June 8, 2015--One Last Post 

Okay, so I am sitting in front of the computer screen and thinking to myself "Can it really be?  Am I really at the end of my mission?"  It does not feel like it.  As a missionary it is hard not to count the months and weeks, everyone knows exactly how many months they have until they go home, but now that it is here it does not feel real.  I just decided that I needed to do some groaning ;) and said to my companion Sister Liu "je vais avoir une crise cardiaque!" or "I am going to have a heart attack!" 

The members here were so sweet on Sunday.  I got lots of hugs and lots of nice words.  My last week was wonderful.  The work continued along, we had plenty of struggles and got to see lots of wonderful miracles:)  You will not believe how many things I lost at the end of my mission.  I think that God had been protecting me all along from one of my (I think it is actual a family) weakness(es), and that near the end I started to lose this power.  I lost a notebook that we keep all of the numbers of the people we meet in the street in.... then I lost my daily planner.... then my companion and I lost our phone driving one night we think it fell out of the car as she got out to help me turn around in the street.  Yep, so my last few days were sort of apostasy (sorry for those that will not understand this joke).  We took all of these losses as attempts from the adversary to discourage us, but we kept on enduring and ended up having lots of success for the week.

Eleven people who have been investigating were at church yesterday:)  There were two families, and lots of wonderful individuals.  One of the most cool things is an investigator named Jean Paul who will be getting baptized next Saturday.  We met him about a month ago, he is 26, works and is a musician at the hotels, and is super super nice.  When he started reading the Book of Mormon it was incredible how much he was touched and how much he has been learning.  He has been sharing with everyone that he knows and we have started teaching other members of his family and they were there this Sunday and had a great time.

I am excited to come home but yesterday it started to hit me that I will not be able to see these people that I have come to love so much for a long time.  Loving people is hard because during this life there are often moments when we have to say goodbye, but it is so worth it because it is not over and life becomes so much more profound when we get to know and love one another.  I have learned a lot of my mission.  Patience (and I have lots more to learn;) .  I have come to love even more studying the scriptures, what a great blessing!!!  God does not want us to not understand, he gave us a way to understand all of his plans for us and the reason for why we are here and how to succeed.  All we need is faith and a little effort.  I also learned how incredibly lucky I am to have the family I have and to have grown up with the Gospel.  I will keep sharing it because I know it is true and the path the happiness.  I know that Heavenly Father lives and loves us:)  I love you all and will see you soon!

Love,

Soeur Wilson

June 1, 2015

So I believed that this would be my last email, but it will actually be the second to last because next Monday I'll have the chance to email before leaving. 

So last Saturday there was a baptism:)  Her name is Eda and she is the sister of one of the members her in our branch.  She actually lives in France, in a tiny village in the country, and came back to Mauritius in March after the death of her husband.  While she was here (during two months) she came to church every Sunday with her brother.  We asked her if she would be interested to learn more and take the missionary discussions.  She said yes, and even though we knew she would be going back to France after not too long, we went for it with the lessons.  It was an incredible experience, because she is such a spiritual person.  As she started reading the Book of Mormon she was extremely touched by a person named Moroni (who was the last prophet to write in the Book of Mormon -and the angel who came back to in a vision to show Joseph Smith where the ancient records were hidden).  Her testimony began to grow, and before leaving back to France she had accepted the invitation to be baptized.  We got all of her contact information and sent it to the mission home in Madagascar to be transferred to France so that the missionaries could meet up with her over there and continue her lessons.  Unfortunately the information ended up not being transferred correctly, and after a few weeks I still had no news of if the missionaries had been able to get a hold of her.

In the meantime, one of the crazy back and forth transfers occurred, and I went back to St. Denis for two weeks.  On arriving back in Mauritius we had a missed call from a number out of the country.  When I called back it was Eda who had called me to tell me the great knews:D  In her little village she had managed to run into some members of the church who invited to come to church that Sunday and to give her a ride:D  She had been and someone contacted the missionaries for her and would be coming that week.  She has continued to learn and to grow her testimony right up until this past Saturday when she entered into the waters of baptism.  How beautiful!  She called me about once a week to tell me how it was going, and we got to talk the evening before her baptism.  She was so ready and so grateful for everyone who had helped her along the way.  It was a very touching story for me because of how much it all means to her.  She now has plans to be able to go to the temple next year to be sealed to her husband for time and all eternity:)  The Gospel of Jesus Christ is so beautiful and brings so much comfort and joy.

We have three people preparing to be baptized here in June:)  It will be the week after I leave but I am so excited for them:)  One of the people is named Jean Paul.  He is 26 and has such an incredible testimony of the Restoration of the Church.  He taught a lesson with us last night to his younger sister and her boyfriend and the spirit and the love was so strong.

I only have one more week, what craziness.  It will be a great week whatever God has in store for us.  I really liked the lesson in Sunday school this past Sunday:)  It was about being grateful.  The more grateful we are the more blessed and happy we will be.  It is a choice to be grateful or not, but when we choose to be life becomes so much brighter.  Trials are great blessings because they help us to learn and grow; so may be always be grateful:)

I sang in sacrament meeting yesterday for mother’s day:)  also, when we tried to start the car in the morning we realized that we had left the light on all night and the battery was dead.  Everyone had a moment of panic because we needed to get to church on time, but then I remembered that I had learned how to push start the car:D  we pushed the car out of our driveway into the street and got it going again.  Super cool:) 

I hope that you all have a great week!

Love,

Sister Wilson

May 25, 2015

Okay, so I had a pretty heinous experience this morning.  I thought about not sharing it, the first reason was to not make anyone worry needlessly, and the second I believe at its true source was out of pride, but the lesson that I learned from the story is so incredible that I cannot help but sharing. 

I know that there are a lot of beliefs and religions and philosophies in the world, and that especially in our day there are many people that do not believe in God, in miracles, and in answered prayers.  I do not judge anyone, because faith and religion our personal things and take times, but I want you all to know that I do not believe in chance and coincidence.  For almost 17 months now I have prayed every single morning without exception with my companion before leaving the house.  We pray for many things, but we always ask Heavenly Father to protect us as we are driving during the day.  I have often said incredulously to my companions here that it really is a miraculous miracle (sorry for the redundancy it was necessary to help you understand at what point it is really a miracle) that we have never had an accident here.  The streets are so narrow that anyone from the U.S. would believe that they are one way roads, which is not the case.  People walk everywhere in the streets, there are dogs, people selling things on the sides of the roads, crazy/stressed taxi drivers, and at night there are not many street lamps.  Anyways, this morning we left the house to go to the grocery store not far from our apartment and there is a big round about that is part of the highway that we cross to go to the store.  I stopped at the line and watched to my right to see when I could go.  As soon as it was clear I started to pull out.  To my horror, I had not noticed a man on a motorcycle pull up next to us and he started to yell.  We thought that we had just scared him, but in rolling down the window we were able to distinguish one word in his screaming "FOOT!"  We were on his foot:O  (this is just my pride speaking, but I want you all to know that before today I had never had an accident driving)  we asked him if we needed to reverse or pull forward, he said to pull forward, and he got his foot out-_-

He got off his motorcycle and limped to the side rail to take off his shoe.  I was expecting blood and bones sticking out at odd angles, but luckily his foot still looked like a normal foot, just a little swollen and a bit purple. I had rolled over his toes for about thirty seconds QUELLE HORREUR!!!! I felt super bad, the poor man, all he wanted to do was go to work in the morning.  Well, there was a police man nearby (who had been directing traffic) and he came over and explained to us calmly that we needed to go to the police station to report the accident so off we went.  At the police station they told us that reporting the accident would cause a lot of nonsense with the court because of his injury and so it was better to just work out an agreement between ourselves.  Well the rest of the details aren't really important (we went to the hospital with him, he got an x-ray, he will get the results tomorrow, he could still walk--with a limp--, we called our leaders, it should all work out fine with insurance --luckily the hospital is free here and we didn’t touch the motorcycle, although I would have preferred that to running over his poor foot!), but in the space of about five hours we were finally free to go eat lunch. 

At this point Sr Liu and I felt pretty tired.  Everyone had been very nice which was a blessing, but as we were eating and reflecting on the day up until that point it struck us as obvious as could be where we had gone wrong.  Like I said, every single morning for 17 months we have prayed and humbly asked for protection in the car and that morning we had not prayed.  Now some of you may say that that is coincidence, but I testify to you that it is not.  What an incredible and a beautiful lesson.  Heavenly Father wants to help us and can, but he expects us to ask (and to thank him of course when he gives:) .  We had not prayed and so we were left to our own capacities and in the craziness of the roads here that was not enough.  I know that God is there and that he can protect us and will if we ask him in faith.  We felt very dumb to have forgotten to pray/to ask him, but be assured that we will not forget again.  I am grateful that it should all work out and that no one was hurt more, but I will be even more careful in driving from now on.

Anyways, I hope and pray that you will be able to feel the spirit as you read this true (and unfortunate) story.  I know that God lives, that we are his children, that he loves us, that he hears and answers our prayers.  You can just test it out this week, it’s simple, and it is like talking to a friend.  You say "Father"  and then you say whatever is in your heart (ask him for something, thank him) and you finish by saying "in the name of Jesus Christ amen" because it is thanks to our big brother and savior that we will be able to go home one day to our father:)  Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Wilson

May 18, 2015

I apologize in advance that this will be a short email.  We had another good week.  We met lots of new people and made lots of new friends:)  We are still walking a lot because the second car is still afar off in the land of paperwork I fear.  But it is good for us to walk, and sometimes when the sun is super strong and we are walking down a dusty road I have the impression that I am in Africa and it makes me happy.  I love the idea of Africa.  One amazing miracle this week is with an investigator named Chris.  We met him three weeks ago when we went to teach his girlfriend Virginie.  He is very interested in religion because he studies a lot in the Bible, but he does not belong to a particular confession because he has not found one that really follows what is in the Bible.  He was sort of hesitant and strange during the lesson, and has had a very hard past, but we testified about the sacrifice of Christ and how we can really learn of how to use this sacrifice to heal our hearts in reading the Book of Mormon.  He said that he could not believe in the book because he had never heard of it before but that he would read it.  Well, we didn’t see him for three weeks, but yesterday we stopped by and had an incredible surprise.  He and Virginie have been reading it every day.  He spent twenty minutes testifying to us about the power that it had had already in changing his life.  I can tell you completely honestly that this was not the same person we had met three weeks ago.  Instead of looking like the wait of the world was on his shoulders, he was beaming from ear to ear as he talked about how much happier he felt in reading and in applying the stories to his own life.  He even had a friend at work that wanted to read and who took the time to photocopy the entire book page by page!  He is so excited that this is only the beginning of this new knowledge:)  I am excited for him too!  I know that the Book of Mormon is an inspired book of God given to us through his holy prophets.  I love reading it every morning.  It is a light in my life and it brings me such peace:)

I only have three weeks left which is crazy for me to think.  I am not really worried about slacking off at the end; I don’t have a problem with working hard, I like to work, but what is hard is to not think about home now.  Three weeks is a lot of time, in which a lot of good can be done, and a lot of growth can occur and I hope not to miss/to waste a minute of it.

 I had a bit of a rough day yesterday.  We have been working so hard but sometimes when you don’t see the results of your work it can be discouraging.  But what is the most important is that we do our best and keep moving forward.  I know that this is God's work and his plan/timing and that I need to be grateful with what he gives me:)

I think what is most beautiful about this island is the people.  They are so friendly, kind, and humble.  The branch is not super big (60 active members) but it is like one big family:)  I love the people who I have met, and the person that I have been able to become from being here.  What a great blessing it is that Heavenly Father gives us to grow up and learn together and from one another.  A life is such a rich blessing and adventure.

I love you all and hope that you have a great week! 

Love,

Sister Wilson

May 11, 2015

Okay, so I didn’t really take many pictures this week hence the moderately lame selection, sorry!  But we did go to the zoo again because my companions had not been yet:)  It was fun and I absolutely love being surrounded by animals and by the nature, it makes me feel so happy:)  My spirit really feels at peace when I am surrounded by the beautiful and incredible creations of my heavenly father.  How lucky are we that he made such a beautiful earth for us to live on during our mortal existence?  It is just like me with my earthly parents, they are too good to me and I am spoiled rotten:)  We are all spoiled rotten by our heavenly father.  

Monkeys are such funny creatures:D  I have always, always, always wanted a pet monkey but my mother always said I could only have one when I grew up and had my own house.  Unfortunately, the apartments at college have rules against pets, and so I suppose that one day I will have to convince my husband that it is a good idea to have a monkey;)  Or I can build a house in the jungle and have wild monkey friends:)  Okay, sorry, thus far my email has not been very inspiring.

It was another great week.  I only have four weeks left on my mission.  That is craziness for me to think about.  I don't really think about it.  When I look around at all of the familiar places and when I am at church Sunday with the members sometimes it begins to hit me how much I will miss them.  When you serve people you can learn to love them very quickly and that is exactly what happens during the mission.  We serve the people every day.  Every single hour of the day is scheduled so that we can be effective and efficient in serving and teaching others and what an incredible blessing it has been to be able to consecrate all of my heart, might, mind, and strength for these people.  And I am sure that you already know this, but when you serve you always get so much more back than you ever gave.  I know sometimes in the world it seems very dark, with all of the news reports of wars, murders, thefts, etc. we can easily think that there is so much more evil in the world than good.  But I believe that there are more goodhearted, sincere, kind, and loving people out there then we believe and that we just need to take the time to get to know each other.  I love getting to know people, it is such a fun and enriching adventure:)  So get the time to know people, even a simple stranger waiting at the same bus stop as you or in the same check-out line of the grocery store.  You will see, you will not be able to help but to smile if you make another person’s day brighter.

I love you all and wish you a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Wilson

May 4, 2015

This first picture is one of our many adventures in walking.  Sister Liu and I decided that we looked absolutely ridiculous walking across this huge open field in the middle of the little city across the highway where our apartment is.  In fact, it was because we got off at the wrong bus stop (like usual;)  and were trying to find the shortest way home.  It was pretty funny and we decided to stop and have a little photoshoot by ourselves;)

The second picture is of a fun activity that we had last Saturday.  It was with the young adults of the three branches here in Mauritius and we made homemade pizzas:D  It was super fun, everyone enjoyed themselves, and I love eating dough:))) 

The third picture is from yesterday.  We are teaching a new family, a father with his three children and one niece:)  The kids are so incredibly intelligent and have a lot of faith and it is soooooo much fun to teach them:)  Afterwards the daughters decided that they wanted to paint our nails and so we decided to take some pictures to show off how stylish we were;) 

We had another good week:)  Our branche missionary leader got us motivated to try and work even harder, and this week was CRAZINESS but super fun:)  We worked super hard and have 16 new people that we are teaching:)  We talked to everyone, everyone, everyone and it is very interesting to have the opportunity to talk with so many different people and to hear about what they believe in. 

My favorite moment of the week was on Saturday.  We were headed to a lesson and saw an investigator outside his house that we hadn’t been able to see that week because of his work schedule.  We decided to stop just for a moment to see how he was doing.  As we were talking I saw a BUNCH of bananas that he had lying on a table.  I said "hey cool, that’s a ton of bananas!"  He asked if I liked bananas and I said yes but instantly regretted because the people here are too nice and always give.  Before I could stop him he had called his dad to invite us in the house and to give us some bananas.  His dad had actually met missionaries years ago and still has an old Book of Mormon.  We have only had one lesson there and the dad was in the room but did not sit down with us.  Anyways, so the dad, who is rather old, let us into the living room to sit down and began to cut us of bananas with great care.  It took him about five minutes and I think he gave us about 40 bananas, or all types of maturity so that we could eat some now, some in a week, some in two weeks, etc.  As I washed him I felt a very strong feeling/spirit of love come over me.  This man who has so little was so willing to give of what he had to complete strangers. I began to cry as I watched him and thought of his good heart.  People have the capacity to become some beautiful creatures, and we really all are brothers and sisters.  As he handed us the sack just before leaving he said simply "mo'en juste anvi ou dir merci pou la priere, mo'en ressenti heureu pou la premie fois dans longtemps" or "I just wanted to thank you the other week for the prayer (the lesson) I felt happy for the first time in a long time."   That is when I really lost it.  What a humble and beautiful man, I hope that he will always be able to be happy.  God created us to be happy.  God is our father and he loves us, and if we will just believe that we will never have to feel alone.  I know that God lives and that he loves each and every one of his children, he knows us personally and perfectly and he wants us to feel his love.  I pray that everyone will be able to feel his love.

Have a great week and be happy and safe!

Love,

Sister Wilson

April 27, 2015

So I would like you all to know that I would never be able to have a job where I am required to be in front of a computer screen for more than one hour.  Well, maybe that is not true because at school already I have had to do it to write papers and so forth, but it really makes my eyes and then my brain feel tired.  I don't think it is good for our health to be in front of screens for too long.  Anyways, I had another good week.  I say that but in reality I already can’t remember what happened and will have to look at my weekly planning to be able to share something uplifting or interesting;) 

Awwweee yes, it was a fun week because we had to figure out how to organize ourselves between two companionships of missionaries and one car. The thing that is difficult is that the majority of our lessons start after five p.m. because that is when people start getting home from work, but public transportation stops between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m.  Anyways, we switch who has the car every other day and the days without the car have been quite an adventure.  It is a trial and a blessing like most things in life;)  a trial because it is hard to get to all our lessons, but a blessing because we meet more people:)  Figuring out the public transportation has not been too hard, except that sometimes I am too lazy to figure out the buses and just want to walk and I have a tendency to think that things are a lot closer than they really are.  Last Thursday I think that we walked about a total of five hours.  I am not really sure if that is a lot compared to some people but for us it was a lot. 

As a companionship we are always trying our hardest to keep improving the manner in which we work. This past Sunday was very productive and we had a large collaborative effort with the branch auxiliary leaders to get the ward mission plan in place and to make sure that our goals (as missionaries) are in line with the wards so that we are really working side by side to accomplish this marvelous work:D  Auxiliary leaders just refer to the president of each group in the church.  So there is the Branch President who looks over the whole branch, and then there is a group for the men, a group for the ladies, classes for the teenagers and classes for the children and each organization has someone who runs it.  It is fun to get things organized and to really work towards a goal together and it is so much more effective when everyone is on the same page.

We are trying to meet a ton more people each week to get things moving even more and  things are going well and we hope to help the branch here grow and progress.

I was talking with a friend and just had one thought to share.  One secret to success in life is to forget ourselves and go to work.  I agree whole heartedly, but this does not mean neglect ourselves.  The more clear our own spirit the more easily we will be able to accomplish the other goals we have.  So, we need to take time for ourselves as well and step back and appreciate the beauty and the fun of life. What a great adventure!  I hope that everyone has a fun week.  Keep being positive!

Love,

Sister Wilson