Week 14 "BEST WEEK"

One of the last things I told my parents last week was, I'm going to kick this week in the pants, and that's just what I did! Man, one of the hardest things about the mission is to keep a good attitude for whatever happens, to not compare you situation or yourself with other people but just look at where you are, where you want to get and go for it. While I sometimes think about and miss my family, I have to come to the hard truth that I am here in France, and I'm here to serve and do my best, and that's hard to do, but it's worth it.  Ça veut la peine, as the french say.  

We played soccer for 90 minutes in the pouring rain, woohoo!

   There are a couple of reasons that come to my mind of why this week went so well.  The first being I started the week with a resolution to count my blessings and do my best this week, and that made me feel good and motivated to go and do the work.  My trainer, elder Johnson had me set goals so that I can measure my progress out here, and honestly that has helped me to feel a lot happier. Every morning I wake up and during my personal study I write three goals of things I want to accomplish during the day.  Then when I get back to my bed at night and review how the day went, I have something to measure my progress, and when I complete my goals, I feel really happy. I have started with some goals such as "contact 2 people today" and even small things like that help me so much, because when elder Johnson and I are moving from one thing to another, It's hard to know whether I should be looking for people to contact or planning for what's next, be it a lesson or something else.  The Lord has been really merciful to me out here because so far, I haven't had an entire day devoted to contacting (knock on wood), we have been blessed with the great opportunity to teach a lot of people, and that has made me so happy.

This is the big canal path we had to walk down to get to the soccer field

   Another thing that's made me happy this week has been my reminder to myself that it's okay to be happy! A couple of days ago, me and elder Johnson were walking around trying to find another soccer field to play on because for some reason we can't play on the old one, and I started to get a little down on myself and think, man, I just don't feel like I've done my best today.  I had a feeling to go a certain direction and I didn't and.....(sometimes I play the chain reaction scenario in my head, if I would have done..., this would have happened) and I just told myself to stop that.  I said, okay, It's okay. I'm just going to choose to be happy right now. I can't go back and fix the past, whatever happened, or whatever I did is over.  All I have now is the future right in front of me, and all I can do is act on what I have in front of me.  And then I just started to feel happy and the day went really well.  That's an important part of my mission I want to remember, I cannot live in what would have happened, or what I had before I came out here that I miss.  I'm here in France.  I'm a missionary.  I'm teaching people the Restored Gospel.  Like, Really!  It's crazy still to wrap my head around.  All I can do right now is work with what I have in front of me. With goals in my mind and a positive attitude, and courage to do God's will, I'm going to be so blessed, and bless other's lives to, I know it!  I just want to thank the Lord for this experience so far.  It's HARD, but AWESOME!!!

The Bell Tower in the middle of Lille, 104 meters high!

   So in terms of fun things that happened this week, let's see.  Well, we played soccer in a downpour for almost two hours.  The bishop in our ward, probably 60 years old, played goalie and he wrecked, meaning he played amazing, like Josh Campbell in the little league days.  I scored three goals, and my companion scored a header.  We had many people talk to us this week, and although I love trying to understand people in French, we talked to a lot of english speakers too!  We did service for a lady in the ward, trimming hedges, mowing grass, and fixing up the yard, It was way fun! We had a family home evening with the Gouttin family this week, and they made Ratatouille, the real deal for dinner, basically it's a bunch of veggies with, I don't remember, but that was probably the food highlight of the week, besides the fact that we made gnocchi again.  We have a new zone leader, elder Sikich, and he is super cool!  We have a great district and I'm absolutely loving it out here.  I love France, and although a mission is hard, that's because I'm working hard, and I can't wait for it to get even better!

Love you all!

Elder Jamison Jones