This week was so good. Being a missionary in Liege is such a huge blessing!!
Here is our Tuesday in the words of Soeur Hosking:
TUESDAY: District Meeting! Now that Belgium is all one zone we all meet in Bruxelles for district meeting. That takes most of our day, which is a struggle, but we make it work! And it's always fun to go into Bruxelles as a district. We got to meet the 4 Elders that are in our district but a different ville, lets just say that we are going to have a lot of fun this transfer :) We have two Bleu's in our district! I'll show em the ropes ;) So on our way home Sr.Hawkes and I were chilling in the Gare awaiting our train when at the last second the Voie changes! We have to sprint across this fairly large Gare and we have 3 minutes to do it. I am proud to announce that we made it. I jumped into the train as the door was closing and I felt like I was in a spy movie. "I think we lost him, the package is safe and aboard the train. Stripling Warrior over and out" Anyway, we had a lesson and it was so cold and rainy our ami made us wait in her house until right before the bus came. Meanwhile she fed us snacks and warm herb tea :) The TV might have been playing and we might have seen that they did a study about if fist bumping, handshakes, or the kisses on the cheek they do here spread less germs... They think kissing does. Oh how I adore this place :)
it was a preeetty good day! anywho
Wednesday evening we went to walk across this really pretty bridge and contact. But, instead of us doing to contacting we got contacted. Twice. By men. (Side note: men in Europe are creepy. Well, not all of them but a good amount) The first one started talking to us and then told us as he was leaving to tell our branch presidents son hello... We were like whaaaat? We told the Elders to look for him in their phone. Then this guy stopped us on the street. We had a really good discussion about the Gospel with him! We got his number and he asked for ours (we slipped him the Elders) and he told us we could talk about it over a cup of coffee sometime. Uh, no thank you. We called Elder Jones to give him the referral and could not stop laughing because in the middle of the contact we had laughed and when he asked why we were laughing we go, "The Gospel just makes us so happy!" We told Elder Jones about this and he tells us to "Stop being so gosh dang flamboyant!" We have too much fun. THE GOSPEL JUST MAKES US SO HAPPY OKAY?
On Saturday we went to see Patricia who recently was baptized. She had been really struggling with health problems and also with her nonmember husband. She told us all of her worries and struggles and we listened sincerely and the whole time I was praying that we would somehow be able to help her feel better and say what the Lord wanted her to hear. We shared scriptures and personal experiences and testified of the strength from the Atonement of Christ. All of the sudden she began to cry. She said over and over "oh I feel so much better, thank you so much" she explained that she finally understood why it was so important to read the scriptures! I was a tad bit suprised because that hadnt exactly been what we were talking about at the moment but it was a lesson for me that it honestly does not matter what I say. If I have the Spirit; our amies and anyone else we talk to will hear exactly what they need to. It was a huge testimony to me that this work is so much bigger than me! I just show up each day ready and willing to work and the Lord does the all the real work. Just like Bishop Stevens said in General Conference, " the miracle of the Atonement makes up for the imperfections in our performance." Because of His Atonement, my small and imperfect efforts are enough. Soeur Bradley used to always say, " God can draw straight lines with crooked sticks" I may be a crooked stick but with the grace of my Savior; it can be enough.
Another lesson I learned from Patricia was the need to recognize negative and destructive thoughts. She had really been struggling because she was listening to the lies that Satan kept insisting were true. As she shared her worries with us, we explained that any negative thought that comes into our minds is not from God. Our loving Heavenly Father would never want us to beat ourselves up or tell us that we make too many mistakes. She seemed almost shocked to realize that her negative thoughts were from Satan and not God! Sometimes it can be so hard to make that distinction. I was thinking about that all weekend and it's something I have been trying to defeat my entire mission! I found a quote by President George Q Cannon that helped open my eyes. He says, “Whenever darkness fills our minds, we may know that we are not possessed of the Spirit of God. … When we are filled with the Spirit of God we are filled with joy, with peace, and with happiness, no matter what our circumstances may be; for it is a spirit of cheerfulness and of happiness. The Lord has given unto us the gift of the Holy Ghost. It is our privilege to have that Holy Ghost reign within us, so that from morning till night and from night till morning we shall have the joy, the light and the revelation thereof.”
I love the idea of being filled with joy and light from morning till night! That is what Heavenly Father has in store for me if I only recognize my negative thoughts and change them for empowering ones! I think that is one of the greatest barriers to my happiness, is listening to Satan's lies! Brigham Young said, "if a negative thought comes into your mind, tell it to go to Hell because that's exactly where it came from." ha love it! totes def my new way of living.
So a few weeks ago I mentioned some less actives we had seen and how miserable they were. Well this week we went to see Laurence again and she was so much happier! We asked her what had changed and she said after we had left she began to pray daily again! Prayer is so powerful!
On Friday everyone bailed on us again but we decided to go out contacting and on a whim decided to pass by an amie, Staline who we had lost contact with. She was home and we had a killer lesson about faith and repentance. It was so cool and the Spirit was so strong! We are hoping to invite her to baptism this week! There is a reason behind all the frudges for sure! The Lord knows where we are really needed.
Well my time is about up today but please know how much I appreciate your prayers and support! i love you all so much and I pray for you daily!
quote for the week:
"The work of our missionaries is a magnificent expression of God's redeeming love." -Elder Christofferson
avec amour soeur hawkes
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