Monday, May 27, 2013

New Companion Soeur Anderson 5/27/13


Ma famille et mes amis,

Bonjour! Wow it was so good to hear such great news from all of you today! It makes me happy to read what you all are up to.:) 
Things here are going so great! Man I love being a missionary!!! 

Sister Anderson and I have been working from the Area Book (meaning old investigators and inactives) a lot this week, and we have seen so many miracles. I'll share a couple with you in particular...

So we were out in a beautiful little area of town and decided to stop past to see the Relief Society President. We gave her a quick call, went over to share a little spiritual thought, and ended up being able to teach her and her husband who has been inactive for about 15 years. From what I had read, he had meddled a lot in anti-Mormom literature and has been inactive ever since. BUT! We acted like we had no idea (we can get away with that as fairly new, young missionaries haha) and shared a little thought from Elder Hollands talk from this past General Conference. We bore a brief testimony on belief (if not yet knowledge) of the Savior, His Atonement, how the He can heal us. The Spirit truly testified of these truths, and it was incredible to be the instrument in the Lord's hands during the lesson. At the end, we asked Frère Morot if he wouldnt mind choosing someone to say the closing prayer, but he ended up saying the prayer himself. It was one of the most beautiful and sincere prayers I have ever heard since being here on my mission. It was incredible to see him perform that act of faith. We left leaving no engagements or return appointment-just kept it as a friendly pass by.:) But to our greatest surprise (and to the surprise of Soeur Morot as well!!!) we saw Frère Morot in Sacrament Meeting the next Sunday with his arm around his wife.:) It was truly a miracle to see.
Another experience we had happened on Saturday night. We had planned to make three or four pass bys of old amis, but NO ONE was there! It was pretty frustrating cause we felt like we had planned out our day by the Spirit, but at the moment we didnt know if we were supposed to be where we were. Grudgingly, we got onto the tram to go home, and I saw a really cute girl sitting a couple seats in front of me. She kept looking at me!!! haha, so I winked at her (haha yeah mom i wink at people like you do all of the time!!!) and she smiled back at me! Then a couple minutes later, she looked at Sister Anderson and waved at her! We looked at each other all surprised and, without even saying a word to each other, knew we needed to go talk to her. Even though it wasnt the stop we were planning to get off of, we got off at the same stop as this cute girl and went to go talk to her. Her name is Alexandra, and she just moved back to Angers from Paris, but turns out we had actually tried to call her earlier that day!!! She had taken some of the missionary discussions before but was lost when she moved to Paris and back. We asked if we could meet with her the next day, and she actually said that she was thinking about coming to church! (Oh my, by this point we were practically crying for joy!!! haha). We said that sounds great! explained a little more about Sacrament meeting, and told her we'd see her there. Then...the next day she came to church!!! It was so great to see her there.:) and all of the ward members were so so sweet to her. We also got the opportunity to visit Alexandra later last night and watched "Finding Faith in Christ" with one of our strongest members. The Spirit was so strong, and Alexandra opened up to us so much. She has such a strong testimony of the Savior and his Atonement, and hearing her story with meeting with the missionaries a couple months ago was very touching. The Spirit was so strong, and the feeling was just right, so we extended the invitation for Alexandra to be baptized, and she accepted.:) It was so special. Truly, the Spirit guided the lesson. What an incredible opportunity it was to merely be the tool. We have only a couple more lessons to teach, which is good cause Alexandra is in and out of town during the week, but she is scheduled to be baptized on the 22 of June.:) and we are all really looking forward to that.:) 

Well these are just two of countless other things that happened this past week (man i cant believe all that happens in just one week!!!!), but I hope they give you a little taste of what it is like to be a missionary in Angers, France.:) It is not easy! but it is so worth it.:) I am so grateful to have this opportunity to serve a misssion, to serve the Lord and to serve these people. I have never ever been happier than I am now. 

Thank you again for all of the updates and stories.:) I hope you feel the same after reading these emails every week (even though they are sometimes short). After all,  we're not too far away at all.:) 

Remember that you can make a difference anytime, anywhere. Find someone to serve. And always always (of course;)) remember to smile.:) 

I love you with all of my heart.:) 

Soeur Laura Lee Judd



No comments:

Post a Comment