Letters from Canada: Fête des Mères

Hello!

The weirdest thing that happened all week was the sentence that came out of my mouth at the end of Skyping with the best family ever: "I guess.... I'll talk to you again at the Salt Lake airport."

Weird.

Luckily I've created a plan to make sure I deserve a good homecoming when that time comes. Because where there is no vision, the people perish! I refuse to "die" at the end of my mission. I'm going to endure to the end.

Anyway, it was a great week! Full of eating hash browns, filling up the font again, having conference calls with the sisters (and companionship studies via Skype with them), finding dead animals on the ground, seeing spiders on doors again, warm days, snowy days, being sick, walking back and forth between Moncton and Dieppe, and talking to everyone. It was a great week.

On Mother's Day, I sat in sacrament meeting with the Blanchaud* family (3 boys and a baby girl) to help take care of the kids. I was surrounded by adorable, French-speaking blonde kids and was basically in heaven, until all the talks were about how great mothers are, and I was split between being grateful for my own mom and all the moms who treat me like their daughter, and hating the missionary handbook rule that we can't hold children haha. It was horrible. But I survived and came away just mostly feeling grateful for mothers.

One of my favourite talks is one given by President Monson. He says:

"The hour has come. The personal earthly ministry of the Son of God moves swiftly to its dramatic conclusion. A certain loneliness is here. Nowhere to be found are the lame beggars who, because of this man, walk; the deaf who, because of this man, hear; the blind who, because of this man, see; the dead who, because of this man, live.
"There remain yet a few faithful followers. From his tortured position on the cruel cross he sees his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing by. He speaks: 'Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother!'
"From that awful hour when time stood still, when the earth did quake and great mountains were brought down--yes, through the annals of history, over the centuries of years and beyond the span of time, there echoes his simple yet divine words, 'Behold thy mother.'"

And I have. I've spent a lot of time over the last week thinking about my mother.

I'm really grateful for a mom who prayerfully decided to bring me here.

Basically I cried a whole ton for two years and then she decided to bless me with a baby sister who became my best friend.

And then I got happy and quiet and so she rewarded me with 4 brothers who made me tough and who I can tackle to the ground now.

Then my mom blessed me with another baby sister--really, a princess. And then one more, who I have a special, special friendship with.

And thanks to my mom, I got to grow up in a strong, faithful family, and I got to be a part of a big family who I love with all my heart.

And because my mom was a source of family strength my whole life, she inspired me to want to be, for someone else, everything that she is to me.

I know the world today really down-plays the role of mothers. But because of my mother, I don't. I know it's a divine role.

"May each of us treasure this truth: One cannot forget mother and remember God. One cannot remember mother and forget God. Why? Because these two sacred persons, God and mother, partners in creation, in love, in sacrifice, in service, are as one."

So yep, Happy Mother's Day to my perfect mom, and the rest of them too:)

Love,

Sister Lewis