I am so happy today i love the 4th of july!!!! don't worry i don't care if i'm in canada i'm wearing red, white, and blue and we will go strawberry picking today.
we had an incredible week of miracles!!!! the first miracle is that every single day we were so busy with appointments and visits!!! i love when the week is full, it makes things much more enjoyable.
wednesday we had district meeting and it was my turn to pick the hymns, so i picked the battle hymn of the republic for the opening song and the star spangled banner for the closing and made my whole district sing it because the fourth of july and America. which is funnier than it sounds because there are 8 people in my district and only 4 are from the states. the other 4 are from france, tahiti, spain, and belgium hahahah. it was also the birthday of the sister from france, so sister dexter and i made her a cake and served in on american flag plates. USA USA USA!
and our people are progressing pretty well! this friday was canada day! it's like the 4th of july but canada isn't free so it's not as great (sdfajsk just kidding i love canada too). our ward had a breakfast early friday morning and it was a smashing success!! we were running around everywhere. we would eat a pancake, run around and talk to people, eat a pancake, run around and talk to people, eat a pancake, etc. etc. but the smashing success was that we had 2 part member families bring their non member family members, 5 less actives (one who brought a non-member friend), and our investigator dianne and her son came!!! yeah!!!!! we were so happy!! and so grateful to Heavenly Father for blessing us with that miracle. they all really enjoyed themselves and were able to meet other people. in fact, we were originally sitting at the table with our investigator and her son and a few members but we (sister dexter and i) ended up getting kicked out of the table because more members wanted to sit and talk to our investigator which is again AWESOME! we have an amazing ward! afterwards she told us she really loved it and wants to come back! yessssss
another miracle is that another one of our investigators, joselyn, texted us out of the blue saturday night and asked us when and where our church was. she works almost every sunday and while we always invite her to church, she told us originally she couldn't go this week! she came to fast and testimony meeting and stayed for sunday school. she is from haiti and there are 3 members of our ward who served their missions there and were so excited to meet and talk with her. she really enjoyed herself and had a good time and the spirit was so strong during the meeting, i was so grateful she was there.
sunday was dianne's birthday so she couldn't meet with us at our regular time because she was invited to a dinner. so sister dexter and i made some treats and hearts to put on her door. the only problem is that she lives in a locked apartment building and we wanted it to be a surprise. we got to her apartment building and our normal parking spot was full, so we had to drive around but finally found one. as we parked, another lady parked next to us and she had a key to the building. she unlocked the door and we went right in! after we were in the elevator with her, we thanked her and told her that we prayed someone would open the door so we could leave a surprise for our friend. it was a missionary experience and a miracle!
this week we also traveled around the world at our dinner appointments. we had haitian barbeque with plantains and haitian drinks and vegetables from one family from haiti, african fufu from a family in our ward from congo and the national plate of venezuela from a couple in our ward from venezuela! and yes it was all delicious and yes they will probably have to roll me off the airplane next summer.
we have been so blessed this week. the gospel is incredible, simple, and beautiful. i'm often so overwhelmed with the beauty of it and the love that my Heavenly Father and savior Jesus Christ show me. one of my favorite passages of scripture is Isaiah 58:8-11, i love when it says in verse 11, "And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat they bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not." the Lord asks us to do our all. and He does everything we cannot.
I love you all! Please listen to Independence Day by Martina McBride for me because I can't
"let freedom ring! let the white dove sing! let everyone know that today is a day of reckoning!" (not even sure if those are the right lyrics)
actually it's a really sad song now that i think about it.
anyway,
love you! have a great week!
love,
sister (AM) erica paine
pictures:
sister banthoud with her taitian birthday cake and american plates
the hedgehog we met this week (no i'm not that tan those are my companion's hands holding the little guy)
i'm ur dream american missionary blogger. don't mind my hair it was windy but i gotta represent USA USA USA
sorry its late guys i was partying last night cause im in america USA USA USA -rachel
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