What a marvelous week! We had lots of wonderful adventures and can i just say that Soeur Walton is the BEST last companion. I adore her so much. We have SO much fun together all the time! Yesterday we made crepes and then built a fort and talked about life and it was great. I love her so much, we just have so much fun together all the time! and we get a lot of work done too! 

This week we began teaching an adorable Chinese girl named Vivian, she is so humble and so adorable. i just love her! I cant wait to continue teaching her, she has so many questions and she is so sincere in trying to find out more about God's love for her, Heavenly Father truly prepares people for us! 

We also began teaching a woman from Ukraine. We gave her a book of Mormon in Russian and she went on for at least 10 minutes about how it was the most beautiful gift and how she couldn't wait to read it! she's so cute. She has had a really hard life and has never really believed that God loved her until we showed up! And we testified so much, so strongly that Heavenly Father loves her so much that He sent His only Son to atone for her personally. She was totally awed that God would love her that much. i cant wait to teach her more! 

So I read a great talk this morning by President Eyring called Waiting Upon the Lord. He told a story of his Dad who when he was eighty years old with cancer weeded the onion patch at the welfare farm that belonged to his stake. At the end of a long painful day of pulling out weeds, his Dad discovered he had pulled out all the weeds that had already been sprayed and were going to die anyway. President Eyring said his Dad laughed about it anyway despite the painstaking labor he had given for nothing. He asked him, how can you laugh about that? and his Dad said, 'I wasn't there for the weeds.'

"Now, you’ll be in an onion patch much of your life. So will I. It will be hard to see the powers of heaven magnifying us or our efforts. It may even be hard to see our work being of any value at all. And sometimes our work won’t go well. But you didn't come for the weeds. You came for the Savior. And if you pray, and if you choose to be clean, and if you choose to follow God’s servants, you will be able to work and wait long enough to bring down the powers of heaven."

I love that. I didn't come on a mission for the "weeds"; I didn't come out here to have the highest statistics or the most amies at church or the most fhes with the members. I didn't come out here to beat myself up for every time I couldn't reach my goals or when someone doesn't accept this message. 

I came out here because I love God and my Savior, Jesus Christ. And because He has shared His love with me and I want to share that with as many of His children as I possibly can! I came out here to be happy and share joy and see miracles and bring His children back to Him. I didn't come for the "weeds" I came for my Savior. 

And its thanks to all of you that i am out here! I cant thank you enough for your support, love and prayers. I love each of you so much! thanks for being a part of my life :) 

I love being a missionary! it is so wonderful to bear my testimony all day every day of God's love and to be an instrument in His hands. I am so grateful to be here way up in the North of France with my darling Soeur Walton and all the wonderful members! I am seriously so blessed. I can hardly handle it! I am so grateful to be a missionary and I am so grateful to have a few more precious weeks to do the Lord's work! 

avec beaucoup d'amour soeur alicia hawkes