Mitch

Bonjour Family!

Well- Things are great here in France! What an awesome week!!!
Ill start from cool event number one. We had a successful baptism this past week! yay. I'll send the program in another Email cuz attachments are killer on myldsmail.net But yeah, He had his interview on friday with a chinese speaking elder from paris, and he passed! yay. so on saturday we had the baptism. it was interesting having a french program with a chinese speaker getting baptized! the first speaker asked him a question, and he didnt realize it was a question. that was a little funny. but he was baptized by Elder Collins, who actually was the person to find him, (i replaced him when i got here...) After the baptism, he bore his testimony in french which was the neatest thing ever. He is such a humble guy. The Branch has done such a good job at welcoming him and fellowshipping too! he was invited randomly yest with us by a member to come have lunch and teach a lesson. i love our branch, and im afraid that when i leave Rouen, the next branch wont be as awesome! oh yeah, he was also confirmed in church by elder Barton yest.
the next cool thing that happened this week was Zone conference down in paris. Sister staheli told us a parable about chocolate cake and red clothes. it was such a good story that i suggest finding a reading... i actually thought about dads seminary class when she read it and how they could use it. it is by sharon larsen and in her sisters book. I walk by faith by Ardeth Kapp. but i didnt catch the name of the parable. Ill do what i can to get it from her, but look for it yourself online if you have time, mom. :)
after Sis Staheli, the assistants talked and used a bit of shakespeare from Henry V. they used a speech henry delivered just before going to battle against the french, being outnumbered 5 to 1, yet they still won the battle.
President then had 3 different talks that afternoon (he kept pologizing for being on the program so much! i dont think anyone was complaining to hear from him though!)
the first one was on planning, and used the story of the bro of jared and the stones. and talked about how specific he was in his requests in ether 3:4.
the second one, he talked about the first vision and how Joseph had been prepared his whole life for the restoration. One thing he said, but i had never really thought about before in this way, is that Joseph did not go into the grove, or come out planning on starting a new church, or knowing of the plates. He just went to his "secret place" to find out his standing before the lord, and to get his sins forgiven.
The last talk was on testimony and was money also. I forgot my notes- so thats as specific as i can get on that one right now! haha
I love Zone conferences!!
alright, now for the rest of the week:

tuesday we made the baptismal program, i gave myself a haircut, and did some good ole contacting and taught seminary, since our teacher is gone for a few weeks. that was just grand.

Wed we spent the morning contacting, the afternoon contacting, and the evening teaching english class. We went to do a pass back at a house wewent to last week. The guy was interested last week, but now he doesnt even believe in God. Ok...? haha silly french.

Thursday was the already mentioned zone conference, friday morning we went contacting with a member. i really liked it, outside of the 2 times he got a little defensive and started arguing. we had to tell him to calm down a lil. haha after that, we had the already mentioned interview for Shi-lins baptism. We had two different appts cancel in the evening, so we went to branch council as a back up plan. Wow. that is a boring meeting. ESPECIALLY in a language i barely understand! haha.

sat was the baptism.

Sunday we had church, then taught Marie (the 11 year old recent convert) for the last time. since they invited Shi-Lin over, it was also our first time teaching him as a member of the Church! YAY! Last night we went contacting and stopped a guy who attends a society of people who discuss religious things. About 20-25 potential investigators in my eyes! Im so excited and hope things work out, although we plan on telling president and letting him research the society a little before we do it. We will see what happens.
And then today, we went looking for a bulletin board at a home store, and came home with the most amazing rug ever!!! for only 9 euros! nice! and on the bus on the way back, this is what happened, in elder bartons words:

Earlier today, while we were on the bus, some random punk stole Elder Jergensen's nametag and walked off. I walked after him and kept telling him to give it back, but he wouldn't answer. I tried to pull it out of his hand, but his friend got in between us and tried to separate us. The first guy then just snapped the nametag, dropped it in the street, and they both just walked off. The first guy pulled out a cross necklace and showed it to me and said, "don't betray my God". I'm not going to lie, when the second guy was pushing us apart, I was really, really tempted to fight them, and I don't think I would have had much trouble with either of them, but I listened to the voice of reason which said it wasn't worth it. But I'm still pretty mad about it. But no french punks are in the hospital, and I'm not in any legal trouble for getting in a fight, so I guess it's all right.

Well, i was chucking alot in the letters to me this week (FHE, the office bathroom, moms braces, cancun, camping, golddigging :p, KATIE LIVING IN ARK!!, beandrop, the egosque "trick".... haha). and was also a little nervous or however youd say it reading about the accident and the plane in NYC. what a cool story! i always laugh when i look at the emergency exit plans on a plane for a perfectly safe water landing. its good to see that it actually can happen that way, and that it works.

I didnt realize JR is already leaving! tell him good luck for me and to really use the MTC wisely... cuz i regret every second i wasted in there now!! haha

alright, that seems to be it! ill send that program and a few pics! til next week!

- Elder Jergensen

Pictures from the email: