"If you pile up enough tomorrows, you'll find you've collected a lot of empty yesterdays"

Bonjour à tous!!

This week was so much better than last week. We had so many wonderful miracles and we were able to accomplish so many of our goals!

Monday night we went to Belgium to have FHE with a lovely family in our ward. They have a family friend Alexis living with them and he just got home from his mission a few months ago. We ate snails and Belgian fries and steak and had cake and wine that was de-alcoholized (can you say that in English...?) and Belgian chocolate. After we ate, Alexis and Soeur Walton had a sweet jam session with the piano and violin. It was so cool and such a wonderful evening, it was the perfect way to start off the week!

Tuesday after district meeting we went to a rdv but they fruged. So we decided to hop on the metro and do some contacting until our next rdv. We began talking to a beautiful African from Cameroon, her name is Reine which actually means Queen haha but she was so cool and so interested so we exchanged information and then she said,"well if you have time why don't you just come over right now?" we were like uh yes please! so we hopped on a bus with her to her appartment and all the sudden Anastasia, a member, gets on the bus and she and Reine become best friends!! Soeur Walton and I were freaking out, too perfect. We then taught Reine the retab and set another rdv. We taught her again on Saturday and it was amazing. She is so golden. She has so many questions and tries so hard to understand, we invited her to come to church but she said maybe the next week. But then! she called us Sunday morning and asked if she could come! But then her husband told her no because he is a pastor in his own church. But she told us later she will try to convince him to let her come! haha she is so incredible and I am so grateful Heavenly Father put her into our lives! We are going to teach her about the plan of salvation on Wednesday with Anastasia! I am so excited :)

On Wednesday we had one last rdv with our Australian amie Lucy before she left to go home. We invited the Lille soeurs to come too because they are all good friends and we got ice cream together and sat in a park and taught Lucy about the Savior. She is believing but was never raised going to church or anything. So we had a beautiful powerful lesson and each of us shared our testimonies of Jesus Christ and Lucy just began to cry. She said "I cant explain what I feel but it feels SO good." we explained to her that was the Holy Ghost and that she could continue to feel it as she read the Book of Mormon and prayed and went to church. She promised to look up the church when she gets home and she thanked us for everything. I love that God just places us in each others lives to give us exactly what we need. I love Lucy so much and because of the Gospel she has become so much closer to her Heavenly Father and she is so much happier!

So on Friday we sent out a mass text to our potential amies to see if we could meet with them and a ton of them texted back and we have a billion rdvs set for this week. We are packed every single day and I am so excited! Especially since this week we are receiving a mini missionary! Her name is Sarah and she is from Belgium! I am so excited she gets to be here during such a busy week, I really hope she has a wonderful experience that will make her want to serve a real mission too!

On Sunday the Elders brought us an amie to teach! Her name is Sophia and she is so cool. She showed up after Church and we gave her a tour and she was so excited to learn and know more! it was so fun and it was cool to work with the Elders, bringing everybody to Christ together! 

This coming Saturday, our amie  Oceane will be getting baptized. Her parents told her she couldn't get baptized until she was 18 so she has waited a really long time for this. I am so excited for her to finally make this step and I just pray that everything goes as planned so please keep her in your prayers! merci!

This week I read a talk from President Monson called Finding Joy in the Journey and it was exactly what I needed! He talked about living for today instead of focusing and worrying about tomorrow. As the end of my mission approaches I feel so sad and overwhelmed to think that this wonderful life-changing experience will come to an end! but this talk really helped me focus on whats important and to realize that yes I don't have a lot of time left but I still have plenty of time to do what the Lord needs me to, I just need to cherish everyday and enjoy the small things. Like the other day we ported into a family of gypsies and it was utter chaos inside, so many people everywhere, cockroaches crawling all over the walls, tons of little kids asking us tons of random questions at once and one beautiful girl, her eyes fixed on us hanging on our every word as we share our testimonies of a loving God who gave us His Son, Our Savior Jesus Christ. Its those experiences I will never forget. Porting for hours on the cold dark streets of France, laughing our heads off as we make crepes and listen to music, giving bisous to everyone as we greet them Sunday morning and praying with strangers on the street. I am so grateful for this experience, for everything Heavenly Father has given me. It's coming to a close but I'm going to try my best to make every day count and at the end I will have plenty of beautiful yesterdays rather than empty ones :) 

here's a quote President Monson shared,

“Both abundance and lack [of abundance] exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend … when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that’s present—love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature, and personal pursuits that bring us [happiness]—the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience heaven on earth.”

<sup>I hope and pray this week we can all do our best to live in the moment and cherish the days that we have! Because God sent us here to have joy and we can find that joy in every single day. I love you all and I am so grateful for your love and support!!

avec beaucoup d'amour soeur alicia hawkes</sup>