Week 43 "Beautiful Lyon"

Lyon is so GREEN! It is more green and lush than any other city I have served in. Ecully is so beautiful because it is more of the countryside of Lyon. I have a desire to take pictures of everything here! Today for pday, we went to "Le Parc de la tête d'or" (the park of the head of gold). It is a giant park in Lyon with a zoo, a rose garden, a lake with paddle boats and row boats, ice cream stands, and a carousel. There were families everywhere picnicking and riding bikes. I felt like I stepped into a painting. It was so charming and so
French. (And it was all free!) Mom, you would have thought it was so cute! I can't wait to go back with you one day and we can go on the row boats together.

This week we worked our tails off and I felt like we just never
stopped moving and talking to people. It is contagious to share the gospel with people.

Sometimes, I get really hesitate about talking with people, over think it, and don't talk to them. But the more often I talk with people (the people sitting on the metros, the bus driver, the random lady walking her dog, the person at the boulangerie), the easier and more contagious it is! And do you want to know THE COOLEST MIRACLE?! So as you know, the Paris temple was dedicated 2 weeks ago. And in the dedicatory prayer, President Eyring prayed that the "People's hearts would be softened." He also blessed the missionaries who are currently serving in the boundaries of the Paris temple (me) and blessed the members with courage to share the gospel with their friends. Ever since the dedication, there has been SPIRITUAL power
here in France. With the temple now dedicated, I have truly witnessed "people's hearts being softened." Every time we talk with someone, the will not just reject what we have to say and walk away. They will talk to us and listen and even if they don't agree, they listen to us.

Soeur Margin giving a head message to our friend

Yesterday we were speedily traveling to a lesson with our ami Stella, and a young woman with her dog was walking the opposite direction as us. I didn't even mean to, but I stopped her and introduced ourselves. She said she was completely non-believing and wanted proof that there was a God in order to know he exists. We bore testimony to her that every creation in this world is proof there is a God. We talked to her for probably 15 minutes. Did she give us her number? No. Is she a new investigator now? No. But she listened to what we had to say. She thought about what we had to say. Her heart was softened! Oh my gosh the church is true and there is POWER in the temple!!!

Dinner with Sour Carrier
We also have been seeing miracles of talking with someone on a bus or something, and then having these people become potential investigators. I know it is because we are just plowing forward with faith, hope, and positivity! When something goes wrong or someone says no, we don't let it stop us but we just keep going! Keep sharing the gospel. I feel happier. We found 3 new amis that we all taught this week. They NEED the gospel and are ready for it! But... all 3 of these people live in other sectors we found out. So we passed them to the other missionaries serving in these sectors. That is a hard part about Ecully, it is such a small sector because Lyon has so many people. But I am just happy we found these people who are ready for the gospel.
Even if we don't get to teach them.

We had MLC (missionary leadership conference) this week and I SAW SOEUR GOOLD. I just ran and embraced her and we talked like we hadn't seen each other in 10 years (it has been 7 months). I love soeur Goold and there is a special connection with her since we came in together. We also played Soeur Brown's "spiritual" games at MLC (lol). She has 3 very small blow up "pools" and different teams. It was church related charades you had to act out while sticking one foot in the pool. Things like, "get baptized" "invite a friend to church" "keep the law of chastity" hahaha. She is awesome.

This week I gained a better testimony of the importance of sincere prayer. I had been praying to Heavenly Father asking him what I can improve on to progress and the answer I got was "I want to hear from you more. I want to guide and help you. Will you let me?" Heavenly Father is always there for me. I just need to let him in and guide me. This work is impossible without him. It is impossible for me to be happy without him. I have been trying more to say a prayer when I am feeling stressed, about to talk with someone and I need courage, and just talk with my Heavenly Father in prayer more often. I also tried to make my prayers more sincere this week. I felt that I was guided in knowing I needed to have my prayers more sincere through other people. What my mom said in her email to me, Emily Taggart's experience with
prayer, and a letter a member wrote me. I knelt down Sunday morning and just prayed sincerely. I didn't thank God for every single blessing I have or pray for all our amis and all my family members. But I made it really sincere. I talked to Heavenly Father about how I was feeling RIGHT now in the mission and what I need from him. I felt so much closer to Heavenly Father and I know that is something I need
to continue to do. There is power and peace in prayer. There is a DIFFERENCE when we make our prayers sincere.

Our sector

Ps. Family, I GOT THE PACKAGE. I love youuuuuuu. Thank you for the
protein powder and fun treats. I especially loved the letters. (And I loved getting that letter from ELLIE!!!). I felt like I was just in a little moment of peaceful heaven as I read those cards and opened the
packages. I love my JONES'!
Love, Abby