I'll go where you want me to go, I guess..

Hey Fam, these are pictures of some of my best friends on the mish. Transfer calls came this week and I was totally expecting to stay with Sister Bailey in the Moule through Christmas, but I guess the Lord has prepared families in Martinique that SISTER TENNEY and I need to go find. It is a very bittersweet feeling. I love Moule, it was an experience I will never forget. That area has so many challeneges but we were blessed to see so many miracles. I love it so so so much. The people there are so special. I had some of the most spiritual experiences of my life in Moule as well as the tiny house where we met for church in Mourne-a-l'eau. The Lord guided us all the time. Sister Bailey is one of my best friends, and she has taught me so much in our time here. She taught me real faith and we worked so well together.  Ive lived in Gwada for almost a year now so its really weird to be leaving. I love the members and all the missionaries here. It is so special. But there is work to be done and things to be learned in Martinique and Im so stoked to be with my other best mission friend again!!! Haha this time we might actually have a clue of how to do missionary work!! Its going to be great. I never ever thought I would go to Martinique, but the Lord has a plan. I leave Wednesday!

So this week has been kinda weird with transfer calls and all, but we were able to have some really spiritual lessons. We had a couple of really weird disappointments, but, to quote the Joseph Smith movie (which I have seen about 30 times through the course of my mission) Never get discouraged brethren. But let me tell you about L and D. Remember the less active that we randomly found in the street? Okay so Frere Felsina, Sister Vance and I met him and he drove away from us while we were talking to him and the second time he gave us his number finally and now the last two weeks he and his girlfriend have come to church!! and next week his son is!! This brother is a priesthood holder and such a miracle that the spirit touched him and he is making changes again in his life. He is so happy. His girlfriend was not excited before and def fought with us once over some false doctrine, but now she wants to be baptized!! She has the spirit more in her life and she just glows when we talk with her and at church! They are so special.

This whole family is all so ready for baptism. I literally think they will finally do it like 2 week after I leave. We asked them the baptismal questions last night and they all just have such strong testimonies! They just need to do it. Any ideas?

Well next weeks email will be from Martinique!! ahhhhh that is so werid; gwada is all I know!! But i am stoked and it should be great

Invite everyone to the church, build a grandstand if you want to!! haha Father of the Bride- August 25th, 2014

Hey fam!
Okay we didn't exactly have to build a grandstand for church yesterday but we sure did have to add chairs as more and more people showed up for sacrament meeting!! It was the most people we have had there since I've been in the group! and it was a miracle. The picture below is of the family Nestor, cousins of Tosta. They are so cool and the two smallest boys are the counterparts of eva and millie. The older one is nine and is so nice to the younger one who is four. This family is so cool.

Tosta has still not had her baby, which is really throwing off the whole Chris and Jr, her bros, getting baptized thing. But we are praying for and expecting miracles. Yesterday Chris (13) Jr (10) and Mezina, their neighbor (14) all fasted so they could be baptized the 6th of September. Meznia told us that her mom told her she was crazy but "I believe in my fast" I just cried. These 3 amigos just have so much faith and it is amazing to watch their conversion. They are so committed because of the spirit and the Book of Mormon, they love it!

Okay I have to tell you about this service project. So theres this one email shop in Moule that is like super expensive. We went to it a few weeks ago and it was like disgusting inside, like hasn't been cleaned in 5 years. We asked if we could clean it for him and so we went back this saturday and started dusting this place that has not been wiped down in so long! We were like "monseiur, what the heck?" just kidding but we were very concerned. He just kept saying, in english, "eet needs a roomans touch"

The first half of the week I spent in St Maarten and Martinique, it was so cool, the first time I have been off gwada in a very very long time. I saw my bestie soeur tenney which was such a treat!! It was like perfect friends plus missionary work equals heaven.

The Book of Mormon is a MIRACLE- July 21, 2014

Fill the World with the BOOK OF MORMON
This week was great, I'm really trying to focus on all the amazing miracles the Lord has given us. Like we talked about at Zone Conference, the Book of Mormon is really the tool that will bring people closer to Christ.  Last night, we went to this appointment that I was pretty sure was going to fall through. As we walked up to the house the family was getting out of the car from the beach. I was sure that they were going to tell us to come back later but much to my surprise the mother invited us in and we helped her carry some stuff upstairs. We sat down and she said "I read the Book of Mormon, I really loved it! I couldn't put it down!" She had read 3 Nephi 11 so we discussed it a little and talked about the way Jesus Christ established baptism by His authority. Her response was "You are right!" She believes it is the word of God and we are really excited for her. Sister Vance shared Moroni 10:3-5 with her. When Joanna read the first line she said "this is so weird; this is exactly the answer to my next question!" It was such a cool miracle lesson and sister Vance and I were just so happy. I just cried while we said a thankful prayer.

This morning I went back and read the chapters she read, but in english (sometimes reading in my own language just makes the words hit me harder) and it was just so awesome. I loved that I could feel the spirit of the words of Christ the way she felt them. She just loved it and we talked about the spirit. It was so cool because we talked about how everyone feels the spirit differently; I talked about how I feel the spirit when I feel happy, and when I know something is true I feel joy and peace. She said thats how she felt when she read the book of Mormon. Ah it was just such a cool lesson and it was crazy because I feel like I literally did nothing. It was all because of the Book of Mormon and the Spirit. If only I could remove my self like that from every lesson!

Read the Book of Mormon breakfast lunch and dinner and invite your friends.
haha thats another thing, when I get home Im going to be the best member missionary ever! haha new goal.

all you need is love
abs

Book of Mormon: Breakfast Lunch and Dinner!!!

Heya!!!
Okay this week was a little different because we had a car for half of it!! Our Zone Leaders were in Trinidad so we got to use it, so different than bikes, but we got to visit a lot of people that we wouldn't normally be able to so it was awesome. We have this less active family that lives in Moule but its about a 45 minute bike ride on a high way with no bike lane so we haven't been able to get out there very much. Its so crazy because this family is super nice and the dad even served a mission and was branch president but they just kinda stopped. Totally a "your potential your privilege" situation.

So everyone has this illness that I still cannot pronounce called shykingunya and its carried by mosquitos. Thats kind of tough because a lot of people cancel do to it but luckily none of the missionaries have gotten it.

But this week has really been about faith. Faith has always been kind of a hard concept for me to grasp but I have a firm testimony that if you are on a mission (and probably at any point in life) and you ask the Lord to teach you about a principle He will always deliver. So I wanted to strengthen my faith in the power of prayer. President Eclar has been really trying to teach us about believing in miracles the past few weeks and on the phone he even said "You need to pray fervently, like pay the price, you need to pray for like a half hour, man!" So I was reading in the bible dictionary about prayer, and it says something really interesting. " The object of prayer is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant but that are made conditional on our asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings." That just explained it so perfectly!! I had always kind of lacked in that aspect because I knew that I couldn't change God's will. But we must work to obtain blessings!! So we have started to pray much more specifically for each of our investigators. Its amazing how prayer strengthens our relationship with Heavenly Father. We were at a less active families house the other night with our Zone Leaders and we each said the greatest blessing we have received from our missions (we are really trying to show the oldest 2 children the blessings of serving missions). I think for me its coming to know my Heavenly Father. In the MTC one of our teachers said "Your mission will glow for you on a map, Lyon glows for me. It glows for me because that is where I met God." I always thought that was such a powerful statement and I wanted to be able to have the same experience on my mission. By obeying and studying God's will, and praying, we truly can come to know Him. What a blessing!!!

Okay back to the week. So The first person I ever contacted in Moule is named Danrick. He is 19 (hello mission?!!) and goes to high school and is a mechanic. I actually wasn't planning on talking to him but sister vance and I were doing our studies one morning on this big staircase that leads down to the ocean and one of my papers flew away. Danrick picked it up (it was actually an invitation to Daniel Valmy's baptism) and we started talking about the church. He wrote down his phone number and address for us but we could never find him. Then fast forward a few weeks to us contacting this area of houses. We were talking to this lady and Danrick showed up behind us, it was his house and his mom! Which is crazyyy because Moule is huge (ps i think we are getting a car....aka no more bokits for me.) Anyway he let us right in and accepted the message of the restoration tellement! This week he came to church (Im always a little nervous about investigators at the group because it is sooooo small) But he loved it!!! The most I have ever seen an investigator love church. It may or may not be due to the fact that one of the speakers was President Eclar (counselor in the mission presidency) and The other was Elder Gamiette (area 70). President Eclar talked about the Book of Mormon and it was awesome. He said "we need to read the Book of Mormon like we eat food. Breakfast Lunch and Dinner!!!" Afterwards Danrick was just amazed by both of them and wanted to meet them and we committed him to read the Book of Mormon breakfast lunch and dinner. what? He is getting baptized June 28th. He is awesome and will add so much to the group!! When we asked him if he wanted to get baptized he was so excited and was just like "Thank you so so so much for all you have done for me!!" Also he leaned over in church when one of the speakers said some thing about Joseph Smith and said "Oh ya Joseph Smith!!" I was like do you believe he was a prophet? and he was like "OUI!" chouette.

ALSO another cool miracle. We were fasting very specifically to receive a member referral family. Last night Sister Luissaint gave us a referral of a family in Moule. Naturally they have shikinguynya so the elders are going over tonight to teach about the priesthood and offer them blessings.

Just a preface for next weeks email: Polyneisian Day is this saturday AKA the biggest event ever. get excited.

LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED
Sister Abbycat

hey pics are worth a thousand words May 5th, 2014

Okay so This week was great even though we had to spend sooooo many hours moving into the new goyave apartment (uhhh we got evicted whoops) It is about a third of the size of the old apartment but its so fun because its like this little west indian bungalow shack and it feels like girls camp all the time! haha jk I shower every day.

Other than that, this week was pretty good. D. WAS BAPTIZED BY HIS BROTHER!! This is something sister v. has been waiting for for a long time. D. as well; he is probably the most in tune 9 year old I have ever met (I mean besides Eva as an 8 year old) He just gets everything and bore the sweetest testimony after he was baptized. He (and by he i mean sister v.) asked me to give the talk on Baptism and sister Tenney to give the talk on the Holy Ghost. We naturally wrapped a blanket around him during the Holy Ghost talk (fun fact: it doesn't translate to comforter quite as well as it does in English but it still worked okay) It was great and he wore the blanket around church the whole next day. F. our investigator who has read like a third of the Book of Mormon came to the baptism and stayed for so long just singing hymns and all of the V. extended family came (not members) Another Fun Fact: 80 percent of investigators who attend a baptismal service get baptized. aka WOW.

Yesterday at church Sister V. got up and bore her testimony about how she had been praying to be more loving and to have more love in her life and she said 'So God sent me the Sister Missionaries' I was just crying a lot. Im so so so sad to leave Goyave! Ive learned here why Im really here as a missionary; its actually just to help people in whatever way possible. I've changed from number hunting to really understanding how to love people. I've seen how putting the needs of others in front of our own desires is how we can truly keep our eyes single to the Glory of God. Im so grateful for the opportunities I had to serve with Sister Hawkes and Sister Tenney. They have both taught me so much. Sister Tenney is so ready to train, she will be so good at it. She brings joy wherever she goes and that will bless the lives of many. At the same time she knows how to teach and has really helped me become a better teacher. She wants to do everything she can to serve the Lord. As sad as I am to leave Goyave, I am even more excited to go find the people the Lord is preparing in Moule. I know I have much to learn there with Sister Vance, and I am so excited for the opportunity to serve there. We will do all we can to find less actives there and teach the members' friends. Is there any other advice you have concerning opening up a new area?

I love you and I am trying to send many pictures!!

Its So Happy!! April 28th, 2014

Hello! One hour on the computer is definitely not enough to fully
describe the miracles of this week! It was Zone Conference so we only
had a little bit of time in Goyave but the time we did have was
awesome!! Its all because of the awesome members here.

Chloe. Okay I would like to recount to you the entire miracle of Chloe
to you but its just not as good in writing. One of Sister Valmys
daughters invited her to this roadshow thing we had a few weeks ago
and she came to church and conference after that. We taught her a few
times chez Valmy and set a baptismal date of the 3rd of May with her.
On Friday, we followed up with her after an awesome lesson with her
and Sister Mehr and she still didn't know if she wanted to be baptized.
We decided to pray all together. At first, her prayer was great, but
afterwards Sister Valmy taught her all about how your prayer has to be
specific (that went on about 15 minutes, and she described how she
prayed to have a yellow house, by the river, with no backyard
neighbors and thats exactly what she has, it was great) So then sister
Valmy was like okay I'll pray first. She prayed and asked if Chloe
should be baptized May 3rd in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints. The spirit was so strong. After that Chloe said 'My turn!' and
asked again very specifically. It was amazing. We asked her how she
felt after and the first thing she said was 'nothing' we just waited
in silence and all of a sudden she put her hand on her heart and said
I feel it! Its so HAPPY. That was one of the best things I have heard
my whole mission. That is exactly what the spirit is. Its so Happy.
She is getting baptized this Saturday along with Sister Valmys 9 year
old son, both by her oldest son who just got ordained to the office of
priest so that he could preform the ordinance. This family is seeing
so many blessings from the missionary work they are doing.

Fabrice. He is this man I met probably my 3rd week with Sister Hawkes.
We have been teaching him ever since, and he has been kind of
stagnant. However, we had a rendezvous scheduled with someone else on
tuesday night and we brought President Bonbon, but the monsieur wasn't
there, so we brought President Bonbon to Fabrice and they totally hit
it off. We went back on Saturday and he had read 250 pages of the Book
of Mormon!! So cool; MEMBERS.

Also I will be opening up a new area next transfer with Sister Vance
in Le Moule, over on the Grande Terre side of the island. Im pretty
excited, its in a group instead of a branch, so that will be a fun
challenge!

I love you and I love my mission, its so happy!!
abs

Joyeux Pacques!!! April 21, 2014

Bonjour Famille! Joyeux Pacques!!  This week was great and Easter was great as well. Although I can't tell you much about Guadeloupian traditions because our senior couple is tahitian and was kind of disgusted by the idea of having crab for Easter Dinner. Thats the Guadeloupian tradish. So naturally, we had some spam rice stuff. Classic tahitians. Sunday morning we even dyed eggs! And by we I def mean just me and Sister Tenney. Mine was a sunrise as shown in the pic attached. It was quite the ordeal to find white eggs last p day. haha. Also the easter bunny came!! ahah we got some white chocolate in our easter baskets which were actually just some bowls we had in our house. #mission

So we did a split this week which was really cool! Its crazy we aren't the only sisters on the Island anymore! Anyway, Sister R (sister H comp) came and worked with me in Goyave and it was great! We taught C, who is a member referral from sister V daughter. she is 14 and she is getting baptized in just a few weeks! She is soo cool and asks great questions! Its kind of hard to focus because she is well, 14, but she has such a desire to do whats right!! We are really excited for her. After that we went searching for that rasta guy who came up to us last week. We were asking everyone who lives up near the Jungle and we ended up finding a cool family on the way! Also on our search for F, aka Kungofaja (thats his new rasta name) we crossed a river!! It felt very exotic. Now we know where he lives and will be reactivating him as soon as possible, but it is kinda hard to get rastas passed the whole "locks" thing. They all think the bible commands us to never cut our hair. fun!

Thursday we were on our way to an appointment and we were riding our bikes to W, she is twenty and getting baptized the 17th, and we got caught in the middle of a big bike race! Everyone was yelling ALLEZ ALLEZ ALLEZ aka go go go! and we were just really lame in our skirts but it was hilar. the peleton passed us pretty quickly! The lesson was great and she was asking a ton of great questions and really wants to be sure. The best part is at the end of all her lessons when she asks us to give her chapters to read. I love when people commit themselves to things!

Also we are teaching French Jack Sparrow. He is so cool and said to us the other day "I think I am going to join the Mormons" there isn't really any such thing as sarcasm in the french language so we should be giving him a baptismal date this week!

Over all it was a great week and we are continuing to love Goyave. It is Zone Conference this week so I am excited to get rebooted for the upcoming transfer. I love being a missionary!!!

bon courage 184th semi annual general conference

Hello Mother and Dad (haha does that sound like an old person?)

This week was pretty good, I am still easily frustrated with myself due to my lack of baptisms. satan really works hard to make you feel worthless, but thats just not how Heavenly Father wants us to feel! Discouragement is like the ultimate tool of the adversary because not only do you feel lame it just makes you less productive and its like win win for him. Thats why I liked Elder Bednars talk so much, it was so perfectly explained. He is so good at taking something complicated and making it so simple. I wish I could have talked to you about his talk Christmas Day in the MTC, it was just so good! Its crazy how much I wish I could tell you in this short email time, like you probably wonder what we actually do all day, like I wish I could just recount all of the great stories! hahaa but the reason I am on a mission has definitely changed from going on an adventure and having great experiences to really Im here because the Lord needs me to serve these people. Thats something Sister Tenney has really taught me. We aren't here for us! Like in every aspect of missionary work, its just so much more important to teach as the Savior would, which I am learning that if you really love the people you teach you have to invite them to keep the commandments boldly. Thats the only way! If you really love them you have to tell them the truth.

Conference was awesome!!! and our amis were really interested in watching it, it will be so fun to follow up and see what they thought during this week. It was so powerful. I actually learned a lot! #growth. I went in with the question of how can I better help my amis and the answer was sooooo clear from the very first talk LOVE. It is the heart of this work. And even though I oft felt inadequate, I can always LOVE. I really feel like thats what Heavenly Father wanted me to learn from this conference.

Haha this week was april fools and so Sister Tenney and I took some of the oreos that grandma sent me and filled them with toothpaste and gave them to the elders in our district they all ate them! hahaha classique.

Sister Valmy is this awesome member I think I have told you about but let me just expand for a sec because she just got called to be a member missionary and is on fire! She asks all our amis if she can sent them daily texts with livre de Mormon scriptures and she is just ammmmaaaaazzzzz. She has six kids and her husband left the church to be an evangelist pastor so I'm not really sure how she does it but she is just so faithful and so good at helping the people!! She loves our amis and just will do everything for them!! also the other day she bought me a diet coke so that was fun too.

Oh the amis, these last few weeks our amis have been at the point where they are either going to go all the way or choose not too, so we have been setting a lot of baptismal dates, and when we do that its the time when, as preach my gospel says, "they are backed up to the wall of faith" sometimes they run away but we have faith that the Lord tell them what they need to do through the Holy Ghost. Stay tuned. We are teaching this great family right now with 5 kids and let me tell you, the spirit is just soooo strong when you are teaching families!! My favorite part of the week was the daughter in laws prayer at the end of the lesson (on our knees....aka the besssstttt!!!!) Families will be eternal!!!

I love you!!
abs

I think its like week 20 or something! BON COURAGE

Okay so this week was marked with some pretty cool stuff! It kinda makes me sad that P Day is on Monday because all this cool stuff happens in the week, but then sunday comes and if the cool peeps don't come to church all the stories seem less cool. Haha I just tell you anyway.


The first kind of funny thing that has been happening is that M our Hindu Priest basically dry member has been inviting people over at the time we have lessons scheduled so we end up teaching them together, he is like already a member missionary just not baptized. Come on man! Anyway, they are usually his male relatives that are our age so we are suspicious that he is trying to set us up with them. But we just end up talking about the gospel with them so. We are bringing him to a members house for Soiree Familial tonight which should be great. I'm hoping that at conference this weekend he will see what he needs to do. We are teaching a lesson about conference and how he should bring a question and it will be answered if he does. Its gonna be good I'll let you know how that all goes.

P is once again tinkering with my stress level daily, because he has given up so much because he knows the church is true but satan is just trying to make sure that he doesn't get baptized so there have been a lot of obstacles. HOWEVER we had an awesome lesson with him on friday with President Bonbon and Patrick was just so excited about the temple and decided to give up coffee and it was great.

Friday night was the weirdest ever because our mission president allowed us to go to this road show thing and we didn't get home until midnight! It was quite the wild fete. haah but it was so good and they did this slide show of the history of the church in the west indies and it was so cool to see pics of all the leaders on their missions and on their wedding days! It just made me motivated because most of them are just people missionaries contacted! Eternal Families!

One thing I have been learning is that the Lord is preparing me at the same time he is preparing people I will get to teach. I am not that great of a teacher yet but the experiences I am having and the lessons I am learning are preparing me to teach an eternal family! I know that! And I am so grateful for this opportunity I am having to come to better know the Savior and my Heavenly Father. I never imagined so great a blessing!

I love you!!
abs

Bon Courage; I forgot which week it is

Hello from Goyave for a third transfer aka PRAYERS ANSWERED! Thats right Sister Tenney and I will be staying here in Goyave for goyave season.

Okay so this week was great and the best part was our shadow with the zone leaders on friday. It was great because in this mission there are just no sisters so we are kind of paving the way for new sisters coming, so there are minimal sisters to look up to and see their success. It was nice to see how missionaries who have been out for a while (in fact one of them leaves tomorrow) teach with boldness and are so focused. Anyway, the shadow was friday and we taught Max which was super stressful because I just want him to get baptized. Its crazy how these people just become your friends and you want them to see eternity! Anyway, Elder Tolman and Elder Santos taught with us about obedience and although he didn't commit to get baptized an hour later, as I had hoped, he did share his testimony of the Book of Mormon, the spirit, and how the gospel has changed his life. It was real life! not just the MTC teachers!
We also taught Jimmy who is this awesome guy who struggles to read daily. By the end he was so excited about reading! It was amazing how the spirit testified of the importance of the Book of Mormon. Thats the thing, there are just no reasons good enough for not reading the Book of Mormon, it changes lives!
We have discovered that our morning jog has been rather effective, in fact we contact someone almost every day because gaudeloupians are just out really early and go to bed really early. This week was kind of funny though because this random dog followed us all the way home and we had to run away from it so it wouldn't
come in the house
also yesterday was this big celebration for the Relief Society and everyone at church wore yellow and blue, which was pretty cute, and we ate some coco cake (these people LOVE their coconut) The branch is great because they all just do silly things like that all the time and its so cute.

So excited for this transfer because we are going to baptize and some people are going to have eternal life and that just makes me so excited!!! Eye single to the Glory of God!

love
abs

BON COURAGE 17, March 10th, 2014

Bonjour mes amis! Another great week out here in Paradise. Sister Tenney and I are doing well and loving working hard together. This week we got BIKES which was like Christmas and I realized I really missed my daily bike ride down to Newport, so I am glad to have that back, it is rather pleasant and you'll be happy to know much safer because we can just speed away from creepers! win win! But really the bikes help us get around so so much faster and we can just be so much more effective, love it!

Also fun fact about this week I received many a picture email from Avis,  so that was fun.

So M. Let me just tell you he is sooooo ready to get baptised, like he is best friends with all the members and feels like a part of the branch the only thing holding him back is his Girlfriend. "copine" en francias. Its really frustrating because that is actually a theme here, men are always really interested but their wives are always like no. We are really trying to focus on the priesthood and how he can be an example to his family. He wants an eternal family so badly! Its crazy to look at our teaching record for him and see like how much he has learned, like he even keeps the word of wisdom and just offers everyone rides to church and Im just so excited for him to be baptised but this one little thing is holding him back.

We also found this miracle lady last night, when we were trying to track down E, copine of M. We went over to where Max described but couldn't find her and we ended up finding this lady who is just so prepared! She has studied with the missionaries before and has family in the church so we are super excited to teach her.

Also this week Sister Tenney and I are planning a Soiree Familale (FHE) for the branch and inviting all our amis! If you think of any fun games to play we would love to hear them.

Over all things are going well and we are teaching a lot of really cool peeps, the hard part is just getting them to take the next step of Baptism. Sister Tenney and I were talking about the importance of our mesage and our calling and how short we have to do the best we can, and I just really want to use this time in the best way I can, because in the grand scope of things it is really so so short!

Sure love ya, gotta go baptise!

Soeur Abs

Bon Courage 16 I love it I love it I love it! March 3rd, 2014

HELLLLOOOOO

The title of this email this week is "i love it i love it i love it" because there were a couple times this week when I was honestly so happy to be here! Im usually pretty happy here but for some reason I really felt the spirit this week through joy. I love that. Sometimes the spirit can just be so strong when you are loving the work and actually enjoying it.

One funny thing that I keep forgeting to tell you every week is that the singing in Sacrament is really a treat. Everyone in the branch is just a little off key and they all sing as loud as they can. It kind of reminds me of that part in the glupps when they are on their way to san fransiscy but they randomly get trapped at that school with the mean teacher and she makes them sing, because thats exactly what it sounds like! ahaahah i think i just realized how weird the glupps is.

Anyway, This week started out with us being a little frustrated because we had a lot of random things we had to do that were cutting into our work time; stuff like going to the city with the senior couple to sign stuff and other things like that. I think one of the big lessons the Lord is teaching me is to be patient. Patent with others, patient with people taking a long time to get baptized, patient with myself and french, patient with my lack of teaching skills. Anyway, we just decided after all of the housekeeping things were out of the way for the week to work hard and accept that some things are out of our control. This is a lesson I am taking a very long time to learn.

M our Hindu priest friend is really progressing and has made church a part of his life. He goes every week for all three hours now! He will hopefully be baptized by the end of the month, but people here sometimes think it takes like years to prepare for baptism so thats kind of hard. I think its because there is this religion here where you pay a bunch of money and you grow your hair out for 3 years in preparation for your baptism. classic west indies. But the miracle this week with him was that he called us on friday and was like I have something to do sunday morning so I cant come to church, which kind of made us super worried because we had just committed him to keep the Sabbath. We were fasting this week for him to feel ready for his baptism and then a miracle happened!  Saturday night he called us and was like "I did all the things I needed to today so I could go to church and rest on Sunday" Fasting=miracles!! I now the spirit touched him so he would feel he needed to do that.

The other miracle this week was that we reconnected with P! We had kind of half dropped him because he kept missing appointments and stuff like that, he is a little up and down. BUT after about a week and a half of avoiding him we felt prompted to call him. We finally had another lesson with him, and he wanted us to come back the next day and the next day. Last night he asked us if he could set a baptismal date! So things are looking up for him.

We also started trying something new this week that I am really excited about. A lot of times people just want to talk to us to talk about religion and not really to hear about our church, so we decided to just point them towards the Book of Mormon. There is this great story from President Hinkley where he had this investigator with some question and President Hinkely said " all the answers are in the Book of Mormon" after the ami had read through 2 Nephi he still hadn't found the answer, so President Hinkley said "just keep reading" finally when he finished the book of Mormon the question didn't matter because he had gained a testimony of the Book of Mormon. Chouette!

so overall it has been a great week and the first half of this transfer has been setting us up to hopefully find some miracles in the next few weeks.da da da da da Im Lovin it.


soeur eyre

Bon Courage 15 100 days down!!! hhaha don't worry I wasn't counting February 25th, 2014

Hello! This week I turned 100 mission days old so we celebrated by making cookies for all of our investigators and I used the frosting that Allyson sent me for Valentines day so that was just divine. 

This week was crazy with ups and downs and things falling through and things working out and the Lord providing a way. So the week went pretty normal until Saturday when we had the best day ever!! It was amazing because Friday was the worst day ever. But on Saturday we went to our first appointment and it went well, side-note, there was a random pig head just sitting on the front steps of this persons house and it was terrifying. After that we saw this family sitting outside their house and we went up and contacted them and they told us to sing to them; naturally we whipped out families can be together forever. It was great and they sang along and we taught them about the plan of salvation. The mom said she was catholic but believes in reincarnation but by the end of the lesson she loved the plan of salvation. Its so perfect! Like I would pick the perfect plan of happiness over reincarnation too. Our investigator M called us and told us he couldn't com to the baptism with us because he forgot it was his birthday and his family and friends all came over to surprise him; but he wanted us to come to his party! We told him we would come after the baptism. Then we went to a baptism and on the bus on the way contacted this man who came to the baptism with us! He isn't in our area so we can't teach him but the elders are very excited. We went to grab M a birthday milfoy (pastry thing with custard in it) and at the boulangerie met this dad who was so closed to the gospel but then talked to us for a minute and asked us why we are on missions and his heart was softened and now we are having lunch with him and his family and teaching them on saturday. Then we went to family G (muslim dad and Jehova Witness mom) and had the best lesson ever because it was totally guided by the spirit. We went in fasting to resolve her concerns about the Book of Mormon and thats exactly what happened! She gave the most powerful prayer at the end pleading to know if everything was true. I just wanted to listen to it over and over! Then we went to M and taught a lesson at his birthday party to him and all his friends and he came to church and it was just a miracle day!!

Sister Tenney and I are getting along great. I look up to her so much, she is such a good missionary. We were watching the district for Training this week and at one point one of the sisters says 'I know Heavenly Father is proud of me as a missionary' it was just so powerful (and I maybe embarrassingly started crying during the district) I just want to make Heavenly Father proud of me as a missionary!

I love you!!

abs 

Bon Courage 14 Jaime ma bleu! February 17th, 2014

Hey family, fun fact, in french missions instead of saying greenie we call new missionaries bleu, sounds so much nicer don't you think? Anyway, after a crazy mixed up flight schedule this week Soeur Tenny finally arrived on Friday and we got right to work! She is awesome and already fluent in French and so willing to get out there and work and loves it already. She has great enthusiasm and courage which will serve us well! Although we are both new, we are expecting some miracles this transfer. I don't believe that the Lord would let us mess up His work if we are trying our best. He wants his children to come back and live with him so we are going to do everything we can to make that happen and let the Lord take us and our amis the rest of the way. 

This week Max our hindu priest investigator came to church and the talks were on eternal families and baptism, so inspired. He wants to badly for his girlfriend and her kids to get baptized with him so they can all be in the church together. It is going to take time, but I have faith that this family will be eternal.

On Friday night we met with this new ami named Isabelle that we found on Tuesday. She is SO PREPARED. She met with the missionaries 20 years ago and she basically said thank you for coming back to find me after all these years. She has the greatest family and her oldest son joined us for the lesson on Friday. She is so loving and ready for the gospel. We also stopped by this Haitian we have been teaching but i felt like he wasn't actually that into it after that. Of course, he was awesome and super interested and prayed to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet and knows the gospel is restored. It just goes to show that we need to love and share this gospel with everyone because we don't know who the next person is that will get baptized. 

Im so grateful for all your emails this week, I've been pretty overwhelmed but I know you are praying for me and the Lord is with us.

Love you! 

soeur eyre 

Bon Courage 13! February 10th, 2014

The thing making this week so weird was transfer calls. I was expecting to just continue being with sister Hawkes and finish my training, but I will actually be training a new sister this transfer so that is a little terrifying. I was really really stressed about it and finally just before I was going to sleep the other night, after I had said my prayers and everything, I was laying there thinking of all the things that could go wrong and all the people who could be dropped if I couldn't understand what they were saying or I just messed up as a teacher, and all of a sudden I felt this strong impression "Trust in the Lord." It was almost like a rebuke, no one is going to be converted, or read the book of mormon, or stop smoking because of me. In the same way, if I am doing my best the Lord isn't going to let His children be lost because my french isn't very good or because I am not the best missionary yet. So thats the goal for this next transfer when I am training sister Tenney. Trust in the Lord, let the Spirit guide.

Last night we had a little bit of a miracle that shows the power of the Book of Mormon. We were porte a porting (tracking) and we both felt this strong impression to visit a less active. On the way to her house I stopped in front of this other house and asked "have you contacted them before" Sister hawkes said "ya but I think we should do it again" we contacted them and the man living there had actually met with the missionaries a lot and been to church 10 years ago in Haiti. We read Moroni's promise with him and he was like astonished by it. It was awesome. He committed to read every day before our next appointment. He is really golden. Also Last night we visited D. We have really been focusing on setting a baptismal date with him, but last night we decided just to read the Book of Mormon with him and help him feel the spirit. At the end of the lesson he finally set a baptismal date!! This book is really the most powerful book on earth and I love it!! I never thought I would look forward to having an hour to study the book of mormon every day but I absolutely love that part of the day! It just makes me so happy!

The best part is its all true!!
wish me luck this transfer, it is going to be wild.
I LOVE YOU!!
abs

Bon Courage 12!! February 3, 2014

Bonjour ma famille! I'm writing from the new senior couples apartment because sister Hawkes is in St Lucia for Visa stuff. This senior couple is the best! they are from Tahiti and are just so willing to work! The zone leaders said they were showing them around a few night ago and as they were walking they looked back and (the couple) had naturally just started contacting people. I love it! also they just will do anything for anyone and also bring food to any meeting haha awesome Tahitians. They are so great!

This week has been kind of an adjustment week. Our area is so small that contacting is really just checking up on people that we have met. Literally all of Goyave just knows us so thats pretty funny. So we decided to expand and tried a couple different places. Finally Sunday night we were able to find some success in this huge apartment complex that we walked  about a half hour to find. We contacted there and found 3 really interested contacts in just a few hours! It was an answer to our prayers. We were able to teach the Restoration to one of them (a man who would say a sentence in french and then attempt to translate it into english-at one point he said "my name is myself" Later yesterday evening we taught one of our investigators who is really super. We met him during our first attempt at "windows" and he came up to us. He was high at the time but is working so hard to change his life. He is really trying to quit smoking and it is amazing to see his conviction to the gospel when he is so new to it. We are working with him on prayer right now so that he will understand that Heavenly Father wants to hear from him, and he isn't wasting His time. Fortunately for us, after the closing prayer he asked if he could say a prayer of protection for us. It ended up being a song in maybe hebrew so sister Hawkes and Frere Bon (the branch presidents son) and I were really trying to be respectful but Frere Bon (who is normally the most soft spoken person ever) was really having a hard time holding in his laughter. The song was just so west indian.

 Unfortunately David (this ami) and all of our other investigators couldn't come to church yesterday because there is a huge gas strike. People still pump the gas for you here and all the workers have gone on strike so that was pretty frustrating yesterday. Apparently this happens all the time here. clllaaaaasssiicccc gaudeloupe.

P is ammmaaaazing. His girlfriend broke up with him this week because he decided to get baptized and she is evangelist. He is still getting baptized though and knows the church is true. The new testimony he has is already being tried but he is holding firm. It is so amazing. He is going to be an excellent member and he even told us that he wants to be a missionary!

Finally M has decided that he needs to be baptized, which is awesome! We are working on helping him with his testimony of the Book of Mormon, he knows it is true because he feel the spirit when he reads it but it is hard to get him to pray to know if it is true. This is a recurring problem for people.

We are really trying to work with the members here because the branch is struggling. There are only four families in the branch and they need a little help getting along so we are trying to visit them and work with them more so they can have more love for each other and work together to do missionary work. We had a great lesson with the B family this week and it was a great example of teaching people instead of lessons. It did not go how we planned but it ended up going where they needed it. They are even going to work with us this week which will help a lot, the investigators that progress are the ones we bring members to. It is so true. The only way the work hastens is through members!

I hope all is well and I love you!!
soeur abs

Bon Courage 11 January 27th, 2014

Bonjour a tous!! Thats what they say a the beginning of sacrament meeting and everyone says bonjour back, fun!

This week was awesome because it was zone conference so we got to spent a lot of time with President and Sister Mehr. They stayed all week because this weekend was district conference for gaudeloupe and President Mehr is the president for that so he was speaking. A word about the members here. They are awesome. They are so stoked on missionary work and they are so sick of being a district and they are willing to work to be a stake. The area 70 Elder Gamette spoke and said this will be the last district conference! Im not sure how they are going to turn 4 branches in to a stake so quickly but I want to do my part!!! He and this other guy, Frere Eclar are basically the sons of Mosiah, they just go out and do missionary work all the time and they've converted like hundreds. It makes me pumped!!! Also President Mehr spoke about how the only way to receive eternal life is to be baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints in the Sunday session of the conference and we had 2 amis there  so it was rather perfect. It was cool too because Elder Gamette translated as President Mehr spoke. It made each sentence just sink in that much more.

Anyway This week we got to go out and teach three of our amis with Sister Mehr. That was somewhat terrifying because she is probably the best teacher/missionary ever. Like I was amazed by how she used the scriptures and questions and just inspired these peeps!! She is so good!!

We found a chouette famille this week. The mom actually came up to us!! The dad is muslim but they are both really searching. we had a lesson with them last night and at the end the whole family (3 girls!!) prayed together in a circle on their cement floor and the dad asked if there really is a prophet on the earth today. I would say it was magical because it was but I think spiritual would be more appropriate. haha. Anyway, it was awes and we are teaching them again tonight. Im really trying to improve my teaching skills, because between me being new and not perfect at french sometimes I confuse the people a little.

Okay I feel like maybe I haven't told you enough cultural things about this place because it is actually soo different! haha
okay so instead of like ice cream trucks they have a bread truck. also they have an egg truck and it makes this like crazzzy noise when it passes I almost cried laughing. its like a pterodactyl dinosaur bird whatever.
everyone has a little corner in there house where they put their plantains and its just infested with bugs. we do not have this.
chickens frequently walk in and out of peoples houses like nbd. what?
Their favorite item of clothing is like this mesh shirt that men wear, and its just weird, Especially when you see two of them on a vespa together. #gwada.

I love my house! I love my mom! I love everything! (if you dont get that reference go to youtube asap,)

Bon Courage 10!! duuurrrble dirrrgets!! January 20, 2014

Bonjour ma famille et mes amis!!!
Not gonna lie this week was tough, but it ended with kind of a miracle so it was worth it. haha. This weeks theme was every canceled on us all day every day. However President Mehr suggested this thing where we go talk to the first person we see when someone cancels, because the Lord has a purpose for everything. So On Thursday we had this guy cancel on us so naturally we walked across the street to this man sitting on the side of the road. HE looked kind of Mexican because he has a sweet handlebar stach. anyway , we ended up teaching him for like 30 minutes and he was really interested, he is really searching. However, the real miracle was P. this guy came up in the middle of our lesson with T (the Mexicanish guy) and started asking us like tons of amazing questions. T left and we started teaching P and we ended up telling him to ask Heavenly Father if our message is true. Right then an there (arms out stretched naturally) he started praying out loud and asked for an answer if it was true immediately. Right after he was like "I feel it! It feels good!" We explained the Holy Ghost and he ate it all up. It was amazing. The Next day we brought him a book of Mormon and he has already read and shared it with his mom who we are teaching on tuesday. We taught him again Sunday and He is going to be baptized in 3 weeks. Also he asked us how he could be a missionary so that was chouette.
Another funtivity we had this week was called wip down a forest with machetes as a service project. it was actually unreal. Also afterwords the little old lady we did the service for made my first native  cooked meal. it was rather scary because she just tossed like whole chickens into a pot and put some columbo on it and you had to eat everything. mmmmmchicken feet. yikes.
This week we have zone conference so President and Sister Mehr will be coming out. ahhh! it will be good.

I love you!!!

Bon Courage 9 January 13, 2014

bonjour famille!
This week has def had its ups and downs, but fortunately mostly ups. It is very hard to type on a french keyboard so sorry if this is short!
Okay before I begin I have to tell you about this magical food you can only get in Guadaloupe: THE BOKIT. It is like a sandwich on a donut and its so bad for me whoops. But we are teaching the guy who sells them later today so I guess Ill just have to eat some for the sake of the work. Also mom he sells them out of a food truck so I feel right at home here in goyave. hehe
OKAY this week was crzy it is seriously hard work all day every day. I fall asleep in about 30 seconds every night. But its because we are teaching and finding all day every day and it is awesome. It is easy to get a little homesick at times but working makes it better!
OUR PEEPS
M our hindu priest investigator who we are going to set a baptismal date with this week, he is awesome because he reads the book of mormon like thats a rarity here because people are so laid back they dont keep their commitments, we are working on that.
LA FAMILLE P this fam we've been teaching who got ahold of some anti morm stuff, but we went over the other night and we were BOLD but loving obvi and they are stoked on finding out if the gospel is true for themselves. The bopn bons theat celestial fam I told you about is helping us out a lot with them, They have 3 little girls and we gave them an illustrated bom and they love it!!!
N rasta dominican who is stoked on the gospel. He gets a little distracted sometimes with his rando theories but he is so nice and reads a lot, its awes.
S is a new members daughter and she is soaking it up! its amazing.

I am a real missionary now!! And its so fun and hard and rewarding. so many miracles, like the other night we were getting approached by a creeper and the gendemerie cme at just the right moment to save us, they are basically guadeloupe swat team haha. The work is great here and I love it! I miss you all so much and i fear that millie and eva are forgetting who I a, so please remind them.

love abs

BON COURAGE!!! 8 (never has this phrase meant more than it does now) January 6th 2014

Bonjour ma famille et mes amis!! What an amazing week it has been, we finally made it here!!
The week started off in Trinidad, where the mission home is located. Sister V Sister G and I all stayed at the mission home the first night. President and Sister Mehr are awesome, they are so kind and have so so so much wisdom. They fly to every island every 3 months for zone conference so I will actually get to see them more than I thought I would. They actually ended up being on our flight to Guadeloupe (thats where I am now) because they were going to St Vincent for zone conference and the flight stopped in St. vincent on the way. The little planes that go between islands really do work like a bus and they are actually pretty scketch, there were a few times when I thought we might fall out of the sky for real though. Anyway, we spent 3 nights in Trinidad, the other 2 nights we spent with the sisters there and just did missionary work all day. Honestly I am SOOOO GLADD I an called french speaking, the french Is;ands and a million times cleaner and safer, trinidad was insane and I actually think I understand the french better than trini english. It went right over my head. haha those peeps walk around with machetes and we actually taught someone who was causually cooking some iguana over the open flame. I was so happy to get to Guadeloupe thursday night! My trainer is awesome. She works really hard and apparently baptises every transfer. Im stoked to work with her and we get along really well!!! Her name is Soeur Hawkes and I admire her so much! She was actually called english speaking but when she arrived Pres Mehr was like jk you need to teach yourself french. So she did and now she is like totally fluent!! We are teaching some really cool peeps right now. Our area, Goyave (guava in english) is super small so everyone knows who we are. We are teaching all sorts of people, including a hindu priest named M who came to church yesterday and knows the LdM is true!! We are also teaching a temoin de Jehovah (there are hecka Jehovahs witness peeps here) and some other really cool people. We have a lot of success beginning to teach here, but the people have a hard time keeping their commitments #livealoha haha. We are also teaching la famille p (a mom and dad plus three daughters) and a mom and daughter as well. They are amazing!! The key is to get mombers to teach with us. Unfortunately there are only 4 members in our area (2 of which were baptized within the last 2 weeks) so the members come from far away to help out the missionaries. We are so blessed because the members in our branch in Capasterre are super missionary minded. Last night we had a lesson on eternal families with a new investigator named SAmeria and la famille bon bon (branch president) and it was amazing! This family is sooo great, they do so much for the missionaries and they have only been members for 8 years. They are so strong and lead the branch so well. We are having FHE with them and new convert named Christine tonight.
I LOVE IT HERE!! I feel so blessed right now to be in an area that is seeing a lot of success and miracles with a hard working and fun comp in a beautiful part of the world. I'll be more specific about my progressing investigators next week but I've only been here since thursday soo uhhh (I dropped my jokers sooo uh....)
BON COURAGE!! haha Im working on having courage to speak more because its scary when natives speak and you don't know what is happening!!! haha
Je vous aime!!!
soeur abs

Bon Courage 6 Joyeux Noel!!!! December 23, 2013

Its Christmas Eve Eve!! #EloiseatChristmastime
Its a festivus for the rest of us!! (they are really infringing on my rights to celebrate new holidays here. my own personal H&H.)

It is my last P Day here at the MTC! This time next week I'll be on a plane to Trinidad, WHATTTT!!!  Its really happening and I'm STOKED!! Remember that time when I was like 5 and I got my first bike and there is that sweet jumping up and down pic? That is how excited I am right now and maybe more!!

      I'm so grateful for the experience I have had at the MTC, you really can't compare it to anything else. I am so grateful that I have been able to be here and learn what the Lord would have me learn here. I've been thinking all week about what I want to say in this last MTC email, and it is pretty much impossible to saturate all the knowledge I've gained in these last 6 weeks into one email. It is amazing to see how much you learn in the classroom, during your personal study time, at the Devotionals, and in your personal experiences with the Lord. However, I think the lesson that is most evidenced in  my notebook, journal and scriptures is Listen to the Spirit. Everything kind of builds off of that. Obedience, how to teach, repentance, having a good attitude, being humble, everything, all of that can happen if you rely on the Lord.
      I think as I go into the mission my goal is to work as hard as I can to be worthy to have the spirit with me at all times so I can find those I need to teach. There are dozens of stories I've learned about from my teachers that remind us that if we follow the Spirit we can be in the right place at the right time. There are people that the Lord has prepared for me to teach I want to do everything I can in order to be there for them. Our lessons go astonishingly better when I decide to speak less and let the Spirit speak more. I am so excited to try to be an instrument in the Lord's hands-something I learned from an old Elder Holland talk- this is His work, we have to do it His way.
       I have a testimony that the Lord answers prayers. He knows us so personally and if we ask for help loving someone, or if we ask for humility, charity, or just help, (all of these things seem to be very prevalent in my prayers lately haha) He knows what we need and will help us get there. "He knows our needs, to our weakness is no stranger" (That song has been going through my head all week! luuurrve it)
        I cannot wait to share this gospel with my amis in the West Indies. It is so true and will bless so many lives, just as it has blessed our family. Families will be eternal because we share the gospel, it is so important!! I am so grateful for the testimony I have gained before the MTC and for the strength I have gained here. I am so grateful for the clarity the Book of Mormon brings and that we have it today. Its so weird I actually get so excited to have personal study time each day so I can read the Book of Mormon, its just so good! Haha I'm already getting weird and its only been one transfer. Anyway, I'm just so grateful I have the opportunity to serve and learn what the Lord needs me to know. I feel so lucky and blessed to be here this Christmas and to be in the indies in one week.

I love our family so very much and I am so grateful to be here. Bonne Chance, Bon Courage, je vous aime.
soeur abs
     
     

Bon Courage 5 December 16, 2013

Bonjour Ma Famille!

Comment-allez vous?

As shown above, I'm really mastering French. haha jk. But I will say it is coming along! Its kind of stressful now that I will be in the Indies two weeks from today!! It is easy to think "um okay how am I supposed to learn this language and understand their weird french once I get there." which is what I often think in my head, but I just try to remember that my calling is from Heavenly Father and  with His help I will come to understand what He would have me say! What could be more encouraging?? rien. (nothing. haha)

This week has been great, I am totally loving the MTC now. It is amazing to be surrounded by people all with this desire to serve the Lord. There are so many interesting people with crazy backgrounds who have given so much to be here. This week our zone got 15 new people, all of which are going to Paris or Lyon, we have one elder from Austria (the hills are alive!! haha he really does yodel its actually a dream come true currently trying to convince him to yodel in the Christmas talent show) Another elder came from Germany and another came from Hungary. The Hungarian one literally sold all his possessions to come on a mission. It makes me so grateful to have the opportunity to serve!! They are so dedicated and it was nice to get some new faces here. There are four new sisters, and they are all already like bffs which is amazing!! They are all headed to Paris, which is kind of crazy because two of the four are straight out of high school, like I can't imagine how crazy that change is! I just love all of them.

This week we heard from Elder Cook for our Tuesday night Devo and it was awesome. He talked about the importance of our calls and that the Lord trusts His missionaries. I was so grateful to be reminded of that because, like I said, sometimes I question why these islanders would listen, but its because our message is true and they will feel the spirit! Ahhhh Its so awesome.

Last night we heard from the BYU men's choir and it was so chouette!! (sweet) music from the outside world!! Haha jk I really loved it because I was feeling pretty sad that I wouldn't hear the Janine Wynn rendition of O Holy Night (my favorite Christmas tradition) this year, but they sang it and it was wonderful! Not quite Janine Wynn, but it will suffice. haha.

Its getting down to the last few weeks here in the MTC, in fact next Monday is my last p-day here! the next Monday, Dec 30 I'll be in the air celebrating new years on my way to Trinidad! I'm still in need of all your favorite scriptures, as my father is the only one thats sent me one! I know you all love the scrips! I want to write your names in mine next to your favorite verses!

Joyeux Noel, everyone drink an extra Chick Fil A peppermint milkshake for me!

Love, Soeur Abby

Some funny things overheard at the MTC:
when someone was explaining their dad's job: "He is basically district leader of a factory" what.
from my Australian soeur during a volley-ball game "that elder is manly-as!"
any time people in the french zones use french sentence structure in english by accident for ex I always say "is it that...?" now and "good evening" yes I'm becoming very proper. haha.

J'AIME MA FAMILLE!!

Bon Courage 4 December 9, 2013

Merry Christmas!! The season is in full swing here at the MTC! In fact we watched the first Presidency Christmas devo last night and it was totes great, I recommend you watch it. Also funny thing: the lady that gave the opening prayer spoke to the sisters yesterday morning at relief society and she was amazing!!! Most notes I've ever taken in a relief society meeting in my life. She is the second councilor in the YW general presidency and she spoke about missionary work and Christmas and the atonement. She said "You need to love the Lord Jesus Christ so much that nothing will stop you from sharing the message of the restored gospel" fantastic. She also spoke about how we don't create love ourselves when it is hard to love someone, it comes from the source of all love, the Savior. That is true!! I feel like if I didn't have Christ's example and guidance in my life I would be a lot more bitter to those around me, but with Christ, all things are possible! This week my love for my companion has grown so much, its actually insane. She is still very different from me but we get along and laugh and want to be together. #blessed.

Another victory of this week:
Sister Gutierrez and I taught our "amie d'egilse" this week and instead of writing out everything we are going to say we decided to get a general Idea of the questions we wanted to ask, a good grip on the vocab, and try to use less notes and rely on the spirit more. Even though they are fake investigators, the spirit is so so so strong! One of them "committed" to be baptized. I can't wait for that to happen from real! The more we teach the more sister Gutierrez is confident speaking and so it gets better every day!!

I used to be really frustrated that I had to wait so long to come here, but I'm so grateful that I am here right now because I absolutely love all my teachers, my branch presidency and I am I learning what the Lord needs me to know so I'm less mad about having to wait so long and glad I am here now, and I got to spend a few extra months hangin with my fam.

FAMILY: I need your favorite scriptures because I'm working on marking up my french ones! My seminary teacher Sister Earnest used to always wrote our names next to the scriptures we shared in class and I want to do that too! If you could email me your favorite one and why, or just one you know could help someone I might teach I would love love love it! One of my new goals is to better know the scriptures, because as Frere Smith says, the scriptures speak better French than I do. haha so true.

We had one of my favorite devos this week on Tuesday. Elder Hafenl. It was actually supposed to be Elder Ballard, but I guess he got snowed in or something. (haha it was kind of funny because everyone was expecting a member of the 12, and then this emeritus 70 walked in, the gasp was hilar) but it was amazing. He told a story about this new missionary he was training on his mission who had found a lady he was sure was going to be baptized the day before on a split. They searched for hours and hours even though Hafen wanted to quit, they kept going. Just last year, forty years after they found the lady and she was baptized. Elder Hafen was able to attend the sealing of her granddaughter in the Switzerland temple. Thats the goal!! it was awesome.

I'm so glad everyone had fun in NY and I'm STOKED FOR BLYTHE AND PAUL!!! yayayayayayayy!!!

The church is true and I'm so happy to be here!
Love you!
Soeur Abby

Bon Courage 3 (Happy Thanksgiving-read that in the Cammy Fuller voice) December 2, 2013

FAMILY!!

Its thanksgiving. -millie

Sorry my subject is never very creative, but Bon Courage is still my favorite french phrase! 

So since at the end of last week I kind of felt like I had done the first week twice (this is not a good thing) I decided I would make sure that this week would be the best week so far. It def was. At the beginning of the week Soeur Reichelt gave me some advice that helped her love  the MTC-fast. So on Monday I fasted and IT WORKS!! There are so many times in my life where I have seen the power of fasting and sincere prayer and I've really seen it this week, we are getting along and laughing more.  

For example, in the MTC for the first week your teacher is your "ami d'eglise" (investigator) but no one knows they are actually your teacher. She happened to know the "investigator" for one of the other districts (in their fourth week, so they already knew it was their teacher) and Sis G told them their investigator was a member. After she ran around saying Oh No! I have to repent!! Everyone was trying so hard to keep in their laughter ahahaa oh the tricks and entertainment in the MTC. weird.  

   Some big successes this week: sometimes I go in as a member to Sister Vance and Sister Gill's lessons and we had one this week where Frere Smith (Fabrice-our first fakeout investigator) said we should keep doing exactly what we are doing so thats good! I feel like I am getting much better at teaching and learning to keep it simple is key!! We really have to learn how to tune into the channel of the spirit. We talked about that in district meeting yesterday and each of us wrote down how we would tune in. I wrote "love others" because through loving others we can learn their needs. Also, we can never work with or teach people that we have contention with, so thats a goal I'm really working on: Love Others. 

Thanksgiving was a little weird and def not the best thanksgiving meal I've had but it was still a fun day. (the pumpkin pie did have sugar in it so that was a plus) We got some freedom to walk all the way to the Temple and we also got to do a service project which translates to an hour of my favorite activity: VISITING! haha

All my friends that are headed to Lyon leave a week from today so I'm sad but I'm planning a goodbye party so if you have any game ideas please help! greatly appreciated

MEMBERS and MISSIONARIES 

Elder Nelson came and spoke to us on Thanksgiving and he talked about the importance of Members and missionaries working together. I feel prompted to ask you to all look for missionary opportunities and watch the video on the hastening the work website. We need to work together to bring our friends the wonderful message of the truth of the restored gospel GET PUMPED! cause missionary work is fun! 

 Okay last little thing: every day I have this weird little burst of excitement about getting into the field like I just want to get up and DANCE but guess what theirs no dancing in the MTC #footloose But honestly I'm so excited to teach people because I am so happy learning about the gospel here and I just want to share it!! I really get what Lehi was talking about now! SO STOKED

Funny Stuff:

My branch President's wife is Bette Midler no joke (jk but they are twins)

I ran into Angela Shueltz and she looks great, exactly the same as she did 5 years ago.

WE WATCHED EPHRAIMS RESCUE ON THANKSGIVING #princephillip

The blue ray player wasn't working for the movie so elder mayfield said "just give it a blessing!" #MTCjokes

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR THE LOVE THIS WEEK!! The packages and notes make my life!!! I'm so grateful to be blessed with the most loving family in the world and I'm so grateful that we all are active in the church and have the same goals. 

Bon Courage 2 (MTC) November 25, 2013

This might be a little out of order and I'm sorry. Yesterday we had a devotional on, you guessed it, getting along with your comp. As we listened I thought okay I guess this is just an opportunity for me to learn! At the end the speaker had the whole room (2000 missionaries) sing "come thou fount" and I'm so grateful the Lord provided a way for me to be a part of the song. The words of that song are so powerful (prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love etc) Idk it just really spoke to me and I was basically balling because I needed that reminder to do what Jesus would do in this situation. He would love and be patient even if He had to work all day long He would do it, and obviously a much better job than I am doing. (Haha fun fact about the MTC, that song is literally being played on the piano, hummed, playing on the loud speaker, or being sung in the shower at all hours of the day, these peeps be obsesses with some come thou fount)

Tuesday-we also had devo and the guy talked about choosing the Celestial Kingdom now. It was an excellent talk and after we had discussion about it, Once again, I had one of those moments where I though "I am so lucky to be here" instead of discouraging thoughts. Thats the funny thing about the MTC, some times you feel like its a wild place but the highs are always better than the lows. I don't want to compare myself to the pioneers, but the MTC kind of reminds me of that quote from that guy from the Willy Martin handcart company where he was like "We were happy yo pay the price to become acquainted with God" I feel like this place is a really challenge for me, but it is worth it because my relationship with my Heavenly Father has become so strong! I love that.

I really love my district. Everyone really tries to get along and help each other and wants to enjoy the time we spend here. Thats the best.

Other good things:
they have that cake sometimes that mom makes for dad's birthday every year and its DA Best
we had a cupcake birthday party for my sister friend soeur francis and played that game where you write down a bunch of people and you have to describe them (zone unity to da max!)
Last night I literally had a conversation in the hallway with a brit, a French girl, and a danish girl in french and it basically just made my life.
Everyday gets a little bit better!