Hope's are up.

Good news or bad news first? 

Let's start with good. I like that better. 

Gigh is incredible, golden, wonderful, and we will be friends forever I have no DOUBTS. We went over this week and taught her about the Restoration. The spirit was so thick you could have cut it with a knife. Everything just made sense to her. We started by talking about prophets, and asked her why she thinks we "don't have them anymore". She responded, "It doesn't make sense! You better be here to tell me that there is still a prophet on the earth." Yes, we are actually!! She came to institute on Friday and got along so so so well with all of the young adults. She was in Brussels on Sunday, so she couldn't come to church, but she is really excited to come next week and learn more about the plan of salvation. Oh, and she is a model. She met the king and queen of Belgium last week at a catwalk. NBD. :) 

This week we were put in touch with Soeur De Walle. She has been less-active for 30 years, but decided recently that she really wants to come back to church and asked her faithful home-teacher, who has visited her the entire time...stud, to send the sister missionaries to help her come back. Her story was SO inspiring. She joined the church after meeting with the missionaries for 4 years and brought her entire family into the church with her... 17 people! She left because of a "bad leader", but has continued more or less living the standards of the church. We brought her a Book of Mormon and committed her to start reading it again, which she was excited to do. She is going to come with us tonight to the FHE for single adults. She really has the desire right now to do whatever it takes to return to activity. She is such a breath of fresh air. No excuses, just simple humility and willingness to change. I love it. 

I also had a GREAT exchange this week. I stayed in Liège with Soeur Matalii and we had SO much fun running around and talking to EVERYONE. Not a ton of takers, but it felt so good to just share the gospel without hesitating. Y'all should try it. :)  

OKay...the not so great news...

Valerie is not baptized. I really don't want to be negative, so I will just have to share this story post-mission. She will be baptized sooner or later, I have no doubts. It will just take some humility on the part of the branch, and her mother. She is still as ready and willing as ever. I know it will happen. It was really heart-breaking though, and I seriously learned a huge lesson through all of this that some things are out of your control.  

Sheri and her 20 family members did not show up at church this week or answer our calls, BUT we will keep trying. I have so much hope for that little family. You could just feel that they have been prepared for the gospel. 

I have always been a really big hater of the phrase, "Don't get your hopes up!". I think it is just about one of the stupidest things we could ever say. Hope is faith in action, and faith produces miracles. I will never stop hoping, and expecting that the people around me will make the right choices. And I am convinced that in doing this I will never stop seeing amazing miracles. I just can't sell people short. There are not enough people in this world who truly believe in others, but I am determined to be one of them! 

I love y'all all so much. I can't believe I hit my 8 month mark yesterday.Time is moving way tooooooo fast.  

Love, Soeur Johns 

La Foire aka. great big fair 20 feet from our apartment. aka. Delicious. 

Soeur Hilton

The whole family. 

 At the fair last week with Valerie and Fam. Redheads. 

SO FLUFFYYYY. 

Puppy kissesssss.  

Isn't he precious? He belongs to Valerie and family.  

 

Gilles baptism! 

Us at Serena's birthday party. :) 

Nicolas!! So precious. 

My drops of AWESOME

I don't even know where to BEGIN with this week. 

You know how you can pinch the hose and make the water stop, but then when you finally let it go the water sprays so hard. I feel like that happened to us yesterday, but with MIRACLES. 

I can't lie, this transfer has been a hard one for me. I have just kind of felt like we were going through the motions of missionary work, but that nothing really spectacular was happening. We were working hard and Valerie and her family were progressing, but other than her we had NO amis and we weren't really seeing success in contacting, (except in finding men for the Elders to teach). On Tuesday night of last week I just sat down with the area book and called probably 200 numbers and found 2 people who were still interested to meet with us. I can't lie I was getting semi-frustrated with myself and with the area. 

BUT THEN...YESTERDAY. The single greatest day of my mission thus far.

Y'all ready for this? Water-hosed in the face. 

Miracle number 1...About 1/2 way through one of the best fast and testimony meetings I've ever been to a beautiful mom and 2 boys walk in. I look up at President Motulat and he just raised his eyebrows, then back at Elder Allecia, same confused look. After the meeting I went back and talked to Sheri a beautiful mom who had seen the Elders on the bus a couple of times and was astonished that there were actually people in the world who would wear Christ's name so boldly. She has thought to herself "I want to be a part of THAT church". She was just glowing when I was talking to her!! And She LOVED sacrament meeting SO much that she is going to bring the whole family of 20 PEOPLE next week. We exchanged numbers, naturally, and she was so excited to meet with us this week and learn more! My favorite part was when she looked over at her sons and said "You like it here?" and they said yes and she said "Okay, this is our church." 

Miracle number 2...While I was in the middle of talking with Sheri a less-active named Katy walked in! She has not been to church in 7 years!!!! We've been visiting her for a while and helped her move a couple of weeks back. Was she alone?...NOPE. She was with her fiancé, Alexandre, who by the way is a FRENCH MOVIE DIRECTOR. They had just gotten back from Cannes. (They are such a hott couple.) Alexandre is really interested in the church and so is her 10 year old son Scilian! She wants to get married in the temple, you know what that means... :) She set up appointments for us to come see her and then to come see Alexandre and start teaching him the lessons!!!!!!!!!!! 

Miracle number 3...TAKES THE CAKE. Sunday we got to witness Gilles Beya get baptized. Right after the baptism we walked out to the bus stop and realized that it wasn't coming for 20 more minutes, so we decided to go back into the chapel and wait cause its FREEZING here. As we were walking in I noticed a girl walking into the church. At first I thought she was friends with the Beya family, but then a Plan of Salvation brochure in English fell out of her bag!!!! I just thought seriously, this is TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE. I introduced myself and she said that there was supposed to be someone there waiting for her to tell her about the church. "Uh hi yeah I think that someone is ME!!!" We sat down and started talking to her about her beliefs. Oh my goodness, this girl is INCREDIBLE. She is Rwandan and lost both her parents in the Genocide. Her father died with a Bible in his hand and the last think he asked was if he could pray before they killed him. I'm literally crying again writing this. It was the saddest story I have ever heard in my life. She managed to escape with her younger brother and raised him. She said that she had gotten really far away from God, but always knew that he was there and that He was her Father, not just some grand power in the universe. Lately she had been thinking that she needed to get her spiritual life in order, and to learn more about what her parents held so dearly. One day the Elders contacted a man at the Park with the Plan of Salvation brochure. Gigh was watching as the man rejected the message and went up to Him after to ask if she could have the brochure, and VIOLA. She is so amazing! After our lesson she was like "my goodness, I came here to get the time for church next week and ended up pouring my soul out to two strangers. I would have never expected this" (Yeah neither would we :)) It was so amazing! We were instantly friends and she is SO prepared for the gospel. I asked her if she had ever been baptized and she said that she had had a lot of opportunities to be baptized in her life, but it never felt right. But that it was definitely something she would want to do! 

Miracle 4...I JUST got a LDS.org referral and I think it is from a lady we met on the train this week!!!!!! And a member just called to give us a reference...seriously WHAT is happening?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

The Lord is truly gathering His sheep and hastening His work. Our schedule is now so full over here in Liège Belgium we can hardly keep up. This work is miracle work. It is the Lord's, and it happens on HIS timetable and not my own. I have really seen a change in our 2 branches after this conference. They are engaged. I believe that when the ward or branch is spiritually prepared the miracles will FLOW. 

Also, sorry to leave y'all in the dark about Valerie and her family!!! Valerie is the daughter of a less-active in the branch. She is really awesome and has SUCH a strong testimony of the Restoration. She is getting baptized this coming Saturday! Please pray for her!!! Her children were supposed to get baptized with her, but they aren't quite ready yet. We went to the Foire (a big fair RIGHT in front of our apartment) with them this Saturday...best member present lesson ever...and it was so fun. I seriously love this family to bits and pieces. It is so beyond surreal that we are preparing for another baptism this weekend. I just feel so blessed to be here, and witness all of these wonderful people choosing the right at the same time. 

I love y'all so much. I REALLY felt your prayers this week. I seriously felt angels holding me up, and I know that the Lord is watching over us. 

Love, Soeur Johns 

I love conference.

I have been so overwhelmed this week with love for God. This was probably one of the most spiritually refining weeks of my life. I KNOW THAT HE KNOWS ME. All of my questions were answered and I feel such a resolve to give God my all for the rest of forever. 

General Conference was amazing. 

Anyone who does not agree, getttt outtttt. 

Let's talk about it. 

I felt so spiritually uplifted as a WOMAN. 

I felt so much desire to share the Gospel with ALL of my friends, and EVERYONE in Belgium. 

I felt so much drive to ENDURE to the end, not just on my own but constantly bringing others with me along the way. 

I felt the Spirit teach me things I need to do right now to help my area.

I felt that God knows each one of the people we are teaching right now by NAME and that he LOVES them more than I can understand. 

It was GREAT.

If you haven't watched it, you should do that RIGHT NOW. 

Other than that, 

Valerie and Erynne are still good to go for their baptisms on the 19th of October!!! They are so awesome and I love them so much. 

Ah, running out of time!! 

I love you all. I miss you so much. It was so fun to think about y'all all over the world listening to conference at the same time as me :) 

oh and WELCOME TO THE WORLD PADEN SPENCE. I feel like an aunt. Haha! 

Love, 

Soeur Johns 

There can be miracles, when you believe

So, I have a couple of "mission wishes", which I pray for each morning and night. 

The first and most important to me is to be able to find, teach, and baptize an incredible, normal family who can be a STRENGTH for the church, get sealed in the temple, and be my friends for the rest of forever. 

It's a little daunting to admit such a lofty wish because it would literally be a MIRACLE in this mission, but I've wanted it since day one. And I just know it is going to happen. I am constantly working on my faith, hope, and TRUST in the Lord that, if this be His will, He will let be a part of something like this.  

I really do have SO MUCH faith that the Lord is preparing the families here in Belgium and France to receive this gospel. And I am so grateful that this transfer He put me with a companion who has the exact same desire!! 

And I just LOVE LOVE LOVE beginning of transfer MIRACLES. 

The first day Soeur Hilton got here what did we find??!! 

THREE super duper promising families! 

Seriously all of them were miracles. We will be seeing them all for the first lessons this week, so I will let you know how it goes :) 

Soeur Hilton is awesome. She went to BYU for a couple of years before and worked in the Math lab (she is actually on the phone helping Joycley (who is still doing GREAT, just got the HG yesterday), with her Algebra homework right now, hahaha). She is a genius and you can totally see it in how she does missionary work. She is super duper organized and great with logically thinking about what she about to do before she does it. I am going to learn SO much from her about that. SO SO much. Ah, she is just the coolest and I can already tell that this transfer will be one of my favorites. Another bonus (?) is that we stick out like a SORE THUMB. Every one seriously stares at us wherever we are. Redheads are not common here. hahaha. 

Ahh sorry it's short today, but I've got to go! I love y'all all SOOOO much. 

BIG KISSES, 

Soeur Johns 

Joycley's Story

One day Joycley was sitting on the bus and said a prayer. She hadn't prayed in quite a while, but her world was falling apart. She had recently moved back to Belgium from the UK after her dad died to take care of her momma, who hasn't been the same since. 33, divorced, and living with her mom in a French speaking country. This was just not what she was picturing for her life. To add to her stress, that day she had gotten a notice to move out of her apartment. She felt like there was no hope in the world, so she prayed and simply asked her Father in Heaven, "Please let the next person who sits by me on this bus be a positive person."

Up walks Soeur Wade. (One of the Soeurs who was in the MTC with me.) She sat down next to her and started talking. Joycley noticed the accent and asked her if she spoke English. They started chatting and got off the bus together at the next stop. 

When Joycley realized they were the missionaries her first instinct was to RUNNNNN and HIDEEEE, but she couldn't ignore that these two beautiful girls were a direct answer to her prayer. So she listened. She was touched. And she decided to accept their offer to come over and help her move. 

By the time she was all moved into her new apartment her and "the Sisters" had established a real friendship. She had been coming to church and really enjoying it. But all of the information was so new, and she had already been baptized 4 times, so she wasn't sure if this was the path that she should take. 

Then she started reading the Book of Mormon from page 1. This is where her conversion to the gospel really started to take place. She was amazed by how well she could understand the words and relate to them. Each time she read and prayed she felt in her heart that the Book of Mormon was true. Eventually that feeling progressed into knowing that she needed to be baptized. 

So she was!! 

Yesterday!!

My girl, Joycely is the newest member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!!!!

Have miracles ceased??? Was it a coincidence that Soeur Wade sat down next to her after she had prayed for just that??? 

I think NOT. :) 

Ahh, I really am just sooooo sooooo sooooo happy. I feel so blessed to have been able to teach this amazing person, and know that it was not us. None of this was us. Just the LORD. 

The baptism itself was interesting, to say the least. haha. Joyce is WAY afraid of water. Like HUGE huge huge phobia. Almost all of the members in the branch came out to support her (miracle in and of itself) and were there for the first time she went under. Wellllll her legs popped up and she freaked out that she was drowning, so she had to do it again. BUT SHE DID NOT WANT TO. She was just like "no sorry that is going to have to count, we are done", "no sorry joyce, you're not baptized yet". We had all of the members leave and go into the next room, and then drained the water and had her sit down and tried it again. TOES again. Ayiiii. She was about to pass out from fear at this point and just did NOT want to go under again. Little did we know all of the members in the room next to us prayed and right after they said amen, she went under all the way :) Praying works, people. 

I am just SO happy. Joycley is REAL conversion. She is in this for life. Everything just felt good and right.

And on top of that we met a new friend named Lida. She came to the baptism yesterday and she really felt the spirit. She will be at church on Sunday :)  

As for the NEWS....

I am staying in Liège and will be working with Soeur Hilton! We were in the same district in Bretagne and SHE IS A RED-HEAD too. Red-head equipe miracles again. I'm so ready. She is just a wonderful human and I'm excited to work with her. :) Not training...had to get over a little bit of pride...but I KNOW that President is inspired and I am trying to refuse in getting caught up in how everyone thinks of me as a missionary. I know how bad my feet hurt, I know how much I love these people. That's all that I need :)  

MIRACLE TRANSFER HERE WE COME. 

Love you all. You inspire me daily. 

Soeur Johns 

 

The best photo we got. :) Beautiful Joycely

Transfer picture. 4 down. How in tarnation??

Hell and a half

Darkest week of my life. 

I'll explain in a minute. 

I have to start though by saying that Joycley's baptism is still on! We actually moved it to this Sunday the 15th at 6:00PM. She is so ready it is actually insane. We went through all of the lessons this week and formally committed her to live all of the commandments and she not only said yes, but is living them so righteously. On Saturday night we had a movie night and watched the long temple square version of the Joseph Smith movie, she showed up with her grocery stroller because she went shopping on Saturday to keep the Sabbath Day holy. I was so proud. On Sunday it was so fun to watch her go around and invite everyone to her baptism and ask them to give talks. She is going to be SUCH a solid member of this church and the Branch loves her so much. She has been so prepared in her life to live this gospel, and I am so excited to watch her make this covenant Sunday night :) 

Oh and she asked us to sing. Why these people keep asking this of me, I have no idea. 

That is GREAT, HAPPY news, so I should have just been on cloud nine and skipping down the road singing children's hymns, right? 

Wrong, the adversary had to have a go at me first. 

Somehow throughout this week A TON of anti-mormon, anti-christian, false doctrine, deep doctrine stuff came up. Things I had never even heard of or thought about or cared to know honestly. It was literally day after day this entire week of bombardment with these kinds of things. And I can promise you we did not go looking for it. It found us. 

Needless to say, My faith was shaken up like never ever before. I was so confused, and was walking around the whole week just kind of FREAKING out to be honest that I had ruined my life by going on a mission. Dramatic, je sais. I knew the only intelligent option was to just keep moving forward and working and praying and trying, and that I couldn't just quit. But my heart was so far from everything and I couldn't testify without feeling like a liar. I was three seconds away from making the call to come home. Thankfully, I have had FAR too many prayers answered to EVER deny that we have a loving God who hears us, so I continued praying hard to Him to know what I should do. But nothing happened right away... 

Sunday we showed up at Church, and in all seriousness EACH and EVERY one of my questions were 100 percent answered without me asking a SINGLE one of them. One answer came on the bus on the way to church where one of our Elders, who knows way to much about the most random stuff, randomly started talking specifically about the topic that had shaken us up the most. One answer came in an inspired sacrament meeting talk about the Bible. One answer came as we ate dinner with the Motulai Family and Joycley that night and President Motulai gave Joycley advice and counsel that I selfishly felt was directed more towards my struggles. One answer came in a Priesthood session conference talk I read that night. But all of the answers came in the form of heart warming spiritual confirmations that God loves me, Jesus is the living Christ, that the fullness of the Gospel has been restored on the earth by the Prophet Joseph Smith, and that the Book of Mormon is true. 

I cannot tell you enough how RANDOM and seemingly coincidental each of these were. Seriously. I am CONVINCED that there is no such thing as coincidence, just God.  

Now, I feel a little (lot) silly that I ever let myself feel so down over these things. It is SO clear that it was the adversary. Stupidly clear. I KNOW that he doesn't want Joycley to be baptized, and I know that he wants to ruin my life. I have been taught all my life that  that things like this happen to people who are preparing to take their life to the next level. I don't know why I was surprised that it happened to me. But now I certainly know that I am converted to this Gospel, and I know that I have seen and felt too much to ever walk away from it. 

My advice to anyone that has struggled with something like this (in the words of President Motulai), "Don't let something you don't know for sure, get in the way of something you do know for sure."  There is always a reasonable way to doubt anything that is faith based. That is the POINT of faith. But seriously, it is always more wise to doubt your doubts, and remember that you cannot always take "logic" at face value either. This church really is filling the earth, as prophesied, and I hate to break it to you, but you walking away, or me walking away, or your family walking away, or my family walking away is not going to stop it. 

I can bear you my witness that I know that this is true. Every claim we make, that Joseph Smith saw God the father and Jesus Christ, that the Book of Mormon is a book of ancient scripture comparable to the Bible, that worthy ordained men have the Priesthood power to baptize, confirm, organize and ordain in Christ's name, and that we have a living Prophet Thomas S. Monson who directs this church according to what the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ tells Him, is TRUE aka. it ACTUALLY happen/is happening. 

It seems too incredible because it IS almost too incredible to comprehend. All I can tell you is that if your not a Mormon you should be, if you are a Mormon, but your sitting on the fence, you should stop lying to yourself and make your choice whether to be in the world or of the world, and if you are a Mormon and have a testimony of these things you better get over yourself and open your mouth and share it.  

I know that this experience has made me into 100 times better/ more consecrated of a missionary. It really has changed the way I look at this work. I know that I am doing the right thing. I ONLY feel good. All of the confusion is gone. I seriously wish I could share with each and every one of you the joy that is in my heart. There is no better feeling in the world. 

I love you all so much, I hope this helps anyone who is going through hard stuff like this. I also hope that this doesn't encourage anyone to go looking for proof that this is wrong. I can only promise you that by doing that you are asking for a lot of trouble and sorrow. Take my word for it. 

I love you all so much!!! Please keep Joycley in your prayers this week, she needs em! We all do. :) 

Love love loveeey love, 

Soeur Johns 

P.S. Soeur Foster and I totally had one of those "Did we just become best friends?" moments this week. Hahah (TV version, clearly) I'm going to miss her so MUCH!! I can't believe this transfer is almost done. 

Emotional overload.

OMGOODNESS people. Talk about a WEEK. 

First off, BROOKELYN SHEA PREATOR congratulations. Ah, I laughed and cried simultaneously when I read the news. It finally hit me that yes I'm really not going to be there and it broke my heart, but I am SO HAPPY FOR Y'ALL. You look so sooo soooo good and happy and the ring is beautiful. YOUR'E GETTING MARRIED. Ah, I die. 

Kenzie JOHNS, darlin your roommates look so awesome. BYU is so great you are going to love it, but don't freak out if you're not sure about it yet. k? 

Mom and Dad y'all are looking as good as ever. Aubs I'm so glad you loved the chocolate :) 

Also can someone tell me about this war that is going on between the US and France and Syria?????? People keep trying to explain it to me in French, but I can't tell if it's a big deal or something to be scared of or not. Love those language barriers. But seriously, TGFBelgium. hah. 

So mission life... 

MOST EXCITING NEWS: 

-Last night Joycley committed to be baptized!!! on September 17th! Ah, I am so beyond happy for her. This gospel is exactly what she wants and needs. It's her missing piece. Pray for her to continue to feel good about all of this :) 

-On Saturday we helped two people move in a row, one from a 4th story apartment to a house, and the other from a house to a 4th story apartment (I think I lost 8 pounds in one day, haha). We were going off shredded wheat and waffles from 8:30AM-8:00PM. Needless to say, we were BEAT and famished. Well, we finished and walked out of the apartment and saw our bus pass the bus stop which means we would have had to wait another 30 minutes. Soeur Foster and I looked and each other and just said "No freakin way" and then SPRINTED to the next bus stop and beat the bus there. NBD. 

-I had exchanges in Brussels with Soeur McGee who is dying this transfer (aka. going home) it was crazy. But we saw a lot of miracles on our exchange, including committing someone to be baptized in the first lesson and them saying, YES. Love it. 

-We had interviews and Zone conference and I never cease to be amazed by how inspired President and Soeur Poznanski are. They talked all about the importance of finding families and Soeur Poznanski shared her parents story. Not a dry eye. 

-Elder Oaks was supposed to speak to the mission next week, but he can't anymore BECAUSE they are creating a THIRD stake in FRANCE. AND AND AND VANNES IS BECOMING A WARD. Fair trade in my book. France is slowly, but surely progressing :) It is amazing too because they challenged us in June to find 100 people who are ready for baptism and baptize 'em before Elder Oaks arrives and we hit it this week!!! 100 baptisms in 3 months is a MIRACLE in this mission. Miracles haven't ceased, even in Europe. 

Other than that, I'm doing great. I could do this forever. Lately, I've really been trying to become more effective in everything that I do: more effective in my prayers, more effective in my studies, more effective in our planning, more effective in our teaching, etc. I've learned so much lately that when you really think about what you are going to do, how you can avoid wasting time, and when you have a structure to each aspect of your day you GET SO MUCH DONE. Our lives are so structured on missions, but there is always a way to do more and get more bang for your buck. And it's really amazing to see how much the Lord is helping us out. I am getting SO MUCH out of this mission it almost doesn't feel fair. OTHERS are the ones who are supposed to be blessed, not me, but sometimes I feel like I am the only one who is getting anything out being here. 

ALSO, I wish SO badly I could take every single minute back that I sat on the computer staring at facebook, or my phone scrolling down insta. Those things are great, and there is no doubt in my mind that I will use them when I get home, but just NOT in the way I was before. I swear I could have changed the world in some significant way in the amount of time I wasted. Ayii. Learn from my mistakes and take out the needle.  

Well Y'all I love you so so so much. Thank you for your letter and packages and love. I miss you all sooooooooooo much and cannot believe I'm missing these BIG LIFE EVENTS. Kills me, but I know this is where I need to be right now. Still get that confirmation at least once every single day. 

Avec AMOUR,
Soeur Johns 

P.S. So cute, Madame Gallois, from Vannes, just sent me an email with her testimony in it because she went to church yesterday and didn't get a chance to bear it. :) Ah. It's the things like these that make everything hard so worth it.