Hello one and all.
I ate a golden-flaked pain au chocolat today. Yes, pretty extravagant. Also our week went really really well. Let's start at the very beginning.....a very good place to start, especially this week.
After finishing a P-day of La Defense promenading, we traveled back to our area only to discover the woman whom we had planned on giving a building tour cancelled; okay, time for backup plan. We called a different lady who was willing to come to the church and take a tour, in place of the woman who had cancelled, which worked wonderfully for us because a member (Hugette Tornar, who Grandma nanny knows) had already agreed to help us that night. We passed a good hour getting to know our new Ami de L'eglise, and our meeting went very well, the two women got along very well. She even agreed to pray about the truth of our message, and come to church on sunday and listen to Hugette give a talk. I felt pretty surprised at how well the meeting went, and the happenings of the day after astounded me even more.
In the middle of an exchange on home turf (Cergy) with Elder Livingston R., our new amie, called us, asking if we could see her for a few minutes if at all possible. In apprehension we took a slight detour from our planned course to speak with her for a few minutes. "So, I did what you told me to... I said a little prayer to Heavenly Father asking him if this is the right path that I'm on, learning from you, and I got my answer that it's right!" Needless to say we felt speechless and very excited for her. We kept in contact throughout the week, and she came on sunday! Not many instances parallel to the moment you see your investigator, all by themselves, walking up to the front door of the Church, on time,Sunday morning. Happy to say that the members really integrated her well, and we have the blessing to see her tonight too.
MultiTasking Tuesday followed Miraculous Monday. We got Rouen to come, and with their help tackled lots and lots of lessons, by lots I mean four. It's a lot, okay. We taught M. and right now he would not count as progressing. We made a mistake of giving him everything at the beginning of our teaching, so he took the Doctrine and Covenants and got a little confused with our doctrine. We courteously asked for it back during the lesson, and we got the Book of Mormon back the day following :( In terms of the other lessons we taught, they went real well. My companion Elder Gunn found a lady who makes homemade salt lamps...could provide interesting future visits.
Wednesday through Friday I went to Mantes-la-Jolie, where Elder Durant and I taught like nobody's business, thanks to the masterful planning of elders Chen and Durant. Highlights included teaching a man who moved from tibet in basic english, and interviewing their baptismal candidate, Bernard who was baptized two days later. Durant and Chen are hard workers and we're really blessed to have them in the district.
Saturday we taught S. the Plan du Salut, he is learning a lot and progressing really well. We then weekly planned and taught a Nigerian family on vacation in the evening. That morning on our way out one of the boys in the family recognized me, and yelled out, 'Elder Jones!!! You gave my mom a picture of Jesus in the bus!' That's right! I said. The fruits of transit contacting are quite numerous here in Cergy. That doesn't go without saying that Elder Gunn is improving his french and contacting abilities as well. I was very happy to see him contact a couple people out of his own free will.
One of the highlights of the week goes to Zone Conference, where our leaders instructed us on how to better teach The Gospel of Jesus Christ. Overall, I got the impression to teach more sincerely, using personal experiences and wow, it was great!
Just want to testify how much God is blessing us here in Cergy right now. I take this opportunity to speak to all my cousins and the someone I'm writing to say that of course the mission is going to be freaking hard, but nothing will feel better in the good moments. In 'If' by Rudyard Kipling, it says, "If you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters just the same," That is my counsel, definitely enjoy the good moments but value the difficult moments just as much because you will not know the good without them. This week has been beautiful, in a very spiritual sense. Heavenly Father will teach you all so much out here. Now stop crying, get off your phone, and welcome to the field!
Love Elder Jones
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