January 18th 2011

BONJOUR!!!!
I'm very happy, and in high spirits mother ;) Yes we had Zone Conference yesterday, you are good!!!  I'm sorry it is foggy and cold, but if it makes you feel better, there is a lot of fog here too!!!!!! The sun makes his way through the clouds some days, I hope he does today. Sunday morning was great, we live in sort of a valley, so when the sun comes up, it shines on the hills on the other side and moves towards us! It is a sight!


That is sad to hear about that missionary, and I will be careful. We don't have a car so you won't have to worry about that. The Lord has promised to bless his missionaries and protect them in all situations, and when these kind of things happen, it could provoke the thoughts, Why? We don't know why, but we do know that Heavenly Father loves his missionaries. We know he is omnipotent and all-knowing, and his plans and purposes reach far beyond our bounds of understanding. But we can understand one thing. His love. When we understand his love and have faith in his power, that is when the windows of Heaven open and we receive more understanding. Line upon line, precept upon precept. I'm sure that the Lord had a greater work for him to do!


This last week came and gone before I could even blink! We had a District meeting Tuesday, and then an exchange into Wednesday. I have got to go on 3 or more exchanges with Elder Hewyood now, and I love it! I don't know if I told you, but Elder Brough from the MTC is in my District too!! It is sweet! We found two new Investigators this week, and are going to have our second rendez-vous tonight. They are very believing and pray that we can help them come unto Christ! We were raté (no-show) by our Amis Maurice, but we think he just forgot! We also got back in contact with the Familly Soltani.  Xerxes is having more frequent epileptic seizures. The mother went up to Paris this last week to visit her other son is is studying up there. So you can see this is an unstable family, and it will be sometime before they are ready to be baptized. Iraj and Xerxes came to Sacrament meeting Sunday, and loved it. We even had the chance to celebrate Xerxes's birthday with him that afternoon! He turned 19. 


Famille Créquit is doing well, and continuing to come to church. Nicholas hasn't come the last two weeks however, and still has some 'thinking' to do. We really want to help him, but don't know what is on his mind! That gift of discernment would be really good about know ha ha! We found out yesterday that we can baptize Maryline (the mother), However, she would still  need legal guardienship of Marie-Ocean before she could be baptized. So we are going to present that to her. We feel it would be better to baptize the family together because of the situation, but we cannot make that decision for her. 


I have some sweet news about one of our Less-Actives too! Do you remember Olivier, the young man Elder Boehme and I met when were in Tulle in November? Well ever since then he has come to church in Brive, been listed as a member here, and received a calling as a Primary Instructer this last Sunday!!!! He is ACTIVE now!!!!! What a blessing!!!! I still stand in aww how we found him. We had worked the entire day in Tulle, and found no one. We were running here and there, and contacting like crazy, but no one would accept us. Then on our way back to the Train, we met him. Shook his hand, and he told us that he was a member living as a student in Tulle! He didn't know if there was a church near, but never made the effort to find it. I'll never forget when he bore his testimony and testified that the Lord sent us to find him. And then seeing him stand in sacrament meeting to accept his call.... that was amazing. I was filled with joy, brim full and more!  


I know that the Lord works according to our Faith, and our Faith is made manifest by our works. Faith without works is dead, so let us serve the Lord with all our might, and make manifest our Faith in Him and our love for him by our works. We are here on earth to prove to our Heavenly Father we exercise faith and live according to his commandments. That by doing so we can inherit Eternal Life and Exaltation, becoming perfect even as He is. IN NO WAY can we do that, if we do not make our faith manifest by our works. He has commanded us all to serve him with everything we have, until the very end. I am beginning to see why this is important. It isn't just so we can earn our own salvation, but we can bring the fruit of Eternal Life unto all of God's Children. How many of his children wonder aimlessly each day without purpose? How many are unhappy and want to be? And the last question I can only ask is, What can we do about that?    


I'm not perfect, I make mistakes everyday. I am beginning so see how short my time is to serve the Lord as a missionary. I am far from being as Ammon, or Alma and Almulek; but I want to be. We learned yesterday we can only become what we want to be, if we are becoming what want to be each day. You may remember that from Elder Scott's address in General Conference. That is a wonderful talk, I challenge you to Study it. I can promise it will help you understand what you need to do to become what you want to become. As a disciple of Jesus Christ, I testify that He lives. He loves each and every one of us. If you keep every one of his commandments, and are exactly obedient, you will see blessings you have never even imagined. It is a matter of Character, and integrity. We don't grow in the moment when our integrity is challenged, It will only shatter. We grow by consistently making righteous decisions after the next. 


I love you all, and prayer for you always!!! I hope you have a great birthday DAD!!! I'm thinking of you!! Until the next time!!!!