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| 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.
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