Well, they say that many blessings come when you have a missionary out. Today was one of those big ones. We all look forward to Fridays around here because we get to talk to Gabi. Gabi spoke a little French and sounded amazing. At one point she asked to just talk to me. She said that a devotional this week and the MTC President's Son in Law was the speaker. He gave an amazing talk and then said that someone in that group has a dad who is struggling with the church and his spirituality. He said he needed that person to know that Heavenly Father is listening to their prayers for a miracle. I could not hold back my tears. I immediately felt like it was a "divine signature" that He never leaves us alone in our trials. I thought about the immediate goodness of God. Sometimes we are allowed to continue for a long time in our trials but He will bare us up and give us the strength to get through them.
Gabi had a few more individual conversations and then she pulled us all together as a family and gave us a little chastising about how we were not reading the Book of Mormon as we should be. She talked about the blessings that come from reading and told the kids that they need to study it better so they will be prepared to teach others on their missions. Then she asked each of us individually to commit to reading at least a chapter ever day. This girl is already doing good and changing lives.
Here is Gabi's weekly email...
Bonjour mes amis!!!!!!
Alright this week has been awesome and it has flown by! I can't even believe its P day again! I feel like I've been here for 10 seconds! But i leave in less than two weeks ahhhh!! I am beyond excited but also so nervous!! It's going to be an amazing experience!
So I'm gonna start off with some funny things that happened this week! So yesterday I got a package from my amazing mama and she sent me cupcakes! sadly when I opened them they were all smashed into a corner but it still tasted good so thats ok!! and as I opened this cupcake box a bee flew right at me and got caught on my shirt! And for those of you who don't know I am a wimp and also allergic to bees! So at this moment I was sure that i was going to die, and I jumped up sooo fast! but this bee was somehow stuck on my shirt and so I started jumping around and hitting my shirt and I'm not being quiet about it either. And I finally get it off and I look around and basically half the MTC was standing there watching me! (it was probably at most 20 people but i exaggerate) haha! Anyways it was funny and everyone got a good laugh out of that!
Also during our exercise time we had a super fun kickball game! I loved it! We aren't supposed to keep score in our games in the MTC but my team won, just saying! My competitive spirit might have come out just a little bit, but we can blame that on the fact that I have competitive parents and its genetic! Elder Cooley (a friend from high school) played with us too and he might be just as competitive so that was fun to play with him! He leaves the same day I do to Tahiti except he'll have been here for 9 weeks! so thats kinda fun!
Ok now we can focus on the important stuff for the week! Oh man, I have learned so much this week and my love for the Book of Mormon has basically tripled just in the last week and its amazing! I have been reading in the book of mormon in french and english and I've been actually studying them and its amazing! i love it so much! So I encourage all of you to find a love for the scriptures because once you do your life will be so much happier and you will learn so much more!!
So this weeks devotional we had a speaker come and he talked about 10 points that could make us a happy and successful missionary. I'm just going to name a few! One of them was to forget yourself. He brought of the story of president Hinkley on his mission. President Hinckley was having a hard time and he sent a letter to his father basically saying he didn't know why he was there and he was just having a hard time and his father sent a letter back and said he had one suggestion "to forget yourself and go to work" I love that so much. There have been times when I didn't know if I could keep going but this work isn't about me, its about the people in France and its about Gods children. I know that alone i could not do this work but i am not alone and with Christ I will do this work happily because he has brought so much joy into my life and I know that its my job to do everything I can to bring it into other peoples lives. and that brings me to another point: work hard. The speaker told how when his son came home he told him that he was proud of him and his son said "dad I want you to know I did my best" and thats exactly what us missionaries want to be able to say. i want to work hard and do my best. I don't want to wonder if I could've done more! this work requires all our heart, might, mind and strength and I want to give that! so I've talked a lot so I'm just going to leave you with those two points! but I want you to know that these don't only apply to missionary work. In our lives we always have the choice to forget oursleves and turn outward. This means instead of thinking of ourselves we turn to the Lord and his children and we serve first and we love others first. If we can forget oursleves and love others I know we will be so much happier! I know that if we work hard here on this earth then when we see our heavenly father again we will be able to say "Father i want you to know I did my best" I encourage you to do your best, to love one another, and to serve! service is an important part of happiness! I have seen that here! I love this work so much and I love this gospel! I cannot wait to get to France and start sharing this happiness with everyone else!! i hope you all have an amazing week filled with happiness AND service;)
Love, Soeur Uboldi
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