well hello!
This was a pretty exciting week! Monday after Emailing home, Elder Barton and I went to A member familys home and had dinner with them and Shi-Lin and taught Shi-Lin a little lesson on prophets. It went well, and it is great to see how well the members integrate him, despite the language barriers!
tuesday We had a district meeting which went well. we Talked about things like testimony and working with members. We then went and cleaned a less active's backyard for service with the Other Elders. Elder Barton spent some time in the apt packing after we said bye, and that evening We did a bit of contacting and then had a little goodbye party with the institute for elder B. It was good. There was a nonmember there, and we got to talk about our missions and our purpose with her. Then we rushed home to get in on time and Had Elder Bartons last night in France with me!
Wed Elder B had a train at 730, and then i had the morning alone. i walked around town a little to celebrate that, spent some time cleaning and stuff. it was aight. Elder Poussard came in and unpacked, we talked about the Work here and stuff, then taught English class. Hes a pretty cool and funny guy! Hes french and that has already helped me alot with the language. we get along pretty well. :)
Thursday we worked alot in the Area book, did transfer cleaning, a few hours of contacting, and taugh 2 less active lessons, both went well. I really liked Elder Barton alot, but theres something about Elder Poussard and his teaching I really like. It helps alot that he is French, but i feel that with Him, the work will pick up alot here. Im excited!! He has alot of good ideas and is a great teacher, so i am excited to learn from him!
Friday we spent the Day in Paris. We saw some stuff- the louvre, the eiffel tower, arch de triomphe, and then headed over to versaille for mission conference. Elder Oaks was very complimentary of our mission. We took a picture with everyone, then all got to shake his hand before he talked (he asked where i was from, and said he really enjoyed hemet when he was there last year! :D). We heard from President and Sis Staheli, Elder and Sister Paya of the Area presidency, and Elde and sister Oaks. They all did great! Im in a hurry and forgot my notes, but he basically said that europe is tough, but just like we are all given different levels of challenge in life, so are missionaries. we need to put in our 100 percent effort, and if that yeilds zero baptisms or whatever, it will be a better served mission than the disobedient missionary who gets 50 baptisms, because we did the best we could. It was a great evening.
Sat We did some contacting and lots of planning! Transfer planning and weekly plannnig! and we did samedi sports for a little. it was good to run arround and play a little bit after all that planning!
Sunday Shi-Lin Recieved the priesthood! :) So exciting. he told me hes going to bless the sacrament in 2 weeks! We also got one of the guys we have been working with, Fr Massamba, to come to church. i was so excited to see him come in! We did some contacting, more Area book Work, and took the sacrament to and gave a blessing to a shut-in sister.
It was a good week. :) im excited to be here and know the church is true. It sounds like everything is going relatively well at home! thanks to all who write so often. talk to you next week.

love, Elder Jergensen :)

Well Hello.
This was another pretty good week in France! :)
Tuesday We had a RDV with Shi Lin and taught him the rest of the 5th Lesson. We will start reteaching the first 4 lessons here soon. im excited to see what he has retained through our first RDVs, between the language problems and time, and all of the information being completely new to him. We also did lots of contacting. it started hailing on us a little before we went in, too! it was amazing.
Wed, Parkers Birthday :), we had interviews with President and AP training in Caen. Things went good there- he told me I will be staying in Rouen one more transfer, officially gave me permission to use hotmail for pictures and a backup to this, and gave me some tips to not be so tired all the time, amoung other things. :) I was also really impressed at Sister Staheli. She talks to all 150 missionaries for 15-20 mins every 6 weeks and thats it. You would not expect her to remember a thing we talked about (especially since last interviews were 10 weeks ago...) but we picked right up where we left off, and she was asking specific questions about things we talked about before. I was so impressed and touched by that. Wed night we taught english class, and started an exchange with the Le Havre Elders.
Thursday I went to the Prefacture- the legality dept- to continue the process of being legal here. that took a little time, but my Visa expires next week, so im now good past that. :) Since we were on exchanges, we had two companionships contacting in Rouen, and between us all, we got alot done! 3 phone numbers in one day plus a few other good lessons taught! it was a good missionary work day.
Friday was also very good. we had three lessons. the first was with a less active who hasnt been to church in 30 years. We left him with a book of Mormon and i think he was really touched by it. it was from Elder Bartons Primary, and then Bro. Fernandes asked us to put our testimonies in it as well. after that, we taught and investigator lesson 3. we want to work with her daughter, because her kids seem to be the biggest challenge in getting her to church. the daughter wasnt there, but hopefully in the future. Later we taught another less active family, also. it went ok. I think that all three of these families would benefit the church so much, and benefit from the church even more than that!
Saturday was spent in the apt most of the day so Elder Barton could start packing. he goes home this thursday! crazy! But we had a meeting with our DMB and dinner with some members and left them with a message about the prophet. I also found out who my next Companion will be!
His name is ELder Poussard and He comes from Bordeaux France. So he is a native French speaker! I am so excited for this opportunity that ill have to work even more on my language! im so stoked! Hes a fun guy, too. Ive met him once or twice, as he was the trainer for one of my best buds in the MTC. i was so happy when i saw his name. itll be a great transfer!
Yest We had Church in the Morning. Elder Bartons last Sunday in France. So he said goodbye to most of the members, which was... i cant think of a good word. fill in the blank. haha We spent the afternoon making sure records were up to date and stuff so things would continue to run smoothly when Elder Barton left. Last night we went to a members house to say bye to them. Actually, the family who we ate with on Christmas. They are way neat and we had a good time there. We also had a Branch fast yest for missionary work here in Rouen (you cant skip out on that one when ur the full time missionary here! :p).
And that pretty much sums up the week.
I was impressed with Myrls missionnary work! and also jealous that i wasnt able to be at ur couples reunion! haha. Mom commented how we might not know how much of a scriptorian Merrill is, but I do. :) he was my number one participant when i taught priesthood in the singles ward last summer. it was a devistating week when Merrill and Bishop Gray werent there! 85 percent of the participation was gone!! haha
Congrats To Brad on being a Cougar! Thats exciting to hear! oh- i also got a letter from him and nathan both today... Ill write back soon. :)
The mission joke is that the first phrases a new missionary learns from hearing others speak are: "i dont have the time", "Im not interested", "you're a cult", "Im in a hurry" while pointing at their watch, and "oh, the jehovahs witnesses..." so to answer your question, no, we usually dont get much in before they tell us one of these things. Which is too bad, because this is the true church and we have a message that will change their lives. i know its true and why i am here!
til next week! Elder Jergensen- formerly known as Mitch

Well Hello again.First of all, something really important. the email I sent with pix 2 weeks ago... i need everyone to delete the picture in the font. A bunch of us made a listake in taking pictures which is (now obviously) forbidden. we figured it was ok, as long as it wasnt during the ordinance and stuff. But since it was during the meeting, its not allowed. any pictures between the prayers are interdit (forbidden- for all you who dont speak french... :p). Whoops. so please, in the name of the Church, im asking that you delete that picture in the font. Thanks.
Things: i did get ur emails last week-maybe just in hotmail. i forget- and did get the package. it got here fine, just you forgot to put Lss Missionnaires, which made our building manager not happy. haha
Cheering.... um... Mitch is the best cheerleader HHS has ever seen. period. but he specialized in Volleyball, not polo, just for the record. He was a player on boys polo, and ran the clock and stat books for girls, so couldnt ever cheer at polo! haha but its ok.
food- We eat burgers alot, bread, pasta. Normal food for the most part. I havent eaten at a members house in a long time.
language- its coming, slowly but surely. its tough for me cuz theres so much i want to say, but dont know the words. :( but its ok. ittl come. ca va venir...
and weather is cold, and sometimes rainy. like today. but not too bad.
And im pretty sure my nose was broken last summer when me and andrew crashed on the slip n slide. cuz i noticed recently how weird its bent... haha
Now for this week. Tuesday We Started with a RDV with a less active meber, who we have been teaching recently. That went well, and even though hes not able to come to church, i feel he is progressing a little. Hes reading out of the book of Mormon again, and he asks really good questions. It is so great when we read a scripture and he pulls out a pen and writes the reference down to go and read later. We also went with a member to hometeach another less active, after which we hurried to the church to teach Shi-Lin. He never showed up, and eventually sent us a text message saying he wouldnt make it. so we rescheduled for the next day, and finished the day doing some finding.
Wed we had District meeting in Le Havre with the Zone Leaders. Afterwards, we came back to Rouen with The zone leaders for exchanges. Elder barton went to teach Shi-Lin while i went with the other zone leader and did some finding. (Shi Lin never showed up...) After that, we went to do service for a less active, followed by English Class.
Thursday we taught Shi Lin finally. When we met him at the church, he was so sad. He wrote us a note apologizing for missing the RDV on wed because he had double scheduled over class. he thought that it would offend us and that he had lost our friendship because of it. It was sad to see him like that, but after we explained it was ok, and we all have conflicts in life, things went well. We were so blessed that day. We actually had scheduled the visit for sat, and had a less active lesson on thursday. Only a few mins after the less active canceled on us did Shi-Lin text us to say hed be at the church at the same time the cancelled appt was. How distraught wouldve he been if we told him we couldnt make it then!? Even cancelled appts can be blessings! We also saw a member who recently went through a divorce, and he is quite lonely. it was a good visit, and we left him with a message of having hope.
Friday We had a DMB meeting in the morning. Our DMB told us that he was happy at how busy we were and that he hopes Elder Bartons replacement (in 9 days) will be just as motivated. We had 3 other appts on friday, all of which fell thru. that was tough. im trying to see the blessings in these appts falling thru! :P So we ended up doing alot of porting and street contacting. (some teenagers said we looked like harry potter- with our cloak like coats, ties and sweaters. haha. if only we had wands, too! :p)
Sat we went up to the university to contact. the only problem was it was saturday! haha there was absolutely no one out. so we ended up searching for less actives in the branch, confirming adresses and stuff. that took a while. then we planned for next week, and did a little contacting before coming back in for the night.
Sunday we had church, and went to take sacrament to some shut-ins. We filled the afternoon with studying, contacting and porting. (elder Hollands talk from oct 2007 is SO GOOD!! and Elder ballards, too in the same session.) and that was the week.
We are spending alot of time searching for new investigators. And things arent working out so well with that. but i think we are doing a good job with some less actives in the branch. Even though it doesnt help with numbers, its just as important, as enduring to the end is crucial to our salvation. I know the church is true, and im glad that im out here, even through the difficult days. Ive said since like the 3rd week of the MTC that the days are long and the weeks fly by, which is so true still.
Til next week, Elder J