Week 54 "Staying with Soeur Cusick"

Transfer news update: I am staying in Ecully a 3rd transfer and staying with Soeur Cusick! I am really happy. We get along so well and she is just one of my best friends.

So turns out everyone in France decides to take a 2 week vacation in August. Which means almost all the members are out of town and all our amis. Sighhh.

Do you remember when I told you about that girl named "S" who we met in the ice cream shop? Who is friends with Amandine, the recent convert? Okay well we saw her again this week and taught her in her cafe. She doesn't have a huge religious background but I know she feels the spirit when we teach her. And she wants it. We invited her to be baptized and she said yes. It was a really cool experience of faith for me. When we first just said, "Hello. Oh this is a cool cafe. Do you own it?" A few weeks ago, I would have never imagined that fast forward a couple weeks and we are inviting her to be baptized, in that same cafe! Sometimes the spirit will prompt us to do things and we don't know why. We can't see into the future. So we trust. We trust the holy ghost will lead us. We trust that Heavenly Father knows what he is doing.

You know when you just have a hard day? Or something someone says to you just makes you feel stressed? Okay well that happened to me. Before my mission I thought, "why does everyone get all stressed out on their mission? I am not going to be that person. I am just going to choose not to be stressed." But then real life hits you and it gets hard. We happened to be right by the President's house yesterday when I was feeling down. So I called Soeur Brown and she told us to come in. She was just by herself cooking. She gave me a hug and we all talked and laughed and cried. Oh we also drank diet coke in lounge chairs out by her pool. Literally biggest tender mercy in the exact moment I needed it. I sat there thinking, Heavenly Father REALLY knows me. He knows exactly what I need. He knows what makes me stressed and sad and he knows how to help me. He gave me Soeur Brown on this mission so that I would be able to do it. Ahhhhhhhh I love Soeur Brown.

I have a testimony that God created us to be different. Think of this beautiful world he created. Is any tree or flower the exact same? No. We need diversity. We cannot all be the same. "Comparison is the thief of joy." The minute we start comparing our personality or our weaknesses to someone's strengths, we are unhappy. I believe we can be inspired by other people. They can motivate us to become better. But God gave each one of us different talents and strengths.

The times I have been happiest out here on the mission, is when I am not comparing myself and I'm just being myself and trying to do MY best. I also have a testimony that Heavenly Father wants us to be happy, and Satan wants us to be sad. The spirit brings peace, encouragement, and correction. While Satan brings fear, discouragement, and comparison.

Soane River

Jacob 2:8 says "And it supposeth me that they have come up hither to hear the pleasing word of God, yea, the word which healeth the wounded soul." I know that the scriptures and prayer are things that will heal us daily. We can't expect to go to church on Sunday and then feel good the whole rest of the week. We need to do the daily things. We NEED to do the daily things. As in our spirits need it to be healed. To be healed from all the things the world and Satan attack us with. I always feel better after I read the scriptures.