Still crazy over conference...

This week was so wonderful! I don't think I'll have time to write
everything but I will try.

First of all can we talk about conference?? Amazing! I felt like I
might have had too many questions at the start of it, but then every
single one was answered in the end. And I haven't yet been able to
watch the Sunday afternoon session because they don't broadcast that
here. We'll have to watch it later sometime this week. My favorite
talks so far though have been from Elder Oaks, Elder Holland, and
President Nelson. I loved several others but those are the ones coming
into my mind right now.

Other conference highlights in no particular order:

--Powerful testimonies of the three new apostles. It seems clear as
day that President Monson was inspired to call these men to be
witnesses of Jesus Christ.
--"We'll Bring the World His Truth" sung by the father/son choir in
the priesthood session (yes, I watched the priesthood session).
--"The Spirit of God" and "How Firm a Foundation" sung in the Sunday
morning session. Chills!
--President Uchtdorf's parable of the Summer with Great Aunt Rose.
--Elder Nelson's tribute to women and touching story of heart surgery
and his wife's influence.
--The children's choir in the Saturday afternoon session (never
thought the musical numbers could be so entertaining! Restless kids
😊)
--Sister Marriott's deep southern accent that reminded me of the
people in our home stake.

How incredibly blessed are we to live in a time when we can hear the
words of living prophets? Each session my testimony was strengthened
and I know that the Lord calls his leaders. I know that He inspires
their words and that He is very close. As the new apostles were
speaking, the image of a very low ceiling came into my head. Here we
are on this earth in this little room with the Lord and all heaven
just in the room above, but the ceiling is low. He is not so far from
us. I know that He speaks with our prophet. President Monson! Isn't he
incredible? I hope I can be that determined, strong, and unfailing in
bearing my testimony as he was when he fought to stay standing at the
pulpit. Imagine how proud the Lord is of him. I hope he is ok and that
he has been able to rest a bit after the conference.

Our amie Nelly is getting stronger and stronger each day! We almost
lost her this week--Tuesday we wanted to set up a rdv with her but she
said no because she was angry and said that there's no use and she's
getting a therapist and she was angry at God for not helping the
righteous people in the world. That day we did an exchange with the
sisters of St. Etienne and I was with Soeur Verrieras. We went to go
see nelly anyway and it was the GREATEST rdv. Sister Verrieras is a
powerful missionary and she totally saved her. She bore testimony and
shared experiences and helped nelly understand things about the
atonement that sister Wallace and I would have been incapable of doing
ourselves. I am SURE that Heavenly Father sent this sister to our
sector that day specifically so that she could save our amie from free
falling into Satan's pit. She was hanging by her fingers. Nelly ended
up coming to EVERY SESSION of conference and after the first day she
approached us all smiles and bisous and said "I've got it! I got all
my answers!" Sister Wallace and I died. These emojis described our
emotions. 😮😱😄😄😄😄👏🏼🎉🎉🎉🎆🎆🎆❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ We're so happy for
her.

Wednesday we went to president's home for dinner because they wanted
to record the musical number we did the week before. It was sooo fun!
We had a great American meal prepared by Sister Brown. Our friend
Mariana that we met up with a few weeks ago came too! It was great
because she is our age and speaks English and it was the perfect way
for her to feel the spirit. She said she felt really good and happy
when she was in their home. Today we're at president's home again
because it's the last Monday of the transfer and we hang at
president's that day. It's been really fun. We've played games and
just had a great time. Perks of being in Lyon.

We get transfer calls this weekend but I have no idea what will
happen! My guess is that we'll both just stay together. Sister Wallace
will finish her mission in a transfer and a half so there's a good
chance she'll just stay in Lyon.

Challenge this week is to rewatch or read a conference talk and make
specific goals about what you're going to do to apply what the spirit
taught you. I'll be doing the same thing all throughout this week.

Heard there was crazy flooding in Cannes and Antibes, but apparently
the missionaries are all ok. We had just been talking to the sisters
there last night but they didn't even mention anything! I hope all the
members' homes are ok.

Je vous aime beaucoup!

Sœur Melissa Hurd

Conference Craze!

This week was so wonderful! We had our big zone conference with Elder
Adler of the third quorum of the seventy and it was amazing.
Everything was so inspired and I received a lot of great guidance that
has already been helping with missionary work.

Elder Adler bore a powerful testimony about Jesus Christ and his
Atonement. He related the story of Alma the Younger's conversion told
in Alma chapter 36, talking about him as a "dear friend." Alma was a
son of a wealthy and powerful leader, a righteous man who had done his
best to lead a civilization to righteousness. Didn't Alma love his
father? How could he have become one of the vilest of sinners? He
sought the praise of man more than the praise of God. He only saw the
things of this world. When the angel came to him and delivered a
powerful message that he needed to change, that people had been
praying and fasting along with his father for his salvation, Alma went
through a process of conversion that changed the rest of the Book of
Mormon. The description of what he felt is probably the most poignant
chapter in the Book of Mormon. After his conversion, Alma became a
powerful and indispensable instrument in the hands of the Lord to
bring thousands to Christ.

The Atonement leaves no trace. After this life, the mistakes that we
have made that we have repented of will simply cease to exist.

A lot was said about the adversary and how he is ever so powerful in
the world today, which means that we need to be ever vigilant about
staying strong in what we know. The work is hastening! Satan knows
that and he knows what to do to get people to be distracted by other
things in this world and make us lose focus on what's most important.
No one likes talking about the adversary, but Sister Wallace and I
were seeing how important it is that we recognize the presence of him
with our amis too. When we recognize that the opposition that comes as
we move forward in faith comes directly from satan, we know that it is
a greater testament to the truthfulness of what we're doing AND we
know how to better combat it. We are indeed on the front lines of a
battle in this world today.

Thankfully we have the best leaders to lead us through this war and we
have the chance to listen to them this weekend!! It's general
conference time again and I am SO EXCITED. SERIOUSLY I MIGHT BE MORE
EXCITED FOR THIS THAN CHRISTMAS AND THATS SAYING SOMETHING.
😄😄😄👍🏼🎉💥🎆🎶 this is my inner child coming out. I hope you have
all been preparing! This transfer I've been really trying to prepare
well for these sessions of conference and so I'm ready with questions.
Can't wait to receive guidance for my life and for our amis and just
be edified!

Our amie nelly is making so much progress! She came to a baptism on
Saturday that the assistants had and she totally loved it even though
she doesn't show it. Our President Brown was there too and totally
sparked her! She's scared of men and President is like a big teddy
bear so it's perfect. We've talked about baptism with her this week
and we know she's thinking about it, she's just scared. She's scared
life won't be easy after baptism, which it won't, and that she won't
be strong enough. Satan is trying SO HARD to discourage her and scare
her and make her feel weak and downtrodden by the world. She's such a
strong woman, and she will move past this. This week was really hard
for her, but she is making progress.

I don't have time to write more but you should know we did a musical
number for the conference and the same for the baptism and I played my
violin. I knew you would be happy, mom and dad. And I can't believe
I'm saying this but can you send me violin music? I'm REALLY bad at
playing right now and I need some good music to warm up to that's not
hymns. Just send me whatever, any of my old books. It was a rough time
playing but the people singing made it BEAUTIFUL.

Anyways challenge this week is to prepare for conference!! Je vous aime!

Sœur Melissa Hurd

Adler Conference

Zoo, Chambery, and making pumpkin bread

Luxe Lyon

I'm obsessed with my mission.

Last week for p-day we went to see Fourvière, a beautiful cathedral in
Lyon that you've seen in all my pics I think. It's on that big hill by
where I live. I'm pretty sure Allison raved about it a month or so ago
when she went with her old companion. It's AMAZING. One of my favorite
things about Europe is being able to find these ancient cathedrals in
pretty much any ville. You walk in and the busy street outside is
completely shut away and you just feel so reverent and peaceful. These
beautiful quiet places are obviously no where as sacred and empowering
as the temple, but is nice to get a little respite from the world
every now and then. It's an incredible thing to see the devotion these
Christians had and the sacrifices they made to draw closer to God. I
think there are hosts and hosts of them in the heavens waiting for
their work to be done  in our sacred temples today. ☺️

Yesterday at church was amazing! We had four amis there. Two of them
had never been before! Nelly, our ami who is starting to really make a
progress but wouldn't come to church forever, finally got the courage
to come! And she even participated in the classes. It was great and we
were so proud of her. Towards the end of sacrament meeting the bishop
spoke and bore strong testimony about the sacrament and the importance
of coming to church each week because of the sacrament. It was PERFECT
for nelly because she has issues with ward members from years and
years ago and we were trying to help her understand that church
attendance is about the sacrament. It's about changing and being
spiritually recharged and having the spirit with us more fully in our
daily lives. Afterwards she looked at me and said that the spirit has
been talking to her and giving her information and now she has a lot
to think about. She is totally getting it! She will have a baptismal
date soon, I'm sure of it.

So we met this amazing woman named Marsha who we had a rdv with
Tuesday. She's the cutest little Peruvian lady that has a BEAUTIFUL
American-esque home with the largest kitchen I've seen on this side of
the Atlantic. It was our first lesson with her and we didn't know if
she was interested in actually learning about our church or just a
bible study. But turns out even though she's a strong catholic, she
kept saying she's very open. She's really interested in us and our
church and she wanted us to come over every week and emailed us all of
her availability. She's a very busy woman, always doing volunteer work
in Peru and here and I guess she helps young people find jobs and
internships and lodging. She says she's always helping people and
doesn't have time to read her bible anymore, but as we explained to
her that we would be extending invitations to her each time we met,
she was excited to make time for it. And she came to church yesterday
too! She was so cute and loved the meetings because so many people
from the ward were speaking and she liked how there are so many
families there. She commented on the vitality of the ward and how we
are real people. And she LOVED the closing song, "Abide With Me, 'Tis
Eventide." She said she wants to memorize all the lyrics and sing it
all the time and wants us to sing it for our husband.

I'm just so excited for the amazing people we're working with! We also
met this really cool girl Marianna from Mexico. She's here enrolled in
an amazing culinary arts school and she's from a strong catholic
family. We met up with her one day and kind of the same
situation--wasn't sure if she was interested in our message or just
having friends. But we ended up talking about how God manifests
himself in our lives all the time, even for the smallest things. He
puts us on the right paths and puts people on our paths to help us to
what he wants us to do. She basically was saying how she knew it was
no mistake she met us and wants to keep meeting with us. She's also
been a little lonely because the people here she works and goes to
school with don't have her same values. She goes to catholic mass
every Sunday but wants to start coming to our services instead. She
also said she would invite us to her place and cook us real Mexican
food. With guacamole. 😍😍😍😍😍😍

Friday we had Skype interviews with president and he is so inspired.
He asked me all the right questions and gave me all the right advice.
He is amazing and we are so lucky to have him. They had to be Skype
interviews because this transfer is supposed to be an interview tour
with each individual zone, but we're having a special conference with
combined zones this time because Elder Adler of the Seventy is coming.
So president wouldn't have time to meet with each of us individually.
I'm so excited for the conference this week and I'm sure I'll have
lots to tell you next week.

Saturday we had a relief society activity at hotel de ville because
it's patrimoine weekend in France which means that all then museums
and monuments were free. We went for a little bit because we had one
of our amis, Gloria, come. We've been really trying to get her
integrated in the ward more, and this was perfect. She's from Spain
and speaks rough French, so she met one of the older woman and her
daughter who both are from Spain as well and they hit it off so
quickly! We were so happy. We had to leave early and we weren't
worried at all about her being lonely because she was making friends
left and right. As we were walking away we heard her telling her new
friends that she was going to the airport early Sunday morning to drop
people off, but that she would be there before 11 for sacrament
meeting. Yes! Member integration is so important!

Plug for the musée des beaux-arts, where we started the relief society
activity: amazing. I miss that kind of thing. I could spend all day in
those kinds of museums. One day when I'm not a missionary and can
visit them at my leisure, I will come back to Lyon and see every art
related thing there. It seems like a punishment that I can live here
in this city and not have every waking moment to take it all in. But
missionary work is more important and the blessings are infinitely
more valuable. :)

Also this past week I hit my halfway mark. I have officially been out
on the mission 9 months and am over the hump. AHHH. I'm so not ready
for that. The thought terrifies me but it's ok because 9 months is
still a long time and there is still lots to do! To celebrate, Allison
met up with me at the institute to give me something. It ended up
being this super cute stuffed camel thing that has apparently been
passed down to several sisters across the mission when they hit their
halfway mark, and now Allison had the pleasure of giving it to me. She
made a cute tag and wrote all the names of the sisters who had it
before.

Today we went to the zoo. We saw the cutest monkeys and a lion and a
leopard. And a giraffe!

Joyeux anniversaire to Lindsey on Friday! Hey, I just realized it's
her golden birthday. Hope you all have a great time together
celebrating!

Je vous aime beaucoup! Bisous!

Sœur Melissa Hurd

Over the hump day

Musée des beaux-arts

Apologize that some of these are over edited photos. They're not mine.

Vieux Lyon

Loving Lyon Encore

Bonjour famille!

This week was so great. I love Lyon. I am such a beach bum and I
adored being in the Côte d'Azur when I was in Cannes, but I feel like
the fall/countryside/mountain life thing we got going on here in this
end of the mission is truly my happy side. Maybe it's just cause fall
is in the air and Soeur Wallace and I can't think about anything but
pumpkin and Christmas. We found Christmas lights while cleaning our
apartment this morning, and all we've been listening to is MoTab
Christmas for the past two weeks soooo maybe we're getting a little
ahead of ourselves? Nah.

But I just love it here. We went to Geneva this weekend for an
exchange and it was lovely! It was my first time ever in Switzerland
and the train ride there was so nice. It was also my first exchange as
an STL and it was really weird....I remember looking up to my STLs
when I was in the mission and looking at how they did everything. They
always seemed perfectly confident and capable of every aspect of being
a missionary. All of these things came to my mind as I was with Sister
Descoubes planning for that day and she kept asking for advice and I
was just like ahhhhh dang it. Inadequacy. But actually the exchange
was AMAZING. Sister Descoubes taught me so much and she is such an
INCREDIBLE missionary. She talks with everyone and is such a light to
everyone around her. So delightful! We went contacting for about an
hour and we had some really cool lessons with people. Twice someone
contacted us because they saw that we were praying and wanted to ask
why. Sister Descoubes kept saying "miracles happen on exchanges" and
it's totally true! But it's only true because when you have faith in
it, you make it happen with the Lord's help. We also had an amazing
lesson with this less active who we passed at the end of the day, and
when she first opened the door she was stone cold. We kept talking a
little and eventually she let us in and opened up about a lot of
things and thirty minutes later we're laughing and crying like old
friends. It was amazing.

I was sad to leave Geneva but as we came back to Lyon I actually felt
like I was coming home. I just love it so much! The past week as I've
been here I reflected back on my time in other villes. I really feel
like I was in Cannes to learn some good lessons for and to improve
myself, but as I came to Lyon I felt like I was always meant to serve
here. Like this is where I was always supposed to be and now it's time
to take everything I learned in Cannes and use it to serve the people
here. I really hope to stay here a while.

Sister Wallace and I eat super healthily together, which is amazing,
but then this weekend we wanted to make homemade Reese's for Soeur
brown cause it's her birthday and she and President live in our
sector. So we had peanut butter and chocolate in the house and it was
bad news. We created these little treats we call devil's playground
because we felt sinfully gluttonous eating so many. We ate like 7
each. Basically stack homemade Reese's, peanut butter pâte, banana,
and cinnamon sugar and you got it. Eating salads everyday is great and
all until you get until the end of the week and then you eat your
weight in sugar. Unfortunately other French people found out about the
Reese's and now everyone wants us to bring them to their homes this
week.

Yesterday we had a really cool lesson with a recent convert and her
nonmember family. Her husband has cancer and so elders gave him a
blessing of health, and the teenager kids were present. The spirit was
so strong during the lesson and we know the kids felt something.
Afterwards as we talked about the gospel and tried to help them
recognize these feelings as the spirit, it seemed like we were looking
at two future missionaries. For a second, I could imagine these two
youth four years from now sharing the things they knew to be true and
testifying about truths they had learned and felt in their home. Who
knows whether or not the rest of the family will join the church, but
it's incredible to imagine the potential that each of us as children
of Heavenly Father have. If we could only see what he intends for each
of us to become, the world would change. It is changing! The Lord is
truly hastening His work on the earth. I feel like is week I've been
able to take a step back and look at the grand picture and see things
as they really are.

Challenge this week is to prayerfully reflect on what God intends for
you to become. Write down your thoughts and set goals.

Je vous aime beaucoup!

Sœur Melissa Hurd

Walked out of the apartment one morning and saw this...

Loving Lyon!

Bonjour famille!

This week has been super weird and long but super fun at the same
time. The first thing I want to rave about though is how BEAUTIFUL the
weather here is though. Oh my gosh. I left the sauna of Cannes and
walked into a wonderland of fall weather just beginning in Lyon. It
has been even chilly! I wore a sweater dress to church! I think it's
still supposed to be a little warm all throughout September but still,
oh man I'm happy. Fall in Lyon is going to be GORGEOUS.

We had leadership conference on Thursday and it was so fun because I
got to see so many old friends! Soeur Castagno and Soeur holmes my old
comps, Soeurs Andersen and Nef from the MTC, and of course Allison and
people from my old zone. It was such a blast catching up with everyone
and seeing where they were. In the conference we got much needed
clarification about mission rules--it's interesting how many versions
of "exact obedience" you can have on the mission. Now we're all on the
same page haha.

One of the best things that happened this week was we had a rdv with a
less active woman in the wars in Vieux Lyon. You get off the metro and
it's in the cutest area of town with a huge beautiful cathedral and
the narrow streets and amazing restaurants everywhere you turn. The
European wonderland you imagine. She took us to this amazing ice cream
place where she spent a lot of money on six scoops of ice cream total.
She's such a foodie, and she knows where all the best food places in
Lyon are. Afterwards she took us to this other place and the whole way
she's just pointing out all these restaurants that we had to try and
all the ones we shouldn't go to. Finally we get to this hole in the
wall and you walk in and there are tons of American products all along
the wall.  We were freaking out over things we hadn't seen in
forever--Marshmallow fluff, pop tarts, altoids, peanut butter m&ms, it
was amazing. Then she starts secretly collecting a ton of stuff in her
arms and soon enough she's bought us a jar of Reese's peanut butter,
peanut m&ms, tons of cinnamon altoids, and even LUCKY CHARMS. My
favorite cereal ever. We died. She shoved it all in our arms. She was
just totallyyyy thrilled to see us freaking out.

Yesterday was my first day at church and the ward is amazing! I'm so
excited to work here with them and get to know everyone. It seems like
there are a lot of cool families and recent converts. I'm sorry I'm
really lame and don't have a lot of time to write anything else and
don't know what else to write. We have some really cool amis that are
progressing and that I'm getting to know better.

OH! I forgot to write about the little trip we took to Grenoble! We
had to go for Sister Wallace's legality and so I've always wanted to
serve there but it's closed to sisters. But we took a little day trip
there for her appointment and the train ride was so beautiful. It's on
the way to Suisse so the mountains are just gorgeous as well as all
the tiny villages and cathedrals. We got to the prefecteur and turns
out the legality thing didn't work out cause of some complications,
but then we had time to take our lunch hour in this beautiful little
square of lovely buildings and fine weather. I'd love to go back one
day! Even though we didn't get the legality done, the trip was not all
for naugh. We had a really cool conversation with a cool German lady
about our age on the train and just had a good ole time.

I'm sitting with Allison right now and she's making funny videos with
her companion to send to maybe Juna and Elise. They're hilarious.

Je vous aime!

Soeur Melissa Hurd

View of our street and apartment! Mini Eiffel Tower and Fourviere

Jedi Council pics and selfie with Al

Côte d'Azur missionaries, Sister Brown, and Hurd sandwiches

More Hurd sandwiches and Grenoble!