Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Miracles happen once in a while when you believeeeeeee (baby down on dreamstreet)


HOLA.

Yesterday was a bank holiday...again. So the internet place was closed that's why this is comin at ya a day late.

First off, KELSIE owwwww owwwww what a babe. I'm so DANG happy for y'all. may or may not have shed a tear looking at the pictures just now. 

Alors, my weekly update:

Let's start with a good laugh: Guess who is singing in church next Sunday...Ocapella...harmonizing with Soeur Grewar and the Elders...singing the melody. Hey it's me. I'm so glad I had the foresight to put singing in church on my bucket list or I would have had a heart attack when they asked us too. Hahahaha. YOLO. Don't worry I'm totally sticking my tape recorder under the pulpit cause this will only happen once. :) Oh, the life of a missionary.

This last week was too good too be true.
I'm just going to list the miracles that happened:

1) FHE with the family from our ward and their neighbor went SO well. Their neighbor is so awesome and so NORMAL! She reminds me of a classic McKinney mom. & She's praying right now to know if the BOM is true, how great is that? Soeur Grewar shared her conversion story with her and she LOVED it. She's Catholic, but doesn't really practice and she want her kids to find God so she's looking for a way. I think we can help her out with that :)

2) We book 7 lessons last Tuesday for today alone!! We are about to allez-y and start teaching right after this and I'm SO HAPPY. Heavenly Father is so so so good and He keeps His promises. I've been asking Him since day one to help us be more busy and fill our days with good things to do, and finally this week we have so much going on we hardly know what to do with ourselves! :) So many people in this Ville are ready to hear this Gospel, it's amazing!

3) We finally had a chance to go out and teach the 13 year old who has been coming to church every week and her family. Her dad, older brother, sister in law, and sister are converts to the church, but her mom is pretty against it...or so we thought! We went over to their house and talked to them about the temple and how families can be sealed together forever, and all of them were like "yeah we want this how can we have it"!!! And then we asked them to be baptized and they were like "oh never mind". Hahaha. But then we explained WHY we have baptism in the first place and they said that they both wanted it, but they just weren't ready yet! The dad just bore his testimony so strong after that about how he KNEW that one day he would have the blessing of kneeling in the temple with his family and the spirit was so strong. The oldest daughter also told us that she is thinking about going on a mission!! I told her we could help her practice with her family ;) It was really awesome and we are going back there next week to teach them again!

4) There was a baptism yesterday for the son of the new Madagascan family who just moved into our branch! It was so beautiful and I've never been more aware until now how much a baptism means! They invited us over last night to do FHE, eat Malagash food, and PLAY TENNIS with them. My life was complete. They are the CUTEST people. I want to put them all in my pocket.

5) THE MIRACLE OF THE WEEK. MADAME PIERRE SHOWED UP AT CHURCH YESTERDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I thought we were never going to see her again and then boom, she just walked in to the chapel and my jaw dropped. She told us that she had woken up at 6:00 that morning and heard a call from God that told her to go to the Mormon church. She totally participated in all of the lessons and even cried in Relief Society!! I am so happyyyyyy. We are going to go see her after this and see if she wants to join the church or something :)

So Y'all, when people tell ya that European missions are hard, believe them. But when they tell ya that European missions don't teach or baptize or eat with members or make you happy ITS just NOT TRUE :)

I'm grateful every single day to be out here. This is the best thing I could be doing with my life right now. This is the most beautiful country in the world, and while only 30% of the population believe in God and 5% go to any church at all, the Lord has still directed us to find people to teach who are ready for His Gospel. If that isn't convincing evidence that this is the Lord's work and that we have the true Gospel, I don't know what is! I have been reading Acts and I just keep realizing more and more how 1) the Lord's true church has always been a missionary church and B) how much I can relate to Paul and all of the other apostles who were the first missionaries of this church. Everything they said and did is exactly what we are taught to say and do: "Preach by the Spirit."
 The Lord is the same yesterday, today, and forever y'all. He had His missionaries back then, and he has them now. I feel so blessed to be out here doing this and helping to bring all these wonderful people to a knowledge of the truth!

LOVE Y'ALL SO MUCH! Kendl, Lo, Jen, Rinners, Kenz, Mads, Kalish, and Erika reading y'alls emails are SUCH a strength to me!! I'm so happy we're all doing this together! :)

AVEC AMOUR, 
Soeur Johns

P.S. I have the WORST track record for getting bised (the kiss on both cheeks) by men. 3 times this week. THEY CORNER ME IT'S SO AWKWARD.

Note for Maman: If you happen to be sending me a package anytime soon (like maybe for June 10th or something) could you sneak in a black Stila eyeliner like the one Kenzie uses? I am nearly out and it is the best one cause it stays on your face through rain/tears :) Love ya Momma! I'm so SO happy you liked your present:)