Week 29 "Transfers!"

So, crazy news... I am getting transferred to Lille! I know it is not in our mission and completely opposite side of Montpellier, but I am so excited. Even though it will be freezing cold. Ok. Just kidding. That was a little silly joke. I am staying in Montpellier with Soeur Thompson. BUT, the crazy news is, we are getting ONE more sister in our companionship and we will be a TRIO. Her name is Soeur Bonnamy and she is French. I think she is from around Paris.

TRIO!! SOEUR BONNAMY FROM REIMS. THIS IS HER 3RD TRANSFER

 I am happy to be staying in Montpellier but also having a little change will be good. I also feel like Soeur Thompson and I are finally getting the hang of things. We are finally learning how to work well together and work through our challenges. I feel like I have become more patience, less reactive, more willing to let things that don't matter, and more willing to look from others perspectives this transfer.  I didn't want to admit that I needed to learn these things. I know that I need to learn these things for my own personal growth.  

Well I will start out with my favorite mission experience from the week. Yesterday we went to Sète with the zone leaders and Frère Calvo (a member) for a rdv with an ami. Her name is Adeline and she is in her early 20s. Everything about how this rdv happened is a miracle. A ton of small miracles.... led us to having a rdv with her yesterday. But when we showed up yesterday night, she was sitting on her front porch wrapped in a blanket reading the Bible. When we walked up to the porch and asked her how she was doing, she told us she was in a very bad situation and needs help. We went in her apartment and she broke down crying to us telling us her situation.  We came at literally the perfect time and it felt like God sent us to her to be her angels and rescue her. Frère Calvo is a member in Montpellier. He was able to give her some Fatherly council and the Elders gave her a blessing. We bore testimony to her of how the atonement of Jesus Christ can cleanse us from EVERY mistake and sin we have made. It was so powerful to see the hope that filled her eyes and heart as we said this. The gospel of Jesus Christ and the atonement are REAL. The atonement can save and heal us. D&C 29:42 says "The Lord God, should send forth angels to declare unto them repentance and redemption, through faith on the name of mine Only Begotten Son." As we walked away from her house, I felt like the Lord had sent us as angels to her home to bring her this message of hope. I am so grateful I got to be apart of this miracle and be apart of this work.
  
Emiline in the middle. She served her mission in Spain. She always helps us with missionary work. I am so grateful for people like her. 

Something I am working on right now is giving the Lord my heart. I feel like I am working hard and doing everything he wants me to do but I also want to give him my heart. Sometimes I hear a song as we pass by a patisserie, and I'm like AH I MISS LISTENING TO REAL MUSIC. Or I see a couple on the tram and I'm like OH MAN I wish I was married. Like it is so easy to wish we were somewhere else or to feel like we are missing out on something. But I know that this is where I am supposed to be right now. And so I just want to work on loving where I am at and being grateful for all the blessings the Lord is giving me right now, TODAY. "Being present,"  has been a common goal I am working on all the time.  I will probably have to work on "being present" for rest of my life. 

Yesterday night Soeur Cusick and Soeur Clancy came and stayed chez nous because Soeur Clancy goes home today. I LOVE SOEUR CUSICK. Hahah. She is sitting next to me right now. We are in the gare together waiting for other missionaries to come in. We are freezing cold and I am wearing sandals and a short sleeve shirt. Why? What am I doing. I think I am ready for summer and the sunshine. I am really just saying random stuff right now basically whatever comes to my mind because my hands are so cold.  

There is a member here from Chile. Her name is Gene (pronounced like Jenny) and I love her. She is so nice to me. We sat together on the bus to church yesterday and she wrote down a recipe for pancakes on a piece of scratch paper and gave it to me. We are going to her house for FHE tonight. We are going to read family proclamation and talk about how the gospel blesses families. Her husband isn't a member so it should be pretty cool. Didn't know I would have to come all the way to France to meet people from Chile, China, Scotland, England, Brazil, Morocco, Africa, and the Middle east. I love the France Lyon mission. It is the best. 

I love the simplicity of the gospel,  I love eternal families and I love the Lord. 

Love Abby 

More Photos:



Past and Current Companions Soeur Allen and Soeur Thompson

Emilie, me Soeur Thompson and Charlotte. Emilie opened her mission call yesterday and is going to the France PARIS TEMPLE SQUARE mission. SO cool. Charlotte is from Brazil. 


 Baby Doll repair store...See the Creepy baby dolls at the top of the window. 

We made high quality hot pockets


A cute member named Aimé who is in a wheelchair gave us all this food. She is so nice!!!


On the train eating baguette sandwhiches

                                          Abby's pday  Feb. 20th Montpellier

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Week 28 "Spring is in the Air"

Spring is in the air... I feel it coming and it feels so good!
 The last few days have been so happy. The sunshine is bright.  The little pale pink blossoms peaking out. 
 Saturday we contacted near this long river in Montpellier. It was such a beautiful day. Families were out picnicking next to the river, people walking dogs, couples holding hands, and French ladies riding their bikes. I felt so happy, so happy. I love the spring time. 

During this contacting by the river, we experienced a miracle. We walked up to this Dad with his little girl. We started talking to him about his family and how important the family is. We showed him a picture of the temple and said, have you ever heard of a temple? A temple is a the house of God. This is a sacred place where you can be sealed with your family forever. Is that something you would like to learn more about? He replied simply, yes. And how could it not be? How could anyone NOT want this beautiful message of the gospel. We are going to see him and his family this Thursday. A miracle! As we were walking away I told him how good it was that he was spending time with his little girl. Because before he knows it she will be all grown up like me. How grateful I am that I get to be with my family forever. It is the most precious gift I have on this earth and forever.

The work here is so incredible. I talked to a lady from Madagascar on the bus. She gave me her number and yesterday we had a rdv with she and her daughter. That makes for TWO families we have found this week.
I don't know where it will go and how interested they will be. But still, miracles. That is the first time that we have ever had a follow up rdv with someone I have met on a bus. I talk to people every day on the bus and no one ever wants to see us again. But it happened! It actually happened and that is why you just have to have the faith to keep going, keep doing what the Lord asks of you. Because one day, you will see the results of your faith!

It is hard to be present. It is so easy to wish to be somewhere else. To wish certain people were in your life and others weren't. But happiness comes from living in the present. I decided to start a gratitude journal because it helps me to be present. Every day I will write a little something in it. "Today, the flowers are starting to bloom, I love blossoms!" Or "I am grateful I decided to come on a mission, and that I STILL choose to be on a mission." I have so much to be grateful for. God is so good. So full of love.

Yesterday we went to the family De Barcellos to share a spiritual thought and have a petite goûtée (little snack thing). They are a family from Brazil and they have 2 children. One is married, the other one is Charolette, 17 years old. Just a very kind, solid family in the gospel. Their home smelled wonderful and there was such a good feeling inside. Pictures of Christ on the walls, withered Books of Mormon, and a strong feeling of love in the home. We talked about temples and the importance of the family. The spirit was so strong. The temple truly is the house of God. This gospel is real. Families CAN be together forever. At the end of the night, we all held hands in a circle and prayed before we left. As the Father said the prayer, I had a feeling wash over me like I was in the temple. I felt so much peace and comfort. My mind felt clear and I just felt joy. 
It hit me right then, that we can make our homes holy places. We can make our homes a place for the spirit to dwell. A place of love, peace, kindness, working together. Our homes can be holy places.

Family Manazi from Africa. Recent convert of 9 months

Transfer calls are Friday. I hope I will stay in Montpellier. But
I will go where the Lord needs me. I love being a missionary. I love France. I am grateful I chose to come on a mission. The other day I thought, okay, I know why I chose to come on a mission. But why do I choose to stay? Why am I still here? And it is because I love the Lord. I trust him. I know that this gospel is true. No matter how many people tell me it is not. It is true. I know it for myself. I love the
Lord. I love the Lord. I love the Lord.

Love, Soeur Jones

P.s. For Pday today, we are going to Sète. A village out by the sea of Montpellier. We are going with the other elders in Montpellier too. I won't have a lot of time to email back today. But I am excited for today. I am wearing my sandals, the sun is out and Spring is comin!!!

Sète Photos: (Pday)
 















Other Photos from the week:

Mom, I thought you'd appreciate this cook book. The Member told us that is it the book she would use with her Grandma when she was a little girl. 



French Market


FHE:  Brownies, crepes, and monopoly

Crepes at a members house

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Week 27 "Happy Valentines Day!"

This week has been really happy.


We had Zone Conference here in Montpellier yesterday. OH WONDERFUL.
Sooo exciting to see the Browns and be with other missionaries. President Brown is now doing personal interviews once a transfer. So I was able to sit down with him this weekend. He gave me great advice to just keep being myself and follow Soeur browns example. I told him my concerns about being worried I would lose my personality on my mission and he said, "Soeur Jones. I don't think you could ever stop being Soeur Jones even if you tried." That gave me comfort and now I am not going to think too hard... I am just going to GO and keep being myself! Woot woot!!

We made President and Soeur Brown Mexican Food Sunday night. We are with the family who the Browns know well. 

In conference we focused on the temple. I LOVE THE TEMPLE. During Conference I was able to think of why the temple was important to me and my family. And that made my desire to share it with others so much stronger. President had us look at this photo of a sealing room in the temple. The beautiful crystal chandelier hanging with the simple alter in the middle of the room. And then he had us imagine us knelling across the alter with our sweetheart. Being sealed for time and all eternity. Heaven and earth coming together. And then he had us imagine being separated from our sweetheart. Because the day WILL come when we will be separated and it will not likely be a time when we are 
expecting it. And how grateful I felt in that moment that I will be sealed to my sweetheart for eternity. That I will be sealed to my family forever.

The temple is so special and I am grateful I get the special
opportunity to announce to people that the very first French temple is about to open. And that they can go and SEE the temple and go inside for the open house. What a blessing that we can be sealed with our families forever. I absolutely love telling people that. Right after conference, we got on a bus, and I talked to a woman next to me. She told me how she has one daughter about my age and loves her so much. I
told her she is lucky to have a daughter because my Mom is my best friend and we are really close. I then pulled out a photo of the Paris temple and shared with her the knowledge that she could be with her family forever. That she can be sealed in the house of the Lord with her family. I could see it in her eyes and feel it in my heart of the hope that this woman felt. Before I knew it our bus stopped and we both got off and went our separate ways. I gave her our card. Maybe
she will call, maybe not. But I know I gave her something to hope for.

Bézier baptized 4 people this weekend !! They had it at our chapel. 

This week my companion and I have both been working hard and getting along a lot better. It still takes just a constant effort on both our parts. Sometimes it means me biting my tongue and just taking a deep breath and choosing not to react to something that I disagree with. Or that bugs me. But I pray and ask Heavenly Father to help me. And I know he is filling me with the pure love of Christ. I am happy. I feel like I am being present more. It is so hard to be present sometimes.


 But something that has helped me is writing down what I am grateful for. That makes me realize ALL that I have right now. And all that the Lord has blessed me with. This earth is such an incredible gift. I love looking around at all of Gods incredible creations. Right now, the blossoms are just starting to peak out. I love spring. I love the rain. God created this earth in all its variety and ALL its diversity. Which means he created us in all our diversity too. With all our quirks, strengths, and different personalities.

Visit to cute Soeur Zamori. She serves us Madeleines and apple juice every time. 

Funny:
-so people never usually come up to us and talk to us. The one exception is if they need a cigarette or a light for their cigarette. Literally all the time people do that. I was waiting at a tram stop and this girl turns to me and says, "excusez-moi?" And I said,"oui?" Like she was going to ask me about being a missionary. And she went on to ask me if I had a cigarette for her. Oh sighhhhh.
-an Ami (a cute Muslim woman named Sanna who comes to English class) is doing our nails and waxing our eyebrows for Valentine's Day today. So cute, huh??

I love being a missionary. Even with all the stressful, hard moments. I love being being a missionary!

Happy lovers day. I LOVE YOU.

Love, Abby

More Pictures

Sanna painted our nails.

Laura, our recent convert from China

Soeur Cusick at zone Conference

Made cookies for our neighbors and no one answered.....TRISTE!!!

YAY!!! I FINALLY GOT THE VALENTINES PACKAGE FROM MY FAM.

It was $13 just to send the chicken in the letter. We decided to send it in the Valentines package instead

Sanna Waxing my eyebrows

Bought this "BEST of loup-garou" We will play when I come home.

Combined Valentines Packages from home. 

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