Week 102 "The Final Stretch"

June 20, 2016 LAST LETTER OF MY MISSION!!

Andrew's Baptism June 17, 2016 !!

In my mind, the best thing about running a marathon would be getting chocolate milk at the end.  I always see it, the runners all dead-tired in the finishers area with their medals around their necks drinking chocolate milk.  Twenty six miles and change run in just a handful of hours through the sun, wind, and rain, and when you're at the end you're exhausted.  Man how good chocolate milk would taste after all that!
I've never completed a full marathon, but I'm about to have completed a full-time mission.  I'm running through the final stretch, the last hundred meters where people start gathering to cheer on both sides of you.  I can hear the cowbells, the crowd, the announcer's not too far-off voice announcing the names of those who finish. I feel pretty tired but I've made it this far without giving up, so I'll push on until I cross the line in three days.  And the best part? Chocolate milk.  I've gone without my favorite thing for two years, because drinking it during the race would only slow me down. 

The chocolate milk is my beloved family, and I'm more than excited to see them in a mere matter of days.  Nothing is better than seeing your family when you've been away for so long.
In this final stretch of the race I had a lot of fun.  This week was packed full of train travel to Bourges, unexpected dinner invitations, rainstorms, sushi, french food, oh and Andrew's baptism!

Elder Smith, Andrew and Elder Jones

First thing, we went to Bourges twice.  The train strikes the previous weeks made travel impossible, but we got out and back with no problems.  We went contacting and found a new ami, made bread, and I played a four-string guitar (called a merlin) for the first time. The second time we went to bourges was on Saturday for their finding day. We taught two lessons, found a new ami, and Elder Durant our district leader surprised us with the activity of taking 400 stairs to the top of the Bourges Cathedral!  That was a fun way to take our last 'district photo' and we did a good dying picture too.

  I decided to spend a lot of money on groceries this week because hey, you aren't in France forever.  All you Americans probably think I'm crazy but I spent my last week eating Japanese, Indian, American, and African food.  Yep, we ate Foufou in Bourges,  The Lintons took us to get burgers, I made chicken Tikka Masala, and Elder Smith and I refined our sushi-rolling skills as well. We did eventually eat French food at the Liebard's house on Sunday and enjoyed one of my favorite French dishes, the Tartiflette. Lots of food this week, and that made me happy!

  We got to witness Andrew begin his spiritual life this weekend, as he was baptized a member of the church and received the Holy Ghost. Despite the 60 kilometers of travel to reach the chapel, twenty members came. For a branch of thirty to forty regulars,  that's a wonderful turnout to have. I had the privilege to baptize Andrew, and wow it was just amazing the feeling I had when I lifted him out of the water. I know that he's started on a journey that culminates in Eternal Life with God.  I love seeing the changes in people's physical
and spiritual appearance that come with progressing toward the promise of baptism, Andrew has manifest this change! Baptism is so real! It really changes and sanctifies, and I'm so glad I got to take part in that sacred, wonderful ordinance.  I am happy I could act worthily and help Andrew be baptized.

Liebard Family and the Missionaries

Oh, well here we are at the closing paragraph...I'm going to share one more miracle.  We were at the church planning Andrew's baptismal service.  My comp had slipped into the other room and I was left alone thinking about things, and I was feeling down because I wanted to go outside and contact some people but I wasn't sure if my companion would be up to it.  Even though I still wanted to go out, I said to myself better to finish the baptismal planning.  As I was about to go back to planning a giant rainstorm came from who-knows-where and started filling up the street with water.  As I glanced toward the church entrance, I saw a guy standing with his back to the door, obviously trying to get some shelter from the rain.  Elder Smith and I approached the door, knocked, then opened it and invited him in.  He
gladly accepted and we talked waiting for the rain to pass.  We got on the subject of religion easily enough, sitting in our own chapel.  We invited him to come and he said he would stop by one Sunday, and just after, the sun came out.  He walked off, just as he had come, and I felt that Heavenly Father had answered my internal prayer of wanting to go outside and contact; instead he brought the people to us.

Elder Jones and Elder Smith (He will be going to Versaille for his last transfer.

   Everyone be of good cheer, Christ has overcome the world. John 16:33 .... Repent, repent, (meaning change for the better) for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Alma 7:9
   The still small voice will pierce to the center and cause your
heart to burn, you will know it. Kings 19:12    3 Nephi 11:3
And I know that this Gospel is True!
Elder Jamison Jones
(Happy to drink my chocolate milk in 3 days)

Celebrating with Smith

Week 101 "TOP 10 THINGS I LOVE ABOUT BEING A MISSIONARY IN FRANCE"

June 13, 2016

Finding day in Blois
Left to right:
Elder Hamilton, Victor Liebard, Elder Smith, Andrew, Frere Brouillet,
Elder Durant, Elder Jones

This week didn't go as planned.  We thought we'd go to Bourges twice but we ended up staying in Blois all week, but we had a good week with a district finding day scheduled in Blois and we found a couple new amis.

So Andrew is still progressing really well, I'm just putting his name because he reads my blog and knows that I abbreviate my amis' names with the first letter of their name, ha.  So we taught him twice, and went out working with him too!  We said, "Hey, Andrew do you want to come with us to talk to people on the road?" "Um, sure why not?"

Contacting with Elder Smith and Andrew

That's pretty cool seeing most people I have taught would have apprehension, but Andrew's pretty relaxed and confident in a simplistic sort of way, so he accompanied Elder Smith and I without any problem.  I think he helped make the people we talked to less stressed, just some normal kid hanging out with two Americans really

helped people see we're trying to help them, not make life more complicated.  Andrew came with us twice, and the second time he was dressed all nice in a suit, cool to see because it makes me think he's gonna be a good missionary one day.    On the other side of the spectrum, I've got nine days left as a full-time missionary. It's weird, but pretty normal at the same time to see I'll be finishing up soon, wow France is such a fun place to serve a mission, ooh I've got an idea I'll tell you my top ten things I think are most fun about serving in this country.

1:  You're in FRANCE, the fact that you're in a country that's been posterized throughout history as this amazing place; rolling hills,cobblestone streets, big open skies, etc.

2: You're eating Baguettes - French bread is SOOO Good

3: You're bound to see the Eiffel tower and other stereotypes; well groomed poodles, accordion players on the streets, and old men with Berets.

4: You're working with strong strong members, people who have held down the ward for the last twenty years, and they have great stories, distinct personalities, and cook really well.

5: You're eating at member's houses.  I learn that any food tastes good (even food I didn't like before) when it's made by a French grandma.

6: You're almost always teaching people from foreign countries like Romania, Congo, French Guyana, India, or Vietnam

7: You're taking the train, metro, or bus everywhere.

8: You're rushing to clean your apartment on Pday so you can see a castle or famous museum that afternoon.

9: You're observing French people's way of living all the time; their classy dress, quiet, cool comportment, and their genuine love they have for their close friends and family.

10: You're serving in a hard country to share the gospel, which means each time you take courage and go outside to do missionary work, your Heavenly Father will give you spiritually strengthening experiences, and if you work you will see miracles.  You're working in a place that builds your inner faith, because outer manifestations of success proportional to personal effort are infrequent. As one of my favorite poems says, "The harder you're thrown, the higher you bounce!"

      Man, there are so many cool things about serving here, I'm grateful for this time and all the support I feel from you folks back home, or wherever you are, and especially the help I get from on high. And the district finding day we did this week was another demonstration of God's love.  What is a district finding day? Every six weeks we get together with all the missionaries in the district and contact people on the road with the ward members.  We invited Andrew (he's almost a member) and wow it was super cool because we walked out of the chapel and the first guy we talked to was interested.  We taught him about the Book of Mormon, and he agreed to meet with us again, talk about miracles from working with Andrew.  We also chased down and taught a couple other people that afternoon, and we had fun.  When we finished and met up with the other member-missionary teams, Frère Brouillet bought us all ice cream, woohoo. The Bourges Missionaries worked with Victor Liebard and Frere Brouillet, and they found us a new person to teach, so that's exciting. That night after the members had left we went to work in a city called Vilneuil, and ended up giving surprise visits to two members, and they were both really appreciative of our stopping by, one sister even gave us a referral!

Flooding going down, gives the pathway a cool effect!

      What else to say about this week? So Elder Smith has a new diet...and it's better than the last one or we hope so.  His tests at the lab showed that the problem isn't super serious, so we think all of his pain is caused more by poor diet than anything.  We honestly haven't been eating that badly but Elder Smith's gut must be sensitive.  So the new diet is more of a vegan-all-natural one.  I decided not to follow him on that one because I want to enjoy lots of food for the last week of my mission.

We Made Sushi

 The Gospel is such a powerful tool for changing lives.

Unfortunately many people don't see that, either because they refuse to look, or they don't believe in themselves enough to change.  I know the job we do is hard, but if people would just listen they'd be so happy!  So our job is just to keep going and working, because you will meet people who are ready if you're working to the best of your capacity.  These people that area ready come from sources you never expect.  Just keep going!!! The Lord needs you, he needs me.  He wants you to come to him, to learn of him, to use his strength, because it's there.  This is His Gospel and I love it.  I'm glad the mission presents so many challenges because we can grow from all of them.  We'll grow if we trust in the Lord.

I love you all and wish you a good last full week of my mission!

Elder Jones

Week 100 "Flooding in France"

June 6, 2016

Flooding in France. (Notice the man in the canoe)

 We rode the train to Paris for zone conference, my last one.  I gave

a brief testimony and expressed the importance of keeping a good

attitude, talking openly with your companion, following spiritual

promptings, and working until the end.  I will finish my mission soon,

but that doesn't mean I'll stop working, no way! Just like President

Uchtdorf emphasized in his visit to the Paris members of the church,

success comes when you "Endure to the end!"

Final Zone Conference in Paris. Jamison's Testimony

        Even though I really wanted to work nonstop this week, I sadly had to face the reality of signing up for college classes.  I hadn't really

even gone on the site before this week, so I took a lot of time looking at classes, exploring options for the future.  Bottom line: I want to be a doctor, with a business or graphic design major. The best/worst thing about signing up for college is there are so many classes to choose from. I love school so I was in heaven considering taking classes anywhere from spreadsheets to yoga to Tongan! I didn't choose any of those, haha, but my schedule's got a good start and I'm looking forward to attending BYU this fall.

Gas Station Flooding

        From the time that big rainstorm swept over France last Saturday, rain fell almost nonstop until Wednesday, and with nonstop rain (as we know from the Bible story of Noah) causes flooding!  I love extreme and hazardous weather so even though the flooding caused people problems I enjoyed it a lot, just because it was cool to see all the flooded houses and roads; the whole fairgrounds filled up with water and made a lake!  The only problem came when we realized that four feet of water stood between us and the grocery store where we shop for Pday.  Sure, all of you in third-world countries would have no problem walking through it, but we decided to avoid it and take pictures instead - pictures attached. Well the floods undoubtedly caused problems for the members and Amis alike, so this week went slower than usual, but hey I still enjoyed it!

Our Amis A, Elder Smith and Elder Jones

        Well the floods weren't the only plague of the week.  Elder Smith has fungus in his gut!  The fungus causes intestinal cramps, constant

fatigue, constipation, etc etc.  So what the heck do we do?  Well Smith did the research and discovered that foods like garlic, pumpkin seeds, coconut oil, and raw garlic destroy it - better to have bad breath than fungus in your gut.  The hardest part of the dietary

restrictions is that you can't have any carbs or sugar, so Smith had to say goodbye to all the French baguettes and patisseries. Oh well,

at least we're eating really healthy and hey, I don't really have to do the diet I just can't eat too many patisseries either.

The Gatay family. We ate some delicious food there this Sunday (June 5, 2016)

        Honestly not many of our Amis progressed this week.  It was difficult with everything going on, school, floods, conferences in Paris... The cool part of the week came Saturday when we went to Orléans for a finding day.  The morning was hard but the afternoon got better.  I went contacting with my favorite member there, Ntokozo.  I contacted with him last month for the finding day and we had a lot of fun.  He's working hard to save for his mission, and he'll make a great

missionary, he already does.  While contacting by the river's edge we

found three people, one right after another and they all differed  greatly.  A believing African accepted the Book of Mormon, a non-practicing teenager wanted to know more about the plan of salvation, and best of all, an old French man who told us he was atheist ended up realizing that 'yeah, they did change a lot of stuff in the Bible', and we passed his name and phone number to my good friend Kasteler in La Rochelle, so they could give him a Book of Mormon.

God is waiting to show us miracles.  We just have to realize that we

may have to push through a lot of life's muck first.

Love you all!

Elder Jones