您好 (Nín hǎo)

So the subject of this email is hello in Chinese, because our adorable Chinese amie, Vivian is teaching us Chinese! i can now introduce myself and say I love you! Haha! It's so great. I love how our amies truly become such good friends to us, I am going to miss them all so much!

So this week was marvelous! 

Monday night we went with Oceane to a cute young family's house for FHE and talked about fortifying families and we had a yummy dinner, it was so much fun. i am so grateful for the members and their kindness to us, and Oceane is just the star of the ward, everyone is so supportive and loving, which she really really appreciates. 

Tuesday after District meeting we went to Belgium to be with the Family Fraikin, I absolutely ADORE them. They are such good people and they take such good care of the missionaries, and they always feed us the best Belgian foods, its to die for. 

Wednesday was really dramatic and sad because our amie, Reine got kicked out by her boyfriend because she came to our Church, so we running around and calling tons of people trying to find a solution for her and help her out, for the moment she is back with her boyfriend and they have discussed things but it is still a very delicate situation. the thing is she still wants to keep learning with us and coming to Church despite the consequences. She is so wonderful and wants so badly to do what's right and I really pray that things will get better for her. 

Thursday we visited a less active woman and her cute kids. She was baptized almost ten years ago, then moved and lost contact with the church, she ran into the Elders and asked for our number! She is so great and I cant wait for her to come back to church! we're going to start teaching her children the lessons so they can get baptized this year! 

On Friday we had a ward activity where everyone brought a dish from their home country, the Elders brought pancakes and we brought Peanut Butter cookies, because NO ONE eats peanut butter, i have no idea why. And our amie Asia who is Algerian came and brought a delicious dish that i do not know the name for at all ha but one of the members came up to her and asked for the recipe and then bam! best friends. the member, Sr Degrave invited Asia over for dinner and we've got an FHE set up with them now and I was just beaming! I love when the members make our amies feel right at home, and Asia and her daughter just had the best time and cant wait to come to church! 

I was chatting with Asia afterwards and mentioned that I would be going home next month and she was like wait what?! she said i am so disappointed! but you must be excited? i said yeah i'm excited to see my family again but i love my mission and sharing the Gospel with everyone and she said, "yeah, i can feel how much you love it. I can feel how much all of you, the missionaries, the members you love this gospel and you love God, its incredible." it was so cool! it just gave me so much happiness to know that she can feel how much this means to me and feel that from each of the members as well. 

On Saturday we finally saw our less active Martine, for about a month she stopped answering phone calls and her door, we finally started taping pictures of the temple  on her door each time we passed by in an effort to get through to her! but she answered the Saturday and i almost died i was so excited! she has been really sick apparently but will start coming back to Church soon, it was such a tender mercy that we were able to see her again. I adore her. 

Later that night we had our Valentine's Dinner together, it was so fun! We had Raclette and mug cakes with ice cream and Sr Walton made white chocolate popcorn. Soo good. I love serving with these Soeurs, they are so wonderful and I am so grateful they are in my life right now! 

On Sunday we went with our amie Anais and made crepes with our Tahitian members, Vainui and Hinerava, it was so fun, i love them all so much! Afterwards we went porting and met some wonderful people! One man said he had a hard time believing in God because of all the misery in the world and Soeur Walton just testified so strongly of a loving Father in Heaven and of hope and love and it was incredible! He gave us his name and number and we'll be seeing him later in this week! It was really cool to see that Heavenly Father truly gives us exactly what we need to say to touch the hearts of His children, i love that. 

So this week I was reading in Alma in the war chapters about the army of Helaman and when they weren't receiving any help at all and they were all alone and very scared. i loved the story because it showed how much faith they had and how willing Heavenly Father is to help us. Alma 58:9-12 it says, 

And now  the cause why they did not send more strength unto us, we knew not; therefore we were grieved and also filled with fear. Therefore we did pour out our souls in prayer to God, that he would strengthen us and deliver us out of the hands of our enemies, yea, and also give us strength. Yea, and it came to pass that the Lord our God did visit us with assurances that he would deliver us; yea, insomuch that he did speak peace to our souls, and did grant unto us great faith, and did cause us that we should hope for our deliverance in him. And we did take courage with our small force which we had received, and were fixed with a determination to conquer our enemies, and to maintain our lands, and our possessions, and our wives, and our children, and the cause of our liberty.

Sometimes I am filled with fear, especially when the future is unknown or I'm not sure how something will turn out but every time that I turn to Heavenly Father in prayer, He always "visits me with assurances" and I know that everything will be okay. I have definitely seen that when i place my trust in the Lord, somehow all things end up really well. I know that He is there and that He loves each of us and I am so grateful for the opportunity to be one of His missionaries here in France to share His love with all of His children here in France. The work isnt always easy, but it is absolutely worth it. I am so grateful for each of you, for your love and support and prayers! thank you!! i love you all so much!

avec beaucoup d'amour soeur alicia hawkes