 |
| 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
No comments:
Post a Comment