Wisdom in me (Katie-Angers)

Hello friends!

I have been incredibly blessed on my mission to have been surrounded by wise, wise people. And this transfer is no exception.

In a lot of ways this week was very hard. I mean, it was SO hot for 3 days in a row, and one of those days we spent porting...and porting...and porting...and no success. Can we say sunburn? Can we say discouraging? Yes, we can say those things. And both me and my companion had a hard time understanding why, after prayers and promises and efforts, Heavenly Father would just drop us like an egg. It seemed...hard to understand. And to top it all off, we had a man tell us the meanest thing anybody has ever said to me before, something that broke my heart at the hardness of his. That was a rough moment for both of us.

And then, do you know what Heavenly Father decided to teach us? "It is wisdom in Me, ok?" He taught us how to rely on Him, and really plead with all of our hearts for understanding and for help. And then He gave us miracles and tender mercies and then some more miracles and then some more tender mercies. This last week has been one of the most spiritually enlightening weeks of my entire mission. Let me tell you about Simone, the one that sticks out the most in my mind.

SHE called US. She had some really hard things happen to her as child, and as a result, she carries a lot of burdens. And she wants out. She has a friend who tells her all of the time, go and find the missionaries! She probably repeated the full name of the church to us 30 times in one phone call. And she is so ready to receive the gospel. She has told us several times that she has a mental handicap that restricts her ability to remember, unless it has anything to do with reading the scriptures. The first time we gave her a LdM, we asked her to read the intro. She read the intro, the testimonies, and the first 4 chapters. She noticed the footnotes and USED them, and she noticed and used the index in the back. Then she proceeded to describe the details of the story, then ask a question, then answer that question with something else she remembers from the chapter. Um hello, someone wants to know this book. What a beautiful experience.

To add to the "I'm surrounded by wise people" thing, Soeur Wynn is one of the wisest people I know. The things she says...touch my heart every time. I love her. We have miracles because of her faith...although I'm trying my best to contribute a little too. She just manages to be so incredibly sincere in all that she does. It amazes me. And all of her experiences, all of the wisdom that she has accumulated in these past 17 months, she shares with me. And I learn. A lot. It's a wonderful trade ;)

We also got to see so many beautiful things, and I'm talking like literally, BEAUTIFUL things. Referring to the pictures below, we accomplished one of soeur Wynn's (literal) dreams. We ate vanilla ice cream topped with hot kettle corn. it was delicious. We also randomly stumbled upon le Château à motte, one of the oldest castles in the history of Europe. It kind of looks like the indians built it, honestly. But still cool :) Remember in the princess movies the frogs sit on lily pads? Like literally, they do. I just about died when I saw this. We also passed by one of the most beautiful cathedrales I've ever been in. Incredible. And then finally, walking home one day, we decided to walk along the lake. You can see Château d'Angers in the picture, with the lake below and SWANS sitting on the lake! Magical Swan Lake. At a castle. No joke.

Basically I have never had such a strong testimony that God lives. I know that He gives us hard things to make us strong because we need to be strong if we are going to be like Him one day. But then He also gives us beautiful things, to remind us that He LOVES us. And He does. He is so wise.

Have a great week :)

Soeur Katie Pettingill

Family home evening with the Bishop and family