Bonjour à tous!

I think I start every one of my letters with the words, 'this was a week of miracles!!' But I gotta state the truth!! We see so many miracles every. single. day. Heavenly Father really is watching over us and leading us to the people who need us! 

We've been doing a lot of area book work, searching through old sheets and looking up old amies! It is really fun actually to go searching for people and calling every number we have looking for those who are ready to receive our message! And we have found SO many. We have 10 rdvs set for the week and it's only Monday. That has never happened before!! The work is really progressing here in Tours and I am so excited to be able to be a part of it!

On Saturday we met with an old amie, her name is Josephine and I adore her. She's from Africa and she has been reading the Book of Mormon ever since the sisters gave it to her LAST YEAR. I don't why they lost contact with her but I'm super glad she's back in our lives!! 

This week we have been teaching a lot about the Restoration and inviting everyone to baptism!! It has been such a wonderful week and it has really strengthened my testimony of this church. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and was translated by Joseph Smith through the power of God, I know that the priesthood authority has been restored to the earth and through that power we can make covenants with God which bring us peace and happiness. So many of our amies say but I'm already baptized, I don't need to be baptized again! As I have studied for ways to help them it comes down to one thing. If the Book of Mormon is true that this church is the only true church of God on the earth and we have the authority to act in His name. All other baptisms aren't valid, we need the Priesthood!! Everything hinges on the Book of Mormon. I am so grateful to have a testimony of this book and for the opportunity to share that with everyone here in France! 

We may not have had huge giant miracles that are so big that you can't miss them but each day brings little miracles that if I search I will always find them. Heavenly Father is in the details of our lives and He sends us tender mercies every day to let us know that He loves us, that He knows what's going on and that we are in His hands. I know He is there each time we pray and He is sad with us and rejoices when we are happy too. He loves us so much more than we comprehend and I am so grateful to be one of His missionaries. There are times when we get rejected and it's pouring rain and I'm cold and wet and homesick and tired and I'm tempted to ask myself, "Is this really all worth it? Missing my family and my friends and trying so desperately to understand people and share my testimony with them and feeling a little lost and alone, is it really worth it?"
And right away the answer comes.

yes. 

Every time that question comes my heart fills with gratitude to my Heavenly Father for letting me be here. It is not easy. But anything worthwhile is never easy. All of the hard things I go through or any of us, throughout life make us stronger. I am so much better than I used to be, I have a looong way to go still of course but My testimony has grown so much and I know more now than ever before that we have a loving Heavenly Father who watches over us day and night, I have felt His peace and love every time that I have turned to Him in prayer. He loved us so much that He would give His Only Begotten Son. Who came into this world to give us an example, to show us the way and to be the way. It is through my Savior Jesus Christ that I can over come all things. I can be better tomorrow than I was today because of His grace and mercy. Through the enabling power of His Atonement, we have the power to pick up the broken pieces and try again and again and again. Because of Him there is always hope and always happiness. And I can't express my gratitude for this knowledge and for the opportunity to be here to share it with everyone. So on the days when it's hard and I'm tempted to groan I count my blessings instead!! Gratitude is the key to happiness!

Petite Story:

So we were on the bus on our way to a rdv when an older lady gets on, sees us and comes over to chat like we're good friends even though neither Soeur Bennion nor I recognized her at first. So we talk for awhile and she's talking about her family and how much she loves her family so of course we jumped on that and talked about how God gave us families and that we have a message specifically families! She said "I knew it. There is something about you that pulls, and attracts, I could tell you have something that I don't," It was way cool! We gave her our number and a  Family Proclamation but had to get off the bus before we could get her information. After she left we realized how we knew her. A few weeks ago she had asked Soeur Bennion if her hair was naturally that color. haha the blessings of having a ginger companion :) 

thanks to everyone for your support and prayers! I love you all more than you know!

avec amour soeur hawkes

                                             Homemade Easter Eggs for the annual egg fight.

                                                                    I need new shoes!

Bonjour à ma famille!! Joyeuses Paques!

This was the best Easter ever. Our week was filled with so many miracles it was so incredible! So the miracle from yesterday actually begins a few weeks back. We went to the family Kehli to pray with them and then place flyers in their neighborhood for porting. As we were putting them in boxes, a woman who lived next door to the Kehlis asked us if we were looking for someone. We showed her the flyers and explained why we were there and asked if we could come by to share our Easter message. She said sure and gave us her number. We called and set a rdv. The day of our rdv she called and cancelled saying she wasn't interested anymore. Fast forward to yesterday. We were at the Kehlis eating cookies, sharing our easter message and having a grand time. We mentioned that we had a rdv with their neighbor but she had cancelled. So they had the great idea to make a plate of cookies for them to take for Easter. So we all went over together and the nice couple let us in. We stayed for TWO hours! Her husband had met our missionaries a few years ago in North France. They had given him a book of mormon and everything. He had TONS of questions. He asked us if God was so merciful and loving why was there Hell? Frere Kehli looked straight at us sisters and said they've got all the answers for you. So we explained the plan of salvation and this little family hung on our every word. They asked question after question. We introduced the Book of Mormon and they asked if they could have a copy. Frere Kehli bore such a strong testimony and invited them to receive us missionaries regularly to answer their questions. I cannot tell you how incredible it was. The spirit was so strong as we ended with a prayer and set up another time to come back. It was absolutely amazing. And it was all thanks to the Kehli Family!!! We NEED members so badly !!! Because when it was just us, she changed her mind, but with Frere Kehli they let us right in and we had a wonderful discussion. We're going back in two Sundays and I cannot wait to talk to them more! It was an absolutely amazing miracle!!! And it gets better. This transfer, Soeur Bennion and I made the goal to find 3 new amies every single week because last transfer we had found only 4 the whole transfer. So we prayed and prayed we would be able to reach that goal every week this transfer. And this week we had only found 1 so it didn't look like we were going to make our goal and voila that evening we found 2 new amies. I could not stop freaking out after. As soon as we got home, we knelt down and thanked Heavenly Father. Because it was all thanks to Him. He gave us the words to say and the Spirit was with us as we testified of the truthfulness of the Plan of Salvation. I am so grateful for the Kehlis and their desire to share the gospel because it was them that opened the door for us missionaries to be able to teach this family. As we were leaving our new amies thanked us heartily for our sincerity and genuine desire to share the happiness that we have with them. Being a missionary is absolutely amazing!! I love seeing all these miracles and being an instrument for the Lord!! 

So Easter was fabulous. Saturday night Soeur Bennion and I decorated our Easter eggs together. We couldn't find any Easter egg decorating kits so we used crayons and pens haha and then Sunday afternoon we had our egg fight. It was just like back home! Except that I won. Which never happens! So that was really fun. We took lots of pictures but the computer I'm using won't let me send pictures, I'm sorry! Next week for sure :) Every person that we told about our egg fights were shocked. haha egg fights are our family traditions so it doesn't seem strange to me but to everyone they think it's weird haha I love all our traditions though! And then we went to the Kehlis for the afternoon. We had invited an amie and her daughter to come but they never showed up but it was still a great time of course! It was so wonderful and reminded me of home, so that was a wonderful little tender mercy from Heavenly Father. 

Preach my Gospel is great! I love the chapter about Effective Study! It is really good, I love starting and ending studies with a prayer, it really keeps the Spirit close and helps us understand the scriptures more. I'll have to write you a letter all about my favorite things of that chapter! I'm so excited you're reading PMG it is full of AMAZING things :) 

Our week was amazing. There were so many more miracles that we saw. In each of our lessons this week I really felt the Spirit guiding me in what to say and with the French of course! We were able to find new amies, accomplish goals and work with the members. It was a wonderful week! 

I am so grateful to be here in France as a missionary. It was a wonderful Easter Season to reflect on Christ and share the message of His Resurrection with everyone. I'm sure you've seen the video on LDS.org Because of Him. If you haven't watch it right now!!!!! It is so goood!! I absolutely love it!! Because of Him we can have hope and joy in this life! Because of Him we can start over again and again and we will be with our families forever. I am so grateful for my Savior and I know because of Him all things are possible and that death is not the end. 

Thanks to everyone for their support and prayers! I love you all!

avec amour soeur hawkes 

Bonjour ma famille!

This is the beginning of transfer 5!!! What. the. heck.

I can't believe I am almost halfway done with my mission. So not cool! 

But. This transfer, Soeur Bennion and I are staying together here in Tours!! We are going to see so many miracles I am so excited!! We are making big goals for this transfer so I am soups doups excited to accomplish them! She and I get along swimmingly. We are best friends and we are practically the same person it is freaky. We even both have a scar from getting a pencil stabbed into our left hand. Freaky? Extremely! We make a really good team here in Tours and we have so seen so many miracles and will continue to do so!!! 

Yesterday we had THREE amies at church!!! We were sitting in Sunday School and one of our amies, Anna showed up out of the blue!! We had invited her that week but she was pretty wishy washy about coming but it turns out the Elders had ported into her the day before and she said we had already met with her and invited her to church so they insisted she come and she did!! I was so happy and smiling so big I thought I was going to burst! And then our other two amies were Rosalee and her daughter Megane-Grace who is nine came as well. And Megane got up and bore her testimony that Heavenly Father answers prayers. It was amazing!!! It was such a beautiful Sunday! 

Today we went to the Chenonceau Chateau It was so much fun! It was absolutely beautiful and we took SO many pictures! We had some time before our train came back to Tours so we went wandering through the tiny French village next to the Chateau and found a lovely little boulangerie. I am going to miss boulangeries so much! France has the best food for sure. It was a great P-day!! 

So this week we are preparing for Easter! We are having so many FHEs this week with members and our amies I am so excited. I love Easter and Soeur Bennion and I are going to have our own little Easter Egg fight just like back home :)

The best part about being a missionary is sharing my testimony every day. I absolutely love that I get to testify to random strangers about the Love of God and the reality of Christ's Atonement. My own testimony is strengthened each time I share it and I know that true happiness is found in feeling the Spirit and sharing the joy that we have been given! I love being a missionary so much! There are times when I feel very homesick but I just remind myself of why I came out here. I can give the Lord 18 months of my life because I will have an eternity with my family! I love the quote "A missionary leaves her family for 18 months so that others can be with their families for eternity" I have been so blessed to have the gospel in my life and I want others to have the same! I am so grateful to be a missionary here in Tours and I am so grateful for everyone's support and prayers, I cannot tell you how much it means to me! I know that Jesus Christ really did suffer and die for us and because He was resurrected we shall all live again and through His Atonement we can overcome all things in this life. I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have and the opportunity to share it with others here in France! I love you all so much!! à bientôt! soeur hawkes 

 Soeur Foster and I at the Sisters Conference! That was probably the last time I'll see her on the mission!! SO sad. I absoltuely ADORe her!!! It was so fun to catch up with her at the conference.

                                          Soeur Bennion and I get another transfer together!!!

              Alicia toured a castle today called Chenonceau Chateau!  Here are the amazing pictures from it.

This is the pastry I got at the little French boulangerie, it's called Paris Brest and SOO good. 

Bonjour à tous!

We had another wonderful week full of miracles and then general conference to top it off! 

This week we found TWO new amies!! I was soups doups excited.

We met Anna a few weeks ago. We had passed by to share our Easter Message and she told us to come back the next week. So we did. And she let us right in and we had a very powerful lesson with her about the Atonement and Resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ. She is from Iraq and Christian and she absolutely loved our message and the Spirit we brought so she invited us to come back again this week! I am really excited to see her again and share the rest of the plan of salvation with her!

Then we met Zarik. We were standing at the bus stop and she was staring intently at our tags. Soeur Bennion saw her Mother Mary necklace and commented how pretty it was. This opened up the conversation and Zarik was asking us question after question about Jesus and our church. We set up a rdv and went to see her! It went really well and we will be seeing her again! Heavenly Father really blessed us to be in the right place at the right time to help His daughters.

General Conference was ABSOLUTELY amazing and just what I needed!! We weren't able to watch Sunday Afternoon because it broadcasted too late but I just downloaded it so we can listen to it at our apartment! Heavenly Father must surely have been smiling down on me because we were able to watch all of it except the General Women's meeting in English!! I was SO grateful! I was able to receive so many answers to questions and now I've got a great long list of what to do and how to do it! 

I really loved Elder Holland's talk. I loved the story of the sister missionary he shared. I have never had food thrown at me or even spit on but I can definitely relate to being mocked and degraded. however. just as Elder Holland said.

 It is absolutely most definitely worth it. 

As soon as he said that I thought to myself you bet your bottom dollar it is!!! Being a missionary, sharing my beliefs everyday and being the Lord's hands here in France is certainly not easy but it is the best thing I have ever done. I can honestly say that I have never been so happy in my life and I have never felt closer to my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ. I feel so loved and so blessed everyday out here and I will be eternally grateful to my Heavenly Father for allowing me this amazing opportunity to be His servant.

 

Which leads me to my other favorite talk. President Uchtdorf! I loved that he said we are eternal beings and endings are not our destiny. we can always change and we can always have hope and peace if we strive to have an attitude of gratitude! look for the positive in life!! As I have done that the positive becomes easier and easier to find! Have we not great reason to rejoice? I love that phrase so much! Heavenly Father has given us so much to delight in and we are so blessed even admist trials! I loved his quote 'How much of life do we miss by waiting to see the rainbow before thanking God for the rain?' So. True.

I felt that an overarching theme this weekend was to follow the example of the Savior and to be full of  love for everyone. Elder Scott said to sincerely love those you want to help. I loved his talk. I cannot wait to read and study it because I felt it applied right to me as a missionary as I am trying to help the people around me recognize their need for the gospel and it is through love that it will be possible! Love makes the world go round that is the truth. I am so grateful for General Conference and for all  the answers that I received. I knew that Heavenly Father was speaking right to me and it was so wonderful to feel the Spirit so strongly as we heard President Monson speak. I loved it so much!! 

Quote for the week!

"As we arise each morning, let us determine to respond with love and kindness to whatever might come our way."

love you all!! Avec amour sœur hawkes 

                                    Our last district meeting! Transfer 4 is done? What happened!!

                                                            GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!!

                                              We made cinnamon rolls to celebrate conference!