Bonjour tout le monde! I am now writing you from the most beautiful city of Nice! (pronounced "niece") But it is nice to be in Nice, and the people of Nice are really nice, and our aparment in Nice is really really nice. I'm really lucky! We do take in Monaco and Monte Carlo too-- how cool is that! My new comp is Soeur Hall. She is in her last transfer and speaks beautiful French and is a lovely, kind-hearted, wonderful soul. I am so blessed to be working with her and I know I'm going to learn a lot. We are working here in Nice as STLs, that stands for "sister training leaders". Titles are pretty meaningless to me, and I didn't even have any clue what that was up until 8 months ago... but basically it means I get to love even more people and serve even more people! :) Woo hoo! I was actually really surprised to be called to do this, and to be leaving Montpellier after just 1 transfer. It was really hard to leave, because after those 2 months there I had already grown so attached to those dear people, especially my companion. But, I know that the Lord knows what's best for me, and I know that He is going to bless me again to expand my heart even more and fall in love with a new place and new people all over again. I felt really unqualified to do this at first, and still feel just extremely humbled to be leading missionaries, some even much older than me, but I know that the Lord never sets us up to fail. He will never start us down a path that He won't guide us through. He also doesn't call the qualified, but qualifies the called. I know He wants to teach me a lot of things, because there's so many things I need to work on and improve about myself! And this will be a great opportunity to do it, because I find that you learn the most how you need to change as you're teaching others how to be their best selves. So, I'm prepared to eat a big piece of humble pie and really use this as a transfer to look at myself and say "ok God, what do you want me to learn so that I can become more like You?" And I know He's going to tell me, I've noticed that He's been really good about that on my mission. :) Our President told us that our huge focus right now in the Nice Ward is the members. We're going to be really trying to strengthen, unify, and edify this group of saints. I've already heard that they're incredible people, and I'm so stoked to get to know them really really well. And I know for a fact that that was one of the reasons I was called to this area, because working with members is my FAVORITE part of missionary work, especially with our members who are struggling in some way. (aka all of us) Yes, we are all go through moments of weakness in the gospel, I don't think there's any amongst us who can deny it. But what good are we going to be doing by bringing more people into a foundation of life that isn't securely built? We have to start by strengthening ourselves first and then we'll really start seeing the miracles flow of bringing others to this beautiful truth. So I encourage you to ask yourself, "am I the type of person that someone who isn't a member of the church could look at and say 'i want what they have' ?" And if your life in some way doesn't reflect that you have the incredible joy of having the true gospel of Christ in your life, change it so it does! This will come through scripture study, studying the words of the living prophets, praying, and going to church... all of this done with a real intent to listen, learn, and act upon the things you discover. I promise you it's through these simple ways that a testimony is grown and you become that beacon of light that others will look at and say, "I want what they have!" I love you all and I hope you have a nice week! ;)Love,Soeur Shields
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