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