week 70 - A Miracle

Ma chère famille,

I can't believe it is all coming to an end. I went to the mission home with all of the outgoing missionaries (21 of us) on Wednesday and it suddenly became reality. I didn't get to have that much time with President during my interview since there were so many of us, but it was good and when he asked me if I was happy with my mission, I responded, "Yes!", because truly I am, and I felt at peace as I was able to answer his question. It has been the most amazing experience of my life! There aren't really words to describe it. No one can know what a mission is like unless they do one themself. I have learned soooooooooooooooooooooooooo much and seen the hand of the Lord working in my life and the lives of others. I have seen so many miracles! If there are people on this earth (which I know there are) who don't believe in God or in miracles they are so wrong. I have a miracle to share with you from this last week. I don't think I told you about Paola. We met her the day we went to Colmar. That morning Soeur Alves felt prompted to bring a Book of Mormon in spanish , she almost decided to leave it, but thankfully she grabbed it right before we headed out. When we were in Lille we started talking with people and Soeur Alves walked by a woman but quickly stopped to talk to her. Her name is Paola and she is from Equador! Soeur Alves was able to use her Spanish and told Paola that she had a gift for her. She handed Paola the Book of Mormon and Paola was so excited that she gave both of us hugs. Soeur Alves told her how she had felt prompted to bring a spanish Book of Mormon with her and Paloa was very touched. Before we even shared anything Paola gave us her number and address and fixed a rendez-vous.
Sadly the day of our rendez-vous we were on exchanges and Soeur Alves and Soeur Johnson missed their train so they were two hours late in getting to Paola's. When they arrived at her appartment they couldn't figure out which doorbell was hers, so they tried calling her, but it was a bad number. We were so sad, because Paola had been so sincere and we had no idea how we were going to get ahold of her. We tried passing by another day and figured out which doorbell was hers, but it didn't work, and the door to the apartment building was locked. We went through an entire week without any contact with her. Soeur Alves was so good to pray every day they some how we could find Paola again. Last Monday (it had now been 10 days) we had to go to the mall in Lille to buy some things so we decided to do our grocery shopping there even though we always do it in Villeneuve D'Ascq. We we got to the grocery store we tried to print some photos but then there was a problem with the machine. We had to wait and get help from the employee and then wait even longer to get our money back. By the time everything was solved we had lost about one hour of time. Both of us were very frustrated inside and tired, but we didn't say anything, we just wanted to finish our grocery shopping as fast as possible. We went to the vegetable isle and a woman shouted "Hey!" Soeur Alves turned around and it was Paola!!! We were so happy to see her! We both almost started crying. When we asked how she was doing she said, "malo." (not good). She said she had waited all day for us on Thursday and asked why we hadn't called. We explained everything and she said, "no, I know I gave you the right number." We asked for it again and realised that because of her spanish accent we had gotten one number wrong. She even grabbed our phone to make sure we had the right number and then had us put our number into her phone. It was truly a miracle that we saw her! We told her we usually never go to Lille to do our grocery shopping and said that truly the Lord had led us there. We found out at our rendez-vous that she wasn't supposed to be there either. Her friend wanted to go to the mall and Paola didn't want to, but her friend made her come. While her friend was shopping Paola decided to walk around in Carrefour (the grocery store) and that's when she saw us! Truly miracles exist. After she left the store, we didn't want to kneel down in front of everyone, but we both said prayers in our hearts and then looked up toward heaven and said thank you.
I am so excited for Soeur Alves and Soeur Tollefson (her new companion, who is awesome), to continue the work here in Villeneuve D'Ascq. I know this gospel is true, that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ live. I know that Jesus Christ atoned for us and I have seen so many lives change thanks to his atonement. I know that he restored his gospel through a young, humble, farmer boy, Joseph Smith. The Book of Mormon is true, and I know it was translated by the power of God. I love that Book and I receive so much inspiration and revelation from it. I know it is true because I have taken my own time to read it and pray about it and Heavenly Father has answered me through the Holy Ghost. I bear you my testimony in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

I love you all, I hope you all continue to strengthen your testimonies of the restored gospel daily. I will see you soon

Love, Soeur Reeves