October 28, 2014

Okay, next week I really will try to send pictures, these past two weeks I forgot to charge my camera and it was dead on Monday.... yep bad planning.  This week was another great week.  Jose got baptized yesterday after church and he was super content and Fr Whittle (his good friend and the one who baptized him) was super happy as well:)  It was cool because Jose's family came to church for the first time to support him and they had a great time:)

I don’t have a ton of time to write today because we headed into the capitol today (Port Louis) to get Soeur Berchel's hair done (in braids-she's been wanting to for weeks because it is almost summer here are its getting really hot).  Unfortunately all of the hair salons here are super sketch.  We finally found one and it took them three hours, and then we need to take the bus back get our groceries and then drive an hour in the different direction to meet up with the elders for an activity because elder Choi is heading back to la reunion next week.  We went to a beach in the south called Flic on Flac and played around (we didn’t go swimming don’t worry;) but now we have only a tiny time slot and need to leave soon for a lesson.  It will be our first lesson with a man named Michel who we met last week while walking down the street.  With lots of tact I asked him how the cleaning was going because he was hosing down his wall and he said fine.  Then Sr Berchel saw one of his fruit trees and got excited because it was a fruit that she ate all the time in Guadeloupe when she was young.  He got a stick with a water bottle tied on the end and fetched us some fruit (very kind of him) and then we asked if we could stop by next week and give him the gospel in return.  He wasn’t super sold but we'll see how it goes;)

I am doing well and staying happy.  I hope that everyone at home is doing well.  Thanks for your love and support,

Love,

Sister Wilson

ALSO Remembering a story from Reunion

Cute Mammies

One other tiny little blurb which is cute, we had two amies (friends) come to a ward pique-nique on 14 of July---- Marie Elise (who has been Miss Mammy many times J) and Isabelle (40, loves to sing) and they ended up hitting it off very well. Both of them live alone and are lonely sometimes, and they live in the same apartment complex, and we overheard them making little plans to take walks sometimes together. Well, just the other day we found out that they actually had been on a walk together :D So cute J <3 

Remembering Reunion :D

Sandra and Brunella

Okay, so I wanted to write about a cool moment with two of our investigators who are sisters. Their names are Sandra and Brunella. First, this is how we met them. We had been visiting every Saturday for about a month and a half with our friends Abel and Marguerite (whom we’d met contacting and who have been teaching us to weave baskets out of vacoa). They live in St. Joseph, and one day Sr. Thomas and I had decided to go knock on some doors to find people to teach and the very first door we knocked on a lady opened the door. We said, like usual “Bonjour, nous sommes les missionaires pour l’Eglise de Jésus-Christ des Saints des Derniers Jours, comment ça va?” (Hi, we’re missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, How’s it going?)  And she said “Oh! I already know you! You are Soeur Wilson and Soeur Thomas, come on in.” I promise that we had never seen this lady in our life, and it is not very often that we are invited directly into someone’s home, and never that they already knew our names. Well, Marguerite has a daughter named Sandra whom we had met and it turns out she’d spoken about us with her half-sister Brunella, and there we were in her house :D She thought Sandra had sent us over, but we explained how we had no idea that she lived there but that God knows everything and I don’t believe in chance J. We had a great first lesson with her, and she loves reading the Book of Mormon and finds it very interesting! Since then we have taught her and Sandra together about once a week and the little story I’d like to share comes from one of those moments.

                We had decided to talk about the Holy Ghost and how to recognize the Spirit in our lives and when/how he communicates with us. We brought a CD player and put on a long piece of very beautiful music (“I Feel My Savior’s Love”) and everyone closed their eyes and paid attention to their feelings. When it was over we asked them to talk with us about what they had felt. They both told us, and Sandra in particular talked about how her chest had felt filled with warmth or a heat. We hen shared some scriptures we had prepared and I shared one of my favorites in Doctrine and Covenants 9: 8-9 that talks about how “your bosom shall burn within you.” And as I read that Sandra was really struck and said “Oh my goodness, that describes exactly what I felt.” J Woohoo for the spirit!!! He is what testifies of/helps us to recognize truth J We are still teaching these two sisters and now many of their friends J. 

   Recording of "I Feel My Savior's Love" 

October 20, 2014

So this was another good week:)  I feel like things are steadily going uphill here:)  This past week we were able to teach fifteen lessons to investigators with a member from the branch here with us, seven others, and seven lessons with recent converts (and for my mom and nana, those numbers weren’t even influenced in the slightest by my Irish side;).  Craziness:D  We have five people who are getting baptized in the next two months, one of whom is Jose who is getting baptized this Sunday after church:)  He is so ready and I'm super excited!  He makes me think of a pirate and that makes me smile (I am not sure why I added that detail but there you have it).  Also, we had three different lessons this week were members introduced us to a family member who is not in the church and all of those lessons went super well!  Less active members are started to come back, and it is beautiful to see whole families sitting together in a row:) 

We got to watch general conference this weekend HURRAY:D  It was awesome!  Our investigator Kevin was at all five sessions and is starting to make some friends:)  Pascal was there Saturday morning and just loved it.  He had called us earlier that week after our lesson with him and said he had found the answer to his prayer while reading in the Book of Mormon and shared it with us like an excited child:)  We had six investigators at church Sunday morning!  A young girl named Nathanielle (21) came for the first time and loved it:D 

We were invited to dinner too many times this week and I am lucky to still be alive.  I know that that makes us sound ungrateful, but one night we went from one dinner to another with no way to escape (our own fault for the bad planning) and were stuffed beyond reason.  Luckily I love the food here.  My favorite thing to eat is faratas (it is sort of like the bread used for panini's or a bit like naan) that you eat with curry:) 

I was thinking about trials this week and about how it is in our nature to want to run away from them.  I asked myself, why do we try to pray away our trials?  After all that is the whole reason why we came to earth, to have trials, because without them we will never be stretched to grow.  Yes, what a somewhat unfortunate truth, we need to hurt to change.  Trials are painful sometimes because changing our spirits, our very nature, hurts, but it is worth it.  It’s like working out or training for a sport.  The harder you work the more satisfying and incredible the outcome.  So I need to learn how to better live through my trials and not just wish them away, because they are some of the greatest blessings from God.  Just like we can learn to like exercise I believe we can learn to like difficult situations in life and enjoy working with them and through them.  We might as well, because like it or not they keep on coming;)

Hope that everyone has a great week.  Appreciate every moment that you have, life is beautiful:)

Love,

Soeur Wilson

October 13, 2014

Mmk, writing emails is a strange thing.  Sometimes I feel super motived and sometimes I have less than zero percent motivation.  Unfortunately this is one of those times.... Perhaps I should not have confessed that but it is too late.

I had a wonderful week, with ups and downs, and lots of little miracles.  Today was a fantastic day for me.  Not perfect, but it was what I needed for my mind and my spirit and I feel refreshed, happy and at peace.  We went on a super cool hike this afternoon up to the highest point in Mauritius where (when there are no clouds) you can see La Reunion.  I already forgot the name... but we went Soeur Berchel and I, the elders (Estrade et Choi) and Elder Conrade (sister conrade didn’t come because she has bad knees) and Gaelle and Leroy (young adults from the branch) and had a super good time together.  I love long hikes and being in the nature and the view was fantastic. 

Kevin was at church again:D  And one of our investigators named Eshan came for the first time.  He had gotten in a motorcycle accident and came limping in with his broken foot.  We were super proud of him.  Jose was there of course, his baptism date is for the 25 October.  Oh, and a lady named Sophie came HURRAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We taught our Branch President and his wife this week about faith and hope it was a super good moment.  Just before Sister Williams had been doing an activity with the young woman making paper mashe (no idea how to spell that) pumpkins for Halloween because Sister Williams is determined to celebrate even though no one here does.  It will be strange to not have Halloween.

Well I have run out of time.  I will try to be better next week.  I know that the Gospel is true and I love sharing the truth with everyone I meet:)  Have a great week!

Love,

Soeur Wilson

October 6, 2014

Mmk so I have had some questions about the island and I have been asking around but am not 100% that this information is correct because not all of the stories match up.... but from what I have seen and heard here is the lowdown.  A la reunion there was a much greater mix of cultures; lots of French, Indian, Chinese, etc.  Here I feel like I am close to the only white person (not a bad thing just an observation :).  Someone told me that it was Pakistan who first found Maurice, and then Holland, and then France took over and colonized and had slaves, and then Britain took over and used indentured servants from India, and today the native language is Mauritian creole, the language in the schools is French, and everything to do with the government and administration is in English.  Maurice won its independence in 1960 something... and voila, tout ce que je sais (all that I know).  I think that the island is smaller than La reunion but it doesn’t feel like it so I’m not sure.  There are less mountains and it is beautiful in a different ways.  There are two branches here Phoenix and Rose Hill (my branch) and one group. 

Things are going great here :)  I love the people and I love my branch.  Pretty close to everyone we talk to listens at least for a little bit so that is fun because every week we have a bunch of new potential investigators.  We have five people with baptismal dates now (two of them from this past week) and they are doing well.  There are only about five strong families in the branch, but boy are they devoted disciples of Christ.  Their lives are truly centered around the Gospel and on serving others and we have lots of help for lessons.  Unfortunately, just like a la Reunion there is over 50% of the branch that is inactive, but we are working with them and are seeing some miracles start to happen :)   What is cool is that a lot of the recent converts are young adults.  There is Gaelle who is 21 and preparing to go on a mission now :)  Her mom, Soeur Avrilene, is one of my favorite people-she is so incredibly humble and generous and has the biggest heart.  We stop by her house often to have lessons with her neighbors :)  We had a family that we have been teaching come to church this past Sunday :D  Shyam and Janeek with their daughter and two sons.  It is a family that the senior couple, the Conrades, found and have been helping with their marriage, and they finally came this Sunday!!!!!!!! And it was fast Sunday and we had a break the fast afterwards and all ate out on the lawn in the beautiful sunshine and it was so great!   Also, we go running every morning in a little wood by our house and there is always a young man sitting by the river and this last week we stopped to talk with him.  We didn’t have any brochures or even a little card, but we invited him to church and guess who was there this Sunday!?  He was :D  His name is Kevin and he is super nice -he reminds me of Gregory a la reunion.  He was there early so we were able to have a little lesson with him before church started and give him a church tour with our DMB Fr Benjamin:) 

Last little tid bit I will add is that I drove for the first time here today, in the senior couples car, all the way to Port Louis (the capitol) and back :O  (for an activity to go to a big market that was middle eastern themed) and am still alive!  It is craziness because here everything is reversed and we drive on the left side of the road.  Pray for me!  Hope that you all have a lovely week:) 

Love

Soeur Wilson

Okay so I decided to send some pictures from my last weeks in St. Pierre.  The first is a hike that we did with our district.  We hiked high up into the mountains to find natural glacial ponds were les Reunionais used to hike up to hack out ice blocks and sell them lower down in the valley *trop cool!

!  I took this picture by the sign in honor of my father who loves moss mustaches >)

This one is of a poster I made to use in contacting on the street to talk about genealogy >)

Me being super amused during lunch one day at St. Joseph.  We always bought a baguette and had cheese and salami to make sandwiches.  I love playing on the toys>D

This picture is of Gregory the day of his baptism >D

This one is of the following Sunday afternoon when we had a pick nick in the church with him and his daughters and a few members after his confirmation >)

Sister Liu, Sister Thomas and I hanging out on the beach waiting for our pizza which never came.  At least we got to appreciate a beautiful sunset.

These last two are of my last Monday in St. Pierre we went on a hike up the St. Joseph River to see the waterfalls!

:DDDDD