Fabulous

JUNE 11, 2014

Hello family, friends, and all of the above!!

I just want to say that I love my Savoir Jesus Christ! With each trial, difficulty, heartbreak, or worry He is next to us with his arm tightly around us carrying us through what ever we are facing. Just thought I would remind y'all of that! 

SO this week was FABULOUS. Let me say it again, FABULOUS. Without a doubt...FABULOUS. #fabulous and not really in the sense I would have guessed. Missionary work this week was rough...brutal actually. Things NEVER went our way. Yet this past week will be a week never to be forgotten. This week has left a mark, and impact. It has changed me for the better. And I have thanked my Heavenly Father each night since these changes. Because like I said...this week was FABULOUS!!!! 

So to start of this email let me tell you something. God grants us miracles. Sometimes we don’t know why he gives us these miracles but He does. This week seemed to be a week filled with miracles that ended poorly. For example...we spent sometime passing less actives.... only to find a lot of now permanently lost sheep (phone is disconnected and address isn’t valid) #depressing Well we were on our last one of the night and it was impossible to find. We searched and search looking everywhere but.... could not find it. But Soeur Mod and me--being the people we are.... we were not stopping until this person was found!!!!! Well we decided to walk to the side of the building to see if the number we were looking for just happened to be there. Well MIRACLE, it was! Only to find that there was no door buzzer thingy. (Don’t know the name in English) There was only a code access. Well, Soeur Mod and me, being the people we are.... we were not stopping until this person was found. So I looked at the code pad and saw 4 numbers that had clearly been used loads and began punching in different combos. hahahaha just as I said...ok on more time....you guessed it MIRACLE, door code: 1958 lead us straight into the building. #italienjobstatus Well come to find out there is one single door into this building....and this building is actually in fact a Marie, a federal building/town hall. Yes we had guessed our way RIGHT into a federal building folks! hahahaha You should have seen the faces of the peoples door that we knocked on #shock #confusion We were dying laughing. DYING. But on the brightside these miracles lead us to finding out that the less active in fact did not live there.

We passed another less active and couldn’t find the street. It was marked on our map and was close to giving up then there was this random billboard with the street name marked on it. #miracle. Well after walking up the mile long hill....we found out she didn’t live there. It kind of started getting ridiculous of how many miracles we were having that lead to an anti-climatic ending....but ITS OK!! Because we are doing the Lords work and he is leading us to where we need to be! About the end of the week I realized why there has been sooooooo much opposition right now. Because a 12 apostle was coming to visit us in a few days time. Yes, Elder Anderson CAME!!! And when big spiritual things are about to happen the devil works SUPER hard! Alors viola! Can I just say that the experience we had in Nice with Elder Andersen was a once in a lifetime experience. Every single missionary in our mission was there. 248 of us! THAT NEVER IS DONE. But we as a mission felt like we could handle it. Be mature and not make it a big party. And boy were we mature. We all knew our goal and stuck with it. We wanted this to be a life-changing event. And it was. We prepared mentally, physically, and spiritually. Words cannot describe what happened that day. We all sang our mission song to Him and kid you not Angels were singing with us. I bawled through the entire song. It was...sacred. 

A few minutes before the conference started a handful of us were pulled aside. We were told that Elder Andersen had requested a small visit with us due to connections he had with us. #THANKSDAD haha it was an experience I will NEVER forget. He is a perfect example of ministering to the one sheep. He pulled my comp and me aside and talked to be about his favor he had me do in Chambery, etc. So kind, loving, and humble. His sweet wife gave us hugs and we took a pic. (mom/dad send it to me when you get it!) AND the Kearons were there!!! I LOVE ELDER KEARON!!! And this time around I got to meet his GORGEOUS wife, who I want to be!!! 

The conference was magical!! President Roney and Sister Roney spoke, then Elder and Sister Kearon (who were like my all time favorite, I seriously am going to try to be exactly like Sister Kearon!!! She is lovingly bold! Such a rockstar!!) And of course Elder and Sister Andersen!!! The spirit was strong, inspiration came, and now were ready to put his council into action! We sang the Hosanna Anthem to finish. And it was GORGEOUS! Literally......I get chills thinking about the sacredness of the whole experience. It was also fun to see all of us missionaries together and one giant force! So fun to smile and old comps and friends! (we weren’t making it reunion like so we didn’t say Hi or anything) Overall I just have this OVERWHELMING gratitude for life. For God and the experiences he grants us. Life isn’t going to be easy but happiness can be found and that’s the big news!! BE HAPPY!  And that is probable why God sent us these little miracles...to keep us happy! Because this work is not easy but it IS worth it! 

I LOVE the mission!!!!! Its small moments like during a planning activity meeting we realize we are are all white people trying to plan an African Night....and E. Taylor saying "lets just hire Capuchin monkey" and all of us DYING of laughter. Or moments when after giving my part of the presentation at Zone training and everyone feeling ready to go win the State Championship game after my "locker room speech" of a presentation hahaha or how at English class we learned American slang #lol Or that one time our bag got left in Nice with all our makeup and cloths....oh wait that wasn’t very funny...but life goes on!!! hahaha Mission are memories. Missions are the building blocks of life. Missions are Change. Change in others, the world, and ourselves. Life is wonderful!!! I love my comp. I love my mission. I love my life. #onelove 

Have a great week. LUVS!!