The Lord Loves to bless Me

UGH FAMILY I LOVE YOU SO MUCH. I have had the most wonderful week here in Lausanne. I keep telling Sr. Echols that the Lord loves to bless me. It may sound selfish but I am just more amazed everyday at the wonderful blessings I have received. This area is not the easiest and we dont have many amis right now but my joy is still so full. Everyday I have tender mercies from the Lord. He knows me so well and knows the desires of my heart. He knows the things that make me happy and that help me to move forward. Its amazing. He is amazing.

First of all I have been blessed with such a wonderful companion. We get along great and are both on the same level in so many things. We both are trying to be exactly obedient and we both really have a great love and desire for this work. It has lead me to think about the counsel that is constantly given to single adults in the church to marry someone that is on the same spiritual level as you. I have seen when you and your companion are not on the same spiritual level it causes a lot of struggles. But when you are on the same level you really motivate each other to be better. It has only been a week together but Sr. Echols and I get along so well and it feels like we have known each other for a long time. Blessing number 1.

Second of all. Lausanne is sooooo beautiful. The pictures that are attached are from a mountain that we hiked up as we were porting. I dont have any pictures from being close to the water yet but they will be coming. Even though the water is just a lake, I am amazed at how much it reminds me of southern California here. Its funny because its half like SoCal and half like Europe. I havent been to all the villages in our area yet but I am just so in love with this place already.Also there are tons of vineyards here, sometimes it seems like everyone has their own personal vineyard. So breathtaking. The Lord knows how much I love being near the water and how much I appreciate it and he was willing to bless me to be in this beautiful place for at least the summer!! Blessing number 2.

Third tender mercy this week is a cute little story. I called it my miracle of the day. We had been porting(knocking doors) a lot one morning and were getting ready to head back home for lunch. We hadnt seen any success and so we were just thinking that we wouldnt be finding any one at that moment. We arrived to a building looked at the time and Sr. E.asked, do you want to start this building or just go home now. I replied happily that we were already there we might as well do it! So we started ringing the sonner, the buzzer/intercom thing for people to let us in. As we were waiting for someone to reply TWO chocolate bars appeared on the window sill next to the sonner. Okay maybe they didnt appear but we discovered them. They were covered in dust but unopened. We decided that this was a gift sent from heaven. The dust on them was just from their rapid travel through space and time to arrive at that very spot. Heavenly Father knew we were hungry and tired but he also saw that we were willing to work hard. Maybe we didnt find a family to teach that day, but we sure were happy when we tasted that delicious swiss chocolate!

Another cute little tender mercy also came from porting. Its one of the pictures in fact. We had been porting and people were NOT NICE AT ALL. We continued to port and when we were getting ready to leave the area we turned around a corner and right in front of our faces in graffiti was written "Dont Worry". Although this was probably written by some swiss teenager that was trying to quote Bob Marley it was a great reassurance for us that Heavenly Father sees the work we are doing and he knows our concerns. I know this is his work and I know that I would not be able to do it without him.

Now to answer some of moms questions. My knee is okay. I bought a brace because walking up these mountains is very straining to it but I feel that it has already given me more support. I dont have very much pain, if any, at night anymore. Yes, I know about the shoes. The roses in the pictures I sent are from Sr. M.'s balcony, a member in Saleve. No I dont get every issue of the Liahona or Ensign, still dont have the Conference issue in either language. If you want to send it that would be cool! Sometimes we get the Liahona or Ensign at Zone Conference. I did have up to April but none since then.

Congratulations to Miss Addis Jane and the potty! Things really are changing back home. Sometimes I look at pregnant ladies and ask myself if thats how pregnant my sister is right now. Congrats as well to Whitney and Ryan and their new baby boy!

Dads garden sounds awesome. I have come to love more fruits here that I didnt know I liked at home and I think its because the fruit is more fresh, so hurray for fresh fruit, I am excited to be home next summer to try them :)

I forgot to mention a couple weeks ago and I am sure mom has found out from Missionary Moms, but Elder F., in my mission, his mom passed away about a month ago. He is still here serving the Lord and being faithful to the work. Please pray for his family at this trying time.

Other mission news is that President Roney and his family will be coming either today or tomorrow I think, sometime this week. I have loved President and Sister Murdock and they will be missed greatly but I know it is their time to go home and President Roney and Sister Roney have been called to serve at this very time in this very mission. Change is in the air.

I have already learned so much from being here in Lausanne and I cant wait for the things to come. Sr. Echols and I will be finding a family that will be baptised. We have the faith and are willing to do the work, therefore we know the Lord will bless our efforts. May the Lord continue to bless you in all the things that you do. I love you all.

love,
Sr. Addis

Fun fact for the day: Addis means new! I have been told that two or three times since I have been in Lausanne. Haha it is too funny. People see my name and they say did you know that there is a city in Africa, i forget what country, that is called Addis Ababa, after I tell them yes i did know that, they continue to say Addis means new. So for those of you who didnt know that voila!

LAUSANNE

Subject title is my new home. To fill you all in on friday we got transfer calls and I have been transfered to a new ville called Lausanne, pronounced- Low-zann, It is in Switzerland and about 45 minute train ride from Geneva. It is still on Lac Leman, or Geneva Lake, but just more north. I am super happy to be here with Soeur E. She is from Alaska and we met my first transfer because she was also training when Sr. Lala trained me. Unfortunately we will not be together very long because she will be finishing her mission at the end of this transfer, the end of July.

 We live in a town called Renens which is right next to Lausanne, with the Sisters who are serving in Renens. So, there are four of us in our apartment. It is nice and a little small but bigger than the apartment in Geneva. I was sad to leave Gex because the ward was so great and I know there will really be some great miracles there but I know I am where the Lord needs me to be. I was super excited too because this was my first time actually moving in the mission field. That was an experience in and of it self. I dont know how I will pack to come home. I already have so much stuff and WAY too many books. Especially with my new goal of learning spanish, and all the books that came along with that. Anyway my bags were SUPER heavy and a seam started to wrip on one of my bags but I plan on sewing it before the next move, dont worry mom. But it was cool. I am really happy to be here and excited to be with Sr. E. We had shared some laughs  a couple months ago on a train ride to Lyon for "bleus" conference and I know that she has a great desire to serve the Lord and do His will. Something that I loved about being with Sr. Lala on her last transfer is that I was able to help her 'sprint' to the end. We worked so hard that last transfer so that she could be able to return home in honor and I plan on helping Sr. Echols do that as well. It is super sad to 'kill' a missionary but the power that they have and the desire to work hard is contagious.

Well I dont have tons of time because this computer was super slow and so it took me a long time to read emails but, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to Tom and Allie, and HAPPY FATHERS DAY to Dad, Devin, Tom and all the wonderful fathers out there who may be reading this. I love you all very much and am so grateful to have such wonderful examples in my life. Dad, I loved your email to us kids, thank you.

My little snipet of a miracle this week was from yesterday. We were with the famille Attobra. They are African and speak french and the Mom speaks english. They have been Amis for some time now but have recently been progressing in the gospel. On Wednesday we saw them and committed them to coming to Church on Sunday and promised them that if they prayed before coming to church and came to church with a question they would receive their answer there. Well the Mom and Aunt came to church for the first time and Father came, for the fourth time or so. It was great they seemed to really like it and I even saw the Aunt and Mom taking notes and writing down scriptures that they like. Then later that day during our rendez-vous with them the aunt told us that she came to church with a question and that she had received an answer to a question she has had for a long time! It was so wonderful for us to see that the Lord really does work miracles. We didnt know the Aunts question and we didnt tell the speakers what to say. But the Lord knows all. And because I am here as a servant for him he is there to fulfill my promises that I make through the spirit. I love this work and I love being able to be so intune with the spirit that I can be confident I am saying exactly what the Lord wants at exactly the write time.

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week.

Sr. Addis

pictures attached are the famille Attobra, missing a daughter, skittles that mom sent and my studies (no i was not distracted), picture with the district ( i have that awful face because i still cant squat down with my knee and i didnt realize it would be so painful), with Sr. T and I before I left for Lausanne and then a picture of the mountains in Gex. Its super beautiful there! Will take pictures this week of Lausanne. 

Also my new address is:
Les Missionnaires
Soeur Addis
4 Chemin des Clos
1020 Renens
Suisse

Elders from Saleve

AP Elder's fromerlly in Gex

do your best and let the Lord do the rest

My sweet family. As always I hope you are doing well and that you have had a wonderful week. Happy Belated Birthday to my sweet maman, a card should be arriving soon. Sorry it is late. I tried my best :)

Speaking of mail. I went to the post office today to pick up the package from Mom because we were not home when the mail man came so I couldnt sign. Thank you so much. I already made some delicious AMERICAN chocolate chip cookies, and gave almost all of them to the Elders and they were very happy. Even though Elder L'Homel likes to rag on americans he was happy to have american cookies. The reason I call them american cookies is because they do not sell brown sugar here so when cookies are made with brown sugar they are considered American. Anyway thank you very much. It was the first time in over 7 months that I have made cookies and it was very relaxing (since it was something that I would do at home to de-stress).

The work in Gex is going. It is really hard because it is considered a "white wash" and neither of us know the area or where is the best place to do work. We had stake conference this past weekend so I was able to see people from the Saleve ward, including Miryam and Eduardo. It was so nice to see them even though it had only been about 10 days. But because we had stake conference we were not in the Gex ward so we still dont know everyone very well but we frequently see members during the week. Anyway its going. I know that as the subject line says, as I do my best and give all I can the Lord will take care of the rest. He will put the elect in our path. It is just going to take alot of time and patience.

Mom reminded me that I told you how I was going to be driving and teaching in spanish. Well unfortunately neither of those two things happened. Sr. T and I tried doing a test drive the night before the exchange and I did not pass. I didnt feel comfortable with driving stick so I ended up going with Sr. Waldron in the Lac area of Geneve and her companion, Sr. B (italian) came to Gex. It was kind of perfect though. Sr. B speaks enough spanish to be able to communicate well with Sr. C and I was given more time to work on my driving manual and speaking spanish. Hopefully I will get another chance soon. It really is a goal I am working on to learn spanish while I am here too, and Elder Smith, who will be leaving next week to go home, gave me his spanish books so I can learn! Obviously French comes first but spanish is also very useful here.

We had zone conference this past week and it was great. It was the Murdocks last one so yes it was sad, but it was pretty inspiring as well. I love zone conference and being with so many different missionaries. The first picture that I have from ZC is with Elder S and C, the assistants and the Elders who used to be in Gex, the next picture is with Elder E who was in my district at the MTC and the next one is with Elders who I have served with in the Saleve ward. There are 2 Elders  in the background because they havent really served in Saleve with me.

Transfer calls are this coming friday and we should be moving to are new appt in Gex pretty soon so dont send anything this week. Hopefully next week I will have more information for you.

Lastly for a spiritual experince I had this week. It was thursday morning and Sr. W and I started companion study with singing Joseph Smiths first prayer. At least i think thats what it is called in english. So every morning in companion study after we sing and pray we have scriptures that we recite and the first vision. This morning however the first vision hit me more than normal. I was tearing up as I said it and could not help but feel the spirit testifying of the truthfulness of Joseph Smiths experience. Later that day, before a rendez-vous Sr. T and I were porting, knocking doors. There was a man that was not very nice at all and said we belonged to a sect. Although many people say this for some reason that time it really made me mad. I said to him as I was walking away and he was closing the door that the church was not a sect, he insisted and so did i, repeating myself that the church is not a sect. Well although the conversation it self did not get super heated i did. I hate the fact that people here refer to the church as a sect, I guess its in the states too. Anyway I was getting more frustrated as we went to every house and the people kept rejecting us. Somehow the spirit was able to remind me of why I am here. I knew at that very moment, that I was here because Joseph Smith restored the gospel in its fullness to the earth. I again felt the spirit testifying to me very profoundly. It was a feeling I could not doubt. About 20 minutes after this experience in our RDV with a recent convert and the Elders, Elder Claflin asked me to share my testimony of the restoration. I was amazed. The whole morning I kept getting feelings of the truthfulness of the restoration and it was because the Lord knew that I needed to bear a strong testimony to our recent convert. It was definitely one of the most touching experiences I have had thus far on my mission. I know without a doubt in my mind that Joseph Smith did in fact see God the father and Jesus Christ. I know that Joseph was the prophet to open this dispensation so that we are able to be blessed with a fullness of joy. I love this gospel and I know that it is true.

Hope you all have a wonderful week,
Love. Soeur Addis