October 30, 2018

Salut la! (that`s Quoi) Okay, so our mission theme is called `taste of the fruit` which basically means to experience spiritual moments, miracles, and the fruits of our labors. This week I tasted of the fruit a LOT! We started the week out with exchanges. I was with soeur Pincock and it was incredible! We found a woman on the street we ran up and talked to. she was walking with her son and sister. we started talking about our message and her sister was like, you know this is a sign from God right? It turns out she had just gotten out of rehab and was looking to change her life. it was a beautiful miracle. later that day we also had quite possibly the most amazing lesson ever. We taught a woman named Rachelle. she was my very first lesson and we havent been able to teach her again until now. but it was seriouly so powerful. she is elect. she asks great questions. she is genuine. and she feels the spirit so deeply. she is not sure if she believes everything yet, but i would be more worried if she did. no one is that easy haha! we invited her to pray and ask god. we also invited her to say the closing prayer and she did it!! it was incredible! i was so touched that i got to witness her very first prayer. it was so tender. i cant wait to teach her again! we also had the oppertunity to have dinner with the Montreuil family. they are an english speaking family, but they know french too. they do so much for the ward and they are just awesome! i loved talking with them because without the language barrier I feel like I can really be myself. Also they were celebrating one of their son`s birthday. and they let me decorate the cake. i felt complete! okay i'll stop being all dramatic now but it was so much fun! Brother Montreuil`s cousin Jen was spending the week with them. she has been investigating the church for a while now and is finally ready to take some steps. we LOVE her! she is incredible! we gave her a book of mormon with our testimonies written inside. the way she took it and hugged it to her chest made my heart melt. I have never seen someone so excited to receive a book of mormon. she was just elated the whole evening. THAT is tasting of the fruit. it was so beautiful. it has been such a great week. I have learned to love these little moments. they are actually the most important. I am so blessed to be a missionary! i love this gospel! i love the joy it brings! "my joy is full" love, soeur Bates

Oct 23, 2018

Bonjour! This has been such a good week! We had very little success finding new people to teach, which was a bit sad, but we saw so many miracles within lessons. I was able to see so many times where an aspect of the gospel just clicked with our amies. They really began to understand the why not just the what. I know that i have only been here for about a month, but this has been one of the best parts of the mission, seeing people change and seeing them grow, and seeing how they become better. We teach a lot of African immigrants. When we start out they feel the spirit so strong and love the gosple, but then it starts to really change their hearts. They start becoming more independant and self reliant. They buy cars so that they can drive themsleves to church because it is that important to them. The men get better jobs becuase they want to be able to support their families better. Those things seem unrealted to the gospel but it`s all so connected. When people truly begin to undertstand this plan, when people know where they came from, why they are here, and what they have to look forward to, it changes them and truly makes them want to be better and live better lives. I saw that so mcuh this week. We also had the great oppertunity to go to Montreal this week for a new trainor training meeting. i was able to see everyone from my district in the MTC! it was such a tender and wonderful time! All of our French has improoved drastically!! They have all grown so much. I literally had the best district ever! President Phillips shared a really great analogy about miracles that stood out to me, going along with our theme ¨faith enough to move mountians¨ He told us of an experience he had in Mozambique where his car sunk down into the mud. No one was around to help or call. But he said that anybody can move a mountain with two things: a shovel and some time. So he found a shovekl and started digging. he dug for hours and then out of no where a jeep pulled up and was able to pull them out of the mud. Most of the time, miracles will come only after the trial of our faith. God wants us to learn and he wants us to work hard for all that is good. But he knows we can`t do it on our own so after we have given it our all, then he sends the jeep to make up for what we can`t do, to pull us out of the mud the rest of the way. And after all of the work, the miracle is worth it and even more speacial than it would have been had he sent the jeep within the first 5 minutes. Heavenly ftahe wants to bless us, but he also wants us to grow and learn. Because he loves us, he gives us both the oppertunity to grow and the miracle. So while often times it seems like we are forgotten by God, He is really just blessing us doubly. I have a testimony that this is true. I know that I might now always see how He is helping me, but i know that He always is more than I could ever imagine. I will remember that with finding this week. Thank you so much for your replies! I so love reading them! I dont often have time to respond but they truly mean so much to me! I love you all so much! Love, Soeur Bates

October 16, 2018 Faith and Miracles

Bonjour! This has truly been a week of faith and miracles. Soeur Lawrence and I have been praying to see miracles every day. And we truly have. Our theme for the week has been faith to move mountains. One thing that I really realized this week is that yes, Christ has all the power in the universe to move mountains and perform miracles, but when it comes to us, the things He can do depend soley on our faith in Him. I was reading in 3 nephi when Christ is talking to the people. He says He can work more powerful miracles among the the nephites than he ever could among the jews because the faith of the nephites was that strong! I think that sometimes we pray for miracles or even just answers, but without faith he cant give them to us. And its not because he doesnt want to, but because he cant take away our agency and ability to grow. he cant take away any oppertunity we have to excercise faith in Him because that would be a diservice to us. we wouldnt learn anything that way. It is only after the trial of our faith that we receive those blessings, answers and miracles. Anyway, this week we really tried to do everything by the spirit. There was one day where we literally drove and if the spirit prompted us to turn right, then we would. We found some truly amazing potentials that way. The aniversary of my dad's death turned out to be the best day ever in that way. I felt him walking with me all day. I truly felt heaven's help. And I truly saw miracles. There was a moment where both of us knew that we needed to go visit this man named Aurelien. We both also knew that he wasnt going to be there, but we went anyway. Most of the time this sort of thing happens, where we will go to visit someone and find someone else we needed to talk to that day instead. So we followed the spirit and went and of course he wasnt there. But then we saw this cute little boy on a balcony hanging laundry and we knew we had to go talk to them. His mom's name was Linda and she was the kindest lady ever! She said that we could come back and share our message. We found so many families this week in that similar fashion. It was miraculous. I know that faith truly can move mountains. I know that God is ever aware of our situations, and he is constantly putting us in places that we need to be and preparing people for us at the same time. This is His masterpiece, and I am so honored to be a part of it. This is His work, and He is making it happen! I love my savior so mcuh and I am grateful for His love and atonement I love you all so much! love, soeur Bates

Oct 10, 2018 Miracles and a New Senior Couple (her Dad's cousin!!)

Bonjour! This week has been one of mircales and amazingly powerful spiritual experiences! Our new senior couple this week just happened to be my dad's cousin and her husband! It was incredible to meet them and even more incredible that we both happened to be placed in the same exact area! They are wonderful and are such powerful teachers. They will do many amazing things here in Quebec. Soeur Lawrence and I found this family from the Congo with 10 kids and one on the way! Only the dad really speaks French, but he was super interested and he watched general conference! We were so excited! He really loved it and and is very open to the gospel! Another family we have been working with also watched! They have a sweet 10 year old girl who we really think will be baptized. They love the Lord and love everything we teach them, now we are just trying to get them to act on what they are feeling. We have a lot of really high hopes for so many people, I don't even have time to talk about each one! But I truly do love these people and I feel that with everyone I meet and it grows the more I connect with people. It comes from the calling. I love being a missionary and I love how it is helping me to love poeple and grow in ways I didn't even know I could. It is so hard some days, but the good trumps the bad always. Conference was one of the highlights of my week! I am so excited for this home based church approach! This work is rolling forward in more ways than we think. I know that as we implement these things into our homes and into our lilves, we will grow in ways we have never before seen as a church and as individuals and families. I am so grateful that we have living prophets on the earth today. Do we really comprehend how great a blessing that is? As members, we never have to worry, because the information we receive to guide this church is straight from the source. We are in the hands of He who created all of this. We don't ever have to fear. I love that. I also saw a small miracle the other day about the power even the name of Christ has. We went to visit a family that had been dropped a while ago. They were just about to leave, but we had decided as a companionship before that we were going to show the video "He Lives" (you should all go watch it right now beacuse it is amazing!) to at least 10 people that day. The dad agreed to watch it and loved it so much, that he asked us to send it to him and agreed to let us come back next week. The spirit was so strong. I know that there is a reason that we have been commanded to call the church by it's true name. It is Christ's church. There is so much power in that. And I know that as we try to use it properly, the way He always intended it to be, ther will be tremendous blessings on this church and its faithful members. It's kind of an impossible feat, but God wants it done so it WILL happen. I also had my first zone conference yesterday. It was miraculous. The spirit was strong. And truly amazing things happened. I will implement what I learned about being a better teacher, in my mission and life. It was amazing. There have been so many miracles. I love that I can be a part of Christ's work. I love serving and loving in His name. Nothing brings me more joy. I wouldn't be here is it werent real and true. I love this gospel and I je t'aime mon sauveur, Jesus Christ avec tout mon coeur! I know that God truly is in the details of our lives. I have seen it. Thank you all for your love and support. You are all wonderful! love, soeur Bates

Oct 2, 2019 Week 1 in the field!

Bonjour! SO, i am in Canada! I am serving in the Quebec City area! It is 100% French speaking so I am having to learn the language really fast! It has been the biggest struggle so far, but I feel heaven`s help every day and I know that the gift of tongues is so real! Just last night I was able to invite a lady to baptism and she said yes!! It was such an incredible moment! I love this work! I feel like I am being helped in ways I never have before. Not for my own benefit, but for the benefit of those I teach and help to bring unto Christ. I love talking to people and I love feeling the spirit. It is so strong here. I had a beautiful experience with the gift of tongues the other night. We were teaching a family that spoke Burmese and only spoke a little French. We were able to google translate simple phrases of our testimony and allow them to read it in their language. It was incredible. «the spirit was so strong and «i could tell that they felt it too. I have a lot of hope for this family. We had them download gospel library on their phone but the book of mormon wasnt on there, just some conference talks. So, we left them with a challenge to listen to some of those talks in Burmese. I can`t wait to teach them again. I love this work so much. I am just so grateful to be a part of it. I know that the book of Mormon is true and is a solid testimony of Jesus Christ. There is power in it. Durning my first lesson with a lady we met on the street, she said that the verse we read sounded magical. I LOVE that! I know that spirit testified to her heart that it was true. I love seeing little miricales like that every day. I know this work of gtahering israel is of god and I know that this church is true! love, soeur Bates