Photos

Photo 1 and 2- district photo. Numbers mean how many transfers you have been out

Photo 3 and 4- Picture Elder Smith took on the train ride to Paris. They are called safflower fields and they are so cool. They look like seas of yellow. Picture does not do it justice.

Week 31 --- Bye Bye La Rochelle

So this week our P-Day is on Tuesday because we had a conference yesterday in Paris.  It was a conference for iPads. It was with Elder Patrick Kearon and Elder Brent H. Neilson of the First Quorum of the Seventy. They introduced iPads to our mission. We were supposed to get them yesterday but there was a miscommunication and they did not get shipped out in time. But it was very interesting, We thought that we were just going to get taught how to use iPads but instead they told us what is expected of us as far as emails and using the internet and not playing games. They did not give us any specific ways to use the iPads but told us to pray and find out how to best use them to increase the work in France. They told us that it is up to us to teach them the best way to find new amis here in France using iPads.  It was really cool to see how much they trusted us. We basically have a normal iPad, the only difference is that our mission president can see anything that we download. I am excited to get them.

Also this week is transfers. Elder Smith is going to be a trainer here in La Rochelle, and I'm going to be serving in Dunkerque. It is the city furthest north in the mission. 

Well I don't have a ton of time today because I still need to pack, but I want to share a cool experience that we had this week. So last Friday night we were out knocking doors (well kind of... we were ringing apartments but same thing) and we were not getting let in anywhere. So we decided that we needed to pray and ask where we needed to go. So we prayed and after the prayer we decided to go to a building in the distance. We went in because the door was open. We went up a couple of floors and started knocking. The second door that we knocked on was a lady named Nathalie she let us right in. She told us how she had always seen the missionaries in the street but they never talked to her. She could not believe that we knocked on her door to talk to her. She told us she believes that it is a sign and she needs to meet with us. We set up an appointment for this Thursday and invited her to church. When she saw the address she almost fell out of her chair. She said she has walked by our church a couple of times and felt the a strong desire to go in. She said she has always wanted to come visit. It was another cool experience with prayer. Elder Smith has an appointment with her this week.

Love you all. More next week.

Elder Jorgensen

Photo 1 and 2- district photo. Numbers mean how many transfers you have been out

Photo 3 and 4- Picture Elder Smith took on the train ride to Paris. They are called safflower fields and they are so cool. They look like seas of yellow. Picture does not do it justice.

Week 30 --- Melchizedek is Jesus who is also God....?

Like always, funny/interesting story alluded to in subject line will be explained at the end. :)

So this week there were a couple cool stories I would like to share with you.

Number 1. We were out contacting/tracting and we didn't have any solid ideas of where we should go, but then Elder Smith decided that we should head down towards where one of our amis lives. On the way I saw an apartment building neither of us had ever noticed. I felt like we should go try it, and the very first door we rang an older lady answered and at first was not interested, but after talking for a little bit she let us in. We talked with her for a while about her family, how awesome La Rochelle weather is (which it really is. Seriously perfect beach weather!), and her faith. She was super nice and we left her with a prayer for which she was very grateful. We aren't teaching her, but she really needed a nice visit, and it was a good little experience for us as well.

Number 2. Saturday night none of our plans worked out, so we decided to go visit a less active member who has NEVER been home...He still wasn't home haha! But we were out in the area, so we started looking for a street to tract. We stumbled upon a little side street behind a huge building with a couple little homes. We started knocking those doors, and at one a young black man with huge dreadlocks we start talking and then he says, "I speak English so you can talk in English." Turns out he's from Nigeria and moved to France 11 years ago when he was picked up by a French choreographer. He is a dancer, singer, and actor. He was super welcoming and let us in to pray with him. He is Muslim, but doesn't have any strong beliefs. He knows there's a God, but isn't sure what religion is right. He has a lot of Christian friends that he's read the Bible with, so he's super open. He's married to a non-believing French woman and they have three young boys. We prayed with him and he was super happy about it, and he said he felt a strong peace and happiness, so we were able to testify of the Holy Ghost. He told us he would love to have us come over again, and gave us his number. It was such a cool miracle!

Now it's time...

Last week we met these two ladies on the street and when we contacted them they said that they had just been talking about Christ! We set up a rendez-vous with them and the husband of one of them. We show up to the rendez-vous and it turns out the husband is an old ami of Elder Godfrey. He studies the bible ALL THE TIME and runs his own prayer group and bible study class. He knows his bible incredibly well... So we get there and it turns into a bible bash and he kicked our butts! But we left them with a Restoration pamphlet and set up another rendez-vous. He read the pamphlet, and he studied... We show up there and jumps right into how the Priesthood isn't the Priesthood, it's just the power of God because Melchizedek was Jesus and Jesus and Heavenly Father are the same person. If I didn't have the truth I would have been convinced with the scriptures he used! Haha But fortunately we had the Spirit, and you can prove in the Bible that God and Jesus are different, and we did with the scriptures he used. I stumped him multiple times, but he would just quickly jump to another scripture. At the end we decided that the next time we would each have 15 minutes to explain the priesthood to each other without interruption. We will be meeting him in 4 hours and we will take the uninterrupted time not to bible bash, but to teach the Book of Mormon and finding out truth for ourselves. #cunningbutharmless! We seriously feel like Alma and Amulek contending against Zeezrom. We're pretty boss!

Love you all very much!

Elder Jorgensen

Week 29 --- Pierre-NicoLOVE... ;)

So this week, we went to Nantes for an exchange and then the next morning to a double zone conference in a town about 3 and 1/2 hours away called Rennes. At the zone conference we had trainings from our zone leaders, the Sister training leaders, the assistants to the president, and sister and president Babin. It was really long, but SO powerful! The spirit is always so strong when we are assembled as servants of the Lord. We focused on finding new investigators who will progress towards baptism. It was just an awesome day.

Also this week the weather has turned gorgeous! I'm going out in just my white shirt now. It's about 70 degrees, sun shining, no clouds, and a slight breeze....I just love it!

Now I am going to explain the subject line. Keep in mind that as a representative of Jesus Christ I can't lie...

So I told you guys about Annick the less active member. Well, we taught her again on Saturday with Pierre-Nicolas, a very awkward, but incredibly faithful and kind member in our ward. It was a great lesson, the spirit was there, and we explained the principles very well. At the end, Annick said she would be coming to church the next day. We found her a ride with an awesome couple in the ward, and the wife fellowshipped her and sat with her in Relief Society. Then the second hour was the gospel principles class. Pierre-Nicolas came in and sat with her during the lesson. Everything is going well and then we have sacrament meeting at the end. Again they are sitting next to each other while Elder Smith and I are in the row behind them. About halfway through I looked up at them and they were HOLDING HANDS!! It was so weird! They had met each other the day before for 30 minutes! It gets even weirder though, she's 51 a grandma and hasn't taken care of herself at all...(smoking, drinking, etc.) and he's 40 very awkward, and on the prowl...;) so now Elder Smith has deemed him Pierre-NicoLOVE. We are not sure how this is all going to go down, but you know, "C'est la vie!"

Pictures

Week 28 --- I LOVE CONFERENCE!!

This week has been pretty uneventful, but I'll find something to share with you :)

So to begin, we had to wake up at 4:45 on Tuesday morning to catch a 2 hr train to district meeting because the Fitts were out of town. That was not a good way to start a day... But then we had district meeting and it was super fun. We also had exchanges right after district meeting, so our district leader and his blue rode with us back to La Rochelle. I was with the blue who had only been in France 2 and 1/2 weeks. We had so much fun! Elder Young is such an awesome guy, and together we: Taught a less active member and gave him a blessing, got two potential amis, and taught Ambroise (we even refixed his baptismal date!). 

Then we had conference Saturday and Sunday. We got to watch everything except the Sunday afternoon session over satellite broadcast (even the women's session). The ward set up a TV in the Relief Society room for us and the Fitts so we could watch it in english. I can't even to begin to express how much I love the words of the living prophets! The talks were all so wonderful, and the Spirit could be felt so strongly. But even more than that we had a little miracle happen on Sunday... Que background story!

So we shop at this one grocery store every week and the Fitts have run into a man a couple times that they thought was less active because he walked up to them and said, in english, "Hey I know you! You're the missionaries. I went to the ward in Bordeaux when I was a kid." And he has said multiple times that when he moved into La Rochelle he would like to come to church (he lived in a town about 45 minutes south of here). So yesterday I get a call in the morning at 9:30 (when church normally is) and a guy starts talking in english. He says, "Hey did something happen? There is nobody at the church." Apparently Gary decided to come to church today, but it was general conference. I told him that there would be a session at 11:00 and he said he'd be there to watch it with us! So we get there and start talking with him before the session and it turns out he isn't a member. His dad was a GI here in France and his mom is French, so when he was a teenager she encouraged him to go to the mormon church because she wanted him to be around american people. So he went for about a year, but was never baptized. He's had off and on contact with the church and the missionaries throughout his life, and right now he's going through some hard times and so he wanted to come back to the church because he always felt good with the people there. Anyway, he watched the priesthood session with us, took a Book of Mormon, and told us to call him so we could visit him this week! He is such a nice guy and he has felt the Spirit a lot in his life. We can't wait to start teaching him!

Love you all! Have a good week!

Elder Jorgensen