Week 68 " BEAUTIFUL FALL DAY IN FRANCE"

Elder Jones

Hey family! And everyone!


   Things are going well here in Torcy.  Really well.  So let me give you a run down of what's going on.  Monday night I bought a cake.  We were at a Boulangerie in Paris. There was this cake sitting on the counter.  Impulse buying...I got it and we ate it that night.  Coming from the Boulangerie that won best baguette of 2015 of Paris, we can conclude that we had an ethereal moment eating that cake.  

Tuesday our district meeting activity took an unintended wrong turn.  They wrapped me in food wrap and told me to race Elder Davis, our zone leader in moving marshmallows to a bowl on the opposite side of the room, but we ended up fighting for the bowl and shattering glass. But, we learned how from the activity to take good care of our investigators, as they represented the marshmallows, and the food wrap represents limitations we put on ourselves. Don't put limitations on yourself, live it up on the mission! 
Elder Jones and the 4 other Elders in is Apartment

We had a really cool experience, though; starting on the premise that we had traveled up to Paris that day and all I wanted to do was sleep. But nope, out we went to work.  I was really tired, and I just put up this prayer to heaven, saying, “I'm really tired but I'd still like to work, please help me.”  I have this goal with myself to talk to someone every time I'm in the RER, and I'll tell you I felt heaven's help, as the person who I was guided to sit by had a big bag of something, which enabled me to start up a conversation with him quite easily, and we spoke in English, another plus because Elder Oldham and I had only been speaking French to each other, and I was pretty fed up with that too.  This man who we spoke with was really nice, and though he had his own church, I was so grateful to God because he gave me someone to talk to.

Disneyland Paris

      Tuesday and Wednesday involved a good amount of walking through the neighborhoods of Torcy, St. Thibault, and Lognes looking for people to teach. We found a couple of nice people with whom we set return appointments. That night we went to ward council and the ward mission leader meeting.  Very interesting.....between two meetings I had an interesting feeling to go outside. 

I really didn't want to disturb the meetings, but I thought, 'what if this is an impression, then I've got to do it!' So Elder Oldham and I quickly left and walked outside. I felt unsure of the feeling the first couple moments we were out, but then we saw a lady walking with her son and two pizzas (Domino's is next to the church) and we thought, why not talk to her? We approach her and talk, and turns out she spoke English, YES, and we taught her about the difference between us and the Catholics, the concept of families being together always, and The Book of Mormon. That's why we came outside; I felt happy that I'm improving on following the feelings I have.
We cleaned up K.'s apartment on Thursday.  One of our investigators who had been struggling with the word of wisdom.  Don't know why but I love cleaning, It's becoming very therapeutic for me. We cleaned for a couple hours and after we finished mopping, doing dishes, and organizing clothes the place smelled and looked a little cleaner, but all he could say to us was "merci infiniment" (thanks infinitely).  We told him it was our pleasure, and we were even more pleased to see him at church on Sunday.

Elder Jones, Brother and Sister Oscarson, and Elder Oldham

      Bringing us to the end of this week.  We planned a Halloween party which takes place this weekend.  And we saw Sister Oscarson who is the General Young Women's President in our church.   Yep, she came to speak the night before to the youth, and she came to our ward Sunday.  She spoke in church and Elder Oldham and I took a picture with her.  Score!  We went to a family home evening where one of our investigators attended, and that wrapped up our week.

Thanks for the package, family. We loved the sponge bog fruit snacks and Pez candy

     Well we had a great week and I think I learned a lot of things, but the most important would be to follow the spirit, because it will take you and help you to be a better person. For me following the spirit can be very hard, but always worth it.  Always.  I am rereading the Book of Mormon right now and Mosiah 3 and 4 stuck out to me recently.

 Just the fact that God gives us everything, so we can do our best to give him the little effort we have.

 Love you all and have a great week!
 Avec Amour, Elder Jones
 Ps. we got a deep fryer this pday.  More adventure to follow.

A French Lego Man

Week 67 "Bussy-Saint-Georges" my new address

"Sacre Coeur"
A beautiful monument we visited today in Paris

         
Hello friends and family, I'm in Torcy! It's right next to Disneyland Paris! 

         Last week, before I said farewell to Cergy, we took a little time to visit a less-active. Apparently someone had anonymously written her a kind letter, and she thought it was us! We told her we hadn't written the letter and she didn't believe us; point is, this is a great idea, so try it!

Farewell Dinner in Cergy

         The next day we had many things going, since transfers were the following morning. We started off with a lesson for a new investigator we found.  Right as we left the church, some members who had wanted to take us to lunch gave us fifteen euros and left.  It was one of those make-you-accept-the-money-or-else situations.  I felt so bad for taking it...Elder Harris is going to sneak the money back to them next time we go and visit. That evening we visited the Deleu family and shared dinner with them.  Their dining room looked Heavenly; white walls, white table, fancy glasses and silverware, and a big chandelier hanging.  The food, I'll say, was equally Heavenly: It was something with....wait it was called "Confit au Canard" and you can tell from the name just how good all the food was. Great way to finish off our adventures in Cergy!

This is Elder Kasteler, Gaule, Me, Smith, Congerton, and Oldham on transfer day in Paris.  we went to get crepes together.

       Ensuite, we had transfer day.  All I had to do, in theory, was take the "A" Train from one side of the city to the other, but I ended up waiting for my companion, and saying “Hi” to lots of missionaries, and going to get Paninis with some elders from my MTC group. 
 By the time we arrived in Torcy it was 4pm.  I discovered, the night previous, that Elder Oldham had never been to Torcy either, and we were replacing the previous missionaries by a process commonly known as a 'whitewash'. So, we knew none of the investigators, members, or bus lines.

      Fortunately we had Elder Merrill (the only missionary of four in the area who had stayed) to guide us around, and the old missionaries had left a little paper giving us all the useful information we needed to survive, and we've been clinging to that for the last five days. 

     That night we met the Sister Missionaries in the ward and I found out that Sister Back, who I went to high school with, is in the Torcy ward too. We have a solid group of six missionaries here: Soeur Back and Nolasco, Elder Edmunds and Merrill, and Elder Oldham and me; we're  looking forward to tearing it up, in all the best of ways.

Elder Oldham and Elder 
In our new apartment in Torcy

    The next couple days, Thrsday and Friday, seemed a blur in my head due to a little flu I had acquired over the week. Elder Oldham was kind enough to let me rest up, and he made me some herbal tea too, that was nice.  We did get out to contact as well, and I'd say we taught  five or six people, which is great under most circumstances, especially with how I have felt with sickness.  Elder Oldham and I are also speaking only French to each other, as we are both the same age (11 transfers) and speak French relatively well. This practice really hurts my head sometimes, but you never know when you'll be called to train an only French-speaking companion. It's a good challenge. 

Saturday morning we helped move the Fyeski family in the ward.  We worked very efficiently and they fed us breakfast and lunch. We visited an investigator the missionaries had left, Y. and we really hope that he'll continue with the same momentum he had previously and choose to be baptized. 

Sunday I was introduced at the ward and I got to know more members.  I keep notes on who they were.   We worked from after church till the end of the night, I was so tired. My new companion, Elder Oldham is great and he works really hard. 

 I'm tired but it is great!!

 Shoutout to Emily Watts .....I'm sad I didn't see you on Wednesday, I had to catch up with the other Elders who were trying to catch a train. 

       If you noticed I started to write really fast cause we went to a monument in Paris and I ran out of time.  "Sacre Coeur."  I took cool pictures.  Then got the supposedly ranked no.1 bread in Paris.  It was ok.  It probably would have been better fresh, but Hey! I'm happy.

       We've got a great week ahead.  I love you! 
Elder Jones

Here is my new mailing address in Torcy:

Les Missionnaires
Elder Jamison Jones
My new mailing address is:
6 Avenue Andre Malraux
77600 Bussy-Saint-Georges
France

Week 66 "New Transfer to Torcy France located by Disneyland Paris"

(I am so sorry! I wrote a huge email but then I went to paste it and it disappeared!! I am sad about that, but here is a little summary of the week!)

My District in Cergy....now I'm off to Torcy

Hey, everyone!
        I had a wonderful week.  It started off with a wonderful family home evening at the home of a member family, baptized by one of fellow missionary's father thirty years ago.  We had very French food, tomatoes and eggs, beef and potatoes, and dessert. Amazing!!
        We had our last district meeting.  We discussed general conference and my favorite talk, or one of them, was when Dale G. Renlund discussed the importance of seeing people through God's eyes.
I could definitely work on that.  There are lots of people who act coldly toward us, but I think some Godly love would help them.

I think I've grown

        I loved visiting with the Azika-Eros family this week.  They are so great, and I really felt like our small spiritual thought and playing soccer with the kids made all of us feel a lot happier.  That's what the gospel's about, helping people.

Pontoise, a city in our sector.

I

        Though we saw many miracles and had a lot of good happen this week I have limited time and I am sad that I can't write more.  However we saw great success this week.  We found a new investigator who's Haitian, and she was really kind.  I have got to go now, but remember to focus on individuals, and line upon line as Isaiah says.  Good  week. Love you all!
Love
Elder Jones

I took this photo before boarding the train.

PS. I'm getting transferred to Torcy, France this week. My new companion  is elder Oldham who works hard and is obedient. .  He's in my group but I don't know him super well. Torcy is by Disneyland Paris. Big ward.  Love you so much; don't hesitate to send me a little email throughout the week if you want.  Thank you! Thank you, Mom..... Love you all.  Looking forward to seeing you relatively soon with skype. 

Week 65 "Castles and Conference"

A Castle on the way from Mantes to Rouen

Everyone, hello!

So...how are you all; I hope everyone had the opportunity to watch General Conference that the church put together.  If not go watch (click) CONFERENCE right now. Wow, I was so happy to hear so much advice I couldn't go without. Some of my highlights I would give were President Monson's emphasis on Christ as anchor, Richard Mayne's council to center on Christ, and Elder Holland's plea to love our mothers. In reality I have so much to work on, so much to improve on but that will come through putting Christ as our ultimate and supreme example, and remembering that we can try again as many times as we will turn our will to God and recommit to have trust in him.  Now I don't want to be a hypocrite; as I'm so far from perfect and I will say that I have got to do a lot more focusing on Christ. We have to always remember him and man I'm really hoping to improve on that.  I'm doing that through following the counsel we got during conference to...well a lot of things. Go watch it!

Ward meal between Conference sessions

   This week went by well.  Many of our investigators stopped answering their phones, and weren't home when we passed by.  So what did we do, we visited a lot a lot of members and tried to encourage them to share the gospel with their friends.  After visiting around twenty member families we received three referrals of people who have shown interest in meeting the missionaries. And though many of the referrals given to us don't live in our area it's good that we're getting Gospel to those who need it.  All the missionaries are on the same team, So even though I feel reluctant at first I know and hope these people are in good hands.  Also wanted to bring up the importance of meeting with members, I felt the spirit in a really special way being able to give service and pay visits to members.  A few families in particular really benefited from our visits. A sister whom we visited; we couldn't find another man to go with us, so I called her telling her we could just share a message at the door, she however, insisted that we come and told us that she'd set up a table outside so we could all talk. We shared our spiritual message and I could tell it really brightened her day. And we got a killer microwave cake recipe from the visit, so we were pretty happy. 

Me and Elder Harris between Conference 

   I had some great spiritual experiences this week as well.  I got to go on an exchange with Elder Duncan who had been out for six months.  As I asked him about himself I asked him what the best part of his mission was so far.  After thinking he said hmmmm...well I like being able to completely consecrate myself to Heavenly father, without any other distractions.  Wow that amazed me, I thought he'd say something about the beautiful landscape, or the amazing food, but no, it was the ability he has to completely focus on serving the Lord.  Man this mission's in good hands. 

I made chicken Poppy Seed!!!! Thanks for the recipies mom!

   Well this email is short but know that all is going well here because the Lord takes care of us.  If you need any words of counsel or advice go to Devin G. Durant's talk about 'Ponderizing'. I love you all so much!

Elder Jones

Dad, I found a football field in France!