E-Mail from Elder and Sister Fitt

November 30, 2014

Hi. Sister Fitt and I are serving as couple missionaries in the France Paris Mission and have the privilege of serving in La Rochelle with your son.

We wanted you to know that he is an amazing missionary! His language is way beyond where one would think it would be at this time in his mission. He is enthusiastic, hard working and obedient. His enthusiasm is infectious and he loves his mission. The members of the ward here loved him immediately.

Thank you for supporting him as he serves the Lord here in La Rochelle (for the time being). He will have a huge impact on his mission and will even become a more amazing missionary as his mission continues. You are justified in being very proud of him. He's doing a great job!  And, we love him!

Elder and Sister Fitt

Week 9

Just a note from Elder Jorgensen's mom:  There are approximately 274 missionaries in the France Paris Mission.

I just want to say that the cutest thing ever is a little kid speaking French! Yesterday was the Primary Program in our ward, and all of the kids were sooo funny and cute. When they sang I love to see the temple, the Spirit was felt so powerfully!

Anyway, last week I forgot to talk about Church so here we go. I LOVE our ward! We have a great mix between young and old people, and everyone is warm and welcoming. The old guys here are just funny old men. Some of the things we talk about in priesthood and gospel doctrine class just cracks me up. Also, every week at least one of the members brings us a box of food. Like this past Sunday we had apples, candy bars, pasta, sausage, milk, and eggs. It's so awesome! Oh and speaking of Church, my trainer volunteered me to give a 10-15 minute talk on Dec. 21...so I've already started writing it all out so I can practice the French before then! Haha

So this past Thursday we traveled  to Paris for a conference with the entire mission (which has never been done before). Elder Cook of the Twelve came with his wife and the Area President of Western Europe and his wife to talk with our mission. Even cooler than that, he wanted to shake the hand of every missionary here, so I shook Elder Cook's hand! By the way, he's 74! He looks more like 65ish. Anyway it was such an amazing experience and I learned so much.

Tomorrow we have exchanges for the first time with our district leader and his companion which will be super fun. Wednesday we're having our first meal with a member. His family lives about 45 minutes away from La Rochelle (where our apartment and the Church is) so he's going to pick us up, then we'll take a train back (we ride trains a lot btw). Then Thursday is our weekly district meeting in a town about 2 hours away (which is why we ride trains a lot). It also just happens to be our district's Thanksgiving meal! The Fitt's (senior missionary couple) are cooking turkey and stuffing and then each companionship is bringing a side/dessert. Elder Godfrey and I got lucky because we just have to bring drinks!

Anyway, as far as the work goes, we continue to see miracles almost daily. It's a lot of hard work and rejection, but it's so worth it and I love it so much. BTW I've been doing a lot of studying in "Jesus the Christ" by Talmage. I encourage all of you to try utilize it. You can learn so much about the Savior! (a little warning the first bit is a little dry)

I have to write my President Babin now, so I'll close this email with this thought: "You will find great joy if you give your whole heart to the Savior" -- Sister Babin

Love you all!

Elder Bronson Jorgensen

Week 8 --- Bonjour! I'm in France finally!

My first area is the city of La Rochelle right on the western coast of France. I absolutely love it here. It's beautiful, the people are super friendly (mostly), and we've already seen miracles.

Mon papa (my dad/trainer) is Elder Godfrey from Kaysville, Utah. He's been out for 16 months, and is amazing. We're getting along so well and I couldn't be happier about our companionship. 

I'm going to apologize right off the bat, there aren't any pictures. I had to put my camera in my checked luggage because it uses normal batteries, and I've been too busy/exhausted to take pictures here in La Rochelle.

Anyway, Tuesday and Wednesday in Paris were awesome on our train ride from the airport to the chapel in Paris where we were meeting we had our first experience contacting and then we did street contacting in Paris after lunch. It was intimidating! Although, I really enjoyed it. Wednesday evening Elder Godfrey and I took off for La Rochelle (3 hour train ride that actually took us outside of our mission for a bit), and we were picked up by Elder and Soeur Fitt, the senior missionaries in La Rochelle. 

So here in La Rochelle it's just me, mon collegue, and the Fitt's. Our area is about the same size as Saint George and the surrounding little cities. We don't have a car so we do A LOT of walking and for the outskirts we take the bus. If you want you can google street view La Rochelle and see where I'm working each day.

Right after we got here, we ate a little something and then we went porting (door to door tracting). We got a ton of no's but there was one African lady, Muriel, and her young son, Leo, who let us in to pray with them. She was so friendly and seemed very interested in our church, so we're going to pass by again this week. Then there were a lot more no's... :)

Thursday we taught a lesson to un ami de L'eglise (investigators are called friends of the church) named Raphael. It was a little awkward for me because of the language, but still fun. Then we did a ton of street/park contacting and porting.

Friday we had taught a Brazilian lady named Macilene and her niece Izzy. We taught them about our life on earth and the Atonement. They are such wonderful people, and incredibly nice. Also, we had our weekly planning session and one of our goals was to work on a Christ-like attribute each week, so for the rest of that week it was patience. We also had some goals for the transfer, one of which was to appreciate the weird, strange, and funny experiences we'd have, and to just have fun. Well, the Lord gives you what you ask for... We taught another lesson to a man that was street contacted, and it turns out he didn't want to learn the gospel very much. He wanted to sit and tell us why he didn't like Islam and problems he had with other churches, so we just had to leave. Then that evening when we were porting it just started to pour and neither of us had umbrellas and I didn't have a jacket, just my light sweater. And to top it off nobody would talk with us. But when we were in the elevator going up to our apartment, we looked at each other and we remembered what our goals were, and we both just started laughing! It was hilarious! 

Saturday it continued to rain (apparently winters in France are just rainy all the time), but I was blessed to find a wind/rain jacket that one of the former missionaries left and it fits perfectly and looks great, as well as an umbrella. That evening we were porting in some batiments (apartment buildings) about 40 minutes from our apartment and 2 people let us in to pray with them. Now let me put this into perspective, a good week porting here is if you get let in once, and we got let in 3 times! Anyway one of the people we prayed with was an older gentleman named Lelong who used to be a helicopter mechanic in the army. At first, he just wanted to talk to us, and explained that he couldn't believe in anything he couldn't see or feel, but after I bore my testimony of prayer (en francais) he agreed to pray with us. Elder Godfrey asked me to offer the prayer. As I was praying I felt prompted to ask God to let us know if He was real and if He was there. After we finished the prayer he was on the verge of tears. Unfortunately, he hurried and changed the topic (probably because he was scared of what he had just felt). He, in the words of Elder Godfrey, felt the Spirit hardcore. Thankfully, he said we could pass by tomorrow and talk with him again.

The Lord really is with us in this work and there are wonderful people here in France that have been prepared for the gospel. 

I love all of you so much!

Elder Jorgensen  

Pictures . . . the first 24 hours

Week 7 --- Elder Jorgensen's Arrival in France

To the Family of Elder Jorgensen:

Sister Babin and I were delighted to welcome your son , Elder Bronson Cox Jorgensen , into the France Paris Mission on 11 Nov 2014. He and his MTC companions were enthusiastic and all arrived in good health.  He spent his first day eating some good food, visiting with me, contacting non-members in the heart of Paris, and sharing testimonies.  We enjoyed his spirit.

The next morning, after a mission orientation, Elder Jorgensen left for his first assignment to work in the LaRochelle 2 Area with Elder Godfrey, who will be his trainer.  Their apartment address is:

15 ave Jean Guitton
La Rochelle, 17 17000
FRA

Any packages or letters you would like to send will reach your missionary at this address.

We feel very privileged to work with your  son .  We also realize the responsibility we share with you to help him continue to grow spiritually as he faithfully performs his duties.  May the Lord inspire us all to sustain him in this challenging and exciting assignment.  We hope you will join Sister Babin and me in praying each day for your son , his companion, investigators, and all of us serving in the France Paris Mission.

A positive, supportive letter from home every week does wonders to sustain a missionary’s morale.  Proverbs 25:25 states:  As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country. If you have any questions, or if we can assist you in any way, please contact us at our office (001-331-3480-0483) or home (001-331-3976-8402).

Sincerely,

Frédéric Jean Babin

President, France Paris Mission

______________________________________________

Dear Families of our Missionaries,

I am pleased to be able to send you this little E-mail to announce to you the creation of the Facebook of the Paris France Mission Babin.

We hope to be able to place photos of the events that take place here in the mission every 15 days so that we might share with you the Spirit that animates our mission.  Your comments are welcome, but we hope you understand we will not be able to respond to each one individually because of time.

We are very grateful for the support that you give through your prayers and the E-mails for your children. It is very precious.

Some amazing things are happening in this mission thanks to the faith, the perseverance and the desire of our missionaries to better fulfill the reason why they are here on mission. They are continually putting amazing efforts into raising the bar and to see the fruits of their labors.

We are very grateful for these chosen youth who have been place in our care and we assure you that we are doing all that we can to make sure they are taken care of. We love and care for them dearly.

We invite you to join our group, so that you might be able to participate in the great moments unfolding in each photo. Here is the name : “France Paris Mission Babin”

Sincerely,

Sister Babin

babinfrançoise@ldschurch.org

__________________________________________________

As you know, the missionaries cherish the letters and packages that they receive from their families and we are well aware of the time, effort and sometimes even sacrifices that these packages are for you.

To be sure they arrive in a timely manner and in the best conditions, please follow these recommendations:

1 - Make sure your shipment is properly stamped and paid for.
2 - Verify that the address of the sender and the recipient are written legibly. Write clearly:

Les Missionnaires
Elder … or Sister …

3 - On the customs declaration write:  Missionary Personal Supplies
4 - Do not forget to write the country of destination and of origin.

5 - Make sure your package is securely packed.

6 - Never send cash by post. It is prohibited under French law.

7 - Remember that the bigger the package, the greater the risk of it being damaged.

8 - Send the package to the address of the apartment of your missionary and not to the mission office. Packages sent to the mission office will not be forwarded to the missionaries by mail.

9 – Don’t send packages within the 15 days before a transfer. Transfers are every 6 weeks. Ask your missionary to keep you informed of transfer dates.

10 - Remember to send Christmas, Easter, and birthday packages at least 3 weeks early.

11 - If you can, it would be very nice to include in your package something for your  missionary's  son companion. In fact, some of our missionaries receive no support or packages from their loved ones and this could be a support for them, as well as very beneficial to their relationship with their companion.

Photos . . . FINALLY

Week 6

6 Days!!!! We got our travel plans on Halloween, so here's what's up:

Monday morning (Nov 10th) at 11:30 we leave the MTC and go to the Salt Lake Airport where our direct flight to Paris leaves at 5:30, and we'll arrive in the early afternoon. 

This past week has been pretty cool. Elder Williams and I have both been in class, and have begun teaching again. Our lessons were a little rough because we haven't taught together in almost two weeks. In the last one (yesterday) I didn't feel like I had the Spirit at all which was really weird because I have never felt closer to God than I do right now, but there was a reason. Elder Williams was having some doubts in his testimony and I was feeling a little insecure in my abilities, and our teacher/investigator could definitely feel like something was off and so we had a little vent session where I learned of the struggles Elder Williams was facing. That night our other teacher gave all of us some personal/companionship time to really talk with the Lord and receive personal revelation. So, we took some time individually and together praying intently to feel and know that God was here with us, that He loved us, and that we would have His support. I received a resounding answer in the affirmative of all three, and most of my personal prayers were in behalf of Elder Williams. He still hasn't had the answer he's been looking for, but we are trying.

Today has been amazing! Early morning session at the Temple and as always the peace and joy I feel there is indescribable, and then we just got back from a BYU Devotional that the MTC was invited to by Elder David F. Evans of the First Quorum of the Seventy. Wow! He spoke of tenacity in doing what was right and setting goals in life that are in harmony with the Gospel, and help you progress to the ultimate goal of eternal life in the presence of God. Because it was a BYU Devotional there was a lot mentioned about family and marriage, and he mentioned the talk in this last general conference by Tad R. Callister where he (Brother Callister) learned the importance of praying to find a good spouse. Also, he mentioned a quote by President Monson that goes something like this,"To those who have not yet entered the temple, or to those that have been, but do not currently hold a temple recommend, the greatest and most important goal in your life is to obtain a temple recommend and receive the blessings of the temple. Do whatever is necessary to become worthy to enter the House of the Lord. Change your life so that you can worthily maintain a temple recommend." (That was from memory, so it isn't exactly accurate. I suggest looking up that talk and studying it for yourself) I testify as a representative of Jesus Christ that this counsel from our beloved prophet is true. The temple will bless your life and the lives of all those you love more than anything else in this world.

As I have been praying more than I ever have in my life these past few weeks, I have realized why I'm really here. This mission isn't about me at all. I have been humbled to the point of tears, and have begun to see people the way our Heavenly Father sees them. All I want to do is allow everyone I meet to have the opportunity to feel the love and experience the blessings that my Heavenly Father has given me.

I love each of you so much and I feel your support, love, and prayers. Thank you.

Elder Jorgensen