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!