Week 77 "Londoño y Mejia - A Latino Christmas"

December 28, 2015

Londono family

Christmas week was great, I had lots of fun hanging out with the members and I feel ready for this coming year!

    Like you saw in the title, we have some very nice Latin American members who invited and fed us over the Christmas season, Namely the Londoño and Mejia families, not to mention the Crucy, Marikidagi, and Euvrard families who had just as much food and love towards us as the Latino families.  Christmas morning, we arrive at the Mejia's house and within half an hour, about twenty family members arrive.  Everyone speaks Spanish and it's a loud, lively cross-conversation over a three course meal.  We spoke little but listened to the cool atmosphere and just absorbed the fun of christmas morning.

Londono's amazing desserts, Donut ice cream and Churros

   On Monday night, the Londoño family warned us before we got there.  They said 'make sure to not eat lunch' and I'm sure glad I didn't because Wow..... I almost died.  But they made really good food, so all ended well! We shared a spiritual message about repentance and humility which  went well.

Londono home 

   District meeting came next and I enjoyed heading into Paris to see few missionaries I've served with and to catch up with others.  While leaving I ran into Elder Deem who I 'mothered' (took out for first contacting session) about six weeks ago, and he seems to be progressing and enjoying mission life. 

Fireplace that I drew for our apartment. We added a little light.

Tuesday night we were out doing pass by's when I realized we hadn't done any Christmas caroling yet.  I told my comp and since he enjoys singing we decided to start caroling right then.  The first lady wasn't available, but as we descended the stairs I felt like we should knock on this door right to the one we had just done even though the blinds were down and no light came from the door.  We knocked and a lady answered who later told us that she "never answers the door to anyone" but we told her we were here to sing her a Christmas song and she says "Oh wait, let me get my friend!" and her boyfriend comes down. We sang for them, they tried to give us money, we refused, they insisted that we come in and at least have a drink, and then we spoke with them for about an hour!  Wow cool inspired 'porting' as we call it.  If I didn't think we would get to go caroling enough I was wrong. 

I made Elder Trotter a Christmas tree out of Aloe Juice bottles

The sisters called up the next morning wondering if we wanted to go Christmas caroling that night in a big group.  We sang outside of a big shopping mall on two different days, and I loved seeing the spirit that caroling brings.  Some people rush by but other people just sit and listen.  One lady even lined up next to us and started singing. We gave out lots of Books of Mormon, brochures and cards, and we even got a few phone numbers.  I really enjoyed sharing the Christmas spirit and I definitely fulfilled my desire to sing during Christmas;we sang so much!

 The Crucy family

        On another note, we had a lot of fun at the other member's houses, notably the Euvrard,  Crucy, and Marikidagi's.  Man I love these families!  I'd take so much time to describe all the cool things but we'll suffice with saying that Brother Euvrard is a former Milan Italy mission president who gave us appetizers that we ate with miniature swords as toothpicks.  Frere Crucy invited his German-speaking grandmother and muslim coworker Christmas Eve, and The Marikidagi family has a dog that reminded me of Lacy our old dog...don't know if that's a good thing.

The Euvrard Family and their son and his wife.

 Bottom line, each of these members contributes greatly to our ward and to our work.  I love meeting them and I'm so happy to have the opportunity to spend Christmas with these people .I love the work during the Christmas season, It's a cool time to refocus on Christ.  I've really loved trying to understand his (Christ's) love by just sitting and feeling the warmth. So share the warmth, I've found that the way I share the warmth of Christ's love is I express myself honestly to my companion and follow the spirit. Love you all, follow the spirit and be good!

Love

Elder Jones

Skyping Jamison on Christmas Morning

French Gifts sent from Jamison to Family

Week 76 "CHRISTMAS, thanks for the love!"

Me making Buche de Noel

Hello!

 Monday we went porting (knocking on doors) on a long road in the north of our area.  The porting itself didn't prove successful but it felt good to get out and work hard that night.  We also found a really cool guy on our way to the street, and we had a great lesson about Christ on the street.
        Next up was the Christmas Conference.  We went to Versailles because central Paris doesn't seem like the safest place for large groups right now. We arrived and I saw some good friends like Elder Bigelow, who I hadn't seen in a while.  Elder Bigelow finishes his mission in a few weeks!  Wow that seems crazy.  During the conference we got some more info on the Paris Temple: all of the walls are up and the stained glass will go in in a few weeks! That would be cool if I could go to the opening of the temple but I think I'll be in college by that time. After President Babin talked about the temple more, we finished the conference with a big Christmas meal with everyone together. We also got letters and packages from home, so thank you Mom, Dad, and all my sisters for the package full of really good candy!  That same day I also gave a jar of Peanut Butter to the Sister Missionaries because I had a lot and they really wanted some, they were really thankful for it...haha, kind of funny to give the Sisters a Christmas gift.

The Fireplace... - finished. I made that while Elder Edmunds was sick

        Well, Wednesday morning we were stuck in the post office sending off some packages that elder Trotter had to send to his friends.  He sent one to Honduras and we had to print off pictures of Mary, color them, and tape them to the package.  I thought of sending some things to friends in missions in South America but honestly I think sending an email for Christmas is a better bet than sending a package that may be looted by drug lords. We worked on a ward project that night to compile names of less actives we plan to concentrate on, and I brought cookies my family had sent from the USA.  Everyone in France likes American chocolate chip cookies, that's a fact.

People in the photo: soeur facer, soeur Jones, Elder Edmunds (with sweater), Elder Merrill.  And other members that are really cool. The blonde lady leaned over the cake has invited us over tonight!

        Exchanges happened the day following. Elder Merrill our district leader and I went to the church for a lesson when we met the members of the Meaux (pron. 'mo') ward and helped them set up for the Christmas activity.  Good thing I was there because they needed to install some curtains in the rafters and I'm really tall!  They bought us Domino's Pizza and that saved us a lot of time.  Later that night we found a big park and went contacting in and around it, then we visited Sister Kadio in the hospital, and returned to the church before the night was over to get the leftover pizza from earlier only to find more members setting up for the activity and more leftover pizza! Wow life is good. The next day we did more exchanges.  I was with Elder Edmunds who felt  sick.  We did some contacting in the morning and after lunch he rested. In the meantime I worked on drawing our faux fireplace in preparation for Christmas.  We felt the need to visit Sister Kadio again that night, and while we were there she received her hospital release forms, woohoo!

Oh, this is a funny story actually.  So that's a piece of the RER line A.  I was sitting in the train and I notice a piece of the stairs fell off.  I grabbed it and when we got off I asked the lady at the info booth what to do with it, she told me to throw it away.  I decided to keep it. A cool souvenir!

        Saturday we had a big ward party.  I wanted to participate in the cake competition so I decided to go all out (not the best idea) and make a 'Buche de Noel', the big log cakes they make here for Christmas.  I didn't have a recipe but I figured I could guess how to make the 'buche' with parts of other recipes.  So after multiple hours in the kitchen I finally end up with this 'creation'; not necessarily a 'buche', more like thick chocolate bricks with a little cream in between. But it tasted pretty good, meaning it was SUPER heavy.  Hah, I had fun making cake, and we saw a lot of people, including non members at the party.

My cake! You can see how thick it is, and the way it's supposed to roll up with cream in the middle. It tasted pretty good but man, it was thick.

        Sunday we saw some cool miracles. After church we planned on eating lunch, but we didn't have time to go home and eat because of a lesson we planned right after church.  My companion and I were feeling cranky because we were hungry but we decided to go to the lesson anyway.  So quick background story about this lady, 'E': elder Oldham and I contacted her three weeks ago on a Monday night and she gave us her address to pass by later. She wasn't there the first time, but when I went on my Friday exchange with Elder Edmunds she answered the door with five yapping chihuahuas behind her.  She let us in and the dogs stopped barking thank goodness. She let us teach her about prayer and the lesson was miraculous because she said she was only home sundays. We were there Friday, how'd that work out?  So we go back to see her sunday and she brought her sister just like she promised, and we taught both them. Do you remember how we hadn't eaten lunch? Well E makes really delicious spring rolls for us - homemade. OOH they were so good. And it felt even better to have a couple new amis to teach. I feel so blessed. And additionally we saw J for the first time in two weeks. He's doing well and I thank you for your prayers in my behalf and in behalf of our friends we're teaching.
        Loves to all of you and have a Merry Christmas!  Think of Jesus Christ and how he was always loving and serving, never being skeptical or cynical...I could do a lot better at that.  My situation's great here. Love you all once again, and Merry Christmas!
Love
Elder Jones

Week 75 "Surprise visit from Watts Family"

December 14, 2015 

On December 12th, Jamison's neighbors and dear friends from SLC made a surprise visit. Daren, Natalie and Emily  were determined to find Jamison. They took the metro  Bussy, St-Georges to find Elder Jones and his companions in the apartment.  After some struggle to get into their apartment, they finally knocked on the door and Jamison answered "Bonjour.."  They had fun catching up with him and were able to get video, photos and a can of duck liver to bring back home to Jamison's family.  We were grateful to the Watts family for making such a huge effort for us.

Emily Watts, Elder Trotter, Elder Jones, Daren and Natalie Watts

Elder Trotter, Elder Jones and Daren Watts

Here is Jamison's letter December 14th: 
      
Hey this week was filled with good things.

        Monday night we visited the Festals and I learned more about the family, and Raclette cheese. So here's a piece of French/Swiss Culture for all of you about Raclette: it's a type of cheese that you melt onto potatoes and sliced meat. The 'raclette' or small scraper, was originally made for a large block of cheese sliced in half, melted with a big heat rod, and then the melty cheese was "raclé" or scraped with the 'raclette' right onto your plate...mmm! Frere Festal taught us that, and yes, we did eat Raclette cheese that night at his house.

     

  Tuesday I made hash browns and that within itself turned into a culinary adventure - motivated by a breakfast-themed district meal, I decided to make fresh-cut hash browns.  I grated potatoes for an hour monday night, as I went to pull them out of the freezer, I realized the paper towels had frozen to them. I spent the morning attempting to defrost, pull apart, and separate the paper towels from the hash browns. And then I tried to use an oven pan as a griddle and that just made a lot of smoke. We ended up with pretty ugly hash browns but with added butter and salt they tasted better-than-mediocre. Haha.    That afternoon we made a trip to Lagny and got caught, for the second time, in a downpour.  But we felt good about going up there, and we found someone who would listen to us, and he gave us his address.  He only gave us the street name but hey to find someone on the street in the pouring rain who will give you their address is miraculous! We visited the Tituaña family (From Malaga, where my cousin Sam is) later that night, and we talked to them about the importance of praying often.

Here's a Picture of Sunday night.  The young adults had a christmas
dinner and we came!

        Praying often has really helped Elder Trotter and I daily.  Our mission president has asked us to pray together every hour, and I really feel better the more I pray.  I think something that praying very often does for us is it keeps our hopes up.  Many things like cancelled appointments, bad thoughts, or annoyed feelings toward companions can bring us down but prayer keeps us above all the garbage, helps us to have a higher perspective, and leads us to keep hope.  I've really seen the blessings of praying often, and we've found people to teach thanks to the initiative to pray often.  So praying keeps hope up but it doesn't make your mission automatically easy.  Example, six or more of our appointments fell through and that's no fun. No fun at all.  I don't understand why, when we set up a meeting with someone and they agree to come, and then they don't show up without any preview, oh well I guess it's one of the things we have to work with. If anything we learn patience and all that cancellation makes a meeting when someone shows up all the better! Our Investigator A. came to our lesson last night and MAN, WHAT A GOOD LESSON! He loved the Book of Mormon, and he accepted the invitation we gave him to read it. So cool to have an investigator that's progressing.

        This week I had a near encounter with the flu virus going around. I felt sick for a couple days but I rested up Thursday and since then I've felt fine. Mom and Dad your advice to sleep and drink water when I'm sick worked.  And though my companion was also feeling sick, we worked and saw miracles.  After picking up my shoes from the 'cordonnerie' I wanted to share a Book of Mormon with the shopkeeper, so we decided to go in the next day and give it to him.  I felt pretty apprehensive at first, but during studies I thought about it more and I really felt to do it, so I did, and he ended up accepting it and we ended up talking for quite awhile and now we're better friends with him. Speaking of friends, the Watts family from back home decided to surprise me with a visit, that was super weird to see people from 'the other side' at my front door at 10pm, but I really enjoyed seeing them! Additionally, they took home some 'Foie Gras' that I felt pretty unsure would make it through customs, Thank You for that! All in all, we can say following the feelings we have leads to awesome things!

        I feel lots of forces trying to stop our work from carrying on but I'm putting lots of effort towards making sure me and my companion get along, because that's most important.  I am loving the perspective I gain. I get little bursts of understanding and inspiration  daily, and I know the Savior's guiding us.  He's the one at the helm, as president Monson says, and he will lead us aright. The Savior's really fortifying me, as I've been studying a lot about him in Isaiah,

because Jesus tells us to study Isaiah's words. Though wickedness is pretty strong in our days, we can be assured that following Christ will bring us out of all the muck. I love the Savior, I love the fact that I can move on, get up, and feel better, thanks to Jesus Christ. And I'm stoked for fact that I get to help other people see that too!

Love Elder Jones

More Food

Week 74 "Christmas is Coming and our Apartment is Decorated"

Our Christmas Tree: Bussy St. Georges Apartment

December 7, 2015 

Hello Everyone!!
We had a successful week and we were able to decorate our apartment for Christmas!!
On Monday, our original plan fell through.  We felt that we needed to go visit the recent convert in our ward, Sister Gao.  We called her up asking if we could stop by and she seemed surprised but agreed to have us vistit. We showed up and her husband and two sons who are not members were also there! So they spoke mostly Chinese but we managed to teach in English/French about The Family Proclamation. Interesting discussion with the husband about religions, and oh my, did Sister Gao make the best Chinese food! Very happy night for how quickly we threw together the plan. By the way....I have a Chinese learning app and I have learned some super basic things because so many Chinese people live here in Bussy!

Me and Elder Trotter in Torcy, France 

        We got a bucket list for our district meeting with forty challenges to accomplish before the transfer's up.  Things like give out thirty cards in a day, pray with an atheist, and give a church tour are some of the goals on the list.  We've also got some fun goals like try three new patisseries, go on a big adventure, and scare your comp and video it.  Let's just say that the try three new patisseries goal was accomplished quickly.  Later that day our lesson fell through, but we had John Londoño, a member our age with us, so we went contacting! He gave me some really good tips: look at people in the eyes, and be their friend by asking their name and being relaxed and chill, two things that are actually really hard for me. But I tried it and then a guy gave us his number.

        Wednesday we took a bus to a beautiful town on the Marne river, Lagny.  I felt a little out of gas, but the contacting challenges we had shook things up, and we were able to talk to people about the gospel still. We taught J our investigator the restoration and he was pretty confused. Ops maybe we explained too much. Well he's doing well but he can't see us for a couple weeks, because he found a job.  That's good but I feel pretty sad we can't see him because he loved church.           We went on a fun adventure the next morning.  The day before Elder Martin, our zone leader, and I went on a good run out to the countryside.  So elder Trotter and I decided to go out in the same direction, to see if we could get from our house to our chuch.  We made it but it took about two hours ha ha......Don't worry we took some great pictures.

Elder Trotter trotting in the park

        This weekend highlights included playing soccer and teaching with our 9 year old investigator D. He seems so So ready to be baptized but his dad wants him to wait.  He's  so smart, we went to teach the word of wisdom and he told us back the basic points before we even started. And asked, so what date can I get baptized? Pretty cool.  Last night we went to pass by some people we had found, and unfortunately all of them were home but busy.  So we found ourselves in Noisiel at 6:30 at night, pretty dark, and very few people out.  I was walking along and I felt like I was so tired, Elder Trotter felt sick so he was behind me and I was just thinking about...not really something positive, just feeling down.  Then I remembered something a missionary shared about eight months ago, about how Christ did everything for us so we can at least give him our small efforts.  With that in mind we kept walking along and we found someone! He had been in the catholic church for awhile and he saw a lot that displeased him, so now he doesn't really believe anything specific, but we told him a little about the restoration and he was interested enough to see us again! Wow I feel

so grateful for that moment.  I know the prayer in my heart was answered, and God will help us if we keep moving forward.

        I summarized a lot but the bottom line is that no matter where you are, whether you feel like you've screwed everything up or you're on cloud 9, god will help you if you keep moving forward and do what he tells you to.  Sunday night I felt like I had not followed through on what i should've done early on, but we just kept going and Heavenly Father blessed us.  He will bless everyone who comes to him.  Matthew 11:30

Love you all!

Elder Jones