December 26, 2018

Bonjour famille!! I hope that each and every one of you had the most beautiful Christmas! I was not sure how a Christmas away from home was going to feel, but I am so pleased with how it went! I don`t understand how exactly it works but service brings joy. It does not compute, but somehow it just works. I felt so much joy this Christmas season because I spent the whole time trying to be like Jesus and turn outward. There were moments where I really missed my mom! haha!| But if there is one thing I know for sure, it is that Christ is my rock. Unlike the world, he does not vary, he does not change. He is constant. I never have to wonder if i can trust him or if he will be there because I know that he will. By divine law I know that he will always be there for me to fall back on for a time. I love him so much for that. Helaman 5:12 is my favorite scripture because I know without a doubt that he is and will forever be the one constant while everything else shifts and leaves. As missionaries and as a district, we organized a brunch on Christmas day specifically for the people who would be spending Christmas alone. It was a very beautiful thing. We all ate pancakes and drank hot chocolate and talked and sang Christmas songs. I had a sweet experience while everyone was singing silent night. I truly felt my Saviors love and it brough me to tears. It was the most healing and safe and comforting feeling. Only his love can have that kind of effect on a person, because only his love is that strong. I am so grateful to him for letting me feel that. It brought my heart a lot of peace. I have prayed this Christmas to find the soul sick. I truly have. I have come to know without a doubt that Christ is the only one who has the all healing balm. It covers pain of all kids, saddenss and trials. It cover them in this life and in the life to come. It covers and it heals and it makes stronger and it protects. His balm does so much. And he gives it so freely. Thats the miracle of it. All we need do is open the door. I hope that you all felt the joy of this season. I hope that Christ was always in your vision and in your hearts and that you were all able to feel the love i know that he has for each of you. He truly is the gift and he offers his healing to us every day. I love him. He will forver be the reason I am here. I love him. Much love, Soeur Bates

December 19, 2018

Bonjour Family! What a week! Transfers happened and i am still here in Quebec City! My new companion sister Cameron is sweet and and quiet. we will get along great i can tell. Sister Lawrence got transfered to Longuile Sud, right off of Montreal. She is going to be an STL! Im so proud of her! This week has been so crazy though, saying goodbye to people and visiting everyone! The days have been full! Also I am a tech sister now so i am part of a commmitte that helps post things on the missionary facebook page. That will be a lot of fun! We also had a service project at the beginning of the week. All of the missionaries got to help paint this community center for our light the world iniciative, light your community. It was seriously a blast! The people were so nice and asked questions about what we did as missionaries. It was such a cool experience, and really good seeds planted! They were very apprecative and we were so grateful for the oppertunity! We also went on exchanges. It was so much fun! I got to be with sister Jules. She is so fun!! I love being around her! we got to teach this awesome guy named Schiller. He is so cool and so open to learnign more. The ward Christmas party was also this week! Man these Quebecers really know how to throw a party! It was so lovely! The theme was international so they had foods from all sorts of ethnicities. It was so cool to try all the different cultures. Thats one of the best things about being here! the diversity is beautiful! On sister Lawrenece`s last day in Quebec, we went to visit a lot of ward members. holy smokes this ward is amazing and so so kind to missionaries. It is such a blessing! The only problem was that we had 3 DAs back to back. I didnt know it was possible to be this full. I actually thought my stomach was going to burst! haha! But i really do have so much love for these people. For the members, for our amies, for strangers ive never met before. The love of Christ really is such a beautiful gift. I am so grateful that as a missionary it comes so easily. If everyone loved the way Christ loved, literally every problem in this world would be fixed. I am trying to make His love be the driving force for all that I do. I love Him. I am grateful for this short time I have to serve Him. I have a testiumony that he loves each person infinitely. I know that He will bring usthrough every situation He puts us in. and i know that we will emerge better from it. I love you all and i hope that you have the most joyous and spirit filled Christmas and that above all you will feel His love. It is the most wonderful feeling. Love, soeur Bates

December 11, 2018

Bonjour Family!! This has been pretty much the best week of all time! ANNICK GOT BAPTIZED!! We have been working with her for such a long time and it finally happened! My joy is full! SHe got confirmed on Sunday and her babies got blessed the same day. It was such a sweet meeting. Another cool thing that happened, was that we invited Solange, Zeinaba, and Victor to come to church and they came! They`re only kids but they came! They are the cutest and they had such a fun time at church! We hope that they will come back next week! It was wonderful because President Phillips came to see the confirmation so he got to talk with Annick a little bit and meet the kids. It was beautiful! Earlier this week our friend Nicolas gave us a referal. One of his friends Sophianne. We came and taught her and she LOVED our message! We are going to try to schedule another date with her to come back and teach her more. She was seriously so kind and open and curious! We also went to visit Joyeuse (Joyous) who we met last week on the street. She has 10 brothers and sisters! TEN! And when we walked in her dad, was reading a restoration pamphlet from our church. (we did not give them a pamphlet) They had received it from a missionary months ago, but had never been taught afterwards! We were like, whoa that`s from our church! and he was like, really? wow tell me more! It was so crazy! They were from Tanzania so we gave them a Swahili pamphlet and he was so surprised! (They always are when we do that haha) Needless to say, this week we made 7 new amies!! 7!! AND a baptism! That`s crazy!! To top it all off, we had a special Christmas Zone Confrence yesterday! It was beautiful! I am so excited to spend Christmas here! I know that i will never be closer to Christ than I am now, doing the things that He would be doing on Christmas day. I am so excited for that. I know that we will see mircales. truly. We plan on making a Christmas breakfast as a district for the people in our ward who are alone on Christmas morning so that they can have some joy and friendship. There are so many people who, for them, Christmas is not as happy of a time. I just want to share as much joy as a i can with the people who are soul sick and need the soothing balm of Christs love to heal their broken and hardened hearts. We have really been praying to find the soul sick. Its been at the forefront of my mind this whole season. I want to challenge you to find the soulsick this season and help them to feel even a little of the love that theur Savior has for them. They are so beloved in His eyes. I have a testimony that as we see people the Christ sees people, our eyes and hearts will change and we will feel pure joy and so will they. Mircales will occur, that is a promise. I love my Savior. He is my best friend. I am here in His name. And i couldnt think of a more honorable name to wear. I love Him. I know He lives I hope that your week is lovely and full of light! Love, soeur Bates

December 4, 2018

Bonjour Family! This has been my favorite week in the mission! I`m serious, it was so so good! December 1st was the worldwide day of service and it was just glorious! We were driving to visit an amie when i locked eyes with a girl walking down the street. I knew we had to pull over and talk to her. The thing with that, is usually when we turn the block, park, and try to find them, they have already disappeared.. It`s bizzare haha. But i felt so good about this one. we parked the car in record speed and jumped out and ran. It was timed way too perfectly, we met her exactly at the corner and stopped her! Her name is Joyeuse (Joyful) How cute is that!? We told her about our message and she gave us her address and said that we could come back on Friday! It was a miracle. Truly. After that we felt very inspired to go visit a woman in the ward named Lana. We just asked her if we could clean her house and she said yes! we swept and mopped and made the beds and it was so much fun! She gave us a loaf of bread for our help. That was a sweet little miracle too because just that morning we ran out of bread which was a bummer beacuse we couldnt buy any more until today. And of all the things she could have given us, she gave us bread... It reminded me just how much God is in the detials of our lives. The bread was a small thing, but sometimes he gives us those miracles to remind us that he is there and he is aware and looking for oppertunities to bless us. Earlier that last week we did what is called a drop pass by for Rachelle. She is awesome and I love her but getting appointments with her has been nearly impossible. So we were going to pass by her and if she wasn`t there or ready, then we would drop her, but if she was and we felt inspired to keep her, then we would. When we got there, she had fogotten about our appointment and said this would have to be our last meeting beacuse she would be really busy from here on out. She told us that she could only give us 5 minutes. We said okay! we showed her this video called heavenly father, earthly father (its beautiful, i would highly reccomend you watch it) she loved it beacuse it showed her the true nature of god. After that, she told us that no, she needed to see us again. she told us to call her on the 16th and she would make time to see us. that was crazy because she told us her schedule with starting school and a new job, and it was a valid excuse, she literally has no time now. but i know that the lord consecrates our time when we put him first. she also told us that as soon as we walked in, she realized that her prayer was answered. Our last visit, (almost a month ago) we invited her to pray and ask god if he was there and if he was really her father. she said she prayed all week and got her answer. she also asked him to help her to get her life together. that next week she got a new job and started school. She realized that was him helping her do that. She is changing. she is seeing the Lord in her life, and it is beautiful. One of the most beautiful things this week was that Annick passed her interview and she is getting baptized on the 8th of Dec. We are beyond excited and so so happy that she has made this decision and is following through! I realized this week what i wanted my own personal mission vision to be. It is in 3 nephi 17:20 when Christ tells the people he taught "and now, my joy is full" Sometimes i will be sitting in a lesson teaching people that I have so much love for, or someone I love will understand a gospel principle, or ill see them change and grow and i just can`t explain the joy i feel. Christ truly said it best. "my joy is full" everytime i think my joy cant get any fuller, He allows my heart to grow more and it fills up with more and more joy. I love these people with all of my heart. I truly do. I love this work beacuse it is allowing me to feel love and joy that i have never before experienced. I know that this is truly the Lord`s work. I love Him. I hope all of you are doing well and finding joy in your lives. Love, soeur Bates

November 27, 2018

Bonjour famille! This week has been such a normal missionary week (meaning every odd thing that could possibly happen totally happened.) We had some really discouraging days and also some super stellar ones too! There was one day this week where we had five appointments and every single one of them canceled or just wasn`t there. It was rough. We didn`t really know where to go or what to do, but we know that it is always better to "go and do, not sit and stew" so we chose a person and went! He wasn`t home either. (go figure haha!) But looking back it was such a blessing because the next day we didn`t have a lot of appointments, just visit with Kaite, a returning member who is one of my favorite people ever. We had a nice visit with her and she prayed at the end of our lesson and asked very out of the blue that people would flock to us and want to hear this message. I knew after she said that, that something amazing was going to happen. After her lesson, we went to visit this sweet sweet family that i absolutely love to death! They are a cute family with 4 of the most presious little children. We have been really focusing on the 12 year old daughter, Solange beacuse she is just so solid. Last time, we asked her to read 1 Nephi 1 and she did it!! (I cant even explain the joy we feel as missionaries when people actually keep commitments. it seriously makes us so so happy!) and she also marked all the words she didnt know. we were able to go through each one and define them for her, to help her understand. We also had a little "story time" with the kids using the child book of mormon (which is like my favorite thing ever) we read through the 1 nephi chapter which was a good review for Solange and really fun for the kids. I am was so impressed. These kids just absorbed the story into their little hearts! By the end they knew all the names of all the characters and could repeat the whole story back to us! There was such a feeling of love in the room with all of these sweet little kids, gathered around us on the floor, listening intently and eagerly. They flocked around us like a bunch of babay chicks, just like Katie asked. I have a lot of love for those children. 9 year old Zanabab prayed for us at the end. It was the first time she has ever prayed and I got to witness it. She reminds me of little Annaleigh. Just the sweetest little thing. After that beautiful lesson, we decided to visit a woman that hadn't been taught for months named Christina. We had a super awesome chate with her. we showed her the "He lives" video. she loved it so much she asked us to send it to her. We got a return appt. after that, we visited this super cute family that we had met really close to where we live. The mom`s name is Marianne. She was so so kind! She said that we were very brave to be serving missions. we shared "Beacuse of Him" with her (we love showing videos haha) as soon as it started, her four children came out of the woodwork and flocked to the video! (again, just as Katie said) It was so cool. She invited us back again and said that she wanted to feed us dinner which we are always grateful for! haha it was such miracle filled day! I am so grateful for the trials of the week because I appreciated that one day so much more! The worse things you go through, the greater your capacity to love the good things the come. I love being a missionary. I love these people with more love than i have ever before experienced. I know that trials make us stonger, and help us feel love more deeply. And i know that they help us draw closer to our Heavenly father. I know that just 5 minutes in His love makes the whole trial worth it 100 times over. I love my Savior more than anything and I love Him more and more each day I serve in his name. I love in mosiah 9:18 the simple phrase, "and we did go forth in His might". I know He gives us the strength we need when we need it. He did not send us here to fail. I know that. I love you all and hope you are well and happy! Love, soeur Bates

November 20, 2018 'I have never felt happiness like this before'

Bonjour mon famille! This been probably my most favorite week in the mission yet! First we had zone conf. with elder Hamilton from the 70! that was increible! he was incredible! He opened our eyes to things we could be doing better to help our amies d`leglise. he spoke a lot of true conversion. In these last days. testimony is not going to get you through. Its a darn good place to start, but without action, consistent and heartfelt action, we will never reach true conversion. true conversion is where our testimonies are so strong that we don't have to hope or wonder or rely on faith anymore because we know! That is the point where nothing on this earth will be able to pull us away from the truth because it is the biggest and best part of who we are. But that can only be acheived by doing those small and simple things. I have never known more than i do now, the impotance of daily scripture reading and prayer. They matter! It is absolutely critical beacuse there is nothing else that will build our testimoinies on the rock than that. and when the wonds come, (and they will.) we need to be firm. i know that there is no neutral ground in this. We are either choosing Christ, or we are choosing Satan. There is no neutural ground. and if we are not moving forward we are moving backwards. there is no neutral ground. I know that is true. We had invited several people to come to church who never responded which is very normal. That usually means no. So we weren`t expecting anything crazy, but then we were sitting in sacrament meeting and Alfred and like 4 of his kids walk in! We had passed them on to the elders so we werent really sure what was going on with him, but they managed to get them to church! It was incredible! And then, we look up and Maria Isabelle is there! she is the absolute sweetest lady. she has a little boy who is close to Oren`s age and is the shyest but sweetest little tyke! we had brought members to lessons with her before so they went and sat with her and totally took her under their wing. it was truly tender. She loved the meeting and she loved all of the people. I love this ward so very much! They do the most amazing job of welcoming everyone! SO many people came up to her and made her feel loved. She truly felt it. She wants to come back and she wants to bring her husband. Also, during sacrament meeting, Annick leans over to us and asks us if there is a baptisimal service on the 8th of December and we said "well yeah there sure can be!" She said "okay then sign me up!" so we had two amies come to church, and another amie invite herself to baptism! I wasn`t sure if my heart could take it. I am certain I know how Christ felt when he said "and now my joy is full" i have never felt happiness like this before. It is such a testimony to me that this work is right. There is no greater joy than bringing others to Christ, and helping them find the path that will lead them to true joy also. It is my mission and my purpose and I love being a part of it. I love you all. I know that is is the true church. I know that truth is truth no matter what others want to believe. I love being a missionary. I say that every time, but i truly do. This is the best work i will ever be a part of. I know that Christ is our savior and he lives and guides us at the head of this church. I love Him. Love, soeur Bates

November 13, 2018

Bonjour! Wow! We got a lot of snow this week so I finally broke out my Canadian coat! This week has been a bit trying. But I am grateful because I know that it is beacuse we are working with truly elect people! Satan doesn't push unless he sees a force that will thwart his work! So I know without a doubt amazing things are happening. Both sister Lawrence and I have felt that there is something stirring in the air. Something big is coming and we are so excited to embrace whatever it is. We worked very hard this week to stay busy and make every minute of the Lord's time count. He truly truly consecrated our time. There was an area we were in yesterday where we both had this undeniable feeling that there was a very specific person that we needed to meet. A woman passed us and we decided that we should go talk to her. We actually chased this woman down into her appartment building. We dont do this kind of thing very often, but we really really felt like we needed to talk to her. We caught her on the stairs and she was so kind and said that we could come back and talk to her. Afterwards, we felt like our work in that area was done. It was incredible. We have also been teaching a man named Samuel. He asks the best questions and is so so genuine. He has already told us that he wants to make sure this is completely right, but if he finds that it is, then he will be all in. We asked him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. We are waiting for a response. I know that if he does it right, and prays with real intent, there is no way he will not know for certain that it is true. That is how pure truth works. I have been studying truth a lot this week. Lots of people only like to believe what is convienant, but just beacause someone doesnt like gravity, doesnt mean they will float if they jump off a cliff. Truth is truth regaurdless. God works in truth too. When he says something is a certain way, it is that way. He won't change that for one persons convenience. That would be unfair and God is not an unjust being. I have seen that pattern a lot in the scriptures as a missionary. I am so grateful to belong to a church where basic doctrines are unchanging and constant. I don't have to wonder, I know. I also know that the way to acquire truth is constant. Just read Moroni 10:3-5. I so love the simiplicity of this gospel. The more I read the scriptures and words of the prophets, the more I know that it is true.

November 6, 2018

Bonjour! This week has been so great! We had stake conference and we had a member of the seventy come, elder Hamilton. I got to meet him, just happened to walk by! And the most beautiful thing happened. One of our amies, David who just got baptized like two months ago met him too. (He had no idea who he was talking to haha) but elder Hamilton asked him how old he was and he said 14. Then he said, ``in 4 years, you are going to go on a mission to Africa, and you are going to save your people``....... WHAT??? it was the coolest thing I have ever heard! He blessed him with that! It was truly a miracle! I didn`t understand a lot of the conference beacuse i am still learning to understand, but the spirit was so strong. elder Hamilton said that because the missionaries here are so diligent, there would one day in the near future be a temple in Quebec City! That is amazing!! Something else cool that happened was that our sister training leaders called us and said that they felt very inspired to have one more exchange. it was really odd because we had just had one, but they both felt like they needed to have one so we did yesterday. It was lovely. I went with sister Ferger, which was special because she is going home on Wednesday. I was really grateful to be her last exchange. We had a lot of really good contacts yesterday and I learned so much form her. She is truly the missionary I aspire to be. Another cool miracle this week was that we randomly found some Napali pamphlets in our cupboard. We both felt really inspired to bring them with us and that day we met someone from Napali named Bhim Jaj. AND the next day we met a woman named Kalpana who is also from Napali. That was a cool miracle because we had only like ten minutes to spare before we had to run to an appointment. we chose one building and one door. I had been eyeing the building and sr Lawrence chose the door. She let us come in! We gave her a Napali pamphlet and she was really surprised we had one! We talked a little about our message and we told her where our church was and she recognized it! she said she had a friend who went there. She also said that her friend gave her a book. I was the Book of Mormon! And she had been reading it! She is almost halfway done! She said that it has made her believe in Jesus!. We were internally screaming as you can imagine. Later as we were looking on area book, we found that missinaries had knocked on their door before but only the grandma who only spoke Napali answered. The missionaries then couldnt communicate with them, but beacuse of them they ordered pamphlets in Napali which is why they were in our cupboard. Heavenly Father always makes sure that things work out for his faithful children. It was an amazing experience. We will be going back to teach her and her family more. She is elect. The last cool thing is that transfer calls were on Saturday and I will be staying here with my trainer for another transfer! I am so excited! I am so ready to work hard and make this next month and a half I have in Quebec city one of miracles! I hope that all is well and that you feel your Savior`s love every day. Love, soeur Bates

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