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
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