Week 85 " Week Thirteen Together"

Elder Jones and Elder Trotter standing in front of "La Defense" the shopping district. 

                   Jamison bought a new suit and it was finally ready today.

Hey, wow, what a relief it is to write an email in English.  All I can say is I'm thanking the Lord for every week I have left with Elder Trotter. I struggle to realize the 'why's of my situation, but I feel like the Lord is teaching me a lot, kind of like you know something good is happening but you can't exactly explain what.  So that's how I feel.

Photography by Elder Jones

      So, do you all want to hear about a cool experience? Tuesday morning we went contacting, and I felt like I fell back into the France of fifty years ago.  We found ourselves on a path isolated from the urban jungle, and surrounded with nature, real French people and old buildings.  I thought, maybe this is what France looked like fifty years ago when my Grandpas who served here.  I loved the contacting and nature walk.  We found a chocolate factory at the end! see picture

The chocolate factory, the building is actually suspended over the
river.  The factory was built by the Menier family who produced
chocolate and the building was later bought by Nestle.  Today it's the
business hq for nestle.

        And yes, we did do some missionary work as well.  Coming back from church, waiting at the platform for our train home, I had a cool experience.  I looked about twenty feet down the tracks and a man stood there on his phone.  I had this feeling to talk to him and hard as it is to follow those feelings I....(almost, but wait for it) did it. The train came and not yet having approached him I hopped on the same car as him, and finally after two minutes of battling in my head I dove in and introduced myself and invited him to church.  The phrase 'you have the courage and capacity' kept coming to my head and I know that God gave me the strength to talk to that man, I only had to choose to go for it and talk to him.  How does the story end?  Well he says, 'You know I can't come to church right now, but yeah, another time I would want to come to church. Where's it at?.. Oh, by Domino's pizza, OH yeah I know where that is. Thanks for the invite, that was really nice.'  And then I get off the train.  Woah you know that you just did the right thing when you feel so good after having the guts to do something like that.  So I did my mini celebration dance in my head and then right after,I felt like I should contact two more people on the road but I didn't.  Agh.  For one thing, I've gotta be content with the effort I gave, and remember that I can improve as well.

Man playing 'Champs-Elysées' on accordion with another guy
half-annoyed but listening and enjoying simultaneously.  A timeless picture. 

       Thursday we visited K. At first he didn't answer his door so we worked in the area for a few hours, then we felt like we should try his door again, so we got off the bus, walked through the park, into the puny elevator, and up to his room.  K answered, and I kind of freaked out because his room was all dark and he wore a big black robe. 'K, I said what are you wearing?'  It's a traditional robe for..(I don't remember what)

In the end we taught a lesson about having faith in Jesus Christ, and I felt really good about the feeling we followed to come back and teach K the second time, that made all the difference. You could literally see how he felt more light and happy after the lesson finished.  Wow, Cool!

   We made Brioche (fluffy butter sugar bread) can you believe it?!

      In writing these emails I feel blown away by how many things God is doing for us.  It's like he's running this huge chain-reaction, rube-goldberg machine and we're the little kids to whom he says, 'okay now press that green button' and something amazing happens.  God is the master planner, the big architect up in the sky, and our job is to follow the feelings we have and obey him, and man, we see the coolest miracles.  

                    This is carrot soup that I made.  It's not very impressive looking but
                    mmmmm it tasted good.  Made it from a cookbook elder trotter had.

      We found quite a few potential investigators this week.  Helping our neighbors move, impromptu contacting sessions, and teaching friends of our current amis were all sources of contribution.  It blows me away to see how many cool things we saw this week when I look back.  I honestly forget during the week, all the little miracles we keep seeing thanks to YOUR prayers, our prayers, and our constant effort. 

Teaching the "E" family

This week wansn't the week I've worked physically hardest on my mission, but I'm always working hard to follow the spirit and I did a good job of that, and that makes me happy. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You for your prayers! I know my efforts are not in vain and that God and all of you are helping me every single day.  Love you all!  The scripture for the week I have on my wall is Psalms 55:16-17,22, "As for me, I will call upon God; and the Lord shall save me...... Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud; and he shall hear my voice. ....Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee; he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved." 

Bisous

Elder Jamison Jones