July 7, 2014

Okay it was a crazy crazy crazy but a good week:)  Our mission President was on the island this week and we also had District Conference (a church meeting for the members of the whole island) with a member of the Seventy from South Africa, Elder Hamilton, and his wife who had come to speak.  Both were super good experiences but we also had to travel a lot and they lasted all day and now I’m exhausted;)  We had two investigators come with us to the conference on sunday:)  They are two sisters named Marie Elise and Yvonna and they are just the kindest people.  They make me smile because they both are little fashion queens and have won multiple times "miss mammy" awards (fashion shows for grandmas) and they love dressing up:)  They both have the sweetest spirits and have been really touched by the spirit.  They have told us multiple times that every time we come over they feel so good:)  even their daughters, who were over once, told them that they had been touched by our visit and want to come back and talk with us again:)  We had a picknick with our branch afterwards for lunch and they came and it was beautiful to see how well the members greeted/fellowshipped them.  Everyone brought food and everybody shared with everybody, and everyone talked with everyone, and the sun was shining, and there was just happiness and love:)  Even our bus driver (because we'd rented a bus to go up all together) was invited to come eat and enjoy with us:)  He was touched by the moment and invited us (the sister missionaries) to come talk with him more about the Gospel tomorrow:)  On the way back we all sung hymns together and it made me smile to think how strange latter day saints can be but how much I love it:)  I love looking at young boys who are well dressed and kind and respectful, and young girls who are so beautiful in modest dresses and who know that they are daughters of God and who love themselves and virtue.  It is a beautiful thing, hurray!!!!!  I can imagine them sitting next to Jesus just glowing with light:)  I love virtue, I love good values, I love kindness:)

Saturday night was exciting and it was a miracle that I survived Sunday. Soeur Thomas had been feeling bad all week and she worries pretty easily so she decided to talk about it with our mission President while he was here.  He told her that she could go to the hospital that night (we had been in St. Denis for a meeting, two ours north of home).  We got there at about nine, she was admitted, and we ended up leaving to go back to our apartment at 3:30 a.m.  Heinous!  She didn’t have anything seriously wrong with her which is good, but boy were we tired.  Soeur Isham and I amused ourselves fairly well though:)  I talked to just about every single person in the waiting room about the restoration, gave out brochures, made lots of new friends, and invited everyone to our branch picknick on the 14 of July and one family said yes:)  It was pretty funny.

One thought I had about myself this week that was interesting is how sometimes when things are going super well I get stressed because I think "what if it doesn’t last."  It’s that natural tendency to think "why not quit while we're ahead."  But that is lame, and it is silly really to be afraid of difficulties or failures.  They are going to come so why worry about it, it’s not like we won’t be to overcome them.  So we shouldn’t be afraid of success because that limits our potential.  I don’t know if I explained that thought very clearly, but in short my advice to everyone is give it your all every time, because there is nothing to lose:)  have a great week!

 Love, Sister Wilson