Deux Missions Françaises : Find them nuggets (Katie-Angers)

Dear family and everyone who I love:

Looking back at this week, I honestly can't believe everything that happened fit into a single week. Life as a missionary extends far beyond normal time dimensions I think. But anyway, it was a good week.

So we had a zone conference this week with interviews with Président Babin and his wife. Can I just say that I LOVE them. I love them. I couldn't have chosen a more inspired couple to replace the Poznanksis. Nobody else would have been able to live up to them. But in this zone conference, our zone leaders gave us a training on how we need to look for the little flecks of happiness in missionary work, and not always for the giant nuggets.

PAUSE. Now go and watch this mormon message: https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2011-09-016-flecks-of-gold?lang=eng

And I really loved the training because it's so true. Often as missionaries, we're looking around for those people to come up to us and say, "Hey, I'm ready to be baptized. Baptize me." It just doesn't happen quite as often as we'd hope, unfortunately. But sometimes in our minds a miracle doesn't count as a miracle unless it's a nugget. So it was a great reminder to look for the little miracles too, because it's the gathering of the tiny flecks of gold that really make us rich. After this training, Soeur Wynn and I were all excited to go out and find those little flecks of gold...funny enough, it didn't happen like that. Instead, we just got a whole bunch of giant nuggets fall into our laps. Okay, we did work for them, but still! It was incredible. Let me tell you about a few of them:

Simone. She is amazing. She doesn't quite yet have a baptismal date, but she is réflechir-ing currently. The thing that gets to me is that because she has a slight mental disability, she literally sees the gospel as a child sees it. She LOVES it. We had a cinema night this week where we put The Testaments on the projector in the chapel and invited everyone to come and watch, and then afterwards we all ate brownies together (secretly my favorite part). We had two amis come, so I took care of Simone while Soeur Wynn watched over our other ami. I literally had one of the most spiritual experiences on my mission in this moment. After the movie had finished, I looked over at Simone, and she turned to me with tears streaming down her face and said, "Soeur, what is this feeling? It's running all through my body from my head to my toes. It feels like...like it's healing me or something."

My heart melted, and the spirit that was touching her touched me in one of the strongest ways I've ever felt. So then I asked her what she thought about the movie. She said she liked it. :) Another nugget is our other ami that came to the cinema night. Her name is Claire. She is from Madagascar. She has a 13 year old son and a 4 year old daughter, and she is recently separated. And she is so prepared for the gospel. She loved the movie almost as much as Simone did, and she is a WONDER to teach! Our first lesson together was one of the sweetest, most spiritual lessons I've ever taught. She is in need of the gospel, and she is already finding that it really does heal. The only thing is that she works the Sundays that they call her in, so pray that she won't get called in (if she gets called in she has to go).

One last little giant nugget that just happened last night. We found another family. And this family just happens to be friends with a family in our ward who is passing through a very difficult time right now. We set up a soirée familiale with them and this member family. It's incredible how much the hand of God is in this situation. It's almost unreal. They are actually Evangelist, but they are incredibly close to this member family. It's cool because they actually already knew a lot about our church because of the mom who had shared with them her beliefs. Member missionaries are the best missionaries. :)

I love you all so much! I do know that those golden nuggets exist, but I also know that being able to find joy in whatever it is you're finding is something that will carry you through life. The joy is in the big things, but it is also in the little things. It's just everywhere when you have the gospel.

Love,

Soeur Pettingill