Week 81 "Teaching a Family of Ten"

January 25, 2016

Muskrat Walking on Ice

This week's account, I'll be honest, may come out a little scattered. A couple of days were a blur, but all in all just know that each moment I was making my best effort to do what's right and love others. 

We'll start with an experience on the more humorous side; the Elder's Quorum activity.  Our ward had planned a bowling activity for this week end and me and Elder Trotter were really looking forward to it.   Elder Trotter was especially excited because he bowls at a pretty high skill level.  We arrive at the lanes and well, we had one member there...and then no one else came. So we made the decision to go bowling anyway and we had a great time! I scored almost as much as Elder Trotter, haha.

Elder Trotter Pondering life

        Sunday was one of those days that I'll remember for a long, long time. Saturday night when we did our planning, it would be a normal Sunday schedule; first church, then a lesson, then some less-active finding.  However, Heavenly Father always keeps in mind our best interest, and had a completely different plan prepared.
        After the first church meeting, our ami cancelled on us so the 'empty time' alarm was going off in my head.  Luckily I stayed calm and well, you'll see.  By the second hour of church I felt down in the proverbial dumps, due to a story someone shared, how some great missionaries turned their lives around by talking to hundreds of people every day...I would not consider my people count in the hundreds...it's definitely below a hundred; so I continued to do what I really should not be doing, comparing my situation to a situation with very non-similar to my own.  Then I was just struggling to feel excited about talking to members to schedule things with them.
        Cue the miracles……. Jean-Christophe pulls us aside after church and asks if we have plans.. .”Nope, none at all!”    “Perfect, 'I need to do a couple visits to members who need blessings and my home teacher isn't here today”. “Perfect Jean-Christophe, We’ll go with you! ” Before leaving to the visits, Christie Meijiah asked when we could over for dinner to teach her boyfriend.  Then Sister Fieschi came in, saying 'I wanted to invite you over this week, there's a young couple I would like to introduce to you, I feel like they really need the gospel.'  OOOHHH (angelic sound).  We head home, eat food, then pass by the Ruiz family, we give blessings to the children, and then Jerome who was feeling very sick.  At the moment we finish visiting Jerome, we just prayed for some guidance on the next step of our day, and the E. Family calls, wondering if we can stop by.  Of
course we can.  Good thing Jean Christophe had a car because if not our visits would have taken the entire day!   We arrive at the E. family's home, and find not one, not two, but TEN Asian people at their house to teach.  The whole family was there because of a funeral of a close family friend, and so we decided….. why not teach the Plan of Salvation? So we pull up some chairs and they all gather around, once again there's all these people intently staring at us, and so we're blown away by the opportunity God has given us and we start teaching.  The lesson, which turned into a crazy cross-way conversation, was going pretty well, and centered on the plan of salvation.  The best moment was when things were getting confusing, and I was ready to try and logically explain something about...oh I don't remember.  All I remember was everything else left my head and I had this feeling to talk about the importance of Jesus Christ, and at that point everyone stopped talking and just listened, and of course....it was God who led the discussion that way.  Our job was just to trust the feelings that came to us, and I'm extremely glad we followed it.  The reason I loved this day was that God pulled through for us...not only did he pull through for us, he pulled us, then picked us up, ran past the defenders and scored a touchdown...and the crowds of angels went wild.

CREME BRULEE: 1st time

        So many other things happened this week.  We did a pass by and she answered, told us to come back, but I followed this feeling that told me to go to apartment 99, and as we mount the stairs a lady is standing in her doorway talking to her neighbor, this is apartment 99.  We introduce ourselves and introduce our message, and she let us pray with her! Brother Petion came with us to visit a less active sister recovering from sickness, and the mere fact he could help was a miracle because the previous night we had called many people and no one could come. Saturday morning we talked to Amos, a man in the park who had a vast knowledge of Jesus Christ, who agreed to see us again.  Kevin who's a friend of Christie Mejiah agreed to meet with us, and he's progressing slowly, but surely. A bunch of difficult, hard things also happened this week: our ami with a baptismal date couldn't see us and we may have to move his baptism. We haven't heard from multiple people.  Sometimes amis just fall off the side of the earth. My comp doesn't always feel as up to contacting as I do. BUT DESPITE ALL THIS, I don't know how God does it, but he pulls through.  He does and we just have to keep the spirit with us, and patiently, calmly endure what's thrown our way.  Heck it's not easy, but it is doable for all the imperfect people out there, myself included.  I love you guys and have a super week.  God shows us miracles, It's TRUE.  SO TRUE.   Thank You!

Love

Elder Jones

Week 80 "JUST SMILE"

January 18, 2016

Elder Trotter and Elder Jones in  St. Germain En Laye

Highlights from big meetings included our mission conference with Elder Patrick Kearon, and the young adult video broadcast fireside featuring Russel M. Nelson.  Both speakers reminded us of our limitless eternal potential and the value of sharing the gospel through our happiness. That means that when we want to help other people accept the teachings of Jesus one day we can simply smile, and speak lovingly to people every day.  During mission conference, Elder Kearon had some sister missionaries approach him as if they were about to talk to him on the street, and in the audience we saw what a big difference it makes if you smile approaching people as opposed to if you just look bored or miserable.  That same night I went on a short exchange and my companion and I tried to show people through our countenance how important this gospel is to us, and hey, we met and taught about four people in the course of an hour.  We didn't teach all those people lessons, but I still felt very effective as a missionary by smiling more; such a simple thing that makes a significant difference.

We Helped the Prada Family Move

        Can I reiterate what my cousin Willy (Anziano) Hogan said in his last email.  "I love being a missionary!" I feel beyond blessed to teach people about Jesus Christ, and that teaching goes past mere words. Christ taught through his actions, comportment, and words; I hope that before people hear our message they feel a little bit of his spirit when we're around, doing what we're supposed to.  Though we share Christ's spirit daily, not a day goes by that I don't feel stressed

and anxious, but hey that's okay.  I want to let you all know that I've felt of your prayers and your fasts on my behalf.  Times come when all our plans and expectations that fall through but despite that, I feel like I have this spirit with me, this comfort, I still feel peace, kind of like God's saying, "I'm with you don't worry". How cool is that feeling?!! So I'm kind of like a rocket riding on prayer power and wow it's a fun ride!

        So we'll review a couple of people we're visiting, or started visiting.  There's J (girl version)  She's not baptized but she wanted us to give her a blessing for her pregnancy.  We hope to go back next week and bless her home too.  We saw D our nine year old Ami, and he may be baptized in a month if all goes well.  After we taught him about the priesthood he seemed to be thinking about something.  We asked him what it was, he told us that he was worried that death would be painful.  I had sort of the same thoughts when I was little and I was happy to tell him that death may be painful but our life after will be so good that death will be just a small moment.

Finally bought my first French skinny suit

        So an interesting part of the week I haven't gone over; a conversation between me and Elder Kearon during the conference.  He asked a couple questions to the audience regarding the ways investigators feel the spirit, and I answered that one of my

investigators (namely T from St. Quentin) said he felt a 'soulagement' or relief when he felt the spirit. Then Elder Kearon continued to ask questions about T. and made an example of him. We talked about how to help Amis experience conversion, and how to help Amis stay active after they have been baptized. I got some great advice and I hope to be able to do my best to keep active those who have been baptized. Keeping people active in the church is equally important as having people come to baptism, so everyone let's keep those who got baptized active!

        We visited the E Family this week! They're actually progressing and the Dad asks lots of questions, you can see in his eyes he really wonders what the point of life is. We visited Y again, and he also continues to progress.  It was so cool and Elder Trotter had a really

cool insight that Y was not feeling what he needs to experience conversion, and we just talked about how he can feel the spirit.  He said that he's felt 'liberty' ever since he's started to meet with us, so we're sending him a chapter every other day to read, hopefully he'll really start to feel how true these things are and turn his life for better.

        Wow, so much went on this week.  The cool part of today was, I finally used all my cash back at a store to buy a suit on sale! 180 euro suit for 80 euros, so over 50% ain't half bad...I also found a tie 'Burberry' at 90% discount - 200 euros to 20 euros. Today was a

day of deals.  And speaking of good deals a mission is a pretty good deal that Heavenly Father makes with us too.  I'm happy I accepted his challenge to come here to France because he gives me lots of happiness in return.  Lots and lots.

Love You, 

Elder Jones

PS: if you're wondering how my health is, I can respond and say it's

great.  I'm exercising, eating lots of food, and wow it's freezing

here.  We have a great apartment and we definitely eat enough food,

we're going to try eating just burritos this week, haha.  In addition,

I want to thank the Maxfields and the Saffords for sending me letters,

as well as Sister Wiest!

Week 79 "MIRACLES STRIKE FRANCE KILLING ZERO"

January 11, 2016

We went to La Defense today to look at some clothes.

Saw lots of miracles, no one died, lots of people got closer to Heaven.

         This week I'll focus the happenings on people:

   J. continues to progress, and we have seen such cool blessings seeing him.  Sometimes when we find an investigator with no work, then they find work, they stop seeing us, but J chose to keep meeting us and in addition he switched shifts so he could come to church on Sunday morning! That's not the only challenge, though.  J has some difficult family problems, which could result in him losing his life if he converts and goes back to his country....aeegh we don't want that. So we teach a little at a time, and we hope his family will come to France soon so they can all be safe.

This is about 2/3 of our FHE young adults group with our investigator K.

        Friday morning my contacting alarm was going off in my head, so we decided to contact along the ponds in Torcy.  We found a really nice guy JM.  We contacted him as he sat on a bench, just admiring the nature and all the birds.  There was a lady throwing baguettes to the birds, that created a feeding madhouse, and we had a good laugh over that with him.  We'll try visiting the same bench next week to teach him.  He recently had someone in his family pass away so we'd love to go back and help him feel the comfort of the Gospel.

     Elder Trotter and I helped sort out transfers on Wednesday and we met the nicest lady as we waited at Gare de l'Est.  She told me to sit down right next to her, in English, and went on to tell me that our group just looked like good-hearted people.  An old French Lady contacted me! That rarely happens...ever. But we gave her the Book of Mormon, and she accepted, even though there was little room in her bag to stuff it in before she left to catch her train to Germany. Wow...

The Cheese. L to R : Comté, Reblochon, and Vieux Gouda

        Thursday night we met a true fromagier, or cheese man.  We came out from the RER around 20h30, which meant half an hour till curfew.  We walked by town square and see...a real french market, COOL.  They had cheese sellers, fruit sellers, and an African lady selling authentic African food.  I had to stop by the cheese stand.  I introduced myself to the man selling and he was happy to tell me all I wanted to know about the different types of cheese.  I bought Reblochon, Vieux Gouda, and Comté, wow we really ate some high quality cheese that night.  I felt royal. We also told the fromagier a little bit about the church, and that we were Mormon.  He had never met Mormons before so I think he got a good first impression!

        While doing a pass by one night we decided to stop by D and N, a couple we had found while Christmas caroling a couple weeks before. In fact they're the only ones that let us in when we sang our Christmas Carols.  That doesn't always happen...but this time I think these two used their agency correctly.  We talked to them about the temple, and gave them a couple websites to learn more.

        This week has gone really well.  I feel like some of the times I feel the most stress and pressure, the most relieving and the best moments are bound to come shortly after.  This week felt like a huge roller coaster and I would have forgotten all the amazing if I wouldn't have looked back.  One of these amazing happened with an old investigator Y.  Since the first week I arrived, twelve weeks ago, we haven't seen him because of his busy new schedule.  I called him up and he said he'd be home the following night.  I felt like my day wasn't going very well before that because a couple of our investigators had cancelled and I had a huge headache, I felt like I was the only one making choices and everyone else had a lackadaisical attitude.  In the end, we ended up teaching Y and he said he still wants to be baptized! We just gotta keep working with him and I'm confident he'll make the right choice. As bad as I felt earlier in the day we kept going and look what God granted us! It's amazing...if we want to see success and happiness we have to be willing to take the risk to feel failure and sadness as well; man this week was hard but it was so rewarding at the same time.

        In parting this week, I wanted to thank my comp Elder Bigelow for his service and the amazing transfers we spent together.  You're home now but know that you are such a solid guy and I wish you all the best back in Syracuse.  I'll thank Elder Hirst and Anziano Hogan for their work too, you guys motivate me a lot.  I know this gospel is true. That means that having faith in Jesus and his atonement, repenting, being baptized, following the Holy Spirit and working till the end Works.  And we NEED hardship to know JOY...take the risk of willingly accepting hardship, and joy will come.  Love to everyone back home and love to the French people too!

Love Elder Jones

Week 78 "Meilleurs Vœux 2016"

January 4, 2016

Elder Trotter and I in front of our apartment in Bussy St. Georges (Torcy Area)

If you ever come to serve in Torcy, come prepared with an empty stomach and a good attitude because so much good happens here and the food ain't half of it.                                  

Every day of this week we went to a member or investigator's and get fed. Am I in Tahiti or am I just dreaming? Though the food was, of course, wonderful and filling, I loved really getting to know the members and the investigators better by paying them a visit.  

Here's a quick rundown:  

Sister Gao makes wonderful chinese fool and we taught her son about the Book of Mormon with pictures...he loved it. 

The Fieschi's happen to know my former Bishop Brett Hopkins.  Elder Trotter and Errol, the son about our age found a link that makes them pretty much best friends...they're both longboarders.  

The Kalmels Family, as directors of communications for the Church in France, taught us the best way to address the building of the Paris temple. 

Our DMP brother Massela and his wife are big video game fans, and well they really do a good job at helping the six missionaries here in Torcy.  

We played the Headband game and ate KFC at the Collin's home a place that's been blessed with the influence of American Christmas spirit. 

Sister Marie Sol opens her home each time we go to teach D, a nine year old whose parents asked us to teach him...it's a bit of a complicated situation but we're thankful for Marie Sol and all her hard work to help us teach! 

The Defranchi's, some of the kindest and most intelligent people I know, both speaking in Chinese to each other, with the husband speaking to us in French while the wife speaks to us in English!

I painted this for the stake new year's activity. 

        We spent lots of time at the member's homes, and things only got better with the ward party.  With a 1920's to 40's theme I got the commission to paint a boat, and it turned out pretty nice.  They also asked me to open up the dance on New Year's Eve by playing some Jazz piano; I had only one song under my belt but everyone loved it so I felt accomplished.  We arrived home shortly after and played card games till the new year, and toasted some orange soda to our full mission year gone and our partial year to come.  I am grateful for the progress Heavenly Father has helped me make this year.  Before my mission I feel like the smallest decisions made me fret and worry, now I worry less and focus my energy on improving.  I realize that as the year continues my circumstance has fluctuated many times, from horrible to seemingly perfect, and through all of those different circumstances I feel my ability to act calmly has grown a lot. In a poem I love by Rudyard Kipling he says to "meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two impostors just the same".

        Let me give a quick rundown of our Amis.  D is progressing, he's the 9 year old with the brain of a 17 year old. He may be baptized in the coming months.  We explained baptism to J and he says he would like to, but we will have to explain and teach very slowly and surely before he can be baptized.  The E Family continues to add to our teaching group, we taught the father for the first time this weekend. He doubts the validity of the Book of Mormon, but seemed very intrigued with our personal experiences in listening to answers from the spirit.

        Things continue well here.  I'm having fun with Elder Trotter.  We're  trying to work through our differences and make things work, and that  takes time but Heavenly Father knows what he's doing. I love you all!

Meilleurs Vœux 2016

Elder Jones

Here is my new watch I bought today.