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