la Vie en Rose
Fammm!
Okay. lets just say, that general conference was the best thing ever. holy moley, I dont know if it was the spirit being so much stronger since I'm a missionary or what, but...wowwwewwow!!! i am trying to view life differently now, kind of like, la vie en rose..(life in pink), but not in the "in love" way. haha. Saturday morning session and President Holland's talk during the sunday morning session were my favorite. WOWWWWWWWWWW!!!! I seriously have a different perspective on things now. We still havent seen Sunday evening session; it was broadcasted between 10 and 12 last NIGHT, so we didnt get to watch it. But soon!!! Right now i'm in Bayonne!!! YEAH!! Haha, and our dl told us last week to wear pants since the district would all be together and we dont want to cause attention when we're not working, so we wear pants, but he told the elders in tarbes to wear suits, so..we were on the train together wearing different things. it was kind of funny and we feel kind of dumb. lol. mais c'est la vie.
so this week we taught marie with jeffrey and it was great!!! she agreed to come to conference sunday at 2 (sat evening session), but she called us before and told us her son is sick so she had to stay and take care of him. :( darn you, satan! But we understand being sick; wed night soeur bertolio got the stomach flu, or something like it. while we were at the Leang's for dinner with ariel, jeffrey, and a nonmember who is in our english class, François, she began getting super sick and actually threw up in their bathroom! poor soeur. :( but she was super quiet!!!I was impressed. we only heard her gag once!!! then we got home, she threw up again, then we went to sleep. the next morning, I threw up all I ate the night before. eghh. It was terrible. We ended up being sick for 2 days. we didnt eat anything for almost 2 days. I barely drank water, but forced myself to drink some because I had dad's voice in my head telling me if I didnt , that I would get dehydrated and die. lol. so it was sad because we were starting off the week really good, and had to cancel rendez-vous, but we seriously couldnt teach. we had NO energy, even after we ate a little bit. So we were in bed for about 2 1/2 days. the second day we couldnt focus on anything and had no energy, so we watched the testaments and legacy. lol. to be honest, it was probably the most fun I've had being sick, being sick with soeur bertolio, because we would start talking and like joke about our situation, then fall asleep, then wake up and say something or tell our weird dream, then fall asleep again. lol. it was not great being sick, but it was better then being sick alone. plus she wouldnt have been able to do anything without me anyway. Friday we were suppose to have exchanges with the Toulouse Soeurs, but we were super sick so we are having it next week. and it was funny because we told the people we needed to that we were sick, then we got a call from tarbes and a text from our zone leader, elder arnold telling us that bordeaux hopes that we get well soon! I told him that we just got ourselves sick from being so excited for zone conference this wednesday. haha. but yeah, we were like, how..did they know...it was weird. but cool. everyone knows everyones bu'ness in the mish, apparently. lol.
SO! General Conference! 19!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! When President Monson announced the age changes, I seriously started crying I was so excited. Obviously I'm 21 and on the mission, but I think about Audrey (hermana white!) and Claire (sorella bradford!!!) and Elizabeth (irma tingey!!!) and how I met all of them at 18 and we were so set on going on missions and wishing the age were 19 and just wishing, and now after everything we are serving, and now it's possible for girls doing the same thing as my friends and I!! Wow! What a beautiful blessing!!! An how much we need missionaries!!! There are going to be barely any young people at BYU! holy cow!!!!!! So many girls given the chance to serve before marriage and before other things get in the way!! wow!!!!!!! oh my goodness. the church is so true!!!! My favorite talks were President Uchtdorf's, basically another version of pres Monson's "Finding Joy in the journey", which is one of my FAVORITE talks!!! Oh my goodness!!!!!!! SOOO GOOOD!! My favorite things that he said was, "Strengthen things that we will have in Heaven", "we must not just do what Heavenly Father wants us to do, but BECOME what Heavenly Father wants us to be!", "Become the person that we were designed to be" and "through this, Heavenly Father will unleash the Spiritual Gifts we were promised", "essential things are invisible to the eyes" (quote from "the little prince", a french book!), "It's not a race, it's a journey! Enjoy the moment!" (his wife!), and "the Savior can wipe away our tears of regret". How incredibly true. AND my other favorite, President Holland's, when He's asking Peter, "Do ye love me?" and when he said that at the judgement bar, God will ask us, "Did ye love me? Did ye at least understand the first and most important commandment?" and he said, "I need someone who will preach My Gospel and defend My faith and do what needs to be done!" What a powerful statement. He wasnt just implying God talking to missionaries, he was talking to everyone, every member of our church. "We cant quit and we cant go back". This talk has i think affected the rest of my life. I took a very large humility pill last night, telling soeur bertolio all my feelings, which I guess she's here for, as my companion; It was crazy. I'm not going to go into detail of everything, but I was really in a recognition of how different i need to be, how much work I have to do, to become like Jesus Christ and be the person that I was designed to be. I was just struck with this, and how after this mission, my mission isnt stopping. I have to keep working, keep pushing forward, and this overwhelmed me for a second, but soeur bertolio is a great person to talk to and I thought of my last email, and the story of Jesus healing the little boy and I reminded myself, if I really try, He will meet me where I fall short. He'll carry me the rest of the way.
What an incredible thing, the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I feel incredibly grateful to be able to study His gospel every day and preach it to everyone I come into contact with. What an incredible opportunity to repent of our sins and be forgiven for our weaknesses. "Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it; Prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above." These lyrics. And the lyrics to "Savior, Redeemer, of my Soul" is the way that I feel we need to feel always. We need to always be striving, always working to have the Spirit with us, to keep our thoughts pure, to be looking for the best in everyone. I love this Gospel and I know that it is true. I cant quit, and I cant go back, because I know that this Gospel is true, and it makes me the happiest I have ever been. I pray that we all find things in our life that arent completely in line with the will of our Heavenly Father and change it. Nothing happens if you dont change. I'm making that commitment to myself, and I invite you to do the same.
I love you all and you need to listen to conference and study the words of the prophet and his apostles and the sisters in the church! Their words are inspired and will build you up in the times that are hard, times that you dont feel worthy or strong enough to push forward.
I'll talk to yall next week! I loooove letters!
Love always,
devano
-soeur gardner-
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