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!!!