Pretty much all the announcements at church for the past month or more have been about the Paris temple dedication. Not complaining :) T-minus 6 days! 🇫🇷
Last week we had zone conference and talked about, among other things, true love and eternal marriage. Nottrunkynottrunkynottrunkynottrunkynottrunky Sœur Brown is a spunky mission mom, so she showed us a compilation of all the times Wesley from the Princess Bride says "As you wish." Oh man. She also shared the story of how she and President Brown met, it was sooooo funny :) we talked a lot about the temple of course, including how personal this blessing is to the French people. As missionaries, we kind of mentally divide the country into North and South (Paris and Lyon missions), but that line doesn't exist for people that actually live here! A temple in Versailles is a temple on mainland French soil, and that's a big deal! Cool thought :)
Toward the end of zone conference Sœur Filbrandt (from Bern, Suisse) and I had the opportunity to go up and bear our testimonies, it was really cool :) I know Christ lives!
After zone conference we had kind of an adventure: all four of us Elders had to hurry from the Ecully chapel to the Lyon gare so we could catch a train back to Grenoble to catch a bus out to Allevard to have dinner with some members, but literally 10 seconds after we arrived in the gare, our train was cancelled. The next train after that was shown as cancelled as well, so there was no chance we would make our bus. We went to the desk and exchanged our tickets for some going the long way around through Chambéry and down to Pontcharra, a town close to Allevard. We also took a train back from Pontcharra to Grenoble, so we were pretty much outside Grenoble for 15 hours that day. Got free tiramisu once after zone conference and once at the mangez-vous though, so it was worth it.
Wednesday we went to visit an awesome young family in the world who lives out about 35 minutes from Grenoble, it was super fun :) the day after that we went to see a referral we got from a member, but it didn't go so well. We rang at their gate, but the husband just opened the window, yelled that they weren't interested, and closed the window. We called the member and asked what to do, and his answer was "just try again!" The couple in the house didn't look so happy to have two Témoins de Jehovah back ringing at their gate, but the husband donned shoes, a jacket, and an umbrella (it was raining; we kind of looked like wet rats) to come out to the gate and talk to us. We explained we were friends of this member and that we weren't here to force him into religion or even try to convince him or anything, but he was super closed. So sad :'( But remember, rejection doesn't mean you're a bad missionary! Even Jesus got rejected!
At the end of the week we hung out in centre ville with a Jesuit geologist. Really cool bro, knows a lot about rocks and had some super nice crystals for sale. He told us about how his career proves the existence of God, since there's no way perfectly formed crystals and gems and stuff don't have a divine creator. I wholeheartedly agree with him :) He also let me and Elder Masterson hold a rock that was 3,2 billion years old, made of pure iron, and somehow made its way to the Earth from somewhere in the asteroid belt. Dope.
Something else big happened this week: I finally finished reading Jesus the Christ! For all who don't know, it's a fancily-worded, highly intellectual, over 750-page book all about Jesus Christ, written by an apostle back in like 1915. I started it in the MTC almost two years ago, and just finished this last week. Having learned more now about Christ before this life, during His mortal life, His mission after the Resurrection, and prophecies about Him that have yet to be fulfilled, I can once again testify: I know that Jesus is the Christ! Essentially, that means He is the one who volunteered and was chosen by God to sacrifice himself for all the other billions of God's children. The purpose of life is to be on the winning team, God's team, when Satan will be vanquished just before the final judgement. However, that victory could only be possible if Christ succeeded in living a sinless life and in atoning for our sins. He did! Thanks to Him, we have the opportunity to live with God again :)
Love you! Hasta luego!
Elder Jensen
江长老
Last week we had zone conference and talked about, among other things, true love and eternal marriage. Nottrunkynottrunkynottrunkynottrunkynottrunky Sœur Brown is a spunky mission mom, so she showed us a compilation of all the times Wesley from the Princess Bride says "As you wish." Oh man. She also shared the story of how she and President Brown met, it was sooooo funny :) we talked a lot about the temple of course, including how personal this blessing is to the French people. As missionaries, we kind of mentally divide the country into North and South (Paris and Lyon missions), but that line doesn't exist for people that actually live here! A temple in Versailles is a temple on mainland French soil, and that's a big deal! Cool thought :)
Toward the end of zone conference Sœur Filbrandt (from Bern, Suisse) and I had the opportunity to go up and bear our testimonies, it was really cool :) I know Christ lives!
After zone conference we had kind of an adventure: all four of us Elders had to hurry from the Ecully chapel to the Lyon gare so we could catch a train back to Grenoble to catch a bus out to Allevard to have dinner with some members, but literally 10 seconds after we arrived in the gare, our train was cancelled. The next train after that was shown as cancelled as well, so there was no chance we would make our bus. We went to the desk and exchanged our tickets for some going the long way around through Chambéry and down to Pontcharra, a town close to Allevard. We also took a train back from Pontcharra to Grenoble, so we were pretty much outside Grenoble for 15 hours that day. Got free tiramisu once after zone conference and once at the mangez-vous though, so it was worth it.
Wednesday we went to visit an awesome young family in the world who lives out about 35 minutes from Grenoble, it was super fun :) the day after that we went to see a referral we got from a member, but it didn't go so well. We rang at their gate, but the husband just opened the window, yelled that they weren't interested, and closed the window. We called the member and asked what to do, and his answer was "just try again!" The couple in the house didn't look so happy to have two Témoins de Jehovah back ringing at their gate, but the husband donned shoes, a jacket, and an umbrella (it was raining; we kind of looked like wet rats) to come out to the gate and talk to us. We explained we were friends of this member and that we weren't here to force him into religion or even try to convince him or anything, but he was super closed. So sad :'( But remember, rejection doesn't mean you're a bad missionary! Even Jesus got rejected!
At the end of the week we hung out in centre ville with a Jesuit geologist. Really cool bro, knows a lot about rocks and had some super nice crystals for sale. He told us about how his career proves the existence of God, since there's no way perfectly formed crystals and gems and stuff don't have a divine creator. I wholeheartedly agree with him :) He also let me and Elder Masterson hold a rock that was 3,2 billion years old, made of pure iron, and somehow made its way to the Earth from somewhere in the asteroid belt. Dope.
Something else big happened this week: I finally finished reading Jesus the Christ! For all who don't know, it's a fancily-worded, highly intellectual, over 750-page book all about Jesus Christ, written by an apostle back in like 1915. I started it in the MTC almost two years ago, and just finished this last week. Having learned more now about Christ before this life, during His mortal life, His mission after the Resurrection, and prophecies about Him that have yet to be fulfilled, I can once again testify: I know that Jesus is the Christ! Essentially, that means He is the one who volunteered and was chosen by God to sacrifice himself for all the other billions of God's children. The purpose of life is to be on the winning team, God's team, when Satan will be vanquished just before the final judgement. However, that victory could only be possible if Christ succeeded in living a sinless life and in atoning for our sins. He did! Thanks to Him, we have the opportunity to live with God again :)
Love you! Hasta luego!
Elder Jensen
江长老
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