THERE WAS A STORM

dear everyone,

what a week it has been! it started out kind of poopy as it seemed to be "let's drop the sisters week!" but then it ended pretty great. 

tuesday night and wednesday we had the biggest winter storm in about 5 years. it was pretty bad! tuesdayafternoon it started snowing and was pretty windy to the part that it was uncomfortable to walk in- but of course we had to contact! it was pretty funny because we were so miserable all we could do was laugh! we met the sweetest old man named guy who told us "you should probably stop your walk now."

tuesday evening we had a dinner appointment at 6 and as we drove there, the wind was howling but it wasn't snowing a ton yet. during the dinner we could hear the wind picking up and decided it was best to go home and cancel our appointments that we had that night. as we left the member's house at 7 the winds were about 60 kph and we could not see in front of us. the snow was so bad. luckily, it's pretty much a straight shot to our house and all the other drivers were being safe. i was praying pretty much the whole time and every time we had a turn we were blessed to have the snow lifted for a moment so i could see to make the turn. 

we were in for the night. the next morning we woke up to texts telling us we weren't allowed to drive that day and to be careful. the snow behind our apartment was up to our waist and as we went out walking that day, it was up to our shoulders! luckily they had plowed the main roads, but that snow that was up to our shoulders wasn't from snow being piled on top of it, it was fresh snow that fell from the ground! 

the canadians said it was the worst snow storm they had seen in 5 years. apparently hundreds of people driving tuesday night just abandoned their cars because they couldn't drive and the snow kept piling on top of them.

so that was exciting. wednesday morning when we woke up, we saw our neighbor from the building next to us trying to dig a pathway out of the snow to get his car out. we decided to go out and help him. it took us a long time, but we were eventually able to get a pathway for him to drive. the coolest part of this was that it was a miracle! the neighbor we ended up helping we had met before! he and his wife and 2 daughters are friends with a member in our branch who have us over for dinner every week. they were there one week we went over for dinner and we were able to share a thought with them. they enjoyed the thought, but they said they were happy with their religion, but they knew we were neighbors and said if we needed anything, we were welcome to come over and ask and that was about it. now, a few weeks later, we were able to help him go to work in the snow. after we were done digging, he asked us where our car was and we said we didn't need to leave, we just wanted to help him. he couldn't believe it! the next day, we were walking out to our car and we saw the whole family driving away. they rolled down their windows and waved to us and said hi! it was a really cool tender mercy from Heavenly Father. 

another miracle that keeps on giving is our dear investigator, xiouhua (pronounced show-uh). we stopped by her house this week and she was really happy to see us. she opened up to us about the struggles she is having with her daughter and she just looked happier. we asked her about her praying and said she has been doing it and reading the Book of Mormon! also, one of the struggles we were having was that she couldn't come to church until june because her daughter had a class every sunday morning that her ex had signed her up for and there was no way to change it. on her own, she brought it up and said she discovered the day before that the course actually ends in a few weeks and she said she will tell her ex she wants it moved from sundays! you can physically see the spirit touching her life, it's incredible. 

another cool thing we got to do this week was we visited a family that lives really far out in the country. they live right next to an érablière (maple tree farm) and they took us to see a little peak of it. the trees are covered in little blue tubes which collects the maple water, which is put into these huge containers and shaken to separate the water from the sugar which is then boiled to make maple syrup and other maple products. in april we will get a chance to tour when the syrup is being produced! we were just a few days too early for the big batch. they have only had a little come out so far, but they gave us some fresh maple butter from earlier this year! it is so good! all of the maple syrup that we are using now for the cabane a sucre and things like that are from last year because the maple is just starting to be collected for this year, but this was the real stuff! it was super cool! 

in the september 2015 ensign, i read a story that i really loved by president eyring. 

"Once, as I sat by my father’s bedside through the night, he talked about his childhood. He spoke of the love of his parents in difficult times and of the love of his Heavenly Father and the Savior. I knew he was dying of cancer, so it did not surprise me that at times he mixed up his feelings for his Heavenly Father with the love and kindness of his earthly father. My father had often said that when he prayed, he thought he could see in his mind the smile of Heavenly Father.

His parents had taught him by example to pray as if he spoke to God and that God would answer him in love. He needed that example to the end. When the pain became intense, we found him in the morning on his knees by the bed. He had been too weak to get back into bed. He told us he had been praying to ask his Heavenly Father why he had to suffer so much when he had always tried to be good. He said a kindly answer came: “God needs brave sons.”

And so he soldiered on to the end, trusting that God loved him, listened to him, and would lift him up. He was blessed to have known early and to never forget that a loving God is as close as a prayer."

i love how it says, "he needed that example to the end." we all need prayer in our life. i could not live without prayer. i know it works. i know prayers are answered not in the way that we think they should be, but in the way our Heavenly Father knows we need. i have seen doors opened and miracles wrought by prayer during my mission. i know that prayer is the answer to everything. we will know truth. we will know love, comfort and peace. 

i love you all! have a great week! 

love,

soeur paine

pictures: 

in front of the maple trees. if you look closely you can see the blue tubes near the snow

contacting before the storm

shoveling snow wednesday morning

our district