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| This week the most interesting experience happened with a floating church |
So let's start with the boat minister...A train conversation led to this nice man, Mr. Simone, inviting us to lunch on his boat. On a boat? Isn't that not allowed, I wondered. After discussing with my companion we concluded that he had invited us, and if the boat was planning on undocking and riding around we would not accept. But fortunately we showed up to a surprise. Mr. Simone was a minister for his church, his boat church. We show up to the river's edge asking some australian boatmen for directions and they say, 'You could try that church over there' Oh, the floating one!? Okay, thanks. We ask for Mr. Simone, and a lady leads us down into the boat. I'm surprised to find the boat fitted as a big dining hall with at least fifty people sitting at two long tables. The lady calls up Mr. Simone, and he comes up to greet us, then beckons us down to eat with his 'congregation'. After eating king sized portions he introduces us to the congregation, the majority of which consisted of Tibetan refugees who applauded for us after the translator made our introduction. Too bad we didn't get permission to testify to the congregation. We did, however, get to tell the whole church staff our objective and purpose here as missionaries, and they even accepted the offer to let us pray with them as we left! I won't forget that experience, how many times do you find a church on a boat?
No good week comes without bad. We were out wednesday night facing some bizarre opposition, you know, just a nice 'no' streak, followed by some pretty rude remarks from a guy on his bike, then a man who tried to tell us the prophets in the Book of Mormon prophesied nothing relevant when compared to those in the bible. We don't bible bash, nor bash any scriptures, so we abruptly told him we had to go, and that was the end of that night.
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| We went to Notra Dame in Paris and the line was 2 hours so we decided to eat Panini's instead |
Difficult days like that seem not so bad when compared to all the miracles we saw this week. We had a couple of insane days, finding quite a few genuine people who wanted to hear the restored gospel. J. our investigator, thanks to inspiration and good planning, now understands why baptism by proper authority is necessary, and he desires his baptism to happen as soon as possible, so really, stay tuned. That afternoon, we saw an ancient investigator and we asked him, alright, it's been a long time since you met the missionaries, it's got to be that you don't understand something. That's it, he said, I just don't feel like I know enough to be baptized. Okay, we said, let's go through the baptismal interview questions with you. In brief he understands better than most, the only concern is his church attendance. He's never come before, so once he starts coming he can be baptized. After that lesson we felt pretty blown away. I was relaxing playing the piano, when a lady walked into the church and said, Hello, I always see your church but until today, I've never seen the lights on but I feel so lost and I just felt like your church could help me. Do you know anyone who could teach me? Yes, maam, we do; we're the missionaries for this church and we can help you feel more comfort through the restored teachings of Jesus Christ that we have. After a good half hour of discussion we finished with inviting her to church and inviting her toward baptism, which she accepted. Remember that this is all in the same day, so I didn't really have words for this experience.
That highlights the week, although so much happened I think those were the main experiences that I could share with you all. I love being a missionary, there is no work more compelling, more tiring, more reawarding. Get out here. It's so awesome. I love you!
Elder JAMISON JONES
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| Thank you family for all your letters this week! |
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