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

August 25, 2014

Salut tout le monde.  This week was another long and great one:) 

Here is one cool story from this week: There is a young woman in our branch named Mathilde Morel who is 15 and her family is less active.  We invited her to do a mini-mission but she was super nervous about working with because she is shy.  She is friends with Meil-lyn who told her about the incredible time she had working with us and last week when we were at their house for a family home evening she said she would like try it out for a full day first-starting with the studies in the morning-and then decide if she wanted to do more.  We accepted happily and last Tuesday we had the most incredible time!  We learned a lot about her and about her testimony and it really was a wonderful experience for all of us.  In the morning we saw our investigator Thierry who has been having a hard time coming to church because he doesn’t want to force his kids to come to church and he doesn’t want to leave them at home alone either.  We had decided to talk about the importance of a father’s example for his children and asked Mathilde to bear her testimony about her own father. My heart felt like crying with her as she bore her testimony for him, with silent tears rolling down her cheeks, about how her father had always been her strength and her example in the gospel, but then a few years ago he became inactive.  She kept coming to church for almost a year and prayed every day that her dad would come back because she knows he still has a testimony, but eventually she became discouraged and now comes infrequently with her father and rarely with her whole family.  Thierry was really touched by listening to her and we all felt a very strong spirit.  She did an amazing job with the people we visited that day and really overcame her fears and her shyness.  She also got a new idea about what it is like to be on a mission and saw that we have a great time working hard and laughing and smiling and has now signed up to do a mini-mission in December:)  I love having days like that where I really feel like we made a difference in someone’s life.  She didn’t want to go home at the end of day and I did not want her to go either. 

Another thing that I think might make you smile is that we really know no shame or bounds and I love it.  We met a very nice gentleman named Gil last week at a new little fruit stand across the street from brother Domitin (we were buying bananas:) and he was super interested in the message of the restoration.  We exchanged numbers and asked him when we could have a lesson and he said it would be hard because he works all day every day and the weekend he tries to spend time with his lady.  We said okay, and then formed a secret plot to go back the next week and just try to teach him right there at his fruit stand because he has a lot of free time just waiting in between costumers.  We went back this week with brother Domitin and asked him if we could take a bit of his time right then and there.  He said okay as long as there weren’t costumers.  There weren’t chairs so we just plopped ourselves down on the ground, prayed and started talking with him.  Unfortunately about halfway through some people came so we quickly got up and pretended like we were looking at fruit.  Once they were gone we sat back down and talked some more.  We were pretty amused with ourselves and he said we can come back next week:)

Also I found the street that I will live in if ever I move to la Reunion;) "rue des licornes" which translates into "street of the unicorns":D  there is also "street of the parakeets" and "street of the capuchin monkeys" nearby:D

We have a TON that we still need to work on to be better and more effective missionaries but we realize that we have made some great progress and seen some miracles this week. For one thing we had 11 lessons where we had members from our branch accompany us (which is super important because it helps our investigators to make friends):DDDDDDD  And we are going to try and do it again this week:) Also, we have four baptismal dates now, three in October, and one in march. Also, our investigator sacrament meeting attendance this week was not up to par, but for the less active families that we work with we had the entire van loon family there, the Morel family, Fr and Sr Celeste (it was the first time Fr celeste had come in years and we have been working with him for months!), and the family Sinien:) It was super!

Hope that you all have a fantastic week:) 

love,

 Sister Wilson

August 18, 2014

Sadness I tried to send more photos, but no luck:/  I was going to send a picture of Soeur Liu and I's awesome adventure of contacting this week:D  Last week I opened my package from my family for my birthday and in it was some side-walk chalk.  So this past Tuesday we had 3 hours for contacting and we walked down to the boardwalk and starting drawing.  In the first place we stopped we drew the plan of salvation and wrote in large letters "God loves you" in creole:)  Unfortunately all we managed to attract was a large group of young men, but they all took pamphlets and who knows one day maybe they'll come to church.  Then we went and drew a huge tree on the dock where everyone walks (especially during the summer vacation) with their family, and were able to talk with some people about family history work.  Lastly we went to a little park and drew a staircase with a door and then a path leading to the sun to talk about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We will have to try again another day at a time when there are more people, but it was super fun and I loved having people come up to us for once instead of going to them.  Woohoo for sidewalk chalk:D  I think my favorite people that stopped to ask us what we were doing were two young girls who thought we were playing hop-scotch:)  The next day our drawings were still there and I hope that it made people stop and wonder:)  We had left stacks of brochures by each drawing as well with our number, and those were all gone the next day, so who knows.... 

We had lots of good lessons this week and I love love love the people I teach:D  and I love the members of our branch:D  we are figuring out ways to work more and more with them which is awesome!  I love studying in the morning and learning so much about the gospel:)   There is never enough time to do everything I wish I could do, but that is better than being bored.  I don’t know how much I have talked about la famille Van Loon but they got back from vacation in Maurice this past week and the very first day they were back their two daughters (Efesia-21, and Lisa-18) called us to ask when they could come with us to do missionary work:)  I love those girls so much, and they will be working with us all Saturday this week:) 

Soeur Isham and I taught the lesson about sacrifice this past Sunday during Sunday school.  It went well, and it is a super interesting subject.  I love the quote from the prophet Joseph Smith that says something like that a religion that doesn’t demand sacrifice from its followers doesn’t have the power to change us and lead us to salvation.  Woohoo for sacrifice and for giving our hearts to the savior:D  we dropped Soeur Isham off yesterday because she is headed to Maurice for a month.  I will miss her but I will see her again so all is well:)  I love you all and hope you have a great week!!!!

Love, Soeur Wilson

August 11, 2014

This week felt super, super, super, incredibly long and I’m not sure why, but it was awesome and there were tons of beautiful moments:)  we had our second mini-missionary:D  her name is Mei-lyne Ah-phine and she did not want to do one at first but we told her it would be awesome and she prayed about it, decided to comen, and had an incredible time:D  the last morning we had a testimony meeting with the five of us (Soeur Liu-p.s. mama tell papa that she comes from Tahiti, Soeur Thomas, Soeur Isham, Soeur Ah-phine and I :) and it was such a powerful moment.  I LOVE the spirit and I love virtue and virtuous women:)  I can see why the lord feels the same way.   Being pure and virtuous is so important and it is so beautiful.  When we try to be like Christ we really do shine with his light and people can see it:)  the people here ask us all the time why we are so bright, it is the light of Christ!!!! It is the happiness and joy that can be found in the gospel:D  I love how much my testimony is growing:)

Also I got sick for the first time and felt like death but kept working and it was awesome:)  I like to keep going and working and to not give in to being sick.  Because I was either going to lie there feeling like crap or go out and teach and feel like crap but have the blessings and the help of the lord:)  I did take two naps to help and I had medicine from home and today I feel great:) 

I don’t have much time to write:( and I forgot my planner at home and my memory is not super good so I can’t think of what else happened this week;)  in short, sorry that  this is short and lame but know that I am doing well, that I am happy, and that it is so cool to be a missionary:D  have a great week:)

Love, Sister Wilson

My companions, I decided this week, know me a little too well.... I am not super into cake and this is what I got instead;)  I just about died laughing:)

This was after a looooonnnnngggg day and I’ll try to take a better picture the next time for my wonderful mom who bought me the dress for my birthday:)  but there you have it:)