As Clean as Earth Right After Rain

Hate to say it guys but...

When it rains it pours!!! We had three days of non stop rain! And I am serious! I went to bed Sat and it was raining, and when I woke up Sunday it was still raining! 

And if you are wondering, of course my companion and I walked many miles in the rain. Would we be real missionaries if we didn't? 

This week was pretty eventful! We met President and Sister Blair, our new mission president and his wife! They are amazing people! They love to serve others and they have a great sense of humor. I am excited to get to know them more and serve with them. 

This week was a harder week the adversary was definitely trying to stop us this week. But Nothing can stop the work of Jesus Christ! We saw some awesome tender mercies, including when we visited our investigator LuAnn. She has been growing so much spiritually and has started saying very meaningful prayer. I am excited to see her progress more. 

We did some gardening with a less active member that has had a hard time accepting some things we teach. We have been seeing her for a while now and this week she allowed us to pray with her and talk more about the gospel. Small, but awesome miracle. 

Remember how much our Savior love you all. As Elder Holland, a member of the quorum of the twelve apostles said so wonderfully: " the first great commandment of all eternity is to love God with all our heart, might ,mind ,and strength...but the first great truth of all eternity is that God loves us with all his heart, might mind , and strength. " 

What can you do this week to show your love for Him? 

Love you all!! 

Enjoy some silly pictures!

Sister L 

So Po

I am loving it here in South Portland(So Po)!

I can see the ocean from my apartment. Huge change! But is is so beautiful here!

My first week here has been pretty exciting! This area is different than any other I have served in thus far. It is definitely a city, and there are a lot of people! Another thing is that the ward and the community is so diverse! There are a lot of refugees living in Portland, so we see people from all over the world. In our congregation, many are from Africa who speak french. So we have a set of French speaking elders that translate the whole service into their native tongue! It is amazing to see how a belief in Christ can bring people that are so different together in love and happiness. 

My new companion, Sister Draper, and I have been working really hard. We teach very well together! We clicked immediately and things are going pretty great. We have been spending a lot of time trying to help me get to know all the members here. There are some very strong members that are very inspiring in their diligence and desire to serve God. 

On Sunday I bore my testimony as the new missionary in the ward and I shared the words of a children's hymn:
"I feel my Saviors love, in all the world around me, His spirit warms my soul, in everything I see.
He knows I will follow Him, give all my life to Him. I feel my Saviors love, the love He freely gives me"

I am so grateful for our Savior. I have seen His love this week as I have served His children. There is so happier feeling in the world than serving our brothers and sisters. 

Have a great week!

Sister Lescarbeau

Farm Girl--City Girl

That's right. This Farmington girl (that has truly spent time on farms) is headed to....

 PORTLAND MAINE. 

One of the biggest cities in the mission. It is right on the coast and home to beautiful lighthouses. It will be an awesome adventure! 

My last week in Farmington was great.It  was kind of slow, but not too bad. Summer is just a busy time for people. We saw some great success with our investigators and other this week! 

We were able to see Ellen more frequently. We saw her 4 times this week. We committed her to come to church one last time, and she came!! It was incredible! The lessons have been going really well, and she really seems to be grasping everything. Each time we go I see her testimony grow a little more, and her light shines a little brighter. We set a date with her for July 30th, and we are hoping she will do all she can to be baptized then. 

We had a great lesson with Sister Donaghy this week. She is hilarious. She told me that her daughter had a dream that I was milking a cow in a wedding dress....so now she said that my wedding invitations in the future better look like that. Anyways we had a great lesson about remembering the times we have felt the spirit very strong, and striving to get back to that. 

The Silvers are doing well. They came to church again this week and we had dinner with them after. They are so much happier now that they are living the gospel and striving to better follow Christ. Their home was more peaceful and everyone was joyful and respectful! I am excited for them! 

There is a quote I have been thinking about a lot lately

"You can have what you want, or you can have something better"

Heavenly Father has such wonderful things is store for us. It is difficult sometimes to give up our own will, desires, and choices to follow Him and Jesus Christ. It is always worth it. In 1 Corinthians 2:9 it says: " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." 

The people here exemplify this. they have so many excuses they could use for not following Chris, but they follow Him regardless. they know His plan is better. I know that Christ wants the best for us. he lives so we can find joy.I love Christ and His gospel, and I know He loves us all. 

Love you all much!!

Sister L

Gone with the Wind

And that is a literal title! This past week we had such horrible wind gusts that there were several places where the fallen trees knocked out the powerlines. Or blocked roads! We actually even moved a fallen tree out of the road all on our own! (disclaimer:it was not on a power line):)

We have had a very busy week! Actually this whole six week cycle has been super fast! We get transfer calls on Saturday! It always happens just as the companionship hits its stride!:)

We saw a lot of miracles this week! Actually, we see a lot of miracles every week, because the Lord is just awesome like that!:) But we definitely saw some great growth, and I really felt like we were doing what God wanted us to. And because we followed His counsel, we were blessed! 

A lot of the people we have been working with came to church on Sunday! The most amazing was the Silver family! All 7 of them were there together for the first time in 2 years. Sister Silver came up to me and gave me a hug and said " Oh look at the beautiful sister that brought me and my family back!". In that moment the Holy Ghost helped me to realize that I was able to be the Lord's hands in His marvelous work. 

We spent a lot of time looking for people to teach, like knocking doors or talking to people on the street. It is actually so much fun! After you start to look at it as an opportunity to just get to know the people in the community it becomes more fun! We met so many nice, awesome people.I didn't get one door slammed in my face! Always an accomplishment!

We were able to go to our last Zone Conference with the President Stoker as our mission president! It was a great Zone Conference, it included a lot of talking about how the gospel can comfort us in any place in our lives. The scriptures and the words of modern prophets give us comfort and guidance straight from the Lord. One scripture was shared that really touched my heart: 

"Behold my Spirit is upon you, wherefore all thy words will I justify; and the mountains shall flee before you, and the rivers shall turn from their course; and thou shalt abide in me, and I in you; therefore walk with me" Moses 6:34. 

Christ is truly walking by our side every day. The moment we learn to trust in Him, is the moment we begin to see that He can help us overcome all things. 

Enjoy your week you wonderful people!

And enjoy some pictures!!! And the picture of all the missionaries is all the missionaries in our mission! It is over 200!!

LOVE YA

Sister Lescarbeau

Summary in Fahmington

Yes I spelled that right! In New England all yah 'r' s turn to 'h's. Try it out! It is more fun than you think! 

This week has been wonderful guys! The sun has been shining and the Lord has been blessing us! 

We picked up a new investigator this week! Her name is Jane and she initially just contacted us to do service for her, but we found out she is interested! She really wants to know what is true, so she is really intrigued by the promise at the end of the Book of Mormon, which challenges everyone to ask God if the book is true. So she has a lot of potential.

Penny, our progressing investigator, came to church again, and she stayed the second hour. It was great to see her get some more learning in.

We were also able to teach our investigators Kim and Jessica, and also Ellen this week. Ellen is progressing in essentially every other way other than coming to church. We are working in teaching her that action is important to progression, and she seems to be catching on. We are still in the beginning stages of teaching Kim and Jessica. They had some bad, like horrible , experiences with other churches and it turned them off a little bit. But they are definitely interested in having us come back!

We had some fun adventures this week as well! We milked cows, traveled to Augusta (the capital), and spent a lot of time helping helping people around their houses and such. 

I am just so grateful for this gospel. I know Christ suffered for all of us because he loves us and wants the best for us. His love is unchanging, and so is His gospel. So, come on down and receive more strength and peace from His love. What can you do this week to better come closer to Christ?

He tells us: 

"  Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye,except ye abide in me... If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.' John 15

I have seen time and time again, He can change us if we let Him. He will give us joy, if we let Him.

He is calling out to you today. If you draw near to HIm, He will draw near to you. 

Love you all!

Sister Lescarbeau

Trio in a Triage of Trees

I Hello to the coolest people I know!


Another week here in Farmington has passed so quickly! And it has been
a pretty good week! We have been working so so hard! And our diligence
is definitely being rewarded. There has still been some hard days but
the Lord always gives us tender mercies, little miracles, every day.

We have had some great times with the members this week! One that we
were able to see was Sister Wells, and she was having a really hard
week. So it was pretty cool because she said that before we randomly
stopped by that she was laying in bed wondering if her day could
possibly be any worse.....and we knocked! She said that we saved her
day! And then she came to church , and she hasn't been a while.

We were able to get two new investigators this week, a mother and a
daughter! It was pretty cool because we were driving past a random
street and felt prompted to try a potential there. The potential
wasn't there, but we were able to talk to Jessica and Kim on their
front lawn! They are way excited to learn and just before we left we
have them both a Book of Mormon and Jessica said "as soon as you leave
I am going right in and reading this!" It is amazing to see where the
spirit will guide.

A topic that seemed to come up again and again this week has been
loving one another. It is so essential for anyone who wants to be like
Christ to strive to love all those we come into contact with. I have
learned on my mission that we can never know how much our kindness can
mean to someone. The prophet, President Thomas S Monson said it best:

 "We cannot truly love God if we do not love our fellow travelers on
this mortal journey. Likewise, we cannot fully love our fellowmen if
we do not love God, the Father of us all. The Apostle John tells us,
“This commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his
brother also.” We are all spirit children of our Heavenly Father and,
as such, are brothers and sisters. As we keep this truth in mind,
loving all of God’s children will become easier."

So reach out and show someone you care this week! People don't care
how much you know until they know how much you care!😊😊

Lotsa loves!
Sister L

Three Heads are Better Than Two

Hello World! 

This week has been very busy! So it has flown by very quickly. On Monday night we left for exchange in Bangor with Sister Hallam and Sister Dickson. I had a great exchange with Sister Dickson, and we did a lot of finding. It was a little bit of a wake up call for me, and I resolved to more trying to find people. We also just talked about the trio and she gave some great advice. She is such a great Sister Training leader! I am grateful for all I learned from her.

We saw a lot of miracle as we implemented what we learned about finding. We were able to have some great contacts, and also get a solid referral! It was amazing because right as we finished up some street contacting we got a call from a woman named Jane who heard that we do service. She wants some help with some things around her house and wants to hear our message! So it was pretty cool to see that almost instantaneous result!

Other than doing more finding, the work is about the same. We are still meeting with Penny and she is coming along. Ellen is struggling with commitments, but we had a great lesson with her. She is progressing as far as understanding and reading goes, but she just can't seem to get to church. We have a couple others we are trying to get into contact with, and I know we will be able to find those that are searching for this gospel. 

Saturday we were able to meet Elder Rasband! It was pretty amazing to here from someone who also dedicates his whole life to serving our Savior! He gave us some great counsel, and I learned a lot about how to be a better missionary. As he was in that room with us I felt the Holy Ghost testify to me that this is truly the restored Church of Jesus Christ again on the Earth. I know that Christ is the head of this church. I know that Christ's church has righteous leaders, and I am so thankful for the opportunity I have to tell people about how much I love Christ and His chruch. 

have a wonderful week you wonderful people! 

Enjoy some pictures of my past companions, including the lovely and wonderful Sister Hamilton and Sister Bishop:) 

Love you all, 

Sister Lescarbeau