Our Mission is Popping

God has surely created some beautiful things on this earth to gladden our hearts and our eyes, like these  flowers along the road. Except He didn't create the "orange trees" further down the street.

 We had a spectacular day this week, one that called to me to eat lunch in the park across the street from our archives building.

My archives team showered me with love after Elder Gong encouraged us to tell our companions something that we appreciate about them.

Look at this humongous marriage contract we found this week! I didn't take the time to stop and read it but we assume it was for some people of great prominence! Look at the scalloped upper edge of the paper!

Our mission has an incredibly lofty goal for baptisms this year! Last year our goal was 248 and we went over that by about 100. The young mission leaders along with president and his wife carefully petitioned the Lord to know what our goal should be for this year. After wrestling with it for some time they came up with 691! 😮 Because this is God's work and He is actively involved in it and because we have obedient, diligent missionaries, I think we're going to make it! Our mission leaders say that God is gathering His children to this part of the world so they can make covenants with Him. And we are just the lucky ones that get to participate in His magnificent work!!

Do you see the "1" on the end of that 690? That's going to be the man on the street who is from Ghana that spoke to me. We had 2 lessons with him this week. The sister missionaries who are teaching him are allowing me to be in the lessons with them and it is SUCH A JOY! He accepted an invitation to be baptized on May 25!

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An Appearance by Two Fabulous Elders

Look who made it into my blog!!! These two elders have been waiting and watching for WEEKS to see if their pictures would appear on this blog. FINALLY! Today their dreams came true! It is a highly sought-after honor in this mission to appear on Sister Jones' blog, after all. 😂 I love these two hard-working elders. They are devoted to God and to helping His children. And I am lucky to be serving in the same branch with them right now.

I was with some very lovely people at our branch president's house this weekend. He cooked us some fabulous food! We celebrated his son's birthday and had a beautiful discussion about the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love that our branch is led by an energetic, loving man of God. Some faces are blocked to protect their privacy since I didn't have their permission to post their pictures, not because they are in some kind of witness protection progam.

A sad thing happened this week. The general secretary in our mission lost her brother. He was only 54 years old and he died unexpectedly. When you are in God's service, He doesn't always protect you from difficult things but He DOES carry you through them. The secretary and her husband flew home to Alberta for the funeral. Our entire mission is mourning with them. She is pictured here with her husband. These two are dearly loved in this mission because of the genuine love that they show to our young missionaries and the rest of us! It's easy to give back love to someone who is so kind to you.

This was a fun little find for me! This week while I was clicking away, I saw a Chinese signature on a document! I'm really surprised I even noticed it because I generally don't look at what's on the documents because I'm moving along at such a quick pace. Some missionaries like to stop and read the documents, others of us just plow ahead as fast as we can, hastening God's work. Neither way is better, they are just different.

Speaking of plowing along, I had 10,303 "clicks"  in ONE week! That's a HUGE week of clicking for me and a number far beyond any I've ever reached in a single week! Thanks be to God for allowing me to work with Him in the vineyard. Numbers like that cannot be achieved without God's help.

I visited a small town called St. Hyacinthe this weekend and was surprised to find an African shop!

Our missionaries inspire me with their hard work and devotion to God! They are very fixed on their purpose to bring others to Jesus Christ. In the first two months of this year they have help 109 people be baptized. Our goal for the entire year is 691. If we keep going at this rate, we're going to do it! But really, GOD is going to do it and He's going to let us help Him. My goal is to find one (yes, you read that right) person for the missionaries to teach. I've found three so far, but none of them was really serious about learning more about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. But I'm going to keep trying. . .with the young missionaries as my heroic examples!!

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Captures, Waterfalls, and Ice Cream

I'm learning more every day about how to do a better job of the assignment I've been given to accomplish on this mission. 

Ever since the day I opened my mission call, I've been dreading sitting in front of a machine taking picture, after picture, after picture of historical documents that I couldn't even read because they're in French. The reality has been MUCH better than I expected. I count it a tender mercy that I have not felt bored while doing camera captures. A missionary couple who was only here for 2 weeks after I arrived taught me to make a game of it, to set goals and try to best myself from the day before. The husband captured 3025 images in a single day during the last week of his mission! ASTOUNDING! I hit just over 1400 for a high this week. I've got a long way to go.

Another missionary challenged me to find out WHY this work is so important. He said the WHAT would become easier if I had a deep understanding of the WHY.

Here's an example of gorgeous handwriting on one document.

You may not find anything fascinating about this stamp, but any variation in the documents makes life just a little bit more interesting.

And how about these cute little red seals on this document?

A seal AND a stamp! This one is over-the-top! 

I also go to the temple every Thursday to break up the week. The Montreal Temple is about a 25 minute drive from my apartment. I love that a bit of the local culture is apparent in the design of the temple. There are fleur de lys impressions in the carpet and on the altars. And there are maple leaves on the outside. I feel very blessed to be assigned to a place where I am close to a temple. I love going to the temple every week. It is a place of solace and realignment for me.

    

Our weekends are spectacular! Sister C, another single sister, and I like to go exploring on the weekends. Work hard, play hard! The archives were closed on May 22 for Victoria Day so we headed off to see Quebec City for the three day weekend. Quebec City is about 3 hours away from Montreal.

There's a spectacular waterfall nearby called Montmorency Falls. It is 30 meters taller than Niagara Falls. When you are near it, you are stunned by the power and the volume of the falling water!

Old Town Quebec City is gorgeous and has a European flavor.

Our favorite place by far on our weekend getaway was Orleans Island. Sadly, I don't have many pictures of it because as we drove around the entire island, I was behind the wheel. We are determined to go back and spend more time on the island.

We did manage to snap a few photos at the ice cream shop where we stopped. Look how thick that shell of chocolate is!!

I'm grateful to be serving in Montreal. I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve Heavenly Father's children who are on the other side of the veil. I want them to have the chance to receive ordinances. I think of myself as a missing link to facilitate someone finding their family through historical documents. There are many blessings that come from serving the Lord! Have any of you been thinking about serving a mission?? I invite you to pray about it and ask Father what He thinks you should do.

Missionary moments:

• We talked to a young man from India on the metro. He says he hopes to go to the US someday because he has family and friends there. "Which state?" I asked. UTAH! No way! "Which city?" SALT LAKE! I told him that his family and friends have surely heard of our church. And now he has as well.
• During a lesson about patriarchal blessings a few weeks ago, a young woman who was sitting two chairs away from me scooted over and asked how she could get a patriarchal blessing. I explained a little bit and later discovered that it was her first time to church and she was not a member of the church! Surprise! Last Sunday I learned that she had been baptized.

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