Well, this has been one of the most eventful weeks of my whole mission. I'll try to elaborate:
Last Monday we did a cool hike and had an amazing view. It's called Le Moucherotte, I'll send pictures!
Tuesday actually wasn't too crazy, we went contacting and found a nice young Vietnamese guy :)
Wednesday is when things really started going down. All four of us Elders were at a member's house for lunch down the street from a McDonald's (known in France as MacDo). We had noticed that some gendarmes were closing down the tram line outside and putting up yellow tape everywhere, but we had no idea why. During lunch, the Sœurs called us to let us know that a less-active had just called them saying that there had been an explosion in the bathroom of the MacDo. That was super weird déjà, but after lunch we're walking home and we get a call from President Brown instructing us to return to our apartment as quick as possible and to stay there until further notice. We all figured it wasn't a terrorist attack (more of a situation like the one in Elder Renlund's October 2016 talk), but better safe than sorry! We did that and then, also acting under instruction from President Brown, called our families to tell them briefly what had happened and that we were okay so they wouldn't worry if it showed up on the news later that day. The time difference a fait que my phone call was a rather harsh 6 am wake-up alarm for my poor mother, but she handled it nicely :) Love you Mom! President called back an hour later to liberate us, but said that we should probably avoid MacDo that night. So, that was an experience.
Thursday: The same member who had fed us the day before wanted us to meet him en ville so he could give us some bolognaise sauce he had made. It was super super good :) In the early afternoon, the other Elders went to Valence (more than an hour's train ride away) for an exchange. Remember that. That evening we met with Umberto and helped him prep for his first ever sacrament meeting talk! Afterwards, we popped back into the apartment for a couple minutes and then headed back out. Key detail: our apartment door auto-locks. I closed the door behind me and felt my pocket to make sure I had everything. Not only did I not have everything, I had nothing! I had my cell phone, but no bus pass, no keys, no cards, rien. Normally we'd just ask the other Elders to come open it for us but remember where they were? Yep, Valence. We went over our options (break down our front door, go through our neighbor's apartment and climb onto the balcony and break down that door, call a locksmith (way expensive), or maybe just ask the Sœurs if they had a extra key laying around since their apartment used to belong to an équipe of Elders). We took the last option and while waiting for the Sœurs to bring any extra keys they could find, talked to Francisco, an old Spanish guy who sits outside the church pretty often. The Sœurs came, we tried their extra keys, nothing worked. We called the office and asked the office Elders what we should do, since they have extra keys for every apartment but they also live in Lyon which is an hour and a half away. We tossed around a lot of options regarding trains and where we might possibly stay the night, but finally they just asked President what he thought we should do. He thought we should try to find a member to stay with for the night! Our first thought was in fact the very member who had given us the bolognaise sauce earlier that day, since he has a nice apartment and lives nearby. We called him to explain the situation, he said he'd check with his roommate, and we bought Domino's pizza. He called back saying that we could come, and that's how we ended up spending the night trying to fall asleep in two big armchairs with our feet propped up on this member's coffee table. We watched a conference talk with him and he told us all about the upcoming Presidential elections. It's pretty nuts.
The next morning we had breakfast and tried to do some studies, then just wandered around the city contacting until the other Elders came back. They did and we got their keys, but then they promptly went straight back to Valence to retrieve Elder Stephens' wallet that he'd accidentally left in the Valence gare. That night we saw a less-active family and discussed Christ's Atonement using the New Testament Children's Stories book. It went well!
Saturday was the baptism of someone the Sœurs have been teaching. They used to be a member, but had their records removed a long time ago, and recently decided to come back!
Sunday there was practically no one at church. All the members had been at the Bern Temple all week and then went to see the Paris temple over the weekend, so it was one of the lowest attended sacrament meetings I've ever been to. Par contre, I just heard that the Versailles Ward (where the temple is) had about 700 members at church! That's what happens when half the members in France visit Paris on the same weekend.
Today we hiked a bit around the Bastille. Since it's Labor Day here, there is absolutely zero public transport running. We've walked a fair amount today :/
Despite the turbulent times we live in, whether on a nationwide scale or just within your own heart and soul, know that there is one thing that will never change: God loves you! He wants what's best for you so He lets you endure trials to help you grow. Thanks to Him, we have our families and friends and the sunshine and mashed potatoes and purple flowers and everything else that is good in the world :) Remember that love next time you're in distress!
Love y'all, see you later!
Elder Jensen
江长老
Last Monday we did a cool hike and had an amazing view. It's called Le Moucherotte, I'll send pictures!
Tuesday actually wasn't too crazy, we went contacting and found a nice young Vietnamese guy :)
Wednesday is when things really started going down. All four of us Elders were at a member's house for lunch down the street from a McDonald's (known in France as MacDo). We had noticed that some gendarmes were closing down the tram line outside and putting up yellow tape everywhere, but we had no idea why. During lunch, the Sœurs called us to let us know that a less-active had just called them saying that there had been an explosion in the bathroom of the MacDo. That was super weird déjà, but after lunch we're walking home and we get a call from President Brown instructing us to return to our apartment as quick as possible and to stay there until further notice. We all figured it wasn't a terrorist attack (more of a situation like the one in Elder Renlund's October 2016 talk), but better safe than sorry! We did that and then, also acting under instruction from President Brown, called our families to tell them briefly what had happened and that we were okay so they wouldn't worry if it showed up on the news later that day. The time difference a fait que my phone call was a rather harsh 6 am wake-up alarm for my poor mother, but she handled it nicely :) Love you Mom! President called back an hour later to liberate us, but said that we should probably avoid MacDo that night. So, that was an experience.
Thursday: The same member who had fed us the day before wanted us to meet him en ville so he could give us some bolognaise sauce he had made. It was super super good :) In the early afternoon, the other Elders went to Valence (more than an hour's train ride away) for an exchange. Remember that. That evening we met with Umberto and helped him prep for his first ever sacrament meeting talk! Afterwards, we popped back into the apartment for a couple minutes and then headed back out. Key detail: our apartment door auto-locks. I closed the door behind me and felt my pocket to make sure I had everything. Not only did I not have everything, I had nothing! I had my cell phone, but no bus pass, no keys, no cards, rien. Normally we'd just ask the other Elders to come open it for us but remember where they were? Yep, Valence. We went over our options (break down our front door, go through our neighbor's apartment and climb onto the balcony and break down that door, call a locksmith (way expensive), or maybe just ask the Sœurs if they had a extra key laying around since their apartment used to belong to an équipe of Elders). We took the last option and while waiting for the Sœurs to bring any extra keys they could find, talked to Francisco, an old Spanish guy who sits outside the church pretty often. The Sœurs came, we tried their extra keys, nothing worked. We called the office and asked the office Elders what we should do, since they have extra keys for every apartment but they also live in Lyon which is an hour and a half away. We tossed around a lot of options regarding trains and where we might possibly stay the night, but finally they just asked President what he thought we should do. He thought we should try to find a member to stay with for the night! Our first thought was in fact the very member who had given us the bolognaise sauce earlier that day, since he has a nice apartment and lives nearby. We called him to explain the situation, he said he'd check with his roommate, and we bought Domino's pizza. He called back saying that we could come, and that's how we ended up spending the night trying to fall asleep in two big armchairs with our feet propped up on this member's coffee table. We watched a conference talk with him and he told us all about the upcoming Presidential elections. It's pretty nuts.
The next morning we had breakfast and tried to do some studies, then just wandered around the city contacting until the other Elders came back. They did and we got their keys, but then they promptly went straight back to Valence to retrieve Elder Stephens' wallet that he'd accidentally left in the Valence gare. That night we saw a less-active family and discussed Christ's Atonement using the New Testament Children's Stories book. It went well!
Saturday was the baptism of someone the Sœurs have been teaching. They used to be a member, but had their records removed a long time ago, and recently decided to come back!
Sunday there was practically no one at church. All the members had been at the Bern Temple all week and then went to see the Paris temple over the weekend, so it was one of the lowest attended sacrament meetings I've ever been to. Par contre, I just heard that the Versailles Ward (where the temple is) had about 700 members at church! That's what happens when half the members in France visit Paris on the same weekend.
Today we hiked a bit around the Bastille. Since it's Labor Day here, there is absolutely zero public transport running. We've walked a fair amount today :/
Despite the turbulent times we live in, whether on a nationwide scale or just within your own heart and soul, know that there is one thing that will never change: God loves you! He wants what's best for you so He lets you endure trials to help you grow. Thanks to Him, we have our families and friends and the sunshine and mashed potatoes and purple flowers and everything else that is good in the world :) Remember that love next time you're in distress!
Love y'all, see you later!
Elder Jensen
江长老
No comments:
Post a Comment