Monday, February 4, 2013

This is our "View" table. We feel like we're on a talk show every time we eat dinner. These are the wine glasses we got from an investigator who forgot we don't drink wine. Word of Wisdom lesson coming right up! So we're drinking grape juice and this particular evening Sister May taught me that in England they say "Cheers big ears!" before they cling their glasses together. 

So this week was: tiring, amazing, funny, WINDY, cold, silly, short, and a miracle. 

Let's start with windy. So on Tuesday we were driving to visit an investigator and we had ridiculous 100kph winds and the night before we had something called freezing rain. Which is basically when the sidewalks get covered in thick sheets of ice. It's pretty epic. So, we are driving (on cleared roads) to visit this investigator and we're parking at the same time this guy is walking out into his driveway. Well this huge gust of wind starts pushing him towards us and he's on a thick sheet of ice so he can't stop himself. Everyone was screaming and then all at once the wind stopped so he stopped. It was like a movie. I couldn't stop laughing until it almost happened to me like two minutes later. 

Miracles: Wow. We had two really amazing miracles this week. The first one took place on Saturday. About a week ago we went knocking in this area called Wendake. It's an Indian Reservation. (family, you take the girl off the indian reservation but you can't take the indian reservation out of the girl.) So, we're knocking and this lady opens her door and says "I'm really sick today, so please come back another day." People says this all of the time but rarely mean it. Later we met another man who told us we could come back. So this last Saturday we went back to meet him. He ended up not being super duper interested, we decided to pay the woman who told us to come back a little visit. She opened the door and as soon as she saw us she opened the door and said, "Come in!" So with big eyes and our mouths hanging open we went in. This poor woman was indeed having a very hard day. So we talked to her for a while about her life and found out that that very day was the same day her mother had passed away. We shared a little bit of the Plan of Salvation and she was so touched she asked us to "please come back!". Well, you don't have to ask us twice or even three times:) It was a really tender experiences and manifested to me that God is indeed in the very details of our lives. We just have to be where He can find us. 

If that beautiful miracle wasn't enough, yesterday we were having our after church correlation with our WML and someone knocks on the door to tell us there is an investigator waiting to talk to someone. We invited her in and find out her name is Sofie and she just decided to finally come and check out what Mormons believe. Once again my mouth was opened and my eyes were huge. This beautiful 18 year old girl talked to us a little more about her life and why she wants to have this church in her life. She said, "I realized that I want to be a better person and you have a community of beautiful people." She asked us about a million questions and then left happily with her own Book of Mormon and an appointment to see us again next Sunday. 

What this experience taught me is that miracles are still happening today. Everyday. They happen on ordinary Saturdays, ordinary Sundays during ordinary correlation meetings, they happen on the sidewalk, in living rooms, in grocery stores. I'm reading (during my "free time" I finish eating early enough to read) this amazing book I found in my apartment called "A Return to Virtue" by sister Elaine S. Dalton of the General Young Women's Presidency. In one of the chapters she talks about the "little lad" who gave up his five fishes and two loaves. And how this was probably just an ordinary day for him. He was probably coming home from doing the family shopping or out selling bread and fish and decided what he would get in return for giving up this bread would be worth more than what he could earn selling it. Whatever the case this was an ordinary day. But what happened that day was a miracle. His small contribution fed over five thousand people. There is a quote from Sister Dalton's book from Elder James E. Faust "It has been said that the church doesn't necessarily attract great people.but more often makes ordinary people great. Many nameless people with gifts equal only to five loaves and two small fishes magnify their callings and serve without attention or recognition. feeding literally thousands."  I have a testimony that whatever we give to the Lord whether it be 5 loaves of bread and two fishes, or 18 months of time, hours working on a relief society lesson, hours in prayer for a wayward family member. Whatever we give him the Lord will take our efforts, multiply them and give us a miracle. Look for miracles, because they happen when you least expect it.

I hope you have a lovely week! I love you ever so dearly!

Bisous Bisous!

Soeur Perkins

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