Nous nous somes tous enrollés pour le grand combat! Partons Joyeux!

Hello dear family and friends,

 

I hope you all have a Happy 4th of July! So many of you have written lately or talked to us about Sarah's mission and we have appreciated your kind words and encouragement! She enjoys hearing from you and the things that are happening here.

 

I am not quite sure what the French in the subject line says but I am thinking it may possibly be a phrase from a hymn or song since she frequently does that. I tried Google Translate but it didn't quite make sense.

 

But, I am pretty sure that her greeting means Hello everyone! Then I think she is trying to tell us that this will be a short email. 

Laura

Bonjour tout le monde!

Hoping that you've had a lovely week! Malheureusement, le courriel sera court une fois de plus, mais bon c'est comme ça, le travaille continue trop vite! 

So, basically Geneva is great, my companions are wonderful, and God is a God of Miracles. I am learning and growing in faith, hope, and charity, and seeking to emulate the Christlike examples of those who surround me.

This week I really experienced the miracle of prayer and repentance, and know that as we do these things with an honest heart we have a better sense of who we are and an immense amount of peace. Thank you, dad, for your thoughtful email, it really touched me.

At the moment we are busy trying to help our converts integrate themselves into our wards, and we are also looking for new people to teach. It should be a busy and an exciting week! We will also be meeting our new mission president, President Roney and his family for the first time this Thursday at interviews, so we are excited about that.

 

President and Soeur Murdock surprised us by being there for sacrament meeting on Sunday (I totally spiritually created this happening....somehow I knew they would come). The last thing I had said to them last week was 'hey so is this really goodbye, because we keep saying goodbye and then seeing each other again!' Soeur Murdock and I both had the hunch we'd get another one in, and we did! I walked into the chapel and caught her eye and she just held out her arms 'we're here!!!!' and she gave me the greatest mom-hug. I imagine it will be like that when I see you again mom, only like a bajillion times longer. ha! I love them. They weren't wearing their tags, and President comes up and shakes our hands 'hello, I'm Brother Murdock.' Ha. I loved it. I loved that they sat next to Sampson. I loved that we had an incredibly powerful testimony meeting. I loved that one of the people that bore their testimony was Ony, and I loved that he talked about the birth of his BEAUTIFUL baby girl, and the love of God. (we went and visited them at the hospital yesterday and I about died, she is the cutest thing I have EVER SEEN!) I also loved the testimony of a man named Aaron, a member from Ghana. He described an experience that he had had earlier in the week while commuting downtown. He was approaching the tram at Bel Air (a somewhat central connection) saying that he was surrounded by noises of all kinds. Then, he heard something familiar, it was music. He followed the sound, and discovered it was the hymns of the church, as sung by the missionaries (us) and he came in and joined in the singing. He stayed with us over an hour, standing, and singing in French (which he doesn't speak) the hymns of Zion. this was a particular miracle for him because he had back surgery several weeks ago, and I am certain that is by far the longest he has stood since. Pretty incredible. He wisely counseled us that we need to learn the doctrines and hymns of the church, and continued saying that we need to pay attention to what we are listening to, and choose which voice to follow. He said it better than I did, but it was really powerful. This is all divine design! If Sister Bartlome hadn't been transferred here at the same moment they were doing the music festival with all of the pianos, we wouldn't have been able to experience this great miracle. Singing the hymns for the hustling crowd filled me with a sense of Showbiz spirit [Showbiz is the name of the performing group Sarah was a part of through middle school and high school] and I fondly experienced again what it is like to share my testimony thorough the creative outlet of performing. It was wonderful. The project in Geneva is called Jouez, je suis à vous.

 

Ok we have an appointment with the Portuguese family, but we still have email time left so perhaps I can get on later. If not, I just want to say your prayers are still bringing forth miracles in this work. Mom (ps your email was great, I loved the skunk stories haha!) Stephane had a great experience with a scripture from the Book of Mormon in Alma chapter 26 as well this week, and he lived a huge miracle! I KNOW GOD ANSWERS PRAYERS! We made him a box of 'cigarettes spirituelles' which are rolled up pieces of paper in a makeshift cigarette box, and on the paper there are scriptures written. There is a picture of Jesus on the inside, so that anytime he wants to smoke he can pull one out and remember his covenants and find strength.

So much more to say.

I love you. I miss you. I pray that God will bless and keep you this week and always.

Soeur Sarah