Happy Memorial Day, Americans! Canadians, happy Monday.

My people,

Has it been a week already?  

Our mission had the privilege of attending Sister Monson's funeral in the tabernacle last Thursday.  It was cool to be able to share something so important and personal with the prophet and other Church leaders.  We got to sit in the balcony close to the Motab.  The service was very nice, kind of sad but also happy.  My favorite part of the whole thing was just watching the apostles sit up there.  We were so close to them!  President Uchtdorf looks even more like a celebrity up close.  Elder Bednar was helping Elder Hales stand when the family entered and exited the tab, that was precious.  It was also interesting to me just to watch the prophet's family.  They're so normal.  So that was a nice once-in-a-lifetime thing to do on my mission.
  

Now I must tell you about my latest French tour.  I got to announce the tours in French on Sunday and we had a big crowd listening.  I spotted Uncle Eldon and Aunt Carolyn towards the end of our announcing but I got stopped pretty quickly by a woman from France before I could Smith family reunite.  So like good little missionaries, we took this nice lady named Marie-Therèse on a tour with her two friends from Southern Utah.  Marie raved about the choir's performance and she just seemed really excited to be alive so I was looking forward to some French fun.  As I introduced myself and told her I was a missionary, Marie was so quick to tell me that she's a Catholic, not a Mormon and she was going to stay that way.  I said sweet and we started our tour.  I tried to tell her a pioneer story but she kept telling me that I wasn't going to convert her and then she would tell me stories about her life in France and how she saw her house on google recently for the first time.  Neat.  I wanted to take her to see a few places on Temple Square but she kept telling me that she had seen them all.  I asked her what was left for me to show her and she told me that I should come to France.  So, we just kept walking as I listened for a longtime.  As we went up to see the statue of Christ, Marie told me that the Catholics and the Mormons believe in two very different Christs.  I laughed and told her no but she got very serious about it.  I translated her thoughts to my companion and her friend's brother who was luke-warm at understanding French.  They backed me up but then it was obvious that we needed to drop the subject.  I asked if I could play the narration for her in French and she told me no so we moved on to look at some old testament paintings.  At this point we left the Utah friends behind because they needed to check up on someone else.  Marie started telling Sister Takahashi and I about how we don't believe in the Old Testament so she was shocked when I showed her my Bible.  We continued to ask her questions to try to get to know her spiritual side a little better and all of the sudden, she had tears in her eyes that eventually spread to her face.  I didn't really understand where it came from but Marie started telling me all about her husband's death that happened a year ago.  I was about ready to end the tour right before this but it was obvious that our teaching opportunity was revealing itself.  She told me about how much pain she was in because of the loss of her love.  That's why she's been traveling, because she was doing everything she could to forget about him and move on with her life.  As she spoke, I felt a really intense rush of God's love for her.  She told us that she goes to Church for help sometimes but she never reads scriptures.  This to me meant that she had cut off a few tunnels for revelation in her life and somehow God allowed me to be that window to revelation for her.  All I was able to do was bear testimony and give her a hug.  Sister Takahashi quoted some things that were said at Sister Monson's funeral and I taught her about the power of Christ's atonement.  She definitely had a hope in Christ and a hope to see her husband again but that hope didn't seem like enough for her.  We told her that she could know and that as she learns about Jesus more, she can be comforted.  She told us that she felt the Spirit when she listened to the choir sing that morning especially since it was a tribute to memorial day and her husband was in the military.  I've been a missionary for a little while now and I'm convinced that the hardest part about all of this is when I see someone in desperate who reject the cure.  I don't know what Marie-Therèse is going to do next but I know that her heart was touched.  She told us that she never talks to her friends about her husband's death but she thanked us for listening and helping her feel loved.  She told us that she'd always remember her little visit to SLC so that's good.  I'm confident that we did all we could for her at this time. 

The Canadian and I have had a lot of really good tours lately on the square including ones with SLC missionaries and their investigators.  I won't go into more details about the other ones but it's safe to say that I'd like to adopt a Downs Syndrome Ukrainian baby now. 

Happy Memorial Day, Americans!  Canadians, happy Monday.  

LOVE, SISTER KATIE KYLE