WE WILL NOT BE STOPPED

dear everyone,

what a week! this week felt like every day there has been so much opposition! it is like someone is trying to stop us or something...like trying to get to an appointment but it taking 3 hours to get there on the metro so it is too late, pouring rain, parking tickets, cancelled everything. but we keep going and we saw SO many miracles.

in the mission we have been focusing on teaching the message of the restoration to members in 5 minutes, just a short and powerful lesson. we practice this twice on tuesday. the first was with a less active member we found. she is so funny! you go into her house and it looks like a 12 year old girl`s room. she has cut out pictures from magazines of beautiful people and put them all over her walls. i think she is at least 65. she likes us and told us we could keep coming back because she thinks we are beautiful and i am her angel. whatever works. anyway, she LOVES to talk and we can hardly ever get a word in. we asked if we could share a 5 min lesson with her she said yes. the spirit was so powerful. she was rivited and speechless as we taught the restoration. that is the power of the Holy Ghost!

later that night we went to visit a sweet lady in our ward who is in a nursing home and shared with her the restoration. she loved it so much she asked us to do it again! ha!

this week i had a couple of people contact me, which never happens! the first guy sister perez and i started talking to and we actually had a really great conversation and fixed a return appointment. at the end though, he tried to hug me so i had a do a really fast duck and back away! then later that night we were walking home and a man started talking to us...

"did you know that 80% of the world`s population believes we have been to the moon? we haven`t!"

"do you know they say they are trying to get to mars, but they are really looking for ET!"

he was obviously drunk and when he shook our hands, he shook it and then put it to his forehead.... it was an interesting day to say the least!

then friday we had the biggest, coolest miracle! i`m sitting in the metro and a guy walks on, looks at me and then says, "are you a mormon missionary?" i say yes and we get off the metro together and he tells me he studied with missionaries in the 90`s. his name is jean, he loves president Hinckley, and he was so close to being baptized but his girlfriend, yolandita, held him back. he said he prayed this morning and so this was no coincidence! this was a sign! he said he felt the spirit so strongly and talked to us for a good 25 min. we tried to get his contact info but he wouldn`t give it to us! we gave him a card and he left.

sunday we were sitting in Church and guess who shows up?!? JEAN! he stayed for Church and loved it! he is a really friendly guy so he made friends with everyone and we were able to pass him off to the elders who teach the men in the area. it turns out he doesn`t have a phone, but he is excited to be baptized and keep coming to Church, after he takes all of the lessons of course. he even took notes during gospel principles!

this week i heard a quote i really love from the training videos each missionary has to do before they go home,

"The power to become is to look to Christ and live. We have the potential to become like Heavenly Father, we can be like dad, and that`s only possible because of Christ and because of the Atonement."

i have told you time and time again but i have seen the reality of this on my mission! i can`t believe this will be my last full week! we are going to see miracles and we are going to see the hand of God in our lives every single day (as always). i am so excited. we will not be stopped!

i love you all! thank you so much for all of your prayers, love, and support. i definitely can feel the strength that comes from the support! have a great week!

love,

sœur paine

pictures:

sister perez, lovely, and i (she is a member who lets us steal her phone to take better selfies)

sister perez and i

hotel de ville in montreal

our life waiting at a bus stop in the heat