August 25, 2014

Salut tout le monde.  This week was another long and great one:) 

Here is one cool story from this week: There is a young woman in our branch named Mathilde Morel who is 15 and her family is less active.  We invited her to do a mini-mission but she was super nervous about working with because she is shy.  She is friends with Meil-lyn who told her about the incredible time she had working with us and last week when we were at their house for a family home evening she said she would like try it out for a full day first-starting with the studies in the morning-and then decide if she wanted to do more.  We accepted happily and last Tuesday we had the most incredible time!  We learned a lot about her and about her testimony and it really was a wonderful experience for all of us.  In the morning we saw our investigator Thierry who has been having a hard time coming to church because he doesn’t want to force his kids to come to church and he doesn’t want to leave them at home alone either.  We had decided to talk about the importance of a father’s example for his children and asked Mathilde to bear her testimony about her own father. My heart felt like crying with her as she bore her testimony for him, with silent tears rolling down her cheeks, about how her father had always been her strength and her example in the gospel, but then a few years ago he became inactive.  She kept coming to church for almost a year and prayed every day that her dad would come back because she knows he still has a testimony, but eventually she became discouraged and now comes infrequently with her father and rarely with her whole family.  Thierry was really touched by listening to her and we all felt a very strong spirit.  She did an amazing job with the people we visited that day and really overcame her fears and her shyness.  She also got a new idea about what it is like to be on a mission and saw that we have a great time working hard and laughing and smiling and has now signed up to do a mini-mission in December:)  I love having days like that where I really feel like we made a difference in someone’s life.  She didn’t want to go home at the end of day and I did not want her to go either. 

Another thing that I think might make you smile is that we really know no shame or bounds and I love it.  We met a very nice gentleman named Gil last week at a new little fruit stand across the street from brother Domitin (we were buying bananas:) and he was super interested in the message of the restoration.  We exchanged numbers and asked him when we could have a lesson and he said it would be hard because he works all day every day and the weekend he tries to spend time with his lady.  We said okay, and then formed a secret plot to go back the next week and just try to teach him right there at his fruit stand because he has a lot of free time just waiting in between costumers.  We went back this week with brother Domitin and asked him if we could take a bit of his time right then and there.  He said okay as long as there weren’t costumers.  There weren’t chairs so we just plopped ourselves down on the ground, prayed and started talking with him.  Unfortunately about halfway through some people came so we quickly got up and pretended like we were looking at fruit.  Once they were gone we sat back down and talked some more.  We were pretty amused with ourselves and he said we can come back next week:)

Also I found the street that I will live in if ever I move to la Reunion;) "rue des licornes" which translates into "street of the unicorns":D  there is also "street of the parakeets" and "street of the capuchin monkeys" nearby:D

We have a TON that we still need to work on to be better and more effective missionaries but we realize that we have made some great progress and seen some miracles this week. For one thing we had 11 lessons where we had members from our branch accompany us (which is super important because it helps our investigators to make friends):DDDDDDD  And we are going to try and do it again this week:) Also, we have four baptismal dates now, three in October, and one in march. Also, our investigator sacrament meeting attendance this week was not up to par, but for the less active families that we work with we had the entire van loon family there, the Morel family, Fr and Sr Celeste (it was the first time Fr celeste had come in years and we have been working with him for months!), and the family Sinien:) It was super!

Hope that you all have a fantastic week:) 

love,

 Sister Wilson

August 18, 2014

Sadness I tried to send more photos, but no luck:/  I was going to send a picture of Soeur Liu and I's awesome adventure of contacting this week:D  Last week I opened my package from my family for my birthday and in it was some side-walk chalk.  So this past Tuesday we had 3 hours for contacting and we walked down to the boardwalk and starting drawing.  In the first place we stopped we drew the plan of salvation and wrote in large letters "God loves you" in creole:)  Unfortunately all we managed to attract was a large group of young men, but they all took pamphlets and who knows one day maybe they'll come to church.  Then we went and drew a huge tree on the dock where everyone walks (especially during the summer vacation) with their family, and were able to talk with some people about family history work.  Lastly we went to a little park and drew a staircase with a door and then a path leading to the sun to talk about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We will have to try again another day at a time when there are more people, but it was super fun and I loved having people come up to us for once instead of going to them.  Woohoo for sidewalk chalk:D  I think my favorite people that stopped to ask us what we were doing were two young girls who thought we were playing hop-scotch:)  The next day our drawings were still there and I hope that it made people stop and wonder:)  We had left stacks of brochures by each drawing as well with our number, and those were all gone the next day, so who knows.... 

We had lots of good lessons this week and I love love love the people I teach:D  and I love the members of our branch:D  we are figuring out ways to work more and more with them which is awesome!  I love studying in the morning and learning so much about the gospel:)   There is never enough time to do everything I wish I could do, but that is better than being bored.  I don’t know how much I have talked about la famille Van Loon but they got back from vacation in Maurice this past week and the very first day they were back their two daughters (Efesia-21, and Lisa-18) called us to ask when they could come with us to do missionary work:)  I love those girls so much, and they will be working with us all Saturday this week:) 

Soeur Isham and I taught the lesson about sacrifice this past Sunday during Sunday school.  It went well, and it is a super interesting subject.  I love the quote from the prophet Joseph Smith that says something like that a religion that doesn’t demand sacrifice from its followers doesn’t have the power to change us and lead us to salvation.  Woohoo for sacrifice and for giving our hearts to the savior:D  we dropped Soeur Isham off yesterday because she is headed to Maurice for a month.  I will miss her but I will see her again so all is well:)  I love you all and hope you have a great week!!!!

Love, Soeur Wilson

August 11, 2014

This week felt super, super, super, incredibly long and I’m not sure why, but it was awesome and there were tons of beautiful moments:)  we had our second mini-missionary:D  her name is Mei-lyne Ah-phine and she did not want to do one at first but we told her it would be awesome and she prayed about it, decided to comen, and had an incredible time:D  the last morning we had a testimony meeting with the five of us (Soeur Liu-p.s. mama tell papa that she comes from Tahiti, Soeur Thomas, Soeur Isham, Soeur Ah-phine and I :) and it was such a powerful moment.  I LOVE the spirit and I love virtue and virtuous women:)  I can see why the lord feels the same way.   Being pure and virtuous is so important and it is so beautiful.  When we try to be like Christ we really do shine with his light and people can see it:)  the people here ask us all the time why we are so bright, it is the light of Christ!!!! It is the happiness and joy that can be found in the gospel:D  I love how much my testimony is growing:)

Also I got sick for the first time and felt like death but kept working and it was awesome:)  I like to keep going and working and to not give in to being sick.  Because I was either going to lie there feeling like crap or go out and teach and feel like crap but have the blessings and the help of the lord:)  I did take two naps to help and I had medicine from home and today I feel great:) 

I don’t have much time to write:( and I forgot my planner at home and my memory is not super good so I can’t think of what else happened this week;)  in short, sorry that  this is short and lame but know that I am doing well, that I am happy, and that it is so cool to be a missionary:D  have a great week:)

Love, Sister Wilson

My companions, I decided this week, know me a little too well.... I am not super into cake and this is what I got instead;)  I just about died laughing:)

This was after a looooonnnnngggg day and I’ll try to take a better picture the next time for my wonderful mom who bought me the dress for my birthday:)  but there you have it:)

August 4, 2014

Okay so this picture is finally a picture of Abel whose wife is the one who taught us how to weave vacoa.

 I am holding my panier (basket) that I finally finished and I was super excited and super proud :DDDDD

Marguerite (his wife) is the little woman in this picture :) 

This picture just makes me laugh because we were contacting house by house one day and this lady wasn't super interested but she said that maybe her brother would be and gave us his information.  We spent one morning out of each week for three weeks looking for this street (we found lots of investigators out of asking for directions which was cool :) and were just about to give up thinking that she had lied to us when we finally found it :D

It was Soeur Thomas's birthday so we stayed up late to decorate the house to give her a surprise in the morning :)

:)  I think this picture is just a tiny bit blurry :/  but it is our group photo at the talent show ;)  it is Soeur Isham, Sr Thomas and I with Antoine and Chris in our get up for the songs we played :)

This picture is of Soeur Thomas and I studying outside the church in St. Denis this week waiting to pick up our new companion Sister Liu!

This is Sister Liu the cute tiny thing:)  We just so happened to both be in pink and gray the first day, I believe I was inspired;)  She is incredibly nice and easy to get along with and we had a very productive end of the week working in two groups and having tons of lessons :)

This picture is me thinking I'm pretty cool at a family home evening at an investigators house named Agnes.  We met her at another investigators house, Elizabeth, and she loved us right away and gave us her number and invited us over.  She is super sensitive to the spirit and has already accepted to be baptized and is just so happy to have the gospel in her life:)

This is all of the sisters on the island with our mission president's wife, Sister Adams :)  We went on a cool hike with the zone today called "Grand Etang"

This is sister Isham and I :)  We have been companions for four days now:)  It is like a dream working with her because we get along so well!  And our life has been a tiny bit stressful because they didn't know until 5 o'clock today if someone was leaving for Maurice tomorrow.  Turns out neither Sister Isham's one month visa nor my year-long visa are ready so Soeur Berchel has to come back for a week (because Soeur Packer flies home tomorrow) and they hope to send Sr Isham out for a month and then me.

This is from the hike today as well

A waterfall :)

I tried to do the splits in a tree :)

Then I hid in the foliage :) 

And this is all of the missionaries on the island, our mission president and his wife, and the senior couple :D