Deux Missions Françaises : #prayerworks (Katie-Belgium)

What a beautiful week.

And you know what one of the most beautiful parts was? Realizing how successful we were even though by Sunday night, we were feeling pretty unsuccessful. It just took a few cantiques (hymns), a prayer, and some reading in PMG (see pages 10-11) to lift our spirits. We did lots of good. And one testimony that was strengthened A LOT this week was that prayer works. Also, Heavenly Father loves each of us, and He cares about even the silliest of worries. Let me tell you a story.

Sooo...if any of you know me, you'll know that I rather enjoy celebrating holidays. On December 1st, we walked into our apartment and my heart sank. Turning to my dear companion, I said, "Why do we have NOTHING Christmas-y in our house? Lame." And as I turned in a circle looking at our apartment, thinking of ways I could make our house more Christmas-y, the thought suddenly came into my head...I want a Christmas tree. I again turned to my comp and repeated that thought, "Hey, Soeur Mangum. I want a Christmas tree. Like, really really really bad." She kind of laughed and then turned and then said, "Yeah...me too." That night during my nightly prayer, I kind of mentioned it to Heavenly Father, just in case He would hear my prayer (keep in mind, the only reason I thought it was appropriate to pray for a Christmas tree was because of my mom. She used to tell me I could pray for anything, anytime). The next morning, I literally woke up as if I hadn't slept, and prayed even more fervently than before for a Christmas tree, if it was His will of course. Before we left the house that morning, I let Soeur Mangum in on my secret. She just laughed at my ridiculousness. Then we left.

Fast forward about 2 hours. After some good contacting and lunch, we found ourselves at our old chapel, waiting for a lesson. After a few minutes, the Elders came in needing to use the computer really fast. One of the Elders then came back into the room, looked at us and asked, "Hey, Soeurs, do you want a Christmas tree?" ... Soeur Mangum and I just looked at each other, stunned. "Really?" And you know what? They brought us a Christmas tree. I got a Christmas tree. #prayerworks

How about another story. Soeur Mangum has been praying for a long time with faith that she would see one last person make baptismal covenants. Then finally, the last week of her mission, she let me in on her desire and then expressed her disappointment. So I joined her in prayer. Then we get to district meeting, and one of the Soeurs in Liège (in our zone) comes up, grabs Soeur Mangum and starts talking to her. Then Soeur Mangum freaks out. Then I felt really out of the know, so I went over to see what happened. MARINELA IS GETTING BAPTIZED, Soeur Mangum told me. I was mostly just confused because I had NO IDEA who that was. Then it clicked (mostly after she explained herself more). Marinela was found by Soeur Mangum and Soeur Hogan in Liège on exchanges 2 transfers ago. And she is getting baptized on Saturday. And then we got permission to go. It was beautiful. #prayerworks

Can we go for one last story? Please? Okay. So we had been having ZERO success with Christmas finding. And I mean zero. And we're walking back to our house before dinner after an afternoon of zero success, and we were hungry and tired. A little bit before we had said a prayer, asking for something, anything, to lift our spirits. Nothing. Then we see this lady struggling with a heavy bag and caddy, obviously having trouble even walking. So we offered to help. Long story short (it took a long time to get up to her apartment), she let us pray with her and said we could see her another time. Her name is Lucie, and she called us angels. And we're totally going to sing with her next time. #prayerworks

Know that I KNOW that God loves us and that He hears our prayers. I love being a missionary.

Love,

Soeur Katie Pettingill