Week 15...Miracles come after faith

Gabi sounded 150% better this week. We have all been praying for a miracle for Gabi to pull through this and be able to stick to it. Of course it will still be a hard road ahead of her every day but I do feel like she turned a corner and is finding joy in the work and in life in general. I saw a real Gabi smile this week and it made my heart turn to mush. First, because I want her to be happy and thrive but second because I know that Heavenly Father is aware of us and what we are going through. I know He will strengthen us and when needed, humble us. This has been a very humbling time for me as I have pleaded on my knees with my Heavenly Father for His help. I have seen His hand in all this and watched an amazing transformation in myself, Gabi and many others who are pleading on Gabi's behalf. What a blessing this mission is already turning out to be for all of us. And yes, the hard is a blessing. It takes us to our knees and forces us to lean on our Heavenly Father when we realize we are nothing without Him. So as hard as it has been I wouldn't change anything. My heart has been filled to the brim with the overwhelming love I have felt from family and friends during this difficult challenge. It has made me more grateful for everyone around me and has increased my faith of the power of combined faith and prayers. Thank you everyone who has prayed, emailed, consoled both Gabi and I, and lifted us up when we were so down. I love you all a thousand times more than I did before. :)

Here is Gabi's email to family and friends...

Bonjour tout le monde !

I haven't written an email in a while! But it's been crazy so I'll just tell you about this week! We were in Paris 3 times this week! For interviews and different conferences so we were on trains for basically our whole week! And because we were so busy all week we had to stack lessons on Saturday. And normally when we have this many lessons someone doesn't show up or people cancel. We get canceled on a lot! But, nobody canceled and we had 4 awesome rendez-vous! 

One was with Marie and we had a great lesson with her, she has a really hard time remembering things because she was in an accident. She has a lot of hard things in her life so we thought we'd have a member give her a blessing during our lesson. This member listened to everything going on in her life and he was awesome! He told her he'd visit her often and basically just gave her a friend in the church which was so awesome! 

Then we had 2 more rendez-vous with Alodie and one with a girl named sarah! They were both great, sadly sarah isn't too interested in the church but she asked us if we could help teach her English so now we have an English class set up each week! We talked to Alodie about prophets and she agreed to come to general conference! So pray for her to have the strength and the faith to come! 

Then we had a rendez-vous with a man named George. We had never met George before but we found his contact on our phone and messaged him and he said he wanted to meet with us! He'd never actually met with the missionaries before so we were excited. We went into the lesson planning on teaching him about the restoration but then we listened to him and he told us he'd had a lot of struggles. He had just received his citizenship a couple years before and he'd been a refugee before that. He'd been trying to get papers so that he could bring his family here. His whole family is back in Africa and he hasn't seen them in years. He told us how hard it's been for him and my companion told him she knew God had a plan for him and that he was going to be ok and that he'd see he family again. I felt so much love for this man and all I wanted to do was share the happiness of the gospel and be able to communicate with him but i knew I didn't have the ability to say everything wanted. So I prayed while my companion spoke and when she finished I opened my mouth and I honestly couldn't tell you everything I said because it wasn't me. I'd never spoken French like that before. I know it was the spirit working with me. I knew I didn't have the ability to speak but I knew that God did. During our lesson George began to cry and he told us that he was so grateful he'd met us and that he could feel our love and empathy for him! He told us he wanted to read the book of mormon and come to church! The next day at church we had 3 amis come! That hasn't happened my whole time here! We'd been lucky if one came but this was just a miracle! They all met people and put ward and wanted to meet with us again! 

I know the lord puts people in our paths! I know he loves us and that he sees us! I really needed to change my perspective this week and at the beginning of the week I decided to have faith and go out and be happy about everything. In ether 12:18 it says and neither at any time hath any wrought miracles until they first believe in the son of God (I did that from memory so it might be a little off) and I believe that's true! I've seen God work with me and my companion and as we've had faith and believed kn miracles and worked for them! I'm so grateful for this gospel and the happiness and joy it brings into our lives! I'm so grateful I get to share that with others! I love you all and hope you have an amazing week!

Love, Sœur Uboldi 

Pictures 

1: passing out invitations to church

2: my district at zone conference 

3: I went to the Louvre (the outside)

4: us waiting in the rain for an ami who never came but that's ok!!!! We still smiled!

5: making 5,000 cookies for our ward!!!

Week 13...Rough Week

Gabi didn't send out a letter this week to the group. She is really struggling with a lot of things and is to the point where she thinks she wants to come home rather than stick it out. Our hearts are aching and prayers are focused. Praying for a miracle to bless our sweet girl.

Week 12...The Lord is right beside us

As always it was so great to hear from Gabi this week. Her companion, Soeur Fears, is heading home on Wednesday. She has loved Soeur Fears so I know it is going to be a hard week. Gabi doesn't love change either so we are praying for as smooth of a transition as possible. One thing we do know is that she will be staying in Orlean which is helpful. Here is her letter for the week. 

Bonjour tout le monde!!!

So this has been a full week!! This weeks we were constantly running around trying to make appointments and we were so busy!! But it was a hard week as missionaries, most of the people we went to visit canceled after we had already come to their home to teach them or they didn't show up. We were a bit discouraged but we had faith. Finally on Saturday after much prayer we had the miracle we needed!! We were able to bring one of our amis to church for stake conference! It was his very first meeting with us and during the conference he wrote down things he didn't know and after he told us he wanted to learn more! He was so eager to learn and it was amazing! We were so grateful for him!! The Lord really does put people in our path! 

We were also able to teach some of our recent converts about the priesthood and this week one of them received the priesthood! It was so cool to see how excited he was. He wanted to learn so much and he asked so many questions! 

This email isn't going to he super long because I don't have much time but I wanted to end by talking about faith. Missionary work isn't always easy. In fact, I really don't think theres been a day when it's been easy for me but I can look back on each day and see how I've been blessed and how I've been changed by the Lord. I can feel him in my life and when I'm discouraged I can look back and see how he's picked me up before and know that he will pick me up again. The lord has carried me through my mission. He's helped me to be strong. And I know that He's doing that for each of us everyday. I know the Lord is sees you and even more than that He's walking right beside you. I promise each of you that if you will strive to do your best and come unto christ, he will carry you during your hardest times! He loves you and he knows you by name.

I love you all so much and I hope you have an amazing week!

Love, Sœur Uboldi 

Pictures

1: me and my awesome district at Parc Floral

2: me and my companion waiting for a bus

3: La famille de Neveu who fed us a great dinner

4: baguettes for dinner again!

5: our recent converts at our lesson about the priesthood 

Week 11...Fire fighters, cold showers and spiritual experiences.

What a week Gabi had! She sounded great when we talked to her. Because it's Labor Day we were all able to be here when she called and were each able to speak with her. She is still struggling with the language and I am sure that will be the case for several more months. But she sounds happy and that is the best to hear! Here is her letter and pictures for the week...

Bonjour mes amis!!!

So this week was pretty crazy! So I'm going to start off with my crazy stories and then finish with a really cool experience I was able to have this week.

So my story begins on Tuesday! During the day me and my companion were doing our studying and she had been having a huge headache and it had been really hard for us to focus on our studies and around 5:00 we hear a beep. We were super confused but our alarm continued to beep and it took us a few minutes to figure out it was our carbon monoxide detector! So once we figured that out we left super quick. We tried to figure out what the alarm meant but the instructions were in German! So me and my companion called the mission office and went the church to teach our lesson and wait on further instructions for what to do. Sadly no body showed up at our lesson, but we had no where else to go because our apartment potentially wasn't safe! Finally the mission office called and said we needed to find a ward members house to sleep at because he didn't know if was safe. So after calling a few people in the ward and having no luck we called the bishop and he said we could stay there but they wouldn't be home until late. So me and Sœur Fears had a sleepover at the bishop house... ya it was kinda weird but they had a room filled with beds for their grandkids so at least we both had a bed. 

So the next day after leaving the bishops and doing some service we went back to our apartment and we called the fire apartment and they came so fast with their siren ON and in full gear!!!! So they zoomed up to our apartment did a whole bunch of checks and told us we were good but that gas people needed to come. So they came and checked and said we were probably good but we needed different gas people to come. Were weren't able to call the other gas people for 2 days because we had exchanges in another city (I will get to this later in my letter, if you're still reading thank you haha I know this is longish) so we get home from exchanges and realize our gas is off. Which means we can't cook and we don't have hot water. So we called the mission office and he said he had people come turn it off Tuesday night, which was the day before the firefighters came. And to get the gas back on the firefighters and the gas people needed to come together! So they came turned on the gas and all the firefighters alarms went off and so that's how we realized there really was a whole bunch of carbon monoxide in our apartment! But the first firefighters couldn't tell because the gas was shut off when they checked! Anyways we still don't have hot water or a stove which rocks but hopefully it will get repaired soon!! But for now cold showers and random food is better than having carbon monoxide in our apartment and dying! 

So that's really taken over my week but I still had an amazing experience I wanted to share with all of you! While we were on exchanges (which is when me an my companion go to another city and we switch companions for 24 hours) I was with Sœur Stucki and we had the chance to teach this woman named Katela. Her story was the saddest I've ever heard and I may have shed a tear or two as she talked to us. We had taken her to the church for a lesson which is when she told us she used to live in Africa and when she lived there she was very well off, she had a cook and a driver and she had her family with her. But because of some political outrage her husband and 2 of her children were killed along with most of her friends. She would have also died if she hadn't have run away and made it to France where she found refuge. But on of her children is still stuck in Africa with her granddaughters. And here in France she doesn't have much, she's so so poor. She told us this in tears and said she felt all alone and she felt God had left her. We were able to tell her she had a family in the church and we taught her about how God is our Heavenly Father and he loves us. She told us she needed to know if it was true, she needed truth and she needed God to take her hand. So after teaching her about the book of mormon and about what we believe she look at Sœur Stucki and asked her if she was sure it was true and then she looked at me and said "are you sure?" This was a really amazing moment for me. I was able to say without question yes I'm sure. I felt like that that was one of the strongest testimonys I'd ever born. I know this is true and I am sure. And after we said this to her she said "ok then I'll look for myself." At the end of the lesson she told us she didn't feel alone anymore and she had felt God take her hand. It was amazing to see the strength and faith of this woman. It was a huge testimony building moment for me and I'm sure it was for her as well. I know God placed this woman in our path so that we could help her and show her the way to happiness. I know that the gospel is the only way to true happiness and I am so grateful I have the opportunity to teach other how to find. And I just wanted to end with a quote "We all search for happiness, and we all try to find our own “happily ever after.” The truth is, God knows how to get there! And He has created a map for you; He knows the way. He is your beloved Heavenly Father, who seeks your good, your happiness. He desires with all the love of a perfect and pure Father that you reach your supernal destination. The map is available to all. It gives explicit directions of what to do and where to go to everyone who is striving to come unto Christ and “stand as [a witness] of God at all times and in all things, and in all places.” All you have to do is trust your Heavenly Father. Trust Him enough to follow His plan." -Elder Uchtdorf.

I love you all and hope you have an amazing week!! Thank you for all your love and support!

Love, Sœur Uboldi 

Pictures 

1: dinner with the cutest sister missionaries on exchanges 

2: us and our sister training leaders

3: me and Sœur Fears waiting for an ami who sadly didn't come

4: fire fighters!!!

5: me and Sœur Fears sitting in the church trying to find a place to sleep!