CANTIQUES AND CHRISTMAS MIRACLES

BONJOUR TOUT LE MONDE

I`M STILL SO HAPPY SINCE CHRISTMAS!

holy cow they weren`t kidding, Christmas on the mission is definitely very, very special! 

this week started out with our miracle of Thed (pronounced ted). he was a referral from the elders in the english ward. he had apparently come up to them and said he had met some missionaries before which is super cool. we went to go teach him and he lived really close to the senior couple in our ward, so we asked Sister Scott to come with us. when we got there, she knew thed! she had met him in the elevator, invited him to church a couple of months ago, but he was moving and she lost his phone number! we taught him several times this week and he even came to a baptism with us on saturday!

saturday, Christmas Eve, we had a wonderful day. we went to the baptism of the elders` investigator, charles. i love going to baptisms, it is such a spiritual and wonderful thing! and as i said, our investigator thed went, too! after the baptism, we had a christmas dinner with our wonderful baker family. they are a family that is soooo special to me. they are so kind to us and tell us that we are their daughters, therefore we must ask them for help or else they will get sad. we do our laundry there every week and they are the sweetest, kindest people. their whole family was there with grandkids and it was so fun to be around a family again! we left their house practically in tears because they are some of the most Christlike people i have ever met. their example and their love are more than we deserve, but sister garcia and i are very grateful for them. we are grateful to have a family here when we are far from our families. 

after the baker`s dinner, we went to see our returning less active. she has nothing, and we were able to spend a very humble christmas eve night with her. we read together the account of the first christmas in the americas. i was so grateful for that experience.

sister garcia and i had a little christmas program when we got home. we sang and we read in luke 2. it was a very special night as we knelt down at the end of our program and offered a gratitude prayer- we were challenged to pray and only say things we were grateful for. it was a night i will never forget, just the two of us, trying to give the best gift we could to our Heavenly Father to thank Him for the matchless gift of His Son. 

christmas morning we made christmas breakfast together! because christmas is never complete without cinnamon and orange rolls. after breakfast we opened our packages from home and had our studies. I HAVE NEVER HAD A MORE SPIRITUAL CHRISTMAS. we studied the life and birth and death of our Savior. we were a bit weepy, but we were so grateful to have the chance to study our Savior on Christmas. 

after studies we had church, and i have never seen the sacrament meeting so full! we had like 80 people there! the talks and everything were amazing. brother baker spoke on grace and he conveyed so much love. he just kept saying, "love, forgive, we are family. we are brothers and sisters," and it is exactly what our ward needed to hear. but my favorite part was the singing. we have a very talented pianist in our ward and as our ward sang "silent night," he made the music sound like it was sparkling! the spirit in the room was so strong and again, we all had weepy eyes! and then we ended with "les anges dans nos compagnes," or "hark the harold angels sing." i have never heard that song sung before like it was sung by my gatineau ward! in one of the most special spiritual events of my mission, maybe even my life, i was taught a very special lesson. that these gatineau saints, though many of them have been beaten, scarred, abused, and unloved in their lives, they could never forget the love their Savior has for them. i will never forget the spirit of joy in the room as we sang and announced the birth of our Savior!

after sacrament we went over to the scotts house to skype our families! i loved talking with my family! the scotts were so kind to feed us christmas dinner because our christmas appointment had to be cancelled due to chicken pox! 

we had a lesson with our recent convert and after our lesson, our investigator cancelled on us. with nothing to do on Christmas night, sister garcia and i honestly didn`t know what to do. we weren`t supposed to go contacting becuase it was Christmas and we had a few hours and were asked not to show up anywhere unannounced. we prayed and both got the impression that we should stop by a less-active member`s house even though she is never home, she has family here, and we didn`t have an appointment. we stopped by anyway (with treats) and she was home! come to find out she had worked all day and was supposed to go to her sister`s house that evening, but she was so tired. we sang with her and read luke 2. it was a very special experience that i will never forget. 

i learned so many things about my Savior this Christmas, i think that is why it was so special. i felt the spirit all day, and i have been blessed to get a glimpse into more humble circumstances and learned from those here in gatineau what it truly means to give all that you have to the Savior. while there is a million scriptures and quotes i want to share with you, i`m going to share something i read about the "Lamb of God." it is from the december 2013 ensign article, "come let us adore Him" by Elder Bruce Porter.

"The fields surrounding Bethlehem were home to numerous flocks of  sheep, and early spring was the traditional birthing season...

The boy child who arrived that birthing season is known as `the Lamb of God.` It is a title of deep significance, for He arrived with the lambs and would someday be `brought as a lamb to the slaughter.` Yet paradoxically, He was also the Good Shepherd, one who cares for the lambs. Thus, these twin symbols of His life represent both those who serve and those who are served. It was only right that Christ should play both roles, for in life He `descended below all things`, and in eternity He `ascended up on high` and is in and through and `round about all things.` He knew life from every side and every angle, both above and below. He who was the greatest made Himself the least—the Heavenly Shepherd who became the Lamb.

His coming was more than simply the birth of a great prophet, the advent of a promised heir to the royal throne, or even the arrival of the only perfect person who would ever walk the earth. It was the coming of the God of heaven `to walk upon his footstool and be like man, almost.`"

i am so grateful that we get to celebrate the birth of Christ. it is an experience unlike any other, a missionary Christmas, but we celebrate Christ`s birth because He is our Savior. and for that i will be forever and ever grateful!

i love you all!

love,

soeur paine

PS best thing ever when your investigator calls the Garden of Eden the Garden of India and then tries to explain how I and E are bascially the same letter in french... they aren`t 

pictures:

1 christmas selfie with the scotts

2 christmas eve selfie

3 christmas morning. thanks for the things to keep me warm mom!

4 merry christmas from sister paine and sister garcia!

5 yesterday was boxing day so we had to have pday today. there was freezing rain and it was so cold and we were so tired, hence the picture we drew and the frowny face