March 26, 2019

Bonjour mes amis! This week has flown by! We had a DA with fr. Labarre and it was delicious! It was so much though! I don't know where I put it. I am convinced that the ability to eat a large amount of food without throwing up is a spiritual gift given to missionaries. haha! My trainee is doing so darn well! I am so proud of her and her desire to work hard! She loves the Lord and it is apparent in the ways she serves others. We had a lot of lessons this week! Most of them fell through and then were replaced with other unexpected miracles which was so very cool! I am always amazed at how the Lord can take a very busy day and rearrange everything so that it all works out better than we could ever have planned. He is seriously the master planner. We saw that a lot this week. There were many days where I was stressed that we wouldn't have time to get everything I thought we needed to done. But He showed us what his priorities for the day were and gave us the means to make it happen. I know that this work is in very good hands. We had exchanges yesterday and it was seriously so awesome! Sister Garcia is the most amazing missionary! So hard working and humble and kind and down to earth! We found two new people to teach and rekindled a former, a family! It was so exciting! We taught the restoration to them on the spot both times and the spirit was so strong! We went to an area a little farther out than we normally go and i loved the feeling there. I want to go back to knock it sometime. I had felt like there was someone that we needed to find, and we found a woman named Josianne who had been taught several years ago by missionaries. Her friend Robert was there and they were very receptive to us teaching them the restoration. We will be seeing them again next week. It was so exciting! My favorite part of missionary work is the teaching part! I love sharing what I know to be true with people that will listen. It makes all of the many long, hard finding hours so worth it. We have another busy week coming up with zone conf and stake conf in Montreal! I am beyond excited! They are always so empowering and inspirational! When President and sister Phillips speak, the spirit is so so strong! I can't wait! I found a lot of solace in the Book of Mormon this week. I have realized that it really does contain all of the answers for our day. Even if it is not explicitly stated in the words, the answers come from the feelings I get while reading it. That works because the power and the spirit of the book of Mormon is one of the most powerful things on earth. I love the book of Mormon and I am so grateful that the Lord made sure that it was prepared for us in our day to help us with our very specific difficulties. I am grateful for all of the tools that he has given us to help us find joy and peace in a very confused and hurting world. This much I know, there is solace in the Book of Mormon. I love you all so very much! Love soeur Bates

March 19, 2019

Bonjour mes amies! Wow this week has been so crazy!! On Thursday soeur Stephenson and I went to Montreal to pick up our sweet new little comps!! When we parked, the van full of new missionaries pulled up right behind us! I hugged all of the sisters, all the while not knowing which one was mine! That was a crazy feeling! I got to see all of my missionary buds! That was so fun! My trainer sister Lawrence and my MTC comp sister Nelson are companions now! I was so excited, and I am so proud of them! I have been so blessed to have had such incredible companions! I love them all so very much! I know that all of them so far will be my friends for life! Anyways haha, after seeing everyone, we went to our trainer meeting. It was awesome. Powerful. Pres and sister Phillips are so amazing and the spirit it tangible whenever they speak. Their words brought me a lot of comfort. And then just like that, they brought in the greenies (we call em bleus here haha) My bebe isssss... Soeur Atwood from Idaho Falls! She is an angel!! And her new missionary fire is as bright as her hair! Haha! I seriously love her so much already. She has such a strong desire to be here and she is so positive and hard working and kind. We are very similar in our personalities. I already feel very comfortable with her. Thats such a blessing! We had a great couple of days! We got lost a few times since I'm still trying to find my way around here, but we have been working hard and have had a few super great lessons! Soeur Atwood is so great at giving people commitments and the spirit she brings is powerful! It is really touching people. She can't see that yet, but I sure can. I am so excited to watch her grow this transfer! I hope i do some growing as well! I have been surprised at my ability to understand people this week! The gift of tongues is very much a real thing! There are still moments of doubts, but for the most part, I am seeing growth and I am so excited to keep growing .Keep praying for me! I feel those prayers, I truly do. There is no way I could be doing this on my own. It would be way too hard. But I know that I am here doing the Lord's work. I am grateful for all that I am learning. I am grateful for all of these people that I get to love. I am grateful for who it is turning me into. I just love my mission so much. Time is flying by so fast and I hope that I can use it in the way He needs me to. I know that this is the only true church on the earth today. I know that God is our Father and he loves us more than we can understand. I know that is why he has given us all of these tools to help us find the most joy in this life. He is the best source for joy and is always ready and oh do willing to give it to us. I love him. I love my Savior. I am thankful that he knows me and understands me. I hope that all of you are fantastic! I love you all so much! Much love! Soeur Bates

March 12, 2019

Bonjour mes amies! Okay this week has been craaaazy! We had transfer calls last Saturday and I found out that I will be staying in Laval and I will be TRAINING. Oh mon do.. Its so crazy! I have no idea who my companion will be, but i am so excited to meet her! I have a lot of fears for this next transfer, but a lot of hope also. I know that the Lord never gives us anything we can't handle. He always makes up the difference for what we can't do. I just hope that I can be what she needs and give her a good first few transfers here in Laval. It is a good place. It has really grown on me and I have done a lot of growing also. I hope that my French skills will continue to improve so that I can do this work with more and more confidence. But I know that the gift of tongues is real. I have seen it so many times and I have felt the help of the Lord. It has been a growing transfer and I know that this next one will be as well. But I am excited and full of hope. This has been a good week. We had a lot of good finding time and gave away a total of 6 Book of Mormons! It was awesome! One guy was like "oh your missionaries! Do you have a book for me?" we were like "uh yeah!" The book of mormon is such a powerful tool! It contains all the truth and it is the best way to know Christ and his true nature. I am so grateful to have it in my life. It has made all the difference. We had a lot of lessons with our ami Jacques too. He is doing great! Really progressing a lot! We had a great ward conference at church too. I love this ward! They are all so wonderful! Sorry for the short email! All is great and here and I I am happy and hopeful! I hope that you all have just the greatest week and find joy!! Much love, Soeur Bates

March 5, 2019

Bonjour mes amies! Well it was a lovely week. I got permission from president Phillips to call Caroline on her birthday and it was so fun! I love seeing my family! It brings so much more joy to this work and really gives me a boost of energy for the rest of the week! She is such a sweet thing and growing up so fast! All of them are! They say that the feelings you get being around family and loved ones are the closest feelings associated with heaven. 100% true. Family is central to everything and it is the most important thing to our Heavenly Father. I know that's true.❤ The English elders in the area gave us oodles of referrals this week! We had a pass off lesson with them for a lady named Mirphanou. She wasn't there but her daughter, Saphira, was, and we went back to teach them the next day. THEY ARE SO ELECT. They had great questions and a true desire to learn more about this message. We taught them the restoration and invited them to pray about it to know if its true, and also to read the Book of Mormon. They eagerly said they would! We had ANOTHER lesson with them two days later and taught them the Plan of Salvation. Again, super stellar lesson! I have so much love for them! It is also very interesting because Saphira speaks better English then French, so we taught the lesson kind of half and half, French and English. It was soo nice to be able to teach in my first language! That kind of thing doesn't happen very often haha. I really love them so much! Unfortunately they are going on vacation for the next few weeks which makes me really sad, because I really want to keep teaching them! Also, transfer calls are this Saturday (already!!) and so I have no idea where I will be next week or who I will be with! But I am excited to see what the Lord has in store for me! We had exchanges this week, so I got to spend the day with sister Ellis! She is such a ball of sunshine! We met some super cool people while finding and I gave away a book of Mormon at the door to a cool dude named Raoul. We also had a great lesson with Lourdia and this time, her husband Ethienne sat in! We had a member couple join us. They were so great! They both had such great answers to their questions and their pure testimonies were so very powerful! As missionaries, we have so much appreciation for members who join us for lessons. SO so much. Members bring a powerful spirit and are able to befriend our amies better than we ever could. We hope that they will make the decision to come to church this week. If they do, they will have friends to support them and make them feel welcome. Another super cool thing that happened this week was that we had a Facebook finding miracle! Sister Stephenson was talking to a guy on messenger named Norvan. He speaks Armenian! We just so happened to have an Armenian Book of Mormon in our car and he just so wanted to meet that day! So we met him at the nearest Tim Horton's and had a really good conversation (over really good hot chocolate haha)! He said that some guys (elders) had given him a copy of the book of Mormon several months earlier and he had never even opened it. But he promised us that he would read for us. Aw haha. He was very kind and had a cool outlook on life. I hope that he follows through and does read. There is more peace in those pages than he could ever imagine. More answers than he ever thought possible. This Book is powerful. I have a testimony that it is true, and written for us in our day, to help us through these perilous times. I am so grateful that I get to go out every day and testify of it. I want every single person to have the chance to feel of it's peace and power. Nothing else could have gotten me through the hardest times in my life except this book. Read it. read it every day. It has the answers to even our most specific questions. It is true. I know that it's true. I hope that all is well with all of you and that you are finding joy. There are so many things to be joyful over❤ Much love, Soeur Bates