"In My Other Life"

Dear Ones, We've just had such a wonderful evening...a baptismal service for Darline, our young adult friend from Haiti. Many members of her new ward came to support and welcome her. And two of our young amis de l'eglise (investigators)..Adil, from Pakistan and Ilana from Brazil...came to the baptism! The missionaries are no longer teaching Adil, but when he came to the Centre looking for us this evening, the elders said we were at the baptism and so so he came to the church. We were touched that he missed us and are happy to be reconnected with him. Ilana is being taught by the Assistants and has been attending Church and Family Home Evening. It makes our day to see her so happy meeting and mingling with the members. She speaks Portugese and French and tries to understand my Frenglish, but language isn't a barrier...we both feel as if we're long lost friends. Although the regular Institute classses ended a week ago, we had fun Family Home Evening this week on goal setting. Each young adult was asked to write down something they wanted to accomplish by the end of summer. Then they were divided into small groups of 3 to share their goals with eachother and decide on one of the goals to convince the others in a To Tell The Truth game. (Thanks for 1950 game shows!) The point was to be as specific as possible and convey sincerity and enthusiasm so as to convince the other young adults of the REAL owner of the summer goal. We had a lot of fun and Elder Jones wrapped up our activity with scriptures and quotes from Preach My Gospel on the importance of worthy, achievable goals...the closing one being 'le but de la vie' in John 17:3. Wednesday evening we went to watch several of our young men who play on a team in a Geneva recreational league. We were particularly supporting a Manuel, a dearly loved, newly baptized member who has 'slipped' from activity lately. The play was fast and agressive on both sides, but our team was whipped 5 to 1 by the Brazilian team. I think we were the first cheerleaders our team had had, so they were all very appreciative. Thursday we sent out at "Cuisine Alerte" to all the young adults to come for a waffle and game night at the Centre. Twently three were able to join us for an impromptu party, including three Americans on a backpacking trip through Europe who heard that food and friends were available. We had four waffle irons going, served up a half dozen rounds, and played ping poong and foosball for hours! A highlight this week was discovering my picture book farmhouse at the top of a forested hill overlooking lake Geneva and the Alps. The couple who own the farmhouse serve lunch and dinner a couple of days a week...cooked on their old cast iron stove and served by the fireplace and lamp light (no electricity). It was so quaint and exactly how I've pictured 'my other life' in my dreams. I'll try to attach a photo, but it doesn't do it justice. Another special moment in the week was going to a rendevous with the sister missionaries to teach Florence, a very spiritual woman from Ghana who loves the Bible and had many questions on eternal families. We are planning to see her at church tomorrow. In fact, we are meeting investigators at four sacrament meetings tomorrow. It will be a full and joyful day. Thank you all for your interest and prayers, and we're always excited to receive your letters. We were so busy with the final classes during the last two week, that we haven't sent a mission update for a while, but we are loving our friendship with the young adults and the missionaries. We'll try to be a little more faithful in recording and sharing our highlights. Love from us both, Elder and Sister Jones