MIRACLES!

My beautiful family and friends,

 

First of all, thank you mom for the letters!!!!!! It has been such a treat to hear from you like every day pretty much! I AM SO THANKFUL!

 

I just want you to know how much I love you and how much I love the Lord and I love being a missionary. It is a wonderful blessing. It is also a wonderful blessing that I GET TO STAY IN BORDEAUX! I love this place. I am surrounded by some of my dearest friends and so much beauty. I love it here and am happy to stay a fifth transfer!

 

Here is a bit about my week.What a blessed week we had. Maybe the best since I have been in BDX! I am SOOOO happy to be staying. So happy. I feel like it is a super huge gift with a bow on top. This is going to be the best transfer of all time! Et en plus, my dear Soeur Bayles is going to get to work with another one of my favorite missionaries Sister Taylor, and I am so happy for them...even if I will miss her tons. (she went to toulouse and my new collegue is soeur kofoed)

2 of our 3 new amis from last week were found thanks to members! And they just sort of fell in our laps! One of them is the boyfriend of a young adult in the ward, and he's like 'yeah I think I'll be coming to church every week....' we thought that would be a great idea. The other one is an ancient ami from like two years ago, but another one of our stalwart young adult members really sparked him (mission lingo....don't worry about it....it means she was really nice and helped him feel the love of God.) and he came to church for the first time, felt the Spirit in Sacrament Meeting as the speakers taught us about the Sacrament, the Atonement, and baptism....we asked him if he wanted all that for himself, he said yes, and we set a baptismal date with him right after.

Remember how I said it would take a MIRACLE for Carmelle to keep her date for the 26th? Well, guess what happened....

The spark started to ignite just a little before Christmas when we made a deal with her that if she read 3 nephi 11 every day for a week we would give her a Book of Mormon in English to help her practice her language skills. She did it, and ended by having a 'click' and realizing how amazing it is that the Nephites learned the same doctrine that was taught in the Bible and realized how that couldn't not be true. She went for holiday and it took a little while to get the fire burning again after, but now its going stronger than ever. As we read with her from the Book of Mormon in our RDV's, the Spirit comes in and teaches her incredible truths. She started to recognize answers to her prayers, and gets all giddy and happy talking about how it makes her feel to believe in God, and how she knows He understands her. She came with us to several RDV's as kind of a third companion over the course of a couple of days, we even did morning studies with her at the church and that day not only did she share her testimony of God the Father in the name of Jesus Christ with a less active, she invited her to come to church with us on Sunday. She is so incredible, and I know that as we continue to fast and pray and work she will be ready to make covenants with God. This is so fun! Our other ami (also a referral from a member) who wasn't progressing before and then started coming to church as a direct result of the missionary game that the Elder's played with the family, said a prayer in church on Sunday and we had one of our best rdv's with him yet last week. :)

PLEASE PRAY FOR CARMELLE AND SIMON AND THOMAS AND MARC AND KEVIN's FAMILY THIS WEEK! And my new comp :)

Yesterday the ward clerk came up to us saying that we beat last year's Sacrament Meeting attendance record already! The Lord is really hastening His work and I am just super happy to be here.

Have the best week ever!

Love you! Be happy it is super fun. If you don't feel it, rely on the Atonement and all of your guilt can truly go away. :)

Soeur Waldron