to go out and look for people to teach, and one of those times, we poorly planned our time and only ended up going out...really far.  We took a bus for an hour to the France-Belgium border and by the time we got out there it was time to come home.  Elder Sanchez and I were dissapointed with our logic in that decision, but we planned our time well for the rest of the week, so I'll call that one a good learning experience.  This week we had a lot of opportunities to go out and talk to people about the gospel, and I really enjoyed it even though I'm still not perfect at it.  I'm always improving, we'll say that!   On friday we went to St. Quentin to see Dr. Saube, a dentist who's a member and looked at Elder Sanchez's tooth for the second time, good news is it's getting better.  We had a little time to walk around the city and talk to people about the church and it was a fun experience, seeing a new city, riding trains, and also watching some of the NBA game at lunch at the restaurant we went to. 

   On saturday night we had the opportunity to hold a family home evening, and we had a less-active, an investigator, and a recent convert all come, and they seemed to have a good time, so I would call our night a success, I was also happy to get to present a cool little lesson and a lot of people participated in our lesson, to there was a good spirit there. 

   All summed up, I am looking forward to Christmas, which is really approaching soon.  I'm starting to feel exhausted but it's a good kind of it.  I think that John Steinbeck said that what makes a good author is that he writes both when he feels like writing and when he doesn't. Sometimes as a missionary; I feel tired and exhausted but for the most part, I keep going, and I think that it's most important that we keep working hard in difficult moments, because there's always good around the corner. 

  Have a merry couple weeks before Noel, I will pray for you all back home, and I love you all so much!

Love You all,

Elder Jamison Jones

Week 22 "D.'s Baptism"

Hello everyone!  Just want to say how grateful I am for all your support, all your prayers for me, other missionaries, and our investigators.  We really benefit from them. 

D.'s Baptism

Well among the many happenings of the week the overriding event was the baptism of our investigator D.  D. is a very thoughtful learner, and through this process of teaching him, getting him to read the book of Mormon has been really tough, so my parents had the great idea to send a children's Book of Mormon and the first day he had it, he read twenty-two pages! I was so proud of him, and so far his favorite story in the Book of Mormon is King Benjamin.  After we received the children's Book of Mormon we continued to teach D. throughout the week, reviewing lessons and preparing him for baptism.  The day of his baptism, we came to fill the font and sadly, the hot water ran out, so we just performed the baptism in 50 degree water!

Cleaning the font for D.'s baptism

   

In addition to the baptism, the week has been super!  The church has started an initiative called ''He is the Gift'' Which talks about how Christ was the real first gift of Christmas, and by giving his life for us, we can all live again.  It's been fun to put the program into practice and talk to people about Christ every day, and really get into the true spirit of Christmas. 

Christmas in Lille

  Christmas spirit is coming to Lille, well it's already here.  There is a giant ferris wheel in the center of the town, along with stands selling gaufres (waffles) and classic American Christmas music playing.  I cannot figure out where the snow is, though.  We are at the same latitude as Canada up here but the sky can't seem to muster any snow.  Oh well, I guess I'll just have to imagine it.  We made lots of snowflakes and decorated our apartment, so that added to the Christmas spirit. 

Our number of transfers in the mission field

  Well, that's what I got for the week everyone.  Look for a way to incorporate Christ this Christmas, whether it be looking for opportunities to help others, or listening to a friend or a sibling, there's always enough of Christ to go around, especially during Christmas.  Love you all!

Elder Jamison Jones - and PS.  The mission is the greatest.

Week 21 "HELLO HELLO, HAPPY DECEMBER!"

Today I have a hard time believing that I'm here, on a mission in December already, this is absolutely crazy.  These last two weeks, time has started to roll faster and faster, and man, time is a tricky force.  

an EGG VENDING machine!

    Thanksgiving week, as you know, was this week, so I tried focusing on being more thankful for everything I have, and I took a challenge my dad gave me to individually thank a different person every day.  Whether or not I fulfilled the challenge day by day, I made sure to thank a lot more people, and I felt happy by doing so.  During lunch at our district meeting we went around the table (huge with 30 missionaries) and said what we were thankful for, and that exercise always opens my eyes to how much we really have, life is a blessing and there are things to be grateful for every day.  Tuesday was the real thanksgiving party, as our entire zone came together for a big lunch, and every sort of thanksgiving food except a turkey, but we substituted rotisserie chicken, which was just as good.  

Thanksgiving

We had the cool opportunity to visit a city called St. Quentin, to have a church member who's a dentist diagnose one of Elder Sanchezes' tooth.  We woke up at 5:45 to catch an early train, and sprinted to the station, only to find our tickets had fallen out during the run.  Luckily we retraced our steps, found the tickets, and caught the next train to Paris, and after a five dollar breakfast at MacDo (that's what the French call it) for a baby sized juice and egg mcmuffin we headed to St. Quentin.  The train journey amazed me as we rode through french countryside that was, to be brief, very beauiful.  After our St Quentin fun, we returned to Lille at night and taught some our our wonderful investigators to finish up a full day!

A monument in a city called St. Quentin.

A very cool cathedral building in Lille 

Okay, that's enough fun for the week, let me share something more on the missionary work, spiritual side, because I feel like my email wouldn't be complete without it.  This last week I have tried to focus on learning and balancing the seriousness, rules, and hard work of a mission with having fun.  This is very hard for me to do because I want to focus on the work, but at the same time, enjoy my time here in france by taking breaks, enjoying the culture, and taking in the sights of beautiful France.  My companion elder Sanchez balances me out very well in this aspect. He is very good in helping me relax, and I have benefited a lot from his personality.  I'm sure he has benefited from my constant rule-based mindset and my assurance that we are following rules.  We had a lot of fun things happen this week, and I am so grateful that the Lord put me here to do the missionary work that needs to be done.  Our ami D. is most likely getting Baptized this week, and I am so thankful for everyone who has been praying for him, because he has progressed spiritually so much thanks to your prayers and our efforts in teaching him, which I know are guided by the spirit. 

   Thank you all for the love and support!  If you keep a positive attitude in your circumstances they will improve!

Love You all! 

Elder Jamison Jones

Cool photo of christmas lights and the moon

My Companion Elder Sanchez

Week 20 "Thanksgiving and Boats"

Elder Mitch Wilson, friend from high school

The majority of stuff coming to my mind today concerning what I should write on centers around a story I first heard in the movie, The Pursuit of Happyness.  In the film a little kid tells his dad a story of a man who is drowning in the ocean.  A nearby boat sees him, runs to his rescue and the crew tells him to climb aboard.  In response the man says, no thank you, God will save me.  Confused, the boat leaves the man and continues on.  A bit later, another boat sees the man and the captain says, hey, hop on, you're drowning!  The guy drowning again says, no thank you, God will save me.  Once again confused the second boat leaves only to be followed by a third boat, which tries to save the man in the same way, to which he refuses with the same answer, ''No thank you, God will save me.''  At last, the man exhausts all of his energy and drowns.  When he reaches heaven he asks God, a little upset, ''Hey, why didn't you save me?''  God then replies, ''I sent you three boats, you dummy!''

We were on a bus last week, and this old muslim man offers to let me sit by him.  He talked to me on the bus for about five minutes, then let me know that I would be helping him find a store he was looking for.  We walked him all the way to a grocery store then he bisoued us to say thank you; which means he kissed my cheek(s)  haha it was bizarre but a great experience, and pretty funny too.

   Are we sometimes like the man drowning in the ocean, who can't seem to see the purpose of the rescue boat? I would say yes, definitely; and in a way I have felt like the man who realised later, all of the help being provided to him.  During the mission and throughout the course of the last two years I have had a few poignant questions relating to gospel subjects, and I feel like I've sometimes suppressed the counsel and advice from others that Heavenly Father was sending to me as an answer to my prayers.  The prominent advice I have received is first, to Trust in Heavenly Father, second, to stop being so hard on myself, and third, to stop worrying so much. 

service at a member's house

 I feel like that counsel, to me, is like the rescue boats; help from a loving Heavenly Father who knows me and wants me to be happy. I am so thankful that Heavenly Father sends these boats of rescue to me and to all of us.  Everyone, as some advice for the week,  be careful not to miss the rescue God is trying to send you.  Heavenly Father loves us completely, he wants us to be with him and he is going to help all of us with spiritual life rafts if we're humble.  Heck I'm not perfect at this myself but I know that if we all trust in the Lord and give our best effort, he will help you!

Making Omelets last night - They had jalapeños (spicy) but they were so good!

   Happenings this week, Mission conference in Paris, Exchanges with elder Van Tonder and Elder Traue, Extremely delicious home made omelets, and Visits to fun stores like Furet du Nord and Paul's Patisserie on P Day!   Our amis are progressing well, and we have had more opportunities to go out finding new people to teach as well.  Fun news; I saw my high school buddy Mitch Wilson at the Mission Conference this week!  I regret that I can't write everything that happened in the week, but there is a brief summary, and I love you all, love the mission just as much, and you all go out and have a great, thankful week!

THE EIFFEL TOWER

Paris: Gare du Nord