Week 70 - Ups...downs...and all-arounds....yet somehow I'm still standing.

I don't really know how to explain all that's happened the last 3 weeks other than what I said in the subject line. It's been the most challenging time of my mission by far.

Jan 12th today we had an exchange in Rouen with Elders Larsen and George. It was pretty sick because it started out with us doing service for their Bishop and Samuel Babin (from the I'm a Mormon video "I'm a Mormon, Frenchman, and a Trilingual Family Father" the translation isn't as funny as what he actually says btw) who also is President Babin's little brother (President Babin is playing tennis with him in the video haha!). We helped them transport some huge dressers but it was super easy because they had hydraulic jacks, so we didn't have to wreck our backs haha! It was really fun because the bishop in Rouen is the son of a family I knew well in La Rochelle so we chitchatted a bit about them and what not. That evening while George and I were out searching for some less-actives it started to pour....guess who didn't have an umbrella or jacket and was wearing the suit he needed for a conference with the Europe Area President....This guy haha. I was completely drenched from head to foot.  Literally my feet were soaked because there are holes in the bottom of my shoes (I'm pretty sure that Ecco said their shoes would last my full mission....well 2 pairs have gotten me through 2/3 of my mission.... Maybe I'm wearing them wrong haha!) There was nobody out on the streets and we were in a residential so to help keep our spirits up George and I sang hymns with all the gusto and enthusiasm we could muster (which was a whole lot more than I thought we could!) In the end we had a pretty good time :)

Jan 13th Today we were in Paris for a special conference with Elder Patrick Kearon of the Seventy who is the president of the Europe Area. The Spirit was present even before he entered the chapel; during the prelude music I was on the verge of tears. Then he came in and the excitement kicked up about 20 notches! Haha. He had us all sit down and then said he and his wife would like to shake all of our hands. As it was my  turn to go up he asked where I was from and I said St. George, but then he asked what stake I was from and my mind went blank. I got this dumb look on my face and all I could think of was "Le pieu de Paris" haha! After about 3 seconds I finally remembered, told him, then got out of there as fast as I could. During the conference President Kearon talked to us about our mission culture, what it means to be truly happy doing missionary work, receiving chastisement from the Lord and changing accordingly, the blessings of a good morning routine and the importance of the "numbers" in missionary work. Then he shared his conversion story about how it took him two years to be baptized, and how one companionship focused on "his number" even though everyone including the mission president said to give up on him. He's been a member for the last 28 years, and now has served in many callings that have allowed him to help others, especially his current calling. It was extremely powerful.

Jan 20th Got the news that Grandpa had a stroke, and then that night I got a call from President Babin informing me of Grandpa's death. It still doesn't feel totally real. I spent some time on my knees and in the scriptures and I just knew that Grandpa had lived the life he was supposed to, and now he was at "rest". I say that because I know he's working just as hard on that side of the veil as he did on this side :)  I also called up Elder Libby because his grandpa passed away from cancer while we were together. He let me vent a little, made me laugh because he's the weirdest kid I know, and made me feel a lot better. He told me a story that made me die laughing, so I'll share it with you. So there's this BIG Hawaiian elder in our mission who LOVES hugging people, and when he hugs you it's a bear hug with a lift haha.

So, the Kearon conference was two days because they couldn't get both halves of the mission in the building, and the second day was when this elder was there. After the conference right before lunch this elder goes up to talk to President Kearon (and President Kearon is a fun, humorous, loving guy) and then he gives him a hug complete with the lift. When he puts President Kearon down a serious look comes on PK's face and he says (with his intense British accent) "Don't you ever pick up a general authority again." and then he walks away. This elder just about faints from fear! Haha I was on the floor laughing from that, 'twas too good!

Jan 24th. In order to convey the significance of what happened today I must give an overview of how the work has been going the past month...🏼🏼🏼....and that despite us working as well as we could, being as obedient as possible, and still nothing. With that done, I can proceed. The only bright spot for us was with Brice he had committed to come to church for all three hours with his entire family, read the BoM everyday, and focus only the simple doctrines of the gospel. Today after church we get a text which essentially said, "there are too many basic beliefs of your church which neither I nor nor my pastor can find in the bible or feel comfortable about. I have decided definitively to stop investigating with you. I respect you and you are always welcome in my home, but I'll be staying in my own church." After reading that I felt like I got hit by a truck. And to top it all off, my depression started coming back in full force and hasn't left me yet. There's probably some correlation there. I literally got to the point that I was going to tell President that I should go home.

Jan 26th We were in Paris today so I could pick up my second year legality card. It went super fast and so we had a couple hours in Paris before our train, so we visited the temple site (it's moving along so fast it's incredible) and the Eiffel Tower because Rollins  hadn't seen it yet. It was pretty fun. There are some pics ;)

Jan 27th Back in Paris for our district meeting and interviews with President. I told him all about what was going on and even mentioned going home, and in a kind, but still serious way said, "Elder Jorgensen you are doing too much good for the missionaries around you.  You aren't going home." It was a definite help. We talked for a good 15 minutes and even though I'm not completely back to normal I'm doing much better.

Jan 31st Today at church we had Lionel come for 2 hours and the branch meal afterward. He really liked it and said he'd for sure come again next week. That's a miracle considering we had to repeat not only the sacrament prayers but the hymn three times (a member who is kind of mentally handicapped played the sacrament hymn rather than me, and he had practiced it way too slow and couldn't adjust. Yes I play the organ every week, melody only, but still ;) ). Then we had a sick branch council and the members asked us for our input on a lot of important subjects which was way cool.

Loves!
Bronson

​Description of Photos:

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​Me in front of the temple

Us at the Eiffel Tower

Elder Rollins when I make him call people 

Us watching The District for Rollins' training. Popcorn and hot
chocolate are a must ;) (we had to do our studies at night right
before bed. We do NOT study in hoodies and shorts all the time haha)

​

Week 68 --- sorry can't think of a clever subject line...

I'm going to apologize now...this will be a short one. Unfortunately this week we weren't able to see Brice. We still are keeping in contact with him, but he's having a lot of trouble with his search for a testimony (your prayers for him would be great).  We got to teach one of our potential investigators this Friday. His name is Lionel, he's African and lives in literally the tiniest apartment I've ever seen haha :) Elder Rollins took the lead teaching the entire restoration and I just kind of jumped in when necessary to clarify things and testify. He did super well!

The night before during planning I got a really strong impression to go tracting in a specific neighborhood clear across town from where we would be, but when the Spirit tells you to do something you do it! So after we visit the less active, we head out on the bus. By the time we got to the neighborhood, we only had 30 minutes to work. So we got moving! We were knocking on every house with lights on, we ran up to anybody that was pulling into their house (even someone finishing a jog haha), we were simply nuts. Because we did this, in those 30 minutes we taught a lesson on a doorstep, got a solid passback, and spent a couple minutes explaining and testifying of the Book of Mormon to a man who at first said, "That doesn't interest me at all" and started to walk away. In the end he took a copy and promised to take a look at it and call us after he did.

That is pretty much everything exciting that happened, sorry... Next week will be better, we'll have exchanges and a mission conference!

Loves!

Bronson

Week 67 --- Happy New Year!

Well this was a pretty cool week... We got a ton of potentials because we had a ton of time to just work, but the coolest thing was our lesson with Brice. Saturday we met with him and during the week he had been asking some intense questions because he knows EVERYTHING haha! Like he has an lds account (did you know nonmembers could make one? Because I didn't until he told us he did!) and all he does is work and study the gospel apparently :) He was asking about how if God was a man like us (we didn't tell him that) then he would have had to be created but it says in Moses (yes he reads in the pearl of great price) that God is without beginning of days or end of years. Then he was asking about how doctrine is revealed that changes doctrine in the Bible and Book of Mormon by prophets (for example polygamy God having a body, etc), so we had to explain the clarifying aspect of revelation and how it never changes the doctrine. Anyway, so with all that going on throughout the week when we get there we were kind of nervous and unsure about where it was going to go. We started out by sharing Jacob 4:8 which explains that we can't know all the mysteries of God, which led us into faith. We taught about faith and the other aspects of the gospel of Jesus Christ. After we finished we felt to ask him to fix a date for his baptism as a goal to work towards as he continues to search for his testimony of Joseph Smith. He was excited and he felt the 19th of March would give him enough time to come to church at least 5 or 6 times (he works Sundays from time to time) which was perfect because that's the date we were feeling. So even though I'll be gone Brice has a baptismal date!

This Saturday we also got transfer news. I'll be staying in Le Havre to finish training Elder Rollins. There is one difference though, during confidentiality reports I told the ZL's that I felt it would be better for Elder Rollins and the area (we have NOT been seeing very much success this transfer) if I wasn't the District Leader anymore. We were spending too much time out of our area, and I wasn't able to do all of the training lessons each week. So, this transfer my good buddy Elder Larsen in Rouen (weird face kid that I taught to drive stick haha) will be the DL.

Much loves!

Bronson

Photos:

Us killing sister Brazeal....

​Us trying to do a serious face pic...Elder Harris said something stupid...

Serious face pic...Elder Rollins didn't get the memo...

After we killed Sister Brazeal...

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​Another attempt at a funny pic. Elder Larsen is flipping off the

camera (an inside joke with me and him) so I'll let you decide if you

want to send that out to everyone ;) haha​

Week 66 --- Merry Christmas!!!!

So this week was super fun!  Tuesday, we had District Meeting and then went to a Chinese Buffet for lunch as a special Christmas meal. We got a lot of weird looks because there weren't a ton of people there, and then in walks 11 well dressed teenagers with badges haha! Later that night we went and taught Brice about the last half of the Plan of Salvation, he ate it up, and he's continuing to progress well.   Wednesday, we had to go into Paris so Elder Rollins could get legal for his first year in France. Luckily, Sister Spencer in Rouen had to do it the same day, so we got to hang out with them for a while. While all the bleus went to do their legality the trainers went and checked out the addresses for some less actives in the Paris ward, so Elder Nord (from my Dunkerque days) and I got to do another exchange together! That night us and the sisters went and got dinner then headed to our train, but when we got there we found out that because of some track problems they had to take all of the passengers of a different train on our train. That means we got to ride first class!!!! Kind of.... There were NO seats so the 5 of us and about 200 other people were sitting in the aisles. We rode like that for about an hour and then a bunch of people got off at the terminus of the other train, so THEN we got to sit in first class haha :) We kept talking in weird faces and the little bit of sign language that Sister Poznanski has taught us, we were cracking up for about 90% of the 2hr train ride!  Thursday, we ate dinner with the Tuffigo family. He's in the branch presidency and she's the young woman president. His mother and sister were also there with us. It was so delicious and we had a ton of fun together.  Christmas morning while Elder Rollins was sleeping (we are allowed to sleep in on Christmas and New Years) I made him french toast just like Elder Godfrey made for me last Christmas. Then for lunch we went and ate with the Margeritat family and her sister's family was there as well. It was crazy with the 4 young kids, but super fun. Also, we got to watch Despicable Me 2 and The Minions in French...not too shabby ;) haha Sunday we ate lunch with President and Sister Silbermann, it was delicious and we played a mormon version of settlers of cataan.... I lost miserably! haha :)

Love you all!

Bronson 

Me, Sister Poznanski, and Sister Spencer on the train back from Paris.  ...#tightquarters

Random Christmas tree at a tram stop Sunday morning... Don't know why :)

Swag glasses thief strikes again!

Me in front of a picture of an awkard member in Elder George's ward. Those are Elder George's glasses ;)

Elder Larsen and I in their garage after teaching him how to drive. Sister Poznanski forgot her glasses in the car... sucks for her ;)

Week 65 --- Trains, Interviews, and Christmas miracles!

Tuesday 8 Dec. We had a super cool district meeting! I decided to just have an open discussion on the blessings that come from our knowledge of a Savior and we watched the Christmas video the church made this year. As we talked the Spirit was testifying to each of us the reality of the birth, life, and atonement of Jesus Christ. We all walked away with a stronger desire to serve the Lord and share this knowledge with everyone. Then we had a fun exchange with Elder Sherren and Elder Duncan (those are Sherren's glasses I'm posing with haha).

Wednesday we got back and then decorated the church with Sister Lefebvre and Brother Paporé (RS president and Branch mission leader). It took us like 3 hours to do everything. That tree is like 15 ft tall and it was a pain in the butt to put all the branches and decorations on it! But it makes the church look really pretty now :)

Thursday 10 Dec. I went to Cergy for an exchange and a baptismal interview. I have to talk about this interview. So this kid is like 20 and is mentally challenged, he's the son of a recent convert and decided recently that he really wants to get baptized. So we sit down together and I always start the interview with a prayer, but this time
I felt to ask him to start us out. As he talked with our Father in Heaven he expressed the fact that he didn't know a lot, but that he wanted to continue to learn and do what Jesus wants him to do. As he spoke I felt the Spirit testify right then that he was ready to be baptized. We went through all the questions and although he didn't have a perfect memory or understanding of everything it was clear to see he was willing to follow the Savior the rest of his life. I had heard beforehand that he loved Coke a TON so I brought two bottles with me and hid them in my bag. When we finished and I told him he'd be baptized the 19th I pulled out the Cokes and toasted to his baptism. He thought it was so cool! Haha

Friday 11 Dec. when we got back we had to go to the church to open it up for a member of a different ward who was doing some maintenance work, so we had to sit and wait there for a while, and we didn't have time to do anything else after because of weekly planning. So we were kind of sad that we wouldn't have any time this week to do some work, but the Lord gave us a miracle to make up for our lack of time. As we were walking out of the church a young lady was walking by and apparently heard us talking in English because she stopped at the
bottom of the stairs of the church and stared at us. We were understandably a little uncomfortable as we walked down, but I asked her if there was something we could do for her. She asked if we were American and when I said yes she got all excited and said she lived right next to the church and would love to practice English with us.
Now we are not allowed to teach English classes because the government will label us as a cult trying to lure vulnerable people in with the classes, and it's even worse when a 22 year old girl is the one asking for the lessons haha. So, I told her we weren't allowed to do that but we could share our message with her and also speak a little bit in English. She asked what our message was and so I said we are a Christian church with some unique beliefs like a living prophet and twelve apostles. Her eyes went huge and she asked, "you think the apostles are alive?!" thinking we were talking about the original twelve. I explained that there were modern day apostles and showed her pictures of the twelve and first presidency on my iPad. Also we mentioned the fact that families are eternal and she got this shocked, yet happy, look. She said she'd love to meet with us so we fixed an appointment for Wednesday.

Saturday 12 Dec. we had to go to Rouen to do another baptismal interview for the sisters there. Their investigator is this sweet old lady in her 70's who absolutely loves the church and all the members.  She's pretty much already part of the ward. So we open up the interview and we start to talk and it's clear that although she loves the Savior, she doesn't have a relationship with God and she didn't have a testimony of a modern day prophet and church today. We talked a lot about her difficulties with faith and we shared personal experiences together and had a wonderful discussion about the atonement and another points that were hard for her to comprehend and believe. I told her it would be best to wait a little longer before she got baptized because of the seriousness of the covenant she would be making. She agreed and I asked if we could kneel together in prayer. As I offered the prayer I felt the words coming to my mind clearly, pleading for Heavenly Father to help her create a relationship with Him, and to bless her as she continued to learn of His gospel. When I finished she had tears rolling down her face and she thanked me for our discussion and prayer. It was incredibly moving and sweet. When we got back to Le Havre we had our branch Christmas party. It was super fun! Elder Rollins and I were asked to do something for the talent show that was American, so we sang two songs,  Rudolph the red nosed reindeer and since we were the last act we finished by singing Once in Royal David's City (which isn't in the French hymn book). But the best part of the evening was the beginning when we all watched the First Presidency Christmas devotional. It brought me to tears. If any of you haven't watched it, go watch it today!

Ok, so for Sunday there's a background story. I didn't want to mention it earlier because whenever I share a super cool miracle it ends up falling through, but this one has been pulled through the refiner's fire and is still standing. A couple weeks ago we got a text from a random number saying "Hi my name is Brice Noël. I was on Mormon.org
talking to a sister in your church and I want a Book of Mormon." Elder Shaver and I were dumbstruck (we still don't know how he got our number haha). We got his media referral the day after he texted us. We met with him gave him the book and he said, "I've done a lot of research on your church and I've seen good and bad things, but now I
want to make my own decision. Give me two weeks to read the book and then we'll talk about it." Well six days later we get a text, he had read the whole book and wanted to talk about it. Before we met he sent us a document he wrote up with like 8 points where the Mormons contradict the Bible. We were scared that it would turn into a bible bash, but when we got there he was just concerned about the fact that it was different and accepted our explanations of all the points. He said that he would like to start the lessons to understand everything.  But before our next lesson he sent a text saying that God responded to his prayers against our church. (I know how ridiculous that sounds....we were shocked too). We told him we were sorry he made that choice but we invited him to continue to pray humbly to know if what we have is true. About a week later we get an email saying, "In the end, I really want to meet with you and understand your beliefs" When we show up to teach him today(Sunday), he told us that he couldn't get rid of this strong feeling that he needed to meet with us. He still
has a lot of deep questions and he's trying to learn it all logically but he's starting to progress little by little. In fact we already have two appointments set up for this coming week (yes TWO appointments the week of Christmas!) He's married with a cute 3 year old boy, and the best part is that his last name is Christmas in French! He's our Christmas miracle!  

Tuesday 15 Dec. We had Zone conference today. The couple supervising the temple construction came and did a presentation for us, then President and Soeur Babin gave small trainings that were pretty much their testimonies. Soooo spiritual and powerful! Then we had a nice homemade meal. Turkey, potatoes, gravy, mushrooms, and chestnuts. It was super delicious, but unfortunately the day after I discovered the hard way that I've developed an allergy to mushrooms like my mom did.....I'll spare the details mostly because I don't want to remember them..... I'm better now though. 😁

Thursday 17 Dec. I did an exchange with Elder Larsen which was super fun! For about an hour I got to teach him how to drive a stick because that city just got a car and he doesn't know how to drive a stick. I had forgotten how much I missed driving a stick.....9 more months.....
#nottrunky!

Friday 18 Dec. We had a super fun dinner with a member of the branch presidency. I had tried to keep my birthday under wraps but his wife found out so this Sunday she shows up with a bottle of cologne from her shop, and has the branch president announce that my birthday was the day before..... I hate my birthday haha :)

Love you all lots!

Bronson

Decorating! (We don't know why brother Paporé isn't smiling....)

Week 64 --- A few pictures

Fun Selfies cause why not . . . 

And this is what happens when I try to cut my hair and Elder Rollins

 tries to fix it ... not too shabby, eh?

This is me, Barton, Rollins and Harris (left to right) at our raclette party. Raclette is delicious melted cheese which is poured over fried meats and potatoes...

As a district leader it is necessary to take funny selfies with other

people's swag glasses.