Many are cold, but few are frozen

It's snowing today. Goodbye, Canada!

I'm writing from the mission office in Montreal, I only have a couple of minutes and then I'll go in for my exit interview.  I'm feeling good! Pretty stressed. Excited. I'm living up my last little bit of wearing a tag and being an official representative of the church and our Savior. Things are good.

I've been thinking a lot about the scripture 2 Nephi 25:26, and shared it in my talk in church yesterday. Christ is the center of everything we do, and that is not in any way specific to full-time missionaries. When we're baptized, we take Christ's name upon on us and that is even more eternal and significant than physically wearing his name on my tag.

Going into my interview! Love you all, see you soon!
Souvenez-vous qui vous êtes ♥

Sister Lonas

Wrapping things up

Sorry for not sending an email last week! It's been a rough time. So, update, my companion's health has been getting worse and she's actually going home at the end of this transfer, at the same time as I do. It has been a special experience watching her come to that decision, with the help of President and her parents, and we've both seen it confirmed over and over again that this is what the Lord would have her do.

Elder Bennett of the Seventy was here all week, he did our stake conference last weekend, then we had zone conference with him on Tuesday, and then we had mission leadership council with him on Friday. It was a long week, I can't even imagine how tired he must be. After all that, I was feeling like a pretty horrible missionary, not being able to apply most of the things he was teaching us, just because my companion hasn't been capable of going out teaching very much at all. I'm working on overcoming the pride of feeling like I have to end the mission in any particular way in order be successful.

But speaking of pride, one of my personal commitments from his training that I absolutely can apply for the rest of my life, is trying to lose my own focus on "self". That's something I've thought and studied about for a long time, and most recently it's been by looking closely at my motivation for the decisions I make. It is amazing how often I do something simply because I want it or it's more comfortable for me. I'm getting better. Repentance is real.

Also, I had a revelatory experience yesterday in church with Ether 12:27. A tender mercy from God letting me know that He is very aware of me right now and He's right beside me, especially when things get really hard.

I think that's everything I've got for today. I'm not sure if I'll email next Monday or not, that's the day I'm going to the mission home before flying out on Tuesday. If not, I'll talk to you all shortly after!

I love you, know that Heavenly Father is right there next to you, as well.
Souvenez-vous qui vous êtes ♥

Sister Lonas

First Vision thoughts

Some news I keep forgetting to mention, Elder Bennett from the Quorum of the Seventy is visiting our mission next week. We're having zone conference with him on Tuesday, and a meeting beforehand with him and President and Sister Phillips and our zone leaders and us. And then we're spending all day with him on Friday for a special Mission Leadership Council. I've never felt so blessed to be Sister Training Leader. I'll let you all know how that goes down.

We're going to the temple on Friday :) It's been way too long. (If any mission friends want to see me before I die, 12 o'clock at the temple this Friday would be the time to do it.)

I don't have very much time, I've been a little preoccupied during emails, but we've been sharing the first vision a lot this week and it's got me thinking about how many blessings we ascribe to 1) the modern day restoration of the fullness of the gospel and 2) the Atonement. Which means that really, everything we have, we have because Heavenly Father loves us. John 3:16. And He wanted so much for us to KNOW about Jesus Christ that He answered Joseph Smith's prayer, and He answers ours. He called Joseph by name, and He knows us just as personally. And THAT is why we share what we know with other people. Because God shared it with us, and He doesn't love us more than He loves them.

Oh also, it snowed a lot this week.

Anyway, I really love all of you.
Souvenez-vous qui vous êtes ♥

Prayer

I would say it's been a more difficult week, Sister Martin is still pretty sickly. She's been told to sleep as much as she can so I've had much more alone time than I'm accustomed to, which is pretty nice.

Some thoughts. We say all the time that this is Heavenly Fathers plan. And it is. But let's not forget that it's our plan too, we made the informed decision to come here and we knew it would be hard. That knowledge alone doesn't make it easy, but it can help us know in which direction to turn.

Going along with having had some alone time this week, I've had some very powerful experiences with prayer. None that I care to share at the moment, but I absolutely know that God listens to and answers prayers. I am reminded of the general conference talk that asked us to reflect on the last time we felt the heavens open as we prayed. I know that I need to be praying more fervently. I've been repenting, though.

So that's my life right now! God loves me, God loves you.
And I love you all, as well! Souvenez-vous qui vous êtes ♥

The Sick and Afflicted

This week when we were pretty sick I texted the Elders "Would you have a moment this evening to administer to the sick and afflicted?" And then when I read the text out loud to Sister Martin who was lying face down in bed she raised her hand half-heartedly and said "I call being afflicted."

Just thought you might find that amusing. I did.

But yeah, so the Elders gave us blessings. I'm doing great now, Sister Martin still isn't feeling too hot. Or rather, she IS feeling pretty hot. Because she has a fever.

Sorry, I have this problem where I think I'm funny.

We still had a pretty good week! Before we got sick, Marie came on a mini mission with us (stalk our FB for the picture) and it went really well. It was an ideal mini mission day, we had two first lessons, got three new friends, did some contacting and knocking (everyone needs some doors slammed in their face every now and then, it just makes you feel like a missionary), and got to see Mariana! Marie is way cool, she still hasn't decided whether or not to serve a mission, but if she does, she'll be amazing.

Besides that, I've been studying this week about what makes a successful missionary. It says in Preach My Gospel that it's commitment to the Lord's work. That's kind of a hard thing to measure, though. I feel like I'm committed. But of course there's always a little more we can give. I've been focusing on centering my commitment on the Savior's Atonement, and recognizing that if I'm going to give any more, it HAS to be for Him and through Him and by Him.

I started My Plan this week -- the program thing they have you do in your last transfer to "set goals and make plans" for after you go home. It's pretty weird cause I've done it before with so many dying companions. I'm feeling good though, I've had a lot of goals for that in the back of my mind since I started, and it's nice to have a more formal way of articulating them.

So, that's my life. I love you all, you're great,
Souvenez-vous qui vous êtes ♥

Sister Lonas

Joyeux actions de grâce!

So much has happened this week.

• Transfers: I'm staying here! Sainte-Foy will be the death of me (haha, get it? Missionary lingo). Sister Martin is also staying, so she'll kill me (send me home), and most of our district is staying the same. 
• We dropped Fiona after she said she didn't really even want to know anymore if the church was true. It was really hard, tears were shed, but she still wants to keep in touch after we go home and stuff and she said she'll invite us over for cupcakes in a few weeks, so that's good. And, more importantly, we had her promise that the next time the missionaries knock on her door, she'll hear the message again. 
• We dropped Claudine. I don't want to talk about it. 
• Franco is doing great! He reads the Book of Mormon every day and he's going to get baptized. It's wonderful. We had Canadian Thanksgiving yesterday with him and our branch president's family. 
• We met a refugee family from Syria this week and their friend from Morocco would not let us turn down the offer to come have dinner with her yesterday, which ended up being our "appetizer" to Thanksgiving dinner with our branch president. I'll never be hungry again. But, I speak Arabic now, so that's good. Chase would be so proud of me. 
• Mariana is still working on Sundays, but she's doing really well besides that. Our Spanish is getting way better. Learning some Arabic makes Spanish seem like a piece of cake. 

I'm sure there was more but that's all I've got time for right now, I love you all, have a good week!
Souvenez-vous

Sister Lonas

General Conference follow up

I'm hoping you all loved conference weekend as much as we did :) It's been interesting reading emails this morning and realizing that others saw different themes than I did. MY themes were missionary work (surprise, surprise), repentance, and prayer.

I am especially grateful for the teachings on repentance for our investigator, Franco, who recognized his budding testimony growing as he reflected on all the things he's done wrong in his life and realized he can be COMPLETELY clean from that through the Atonement.

We watched the last session in Spanish with Mariana so, while I got most of what was said, it was less touching for me. I'll have to go back and review those talks, Spanish is not the language of my heart. But it IS the language of Mariana's heart and she absolutely loved it. I am grateful for the trust we can have that the Spirit will always testify to willing hearts of truth.

We have transfer calls on Saturday, I'm assuming I'll stay here because this is my last transfer but I'll let y'all know on Monday. I started my last planner yesterday...kind of insane. Ottawa friends: You are some of the reasons I look forward to going home, I'll keep in better touch.

I have been reminded over and over and over again this week how much I love being a missionary. I love watching people I love change through Christ's Atonement. We had Mission Leadership Council this week and talked all about consecration, I am ready to give all of me to this last transfer. I am really tired, I only have one transfer of this left in me, but I have never been happier.

One message I loved from conference was that missionaries grow so much in such a short period of time because they are so given to serving others, but that growth does not have to be limited to full-time missionaries. We all make choices about how much we want to serve and love and share the love of God with others, and we are blessed for our efforts. So have a good week, make miracles happen.

I love you,
Souvenez-vous qui vous êtes ♥

Los Milagros

This week we went on exchanges twice and had zone training so we were busy, I would talk more about that except that nuestros milagros (our miracles. she switched to Spanish :)) were pretty unrelated.

So, milagro 1) Mariana hasn't come to church yet because she works on Sundays so we've been working on that with her but she's been afraid to talk to her boss about it. But she came to the women's session of General Conference on Saturday at the church and it was definitely a turning point for her. The closing song brought half of the relief society to tears, starting with Mariana. We can tell someone a million times that they have to come to church and they have to do this and that, but it will never replace their own experiences with the Spirit.

2) I don't remember if I've talked about Kody and Sally but they're awesome, Kody has participated much more in lessons so we've been trying to gauge how Sally is feeling about things. We felt like we should pass by them during the week (normally we have a lesson with them every Saturday) and it was perfect, Sally said "You know, I'm just about sure now that this church is true, I just have some questions about temples." She had known members of the church back in Togo and had always felt like the temple was a big scary secret. So then on Saturday, we brought a member that they got along well with and taught the Plan of Salvation, connecting it to the "why" and "what" of temples. Turning point for Sally.

3) I'm pretty darn sure I haven't talked about Franco, but he was a former that we started teaching a few months ago who has known about the church for years and years, and long story short, he came to church for the first time this week! Milagro.

We're feeling pretty good about how people are progressing. Ironically enough, the list of investigators with baptismal dates and the list of our most progressing investigators is not the same list of people. But, we're definitely not complaining.

I've been studying about faith, by the way. I've learned a lot about the powerful motivation that faith IS, not that it encourages or cultivates.

I don't remember if I said this last week, but I think I'm done fearing man more than God. Time is too short to waste.

Also, I'm not willing to admit how much ice cream I ate this week.

I love you all so much, keep making miracles happen, you're in my thoughts and prayers.
Souvenez-vous qui vous êtes ♥

Put it all on the sacrifice table

Hello, avid readers.

This was a great week! I'm tired. We had to move back some baptismal dates because our investigators haven't been coming to church. Here's a fun puzzle for you, why are people more willing to commit to getting baptized on a specific date than they're willing to come to church even once? Let me know when you find some solutions, because we're stumped.

I've been thinking a lot this week about the quote on the box on page 19 of Preach My Gospel. I assume you all know the one I'm talking about. :) When people don't come to church, or don't read the Book of Mormon, or don't act on spiritual promptings, it shows a misunderstanding of doctrine. Unfortunately for the render of the invitation to do those things, the invitee has to CHOOSE to understand

I've also been thinking about consecration. Don't hold anything back from the Lord. It just makes no sense. Our lives aren't that long. But eternity sounds pretty darn permanent. Don't pick and choose what you're willing to put on the sacrifice table.

Here's my favorite quote right now that was in the September Ensign, from Susanna Wesley to her son, John Wesley (the founder of Methodism):
“Would you judge the lawfulness or unlawfulness of pleasure, [of the innocence of malignity of actions? Take this rule.] Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off your relish of spiritual things; in short, whatever increases the strength and authority of your body over your mind; that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may be in itself.”8

Those are all the inspiring things I've got for today. 

 I really really love all of you, Souvenez-vous qui vous êtes ♥

Whoa I just skimmed my email from last week...I sound like I had so much energy. Maybe it goes in waves, and next week I'll be feeling chipper.

Have a good week!
Sister Lonas

Follow the Stomach

I love being a missionary. This was one of those weeks that made me feel like I could do this for the rest of forever.

Heavenly Father knows so well how imperfect we are. He knows there will be times when we know we didn't even do our best. And yet He will still magnify the efforts we do put forth to bless us and those around us, according to our hearts and our desires and our love for Him and others.

I got to go on exchanges with Sister Hilaire this week! Which was wonderful :) I missed my daughter, but she's an awesome missionary, I'm super proud of her. I don't remember if I said that she got transferred up to the Quebec ward? So we're in the same district now and I'm her STL (Sister Training Leader) so yeah, we got to go on exchanges :)

Quick miracle, we were going for a lesson with Mariana and while we were walking up the stairs in her apartment building Sister Martin was like "I smell Haitian food" and she was right, it smelled super good. I pointed to the door from which the smell wafted as we passed it. Apartment number 5. Mariana wasn't there so we left, went back down the stairs, and had gotten halfway down the street before my beautiful and intelligent companion suggested that we go back and try to contact that Haitian family. In her words "Maybe they'll feed us!" Well, I couldn't argue with that, so we turned right around, we re-entered the apartment building now saturated with the smell of salmon and Haitian rice, and knocked on apartment number 5. The smell was almost overpowering as the door opened and the mother of the large Haitian family recognized our tags immediately and told us that they had studied with the missionaries for years and weren't actually completely sure why they had stopped. Long story slightly less long, she gave us their number and said we call to see when they're available for us to come back. Disclaimer, they didn't feed us dinner. But we did go directly to the nearest Chocolat Favoris right after, so not all was lost. And that's my "Follow the Stomach" moment for this week.

Also there are people we're actually working with, we had another lesson in Portuguese this week and my comprehension has gone way up with the new knowledge of Spanish, we made a bunch of new friends, prayers are real and God answers them.

I love you all very much!
Souvenez-vous qui vous êtes ♥

queridos familia y amigos

Okay. A lot to say. Not a lot of time.

Sister Martin is awesome! I don't remember if I mentioned last week, but she and I lived together for a transfer at the beginning of her mission! I'm so grateful I don't have to get to know someone brand new, these last few days have just been so fun as a companionship. I am very grateful for her as my companion :) 

The Spanish learning is going wonderfully! I no longer have the option of leaning on Sister Calderon, Sister Martin and I are at about the same spot Spanish wise and we are learning so much together every day! We receive much divine help. I'm not terribly concerned about losing my French, the branch is still in French along with most of our lessons but we've successfully taught two lessons in Spanish and we pray exclusively in Spanish together. It's pretty cool, we know that we wouldn't be picking it up this fast in any other situation. It is so motivating knowing that what we are learning is for specific people whom we love.

I think I've mentioned before my humility/pride study in the Book of Mormon. Well, that's still happening and here's something I learned this week. Pride is choosing not to have all the blessings of the Atonement -- and Atonement which has already been accomplished, and which is infinite. The power and influence of the Atonement in our lives individually is limited only by our own pride.

I love you all!! Souvenez-vous qui vous êtes ♥
Sister Lonas

Mission Leadership Council - September 2016

Transfers, for real this time

It has been a VERY fun week being in a trio with the Quebec Sisters, but I'm excited to finally have my companion on Wednesday, and it is Sister Martin! She and I lived together for a transfer when Sister Beaumont trained her, so I don't have to get to know someone brand new and I already know I like this one :) 

I don't have a lot of time, but everything is going really well!! Mariana hasn't come to church yet but we had a really good lesson yesterday on the Sabbath Day and it was kind of like "Oh, that's a commandment?? Yeah okay, I can do that, then." So we're giving her a church tour on Wednesday and she'll be at church on Sunday YAY! Also we went bowling today for Pday. Canadian bowling is not the same.

I really miss Sister Calderon! I don't really know what else to say about that, it's just very true.
I have to go, the church is true, the book is blue.
I love you! Souvenez-vous qui vous êtes ♥

Transfers???

SO haven't actually gotten transfer calls yet. I blame the zone leaders. But we talked to President this morning and he said I'll be in a trio with the Quebec sisters for like a week, and I think I'll find out today who my new companion will be after that? Not sure.

But it's been a good week!! We kind of redid a first lesson with this guy who has been on vacation for the last three months and he committed to be baptized on October 8th. Claudine is wonderful, she's doing well.

We went on exchanges again this week, it was gooooood. Sister Calderon goes home in like two days. She's remarkably stable. I'm just waiting for when the freak-out happens. It happens every time.

We've had some really good experiences this week and all the ones coming to mind are just too long for me to want to type out right now.

We had zone conference! The training we gave was on teaching simply. It went well! I think. I guess that's not saying much, we planned to say what we thought would make a good training so yeah, WE thought it was good. And then we had testimony meeting and finishing missionaries (just Sister Calderon and Elder Mecham) gave really nice testimonies along with a bunch of other people and then at the end President stood up and said that testimony meeting felt incomplete and asked me to get up and bear my testimony. So I did that. I talked about the way my testimony has grown from the testimony I've always had of eternal families. I kept looking back to see if I'd said the thing President was waiting for. Not sure if it happened. But he seemed satisfied afterwards.

I am so grateful to know that families can be together forever. I KNOW that is true doctrine. I know that as we share true doctrine, the Spirit testifies to the hearts of others' of its truth. I love being a missionary, I am so grateful to be where I am with these people and with Sister Calderon. I am going to miss her so much.

So yeah that's my email for this week,
I love you all!

Sister Lonas

Claudine ♥

I just got my itinerary for when I go home so I'm feeling a little bit weird.
(NOVEMBER 23rd!!!!!!!!)

Things are good though! We had a wonderful week, Maria has a baptismal date for September 24th and another one of our investigators, Claudine, accepted a date this week for September 17th! I've already talked about Mariaso I want to talk about Claudine a little bit. Claudine is amazing, she has gone through so much in the last year and it is amazing to see how perfectly it has prepared her to accept the gospel. We weren't worried when she said before that she didn't feel prepared to accept a baptismal date, because she is praying and reading the Book of Mormon every day. And people who sincerely do those things have the desire to make covenants with Heavenly Father. Which is a desire she now recognizes :) We're really excited for her. She kept asking "But do you think I'll be READY?" which was a funny question. She's ready now. We taught the Word of Wisdom and tithing a couple evenings ago. "So, Claudine, will you obey the commandments of tithing and the Word of Wisdom?" "Well of course I will, I want to be baptized so I'll follow all the commandments of God so that can happen." She makes teaching really fun :)

Ummmm I really love Sister Calderon still. She finishes her mission next week which is cool for her and all because she'll be with her family but I feel a little bit sorry for myself #anotheronebitesthedust. I'll let you all know what happens with transfers! This transfer's missionaries are leaving a week early for school but new missionaries are coming in at the normal time so there's a week of limbo, don't know what I'll be doing. I'm hoping to be a solo sister for a week...probably won't happen.

Funny moment. We pulled up to a dinner appointment and Sister Calderon REALLY had to use the bathroom. We prayed in the car before going in and she prayed that WE would be able to hold it. and I as we were walking up to the house I said "That seems like kind of a 'you' problem, what's up with the 'we'?" And she said "It's a 'me' problem as long as I can hold it, otherwise it becomes a 'we' problem!"
And I just thought that was really funny so I wanted to share it with you all, with her permission.

Soooo yeah, that's my life. We've started doing role plays with members to help them know how to share the gospel which has been way fun.

We went on exchanges with one of our sister teams this week which was awesome! It was a new experience being on the STL side of exchanges. I totally know what I'm doing as a missionary these days, so that's cool. Exchanges were good. Although I don't like people telling me their issues, it's nice knowing how to better serve those I'm asked to serve.

I'm a happy camper :) I love you all, (OH, and we tried to give blood this week. Sister Calderon was successful. They said my veins are just too darn small.)
Souvenez-vous qui vous êtes ♥

Sister Lonas

English, French, Spanish, Portuguese

Things are really good! That said, no idea what to share.

This week I`ve been studying the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation in Spanish and my major impression has been the magnificence of the constancy of the restored gospel. True doctrine is true in any language and regardless of the missionary teaching or the person being taught. People say stuff sometimes like ``Well that`s just not ME.`` Which just is never true. Different people are prepared to receive the gospel at different times, but the truthfulness does not depend on the preparedness of the receiver. If that sentence makes any sense at all. Feel free to disregard things I say that don`t make sense.

We have a new investigator this week who speaks un peu de Francais, but whose first language is Portuguese (miracle, we had a Portuguese Book of Mormon in the apartment that we had noticed the day before and kind of been like, haha, now we`re set for when we start teaching the throngs of Brazilians we see every day) and we found out that we both totally understand Portuguese so that`s made us feel cool. We taught using mostly pictures, and it was really cool when we had her read a few verses from the Book of Mormon and she was just so grateful. Turns out, the human population in general is much more humble than I am.

We got to teach with President Phillips' wife this week! She came out with us and for our first lesson, the woman didn't show up so we went contacting with Sister Phillips and it was awesome. People ask us a lot if we're nuns, and this time they thought that she was our Mother Superior.

Ummmm I'm sure other things happened but I think that's all the typing I've got in me for today. I really love you all!

Souvenez-vous qui vous êtes ♥

Oh yeah, and I can participate sometimes in Spanish lessons. The gift of tongues is real.

Miracles

Monday, August 1, 2016
Okay.  I'm going to try to be more informative this week.

First things first. We teach some people in Spanish and I can totally understand what's going on but cannot add much, and mi Hermana is leaving me in a few short weeks and I don't know if I'll have a Spanish speaking companion after that... SO I asked President for permission to start learning Spanish and got the green light.  Which is pretty funny.  

Man, I never know what to even say, I feel like so much happens every week and it's a little bit discouraging to try and plan on telling y'all everything because that's just not going to happen. You'd think these were things I would have worked through at this point in my mission life. Guess not.

Miracle number one from this week: We found this woman named M___ who was dumpster diving because she just moved from Columbia and she was only able to bring 50 pounds of stuff with her. We helped her bring her treasures back to her apartment and talked to her about our calling and she hugged us a lot and she said we could come back and share a message. But we weren't able to set a specific appointment because she wasn't sure when her sons were going to have work and stuff (sorry if this isn't making any sense, I'm typing fast) ... so we went and passed by once and she wasn't home and then on Saturday (I think) an appointment fell through so we decided to go to M___'s and she was just on her way out of the apartment to go for a walk. We walked with her and she told us that she told her son when she was leaving that she was just going for a walk, but that really she was going to talk with God and that when she saw us, she knew He had answered her prayer.  We made a return appointment for the following day and brought her a Book of Mormon and when we pulled it out she started crying and she said that her birthday had just passed and she had prayed and asked God for a book of scripture to help her strengthen her relationship with Christ. She had only been able to bring a section of the New Testament with her from Columbia and she felt like she needed more.  So that was cool.  God is super nice.  I'm sure glad our appointment fell through on Saturday.

I am very, very grateful for the experiences I have to see God working in the lives of his children. We have a Father in Heaven who loves us very much!

Miracle number two was with a couple from Columbia (that's been a theme this week) (Quebecois people are generally less open to talk about religion than...not Quebecois people).  Long story short, they met a member of our branch when they were visiting Quebec before moving here three months ago.  As in they moved here three months ago, and they were visiting like five months ago.  So they met Frere P___, and he invited them to meet the missionaries and they've been super busy with the moving life BUT we had an amazing lesson with them this week and after teaching the whole Restoration, Y___ (the wife) was like "I agree with everything you've taught." And then we invited them to be baptized and they said yes so we'll see when that happens ... but yeah, good stuff.

Sister Training Leader life is way good times, We had Mission Leadership Council this week and my main impression has been "Cool, I totally know what I'm doing." which is a lot better than the alternative.

I sure love you all, I hope this has been a satisfactory update, next week I'll plan on going back to writing about what I've been studying and thinking about.

Souvenez-vous qui vous êtes ♥ 

Mission Leadership Council July 2016

The ghost in the Institute Building :)

Okay so I have to leave really soon and my keyboard is kind of struggling but there is a lot to say....that I probably won`t say. Like, I definitely won`t get through even a significant portion of everything I want to express.

So, this is a branch, not a ward! I was wrong about us not having a car, they didn't used to here but we do because...now we're Sister Training Leaders...bummer. I really wanted to be on buses. We don`t have a real chapel, but we have church in the rented rooms they use for Institue. So we don`t have a building, but we call our collection of rented rooms the Institute Building. And this week the mouse for the keyboard disappeared so we called the Elders to ask if they took it and they said no and then said, "Well, have you heard about the ghost in the institute building?"  No...  "It`s the Holy Ghost". And we think it`s a lot funnier than it is.

I`m really happy. Long story short, Sister Calderon is amazing. I was wrong (actually, the zone leaders were wrong), she only has one transfer left. And it`s a short transfer and we`re almost a week in, so we have four weeks left together. But everything is just perfect and I feel like God said, "Here you go, Sister Lonas...rien ne t`empeche, your time in this situation is limited, work hard and make things happen`` And that`s what we`re doing and it`s just really good.

I have to go, but I have such a testimony that Heavenly Father puts us where we need to be when we need to be there. We have real investigators with real intent. Turns out people have been prepared in places other than Chapel Hill :)

I love you all, Souvenez-vous qui vous êtes ♥

Sister Lonas

(A wonderful sister in Rebecca's last area sent me this picture after she dropped Rebecca off at the bus station to travel to Quebec.)

I'm going to Quebec!

I'm going to the St Foy ward, which is in downtown Quebec City and I'll be Sister Training Leader! No more car for me. Crazy. It still doesn't feel real. Which it should, I'm already almost done packing. My new companion is Sister Calderon and she actually finishes her mission before I do so I might be sending another companion home. She and I used to be in the same zone, I don't know her really well but she seems nice and I'm excited to get to know her better :)

That said, I've cried a lot in the last day and a half or so. I kind of thought I was being transferred, but it's still hard. I love this ward so much. A special relationship is formed when you serve people and serve with them and eat in their homes and I just...don't really want to leave. It feels like I'm leaving a bunch of my best friends....because I am. I am SO GRATEFUL that I'm serving somewhere I can realistically come back and visit. I've also been really touched by the tears that have been shed by others over my being transferred.

I'm going to miss the R___'s baptism. I'm going to be honest, that was the first catalyst of tears when they told me I was being transferred. Fortunately, I don't have to be there for them to be baptized. I am SO HAPPY they are taking that step and that they're doing it as a family, and when it happens I'll send home pictures :)

I'm going to miss Sister Hilaire so much. I don't even know what to say about that, I just...am going to miss her. It stinks that we're from different countries.

My testimony of the Savior has grown here more than anything else. I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have of available hope and peace and eventual exaltation for EVERYONE. It's not our place to decide who is and isn't prepared to accept the Atonement in their lives. That's God's job. Of all the things I will be held accountable for at the last day, I would rather not be asked why I tried to steal God's job.

I know the Book of Mormon is true, and that we can find answers by reading it. To all of our questions. All of them.

I'm stoked for the rest of my mission, I'm glad I'll be busy learning a new area and using public transportation and speaking French! For those of you who are just barely joining my fan club (either by request or because I thought you might want to know how my next few months go) because you live in Ottawa, I really do want to keep in touch!

I love you all! Keep me in your prayers and I'll keep you in mine,
souvenez-vous qui vous êtes ♥

Oh yeah and PS we had an incident in the church this week with a bat. Pretty fun stuff. I learned that I do not have a graceful reaction to a bat flying in my direction. But neither did the other three adult women with me, so I don't feel too ashamed of myself.

I'm still in Canada!

I don't even know what happened this week, but I think it was good! Cause I'm feeling really happy and REALLY tired. Which means that, hopefully, good things happened and I was working hard.

The Rivieres have now told everyone about their baptismal date and have invited their extended family and stuff (they've been waiting a long time...it's a big deal) so August 13th is still feeling legit for them. We went over the baptismal interview questions with Suze (the mom) and she was like "Well, I've known all that is true for years. YES, I'm ready." We're really excited for them. The gospel is so true, it's crazy.

We met our new mission president! It's weird, it'll take some getting used to, but I am so very grateful that when I first saw President Phillips it was natural to shake his hand and say "Hi, President" and the words that came out of mouth were not "Hello, impostor." I thought it would be weird to call him President but it wasn't! It felt okay. So that's good. It's good to remember that he's new at being our mission president, but he's been a stake president for years and he was bishop for years before that. He knows what he's doing. And more importantly, he's been called by God so even when he DOESN'T know what he's doing, we still support him and sustain him and do everything we can do help him so the Lord's work in the mission as he helps us.

So that's been good times. Sister Hilaire pointed out to me this morning that I say "good times" or "good stuff" whenever I'm just kind of ready to start talking about something else haha. Which in an email doesn't make a lot of difference, but could probably be rude in other contexts now that I realize what cues my saying that.

I don't remember if I've already written about this. If I have, skip this part. I've been taking a suggestion from Elder Bednar in studying the Book of Mormon by taking a clean paperback copy of the Book of Mormon (we have a few of those) and with a specific topic in mind, reading it and marking it up and taking notes all geared towards what I learn on that one specific topic. My topic is humility. I am learning that many more things than I thought fall under the category of humility, and that most of the weaknesses I've come to recognize in myself can be traced back to pride. Along with faith, hope, charity, and patience, Christ's Atonement is the what, how, and why of humility. I am eternally grateful for the experiences I have daily which help me to recognize ways I can improve myself as a missionary and myself as a person. And I am eternally grateful that, because of the Atonement, that doesn't have to be discouraging. I can be happy even in my own imperfection and know that God and the Savior want me to become better and they do and will continue to help me.

I love my Savior, I am so grateful to have the knowledge I do of the Restoration of the fullness of the gospel.

Transfer calls are on Saturday, so I'll let y'all know :)
I love you, Souvenez-vous qui vous êtes ♥

Sister Lonas

Happy Fourth of July!

To be honest, I forgot it was Independence Day in the states today until my mom reminded me just now, but for over a week I've been singing patriotic songs in the apartment (my French companion loves it) and doing my best to embrace my culture to get ready for America's birthday. Except on Canada Day. On Canada Day, I pretended to be Canadian.

It's really fun being in the capital of Canada on Canada Day! It's a really big deal. I'm grateful to be serving in Ottawa right now, because they don't really celebrate the holiday over in Quebec because they would rather not be a part of Canada, anyway. In Quebec, July 1st is moving day. But all the way out here in the outskirts of the mission (sometimes I feel like we were banished here, in the land where the rest of the mission forgets about us and we don't get mail and we never know who was transferred where), we got to see fireworks and everything!

So, here's something funny. Yesterday was fast and testimony meeting, right? And you know how our ward is in English but does French translation? Normally, people submit their talks early to the translators (or if you're us, you just write your talk in both languages), and then the translators read off your talk in French while you give it in English. So, after I gave my talk a couple of weeks ago, we were musing about how in the world they do it on fast Sunday and the general sentiment was "Well, I'm glad we don't have to worry about it." Ha. Jokes on us. We got a call asking if we could do the simultaneous translation during fast and testimony meeting because the normal translators were going to be gone for the holiday. So, THAT was entertaining for all the French speakers!

We went to the temple this week! That was nice. Another one of my ancestors is endowed now, so that's really good. I love doing family history and I love going to the temple.

We have a new mission president! We still haven't met him, we were planning on meeting him tomorrow at zone training but we were just told that Sister Hilaire and I are going to have interviews with him tonight, so we get to see him a little earlier. I'll let y'all know if I like him or not. Kidding, I'm sure he's great, it's just still weird not having actually met him. The mission feels different without President Patrick.

Y___ is moving to Gatineau...so that's a bummer. It's not too far, though, and there are still missionaries there, so it should all work out fine.

I have a testimony of the Restoration of the Gospel. I know this is Christ's church and Joseph was a prophet. How fortunate are we to have modern prophets to help us know how the Lord would have us apply unchanging doctrines to a constantly changing world. I'm grateful for religious freedom and for opportunities we have to defend that and other rights. I love The United States of America and it will always be my home, as much as Canada grows to be more a part of me every day.

I love you all! Remember who you are and make good choices ♥
Sister Lonas

It's a small world after all...

Okay so first, my cousin, Isaac, is in the hometown of Sister Hilaire (Grenoble, France) right now so he sent pictures from church of him with her family and then ALSO a picture of him with an Elder I served with right when I came into the mission and I realize this is weirder for me than it is for anyone else but I just cannot get over the craziness of how small the world is -- especially for members of the church.

The attached picture is of our zone meeting last week when we said goodbye to President Patrick. And next Tuesday we'll meet President Phillips! I feel a little bit right now like we don't have a mission president. But I think I'll feel better when we meet President Phillips :)

Side note, I use "we" a lot more these days, and I'm never really sure if I'm using the royal we, referring to me and my companion, referring to missionaries in this mission, or referring to missionaries in general. It changes. Sorry if I don't always make sense.

We got a text a little bit ago saying that the R__'s have chosen a baptismal date! And like, it's solid this time! August 13th :) Next transfer, so I'll be super bummed if I leave Ottawa, but the important thing is that they are finally doing it, and they're excited about it :) 6 years has been way too long for them to wait. I'm just so happy that they have everything finally worked out to the point where they CAN be baptized, and they want it, and they're doing it as a family :) God's timing is not my timing. I am so excited for the day the R__'s can go to the temple and be sealed as a family for time and eternity.

Eyes update: better! Still not supposed to wear contacts but things are looking up. Haha get it?

Hair update: (it's been a while) My hair was looking REALLY bad for a while because of my roots growing out after dying it but I had this blonde hair spray stuff recommended to me by Sister Beaumont and that along with a slight haircut has gone a long way. So I'm feeling better about myself, these days :)

Sorry I'm jumping all over the place, but as for Y__ it's going to take a little longer than we were hoping. Her life is really hard right now. I have so much sympathy for that and love for her, but it's hard when someone pushes away the Savior in such critical moments when He wants so much to help. It's a good lesson for me that Christ will not help us if we don't want Him to. If we can take just the smallest step towards Him, He will grow exponentially on our efforts, but He won't make us to anything we don't want to do. Even when He knows we're making poor decisions. A lot of this doesn't apply to Y__, it really isn't as dramatic as all that, the experience has just made me reflect on my own life and the lives of others I've seen change or not change in the last... however long I've been out here.

I have a testimony of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I have said it over and over again and I will continue to repeat myself, and it will be more true each time I say it and it will never lose value. I know that Christ is my Savior and your Savior. I know that He loves us. I know that EVERYTHING He does is BECAUSE He loves us.

Also, unrelated, Canada got really hot. I hope you all are having a good week :) Shoot me an email, let me know how you're doing, keep me in your prayers!
I love you,souvenez-vous qui vous êtes ♥

P.S. this other picture there is us at a ward activity with Yannique--
Sister Lonas

Hearts of the Fathers

I gave a talk in church yesterday on "The Heart of the Fathers"...maybe I'll attach it. I didn't actually talk about my dad very much (sorry dad, I just didn't want to make everyone else feel inadequate about their own fathering), I mostly talked about family history and Heavenly Father. What's written on the paper is shorter than my whole talk ended up being, but the French one is closer to what I actually said (even though I spoke in English)! It was weird having to write out word for word what I wanted to say, and then translating it (with help from my companion) because this ward is technically an English ward but there are enough French speakers that they do French translation as well.

(Here's an excerpt from said talk:)

... So, here's the second thing I wanted to talk about. I can't really hear the phrase “the heart of the father” without thinking about the scriptures in Malachi and 3 Nephi that describe the turning of “the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers”. This is a scripture we read and use often in studying about family history. In this case, “fathers” means“ancestors”. There is a whole big group of people that, with the “heart of a father” want to be reunited with us for eternity and are waiting and watching for us to make the effort. And we are not alone in that effort! Elder John A. Widtsoe, a former member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, said about family history that “those who give themselves with all their might ... to this work receive help from the other side. ... Whoever seeks to help those on the other side receives help in return.” I suggest that “Fathers' Day” is about our fathers, and also their fathers, and their fathers, and everyone else we think of when we think about our own family trees. And the “heart of the father” is something that each of us can feel as we make the efforts to get closer to the vision of eternal salvation with our Father in heaven and with our families.

...  James E Faust taught “Noble fatherhood gives us a glimpse of the divine”. This is true because God is the perfect father. I know that I do not fully understand and appreciate everything that my dad, my brother, my home teachers, and my mission president have done and do for me, and I understand even less of what God does for me. We have, in reality, a very limited view of His plan for each of us individually, and most of what he does is behind­the­scenes. My relationship with my dad while I'm on my mission gives me somewhat of a better sense of how much our Father in Heaven wants us to return to him. This, I believe, is the “heart of the Father”. This great desire to help one another in the quest for salvation and the vision of being reunited eternally in our families with Heavenly Father, including all the smaller steps and efforts made to achieve that goal.

What else happened this week... we got cancelled on a lot, but it freed us up to be where people ACTUALLY needed us to be. We set a baptismal date with Y___ for July 3rd but then Tamika got sick so they couldn't come to church yesterday, so we'll probably have to push it back a week. But even as I write this, I'm on the phone with one of the ward young womens leaders who's helping to figure things out so Tamika can go to girls camp in a couple of weeks :) Things are good.

We said goodbye to President Patrick on Saturday. President Phillips comes in like a week. Honestly, I feel weird about it. But I know that President Patrick has been called of God to serve here at this time just as much as I have, and President Phillips is called by the same authority. He is the mission president that I will need for the rest of my mission, in the same way that President Patrick was the mission president I needed up until now.

This week I wrote a couple of limericks on fatherhood in my journal and if I could remember them and if they're any good, I'd write them down and send them. Maybe next week.

Sister Hilaire is great :) the language barrier is getting less funny, though, as she gets better at English, so I'm trying to speak French more. Also, just because I need to be speaking French more. She LOVES how enthusiastically I sing to EFY songs in the car. ("You are embarrassment, what if someone we teach sees you??" "Then they'll know how much I love Jesus, isn't that what we want??")

Really though, I've been thinking a lot lately about how my love for the Savior has grown. I really want to read Jesus the Christ again, there's just no time. Post-mission goal. I think I've sent these verses in an email before, but please read Luke 22:41-43. What would you do to strengthen the Savior during the critical moment in eternity? Now read Matthew 25:40.

I know that as we reach out to others in love, no effort is wasted.

I love you! Souvenez-vous qui vous êtes ♥

God is Too Good

That might have been a subject line on an earlier email? Not sure. It's still true.

I have almost no time (we went downtown with our district today to visit Parliament!) this might be really disjointed. Bear with me.

This week, the Elders found a woman who prayed them there because her brothers-in-law have been trying to get her in touch with the missionaries for a couple of days and she couldn't because she doesn't have internet or anything and she heard the Elders knock on the door next to hers, came out because she thought there was someone at her house, and was like "Oh great, I knew you'd show up sooner or later." They passed her off to us because she's a woman, we gave her a church tour on Saturday (with lots of help from members, she lives far-ish from the church and doesn't have a car and we can't meet with her at her house because she's living with strangers) and we showed her the baptismal font and she wanted to stand in it so she did and she cried and just kept saying "This should have happened a long time ago." and so, conclusion, the person to pray for is Yannique and her two kids, Tamika and Anthony. Tamika is already set to go to girls camp and they want to be baptized before the next youth temple trip so hopefully they'll be on that, too.

Real conclusion, God puts people where they need to be when they need to be there. He answers prayers, He loves us, and He prepares the way for His children to hear the gospel because the gospel it TRUE and because by believing it, living it, and loving it, we can have more joy than can be found in any other way of life. Eternal joy. With our families.

My eyes (both of them now) are not great, but getting better. Some days are better than others.

I love you all!

Souvenez-vous qui vous êtes ♥
Sister Lonas

Prayer

So like two months ago, one of my eyes started feeling kind of off and I ignored it because, I don't know, I had other cats to whip, but it turns out that I chose poorly because now I have this weird thing going on where it hurts to blink or close my eyes in general (sleep is a struggle) and I went to the doctor and he told me what it is but I don't remember what it's called. And now I can't wear my contacts for a while (Sister Hilaire's glasses are just as big and dark as mine, we look like we're trying to make a matching statement) and I have to use these eye drops four times a day that make my mouth taste bad and before going to bed I put this gel on my eye that doesn't actually help but he said to use it anyway so I do. But he checked my vision and said that unless it gets worse, I'm still okay to drive, and so far it seems to be getting better instead of worse.

And I'm sharing this with you because, the first night that my eye actually hurt it was really bad. Like, really bad. And I had no idea what was wrong, I assumed I just had something in my eye and went to bed figuring it would just work itself out because it was almost 10:30 and I didn't have time to worry about it. But after a while I realized I definitely wouldn't be able to sleep, so I got up and spent like 20 minutes trying to get a nonexistent foreign particle out of my eye and then gave up and went back to bed, and that pattern repeated for about two hours. So around 1, I was back up and had once again been unsuccessful in relieving any amount of pain, if anything it had gotten worse, and I sat on the bathroom floor and cried for a long time. And then I knelt on the bathroom floor and prayed and cried and I was so tired and I think I really thought no one had ever undergone a worse trial. I prayed for the rest of the night. Not because I'm super faithful or anything, but because I figured I couldn't sleep anyway, and it seemed like the most productive thing to do. It's hard to explain, like I've had other trials but obviously my life hasn't been that hard because this was one of the worst nights of my life. Heavenly Father didn't make my eye feel better that night. But He did help me to stop feeling sorry for myself, and to recognize that there were much worse situations I could have been in. He helped me to be grateful that I'm in a place where I could get medical help the next day. He helped me to be grateful for a companion who sleeps heavily enough that I could pray out loud and not wake her up. He helped me to do everything I needed to do the next day, even without having slept. Heavenly Father was good to me, even though the first hour or so of my prayer was just me complaining and asking Him to make my eye stop hurting.

In my experience, He usually doesn't answer prayers in the way we want or when we want. But He doesn't ignore us. I know God is there. I know we are His children, and I know He listens to and cares for us as loved sons and daughters, and He wants to be a bigger part of our lives.

So that's my story for this week. Other things happened too, but I don't have time to write about them. I promise the rest of the week was good! Sometime I'll like tell y'all about people or something, or something about what we actually do with our time.


I love you!
Souvenez-vous qui vous êtes ♥
Sister Lonas

Charity

 (Someone in her ward sent me the pictures last week. Before a youth activity they asked Rebecca and her companion to "test" the photo booth. :)

Every single week we leave the church after emailing and I'm like "Oh I should have put that in my email! I'll write about it next week." and I just don't think it's ever going to happen that I sit down at this computer and feel any kind of confidence about what to share with y'all.
We had a very busy week, and yet didn't do as much teaching as I would have liked. We spent a day in Montreal for the "Sister Hilaire is four weeks old" meeting, we helped a few people move, and we had exchanges in Gatineau. So, I spent more time in the province of Quebec this week than I had since I got transferred here, and that was nice. It's funny how you start to miss the weird Quebecois accent after a while. Sister Hilaire doesn't understand that yet :) she's still afraid to serve there.

It is a miracle that selfish worries and concerns can become insignificant when you choose to exercise charity (I'm realizing that it is a choice) and make someone else's concerns your own. That's not something I was very good at before, and I still wouldn't say it's a strength, but I'm working on it. This isn't to say that all personal concerns are selfish; there are many things that happen in our lives that need to be dealt with and worked through -- but being concerned for the welfare of other people always makes our own burdens lighter, making it possible for us to reach out and help others. This is a gift from Heavenly Father, and it is made possible through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. If we are willing to lay our burdens at the feet of Christ, our hands are free to lift someone else and help them learn to do the same.  Mosiah 18:8-11

This whole training thing is humbling to say the least, and I still don't know what I'm doing. But Sister Hilaire is patient with me. The Lord is patient with me. And I think I'm doing alright at being patient with myself.

I REALLY love this ward. I would be more than happy to spend the rest of my mission here, but we'll see whether or not the Lord has other plans. We get transfer calls this week, but I know I'm staying here for at least one more transfer #training so it'll be the call in six weeks that is more nerve wracking.

I don't really know what else to say...things are good! I'm a happy camper! Wish I had something humorous to share, but as per usual I can think about many times this week when I laughed really hard and cannot for the life of me remember what was so darn funny.

Oh but we went to the tulip festival last week with Sister Perdue and her companion and that was way fun :)

I love you all! Souvenez-vous qui vous êtes ♥
Sister Lonas

You are sons and daughters of God!

I had the best birthday ever.
I love this ward, I love my district, I love my family, I love my companion! Everyone is so nice.
I can't believe I spent just about my whole time being 19 on the mish. Weird, right?

In other news, we have Elders again! And it already feels so much better being able to divide and conquer, and work together to make sure everyone is seen. We were getting a little frayed.

I feel like the last few weeks I've been really struggling with knowing what in the world to say to y'all. Oh, but that reminds me, it's been hilarious realizing all the weird stuff I say as Sister Hilaire picks up phrases from me. Like, she now says "what in the world?" and she asked me yesterday "What does it mean 'snackaroo'?" so basically Sister Hilaire talks like my mom :) What a wonderful thing it is to learn a new language. My favorite French phrase I've picked up literally means "I have other cats to whip" but I pretty much only use that if it's just us.

We have fun :) and I keep forgetting to mention that Sister Hilaire was baptized just a little less than four years ago, so that's been really special. She asks doctrinal questions a lot that she thinks are embarrassing not to already know and it really just makes me aware of how we all have a whole lot to learn. Heavenly Father must just think we're all so cute as we make these tiny little steps in our personal progression.

Yesterday, Brother Stewart and his wife took us to Five Guys for my birthday (my birthday is lasting way too long) and I ate a REAL hamburger for the first time my whole mission. I was sitting there, eating American food with people whose company I enjoy, and Metallica came on (I'm seriously questioning some of the music that didn't bother me before my mission, some adjustments will have to be made to past playlists) and it was like "oh hey look, I still exist!" So that was nice :)

We were taught recently my Elder Oaks in a missionary training broadcast this message:

“In this unique worldwide gathering, it is most important to remind you missionaries  who you are and what you are called to do. You are sons and daughters of God! Everything else we are is subordinate to that.”

The coolest thing is that that's what makes it possible for us to relate to other people, because everyone has that in common. And everything that makes me me, including being American, and the music that I listen to or used to listen to, and my favorite color, and my love of sunshine -- while important -- is subordinate to my divine origin as a daughter of God.

I love you. And yet, my love for each of you is yet subordinate to the love of your Heavenly Father. Souvenez-vous qui vous êtes et d'où vous venez ♥

Sister Lonas

Birthday pictures!

It's a Canadian holiday today so we won't get a letter until tomorrow. But two ward members were kind enough to send me some pictures from her birthday last week. And now we also get to meet Sister Hilaire!
 

It's short! Sorry!

Monday, May 16, 2016 (...and I forgot to post this on Monday. Today, May 19th, is her birthday!!)

I don't have a lot of time left and I can't think of anything to say anyway so this'll be short.

But it was a good week! I cannot stress enough how much I love being a missionary and I love this area and I really love Sister Hilaire.

I think growing up I really had it ingrained into me that Heavenly Father loves me, but the natural implication that he must therefore love everyone else around me just as much wasn't something I spent as much time thinking about. I'm grateful I do now. That doctrine has done more to change my behavior and attitude than anything else.

I cannot stress enough how grateful I am for my current circumstances. We get to meet with amazing people every single day. We get to take part in the promise that when we follow and teach by the Spirit, we and those we teach are edified and rejoice together.

Oh and hahahahahaha it snowed last night...

I love you all,
Souvenez-vous qui vous êtes ♥

Next week I'll try and remember to give myself time to actually tell you all about what it is we're up to here in Ontario :)

Joyeuse Fête des Mères!

I typed the subject and then have been staring at the screen for like five minutes. I'm pretty sure I told my family all the important things on skype yesterday. This might be a really disjointed email.

It was wonderful to see my family :) There are a lot of people in it.  I cried a lot. It was pretty characteristic. Strong feelings tend to manifest themselves that way for me. I really love my family. My nieces and nephews are the cutest and they're really.....really funny. Hahahaha :) And I still have a good while left on the mish but this was my last skype call! The next time I see you all will be in person. Pretty weird.

So, Mothers Day. We talked in zone training last week about improving and maintaining mission culture and in explaining "culture", President Patrick said that the culture of our own homes was "what mom would always say". Which led to all kinds of reflection. A favorite Book of Mormon story about the two thousand stripling warriors, who were really just young boys, demonstrates the power of "what mom always says"...

47 Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives; yea, they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them. 48 And they rehearsed unto me the words of their mothers, saying: We do not doubt our mothers knew it. 

 

We can rehearse the words of our mothers because mom repeats herself. Moms always have. And there is power in what she repeats, for the same reason there is power in memorizing verses of scripture. We can pull on those words whenever or wherever we might need them.

Naturally, this all led me to thinking about two specific things that my mom always says.

• Everyone is just doing the best they can with what they have.
• You never know the whole story.

In other words, my mom has taught (or tried to teach) me to have charity. I thought this was helpful to me before, but it has proved even more valuable on my mission. I'm still working on having charity for others. But everything I know about charity began in my home with my mother. I have a really wonderful mom.

I love you all! Sorry for the weird spacing of this email :)
Souvenez-vous qui vous êtes ♥
Sister Lonas

Greeny Fire

Sorry, I didn't know pday wold be on a different day this week! We had interviews with President on Monday and zone training yesterday.

When I came into the mission field (kind of feels like yesterday, kind of feels like a million years ago...) Sister Schmuhl (my mission mom) talked a lot about greeny fire and how I just had so much energy and I gave her so much energy and I really didn't understand what she was talking about. I do now! Greeny fire is a real thing! And it makes miracles happen!

So Sister Hilaire is from Grenoble, France and she is wonderful. Hmmmm my mom (the real one) said she wanted to "hear all the details about her and our new lives together" which sounds a little bit like we're married but that's kind of what a companionship feels like sometimes. So, all the details...She speaks English really well, she learned Spanish in the MTC (language study is pretty complicated), she and I just kind of go back and forth between speaking English and French together. Both of us always want to be speaking the other person's native language to practice. Sometimes I pretend to speak Spanish.

Sooo, the Elders that were supposed to come in...didn't. The new Elder from the MTC had problems with his visa so he couldn't come in yet. It's just us in the ward for a few weeks (not sure how many yet, but they're hoping not more than four). I still don't really feel like I know this ward that well, but I have had a lot of help in the last week. It's true that the Holy Ghost brings all things to our remembrance. It is such a blessing to be with a companion who has so much enthusiasm for the work, it keeps me from feeling stressed or sorry for myself :) Rather than being overwhelmed about picking up everyone the Elders were teaching, I can just be excited that Sister Hilaire gets so much teaching experience in her first few weeks and we get to stay busy! It's so hard when you feel like you have nothing to do to be effective. That hasn't been the case!

And we've seen that when you show the Lord you are willing to do absolutely whatever you can to take care of the people in the area, He gives you more people to teach. And when you are being exactly obedient, especially in the schedule, He somehow makes the time for you to teach them all. I don't know how it works, but I don't question it.

I am so grateful to be set apart at this time as a full-time representative of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. How great is this calling. I know that hearts are changed when people do things to increase their faith, such as praying and reading their scriptures and deciding to be baptized and confirmed and being baptized and confirmed. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet called of God to restore the church of Jesus Christ on the earth.

I wish I had time to talk about all the people we've seen this week and tell about the miracles and tender mercies, but alas. Fortunately, being exactly obedient to God's commandments brings about miracles no matter what your calling. I know God loves you and will answer your prayers, because He loves me and answers my prayers and I'm not that special.

I love you all SO much! And really, Sister Hilaire and I had every intention to take a picture together before emailing and it just didn't happen. Here's crossing our fingers for next week.
Souvenez-vous qui vous êtes. Vous êtes un enfant de Dieu et Il vous aime plus qu'on est capable de comprendre.

Oh and family! I am so excited to see your faces on Sunday :) And missionaries, have fun skyping with your families! Happy Mothers' Day!

Hogan's Heroes has helped me a lot in my life.

I'm sick and tired, tempted not to write this email, but there are some important things to say and a funny story to tell.

Transfer calls happened and I'm training! And normally I wouldn't know who, but President Patrick  was here yesterday for exit interviews with missionaries going home and he told me she's from France! So. I'm stoked. She's going to think my drunken pirate french is so ugly, which is wonderful because that means I can work on fixing it now!

So, funny story. There's this woman in our ward who's active-ish and her husband isn't a member of the church, and the bishop asked us a while ago to try and get an appointment with them and we hadn't been able to. We'd heard that the husband is a really good cook and the bishop had said that the ideal situation would be for us to be invited to dinner there but that wasn't seeming really likely. BUT we finally got an appointment with them this week and before we shared a scripture or anything, we were just chatting and Brother Leger (the non-member husband) was telling a story about someone he used to work with and he goes "This man was probably 450 pounds. You know who he looked like?? No, you two have probably never seen Hogan's Heroes, you're too young..." and I said "Did he look like Schultz?" and now Brother Leger is my friend and we have an invitation to have dinner with them tomorrow.

I am very grateful for my companion. I really love Sister Johnston. Bishop was commenting yesterday on how much Sister Johnston has come out of her shell in the last few months and was kind of congratulating me on getting her to talk more and I just want to say, she has helped me SO much more than anything I have done for her. I've had great companions, and I'm sure I'll love my next one too, but I'm really going to miss Sister Johnston. I can't believe it's already been two transfers and she's going home. She's an awesome missionary.

I also love the Savior. I'm grateful for the knowledge that as I'm willing to rely on him, he will strengthen and support me. We've shared 2 Nephi 31:19-20 with many people this week as Sister Johnston has been bearing final testimony to the people we visit; I've learned a lot.

I know Christ lives.

Oh, cool quote from sacrament meeting yesterday "There's no sin in being the victim. But it's easy to sin when trying to avoid being the victim." --Brother Svenson

I love you! Souvenez-vous qui vous êtes,
Sister Lonas

All Good Things (and pics!)

Okay. Time is limited because we switched P-day to tomorrow because we're going to the temple (first time since the MTC, I'm so excited...can't even describe it. But I digress.) but when that happens, you still write home on Monday. Time has gotten the better of us and we're running late, don't have a ton of time to actually write things. Maybe I'll attach pictures or something like a put-together sister missionary.

We have a new ward mission leader and I'm really going to miss our old one. I'm convinced that if I were a sixty-something year old man, I would be Brother Stewart. Hard to explain. But he and I get along. We don't know Brother Savard as well but I'm sure he'll be great! But here's Brother Stewart and his wife...

We've spent more time than usual with people who have mental illnesses the last couple of days and I've been thinking a lot about the resurrection. I'm stoked. It's an amazing thing to look at someone and know that the way they are right now isn't really....them. Even not having seen them any differently, I know that Heavenly Father has a plan for every single one of his children. More and more, I think that maybe the people who seem the most as if God has forgotten them are the people for whom he cares most attentively. That isn't doctrine or anything, that's just Sister Lonas saying things.

I finished  Jesus the Christ by James E. Talmadge  this morning -- wow. I don't want to spoil anything buuuuuuuut it was amazing and all of you should read it.

Yesterday was a day of miracles and I have a stronger testimony than ever that Heavenly Father places us where we need to be according to our efforts to follow His will and follow Christ's example. I don't have time to go into detail now but maybe one day I'll tell y'all about Jean.

I love being a missionary. I love learning more and more how to a representative of Jesus Christ in more than the literal wearing of his name (I still have a lot to work on). I love Chapel Hill and the people in this area, I love Sister Johnston, and more than anything else I love my Savior.

And I love YOU.
Souvenez-vous qui vous êtes

Sister Lonas

It was Sister Torres'birthday, my MTC companion! 

And it's still snowing...

It hasn't been too cold, but it has snowed all week. I've still never gone sledding or made a snowman or had a snowball fight in my life (no time!) so my favorite thing to do in the snow is definitely running. The snow makes for nice resistance, keeps you from getting too hot, it's beautiful and untouched early in the morning...perfect.

Every time I sit down to this computer, all I can think is "What in the world did we do this week!?" and then when I come up with a blank, "Then why am I always so tired..." which I'm convinced is one of the many reasons we have daily planners

We just barely received this text from our investigator, Hailey: "Don't faint. Would you like to come over tomorrow to see me...around lunchtime. Probably a picnic lunch. I will read Helaman 5 in preparation or something else you may want to suggest." Quick background. Hailey has been an investigator for ten years and always comes to church (she's even on the ward list), her baptism issues are kind of complicated, she just says all the time that she's on the fence about it. She's raw vegan and one day I picked up her cookbook and she had made all these grammar corrections in it. I tell her all the time that if she would just get baptized, I would want to be her when I grow up. She has no idea how serious I am. Have I mentioned how I want to be vegan when I get home? I do. I kind of am now (Sister Johnston is very kind, she humors me and eats whatever I make) but I can't really control what members feed us, I just eat whatever is put in front of me and I am grateful. Anyway, long rant to explain why I am SO SAD we're going to be on exchanges in Gatineau tomorrow and won't be able to have lunch with Hailey.

And that effectively delayed me having to look through the planner to figure out what happened in the last seven days.

Yesterday was the farewell party dinner thing for someone in our ward and his mom invited the entire ward including us, AND she personally invited all of our investigators. And they all came! We had more investigators and less-actives at David Gagnon's farewell than we did at church.

We've had fun being in a new car, especially because we don't have the snow scraper things yet (accidentally left the ones we had in our old car) so we've been using creative materials to get the snow off all week.

We got to go back to the Embassy of Bulgaria to pick up Sister Quinton's visa and get it sent to her, and recontacted the Ambassador of Bulgaria, he told us he had met with the sisters in whose area he is and now he's planning to go to church and stuff so that's awesome. And he told us about how beautiful the weather is in Bulgaria right now and said "When there is white falling from the sky...I want throw up."

We've been getting better at using family history for retention, reactivation, finding, and teaching. I LOVE family history!! The general conference talks on temples and family history were so cool.

We have three investigators that are currently figuring out their own baptismal dates. Which is not my favorite method because it can take FOREVER but it has seemed to be the best option for them to communicate with Heavenly Father and be fully invested. I'm trying to be patient.

The three topics of conversation around here are the weather, hockey, and United States politics. I am so confused at what is going on with my country. I'm confused at this weather and hockey, too, but I don't expect to ever come closer to understanding either of those.

I said something really profound in an email to Steven last week so I'm going to quote myself:
"For the beginning of your mission: God loves the people around you just as much as He loves you. And for the end: God loves you just as much as He loves the people you've been serving."

I am touched every. single. day. by the ways Heavenly Father manifests his love for his children. His presence is so...apparent. If we are just willing to see Him. And recognize the reality of miracles. As my awareness of His love for the people here grows, I am dumbfounded by the truth that he loves everyone else just as much as the people of Chapel Hill, including me.

Being a missionary is great.
I love you, Souvenez-vous qui vous êtes ♥
Sister Lonas

Grateful for special witnesses

(I can't believe I didn't post this last week! I was out of town and just .... forgot.)

April 4, 2016

I've been procrastinating writing this email. There are so many wonderful things I could say about general conference this weekend. We were richly nourished by the pleasing word of God.

I say this both to express how much I loved hearing from our Father in heaven through the mouths of His chosen servants, and to apologize for the probably short email that will follow.

Some of my favorite things from general conference (probably not exact quotes):

See Saul-like individuals with their Paul-like potential
God looketh not upon the color of the jersey, nor the political party -- this was hilarious as well as a good lesson for us all
The Savior knows how it feels to be a refugee. He was one.
The Lord does not make it easy, but He does make it possible
Why does Satan tell people they can't improve or progress? Because HE can't improve. He can't progress. But we can. And the best thing about the gospel is that we get credit for trying.
We can escape the consequences of both sin and stupidity, through Christ's infinite Atonement
Opposition provides alternative choices on which to exercise our agency. Therefore, those who seek to destroy the Father's plan actually facilitate it.
Unlike Alice in Wonderland, we know where we want to go. And the direction we choose to take does matter.
Answer His call. "Come home."

And so many more things...conference was amazing. I have such a testimony of living prophets and apostles. I love Thomas S Monson and know that He is called of God, as was Brother Joseph. I am grateful for the special witnesses of Jesus Christ who serve the world so diligently.

I had some breakthroughs in my studies this week and was once again impressed with the wonderful reality that I will never know everything there is to know about Heavenly Father's plan for His children. But the more I do know, the more it ALL MAKES SENSE. The gospel is so cool. That's been my big takeaway from this week. Eternal truth is just the coolest thing.

One of our investigator families, the R___s, have been waiting on some legal marriagey stuff to be baptized (long story) but things are finally figured out and they're considering being baptized this month. Their kids are getting excited for the day to come, since they had been waiting for their own baptisms too.

We have another investigator who's been pondering on baptism. She was referred to us by the Elders after the R___s referred her to them. We had a lesson with her along with Sister G, a member who's been becoming really good friends with her. We were having the lesson on commandments, and she was bringing up questions pertaining to prophets which was perfect with General Conference coming up. We invited her to attend to see what answers she could find for the questions she was having. She then told us about she's been really pondering on whether to join or not, with finding a place to build a foundation for her kids as they live in a world that could pull them in all sorts of directions (she was tearing up a bit on this). She also told us that she had talked to her husband about baptism (which she had refused to do before). He said it's her choice to make. So now she's working on the decision with Heavenly Father (prayers would be appreciated). We promised her that she would find answers to her questions at conference.
She ended up being able to come to the chapel for the Sunday morning session, which was the session that President Monson was speaking in. Leaning over and telling her that he was the prophet just felt really good. I was grateful to know for myself that he really is.

And he is directed by the Lord Jesus Christ, who stands at the head of this church.

Um other things....we hadn't been able to run because Sister Johnston is asthmatic and it was too cold for her lungs but with it getting a little warmer she decided she wanted to try running and I was just delighted! So that's been another great things about the last few days. I missed running.

The Elders got a new car. We're pretty jealous.

I love you all! Souvenez-vous qui vous êtes,
Sister Lonas

P.S. ended up being longer with the help of Sister Johnston