Mon Feb 24

I love reading your email thanks for all of the updates beautiful mommy:) and oh how the racquetball crew makes me smile;)  I can’t wait to get home and play again:)  I’m glad that everybody appreciates my new nickname;)  there are lots of cute and nice fluffy kitties on the island to pet which is awesome and there are fun geckos in our house:D   I like to catch them and hold them and my companions think that I am a little crazy;)  last monday we went on a super gorgeous hike to a place in st. gilles called the ''les trois bassins'' (the three ponds) where there were some waterfalls-it was for a zone activity.  This week I won the spazy award because we only have three plates in the house and wednesday I chipped one, friday I broke a different one in half... and then yesterday I accidently dumped all of the leftover potato puree thing irretrievably into the sink that soeur berchel had been nice enough to say I could have some of.  Luckily my companions had a good sense of humor about it:p  thinks are going well here.  I love the people and I love making new friends:)  the creole is quite common and i am getting better at understanding it and my french companion -soeur berchel- knows how to speak it which is cool:)   I want to tell you some stories about the people i am meeting but again have run out of time -_-  so I will write them in a letter and ask mark to type them up on the blog for me:)  also, I tried loading pictures but the compûter refuses to behave:/  which is too bad:P  but I will try again next week.  I met the mission president and his wife this week at the zone conference which was super awesome and went really well:)  I am enjoying myself and like working hard, hope all is well at the home front!  Never forget that we are all brothers and sisters, spirit children of god, that he loves us, and that we need to love him and each other:)  I love you all have a lovely week!!!!!! love, soeur Wilson

This is an email from one of my airport friends I made --he is an older gentleman from Canada:)

“Hi Cecily! It is good to hear from you. I did arrive safely in Malawi in the afternoon and my son was there to pick me up in his beaten-up Suzuki Samarai which is great on the roads here. I am enjoying my time here very much. My son has an apartment in Zomba and his Africycle shop is about 7 miles on the outskirts. Malawi is a very poor country with a high HIV occurrence. Today I visited a place called Grace Orphan Care which Africycle helps to finance. It is a refuge for the vulnerable and it is wonderful to see the hope that it is providing for those in destitute situations.

I was here 5 years ago and was encouraged by some of the bright lights that are appearing in the youth.

I really enjoyed having a croissant with you and sharing our stories. It was plain to see you have Christ's light burning brightly in you and I want to encourage you to keep sharing that love with others. You really made my day a lot brighter. Keep in touch and let me know how you are keeping. Warmest regards! Rod”

Mon Feb 17

We have a car here (all of the missionaries do) and actually our area of st pierre (and its surrounding cities) is the biggest in the south district. for my mom;) I like my shoes and my clothes they are all working out great (thank you:)! I do eat well and drink plenty;)  Soeur packer likes to cook-we buy groceries together-and she cooks for us every night (sometimes I help).  We eat at members houses sometimes and it’s always good!  I love the branch here and going to activities and making friends. I particularly enjoy the relief society ladies they are all so cute:)  they had a sewing/lunch party this last week and we had a lovely time--one thing that amused me was that they told me that i looked like the elf lady (the blond one) from lord of the rings and that I'm very beautiful which is kind of them (it took me a bit to figure out what they were talking about with the french;).  My companions and I get along well and work hard which is great:)  soeur berchel has nicknamed me pretty barbie (in french) which is amusing and makes me smile.  This week we already had so many miracles but I don’t have anymore time to write:/  so I will put it in a letter and have someone type it up...

Feb 10 2014

Well I will no longer be following proper rules of grammar--this key board is french and differs in some funny ways and my fingers feel spazy while typing but i fear that by the time I get home I won’t' know how to use the english ones anymore:)   Anyways, things are going well here:)   I made lots of friends in all of the different airports, and even had a lovely breakfast in the airport in south africa with a kind old man from canada who had been in ghana on a mission trip and was going to maui i believe to visit his son:) 

Had a rather exciting time at the airport in Reunion--for whatever reason when I landed in mauritius instead of having a three hour layover like it said on my ticket I got personally and brisquly escorted to the next plane and consequently arrived in La Reunion three hours early.   That wasn’t a problem.  I went up to the information desk (turns out they only spoke french so i was lucky I knew enough to get by) and asked to call the number I had for the mission home in madagascar--but they said their phones could only call in La Reunion.  So I went to the international payphone but my card would"t work.... I thought oh well, waiting is fine and I had things I could do (journaling; reading, etc).   But the airport workers got a little crazy/anxious.  It turns out the airport completely closes at 10:30pm so they were trying so hard to find me a place to go.  I could tell that they thought I was literally crazy -- an american with no phone, no number in La Reunion to call, no names of anyone here, no address, I didn't even know the city I was going to... They were trying to call any Mormons they knew to come get me.   In the end just as they were calling a hotel to reserve me a room, the Madson's (the senior couple on the island) showed up to get me:)

I am in St. Pierre now (it is the first time sisters have been in the city for a long time -- there are also two sets of elders here).   I have two trainers (Soeur Berchel from Toulouse, France, and Soeur Packer from the U.S.).  The apartment is new so the first night I slept on the floor which was exciting:)   I had my opening interview with the mission president over skype and will meet him next week. 

Our branch has about 200 members on record and only 40 regulars which is sad.  Until a few weeks ago it had been four years since the branch had had a baptism:O  the island as a whole had 23 last year and before that the most it had been in years and years was ten -craziness!!!! but that’s ok I’m ready to work:)  My companions are awesome, and things have been going well. I didn't want to have two but I got over myself and I am glad one is a native french speaker.  They work hard, are obedient, clean, friendly, and good teachers so it is awesome.  They are new to each other and last night I was able to help resolve some conflicts between them which was super cool!!! It is always cool to be a peacemaker and it surprises me a little because I had so many problems with temper and whatnot myself when I was little.  I love you and my time is up!!!! but they are happy to have me and say they love my energy :)

As I think some of you know it is like summer here and it turns out that St. Pierre is as hot as it can get (good thing I like to be warm:)  It is sort of interesting to literally be sweating every moment of the day and the entirety of the night (I laughed to myself and said good thing i used to sleep with so many blankets I'd sweat it was preparing me for this;)  Anyways the island is gorgeous and the people are kind.  I will give a story or two next week.  But in closing, for my mom;), I am in good health and eating well and drinking lots:)  I love you all and I will write next week:) !!!!!

--Soeur Wilson

Dear Sister Wilson,

I just wanted to let you know what you already know and that is that your daughter arrived safely and smoothly to her field of labor.  She had a tremendous impact upon the MTC while she was here.  She is an amazing missionary.  We are grateful for the opportunity to have become her friends.

Warmest regards,

President and Sister Robison

Ghana MTC

Feb 6 2014

I got to Reunion okay--all of my plane transfers went fine, I only had a little bit of trouble with being picked up.  I am in St. Denis right now, I stayed the night with four sisters here and went out for a bit in the morning.  Then my two companions came and we had lunch with the senior couple here and the zone leaders-they gave me my orientation, I had a Skype interview with the Mission President and his wife, and now I am off to St. Pierre my first area :o  :) :) :) and my p-day will be on Monday so I will email then, and I have a new address for packages.  Hope everyone is doing well, :D  

Love, Soeur Wilson

Saint-Pierre

"Réunion" was the name given to the island in 1793 by a decree of the Convention with the fall of the House of Bourbon in France, and the name commemorates the union of revolutionaries from Marseille with the National Guard in Paris, which took place on 10 August 1792.

Feb 4 2014

Those are the last group photos (relief society and then everyone:).  I forgot to add a thought yesterday, it is this:  I can see why contention is always of the Devil--and it is so easy to feel how quickly contention drives away the Spirit for everyone in the room.  Two boys in my class got into an argument just now, and were so worked up that--although they are both intelligent and good people--they would not listen to reason.  I was sad.  (3 Nephi 11:29, "For verily, verily I say unto you, he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another.")  When people fight or argue they are just setting themselves right up for pride to enter into their hearts, and I think that is when Satan really has a chance at having power over you.  Pride also lends itself to an odd sort of fear of apologizing and getting over confrontations (or reconciliation).  No one is perfect and arguments happen but we MUST be willing to apologize quickly and move on--> get back to being UNIFIED--Satan wants to make rifts between us.

That was a thought from this last week. Also I wanted to add that everything has worked out for the best.  I have had an incredible two weeks of learning and now I feel ready to go.  I feel like it is my time to go.

One funny thing to add, is that I experienced two interesting cultural things.  One is a chew stick (a bitter twig basically that people chew on and then use as a toothbrush and supposedly its medicinal) and also my congolese Sisters gave me a snack --turns out it was literally a stick of minerals :0  craziness:)   Also, My companion Soeur Okechukwu told me that when people in her country are getting dewormed they are given a sugar cube to eat before they are given the medicine because they believe that it makes all the worms come out to feast and then they die:)  Fun.  Love you all!

Feb 3 2014

Okay, so sorry all for not emailing last week:/  it made me sad too, but normally we go to the temple on Tuesday and then email when we come back, but the temple was closed (so we went today, they opened it specially for us today (monday)) and we got no break.  The president should have given us a time but it was his first week and he messed up which is normal.  He didn't think about it because he was gone being trained by Elder Bednar in Accra (it is his first week) and he apologized later. Anyways, I am getting on a plane tomorrow night to go to Madagascar:O  Craziness!!!!!  I will leave the MTC at 6:00, get on the plane at 10:00, I fly through south africa, and will make it to Madagascar 7:30 P.M. the next day.  I, again, am flying alone which is fine because airports don't worry me.  I am a tinsy bit nervous to go but mostly excited.  I am excited and confident because I was born of goodly parents (Nephi 1:1), I have been taught well, and I am ready to work:)  I hear that a lot of you are enjoying reading my blog? :)  Well to repay me you will have to go and read the story about the sons of helaman and read the lyrics to the song because I love it and it inspires me:)  My mom can send the references and if you need a book of mormon ask her too, it wont be a problem:)

( Link to Nephi 1:1 )  http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/1-ne/1?lang=eng

( Link to story about where the sons of Heleman come from) http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/53?lang=eng
( Link to story of what the sons of Heleman did) http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/56?lang=eng

( Link to the Song about them) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emFJFO4-3u4

( Link to the Lyrics) http://www.lds.org/music/text/childrens-songbook/well-bring-the-world-his-truth-army-of-helaman?lang=eng

I finally realized what food I miss.  Cereal. Yep sometimes it just feels really nice to have a cool bowl of cereal:)  My two companions from Congo have been wonderful.  They don't speak a word of english but they speak more clearly than the boys and we talk in french all day long:)  (Some of you are probably rolling your eyes after all of my anxting last week... I know).  It feels like we have been friends for years, we have great times talking with each other and we learn well together.  They were hilarious about my deodorant because they had heard of it but never seen it and they wanted it so bad that I gave each of them one of my extras (thanks for packing two mom;).  I love those silly things:)  They are in the picture I uploaded--I know they aren't really smiling:p

So I sprained my ankle at the beginning of the week like a spaz while out for exercise.  I rolled it while I was running.  Well it wasn't really my ankle it was the tendon across the top of my foot (like I kept doing my senior year of track if you remember mom).  Luckily it has happened before so I knew what to do.  You wouldn't believe how hard it was to find ice:p but I babied it for about five days and it feels fine.

I practiced saying sorry a lot this week which was great.  I apologized for telling an elder in my french class not to ask me to tell him words in english during class (its disruptive and I was trying to concentrate)-but I could have told him more kindly.  My companion sister Okechukwu and I had some weird tensions this week but over the series of four days we talked it out and are happy again and I am so happy for the experience:)  Talk your problems through right away and don't be to scared or ashamed to say sorry, it feels wonderful to be free of burdens:) !

One last thing.  This week was kind of interesting.  The New President had worked at the Provo MTC before coming here and decided to install a change that had occurred there here.  We are separated into Districts and each one has an Elder as a leader.  Well the church has started have the girl version of this in a way, they call it "Sister Training Leaders" and myself and a wonderful girl named Sister Nnaubom and I got called to be that over all the sisters in the mtc.  It has been an interesting experience, but I learned a lot:)

Well, as I said I leave tomorrow, I love you all:)  Wish me luck!

Love,

Soeur Wilson