5 janvier 2016

What a week full of miracles and blessings. We have felt so blessed as little things have worked out and timing of other things have come to be better than our plans and ah. God has a plan and He knows what He's doing.

I haven't much time this week, but here are just some of the miracles of the week:

Monday

PDay shopping miracle. We had 1 1/2 hours for the rest of PDay activities and our plan was to find some good sales as it is Soldes, where everything is on sale in France. I was able to find quite a few things, that fit well, looked nice, and were a good deal. It may seem ridiculous but it was a blessing for me. Also, we didn't burn the brownies this time for a family home evening appointment with a family in the ward. Thanks mom for the gluten free mix. They didn't even believe it was GF because it was so good.

Tuesday

Mont Saint Eloi

Soeur Meurisse was able to take us on a little deviation on our way to visit some people out in the countryside. L'Abbaye de Mont Saint-Eloi, which I believe dates from the 11th or 12th century. Only remains are left after the world wars. Pretty legit. The visit with dear people went very well and one of the families came to church on Sunday!     We met a lady on the bus on our way to the Rivierre's and she invited us to teach at the Catholic school at which she works... Cool unexpected invitation. She was touched by our service and desire to share the gospel.

Wednesday

A top missionary moment lesson with Saskya. I am grateful for her desire to come unto Christ. Our lesson turned out to be reminding her who she is, rather whose she is. A daughter of a loving Father in Heaven. We taught her how to pray again and how to find answers and recognize the Spirit. It was a blessing to be apart of the lesson with such a strong spirit.

Thursday

President and Soeur Babin are the best. How grateful I am for their example, counsel, support, and love. We had individual interviews in Lille in the morning and district meeting in the afternoon. I was greatly inspired by the love felt and wisdom I received from the Babins. I am grateful for their service and the opportunity I have to serve in this mission at this time. What a blessing they are.     We were supposed to have a rendezvous with Franck but he had some things come up, so we made a last minute decision to hop on a different train to get us back to Arras immediately instead of later that night after stopping in Béthune. It was an inspired decision. We were asked by the Elders if we could help Isabelle, a friend of a family in the ward, move into a new apartment. Of course! It was a great service opportunity in planting seeds. She was touched and grateful, and invited us over anytime. Miracle of timing and placement. Our plan was good, but Gods was better.

Friday

Ward Counsel went so well and so efficiently, we got a lot of information figured out for the 

The Soeur Meurisse

missionary work here and finding those who have been left behind a bit. Very helpful.     Also a lovely day helping Soeur Bond clean out and organize. She had bought boxes full of blank books from India when they went for a friends wedding, so she said we could choose what we wanted. Absolutely beautiful Sari material and leather embossed books. I may have taken more than one.

Saturday

Our little mini MTC activity for the young women and young men of the ward was lovely. We had 4 young men and 1 young women, but they did a great job and it was fun for the return missionaries to teach again. We had two classes, about the Restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ and introducing the Book of Mormon. The RMs taught the youth how to teach these things, then the youth practice taught it to us, the full time missionaries. They we'e paired  into companionships, we were a trio with Noémie who was the only young woman. They did a great job. They taught simply, shared personal experience and testimonies. We then had a Q&A session with the RMs about missions. The youth then wrote down goals in their little booklets we made for them for how they were going to better prepare themselves to be missionaries everyday and full time missionaries in the future.     We had a ward FHE and Marie came. We had a lesson and activity about missionary work by the bishop and then crepes for all. It was a great day filled with the spirit of missionary work.

Sunday

Two families came to church that we have visited in the past. And Marie came again!     On our way home from church, we missed the bus so we walked and as we were walking a man stopped us and asked if we spoke English. He is a member of the church from India and was searching for the help of the gospel. We prayed with him and got his info for the elders to contact him. It was amazing.

Lots of blessings and miracles to be seen everyday. I am grateful for a loving father in Heaven and His son Jesus Christ. Don't forget how much you are loved.

Happy week,

Sœur Kate Simpson