dear everyone,
this week was great! and we saw some miracles!
the first miracle was with our new investigator mohammed. he is the "brother" of our investigator hydrisse (i guess culturally in africa everyone close to you is your brother). we had an appointment with hydrisse and tried to call him to confirm. he answered (or so i thought) and told me that we could come over at 4. but after confirming he told me that it wasn't hydrisse and that hydrisse was sleeping. well i asked him if we could still come over and teach him and he said sure. we got to hydrisse's house and hydrisse woke up so we had both mohammed and hydrisse there. sister garcia and i weren't sure what to teach because we had never taught mohammed and had already taught hydrisse. sister garcia and i decided to do an introduction to the book of mormon and how to begin teaching through pictures- a method that our ward mission leader had taught us. (how to begin teaching is kind of where we state our purpose and the "theme" of what we do as missionaries and what we would be teaching them) the spirit was very strong and we were actually able to have hydrisse testify of the book of mormon to his brother which was really cool! and now they both have baptismal dates! it was an amazing lesson!
the second miracle was in our ward this sunday. we have a brother in our ward, brother ngeleka, who is from congo. there are many refugees from congo here. he came here to work and make a way for his family to follow him. it has been almost 4 years he has been in canada by himself without his family. after years of working, brother ngeleka's family came to canada this past wednesday! it was a miracle for him and for the ward. seeing everyone working together to get them rides from the montreal airport, a place to live (the canadian government places refugees in housing after they come to canada), and warm things because it is freezing and they have to leave everything was awesome!
on sunday, they all went up and bore their testimonies, brother and sister ngeleka and their 5 children. they testified that it was thanks to the gospel and the grace of God in their lives that they are able to be together as a family again. the spirit was so strong as everyone testified of families and just to see the ward pull together and the pure joy of this family *weepy eyes*. it was wonderful!
we also had the chance to work with the activity day girls and make blankets for babies in the hospital. they are hilarious and i love being with them. they also acted out the parabole of the good samaritan which was hilarious!
also this week i learned something about the quebecois people. if you ask them if they speak english, they will say, "yes, i speak english, yes, no, toaster!" and i had NO IDEA why they kept saying that. apparently toaster is an english word that the quebecois use as a french word so if you ask them if they speak english they will tell you yes just because they know toaster. haha!
this week sister garcia and read a talk by marvin j ashton called "carry your cross." i loved it. it talks about what it means to carry our cross, as we all have them- whether they be physical, mental, emotional, spiritual- and crosses aren't always bad things. they are things we have to bear, but Christ is there to help us carry those crosses instead of letting them weigh on us and crush us.
"It is a fact in life that God can make our crosses easier to bear if we are but willing to admit we have them and then seek his help. In D&C 56:2 we read, 'And he that will not take up his cross and follow me, and keep my commandments, the same shall not be saved.'
A willingness to take yourself as you are and build from there is pleasing to God. If you have more than one cross—three or four—maybe you could build a ladder out of them and use them to climb to new heights. Sometimes becoming is more important than achieving or arriving. I’m not talking about self-indulgence. I’m talking about self-acceptance. All tomorrows can be in our favor if we carry on in a spirit of commitment and self-encouragement."
A willingness to take yourself as you are and build from there is pleasing to God. If you have more than one cross—three or four—maybe you could build a ladder out of them and use them to climb to new heights. Sometimes becoming is more important than achieving or arriving. I’m not talking about self-indulgence. I’m talking about self-acceptance. All tomorrows can be in our favor if we carry on in a spirit of commitment and self-encouragement."
i love that idea! we can build a ladder out of them! there is so much hope in the gospel. i was talking to a lady in our ward and we were talking about conversion and the atonement and she told me that that message gives her hope. and that's what this gospel is. it's hope. it's hope that we have a Father, who is God, who loves us. it's hope that we can and are supposed to progress. it's hope that we will be with our families forever. it's hope that through all of our trials we are lifted.
i love you all! have a great week!
love,
soeur paine
pictures: activity days
Thank you for sharing this! I came upon it by accident while learning about French. I am a member of the church and was pleasantly surprised to find this!
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