10/20/2015
  
 Hello everyone!

 What a beautiful week it was! My favorite time of the year here in Canada! It snowed a little bit but we will forget about that and just talk about the beautiful trees here. See for yourself!

 It was a pretty normal week. Vanessa is doing really well and is progressing:)

 on one occasion this week we were trying to think of an interactive visual lesson that we could present for a family home evening we were going to and we decided to use D&C 27 about the Armour of God  which says,

 " Wherefore, lift up your hearts and rejoice, and gird up your loins, and take upon you my whole Armour, that  ye may be able to withstand the evil day, having done all, that ye may be able to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of
peace whichI have sent mine angels to commit unto you; taking the shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of my spirit, which I will pour out upon you, and my word which i reveal unto you and be agreed as touching all things whatsoever ye ask of me, and be faithful until i come, and ye shall be caught up that where i cam ye shall be also.  Amen."

Our Bishop with the Armour of God

and than also in Ephesians 6:13, " Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole Armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand."   
***We ended up with a 3-D visual of the Armour of God.​

So I ask you-Do you have on your Armour of God?

Love you all have a great week! 

Love Soeur Rawlings

10/13/2015

Bonjour tout le monde,

Sitting in a restaurant right before being dropped off at the MTC, Ii remember my cousin saying, " Missions are Hard." " Ya, ya, I know" I remember saying, " You will learn a lot" he continued. Little did I know-haha!

 Missions are a personal day by day refinement. Not only do you help others change but if you will let it, a mission will change you- all for the better. Each day, I have come to learn is another day to become more sanctified or the process of becoming holy or more in line with our Heavenly Father and Savoir.  As it says in Hebrews 2:11,"they who are sanctified are all of one".   The more sanctified we become the more in line we are with God's plan which is explained more in  John 17:21,"That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us"

And after this week-I feel like I have had so many experiences that have helped me learn,  here is a few....

1) Sometimes we think we are learning something but really God is teaching us so much more- Though I had realized before that I had been called to learn French, I realize now that I'm learning a lot more than just the language of French.  I truly don't feel like I'm learning French just to learn French, though it is one perk . But through French I am being taught many other lessons including patience, compassion, faith, trusting in God to name a few.

2) Remember the big picture-After having to push back our investigator's baptism.  We found ourselves sitting in a car very discouraged, pleading with our Heavenly Father to  help us understand why, and to be able to find patience. After discussing with our bishop we realized that there was much more to the Eternal plan, it wasn't just about a baptism, it was about eternal families.

3)  Faith not Fear- parked in our car we noticed a woman walking towards us. After feeling like we needed to talk to her I started unbuckling my seatbelt without realizing it  but after my companion asked me what I was doing I started talking myself out of it, thinking how weird it would be to talk to her, what would I say, etc.... and as the woman was passing my window, still thinking you need to get out, I smiled and she stopped, pulled out a flower from her coat and gave it to me. We then jumped out to talk to her. We had a great discussion and we ended up giving her a Book of Mormon and getting her information. And to think that we had almost missed this deeply spiritual woman. A learning experience-to always follow the spirit even when it doesn't make sense. 

4) The Atonement is for you-We teach a lot about the Atonement and we constantly are telling people how much it can help them and can apply it to themselves but I've realized that it applies in mine and your life just as much as it applies to those we teach. We stress the importance and the effect that it can have on people but do we truly understand what it can do for us in our lives.  

While talking to man he said, "We live in a world of suffering". Yes there are trials and test- yes they are hard - that is apart of this life but we must remember that the atonement is there to help- yes you, and yes me. That he is there not just for our sins but for our sufferings, weakness and inadequacies  and that through him we don't have to go through it alone, that we can be comforted, refined and made in the end who God wants us to be, all possible because of the Atonement.

Yes, missions can be hard but I wouldn't change what I've learned this week for all the gold in the world.  I love the gospel and I love you all! Have a good week!

Sister Rawlings

10/5/2015
Bonjour tout le monde!

         Hope you all had a fabulous Conference weekend! Such an amazing time of year to listen to God choose servants and than apply their words of wisdom in our lives for the next 6 months:) 

Good bye to the trio!

         We had a very crazy busy week! In all the best ways possible:) We dropped off Sister Meldrum at transfers, after trying to see as many people as possible. The next day we had a lesson with our amie d'Eglise, Vennessa who is just amazing! She is so determined to get baptized this Saturday,, so we have been seeing her almost everyday to teach her all the lessons:) Even though we are teaching the lessons we learn so much from her especially by her desire to follow the gospel. 

       While teaching the Word of Wisdom she put it quite simply by saying,  " I see it like a scale, ( on one hand) Coffee, (on the other hand) Salvation. And I choose Salvation". Wow, right!

Hot chocolate cup, as a visual aid for coffee cup.

       While in the same lesson we ended up pondering the sacrifice of Abraham  and comparing it to her sacrifice of coffee. The spirit was definitely guiding us because we had not planned that.  As we were discussing it, it made me think of what a sacrifice it must of been for Abraham (who had almost been sacrificed himself by his father) to be told of God to sacrifice his only son Issac. Can you imagine the heartache! But true to his trust in God he went to do as the Lord commanded, and because of that trust an angel stopped him and his son was spared.

     Likewise, we too at times, will be asked to sacrifice, time, money, coffee etc. for kingdom of God...and just like Abraham it will be hard but as we trust in God we will be blessed beyond understanding! I can promise that because I have felt and seen that. 

     Remember that "to sacrifice is to give up something we value for the sake of something of greater worth." as it says in True to the Faith. 

     As the Savior taught, "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls; who, when he had found one pearl of great price went and sold all that he had and bought it"   The Pearl of great price is the gospel and while other gems are good what are we willing to sacrifice for the gospel, the greatest and purest happiness we can receive? You tell me...

 Love you all! The gospels true! 

Sister Rawlings

9/28/2015

Bonjour tout le monde!

        Crazy week! We had lots of cancellations, but we just took that as the Lord has other places for us to be:)  

Sister Huggette made us blankets.

         We had transfer calls-Sister Cummings and I are staying in Laval and Sister Meldrum is going to Ottawa-so we have been seeing lots of people before she leaves. We had the sweetest Soeur in our ward knit us all blankets:) 

Laval- me, Cummings,  Meldrum, Elder Sumpsion and Monroe

     

          I finished the Old Testament this week! :) It had been my mission goal to finish all the standard works on the mission, and after over a year I finished! I have gained such an appreciation for the Old Testament and the stories of faith and sacrifice that they give to us. I am thankful for the historical, cultural and religious insight that they give us to better understand the New Testament and Book of Mormon.  It has strengthened my testimony of the Divinity of the Savior and of the Restoration.  I am so thankful for those who gave their lives to give us the scriptures in our own language!

Love you all! Have a great week!

      Love,
 Soeur Rawlings

9/21/15

Here are some pictures of my wonderful times in Laval, Canada!

The ward members feed us so well...some sister have gained 30 pounds!

We love tacos!!!!

"Who are those masked Sisters?"

Shrimp, pepper, cilantro, onions, green peppers and tomatoes.

Homemade refried beans!

9/15/15
 Bonjour!

             What an  truly amazing week! I know that I say that pretty much every week but it was especially true this week!

             We had a very spiritually packed past couple of days. We had zone conference yesterday. We were shown segments out of the General Authority Training of April 2015, which was awe inspiring. The one topic they picked was the Sabbath Day.  

            I have pages of notes, but the one phrase that stood out to me was, "What Sign are you showing to God by your Sabbath Day observation?" 

           In  Exodus 31:13 it says,  "seek thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you.

           And in  Ezekiel 20:20 "And hallow my Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your god. "

           I truly gained a deeper understanding and appreciation for the Sabbath day with the relation of the importance of the Sabbath and the things that we choose to do and not do on the Sabbath which  shows the the Lord what this Holy day means to us. 

           I have truly felt a change in sacrament meeting and a deepened appreciation for the important place that Sunday has in our Spiritual Development. 

           Sunday was a truly delightful day, we had one of our investigators come to church and were present for our special third hour on the Temple in preparation for the dedication in November!:)  My love for the temple grew even more as we explained to this investigator the temple and showed her different pictures of what she called the "Chateaux" ( palace or castle). We later had a very spirit led lesson with a member  on the plan of salvation later that night and she set a baptism date for October:)  

 Je t'aime 

Soeur Rawlings

 p.s. Well it's official, Sister Meldrum (who is Canadian) is rubbing off on me. I have found myself saying "eh and eh" more and more! #1 year in Canada  

September 8, 2015

Bonjour tout le monde!

 Another beautiful week here in Quebec! One of my companions got a little sick this week so it was a bit slower, but can I just say how grateful we are for the priesthood and those who honour it to exercise it when called upon.

 But during that time-Sister Cummings and I were able to read the entire book of Jeremiah! It was a big dent in my goal to finish the Old Testament. I am so thankful for the old testament because as we study the old testament than we can more fully understand the other standard works :)

        We were able to do a mini-mission with Jayne, a young woman who is preparing for a mission! It was so much fun, and we felt the Spirit so strong. It was a great learning experience for us all:)  I had an opportunity to split with Jayne for a small part of the day for one of our lessons and it was so amazing. We were both a little nervous, me for the French aspect, but we really felt the spirit lead us to modify the lesson before we went in and we all really felt the Spirit. It was a great experience. Jayne was awesome and so ready! 

      We were able to find some new people to teach this week which was a huge miracle! We did a district fast for our areas because as one elder in our district said, " If you want people to hunger and thirst for the gospel, you must hunger and thirst." and we were able to see some amazing prepared people to teach this week.  Such  a miracle!

Je t'aime! 

Seour Rawlings