Miracle Time

Hello, my beloved, fabulous, precious ones! I hope you all had a joyous Easter weekend. My goodness. What a great time! The Easter holiday is best spent with family members, but I made it a good one nonetheless. I hope you're all enjoying a beautiful spring! We had a couple warm days pop up this week. Still trying to figure out when spring is going to hit... so far no real sign of it. Oh Canada! 

Alright, so this week was just one of the best of my existence. Okay, this Saturday was the best day of my existence. But I'll get to that later. On Tuesday I was able to go back to my old area again on exchanges! Good old Montreal West. I just LOVE it there! It's fun to run around the bus and metros talking to people I used to be terrified of talking to. Now I'm just like, "Meh." Haha no, it's still just as terrifying, but I've grown to love talking to random strangers more and more the longer I've been out on a mission. I went on the exchange with my great-granddaughter Sister Gutierrez. I'm starting to realize more and more that I'm just one of those OLD missionaries. I'm usually referred to as Big Mama Cutler or Grandma Cutler. Sheesh. Too many babies. In the evening we unexchanged at the BYU-I Sinfonietta concert! I thought for sure that this would be the highlight of my week. It was definitely the second highlight of my week, but I had something better happen. But back to the concert. I chatted up a bunch of girls from BYU-I, and I realized that I too would soon be back on that student track again. GULP! It was a fun experience though. We went to the concert with one of our less active members, a Trinidadian woman who is a joy and a half to be around. I just felt overjoyed to listen to something other than EFY soundtracks and to spend the night with members and a few other missionaries. 

MIRACLE TIME! Another great highlight of the week. We have this super cool couple in our ward. The husband used to be a drummer for a living and is just one of the coolest people you will ever meet. (Seriously, get these people an I'm a Mormon video or something.) Anyway, he invited a woman that he works with to take the missionary discussions! And she totally AGREED! Member-missionary work at its FINEST! It turns out this woman is seriously AMAZING and totally needs the Gospel in her life right now. At first he was afraid to ask her to take the discussions, but like all great member missionaries, he found the courage to just do it! This woman was asking all the right questions and sharing all the right experiences. We had a hard time not sharing everything we knew right then and there. She was so intrigued when we gave her the Book of Mormon that she asked why more people don't know about this amazing book. Please pray for her this week that she will be protected from all those nay-sayers and those weird anti-Mormon websites. Hopefully all goes well!

Alright, now to the big news of my life. Geez Louise. So on Saturday morning I woke up at 6:30am like a good girl and started doing my yoga with Shiva Rea. So there I am in the middle of my shakra namaskar when suddenly Soeur Sherwood rolls in and is like... "Who's Guy?" And I'm like, "What do you mean, 'Who's Guy?'" And she's like, "We just got a text saying that Guy is going to do baptisms for the dead at the temple this morning at 10." Oh my HEAVENS. If I wasn't already on the floor, I totally would have been! In case you don't remember, Guy is my beloved, favorite, amazing recent convert from Quebec City. The next hour was spent in a tizzy, me frantically pacing the house, PRAYING that President Patrick would give me permission to go to the temple in a moment's notice. I have never had so much anxiety in my LIFE! He wasn't answering or texting back, and time was running out! Finally we called up our boyfriends... I mean.. the APs.. and we were like, "Hey, WHY isn't President answering his phone?!?!" Turns out he wasn't even in the same COUNTRY as us, but was at a mission president's seminar in DC. And I'm just like... WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?! THIS IS URGENT! Luckily Sister Patrick was with him AND had her phone. I got the okay after an hour of sheer turmoil, and we were OFF to the temple! Sister Landeen, my fabulous MTC companion, also taught Guy before I came in and replaced her in Quebec City. She's one of the sisters in my zone now, so we did an exchange that morning and both got to go to the temple together! And then get THIS. Turns out it was Quebec City and Ste Foy's ward/branch temple trip. This day seriously could not have gotten any better. Not only did I get to see Guy, but I was also greeted and hugged and loved by my favorite Quebec ward! Aaaaaah! I never ever thought I would see these people again! Words cannot describe the joy that was flooding, gushing, shining from my heart. I may or may not be a *little* obsessed with Quebec City... ha ha. It was just so great to see these people. And they even said I hadn't lost my French! That was a great comfort. 

Okay, so now we get to the temple. I have dreamed of the day I would get to see Guy take his family names to the temple and perform baptisms. He is super into genealogy. In fact, that was a large pull in him joining the church. It was such an incredible, indescribable feeling to see him sitting there in the temple, dressed in white, so much peace and joy in his countenance. I wish I could show you all the mental picture I took of him sitting in front of that baptismal font. One of the most beautiful parts of all was that he asked me to do the baptism for his mother. I have done a few family names of my own before, but never before have I felt such a sweet spirit as when I was baptized for his mother. Truly, Saturday was one of the most spiritual days of my mission. That morning as I lay in bed trying to motivate myself to start my day, I never would have DREAMED that I would be in the temple with Guy, my first mission companion, and so many of my cherished, beloved members from the Quebec ward. I am so grateful Heavenly Father allowed me this opportunity before I go home. I have been so overwhelmingly blessed on my mission. These are experiences you just can't have in any other setting or context of your life. I'll say this for the millionth time, but going on a mission is and will be the best decision I will ever make in this life. :)

Lest you think this perfect day ended with my temple trip, this is only the first half. Somehow I got roped into singing in our Stake's Easter Cantata. I was asked to sing a ridiculously high song called, "Pie Jesu," which I was fairly certain I wouldn't be capable of doing after months and months of not having vocal practice. To make a long story short... I nailed it! Haha! It was so great to sing again. Everyone was just like... "What? Sis Cut can sing?" And I was like, "Yeah, Sis Cut can sing." HA! Bragging, I know! But yeah, I was awesome. ;) The whole concert was fabulous. It was nice to participate, and... well. You know how I love my compliments... VANITY! My worst enemy. And oh, how I love it. 

Well, that was the incredible week that was! It probably won't be that exciting from here on out. It's like everything on my mission is coming full circle... YIKES! It terrifies me that it all seems to be coming to an end so rapidly. I plan on making every moment count! Anyway, I hope you are all enduring finals with peace and hope in your hearts. Praying for you always! Have a radiant, joyous week! I'm bursting at the seams with happiness right now if you can't tell haha. Love you and miss you all! Happy Easter!

Love,

Soeur Cutler