Yeah we went to Lausanne again. More on that in a bit.
Tuesday we went to go see a golden potential who is super hard to get in contact with and she was at home! It was awesome to see her and give a quick lesson there at the door. During this week we were inviting people to the Gex/St. Genis Halloween party and we thought she'd be coming, but it didn't work out. Hopefully we're seeing her tomorrow though! We had a mangez-vous with some members in St. Jean-de-Gonville and I sword fought their three-year-old kid. He won.
Wednesday we went to MacDo in Val-Thoiry with a member who had an idea for us to give virtual tours of the chapel, Google Street View style, to people on the street so they'd know exactly what the church is like on the inside. Once we clear it with Président, it'll be cool! We saw a cool Italian member in the branch, got a recorder from a thrift store, had a conversation with a Portuguese guy in a very Portuguese grocery store, and had dinner with a beautiful young family in the branch who live in Collonges. The husband served his mission in Utah, and he opened my eyes to what it's like being a full time missionary in Utah. Good gracious.
Thursday was district meeting in Gex! Elder Walters, being the half-Brazilian that he is, made us delicious Brazilian food along with passion fruit juice. For dessert we had ice cream with fried bananas and brown sugar. Oh, and the spiritual part was good too ;) But really, it was. We all went around the district, including the zone leaders who came, and bore our testimonies as per the challenge that Elder Adler gave us back in September. Super awesome :D after the meeting everyone else had rendez-vous, so Elder Jenkins and I were left to clean up. While we were doing dishes, a guy walked into the building wanting to know more because a member in Gex ward had talked to him about the Gospel. We taught him a quick lesson and went to his house later on to teach more formally, which was cool! His wife isn't interested right now, but she is Chinese so I got to speak a little 中文 with her and her parents who are visiting :)
Friday we had zone conference, in Lausanne again! It was cool to go back and the conference was fantastic. They did a few activities, one which involved calling your amis right there and fixing a rendez-vous and the other involved shooting people with Nerf guns. Let's just say Sœur Brown is a super cool mission mom :) Also as part of the conference we got to hear the testimonies of the six missionaries in Geneva and Lausanne zones who finish their missions this transfer, namely Elder Rosas (Ireland), Elder Ahlemeyer (Germany), Elder Kimbergt (France), Elder Tihopu (Tahiti), Elder Kettler (Hungary), and Elder Hladky (Austria). All six were fantastic and I'll be sad to see them go in just a couple weeks :( Friday night was the Halloween party! It's not a gigantic holiday in France, but it's still pretty widely celebrated it seems.
Saturday. Happy Halloween! In the morning, only the refrigerator in our apartment worked. Saturday afternoon, everything worked which includes the oven, the dishwasher, the clothes washer, and the dryer. In the morning Elder Steadman and Elder Acheson (the moving crew) came and replaced our broken washing machine with a new one. Frère Zinsius, the member who lives downstairs, is an electrician so he fixed everything else. Yay! That evening we went to Genève for the English ward's Halloween party. Elder Jenkins, having brown pants, a blue sweater, and red hair, went as Elder Tintin while I, being a proud Portlander, went as a hipster. Thing is, I don't think anyone knew I was wearing a costume. They assumed the sunglasses with the punched-outs lenses were real and that I'd just been in Europe long enough to adopt the skinny pants, tight sweater, and scarf. While the latter may be slightly true, it's not what I was going for! Oh well. It was a fun party, I talked to a cool Indian guy and spoke a little Hindi to him and his wife (they loved it)! About half the ward is American, so it was a very American, very Mormon Halloween party (i.e. totally normal for me). They had a trunk or treat afterward too! Elder Smith thought everything was super weird and funny because they don't do Halloween where he's from in England. After the fête we stayed at the Zone Leaders' apartment in Ferney because it takes too long to get home to St. Genis and it's easier to get from Ferney to Gex for church.
Yesterday, Sunday, we got up got out the door on the way to church, but found that we'd missed the bus we wanted by about ten minutes and they only come every hour. We didn't want to wait 50 minutes at the bus stop, but before we could even think about what to do some Gex ward members pulled up right in front of us! It was an awesome miracle and gave us time that morning to do our weekly planning that we hadn't been able to get to recently. Church was good, the branch council was super awesome in discussing people we're working with and how we can best help them. The members here are great! For dinner we went to the Fontanellas' house and, as usual, they made us delicious delicious pasta and told us fun stories from their lives.
Today, Monday. We had zone preparation day in the Geneva Chapel which was really fun, we ate lunch and played random games together like Simon Says and Red Light Green Light. One really fun thing was that Elder Pien was back in town! He came to do his legality in Gex (since you have to do the whole process in the same ville), so he and Elder Zhu spent the day with the zone. I got to practice my Chinese a bit more and it was really cool to see Elder Zhu again after about two months (since Blues Conference)!
Wow, super crazy long letter. This morning I was reading in the Book of Mormon, Mosiah 17-23 and would like to share something about it with y'all. King Noah, a terrible guy who didn't care about his people, had a son named Limhi. Limhi had grown up seeing all his father's awful deeds and yet is described in this way: "Limhi was not ignorant of the iniquities of his father, he himself being a just man." I'd just like you all to know that there is goodness and righteousness to be found no matter where you are! Even if no one around you is willing to follow the teaching of Jesus Christ, you have the choice to do it and be a good example! So, do it!
Love you all!
Elder Jensen
Tuesday we went to go see a golden potential who is super hard to get in contact with and she was at home! It was awesome to see her and give a quick lesson there at the door. During this week we were inviting people to the Gex/St. Genis Halloween party and we thought she'd be coming, but it didn't work out. Hopefully we're seeing her tomorrow though! We had a mangez-vous with some members in St. Jean-de-Gonville and I sword fought their three-year-old kid. He won.
Wednesday we went to MacDo in Val-Thoiry with a member who had an idea for us to give virtual tours of the chapel, Google Street View style, to people on the street so they'd know exactly what the church is like on the inside. Once we clear it with Président, it'll be cool! We saw a cool Italian member in the branch, got a recorder from a thrift store, had a conversation with a Portuguese guy in a very Portuguese grocery store, and had dinner with a beautiful young family in the branch who live in Collonges. The husband served his mission in Utah, and he opened my eyes to what it's like being a full time missionary in Utah. Good gracious.
Thursday was district meeting in Gex! Elder Walters, being the half-Brazilian that he is, made us delicious Brazilian food along with passion fruit juice. For dessert we had ice cream with fried bananas and brown sugar. Oh, and the spiritual part was good too ;) But really, it was. We all went around the district, including the zone leaders who came, and bore our testimonies as per the challenge that Elder Adler gave us back in September. Super awesome :D after the meeting everyone else had rendez-vous, so Elder Jenkins and I were left to clean up. While we were doing dishes, a guy walked into the building wanting to know more because a member in Gex ward had talked to him about the Gospel. We taught him a quick lesson and went to his house later on to teach more formally, which was cool! His wife isn't interested right now, but she is Chinese so I got to speak a little 中文 with her and her parents who are visiting :)
Friday we had zone conference, in Lausanne again! It was cool to go back and the conference was fantastic. They did a few activities, one which involved calling your amis right there and fixing a rendez-vous and the other involved shooting people with Nerf guns. Let's just say Sœur Brown is a super cool mission mom :) Also as part of the conference we got to hear the testimonies of the six missionaries in Geneva and Lausanne zones who finish their missions this transfer, namely Elder Rosas (Ireland), Elder Ahlemeyer (Germany), Elder Kimbergt (France), Elder Tihopu (Tahiti), Elder Kettler (Hungary), and Elder Hladky (Austria). All six were fantastic and I'll be sad to see them go in just a couple weeks :( Friday night was the Halloween party! It's not a gigantic holiday in France, but it's still pretty widely celebrated it seems.
Saturday. Happy Halloween! In the morning, only the refrigerator in our apartment worked. Saturday afternoon, everything worked which includes the oven, the dishwasher, the clothes washer, and the dryer. In the morning Elder Steadman and Elder Acheson (the moving crew) came and replaced our broken washing machine with a new one. Frère Zinsius, the member who lives downstairs, is an electrician so he fixed everything else. Yay! That evening we went to Genève for the English ward's Halloween party. Elder Jenkins, having brown pants, a blue sweater, and red hair, went as Elder Tintin while I, being a proud Portlander, went as a hipster. Thing is, I don't think anyone knew I was wearing a costume. They assumed the sunglasses with the punched-outs lenses were real and that I'd just been in Europe long enough to adopt the skinny pants, tight sweater, and scarf. While the latter may be slightly true, it's not what I was going for! Oh well. It was a fun party, I talked to a cool Indian guy and spoke a little Hindi to him and his wife (they loved it)! About half the ward is American, so it was a very American, very Mormon Halloween party (i.e. totally normal for me). They had a trunk or treat afterward too! Elder Smith thought everything was super weird and funny because they don't do Halloween where he's from in England. After the fête we stayed at the Zone Leaders' apartment in Ferney because it takes too long to get home to St. Genis and it's easier to get from Ferney to Gex for church.
Yesterday, Sunday, we got up got out the door on the way to church, but found that we'd missed the bus we wanted by about ten minutes and they only come every hour. We didn't want to wait 50 minutes at the bus stop, but before we could even think about what to do some Gex ward members pulled up right in front of us! It was an awesome miracle and gave us time that morning to do our weekly planning that we hadn't been able to get to recently. Church was good, the branch council was super awesome in discussing people we're working with and how we can best help them. The members here are great! For dinner we went to the Fontanellas' house and, as usual, they made us delicious delicious pasta and told us fun stories from their lives.
Today, Monday. We had zone preparation day in the Geneva Chapel which was really fun, we ate lunch and played random games together like Simon Says and Red Light Green Light. One really fun thing was that Elder Pien was back in town! He came to do his legality in Gex (since you have to do the whole process in the same ville), so he and Elder Zhu spent the day with the zone. I got to practice my Chinese a bit more and it was really cool to see Elder Zhu again after about two months (since Blues Conference)!
Wow, super crazy long letter. This morning I was reading in the Book of Mormon, Mosiah 17-23 and would like to share something about it with y'all. King Noah, a terrible guy who didn't care about his people, had a son named Limhi. Limhi had grown up seeing all his father's awful deeds and yet is described in this way: "Limhi was not ignorant of the iniquities of his father, he himself being a just man." I'd just like you all to know that there is goodness and righteousness to be found no matter where you are! Even if no one around you is willing to follow the teaching of Jesus Christ, you have the choice to do it and be a good example! So, do it!
Love you all!
Elder Jensen
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