Wednesday, February 22, 2017

The Parable of the Butterfly (update #29)

Hey tout le monde!
Once again I'm finding myself a day (or two) late and a dollar short...sorry.  (Don't think I used that expression right but it seemed fitting).

ANYWAY, exciting things this week :)

This week is transfer week which means we'll get calls from president on Friday letting us know if we stay or go, exciting things are in the air!! I've been here for 4 transfers which means, to quote President, unless God strikes Him with lightning, I won't be staying in Val de Saône. BUT, nothing is impossible. Sometimes God sends some lightning  ;) stay tuned till next Monday...

In other news, I'm loving Val de Saône more than ever. Not sure if you remember Eliette, the 85 year old Buddhist woman who got baptized in President's pool this summer. Well, she's officially become one of my favorite people in the entire world. We go visit her about once a week and starting this week she's coming to church with us in the car. We can drive members in our car if they are coming to help us with a teaching appointment so we're just working to find "teaching appointments" for her to help us out with every week.  

Kelly is getting baptized this week!!!

 Don't have much else to say besides the fun miracle this week was when we were at the church trying to print off a talk or something for someone. The printer at the church just about never works properly. It's either out of ink or paper or just plain broken. So we're trying to print the talk for about 5 minutes and the printer was just rolling and making all sorts of fun noises that printers aren't supposed to make. It was looking pretty clear that it probably would not be working out in our favor. Then Soeur Wilson just says "Heavenly Father, please help..." and BAM the printer magically prints exactly what we need. It was actually very cool, maybe you just had to be there, but it was literally instantaneous.  A lot of the time it seems like we have to pray, study, listen, pray again and still wait for our response, but it's cool to see those moments when God just gives us exactly what we need in the exact moment we ask for it...even if it is just a silly printer.

#mishpiration
Which reminds me of a story our MP (Mission President) told us this week about "le papillon"  (the butterfly).  After caterpillars spend weeks in their cocoon morphing into butterflies, they finally get to stretch out their wings and fly. The process of unfurling their wings takes hours of hard labor, then even more time of flapping and drying them out until finally the butterfly is ready to fly. One day a little boy found a butterfly struggling to open its wings for the first time. It looked so painful and difficult that it was hard to watch. Thinking that he could help it out, he picked it up and
gently unfurled it's wings for it. He then pushed the butterfly off the branch, helping it to fly. The beautiful, but weak butterfly fell to the ground and died. It's a little bit of a sad story, but I love how it applies to us. God certainly doesn't like to watch us struggle.  In fact, I think that's probably one of the things God likes least about being God. But, He knows what we can become. He knows our potential to fly. To be so much more than just a pretty pair of wings, but a beautiful, strong pair of wings that can defy gravity.  It's pretty amazing to think that the God of all the universe loves us enough to help us with a silly task like printing a talk, but even more amazing is the thought that he loves us enough to give us the time to learn for ourselves. Instead of stepping in and unfurling our wings for us when we're struggling, He loves us enough to invest in us long term. And oh how much has He invested in us? He created this whole beautiful earth so we could have a place to come learn. He developed a breathtakingly simple plan so that we could return to live with Him again, so that we could become like Him. He gave his own son to suffer and die to make it all possible. And all so that one day we will be able to spread our wings and fly. "Je sais qu'il aime ses enfants, néanmoins, je ne connais pas la signification de tout."  (TRANSLATION:   "I do not know the meaning of all things, nevertheless, I know He loves His children.")

I love you all!

Love,
Soeur Cami


Here are a few pictures of Cami with her two companions, Soeurs Wilson and Friolo.  





I have no idea who this cute family is....


 Perhaps this is Eliette?

Cam and Soeur Friolo (from Italy)....



And I have no idea what beautiful building this is, but hopefully Cami remembers....











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