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