Still week 6 - November 16 - Evry

 The Elder's in Jaxon's new Apartment

The things you find on other Blogs!! I love it.

I found out who the Elder's are in Jaxon's new apartment in Evry. Elder Empey has a blogspot and I found out a few things about them.  The 4 Elder's in his Apartment are Elder Ireland, Elder Carson (Jaxon), Elder Davis and Elder Empey.  I am thinking Jaxon will love his roomies. They totally seem to have the same interests as Jaxon. Joke-sters haha.  This is what Elder Empey said in his last email home on Monday.........

Wednesday will be the day when people get transferred around but ill be staying here in Evry with Elder Davis for at least another 4 weeks for sure and then I might be moved to a different city but ill probably stay another 8 weeks after that. There was only one change made in the apartment, Elder Roth is leaving to a different city and Elder Ireland will be training a "blue" here in Evry! I'm so stoked to have a missionary in the apartment that's newer than me! Makes me feel old and experienced in the mish ;) we don't know who he is yet but we have a whole bunch of pranks planned for when he shows up in 2 days haha. 

Elder Empey made a video of his apartment. I am so happy I found his Blog. I never imagined it being so tiny. Jaxon loves ping pong and I saw a little ping pong set on their dinner table. Here is the youtube link to tour their apartment. (Thank you Elder Empey)

 http://youtu.be/Iwy0ETnNY0U

 This is Elder Davis and Elder Empey

 

Evry France Packages

Thanksgiving Day Package 2014

I ordered a package from the website  

http://www.tofromus.com/ 

The previous mission President's wife started a website to send packages to the missionaries in France. She wanted to be able to help the missionary mom's find a cheaper, easier and quicker way to get packages to France. I have ordered a few from her. It was so easy and he got them within a few days. Amazing!! Here is what the Thanksgiving Day Package looks like. I also got to send a little note that she prints out to send too. I put a family recipe in the note for Pumpkin pie and Pie crust. Hopefully he will actually make one. 

 

 I also ordered a toiletries package from the same website and he received it when he arrived at the mission office. I figured he would be out of some of this stuff and this would save him some time having to go buy them.

 

Christmas Package 2014

I wanted to do the 12 days of Christmas for him and center it around the Nativity. I found the cutest Nativity on Pinterest. I don't know who made it up to give them credit, they didn't say.  I just got Candy, toys, and his favorite treats.  Christmas Eve is the 12th day of Christmas so I gave him his Jammie's on that day. TRADITION!  The idea is to take the little paper figurine off of the package and tape it on the wall to make up the Nativity. By the 12th day of Christmas, Baby Jesus is born.

This all fit in a priority box I got from the Post Office, it looks like a lot of gifts but you can see they are simple things in the picture below.

 This is the Nativity I put on all his packages

 I just went and bought some of his favorite things and a few toys for him and his companion

Oh Christmas Tree!

I don't know if they get Christmas Tree's or not but I decided to make him one. It's a Paper Tree with little Picture Ornaments of EVERY person (sisters, brothers, mom, dad, first cousins, aunts and uncles) and glued them to cupcake papers. The cupcake paper helps it to look more festive and roundy. I bought Christmas Cupcake papers at walmart. I am sending the Picture Ornaments seperate so he can decorate his tree himself.  I also am including double sided tape for him to do that and be able to hang his paper tree on the wall. I sent a picture of the tree with a note so he would know what to do. The note said "We know you can't be home this Christmas, so we're sending everyone to France to spend the holiday with you".

This is the Tree with candy cane tape for Garland. I just used Butcher paper from a craft store. I also used green polka dot tape for the stump.

This is how the finished tree will look after he puts all the ornaments on.

These are the colors of the cupcake papers and I just cut a circle of each picture and taped them in the middle of the cupcake paper. I used double sided tape.

I just folded the paper tree till it was small and put all the ornaments in a baggie with some tape. This made it easy to send.

I made a stocking for him and his companion. I don't want him to have to carry a nice stocking around the mission for 2 years so I bought him a cheap one from Target that he and his companion can just throw away.

It's tradition in our home to Wrap EVERY single item in the stocking. Only a few small candy canes are always just thrown in there. 

Final stockings ready to ship!

Week 6 - November 11 - Paris

 He has ARRIVED!!

He made it to the Mission Home. YAY! Here is the letter from the Mission President and some Pictures of him. His new Companion is Elder Ireland who I have pictures of below. He is serving in Evry for his first area.

To the Family of Elder Carson
Sister Babin and I were delighted to welcome your son , Elder Jaxon Bryan Carson , into the France Paris Mission on 11 Nov 2014. He and his MTC companions were enthusiastic and all arrived in good health.  He spent his first day eating some good food, visiting with me, contacting non-members in the heart of Paris, and sharing testimonies.  We enjoyed his spirit.
The next morning, after a mission orientation, Elder Carson left for his first assignment to work in the Evry2 4 Area with Elder Ireland, who will be his trainer.  

We feel very privileged to work with your  son .  We also realize the responsibility we share with you to help him continue to grow spiritually as he faithfully performs his duties.  May the Lord inspire us all to sustain him in this challenging and exciting assignment.  We hope you will join Sister Babin and me in praying each day for your son , his companion, investigators, and all of us serving in the France Paris Mission.

A positive, supportive letter from home every week does wonders to sustain a missionary’s morale.  Proverbs 25:25 states:  As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country. If you have any questions, or if we can assist you in any way, please contact us at our office

Sincerely,
Frédéric Jean Babin
President, France Paris Mission

I also sent a package from a new website that the old mission president's wife, Sister Véronique Poznanski has started for those who live far away. It is amazing and not as expensive as sending something from the states. It will get to him within a few days of ordering. The website is www.tofromus.com. I have a link posted to this blog.  I had a question about shipping a Thanksgiving package and asked her about Jaxon's new area and if she knew his companion very well. This is what she responded to me with:

Oh great !! he will serve in a big ward where missionary work works really well!!! There are 4 elders in Evry and 2 sisters missionaries! One of the Elders, Elder Davis, was our assistant when we left, he is such a good person and elder!!! My husband has an uncle in the Evry ward and this is also the ward  President and Sister Babin come from (they still have 2 married daughters being members of this ward). There are a lot of different nationalities in this ward (many African people). And Elder Ireland is a good good missionary. He is Canadian. We can say that he is a peacemaker. He is tall not only in size but also in spirit. I am sure he will appreciate his experience !

About his Thanksgiving package the best would be to order it at the end of the week and have you seen that you can include a letter of gratitude that I can print and add to the package (it is included in the price of this package). You can send it through tofromus@gmail.com. And I know his address in Evry. No problem !

I love this lady! So excited she offers this for us.

 

This is the area in France he will be serving in. Super close to the city of Paris

 

 President and Sister Babin with Jaxon when he arrived to the Mission Home

  

 The whole group of new missionaries from the MTC

Jaxon being introduced to his Trainer at the mission home

Jaxon's new companion and Trainer, Elder Ireland

 

 Waiting to be introduced to his trainer. Everyone on the left side are all the new missionaries from the MTC.

This is the right side of the room and they are all trainers for the new missionaries. Elder Ireland is the one far right in the second row.

Week 6 - November 10 - Flight to France

And.... He's OFF!!
Call From the Airport!  November 10 2014 

We got our "Phone Call" from the Airport today!! I feel like Rapunzel from Tangled when she said "This is the best day of my life" haha. No seriously, it's right up there in my book of best days. I loved hearing his voice and being reassured he is doing great. He has such a great attitude and an even greater testimony. I was more worried he would be homesick but he is not. He misses us but is not homesick.  Off to Paris he goes.........

And  you better believe I am watching this flight all night till he Lands.  Haha

 He Arrived in Paris at 10:50 AM

Arrival

		Airport:		Paris, France (CDG)
		Scheduled Time:		11:25 AM, Nov 11
		At Gate Time:		10:50 AM, Nov 11
		Terminal - Gate:		Terminal 2E - OP6

This is the Post that Sister Babin (Mission President's wife) posted this afternoon on the Mission Facebook page.

Dear parents,
Our new missionaries (your daughters and sons) are all well arrived.
We interviewed each of them one by one this afternoon and we are very grateful for their faith, strength and desire to share the gospel.
I did not have time to take pictures but I will do it tomorrow morning as they will meet their new colleagues.