All in all, we laughed, we smiled, we had hope, and love abounded.

Bonjour à chacun de vous!

Hello everybody! I hope you each had a good week full of happiness and peace! 

This week we had some really cool experiences! We were able to witness some really cool testimonies of our friends about the Book of Mormon! Fr. Merci Mabika is a teacher, he studied philosophy and he is wonderfully taught by the Spirit making each of our lessons wonderfully deep and inspiring. When I think of someone pursuing peace and happiness in their most eternal sense my thoughts are turned to him. When we asked about how was his reading of the BoM and his prayer about it he described in very eloquent and moving french that after having read and prayed about the Book of Mormon he felt a profound peace that surpassed all of his understanding (and he's very intelligent so...). My soul sang and my spine hummed with joy as he described this touching experience with the Holy Ghost. We then talked about our existence and I realized God truly wants us to have joy, and to better pursue this joy peace, and happiness we must come with sincerity to the Prince of Peace Jesus the Christ, and to His Father, our Father, the King of Celestial Peace. By living and sharing this Gospel of Jesus Christ with a real intention I have come to savor the reality that He lives and truly is the Giver of all Good Gifts and Things!

We had a stake conference that was centered on Jesus Christ and His Atonement so....my mind was literally blown. Afterward, we gathered all of our friends together. From all the companionships and members there, there were at least 300 to 500 friends and new members. In very apostle-like preaching of the Gospel of Christ way President Magre and the Stake President (who is fire) took questions from the assembly. They ended up with spiritual power and authority like that of Alma and the sons of Mosiah when they announced the message of the Restoration of the Church and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Then one of our friends got up and testified how much the Spirit had touched him! He asked with much sincerity where he could buy a Book of Mormon (which got a chuckle out of everyone knowing that they are in fact free) and he exclaimed if even old guys like him can be baptized! Fr. Joseph is awesome and on another interesting note, he said he's gonna travel this Tuesday so we'll see how we can make that work. 

All in all, we laughed, we smiled, we had hope, and love abounded. It might not have been the Pentecost with the Apostles but I would dare say it was something similar for the stake presidents and the mission presidents of the Lord in this world.

So to be clear, I am happy and I love making my God and His children truly happy. I believe that is the great call of each human: to become what God knows they can become by His grace; a source of happiness for the eternities. May we pursue happiness, become it and share it. 

Love, Elder Habel