FRAMPANIONS

hello everyone!

this week has been good! we spent the first part of the week packing up sister fleming and her saying goodbye to people. on wednesday i got my new companion, sister garcia. sister garcia and are only about 2 weeks apart on the mission (i came in field a transfer before her but only because i was in the mtc for 2 weeks instead of 6). she was born in nicaragua, but she has lived all over and is now from utah. she was called in both spanish and french, so she just came from a spanish area. she`s super cool and we get along really well. we are friends. we are companions. we are frampanions! 

this week sister garcia and i realized that we need to basically do an area detox. i still don`t know the area very well and am pretty new and before we would do whatever was always done in the area and see the people that they would always see, but no one was progressing. so drop everyone! (okay not really, but almost) we are really excited to really get this area back on track. it will be tough, but it is what the area and the ward needs. 

going forward with the plan to find new people and really trying to turn over the teaching pool, our opportunity came pretty quickly when saturday all of our lessons cancelled on us pretty early in the day. the area we were going to work in just didn`t feel right. so we prayed and really felt like we should spend the day in ottawa. we had been going through our old potentials and people that other missionaries had taught, so we had a pretty long list of people we could see. it turned out to be an amazing day! we were able to pass by so many people, set 4 return appointments and find 2 new people who speak french (which is amazing because almost everyone speaks english in ottawa). so even though nothing went as planned, we had a really fruitful day and it was fun! 

we also had another miracle on friday with a new investigator! sister fleming and i had been trying to get a hold of jeanmil for so long, and out of the blue he called us! and we set an appointment for friday and sister garcia and i were able to teach him the restoration. he was a little skeptical of some things because they are new, but he is totally open and willing to read and pray about everything. he is from haiti and has a wife and 3 little boys. 

a funny story from this week was when sister garcia and i were trying to pass by an old investigator and this man opened the door. he saw that we were missionaries and proceeded to tell us how we practice polygamy and all these other things that are not true and annoying and no matter how much we tell him we don`t do that he doesn`t listen annoying but we just told him what we believe and he then proceeded to tell us what to do and he talked and talked and sister garcia and i were looking at each other like this guy is crazy we should go, but before we could say anything, he whispered "au revoir" and kind of faded into his apartment and closed the door. it was weird but funny and maybe you had to be there but it made us laugh! and sorry for the run-on sentence. 

this week i was reading in the book of Alma in the Book of Mormon, specifically in chapter 5. i love alma 5 because alma just lays it all down and is kind of like, remember all this stuff! remember how merciful God has been to you and remember how He has blessed and saved your lives! 

i love verse 26, "And now, behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?" 

i love this verse because we have seen the blessings of our Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ in our lives. do you remember how that felt? is that feeling motivating you in all things you do now? is it still wonderful to you? i think about that often and think of how easy it is to forget. when we look at the sun every day, it is easy to forget what an amazing and vital thing it is for life. we have the actual church that Jesus Christ established back on the earth today. we have living prophets and apostles! we have personal revelation! we have not just the bible, but another book, the Book of Mormon, that tells us about and how to be like our Savior Jesus Christ! 

i love you all!!!

love,

soeur paine

sorry all i have is this picture but it`s sister garcia and i on sunday