Week 2 "A Better Version of Abby Jones"

August 12, 2016

"And the Lord said unto [me]: Go forth among the [people of France] and establish my word; yet ye shall be patient with [rejection, bad days, difficult companions, and discouragement] that [you] may show forth good examples unto them in me, and I will make an instrument of thee in my hands unto the salvation [and happiness] of many souls." Alma 17:11

At the Provo temple with some missionaries from my district

Has anyone ever seen the movie or read the book, The Giver? You know the part where the giver scoots Jonah really close to him right before he is about to give him the memory of death and says, "Jonas, there is no way for me to prepare you for what is about to happen." And Jonas says, "I'm ready, I'm ready! Give it to me." And the the giver looks at Jonas cautiously and grips Jonas' hands and... kasjdfoijq; vlektjikrejfkjdsfklj BAMMMMMM, memory of death happens. WELL... that is what a mission feels like. It's like you KNOW it's going to be hard. People keep telling you it is going to be hard. And you've prepared the best you can, but there is still no way possible to prepare for the shock of the mission. The first couple days here, I know I sounded happy. But I actually wanted to go home. The thought occurred to me, how would I even tell my parents, "I want to go home." I honestly didn't know if I could do a mission. But turns out, I'm still here. And I love it more every single day. Change just takes time to get used to.

Soer Goold and I joined the MTC choir. It is the coolest experience!!

Obedience has been an interesting concept to me here on the mission. They are always emphasizing EXACT obedience. It was really difficult for me in the beginning because I am much more of a "spirit of the law" person than a "letter of the law" person. At first, obedience felt like they were trying to make me into someone I was not. I have a fear of becoming a robot missionary and I just really didn't like the concept of exact obedience because I felt robotic. However, I talked to my French teacher, Frere Kellett, and he really gave me a whole new perspective on things. We are asked to develop Christ like attributes, not become Christ clones. Heavenly Father doesn't say, "Become Christ" but rather "Become like Christ." On my mission, I am not supposed to become a different person, but rather a better version of myself. A better version of Abby Jones.

Elder Keller and Elder Fox...Two of my favorite friends from OLY High School!

This week I experienced the Gift of Tongues. Whenever people would say they experienced "The Gift of Tongues," I imagined them all the sudden being able to understand French, suddenly speaking French fluently in that exact moment. And I'm sure that DOES happen to people and that probably will happen to me. But I realized that the Gift of Tongues is the holy ghost testifying the truth to our investigator even if I only speak 5 words in broken French. We just finished our last lesson with our investigator, Nathan, yesterday. It was so scary to speak French when I literally only know like 30 words max. But I prepared the BEST I could and went in there trusting God would testify the truth of our message. There was a moment where I testified to Nathan that Jesus Christ can take away all our sins and can make us feel more peace in our life. There was silence in the room and Nathan's face changed. The holy ghost testified to Nathan the truth. That was soooo cool. The Gift of Tongues is real.

Souer Jones and Elder Finlayson (another great friend from High School at the MTC)

Elder Anderson from the Quorum of the 12 apostles came and spoke to us for Tuesday devotional. When he speaks, you can just feel he is a real apostle and knows what he is talking about. I'm pretty sure Elder Holland is coming this week. Whatttttttt. That would be cool.

Funnies:
-The other night, I undid my bun from my hair. My hair was literally a giant frizz. So then I fluffed my hair up more and made a puff on top of my head. It looked sooooo funny. The girls in my room were on the ground laughing. Then me- being me- decided to go out in the hall to see what people would do. I heard one girl down the hall say, "what is that puff ball in the hall?" And another girl said, "I love your hair." And another girl just walked past me with really wide eyes and then just burst out laughing once she passed me. AHAHAHAHA lol I am so weird.

My Puff Ball Hair

-In our language class we get so distracted every day. We talked about French food for 2 hours the other day. Raclette and croissants and Kbabs and cheese. Ahhh we are all so excited.

-Some guy in my district got engaged in high school. Lol. They broke it off recently.

The first day at the MTC we sang "Armies of Helaman." But instead of saying, "we will be the Lord's missionaries" we sang "we are NOW the Lord's missionaries." That was so powerful. I am grateful to be apart of this awesome work.

Thank you sooooooooo much for your packages and letters this week. It literally kept me going. Shout out to ABBEY RASCH for sending me yummy homemade cookies... I love you and that totally made my whole day. Shout out to Kristen Keller for the notebook you gave me before I left... I use it every single day here in the MTC. Shout out to my family for the kindest cards ever and best packages. Ahhhhhhh I have the best family in the world.

Yummy cookies from my Daddy

My district celebrating with the cookies that Jason Jones sent us. Elder Thompson, Perry, Amison, Sorensen, Jacobson, Pistol, Sister Huntsman, Allen, Goold, and JONESSS