France Paris Mission 2014-2016

Week 40 --- iPads!!!!

So this week we went to Brussels which was awesome! We were there for a zone conference where we got our iPads. It was a super cool conference and I got to see a lot of old friends. It was really special because Elder Godfrey is going to die at the end of this transfer. He gave his "dying testimony" along with others who are finishing their missions. It turns out at the conference were half of the companions that he had on his mission, so he got a picture of him with all of us. It was a great time! Only problem with this trip was our trains... So because of technical problems we weren't able to print out our return tickets before we left for Belgium. So we get to the train station and try to get our tickets. Turns out, if you buy the tickets in France (which the mission does) you cannot retrieve your tickets in Belgium without the card that was used to purchase them (which the mission office has). So we missed our train and had to buy new tickets. To add to all the frustration of that we're carrying a bag full of pots and pans for our apartment, our overnight bags, and our normal proselyting bags. ALSO, there was a demonstration at the tunnel the train uses to go from France to England (some workers lit a bonfire or something on the tracks). So the station is PACKED full of angry impatient travelers! It was so stressful. Thankfully we made it back home that night...but not until 10:00 :(

This Sunday we went and ate at Jean-Paul's house again. I made hamburgers, fries, and Jean-Paul made a "salad" haha 😃  (lettuce drenched in oil and vinegar) but the meal turned out pretty good.

So cool story for the week:

We were doing some contacting Saturday but there was a triathlon, model T festival, and huge "yard sale" markets going on in Dunkerque. So, we took a bus out of town and started working. There was hardly anybody out and it was getting close to dinner, so we decided to head back. We were sitting at the bus stop and the bus we were going to take didn't show up. Like it wasn't late, definitely wasn't early, it just didn't come. Just after the bus was supposed to come a man in his 60's walked up and I started talking to him. He was a little hesitant to talk at first but I just kept up the small talk until he opened up. We ended up taking the same bus as him, and we continued talking.  Février (February in French) loves history and politics and so he and I got along super well, and we carried on a conversation about philosophy history and politics for 45 minutes (which I attribute to the gift of tongues because there was nothing gospel related in that conversation haha!). Right before we had to get off he told me that he had seen missionaries around a lot, and didn't have a great opinion of us, but now it was completely changed. He took a restoration pamphlet and said he'd read it. It was just so cool to see how much difference a little bit of love and kindness can make. I encourage all of us to take the time to be friendly with those around us especially those who aren't friendly to us.

Love you all!

Elder Bronson Jorgensen

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