March 31, 2014
This
is a trip we had today to Cilaos, a village in the mountains :)
We went on a hike by the sea with a less active family and this is at their home afterwards :)
Monday, March 31, 2014
Monday, March 24, 2014
March 24, 2014
Well it was a pretty awesome week and we worked super
hard:) One cool thing was that for our
english class this week a young man that we had met selling coconut candies in
saint joseph showed up and had a super good time:D his name is Gary. Also, possibly my favorite part of the week
was a lesson we taught on tuesday because we most definitely taught it in a
tree. A tree!!!!! How awesome is that:D
Yea, preach the gospel and the truth fifteen feet off the ground in a
giant tree by the side of the ocean = super super cool:) I tried to send a picture but the ghetto
computer is still in rebellion.
An interesting thing that has been going on and finally
finished last night is the elections for mayor -I have never seen so many
people so involved -the campaigning efforts here are so great it is almost like
everyone’s life stops for a while -but someone won last night and we heard a
lot of festivities from our window.
Sorry that this week is short I don’t know where the time
went, but I am still doing well and enjoy the opportunity that I have every day
to serve people, teach people, and just think about other people. God is real and he has a plan for us and if
you search it out in your heart and your mind and pray you can know that it is
true too:) keep being good and serving
others, I love you all and hopefully will have more stories next week:) !! love, Soeur Wilson
Monday, March 17, 2014
March 17, 2014
Mmmk what to say this week, I’m not really sure sadly, my
brain feels a little scattered right now:p
it was another good week with lots of hard work and lots of fun
times:) we had a ward activity night in
the grass by the ocean (it is so lovely here and I love the sound of the waves
and being able to feel the sea spray on my face carried by the wind --oh and I
love always being warm:)))). lots of our
investigators came and families from the ward and it was just such a pleasant
time. My compânions and I gave the
spiritual thought. We passed out candles and all tried to light them and keep
them lit. It turned about being a lot
harder than we had anticipated because of the breeze but everyone was way into
it and it was a jolly time. We talked about how the light represents the
personal light that we all have inside of ourselves and about how important it
is to keep it glowing and what sort of things can put it out. we played games afterwards and then had a
huge picnic dinner:) Saturday we
celebrated the 172 anniversary of the Relief Society (which is an organization
for women in the Church, there is a link at the bottom that will give a short
history and description of where it came from and what its purpose is.) and
there was an activity at the church building in La Port for the women in the
church (or whomever wanted to come) for the whole island. It was fantastic!!!
the talks were so inspiring -the theme was to remind each and every sister of
the incredible value she has in the eyes of god and of her great potential as
the daughter of God and as a princess:)
the spirit was so strong and the unity in the room was powerful. the sister missionaries all sang a song (in
french) called daughters of a king and one of the girls is a super good violin
player and accompanied us:) afterwards
we ate (they don’t do anything here without including a meal;) and I had the
opportunity to meet so many incredible women:)))))))))) this morning i got to go on a hike on some
cliffs by the sea/along the beach (black sand because of the volcano on the
island which is active=so cool:DDDDD).
it was nice and we got to know one of the families in the branch a little
better who accompânied us:) there family name is Engle and the husband is from
France (Marseille) and the wife from maurice:)
We do lots of different activities during english
class:) the canadian -elder
estrade-likes to teach songs, another elder likes to work on pronunciation and
I usually work on grammar/vocabulary. we
do a lot of role plays -like pretending that we are all at a family dinner-and
they have to talk and use the vocabulary that we learned that day --when there
are less people we can actually have one missionary to every person or every two
and they practice telling stories to work on the past, present and future tense
of verbs.
I love you all:)
thanks for your prayers, and I hope everyone has a lovely week:) all is well here -of course there are ups and
downs- but we always keep smiling:)
love, soeur Wilson
Short history and description of Relief Society :D
Today in St Joseph on a little hike with a less-active family :)
;) us in a little granite cave by the sea.
This is at their home afterwards:)
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Life on La Réunion :)
This is a little bit more in depth explanation
of my experience once I arrived here in Reunion. The first day was chill. I
woke up at 6:30 with the four girls who proselyte in St. Dennis and got ready with
them (no rest for the weary, the night before the day I left the MTC I only got
2 hours of sleep because I stayed up packing and then writing in my journal,
and then my companion wanted to go down at 5:00 am to say goodbye to people and
then the day started. I didn't get much sleep in the airport or on the
airplanes because it seemed like there was always someone to talk to—I made
lots of friends J
Everyone I met from South Africa had never heard of the Church before which was
crazy to me :O It felt strange to be their first impression about the church,
but they were open to talking and asked lots of questions. On the 10 hour
flight to South Africa I sat next to a guy from South Africa named Christian—32—and
we talked the whole flight. We talked about all sorts of things-nonsense and
more serious things. In the morning I asked him to tell me something profound—he
told me to go first, and I said the first thing that came to my mind “God lives”,
he said “I know” and I asked “and what does that mean for you?”—as in what is its
significance. The silence that followed was profound. He looked at me deeply
and said slowly “No one has ever asked me that…wow.” He repeated that phrase
two or three more times before the plane landed and remained in a state of deep
contemplation. I bore my testimony about what that meant to me and we exchanged
emails before we parted and I told him to email me when he had an answer. Then
I happened to eat breakfast with an older man (65-70) from Toronto, Canada. He
was super friendly and open—he had been in Ghana for a mission trip, and was
headed to Malauwi to visit his son. I gave an overview of the Restoration and
answered some other questions he had about the Church. At the end he said “Wow….we
believe essentially the same thing then, don’t we?”—he’s Christian—who knows
what he thought Mormons believed before but I was glad to clear it all up ;P I
offered him a Book of Mormon and he politely declined. We exchanged emails and
parted friends J
He wrote me last week to say thanks again for the company during breakfast J) Anyway, so the point
of all of that was to say that I was tired, but I wanted to get up and get to
work.
Sister
Stewart was there which was kind of odd because we had been in the same French class
once at BYU but not really talked. I went out for the morning with a Sister
Gardner (had been at BYU, a violin performance major, and super fun) and Soeur
Thomas (super cute, super nice, and from Belgium). We hit it off right away and
had a lovely morning. They said they wanted to keep me and I felt the same way,
but I had been assigned to the two sisters from St. Pierre and they were coming
up to get me.
I met
them at lunch and said goodbye to Sr. Thomas and Sr. Gardner.My new companions’ names are Soeur Berchel and Soeur Packer. We had lunch with
the zone leaders and the senior couple for the island (the ones who picked me
up from the airport—the Madson’s). The drive down to St. Pierre is about two
hours and we talked a lot in the car ride down. Soeur Packer was born into the church—Soeur
Berchel is a convert—and it’s coming up soon her 4 year mark in the church.
None of her family members are members of the church. I am grateful for a lot
of things about them. They are both clean people so I never have any stress
about people not cleaning up their messes or nasty dirty dishes in the sink.
They are both 100% obedient to the mission rules/in trying to live the Gospel
which not only sets a great example to me but it avoids the stress of me
worrying about a companion. They both have very strong testimonies, they want
to be here, they know why they’re here, and they want to /do work very hard and
without complaining, and they work to become better. They are both kind and
loving. They are intelligent. And they teach very well and in different styles
so I get two great examples to follow in learning how to teach well.
So now this is an explanation or
description of sorts of my life in St. Pierre up until this point. The first
evening we went to the store and got some groceries for me. Things are more
expensive here—they use the Euro because it is a region of France technically.
However, my companion from Toulouse (Soeur Berchel) says that many things are
more expensive here even than in France because they have to be imported :P
Luckily, the fruit is cheap because it is grown here, and there’s lots of it J I had never seen a
passion fruit before-the fruit itself- and boy is it a crazy looking creature
(go google it!), and there are quite a few fruits that I have never heard of
before. One that is particularly strange is called longane (not sure if that’s
spelt right….) and it’s found on a tree- the fruit is round and about the size
of a bouncy ball. It has sort of a hard outer shell like a nut, but you peal it
and inside it looks like a peeled grape (if you’ve ever taken the time to
perform the tedious task of grape pealing, you’ll know what I’m talking about
;P) but round and white (semitransparent). I’m not completely sold on its taste
but its texture is super fun and I enjoy eating them. People will just hand you
a branch off their trees as a gift to take and eat. Also, the bananas are so
little here-cute little baby bananas J
they are about 1/3 of the size of ours if that—I changed my mind ¼ the size.
Yesterday (It’s February 27) at an amis (friend learning about the gospel, or
investigator) house I saw a banana tree in real life and it was not at all what I expected. It was such a
strange looking thing! I wonder if they only look like that on Reunion—who knows.
It’s kind of like Dr. Seuss here with the plants. So many of the trees make me
laugh because they just look so silly J
Oh! And there are pineapple fields that can stretch on for miles and that look
quite interesting.
Everything
is green here which makes me so happy :D The island has a surprising amount of
things going on for being so small. The coast looks very different depending on
where you are, there are some mountains, many ridges and cliffs, three huge valleys
(only 2 are inhabited), lots of hills, many waters, and a volcano! The views of
the ocean are really quite breathtaking. Yesterday, we taught a lesson with a
man named Thierry (an African from Metropole—which is what the people here call
France) while sitting on large granite rocks under a tree next to the ocean,
with the waves crashing nearby J
I love how it looks when there are storm clouds over the mountain and how it
looks with the mist coming down, filling the ridges—it looks like a tropical
jungle. I love how the houses look/are here. They are such pretty/fun colors—a lot
of white houses which I love—with big windows and open doors. People have birds
hopping around in the house and I’m jealous that it isn’t like that in the U.S.
There are even little birds in the grocery store :D Oh! And geckos in our
apartment J I
like to catch them and hold them before I put them outside.
Our
apartment is nice. I did not have a bed the first two night, just a mattress on
the floor, because this is the first time in years sisters have been in St.
Pierre and the apartment is new (for us). But we got one for me and a week or
two later a desk and little dresser thing and now I’m all unpacked and situated
and it feels good J
It’s blazing hot here and everyone sweats nearly all the time—but I am grateful
to not be cold! It is summer here, and I happen to be in the hottest city, so
this is as hot as it will get which is comforting.
There are 19 missionaries on the island and two on Maurice (Mauritius—which
is miles away). The island is our zone, and there are two districts, the North
and the South (St Pierre is in the south). There are five branches on the
island and one of them is in St Pierre J
There are 7 missionaries in the ward :O What a party! That’s because 2/3 of the
whole southern half of the island is our branch. There are two sets of Elders
and the us 3 sisters—our sector (the area in which we work) contains 8 cities
(they all sort of merge into each other)—St. Pierre, St. Joseph, Terre Sainte,
Grand Bois, Tampon, Petit-Ile- and I forgot the other names…. The district
leader is in our branch. His name is Elder Sanchez and he’s from Arizona and Hispanic.
His companion is Elder Estrade who is a riot and full of energy and he’s from
Quebec. The other 2 missionaries are Elder Bush and Elder Clousse (both from
Utah). Elder Clousse reminds me a lot of my friend Victor from BYU—who is
serving his mission in Spain right now—and we are good friends J
We have
district activities it seems like every other Monday. The first time we played
baseball (there are two sisters who serve in St. Paul—Soeur Amousough, from
France, and Soeur Hurst, from Utah—and two elder who serve in La Port—Elder Hammond,
from Utah, and Elder Mauriterahi, from Tahiti—that are also a part of our
district). It was actually super fun—the elders were great at not taking things
too seriously and letting everyone participate and there was lots of laughter
and good times J
We ate lunch together afterwards which was also tons of fun—I enjoy all of the
missionaries here.
The
next Monday, we happened to have the zone activity (which happens four times a
year I believe). We went for a hike near St. Gilles to visit the “Trois Bassins”—which
turned out to be gorgeous waterfalls
with crystal clear pools at their base. Some people were swimming which made me
jealous ;P It was a marvelous time! I was happy to see Soeur Thomas and Soeur
Gardner again J
And also I like Soeur Isham J
After that all the sisters went out to lunch together and then we got ice cream
J
Then we
finally had a more normal Monday. Monday’s are our “preparation” days. We do
laundry, clean the apartment, go grocery shopping, go site seeing if we
want/have time, and write emails home. There’s a funny little place here that
we can walk to and use a computer for an hour for free, so we do that on Monday.
I enjoy walking around St Pierre, it is a pretty city, and there are lots of
people roaming around. It goes right down to the sea and there are some nice
beaches. On Saturdays there’s a huge market with all sorts of home grown fruits
and vegetables that we like to go to. J
We also
have a car which is nice (and necessary considering the size of our area). So back to Thursday, mmmm…. I just realized I
never mentioned Thursday… Well, I arrived in St. Pierre on a Thursday. We had
dinner that night with a family from the branch here—the Argien’s—and I liked
them a ton and participated in the lesson about missionary workJ We got my groceries
that night too and I got some peoples’ numbers in the grocery store to call for
lessons because I saw Soeur Berchel do it an felt inspired and wanted a turn J
The next
day we had a few lessons and that night dinner with another family—the Gathercoles.
They were also very friendly and I ate very well. There is lots of tasty rice
here, and chicken, and sausages, salads, fruit, shrimp, and they always have a
good dessert J
Saturday morning we had lunch with a widowed Sister—Soeur Rifosta—who lives up
in the hills. She is very kind and actually (random add in) is teaching us (my
companions and I) how to sew covers for our scriptures tomorrow for a fun
activity J Speaking
of sewing, every Friday there is a relief society activity (just until the commemoration
of the Relief Society—when it was founded—in March) where they are sewing
dresses for themselves to wear to the commutation, which is cool J and we go for part of
it and sew/get to know the sisters and there’s always a tasty lunch J Let me just tell you
that I love those ladies already, they are some incredible people with big
hearts. Every single person in the branch is a convert, and Soeur Desvignes
(super cute little woman—79 and of Chinese heritage—though a native French speaker—she
accompanies us a lot for lessons) was actually the first convert of La Reunion
when she was about thirty and the Church was organized here after her baptism.
How cool it that?! They all have such strong testimonies of the truth, and are
super fun to be around—how could you beat that? I love hen parties J
There
are about forty active members in the branch—but they have a very nice little
chapel. On record there should be more like 200, so we have a lot of visits to
make and a lot of work to do—but it has been very rewarding. What better way to
spend your time then by helping others, serving them, and being their friend?
Every day we wake up at 6:30 and start the day
with half an hour of exercise. I may or may not be the slowest to leave my bed…but
I promise I do get up ;) There isn’t a park close enough to our apartment so we
exercise together in a little space outside our bedroom. We do a lot of jumping
for cardio, ab-workouts, I do my back strengthening (ballet) exercises, and
Soeur Berchel has been joining me for my stretching routine J I’m so happy I have
all of my splits and I’m going to start working my over splits again!
Afterwards we take our showers, get ready, and then from 8:00-9:00 we have our
personal study time, 9:00-10:00 we study together, and then we go out for the
day. Every day we teach lessons, we do service, we visit less active members,
the widows, and we meet/find new people to teach. One of the classic ways to do
this is go knocking door by door, and we do our fair share of this ;P It is
exciting, you could say—goodness you really do meet all sorts of people. I’m
actually surprised at how many people listen/let us in to tell you the truth. I
don’t know what I’d do with stranger knocking at my door trying to talk to me
about a message of love and of Jesus Christ that can change their lives for the
better. But it’s true! And that knowledge gives me the confidence to go about
talking to/helping everyone I meet.
We
often don’t get home till 6:30 or 7:00 (sometimes we come home during the day
to eat lunch, but often we pack a lunch to go). Then we have an hour for my “training”
where I learn more about everything, then an hour to study the language, then
we eat. Soeur Berchel learns English while we learn French. We have grammar
books (I like to work out of mine), we help each other practice verb
conjugations, we read passages out loud and correct each other’s pronunciation (what
luck to have a native French speaker!), I read one chapter from the Book of
Mormon in French/English side by side each day, and we practice telling
stories/teaching lessons in our non-native languages when we are in the car for
a long time J
Wednesdays
from 4:30-6:00 we teach a free English class which is fun, and then from 6:00-7:00
we have ward choir. I love to sing J
I met
the mission President and his wife last week and they are AWESOME! President
and Sister Adam’s home (for the mission) is in Madagascar, but it turns out
they have to spend most of the time traveling around the entirety of
Madagascar/flying to Maurice and Reunion to keep us all in check ;P My first
day in La Reunion I got to talk with him over Skype, but during the zone
conference I had another little short interview for him to get to know me/see
how things were going—great! I got to talk to Sister Adams for a long time for
a long time and she is super awesome! It turns out that they had planned to
meet me themselves at the airport but didn’t get to because I came two weeks
early. Either way I would have come into the middle of a transfer—but I don’t
think transfers are very normal or regular here…I’ll have to wait and see.
I
love you all and hope things are going well! Never think that you are too busy
to help someone in need! Love everyone and take the time to get to know them.
Love, Soeur Wilson
Passion Fruit
Longan Fruit
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
March 12 2014
Mmmk so a good week this week. One funny thing was we were waiting outside
the gate of an older couple in the ward and the neighbor saw me looking at the
fruit in his tree (it is sooooo cool how many fruit trees there are) and he
offered me some, I said yes and then he kept just giving me more and more even
a coconut which he hacked open for me with a huge machete and my companions
were laughing at me so much because I was so excited with an armful of fruit^-^
it was super awesome and he was super nice!
Also, I snack pretty much all the time... and got mocked last week at
choir practice for my tuperware of rice that I was eating plain/with my hands
(sorry nana;) but everyone just thinks its funny;) For the commemoration of the relief society
this Saturday the sisters from our ward have all sewed a dress to wear and at
the sewing activity this past week they practiced their walks for the mini
fashion show they'll give at the activity.
it was hilarious to watch and they all got super into it and were
choreographing little bits and put on music^-^
I gave a spiritual thought in sacrament meeting last sunday on the light
of Christ and used the scriptures mosiah 16:9 and D&C 115:5 and you should
look them up and read them:) Church this
Sunday was soooo good for me. I don't
know if this is weird to say but this was the first sunday that I can remember
that just the fact of being at church (not a specific talk or lesson) changed
my heart--it completely healed me of the unhappy feelings I'd been having the
two days before (I was feeling a little discouraged again about how many things
I need to improve on myself) and it refilled me with a new hope--it was a
beautiful feeling and a great blessing.
I am happy and having a good time and still always ready to work hard! Hope that you all have a lovely week as
well! Love, Soeur Wilson
Mosiah 16:9 "He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death."
D&C 115:5 "Verily I say unto you all: Arise and shine forth, that thy light may be a standard for the nations;"
Mosiah 16:9 "He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death."
D&C 115:5 "Verily I say unto you all: Arise and shine forth, that thy light may be a standard for the nations;"
The
gecko in our apartment
A chameleon
we found on the street that I picked up:D
Some
ladies/an investigator outside of church last Sunday:)
The
chameleon again:D
My
companions took this picture to mock me because I'm determined to protect my
delicate skin;)
Us last night doing our studies in the frozen yogurt
place.... ;)
Monday, March 3, 2014
March 3 2014
Hmm so this week was good but a bit slower than usual. On Friday Soeur Packer was actually so sick
that she could not stand up, and souer berchel and I couldn’t find a sisters
home for her to stay at (a lot of the ladies her work) and so we had to stay home
all day. I thought it was good for us
because it helped with our unity and also because we mostly just had one big
journal writing party to catch up:) One
of the sweet sisters dropped by food for us which really even though it was
simple added a lot to my joy:)
Every wednesday we host (the seven missionaries here in st.
pierre) an english class for an hour and a half in the chapel. I taught the week before last and then they
asked me to teach again because I did a good job which made me feel happy:) Its super fun, and i like coming up with
activities. And it’s great because a
decent amount of less active members and investigators come!
One day this week we decided to shake it up with the
contacting method (because they asked us to in the zone conference last friday)
and took my ukulele to the park. I sat
and played/sang church songs as the other two girls talked to the
passerbys:) it was fun and actually more
effective than I thought it would be.
Here is a funny moment from the week. So one of the mission rules is that someone
always has to be outside the car while backing out to avoid backing into things
and I volunteer often (so that I can eat my snack because we can't snack in the
car;) and one of the evenings during
planning somehow it came up and Soeur Berchel did an impression of me doing the
backing that went a little something like this: she pretending to be me stood
up and spun around a little, played with her skirt, danced a bit, waved to
people walking by, and then looked surprised when the car was already there....
sadly this portrayal is relatively true and so i was a bit embarrassed but
mostly amused;)
I am doing well and feeling happy:) I hope that all is well at home. I love all of the time here that I have to
focus on helping others and on getting to know Christ, our Savoir, better. Always look for opportunities to do good and
serve others! Love you:) !!!!!! -Soeur
Wilson
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