Souer Jones with her New Companion, Soeur Holmgren
There is no possible way for me to describe what the south of France looks like to you. Especially the Cote d'Azur where I live. Each morning at 6:30, we go on a run along the coast of the beach. We aren't allowed to go on the actual beach yet because there are naked people. Buttt- the beach rule ends in October sooo... we can go on the beach in 2 weeks. As we run along early in the morning, we see the endless ocean, palm trees, and morning sunrise just starting to begin.
It is truly magical. I feel like I am in Hawaii /California/ France.
There are green rolling hills everywhere with tiny little homes embedded into the hill. The homes are painted beige, pale yellow, cream, and red with kind of Southern California style red roofs. The color of the ocean is so blue that it could be the color of a crayon. Ok- and the train ride along the Cote d'Azur is UNREAL. During the entire train ride, my face was just pressed against the window. I honestly need 4 eyes to take everything in here. Everywhere I look it's something beautiful.
I love President and Soeur Brown so much. They are so in love with each other and just have the cutest relationship. Soeur Brown is totally spunky and fabulous. She had us play some nerf gun game here the second day and that was funny. President Brown is the most in-tune with the spirit man that I have ever met. He is so reasonable and loves us so much that it makes me want to be the best missionary I can
be. He also believes that we are capable of so much. He inspires me, he really does.
Sooooo- Soeur Holmgren and I opened up a new missionary companionship in Nice. There haven't been sisters in Nice for almost a year now. We are completely white washing the area. Which basically means we had no ami's (investigators) to start with. We just had to start over from scratch with finding new people to hear the gospel. Both of us are new
to this area so we kind of just fly by the seat of our pants to find new ami's on the streets. Um- my fist day contacting was the scariest experience of my life. HAHAHAH. Like- okay. Contacting is the ultimate test of vulnerability!
"Hi, my name is Soeur Jones. I left my country for 2 years to be in this country to talk to you (who I've never met until now). And here is my testimony- my whole heart and soul." And then you wait for them to walk away or keep talking to you.
The second day here we got off the bus and my companion just said, "Okay. Let's contact for a couple hours." We were in downtown Nice and my companion just went up to a woman and introduced ourselves. She wasn't interested. Same thing happened a lot of times. I felt like a weak little limp noodle as I watched my companion contact people. I
didn't talk to anyone the first day. So the next day I was dreading contacting because I knew I just had to do it. We were walking down the street and I walked up to a lady, "Bonjour, Je suis Soeur Jones. Je vien des Etats Unis. Je suis venu dans votre pays pendant 18 moins partager une message au sujet de Jesus Christ." She listened to me curiously, smiled, and said, "No merci." And walked away. And GUESS WHAT? I walked away just completely grinning from ear to ear. I didn't even care that she said no. It just felt so good to share the gospel and not feel disheartened with "No."
For the rest of the night we contacted people. As we were on our way to catch the tram, we passed an old woman and a man talking on a bench. While we waited to cross the street, I turned to my comp and said, "I think we need to go back and talk to those people on the bench." So we turned around and went to talk to them. In the beginning they thought we were nice but, they weren't interested because they were Catholic. But we asked the woman about God in her life. She told us how she had lost a daughter many years ago and wanted to know why. After she finished talking, I looked at her straight in the eye and said (in broken French), "My Uncle Brandon died this last Christmas. I know I will see him again. I know that your family can be together again. I know God loves you." Her eyes started watering and the whole mood changed. She looked at me and said, "I feel that you know what you are saying is true with all your heart." The woman told us that God sent us as angels to her right at that exact moment. It was such a sweet experience. The holy ghost is real and directs me while I am on this mission. People can feel the holy ghost when we speak to them. There is NO denying it. There is just this force of love, peace, and
goodness between us and them. It is absolutely amazing.
Missionary work is exhausting. I just fell over on the ground the first full day because my feet felt so heavy and my body so weak. But it is also the most fulfilling job in the world. Helping people know of the goodness of God and helping them change for the better. I love Nice. I love France.
Beaucoup d'amour , Soeur Jones
ABBY'S NEW DISTRICT
PDAY WITH SOUER JONES AND SOER HOLMGREN
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