It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas a little late

On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day the temperature spiked very unusually -- at one point it hit 20*C -- and then yesterday we got covered in another blanket of snow and it is currently -11*C. This was my one chance to have a white Christmas and it felt like I was back in Carlsbad. The only day that I actually really wanted it to be cold, I didn't need my coat. We went caroling in short sleeves. Oh well. We have plenty of cold now.

Fortunately, I've been in training my entire life to feel the magic of Christmas even without snow, and Christmas was indeed magical. 

 I got to skype with my family :) There are a lot of people in my family. They kept having to shift and give different people turns to see my beautiful face. Highlights: Madeleine sang me a song about Christmas that had hand motions and everything. As far as I can tell my family still thinks I'm funny, and (thank goodness) they're still funny, too. 

Last Tuesday we had a mission-wide Christmas devotional, which was absolutely wonderful. I really love President and Sister Patrick. Most of the devotional was musical numbers performed by missionaries and Sister Patrick read to us out of Luke. I got to see my MTC district again, which was way fun :) At the end, when President and Sister Patrick wished us all a Merry Christmas individually, President assured me that he hasn't forgotten about me haha and I told him that he's welcome to keep forgetting about me, I've been very happy in Terrebonne with Sister Schmuhl for my whole mission thus far.

This week we're passing off a few of the people we teach to the Elders because we're making more of an effort to, as sisters, only teach women, and have the Elders only teach men. This will significantly thin out our teaching pool, but it's definitely a good direction to be taking. So, this week we will be concentrating on finding new friends! We are going to talk to everyone and invite people to take part in the good news of the gospel, because we love them. I love my calling :)

I love my Lord and Savior. This season, I have enjoyed nothing more than talking about Him all day every day and having the opportunity to share the joy of His birth. Going forward, I am excited to give Him greater focus and always learn more about his life, without waiting for it to be Christmas again.

Merry Christmas, I love you all, mais le Seigneur encore plus :)
Souvenez-vous qui vous etes,

Soeur Lonas

Merry Christmas!

It's snowing right now! It's magical! Everything is white and beautiful! It honestly is the craziest thing to me that snow is normal for other people. I just find it so thrilling. Sister Schmuhl thinks I'm crazy, as does the population of Quebec when I am spinning in circles in the church parking lot and they are walking as quickly as they can from their cars to the Uniprix across the street.

I am so stoked for Christmas, I LOVE Christmas! We're eating with pretty much every family in the ward this week so that's frightening -- I've actually made progress on losing some of the weight I gained over the last 6 months but by the time my family sees my on Friday I will have gained it all back. So that's a bummer. But hey! Family! I'm so excited to see you! :D

Our ward Christmas party was the last Friday, it was amazing. Terrebonne knows how to party. It's funny how without a lot of other examples around of wards and their parties, the Mormon culture is not as clearly defined and a ward gathering turns into a very real dance party. I have never had such a hard time keeping a mission rule as I did on Friday night keeping the no-dancing rule. It was really hard. Especially with members trying to pull us on to the dance floor saying "Don't worry! We won't tell anyone!" hahaha. Listening to Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber and Queen and Abba was kind of a little bit torturous. But, at the end of the day, it also reinforced my testimony of why we don't listen to normal music as missionaries. It was pretty hard for both of us to concentrate during planning that night and going to sleep I could still hear "Shake it Off" playing in my head. If I try really hard, I still can.

It's been pretty hard to meet with people, which is understandable because everyone is busy for the holidays, but it makes things tough. However, the people who have let us in have been very clearly softened by the spirit of Christmas that is in everything right now. I have been especially impressed by the testimonies of Christ shared with us by non-members. I love feeling unified to people of other faiths by our similar desires to follow the example of Christ.

We have our mission-wide Christmas devotional tomorrow and in preparation for that, we have been asked by President to read and study the gospel of John in the New Testament. In doing so over the last couple of weeks, I have come to realize that I need to spend more time studying the New Testament. I know the stories of the life of Christ and have heard them my whole life, but reading the actual text is very different and I've realized what details are traditionally left out and which ones are in fact fabricated. My testimony of the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Christ has been strengthened daily in studying John's testimony. It really happened. Christ really is the Son of God and He really suffered for our sins, sadnesses, and pains because He LOVES us. So much. Just after finishing John's testimony the other day, I turned to where I currently am in the Book of Mormon and one of the first things I read was 2 Ne 9:21. All of the Book of Mormon testifies of the Atonement of Christ

2 Nephi 9:21 And he cometh into the world that he may save all men if they will hearken unto his voice; for behold, he suffereth the pains of all men, yea, the pains of every living creature, both men, women, and children, who belong to the family of Adam.

All of the Book of Mormon testifies of the Atonement of Christ but it has never been so powerful to me as it was immediately after reading the closest thing we have to a first hand account of the Atonement. I have so much love for Jesus Christ. He is my brother and He is your brother and He is the reason we celebrate Christmas.


I love you all! Merry Christmas!
Souvenez-vous qui vous etes ♥Soeur Lonas

Discover Why

Monday, December 14

So I forgot to mention that transfer calls were coming this last weekend because I just assumed Sister Schmuhl and I would be staying together in Terrebonne for her last transfer on the mish....and we are! So we really do get to have Christmas together and I really do get to kill her (send her home) in February! I've never heard of companions being together this long who weren't Sister Training Leaders. We are thrilled. Honestly, I just feel so blessed and grateful to get to be with her for this long and in such a wonderful area. Especially because, meanwhile, Sister Shelley is leaving (really sad, she's adorable and we love her) and Sister Beaumont is training AGAIN in Mascouche. I do not envy her. I am perfectly happy with my five transfers of being trained by my Schmuhl mama. 

In other fun transfer news, one of my STLs is dying (going home) and the sister coming in to replace her is Sister Perdue!! I am so excited. We're going to get to go on exchanges together, which is super funny and super cool. Yeah, I totally won this round of transfer calls.

I don't know if I've mentioned the Terrebonne elders ever? But they're awesome, so it's super sad that Elder Noorda is leaving to go up to Quebec (even though that's a really cool area), but Elder Mecham is going to be training here, too! New missionaries are so good, they have so much MTC energy (get it? funny, because I'm still basically a new missionary).

And our Sacrament meeting yesterday was centered on missionary work so we sang a song with the Elders which was really fun and went very well and I also gave a talk. Yeah, that was pretty terrifying. I'm pretty sure my French reverted back to me in French 1 and my accent was horrific but c'est la vie (oh good, I haven't forgotten everything). It's done now and it was fun! Great learning experience.

Also I love Christmas! So much! It is such a fun time to be a missionary! We've gone caroling a few times with the Mascouche sisters and it's so cool, we do all four parts (Sister Beaumont is sick, she does bass). It's a big hit. Less actives can't NOT let you in after that, it really is incredible effective. Honestly, we've had some amazing lessons with less-actives this week whose hearts have been touched by the spirit of Christmas. This is such a special time of the year. If you haven't seen the new video yet -- https://www.mormon.org/christmas -- we share it with a million people every single day, and it's still great. I actually like it better in French, but it's good in English, too. I invite you to "Discover Why" Christ was sent to Earth, either in beginning a structure of faith now or deepening your appreciation of the birth and life of Christ by studying the scriptures and sharing the restored Gospel.

I know that Christ lives. I know that our Heavenly Father sent him here to live and die and live again for us, and I know that this and everything else our Father does for us is motivated by his infinite love for each one of his children. I love being a member of Christ's church on the earth, especially during this season of Christmas. I love my brothers and sisters in Christ, and I am so happy. I love Quebec, and more specifically I love Terrebonne. Good thing, too, I'll be here for a good while. I absolutely adore my calling as a representative of Jesus Christ.

It's been a great week, I hope it has for you, too! Don't forget why we celebrate Christmas amidst all the other fun things about the season :)
I love you all! Souvenez-vous qui vous etes,

Soeur Lonas

Worst Kiss Ever

Wonderful week :) but this will be a shorter email

Larry has a calling now as the second counselor in the Young Men's presidency! He's doing great.

Our most recently fixed baptismal date: January 2nd. Please keep Oliver in your prayers. He's such a sweet man, and his testimony is strong. He's just had some bad experiences with members before... super sad.

Somehow I've gained the reputation in our zone as making super good crepes? I've made them two times. I mean, I'm flattered, although I don't feel like this particular compliment was very well deserved. But I'll take it!

You meet some weird people when you're called of God to talk to everyone. I was on exchanges in Montreal a couple days ago and totally got kissed by a man on a bus, so that was eventful. He told me that I looked like a princess and should live in a castle...you would see the humor in this if I'd been humble enough to allow any pictures of myself that day. Anyway, I felt like the worst person in the whole world, but my Sister Training Leader got a kick out of it.

I've started studying the gospel of John this week and it has increased my testimony so much of the Savior and increased my appreciation for everything he has done and continues to do for me personally. And using the Joseph Smith translation has also been really interesting. Morning studies are wonderful, and it is such a blessing that personal studies are followed by companionship study because then we get to fangirl together about how great the scriptures are. I love me some Sister Schmuhl scriptural fangirling.

We had our interviews with President this week which was like spiritual therapy. I love President Patrick so much. I miss my parents more than I can describe and nothing could make me not miss them, but I'm very grateful to have such amazing mission parents who also love me and to whom I can turn for counsel.

Culinary accomplishment: made cookies without a recipe from leftover pumpkin soup and brought it to some of our less actives. We didn't try any of them because we're trying to cut out sugar as much as possible but I got some compliments. One woman asked for the recipe...I just said it was a secret; I have no idea what actually ended up going into those.

Oh yeah, Sister Beaumont and I cut each others hair! So I have bangs, now :)

I love you! Watch the Christmas devotional if you haven't already, it was amazing! Merry Christmas! :)
Souvenez-vous qui vous etes ♥
Soeur Lonas

Missions and Christmas

Biggest news of the week: Larry decided he's going to serve a mission. He met with the bishop about it yesterday to find out everything he has to do to prepare for that, but he's planning on going in less than a year, right after he has the opportunity to go through the temple after a year of membership. I feel like I fangirl about this all the time, but I could never say enough that he is a miracle. His testimony strengthens ours every day, we're very grateful we get to keep meeting with him as a recent convert (although now we switch off with the Elders). He has overcome so many challenges throughout his conversion process and I know those experiences have prepared him for people somewhere who are waiting for him, specifically. They are waiting for the hope of the Atonement he will bring into their lives.

Speaking of missions, our ward had a farewell yesterday for Johnathon, who's been a HUGE help to us these last five months (I cannot believe how long I've been here) and he's going to Long Beach, California! I'm so jealous he gets to leave and go to California just as it's getting cold. He keeps asking me if they even play hockey there, I don't know how many times I've told him that in the US hockey is just not what it is for Canada. But he's going to be an amazing missionary, his story is incredible.

It's snowing here, now, which has it's pros and cons. Well, one con. It's freezing. But I had forgotten that I really do love the snow. It is gorgeous and when snow is falling, everything feels like Magic Christmas Sprinkles Land. Maybe that's just because I've seen it snowing so rarely in my life, and I'm sure it will get old before too long, but for now I'm loving it :)

I weighed myself this week, that was not the best decision I've ever made. But I still have so many reasons to feel good about my personal appearance; my leg hair is longer than ever.

I'm struggling to think of what else happened this week that might be interesting to people who aren't me and Sister Schmuhl. But let's be honest, I've pretty much lost touch with who people even are who aren't me or Sister Schmuhl. We've been together for a very long time. Still love her! I feel very blessed to have her as my companion, it's amazing how you can be with someone for five months and still learn from them every day.

We're going caroling tonight to share the new church video "The Savior is Born" with the world, hoping we don't freeze! I love Christmas!

I love all of you! Thank you for still reading my letters! Stay warm, share the new church Christmas video with your friends, and remember who you are ♥
Soeur Lonas

Miracles (and more food, of course)

We were allowed to come to the chapel to watch the cultural celebrating for the temple Saturday night which was so cool! I learned so much more about the culture of Quebec and gained an even greater appreciation for the people here. And it was pretty dang cool having the whole program go back and forth between French and English and actually understanding the whole thing!

And then the temple was dedicated yesterday and that was so special. President Eyring gave the dedicatory prayer. Tomorrow, it will be up and running. We've already seen so many miracles and blessings from this temple and I cannot wait to watch more unfold as members have the chance to go and do work for ancestors they've been researching for the last year and half. Lorenzo had the opportunity to be in the temple for the dedication with our bishop and his family and it was an incredible experience for him, we could not be happier for him and the strides he's making in his life.

We got three new investigators this week! Michel contacted US while we were in the grocery store and he and his ten year old daughter, Florence, are now learning about the restored gospel. Meeting with them was really cool, we had an awesome member with us and the spirit was so strong. Our other new investigator is named Marie-Victoire and she is the wife of the less active brother of another one of our members (yes, confusing). Our first lesson with her was last night and she totally agreed to be baptized and said we could set a date next Sunday when we meet again. Miracle. God is just too good.

Another example of God being just super nice, we were eating with a member this week and they were asking about our Christmas traditions back home and stuff and among many things we said, I mentioned that cherry pie makes it feel like a holiday to me because that's my dad's favorite, and Sister Schmuhl said they always play UNO on Christmas day. After that, they invited us to come over for Christmas dinner and to skype our families at their house and said that we would all play UNO together and then after we gushed about how that was just the nicest thing anyone had ever said, I asked if I could make something to bring and they asked if we could bring a cherry pie. I love baking but I think I love baking even more for people that I love. I love the Barboza-Gomez family and whereas before I was just trying not to think so much about how quickly Christmas was approaching, I am so excited now! I love it here.

This less-active woman Melissa texted us this week and invited us to supper, and it ended up not working out because she had a work thing come up, but later we were talking to her active mother about it and found out that Melissa told her mom that she was so touched by the Spirit at the temple open house that she's thinking about taking the lessons again and doing it with her nonmember husband, and that the original idea to have us over for dinner actually came from her husband, which is awesome! We're hoping that works out this week.

Culinary accomplishment: Last pday, I cut up our pumpkin and made a pumpkin pie out of it -- homemade all the way down to the crust. So, I'm feeling pretty capable. Since then, i have used that same pumpkin to make Mac and Cheese using pumpkin instead of noodles, pumpkin soup, and the dinner plan tonight is pumpkin pancakes. Sister Schmuhl is patient with me :)

We've eaten really good food this week. The Latino members of our ward feed us VERY well. I really need to learn how to make tortillas like that.

It has been a really great week :) I'm pretty convinced that there is nothing more fun than being a missionary. Smile every day, remember that you never know how many people appreciate it but it's absolutely more than you think!

Oh yeah, and I'll hit my six month park this week -- frightening. Still feel like I have no idea what I'm doing. And my (hesitant) return date is November 22, 2016, so that's pretty weird. I'm so happy to still have a good year left to keep learning all that the Savior would have me learn and try every day to be more like Him in my service of the people of Quebec. I can't stress how much I love this province. It's very humbling to realize how much more everyone here is doing for me than I could do for them.


I love you all so so much,
Souvenez-vous qui vous etes
Soeur Lonas

That dweam wiffin a dweam

Great week. Really just so many great things. I don't even know where to start.

So I'll start with talking more about the temple open house, it continued to be such an uplifting and edifying experience. Miracle after miracle after miracle. I believe it was impossible for anyone who attended not to feel the Spirit, and it was impossible not to want to make changes to increase the influence of the Spirit in your life -- I know it had that effect on me. We had more less-active members at church yesterday than we ever have before, and they are committed to come every week.

As hostesses we spent all of our time either in the reception tent to greet people after they went through the temple, or in the video rooms getting people situated before they went through and watching the introduction video with them. Watching the introduction video over....and over......and over again. It is a fantastic video. Parts of it really did never get old. Other parts did. It's 12 minutes long, we can quote the whole thing in English and in French. And it's funny, the first time you watch it you don't think it's about marriage. After the fiftieth time, you realize that marriage is all you can think about and that's all any of the Sisters can talk about and that you're slowly being brainwashed by this video. The last two days, we couldn't even watch it anymore, we would just start the video and step out. So that was a fun side effect of all of this, and Sister Schmuhl and I completely planned out our weddings during the slower hours of the day.

Our new morning Larry workout is going very well! We're no longer sore like we were, but I can definitely feel the difference from this morning's exercise after not doing it yesterday.

Here's a funny thing: I haven't shaved since sometime in the middle of September. My legs look like Chase's. And no one needs to know, because I'm never not wearing tights! Haha, it's pretty funny looking at all of our legs next to each other, you really wouldn't know we were women."(from another letter last week, inserted here to provide context for the following paragraph):

Our leg hair is coming along nicely. Maybe I'll send a fun pic home soon. After all, when progress is reported, the rate of improvement increases (wish I had the exact quote on me...didn't think I would need Preach my Gospel to write this letter). (“When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates.” A circumstance probably not foreseen when the phrase was written.)

During personal study this week, I've been reading the General Conference magazine. I LOVE watching and listening to Conference and I definitely wouldn't substitute anything for that, but there's something special about being able to read the talks and go at your own pace and highlight sections and take notes in the margins. I love that. I have felt immensely grateful all over again for inspired leaders and modern revelation.

I am so grateful for temples and I am excited to be able to go and do a session, hopefully in the next couple of weeks. I have missed the temple so much these last few months and being there every day has made me SO excited for after the dedication. Which, by the way, is this Sunday :) stoked.

Life is good! Terrebonne is treating me well. I, of course, am freezing, but they're saying that it isn't nearly as cold as it usually is by this time of year and they're actually predicting a pretty "mild" winter. Of course, all things are relative, but I feel very blessed! AND the heating in our apartment starting working two days ago! Turns out, all we had to do was tell the landlord it didn't work. Whoops.

I'm a happy camper :) Jesus loves everyone. The Gospel is true. God has called prophets in our day.


I love you!
Souvenez-vous qui vous etes ♥
Soeur Lonas