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