Soeur Ethington | Week 44

Hi guys, how's it going? Thanks so much to all of you who've sent me emails this past week. Yes I'm safe and I'm doing great, thank you! 

For those of you asking, YES, being in 2 sectors at once plus the temple is very exhausting and a lot of work. I've hit the point where I fall asleep before my head touches the pillow, and no matter how much sleep I try to get (a whole 8 hours, wooo) it's never enough. But c'est la vie, and I'm happy to be living it. 

Miracles from this week:

 

- I had my first exchanges as an STL! I was with the incredible Sister Marteeny and we saw so many miracles. I learned a lot from her and am so impressed with how strong the amazing sisters with whom I serve are. 

- We visited a sick sister from our ward who is in the hospital. It turns out that her hospital roommate Sylvie was also interested in hearing our message, so we got to share it with both of them. Interestingly enough, while we'd been planning that morning, we felt prompted to share something that wasn't entirely related with what our sick sister was going through. Even though we didn't understand why, we went with it (as missionaries do). Well, it turned out that the message we shared was exactly what Sylvie needed to hear! She is currently recovering from a tragic car accident in which her mother and her son were killed, leaving her the only survivor. She was so touched by our message that she begged us to come back this week, so we'll be seeing her on Friday! 

- On Saturday, we had plans to visit a family of recent converts but when we arrived, the kids were the only ones home. So after about 5 awkward minutes of us sitting on the couch trying to make conversation with kids who were on their phones and watching TV, we told them that we were going to leave and do some work until their mom was home. We climbed to the third floor of their apartment building and started knocking on some doors. It turns out that both the people whose doors we knocked on were super interested and we got return appointments with both of them. Miracle! 

- Sister Tulieva, Sister Montalvo and I taught Marcelin and his family the word of wisdom yesterday before church! This was one of their last lessons before their baptism and we were a little nervous about it because every time we go over to their house, they have their huge alcohol collection on display. But honestly that was no reason to fear because this family has such incredible faith that nothing will stop them from being baptized. They readily and happily accepted to live the word of wisdom and are so excited to get closer to God by respecting His commandments.

- As many of you may have heard, there was an explosion near the Paris Saint-Lazare train station on Saturday morning. Saturday was the day I had my exchanges with Sister Marteeny, and we were originally supposed to spend the day in the St. Ouen sector but ended up changing our plans last minute and deciding to stay in Le Chesnay due to a whim about train problems. When we found out there had been an explosion neart Paris Saint-Lazare, we were astounded because we realized that if we had stayed in St. Ouen sector, we would have been at the train station exactly when that explosion happened. God protects His missionaries and I'm so grateful for that. 

My bleue, Soeur McComber, leaves the MTC on Sunday which means I'll meet her on Monday, one week from today. I am so excited and can't wait to tell you all about her! 

A bientôt, 

Soeur Ethington

The temple all lit up!

Someone sent me this and I thought it was funny.