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