Allons-y, Let's go! C'est parti les amis!

First...new address is:
22 Rue Doncre
62000 Arras
France

Okay, I just have to start out with telling you this:  My companion. is. HILARIOUS. haha we seriously just spend all day laughing and having fun.  I LOVE going porting with her, we just tell eachother stories and sing songs...and see miracles.  It's the life.  AND I'm learning so much french.

My favorite though is when she grabs my arm, starts skipping and singing the Dora la Exploratrice theme song in French.  "Allons-y, Let's go! C'est parti les amis.  Vous pouvez la trouvez, je sais qu'on va y arriver!" Seriously, we are having so much fun.  And that is what the gospel is all about...joy.  Heavenly Father wants his children to be happy, why else would he call his plan, the plan of HAPPINESS.  And as messangers of this happiness, missionaries should be the happiest people out there!  I'm led to think of Joseph Smith's words:

"Now, what do we hear in the gospel which we have received? A voice of^aGLADNESS! A voice of mercy from heaven; and a voice of ^btruth out of the earth; glad tidings for the dead; a voice of gladness for the living and the dead; glad tidings of great ^cjoy. How beautiful upon the mountains are the ^dfeet of those that bring glad tidings of good things, and that say unto Zion: Behold, thy God reigneth! As the ^edews of Carmel, so shall the knowledge of God descend upon them!"

This week I'm just happy.  And so grateful.  I feel soooo blessed to be here in Arras.  We have an amazing, beautiful ward.  Seriously huge.  I was expecting something pretty tiny, because the ville is small, but no.  We have tons of young families.  I could almost cry thinking about the beautiful primary, our nine awesome young women, all the stellar parents, so many working towards temple sealing.  Our bishop is young, energetic and just a spiritual powerhouse.  I've never seen a ward council so organized and so loving.  A recent convert, Dimitri, was on a mini-mission with the Elders and he attended ward council with us.  He said, wow, this really is the true church. It's exactly as the Lord would run his council meeting.  So much love and, oh my goodness, our bishop has a testimony of prayer!  And the prayers of this congregation has worked some amazing things.

I'm so happy about our amis too.  We have so much potential here.  We are just on the run all the time!  Estelle is progressing amazingly, and there are just people coming out of the woodwork...

And last of all I'm grateful and honored to be God's instrument here.  I really feel like it is a priviledge.  On thursday we went a visited Christelle, a less-active, in the hospital.  We had prepared something to share with her in the Bible, but we both forgot to bring our Bible's...we didn't know what to do...I felt prompted to read her Alma 7:11-13.  I didn't really think much of the lesson, or the words that I had said (I felt like I really hadn't said much at all, in fact).  But on Sunday, there she was!  Even though she was in a wheelchair, and still in pain from the operation.  She pulled us aside before church started, and with tears in her eyes, she said our lesson had been the answer to her prayers... And that's the number one reason why I am so happy.  I am grateful to have this opportunity to run my "beautiful" (and very tired) feet all over Arras, day in and day out, "bringing glad tidings of good things."  And those glad tidings are that Christ lives, and His love for us is real and powerful.  He is there to lead us out of our darkest hours, towards eternal happiness.

Well, I love you all!

Until next week,

Soeur Hilton

Also, I've been thinking a lot about faith and truth lately.  These phrases have been bouncing around in my mind...Faith is power.  Truth is feeling.  I'll explain next week.