September 29, 2014

I have always openly recognized that I am very spoiled, but it amazes me how I continue to realize more and more just how blessed I have been in my life.  Maurice's population is more poor in general than la reunion but often the people who are the most poor are the most generous and it is very humbling.  I love the branch here.  I had to laugh at myself this last week because I realized that my concept of time is way off and that quite frequently I have heinously high expectations for myself.  For example this past Saturday evening there was a dance at church for everyone and we were there because we had a lesson with someone and then we stayed to eat dinner and talk in the garden.  I had a very good time and as we were driving home I thought to myself "ahhh, finally I am starting to feel like I belong here." (like that I am starting to know the people and feel very comfortable around them) -then just after that thought it struck me that I had only been at Mauritius for 8 days......  I am glad that I grew up moving around a lot because it taught me how to make friends and become a part of things quickly:)  I am also grateful for all of the wonderful people here who have accepted me so openly and who enjoy all of my nonsense:)

I love the sunshine and always being warm:)  we are headed into the summer season now which will be exciting.  Things are going well with Soeur Berchel and I and I am grateful for the opportunity that the Lord gave me to be able to work with her again after having learned so much from/about her the first time around.  When you try to/come to understand someone it is amazing how smoothly things can go:) 

I love sharing the Gospel, and the love of Christ, and the good principles that people so desperately need.  The more I come to see how truly blessed I have been/am by the restored gospel the less hesitant I am to share it with others because I know that it is a good thing and that it helps people. 

I will try to share more stories next week but I am so tired that my brain feels fuzzy (like a tv that doesn’t work, you know with the black and white screen that sort of buzzes duly?) -anyways, forgive me for the lack of details and I wish everyone a fantastic week! 

Love,

Soeur Wilson

September 22, 2014

This was a great and a crazy week ( I feel like I say that every week...).  Things are going great at St. Pierre, everyone has been talking about how they can’t believe how much the branch has progressed since January, it’s like magic has started happening:D  That made me super happy and grateful because sometimes it can be hard to see if things are progressing when you are in the middle of them, but I am proud of how hard my companions and I have worked and of how far things have come. 

Thursday morning I got an unexpected phone call from the zone leaders that changed everything. They had just gotten my visa for Mauritius and had bought my plane ticket for the following morning.  So I packed my bags and had one last afternoon in St. Pierre before heading off to ST. Denis to spend the night before heading to the airport Friday morning.  I did not get to say goodbye, but I think I prefer that because I am a big crier.  I wrote a few letters to different members/investigators with my testimony in it, and I wrote my testimony in a Book of Mormon and gave it to our neighbors Natalie and her son tom (who plays piano like Mozart:)  whom we had become very good friends with.  She was very touched and it was a tender moment.  In the car my companions told me that I should call a few people to say goodbye but I ended up having to abandon this idea fairly quickly because I was crying too hard to speak.  I had been worried at times that I may not be serving with my whole heart, might, mind and strength but in leaving St. Pierre I knew that I had.  My heart broke as I thought of the life I was leaving behind that I would never have again and I prayed that I would be able to see all of those people that I love again one day.  My companions, sister Liu and Sister Thomas spent the whole day plotting about how to keep me from going and I was touched by their love for me and their sadness to have me leave.

The flight went well and I got to Mauritius safely.  It is a whole new adventure and a whole new life here and I am excited and ready to love the people just as much as I did in reunion.  I am grateful that I grew up in the army because I think that it helped me to learn to really live where I am and to appreciate the beauty and the depth of human relationships and then to rely on the Lord to know that when we have to leave that it is not the end because we will be able to see each other again with our Heavenly Father after this life.

Mauritius was colonized by England (it is its own country now), so everything official (government related) is in English but all of the people speak French.  Also there is a creole here which is totally different from the creole a la reunion so I feel like I’m starting all over, but it’s pretty exciting:)  it is super different here, I feel like it’s a whole other world but I am not exactly sure why it feels so different.  The money here is called rubees:)  We live in an absolute palace, I will have to try to send pictures next week.  I love the people already and we have a super cool branch:D  I am in a city called Rose Hill:)  I will try to tell you more about it next week, but I am happy and doing well and wish everyone a fabulous week as well!

Love,

Soeur Wilson

September 15, 2014

It was a very good week like always:)  I can’t remember any more if I already shared this thought last week but I was listening to a little video two weeks ago and one phrase really struck out to me.  It was a young man that said that he had learned from his grandmother the importance of learning how to live happily.  It is so true.  That is what this life is all about.  We need to have goals for the future, and look forward to the big picture, but the important things and the things that get us to our end goals are the little moments of everyday life.  The constant day to day efforts, in short the journey.  It is hard not to wish away our life sometimes waiting for some moment in the future where we think we will finally be happy.  But the simple secret is to love every minute along the way:)  Every religion talks about heaven and paradise, but if we live correctly right (correctly) now we can live in heaven right now.  Heaven is not some obscure, unknown concept, it is simply a state of living happily and in peace and it is what we are working for in this life, and what we will be able to enjoy in this one and the next if we listen to Gods great advice on how to obtain it:)

The highlight by far of the week was the baptism this last Saturday and then the confirmation of a young man (33) named Gregory.  I have felt very close to him and his journey in the church even though it was the elders who taught him, because his first time at church was my very first Sunday in the branch at St. Pierre:)  He comes to English class, we all went up to spend the day with him once in Ciloas (on a Monday with the missionaries in our district), he is at all the activities, we pick nick sometimes the Sunday afternoon with his two adorable daughters (lucy-8 and alice-6) whom I love, and we ran into him several times in town and answered some questions at some crucial points in his conversion:) I can say without a doubt that it was the most inspiring baptism I have ever been too; it increased my appreciation of what it means to become a member of the church and my desire/understanding of the need to establish Zion on the earth a hundredfold.  When he bore his testimony after being baptized I don’t think there was a person in that room who didn’t feel the spirit and who did not cry with him and he expressed his love for the savior Jesus Christ.  He really did shine with joy and couldn’t stop smiling, and it made everyone else smile as well:) We had three of our investigators who have a baptismal date that came which was great:D

Also, yesterday at church during sacrament meeting sister Liu, Sister Thomas and I played a musical number for the intermediate hymn.  Sister Thomas and I played a flute duet and Sister Liu accompanied us on the piano:)  it went super well and everyone loved it.  It made me think of playing duets with my mom which made me smile:)

I’m doing well and staying happy.  I hope that you all have a great week!!!!

Love,

Sister Wilson

September 8, 2014

Okay what a week, what a week.  I don’t even know where to start.  All of our investigators still have their baptismal dates and are progressing well which is super nice.  It is such a nice feeling to have some people who our grateful for us bringing the gospel into their lives and for all of the happy changes that they are making:)  Jean marc is super motivated about it and brought his lady friend to church this past sunday:)  Also, we met Simeon's wife and she accepted to be baptized as well:D  We tried something new this week from preach my

gospel because I have always wanted to but never found the chance to do it, or maybe never had the faith to try.  I explained my idea to Sister Liu and Sister Thomas in the morning and Saturday morning we prayed a ton to be ready for the lesson with both Simeon and André (who have baptismal dates in oct).  At the end of the lesson we invited them to pray, with all of us kneeling, to know if the Book of Mormon was true right then and there.  It is important that they know because if someone doesn’t have their own testimony it will not do any good to be baptized (they have both been reading their scriptures every day and praying and have been feeling more and more sure that this is the right path for them but neither of them felt like they had gotten a direct answer yet).  They both agreed to try and they both got there answers and it was a super powerful moment:D  When we opened our eyes after Simeon’s pray he had tears in his eyes and just said "thank you."  I prayed so hard that I would be able to have the faith that they would have their answers and it was not easy but it was a beautiful experience.

Also, this last friday we had a nice surprise.  We were on our way to Minelli's house (16) to visit her mom sister Delnard when she called us to say her mom was still not at home.  we asked if we could stop by anyways to see her and she said of course.  She has been inviting one of her friends to church who should be there but the friend (Eloisa:) and also her cousin Salima!  We got to have a lesson with all three of them so it was a nice little girl party and it was such a happy moment:)  We talked a bit about who God is and how they are his daughters, we talked a bit about the restoration, and we talked about how to be happy in this life:)  they are such sweethearts and participated well and invited us back this coming week:) 

Saturday there was a baptism of a lady named Marie Therese whom the Elders taught.  She shared her story and it was super amazing.  She had started looking for the true church when she was 19 because she had a very powerful impression that it was on the earth somewhere.  She prayed and looked for thirty years and got to a point where she was mad that God had not yet answered her prayers and she wanted to give up.  One day she met the elders on the bus and they talked to her and she said she felt something warm, and her heart sort of stopped, but when she found out that they were "Mormons" she shooed them away.  A few weeks later she got a Liahona (a church magazine) from her good friend Editte who looks after her handicapped son (and Editte had gotten the Liahona from Sister Boivin, but didn’t want it).  Marie Therese read it and something changed.  She started looking for the missionaries everywhere. She prayed to ask God to put them in her path again and heard a reply "what are their names?"  She said she didn’t know but one of them was short and had glasses (Haha Elder Estrade:)  A month later she got a call to go to her eye doctor appointment early, and who should be on the bus but Elder Estrade and Elder Clousse!  She had all of the lessons and has an incredibly strong testimony of the restored gospel and was so grateful to be baptized by the priesthood authority:) 

On sunday we had a great fast and testimony meeting.  Frere Celeste (whom we've been working with for seven months) came back to church for the first time in ten years three Sundays ago and has staid active since.  He got up to bear his testimony and it was so touching and so powerful and he thanked us and he thanked his wife:)  Then Frere Argien bore his testimony and welcomed back Frère Celeste and almost cried, and it was just so beautiful.  I LOVE LOVE AND I LOVE THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST!!!!!

I hope that you all have a lovely week and always look for ways to love everyone around you more and more and to serve them, because that is true happiness:)

Love,

Sister Wilson

September 1, 2014

Wow what a week.  I am super tired but happy as usual:)  And I am getting more and more confused about how time passes because I can no longer keep days and weeks straight but that is okay.  These past two weeks have felt like a lifetime, but that’s okay because each day I try to appreciate every second and do my best and not get discouraged.

One cool thing that went down is that while planning last Sunday I really wanted to work on getting references from members (and anyone else willing to give them too us) and also work of getting the members more excited about doing their own missionary work.  We talked a lot about it (my companions and I) and decided to pray about it/think about it all week and then we would brainstorm together the next Sunday.  Well, we had a big meeting this past Wednesday with our mission president and his wife (who have to fly in from Madagascar), Elder Hamilton and his wife (our regional authority--member of the seventy--who works in south Africa), our senior couple, the Madsons, all of the missions a la reunion (we are 14 now) and they flew in the senior couple (the Conrades) and the missionaries (there are four) from Mauritius:D  and it was INCREDIBLE!!!!!!  President Hamilton had served a mission in Paris back in the day and later on was a mission president for northern France/Belgium for three years and he had incredible advice which was the answers to both of our questions:D  I was so excited and feel so motivated now with the answers to my prayers and its GREAT:D

One of the pieces of advice that he gave was to talk literally to everyone.  We already pretty much did that, but I felt newly inspired to really go for it and to do it happily and with love, because I love what I’m sharing and it makes me happy:)  I was working with a young woman from our branch named Lisa Van Loon (who just turned in her papers to go on a mission:D) and it was pretty funny because for two hours that morning everyone refused to listen to us but we kept on smiling and trying:)

We now have six baptisme dates:)  Five are for the fourth of October and I am super excited because they are such humble and amazing people and it really is a blessing to be able to teach them.

I know that this church is true and I love the gospel.  It is what has brought me all of the happiness in my life and gives me all of my hope for the future.  What an incredible opportunity to be able to learn how to share that every day.  The mission is only the beginning and I need to never loose what I gained/learned during this precious time:) I hope to always to able to spread happiness and joy:D Have a great week!!!

Love,

Sister Wilson

This is a rather strange photo, but we had a family home evening at the morel's home and taught them about unity and helping each other to  progress.  I don’t know where on earth I learned this trick, but there is a way to balance on each other’s knees:)  the family was super impressed and tried afterwards;)

This picture is at district meeting the week of my birthday and Sister Madson was a sweetheart and made me a cake:)

It is hard to see the chalk art in progress/awesome contacting (thanks mom and pop for the chalk!) and also I look like a strange turtle creature (my dress wanted to fly away with the wind so I had to crouch;) but I hope you enjoy:)

My companion Sister Isham (from auburn Washington) and I:)  She is super nice and I loved working with her:D

This last picture is from a family home evening at our investigators Agnes' house.  She is Indian and had a closet full of wonderful clothes-I got super excited and we played hard core dress up and then did a little dance:D