Week 73 "New Companion & Thanksgiving Feast"

November 30, 2015 Jamison’s letter (Torcy , France)

I have a new companion, Elder Trotter from Las Vegas, Nevada. 

Today on our Pday we are at the church and he is playing, "Five for Fighting" and "Ingrid Michaelson."

       This week went very well. Elder Oldham and I wrapped up well.  Monday night E. Oldham and I did some contacting in Bussy-St.-Georges; not exactly our area, but it's our apartment and we saw some cool experiences. For example we contacted a middle-aged French guy who, at the first glance, looked like he might brush us away.  Instead he listened with a lot of real intent, and we prayed together as we left him.  We met a nice Asian woman that same night who said we could pass by her home later in the week to talk more about the importance of an eternal family. Great things await us if we just take the plunge of faith despite everything else we feel like is going on, and move forward. The less I get caught up in the past and take advantage of the present, the better the day seems to go.

This is Elder Deem who i went contacting with on his first day in france! It was really fun!

        Tuesday brought a really cool opportunity, as we got a call from the President's assistants to help with taking the new missionaries to go contacting; here we call it 'Mothering'. We showed up and met the missionaries, haha wow this experience brought back so many memories. Our conversation went like: "Hey how are you all, did you just get off the plane?" 'Yeah we just got off a couple hours ago, we don't know what time it is...we've been up for about 36 hours'  "Ok, hahah sweet. Well let's go out contacting then!"  I was assigned to Elder Deem, from Ohio.  So he spoke French pretty well and we met some awesome people.  One man we met was the epitome of an Old French Man, telling us about the mess his country was in following Président Mitterand, while another lady we met was in a big rush and in about twenty seconds we presented the Book of Mormon to her, and she miraculously accepted!  I hope Elder Deem has a sweet mission, he's got some great potential and I have great respect for him coming out here.

        Wednesday I picked up Elder Trotter.  Man he has nice hair! It seems perfect, but anyway he's pretty cool.  He's from Las Vegas and not only likes long boarding but raced in competitions.  We've kept busy and Elder Trotter's felt tired coming from a very small city. But it's okay we'll keep the good pace we're at and I'm sure we'll see miracles.  We have a lot of good going right now.  A former A, TT, called us up, and we met him for the first time since August. He preferred to meet us in a bar, ha, but we taught him about the Book of Mormon, and Mormons in general.

        We started off Thanksgiving day with a surprising phone call, Sister Laolan Defranchi wanted to make the missionaries Thanksgiving dinner. On the phone she was asking, "What do you want? Potatoes? Gravy? Stuffing? Pumpkin Pie?" It felt like I was this king ordering a big royal dinner. "Um, hehem, yes, lots of potatoes, and gravy, and..." We showed up that night with all the food we could want, plus leftovers for the days to follow. We visited a couple members on Thursday and Elder Trotter and I are improving our relationships with members!

        This weekend we found a funny lady.  While knocking doors an older, confused-looking African lady walks by and we ask her if she needs help finding something.  She says yes, and as we're talking with her she mentions she converted to the Mormon church twenty years ago! She said, I forgot everything except my favorite song, and then she starts singing, "I know that my Redeemer lives" and some other songs.  Before we could get a hold of her she had found her way and got away from us, darn; funny experience, though.

        Our Ami J pulled through and came to stake conference, and I got to translate for him.  A really cool thing happened, after conference ended J expressed his desire to invite a friend, because of "how [the gospel] had changed me". 'Wait, changed you? what do you mean?'

"Well before I'm always thinking....I'm not sleeping very much. But now I feel better, I'm sleeping better and I just feel...happier" So that's one of the best things I could have heard.  I felt like that was just a really natural expression of his feelings toward the gospel and our teachings.  Pray for him. He'll continue to progress and maybe he will decided to be baptized.

        So, this week I finshed the Book of Mormon.  I will tell you that I feel my faith has increased.  I am feeling really happy right now. Even though we've got challenges, It makes me feel good that I've got challenges but with God I can beat them. Yeah, wooh! Grandma and Grandpa, thanks for the scripture to ponderize and the family history info.

Love you!

Elder JJones

Look I made wok noodles!

Week 72 "HAPPY THANKSGIVING"

Thanksgiving Celebration in Torcy France

 Yes you heard it here, folks, the work is still moving forward. And boy am I glad.  We had more blessings to keep up going every day, and our Thanksgiving party at the end of the week went successfully.

   Let's tell you all about our new amis (investigators)  J and A.   J came to us as a referral three weeks ago from paris.  The night of the attacks he waited in Gare du Nord and caught a train only an hour before the shooting, so we believe that Heavenly Father helped him out!  J progresses slowly but surely, he moved from Bengladesh so he has pretty much no Christian background whatsoever so we're starting at square one.  What's square one?  God is there.  God is the father of our spirits. God loves us and helps us.  Now I'll give you a little window into our conversations......(we just finish telling J god helps us)  "Do you believe that,  J?" 'Oh YES, of COURSE (speaking in his broken english) ! I believe God help me every day! Everything .. shows that God loves me...sun, moon, stars..Everything!'

So J has a solid belief in God, and our next step is to help him with Jesus Christ.  How can you teach someone about Jesus who doesn't know that much? Try the Book of Mormon in Bengali, his native language. He has started to read, and he retains what he reads really well.  He asks questions such as:  'So, I thought it was Columbus..discover America....1490.? So these people...before?'  

 "Yes, so Lehi and his family left 600BC, and his descendants were some of the people who columbus met when he came to America.  Does that make sense, J?'   'Yeah, no problem.'

   I love teaching people such as J, from the base.  Teaching basic truths that feel really good when you teach them, well it feels good to help others understand basic concepts.  More than what we teach J is what he feels.  He likes coming to church because he feels good, and is able to move his mind away from family problems and Bangladesh's political turmoil. Like I know, the things we teach provide peace in a troubled world. I know we're helping J feel this peace, and hey maybe he will decide to be baptized. :)

   We found A in a common yet miraculous way.  We as missionaries often use the time on the metro to try and find people to teach the gospel.  One night elder O. and I came back from contacting around a nearby pond.  We hopped in the RER to go home and everyone was packed pretty close.  I found myself next to a black guy who looked like he was dozing off. I didn't want to suprise him so waited until we made eye contact... 'So your day was pretty long?'  'I speak english. (he told me in english)'  'Oh cool where you from?'  'I lived in DC man'  'What? sweet!' 'Yeah man I lived there for ten years' 'So why are you in

France?'  'Long story'  That started our conversation. This guy wanted to meet us again, and we asked him if we could leave him w/prayer and he just stared praying.  He showed up to our return meeting and we have hopes that this guy will progress.

The Londoño kids and our football rig.

        Our week culminated in the Thanksgiving activity.  Elder Oldham and I directed a lot of preparation for the activity but we felt relieved that members wanted to help out more  so we gladly gave them lots of responsibilities like bringing all the food, final setup, and time management. Elder Oldham and I were left the task to create a football game; what is Thanksgiving without Football? Knowing that playing football in the chapel would prove difficult we decided to go small scale, so with some cardboard from a dumpster, the church's stage lighting structure, and some painting help from the sister missionaries we furnished a classic race-your-friend-to-get-the-football-through-the-hole  game.  Everyone liked our invention, and it kept the kids entertained through the night. To make things better J came, and he told us he was going to post about the activity on his Facebook. We had lots of other fun things going, our ward mission leader made us all do the 'flan suck', an activity where one is supposed to suck up an entire flan dessert in one swallow.  I could say I put on a show for the members, and yes, I did get it all down in one gulp.  The activity overall, went successfully, and the members looked like they had a good time and hopefully, felt the spirit of thankfulness.

That's all the big stuff for this week.  I just need an idea of a scripture to ponderize, if anyone's got an Idea.  If any of you are in the process of preparing to go on a mission and want to write me, or ask any questions of what it is to serve a mission, send me a message. I'll write you back on pday!

We had some great opportunities to learn and grow and help others this week, make sure you all try and do the same.  Ask God to help you and he will!

Love

Elder Jones

Week 71 "PRAY FOR PARIS"

November 16, 2015

 This is a picture Jamsion took a few days before the Paris terrorist attacks on Nov. 13, 2015....President Babin let the missionaries write to their families that they were safe. Also President Babin wrote this message:
 "Dear all, we just want to let you know that all the missionaries based in Paris are safe. At the time of the bombings all the missionaries were in their apartement. A message was send to the Zone Leaders to make sure that all missionaries based in Paris will stay in their apartements tomorrow until further notice. No missionaries are allowed to come to Paris tomorrow."
Pt Babin

So the week started off really fun, then got a little more serious, but fortunately we stayed safe throughout!

        On Monday we ran around Paris and up to the top of the Eiffel Tower, we took pictures up at the top, then ran back down.  Monday night we walked around to contact and found a handful of people to talk to, but few people were out, so my comp and I just ended up talking things out.  Tuesday we combined with the Troyes (pronounced Twah) district or district meeting and our district leaders, Elder Merrill and Wilford, taught about unity, and thus tied in playing 'Loups Garous' (similar to mafia) and got pizza together.  I decided not to stuff

myself and only ate eleven pieces.

        Throughout the beginning of the week we did service for two different members, and we had great experiences building trust with both of them.  We received a really nice complement from Brother Crucy,( a member who we removed a pile of dirt for), who told us we were a good example to his kids.  He said they could feel a good spirit around us, which was pretty cool.  Tuesday night we went to a meeting we had set with a random man off the street.  We weren't sure he would come, we had no contact information, but we went anyway, and guess what? We ended up meeting three people in twenty minutes who were willing to meet with us another time and receive lessons.  God works in mysterious ways to help us out!

        Thursday night, we had some more great experiences with the members.

We had fixed two lessons with members Thursday night and I consider it a miracle that both people we went to visit followed through on their promise.  We had two solid lessons, and I feel good about this new investigator we have named J. he's come twice already to church, we've known him for two weeks, so cross your fingers and more importantly pray for these people.  A less active named Q. invited us over and we had a great discussion on church standards, and how to know if they're true or not.  The way to know is to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it's true; if it's true...the rest falls into place.

        Friday the thirteenth started out pretty fun, we went contacting in the morning and we gave a Book of Mormon to a high-schooler, then planned for our coming week, then unfortunately our lesson in the night got cancelled, so we ended up coming back to eat dinner.  It's okay...I mean, there wasn't any real danger in being out but I was happy to get home early and eat dinner because...If you know me I love food.  So we make some food, then played "phase 10",  then I wrote a letter and when to bed. 

        I woke up about an hour after going to bed.  Our district leader was on the phone with other missionaries filling us in on the events happening right as we're hearing about them. The various shootings and government action took place within another hour, and by midnight we had all lost any capacity to sleep.  We talked among ourselves for a bit, and after saying a prayer together, we decided to stay up until 2:30am and finally felt tired enough to fall asleep.

        We woke up around 9:30am.... haha, wow!  That felt nice!  We filled in on our agenda for the day and were told that we were not allowed to leave the apartment UNLESS we had lessons.  Fortunately we had five lessons planned for the day, and four of them with members, probably the most busy day I've had planned on my mission teaching-wise, so I felt relieved we could still go teach and didn't have to cancel our lessons. We had a great day with three of the appointments working. We gave a Bengali Book of Mormon to J, and taught another investigator F. about the importance of keeping the sabbath holy.  We had some really solid lessons that day and I thank the heavens that we have investigators that are going strong right now, because I know that when tough times come people tend to take a side either with or against God, and I'm happy we get to strengthen the investigators we have right now in the Lord.

        Don't worry, everyone we are staying safe.  We have restrictions and rules that will help us to stay safe if we follow them and stay smart. I'm glad we have the spirit to guide us and keep us safe from danger. After a national crisis such as this it seems like the population in general seems a lot more somber and serious, but I'm glad we carry the light that come in Christ's teachings, the teachings that tell us to 'fear not, be of good cheer, for he has overcome the world.'

Love you, Stay safe, thanks for praying for paris, and our investigators!

Elder Jones

Sent from my iPad

                        Jamison and the Paris Zone Conference November 6, 2015. 

Week 70 "Top of the Eiffel Tower!"

Top of the world!  Eiffel tower.  Yep, folks, we ran up it.  Well, the first two levels, then there are no more stairs, so you have to take the elevator.  Man I was so tired but I fulfilled a pretty cool classic life goal.

The View from the Top of The Eiffel Tower

   So, what did elder Jones do this week?  Too many things.  I wish I could take you all with me and just cart you around to see what a great adventure every week is.  Monday, and Tuesday, and Wednesday felt slow, but then our week got rolling and we found some great people, and had the opportunity to visit some members as well! Well the first side of the week felt slow because we had very few people to see, and a lot of spinach in our fridge. To combat the deep fryer Elder Oldham has been eating a lot of spinach, and I have been helping him try to finish the bag.  By Friday most of it was gone but oh man I need a break from spinach. Ok so now we'll talk about that first half of the week again. I regretfully say that even after fifteen months of contacting people I still have some apprehension before going outside to contact, but I forget that when I ask God to lead me to the right place something amazing always happens.  Tuesday we got caught in a rainstorm while contacting, no umbrellas, no raincoats.  Wednesday felt especially tough, as we went to explore a new city, Vaires, with few people interested.  Every cloud does have a silver lining, as we did find a 'Saumonerie' or a shop that only sells salmon, haha! So even though these first two days felt hard I also felt a good vibe of endurance and constance and hope, it wasn't too bad.

        Thursday rolled around and we did some service for Frère Euvrard, the past president of the Milan, Italy mission.  I told him about Willy (my cousin serving in Milan, Italy) and he told me a little about Trento, pretty cool! That afternoon we went contacting around a pond, and we hit a spiritual roll of finding people who we really felt needed to hear the gospel message.  If they didn't accept a return visit in the end, it's okay, we helped them feel more deeply that God loves them.  That's the most important thing.  One lady had a really difficult experience with religion tearing her family apart, and another young student let us teach him on a park bench for half an hour! Both these people benefited from the message we carried. And I'm happy to be here carrying it.

        Our week picked up speed after Thursday, even though everything didn't go as planned.  I will share a few moments. We are teaching K. our investigator who has a problem with the word of wisdom.  The member who taught with us said, Okay K, (he had taught him many, many times in the past)  Now is the time to stop smoking, do you have your cigarettes with you? 'Yes' Okay, Give them to me. 'Okay'.  K., You'll probably go back home and smoke more but if we take away your cigs this you'll be on the road to stopping completely.    Another experience, Elder Merrill and I were on an exchange and we saw a lady with a Bible that's destroyed.  We offered to give her a new Bible and she really wanted that so we told her she could come to church and get it on Sunday!

We bought this Brie Cheese.......  Yep this is normal in this country.

Other events: played Telestrations (telephone with pictures and words) at a member's house last night, then made a huge pile of dirt a little bit smaller at a member's house with the goal of putting all the dirt in his gardens.  God is a God of miracles.  Starting this Saturday we have a goal to find a new investigator every day for forty consecutive days.  Pray for us please, that we'll be able to accomplish that goal. I love you so much!  I'm ponderizing Alma 12:15 this week! and rereading the Book of Mormon, it's so good.

Elder Jones

Week 69 "Bonne Fête Halloween!"

Halloween Party Missionaries Planned

Hey tout le monde (everybody).  So let's relay this week's adventures!

Monday:  we bought a deep fryer and the apartment has never been the same. 

  

Tuesday: I ate at Chipotle! Yes, they have one in France, three tacos, so good.

Wednesday:  We bought sixty donuts for our Halloween party, plus other things.

Thursday: We went to zone conference and I got my new temple recommend.

Friday:  I worked as the host for our multi-ward Halloween party.  I had to call out the kids who cheated in musical chairs. My other assignment was to  make French small talk for two hours.  Haha

Saturday: The Sister Missionaries made us dinner as a goal to give service.  I didn't mind at all, their food tasted sooo good.

  

Sunday:  We started a photo directory for the ward and met really cool people!

GUESS WHERE? Chipotle à la Défense!

That is the summary of the week, now we'll go into some more detail.

  

In only eight days the Missionaries of our ward and Meaux worked together run a Halloween party for our wards.  We had a tight budget but we made the party great.  We had apple bobbing, donuts on strings, and played “Just Dance” projected on a big screen. We decorated by stringing balloons in arcs across the ceiling and then pulling artificial cobwebs across the top; made for really cool decoration.

As mentioned above I got to hold the microphone for two hours and keep the party alive, telling everyone about the activities and acting as a radio broadcaster/host sort of role.  I tell you, I made some pretty funny language errors, such as trying to tell people 'good job' which I translated to 'bien fait' when that actually means 'well great, you really messed up this time'.  Haha, but we had a lot of fun and had a great turn out of seventy people, along with some member's friends and our investigator K. who also came!

Success, yes!!

  While the Halloween activity took lots of preparation we found time to get missionary work done as well!  On Tuesday morning we were headed to pick up our legality cards and we met a lady on the train who was reading out of a little catholic prayer book.  When we asked her what she was reading she explained to us and tried to offer the book to me! I said, no that's okay...but would you like to see what I'm reading?  (As I'm reading in the Book of Mormon) I shared a scripture with her, Mosiah 4:30 and she really started taking interest in the book. By the time we got off we had explained how we use The Bible and the Book of Mormon together, and to her delight we gave her the book for free.  She lived near my previous area, Cergy, so I was happy to give her the number and directions to the church! What a cool miracle! I'm so happy that Heavenly Father helped us meet her and I hope she'll give those missionaries at the opposite side of Paris a call!

    Our mid-week zone conference went well.  President Babin addressed us on making our amis the amis of the ward members.  For those who don't have French mission background knowledge, investigators are called friends of the gospel, or 'amis de l'église' so we're trying to make our friends their friends, and I really liked that concept.  We have quite a few people in the woodwork and I believe greater member involvement would help them a lot.  Our most promising investigator is K. He's been an investigator for a few years and struggles with the

word of wisdom, but I really believe that the atonement can change him!  He's come to church twice since I've got here and he really wants to be baptized. Last week we went to help him clean out his little apartment and we really felt a good spirit there.  Keep him in your prayers!

        Now to tell you some other good experiences of the week.  Elder Oldham and I were out Sunday night looking for some people we had found in the area book.  Unfortunately none of those people were home but hey! We met some really cool people on the way!  The first lady we contacted on our way out to visit this pass by, when she heard we were the Mormons, she gave this bug-eyed look with a face like she was about to laugh.  We said, oh, no, you must have heard all the things that are not true about Mormons.  After putting to rest the rumors she had heard we learned of her recent conversion to Christianity and told her about our message centered on Jesus Christ and testified how that

can help her.  She seemed really looking forward to meet with us, and we're praying she calls us back!  M.A. are her initials if you want to pray for her.  Coming back from our visits that night, having had a few difficult, but solid at the same time contacts we met a woman, who, in the middle of the introduction we were giving, asked, “Wait, are you the mormons?” When we responded “yes”, she said, “Hey! I'm Mormon. I was baptized when I was eleven years old, but then life and divorce and a lot of crazy things happened, and I still want to be part of it.” She felt very grateful to hear that we had a church right in the

vicinity, and we'll be seeing her tomorrow!

The Lord's showing us lots of miracles out here.  I am grateful for the cool things he gives us every day.  Kind of like an easter egg hunt where you find the eggs with money if you just keep looking.  I pondered/memorized a scripture this week that really helped me and I know if we all do that we'll be very blessed. I'm grateful for my comp, elder Oldham, and all the other missionaries who I get to work with here.  Thank you for your prayers, I love you all lots!

Avec amour, Elder Jones

This is Monday's Breakfast. Beef jerky spinach omlette with other food