April 22, 2014

Well it was an extremely long week, but it also went by fast.  Oh time, such an odd thing.  I feel like we are finally starting to see progression in the area, which is so awesome.  My companions came into the area just three weeks before I did and had no contacts, no investigators, nothing, so we really have come a long way with a lot of hard work, and things are just starting to blossom:)   I feel so happy with the relationships we have built with the members here in our ward, it is like a little family:)  We had the opportunity to do a lot of service this week for members who are generally very strong and self-sufficient-one had a knee surgery and needed help cleaning her house, the other is pregnant and her husband works and she just needed a friend.  It is amazing how little it took for us to just take some time to help them/to be with them and to see how much that meant to them even though it isn’t always easy to accept help.  Sister Argien (the one who had knee surgery) is actually one of my favorite people in the ward because she is soooo vivacious:)  and she is so sweet while we were cleaning she was giving us all sorts of life advice;)  I’m going to write maybe about a few investigators in a letter because I find it is hard to be inspired while rapidly typing away for these emails, but one moment I want to share right now is with two investigators I talked about last week I believe --Abel and Marguerite.  Marguerite is the lady who is teaching us how to weave baskets out of vacoua:)  well this past saturday our visit with them was fantastic:)!!!!  Their daughter was there again with her two kids and she had made us a corn muffin cake which was super cute of her and super tasty:)  She had to leave, but near the end of our time (we usually weave for two hours and chat) we again had the opportunity to talk about the Gospel.  It ended up being such a sweet and spiritual moment, Marguerite especially opened up to us in a way i had not anticipated.  I was able to bear my testimony of the reality of Jesus Christ and his infinite Atonement, there on the floor with bits of leaves around me, and the Spirit truly testified.  It filled the space around us in a manner that cannot be denied and left a profound silence and I was blessed to be a part of that moment.  God loves us.  He loves each and every one of his children, and his Plan of Happiness is for you, it’s for me, it is for everyone and I have the blessing and the sacred opportunity to be able to share what I know to be true with others.  And I share it because it works.  I share it because I know that it is true.  And I share it because I love the people around me and I don’t want anyone to be lost. 

An interesting thought I had this week about personal progression is how interesting it is the effect that we let other people have on our lives.  Don’t get me wrong, there are many things that we can’t avoid, but there is also a lot that we let affect us that we don’t necessarily have to.  This led me to think about how the Gospel of Jesus Christ is really all about setting us free.  There are so many scripture references I could add in here but I'll have to leave the research up to the reader (because there is never enough time;).  But really, if we work to understand the atonement and work to have faith that the blessings it offers are for us, we can learn how to repent and to forgive--and both of those actions have the exact same result:  liberation from the past.  What a beautiful thing.  We can’t decide how other people will act, and we can’t decide what they will think of us, but we can choose to let it go and to pray to our Heavenly Father for comfort and for strength.  I find myself praying for that quite often, and it is amazing how swiftly peace can come into the heart if we just trust in him.

One last thing, I have the feeling that things in this mission do not work like they do in other missions because the president has to work with moving people around three islands in the middle of nowhere;)  but apparently transfers never happen in the same manner twice.  This time around what happened is we got a phone call this past sunday evening from the zone leaders telling us about the changes that would be happening this wednesday (not much time to prepare :o).  I will be getting a new companion-Soeur Thomas from Belgium whom i worked with my first day here in Reunion.  I am SOOOOOOOOO excited, secretly (although now that I’m writing it it isn’t a secret) I prayed for her to be my next companion and I can’t believe that I am actually getting the chance:) my two companions will leave for Maurice in three weeks to a month but for the meantime things are going to be super.... exciting;) our apartment is pretty small and it is going to be hard sharing investigators, but it will all work out.  Love you all:)  love, Soeur Wilson