Week 55 "New Companion Elder Gunn"

Pettitt family

    Hello folks this email is being written through some difficulty.  Yes,in the France paris mission we have a lot of trials such as the difficulty to write emails on an IPad with a little keyboard.  But hey.....good thing this week went well.  Thank you for all of your prayers on
the behalf of our investigators and me as well.  I know that if God pulls through even if we don't see the results instantaneously.  Time for the week.

My new companion, Elder Gunn
(and my creative meal) 

      Monday night we gave J. our investigator some baguettes, because he had not eaten for a couple days.  As we talked with him we got some good news.  He worked the situation out with his relative and now he has a place to sleep at night.  His situation is progressing, though slowly.  After helping out J. Elder Hansen and I headed out to Persan Beaumont to have a Family Home Evening with the Brialy family, which was composed of the mom and dad, an fourteen year old with three younger siblings, reminded me of a couple of years back when we did FHE. Despite the craziness of the younger kids, the parents stayed calm and we successfully made it through.  We ended the night with 'Frozen' Memory (elder Hansen won with eight matches) and Dinner with the family - indian food!

Me and Elder Wilson

     Tuesday was the last full day with Elder Hansen.  We went to visit a new
investigator we met Sunday and we got cancelled on, despite our best efforts over phone to coerce her into still coming;  the book of mormon just sounds like a kid's story, she said, based off of what you told me.  Well have you read it? I asked. No, she said, that's just
what I remember from what you told me on the bus.  Agh, if people would just read it and give us a second chance! In disappointment we left and decided to start some contacting, just the thing I didn't feel like doing, but we prayed together to have a better spirit with
us, and kept going.  Interesting how good things happen right after you get put through the ringer, because, as we kept walking we found three other people on the road whom we taught.  Touchdown. That night we went to the Pettitt Family's home and ate sandwiches. Field goal -good.

RM coiffure

  Wednesday things started with Elder Gunn.  We went and taught M. our new investigator.  We are trying to get every lesson with a member because man, M. knows the bible well!  He posed questions such as, where did Peter not receive authority to continue the church, and how can we become like God one day?  Oh good thing this is a solid ward. Pray he understands concepts how we teach them, and that he'll desire baptism.  That night we went to a faraway city and found a girl on the bus who wanted to know about the Book of Mormon.
  Fast forwarding, we did service for members Friday, went to Caen for leadership training  Saturday, and had a very, very hectic Sunday morning.  Transferring buses en route to church, my stomach did a flip flop the second I thought I left my IPad on the bus. Running back to the first bus I discovered nothing and the only options were go to church or figure out if the IPad was stolen.  So we chose the latter option.  Upon returning to the apartment I said hey Elder Gunn you have the keys, right? After looking through both our pockets and bags we realized not only did I have a possibly missing/stolen IPad, but we were also locked out of our apartment.  As all missionaries do at the point when bad things have gotten worse, we prayed, and after that we had the felling to re-return to our apartment to ask someone for help.  As we walked up we asked a neighbor just leaving if he
lived near our apartment, he said no, but you could always try talking to your next door neighbors and going in through the corner adjacent window.  Very interesting idea which we felt we should try out.  So to make an already long story as short as I can, we got in through the window and avoided having to pay over a thousand euros for someone to break down the door; and the best part...the IPad was sitting safely on my desk the entire time.  Eventually we rolled into church at ten thirty, and made it in time for the end of  Sunday School.  Overall Sunday ended up well for such a hectic start.

It's not a letter without food

   So the quick spiritual message of the week is when things start to get crazy and hectic or discouraging, don't give up. Honestly, remember that our Heavenly Father said, 'be still, and know that I am God' and remember 'all things have been done in the wisdom of Him who
knoweth all things'  Pray through the hard times and more than that, carry on.  This is the main thing that helped me through the week.
God loves you, and you got this! En Avant!
Je love all of you.
Sincerely Elder Jones

Sent from my iPad

Week 54 "Getting Transferred to Iceland"

Well, after a lot of thought about the title, I thought I'd just take enjoyment in seeing what your initial thoughts would be, with the transfer coming up.  In reality, no, I'm not going to Iceland, I'm staying here in Cergy and I received the calling to become a district leader, and finish up the last two weeks of training for Elder Gunn, the other elder in my apartment from Texas.  Elder Gunn is a cool guy, and that description is generic enough to hurt so I'm going to have to get to know him better.  What I know is that he's from Texas, like I already said, and he has lived in Japan, and his French is improving.  We both get packages from home so we should definitely have enough to eat.  And he knows Spongebob, so that will be nice for those times when I have to relax and yes, I do relax by quoting it.  He's a really healthy guy as well so maybe I'll gain a kilo or two of muscle mass this transfer. .Well that's what's ahead. Let's go back to how this week went. 

   A week that seems extremely long and short at the same time, so when I try to pinpoint events my mind blurs up and I don't know whether such and such happened yesterday, or two weeks ago. The double 4th of july  throws me off the most.  We'll start with J. our prime investigator.  J. stays strong is what I'd name this chapter of the book.  After some confusion with us passing by the house of his relative, he got booted from his relative's house last week. For legal reasons we do not understand he's been unable to get government help for the moment, and he's been scraping by the last two weeks sleeping in the park, getting food occasionally from a friend, and the situation's gotten pretty serious.  J. had not had anything to eat or drink for a few days, and he called us early one morning not seeming panicky and not knowing what to do; seeing the only thing we could do was pay him a visit, we packed up three liters of water and headed out to see him friday morning.  He looked pretty lethargic and dazed out, as you'd expect for someone starving. We found a bench to talk things out and he said that he has a friend living nearby who has given him a little food from time to time, but the friend had left town for a few days, and he was still waiting for a solution.  As we talked with J. we talked about what we could do to solve the problem, and we helped him see that experiences like this fortify us.  As we continued talking to him we felt inspired to give J. a priesthood blessing, and he accepted the offer. In the park corner with people off in the distance and only a few trees to gives us some privacy we gave J. a blessing.  I did my best to stay focused and trust that no one would come up and hinder us while Elder Hansen was saying the blessing.  We gave J. the blessing that all would be well, and that things would go well for his family too.  I don't want to go too specific but needless to say it was a fortifying experience for him and for us.  We don't know what happened right after but a couple days later we went to see him again.  As we spoke he told us something really amazing had happened after we had given him the blessing.  His mother had called and heard about his distraught situation, and she had already called the relative who booted him and arranged with him so that J. could come back and hopefully stay there.  Super blessing.  J. is such a solid investigator. I really feel like this experience is trying him.  We've got to pray and keep hoping that things will go through for him, and for his relative to soften his heart.  Thanks for your prayers on his behalf.  

   In other news things continue to roll out for me and elder Hansen here during his last week in Cergy.  He's going up to Nivelles, Belgium.  Anyways, we found a few new investigators this week.  A real miracle takes place for every person who the Lord guides us to.  The first lady was waiting for the bus reading a pocket sized new testament.  As we were about to go contacting in the city, Elder Hansen suggested taking the same bus as this woman to pass by a referral we received.  We talked to her and taught her for a good twenty minutes about the Book of Mormon, and we have our first real meeting with her next tuesday.  Very cool!  While sitting at church this sunday a man walked in out of the blue during the first meeting, and wanted to know if he could come in to learn about, of course, our church.  Quite a few members talked to him and we have something fixed for him this week, tomorrow, as well. The work continues to progress really well here, and I'm looking forward to first of all, the merge of the two Cergy equipes, and second, getting the chance to work with so many cool missionaries in my district, which includes the cities of Le Havre, Rouen, and Mantes-la-Jolie. Elder Mitch Wilson, my high school buddy is now one of my Caen Zone Leaders, quel chance, eh? I'm so excited.

   As a final note: The members here are so cool, we ate the spiciest Italian pepper sauce at a member's; so spicy I cried and my tongue burned for fifteen minutes.  That's the wrap!  Love you all!  

Elder Jones
Here is my mailing address in Cergy: 

Les Missionnaires:

Elder Jamison Jones

56 Boulevard de l'Evasion, Nc301

95800 Cergy-Le-Haut,

France

Week 53 "Maisons Lafittes Chateau"

Outside the Maisons Lafittes Chateau on Pday

Wow, french is such a fancy-looking language.  It amazes me I understand it.
This week, went over that hill.  That HALF WAY point.  My parents sent a package, in it, found deodorant to get me through, various flavors of mints, beef jerky, twinkies, a few poptarts, and some homemade confetti cannons made from toilet paper rolls with balloons attached to one end - I would say it was a pretty good package. Thank you!

   I would like to tell you all some great experiences that happened
this week.  So, our friend J is now homeless! He was staying at a
relative's house until his family could come, and this relative found
out that the missionaries (or, we) were coming over to visit him.  He
was not so fond of that, so J got kicked out.  When we called him he
had been in the park for a couple of days, and we went to see him as
soon as we could.  A great little miracle happened on the way.
Leaving the bus stop en route to see J, a man approached us asking us where the church is, after speaking for a little bit we discover he's
a member and after living in France for a year he hasn't known where
the church is, we were happy to find him and we invite him to the
meeting with J.  We meet J and teach him the Plan of Salvation; even
though he's going through difficult circumstances being homeless, he
listens attentively.  We told him how even though things such as this
happen, Jesus Christ has experienced it all, and in drawing close to
him we can feel success and peace.  Financially, we as missionaries
can't do much to help J but we can keep praying his birth certificate
arrives, because when he receives it he can start receiving
governmental help.  He has had friends help him out this week and
that's been big.  Good blessings.  He's sticking with us, and I hope
he can become self-reliant as well.

Home-Made Deep Fried Burritos

   Elder Hansen and I have really profited from the new mission-wide
initiative to visit more members.  We visited with four member
families in the ward, while we had prepared to give a 20 minute
thought from the scriptures and then head out, we were pretty happily
surprised to find most of them trying to feed us dinner too.  Haha, we
ate a lot this week.  One really good rendezvous was with the Sorhaitz
family, who gave us dinner in a tupperware because we didn't have time to stay, and we found banana cake and this homemade
pizzzzzzzzaaaaaaaaahh.  The members in France are solid but their food is just as good.  I might never come back because of this food.
Honestly sharing time with the members is so great, makes the mission really filling, both spiritually, and you know... the other sense
also.

Deer Head at The Chateau

   I had a good week with elder Hansen.  The best part of the mission
is making things work, and with my companion we're doing that by
working through the problems we have.  When we feel stressed we like talking through our stress, and helping one another figure out
improvement. I've been blessed to be with Elder Hansen because in manyways we have felt similar stressors on a mission.  That would include the feeling of long term culture shock, or the 'help, what is going on and what are these people even saying' feeling.  I think if you feel this during your mission the best thing to do is be patient and calm, God will help you through as you turn toward him.  Elder Hansen has helped me to see what I can improve on and we have a very honest and open relationship.  Difficulties definitely exist but we just keep trying to help each other, work hard, and it works out eventually.
  What did we do that was fun today? We went to Maisons Lafittes
Chateau, a big mansion in one of the wealthier cities in out area.  We
checked out all of the rooms and I found a barometer in one hallway, I
like weather instruments. We also bought Frozen-themed cereal, yes we mean the disney movie with Anna and Elsa on the box, haha.
Well God bless you all.  I am happy to be on a mission, and it's hard
to follow the rules and do everything we've got to do, but becomes
easier with the correct perspective - the eternal one.  Stay happy,
there's no real reason to be sad.
Love Elder Jones

Week 52 "ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!"

Elder Jones, Elder Roth and Elder Hansen 

(Eating at members' homes (The Sune Family and Rochet Family) 

Bonjour à tous! Un an derrière, un an devant!

  Cette semaine était bien passé! Adventures included exchanges to

Mantes-la-Jolie, a Fourth of July party, and record-breaking heat.

All of it was good.  Let's beginnnnnnn.

Starting with a bit of humor slash good news.  As a result of some

changes in the distribution of the iPads, we had to give elder

Hansen's back this week.  It was funny that we had barely received

them and then we had to sacrifice it again.  Elder Hansen was pretty

sad to give it up, but we are just sharing mine now.  It's working out

fine though, we got to go drop it off in paris and while we were there

we ran into Kira Wachter, a friend of mine from school! We lost our

cell phone this week, and went to pick a new one at the mission

office.  We found a pretty good phone, but we did have to spend a few

hours re-entering all the contacts.  Menial tasks like these    saved

us from being outside in the super hot weather.

Wig Vending Machines in Cergy

  The weather was hot here, pretty hot.  It wasn't like back home
though.  I have to give it to my Bowers cousins who lived in Georgia
and promised me the humid heat was more intense than dry heat,  they
were right.  I enjoyed taking a shower morning, and night to rinse off
all the sweat, and we left all the windows down at night and that
helped most the time, but man what a hot week.
  In response to the high temperatures i decided not to plan in the
apartment but head over to the church instead, where it would
definitely (or at least I thought) be cooler.  On the way there we
stopped to get some sandwiches at the grocery store.  While walking
through an isle a woman stopped us.  She was quiet, almost whispering,
and she said 'hey I have to keep this quiet, I'm on my shift right
now...I saw Jesus on your badges and I couldn't help but asking, i
just lost someone close to me, will I see my husband again?'  Of
course! We said.  I felt so happy she found us. Actually there is this
big plan God's given us called the Plan of Salvation that helps us
know all of this.  Woahhhhh that was SO cool.  She wanted to talk some
more and gave us her phone number - went back to work.
  We keep on our journey, buy some food, and arrive at the church.
Hm, why are there people here, oh, the young adults are having a
fourth of July party!  We had forgotten about it, and though we
weren't invited but they let us join their American hot dog,
watermelon, jello festivities.  They had big signs that said I heart
USA.  Pretty hilarious.  We also got the chance to talk with youth who
had recently returned from a mission, and going out on a mission too.
We got around to planning eventually, but we hd a pretty miraculous
afternoon!

Delicious cheese at a members home

  Wednesday was the hottest day of the week.  I'm sure we were around
100 degrees Fahrenheit, after lunch and a bit of area book analysis we
weren't looking forward to going outside and sharing the Restored
Gospel.  I felt like I was melting in an oven.  But we decided you
know, sacrifice brings forth blessings.  We went out and saw some
great miracles of finding people who would speak with us, and wanted
to hear more, another time of course it was so hot, about the gospel.
Bang, boom! Take that heat wave! I have a good feeling when we get
over obstacles and find people, pretty indescribable.

  Well that sums up the best of this week.  I want to pat myself on
the back for being out here for ONE YeAR! I love this place.  I know
that it's the best thing for me.  I LOVE MY MISSION! Thank YOU,
Heavenly Father, thank you everyone who read this.  You rock, all of
you.

Typical Fresh Fruit and Vegetables in Cergy

I love you so much.  Here is an inspiring scripture.
Doctrine and Covenants 103:36 'All victory and glory is brought to
pass unto you through your diligence, faithfulness, and prayers of
faith.'  If we work dilligently, have faith, a positive attitude, and
pray through it, we will make it out victorious.  Things are hard on
the mission but you just stay positive and it's better!
Elder JAMISON JONES
Sent from my iPad

La Defense with the train in the foreground.

The Airplanes Fly Above Us All Day

Elders in our apartment: Elder Jones, Elder Roth, Elder Hansen, Elder Gunn (in order)

Beautiful Sunset

My Companion, Elder Hansen made Mac and Cheese for Dinner