Missing pictures

Ok, so I finally figured out the picture problem we'd been having. Here are the ones Elder Santos sent of where he sleeps and where they have church.

February 25, 2013

Bonjour à tous!

It's been a fun week. Attached, you will find pictures of my very first baptism. I don't remember all of what I said before, so sorry if the following is redundant information. But the woman you see in white is Soeur Callista Serieux, Baptized the 23rd and confirmed the 24th. She is from Saint Lucia, and therefore speaks english. She has two children, one of whom we hope will be baptized as soon as his visa paperwork is sorted out. Elder Larsen is the white boy. Come to think of it, this is the first time you've seen him, huh? For the baptism, I got to give a short talk on what baptism means (have the greenie give a talk-great idea!), and then I got to be one of the witnesses as well. For the baptism which took place on a beach in Martinique (NBD). Haha it was lots of fun.

Anyway, other than that it's been a pretty standard week. Normally I would be notified of my next transfer calls this week, but we're doing a sort of odd seven-week transfer this time, so I might not know until two fridays from now. In any case, this is Elder Larsen's last full week-next wednesday he leaves for Trinidad. It's been kinda odd for me, seeing someone else getting ready to go home and trying to keep my head in the game, but I'm doing okay. Lots of scriptures, lots of praying.

One fun experience actually happened last Sunday night-we were walking through downtown Fort-de-France, and suddenly a young guy, maybe mid-20's starts following us. Well...we didn't have to wonder long what he was doing, because he called out to us. We started talking, and...surprise surprise! He tells us that he's a member of the church. He's from Santo Domingo, and has been here for about a month, but had previously been unable to make contact with the church. Brother Jackson, 26, is a returned missionary as well, and a convert of 13 years. It's just a cool testimony to me that God puts his children in places to succeed, and that we can answer other people's prayers simply by being who we are.

Oh, and another exciting (for me) piece of news-I received not one, but TWO pieces of mail this week-one from Megan, with pictures of my beautiful nieces, and another one from Mike, my roommate. Interestingly, that one was sent through Dearelder, and was actually mailed from Utah (so it still took two weeks to get here), but hey, it worked. Thank you to everyone who has written and emailed, for thinking of me.

Also, I get really disappointed when my amis don't come to church. Likewise, I get really excited when they do. I imagine that, in a different way, your Heavenly Father is happy when we make sacrifices to get to church. I promise you, that as you keep the commandments, you make God happy!

THE LITTLE THINGS:

Alright, bear with me on this one-This week, I am thankful for american fast-food. Turns out that they have McDonalds down here, but it's not quite like we're used to it. Here, a small drink costs 1.75e, which is roughly twice as much as a large drink costed when I left. Basically, you don't have to worry about me eating lots of fast food, because we can't afford it! Moral of the story? You don't realize what you've got 'till it's gone.

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT:

And just in case there were any doubts about the odd missionary instinct to find gospel parallells everywhere, today's thought comes from Toy Story. During my little talk on baptism, I spoke about what it means to take the name of Christ upon us. One take on it-what things do I have my name on? My scriptures, my clothes, and in general, other things that I value. Which is another side of this in and of itself, but the part I'm looking at now is the fact that I put my name on things that belong to me. When all the other toys were ready to fly the coop, Woody knew the name that was on him, and he was faithful to his kid. And for that matter, the toys could tell who Buzz was because of the name on him. So, as we considder our baptismal covenant every Sunday, let us strive to take the name of Christ upon ourselves in such a way that we and everyone who sees us will know to whom we belong. There's a scripture in Corinthians that talks about that, but I can't find it right now.

That's all for now, folks! 

I feel like my emails aren't that informative some times. If I miss any information, feel free to ask questions and I'll get to it next time.

I love you!

-Elder Santos

February 18, 2013

Granted, my tan lines probably aren't as cool as Pono's.

Hey all, long time no email!

Not a whole heck of a lot going on since last time. The cool part was that even though it was a short week, we still taught a bunch-as many lessons as we had in a full second week of this transfer. Not a whole lot new going on though. Elder Larsen has his travel plans to go home, which is crazy, but other than that it's been a pretty calm four days.

But hey, I've gotta talk about something. This week, we got to teach a woman named Jocelyne again. She is in her 50's, is supporting her very old mother who I have never heard talk, and is definitely one of the most spiritual people I have met. It seems like every time we call her, she's in the middle of reading her Bible. She has frequented a bunch of religions, and right now is going to an evangelist church. We taught all of the restoration, and when we gave her a Livre de Mormon, she said that she was excited to read it; she had seen one before and had wanted to have one. I really want her to accept the gospel, because she is already so faithful, and I know how much she would appreciate everything the gospel has to offer. Pray for her, please! Also, while you're at it, pray for Urdine, who I recently promised would have a testimony of the Book of Mormon by March 30th. I really felt like it was the right thing to do, but since then I've had some time to start doubting myself. Yeah, just keep me in your prayers in general, and I just might make it through this.

Oh, and for some physical happenings-I have less mosquito bites than I have had in a month, which is great-hopefully it lasts! Also, I've got a pretty gnarly tan line from my watch-it's fun to see how white I was when I left. Pono-I totally bet I'm still darker than you!

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT:

This week's thought comes from Helaman 10:12. For those of you not familiar, the prophet Nephi is heading home from a full day of predicting the assassination of his nation's grand juge, being accused as accomplice in his murder, divining the killer and getting a confession, and then having everyone decide not to try to kill him, when suddenly the voice of the Lord comes to him, and, among other things, gives him new power and a commandment to preach repentance to the people. Now, if it were me, I would have probably said "Man, that's great! I'm going to go get a good night's sleep and make a game plan so I can really tear it up tomorrow!". Fortunately, it wasn't me. "And behold, now it came to pass that when the Lord had spoke these words unto Nephi, he did stop and did not go unto his own house, but did return unto the multitudes who were scattered about upon the face of the land, and began to declare unto them the word of the Lord which had been spoken unto him, concerning their destruction if they did not repent". That, my dear friends, is called immediate obedience, and is a step above being a good person. May we all strive to do the right thing, right now.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

This one from Elder Hansen, who has also been here for two years: "You know the random crowds of background people in your dreams? Well, mine are all black now."

FOLLOW UP:

On the invitation-apparently that's important or something. But for those of you who manage to do that, I would love to hear the story of how it happened-I find that I am now very inspired by stories of member missionary work.

Yep, that's really all I've got.

Lots of love,

-Elder Santos

February 14, 2013

Happy Valentines Day!

Not that that means anything to me. But I figure it might actually be significant for someone, so it gets a shout-out.

Hey all! Long time, no see! I'll start with explanations, because it comes with a pretty cool story.

So this past Monday, when I normally would have been writing to all of you beautiful people, I was instead on an airplane flying to Guadeloupe. Well, it's only a 35 minute flight, but you get the idea. Anyhow, The reason for the trip was twofold-Tuesday was my first zone conference, but more rare was the fact that on Monday, for the first time, we had an apostle visit the Antilles. Neal L. Anderson has been doing a tour of the Carribian recently, and was scheduled to come to Guadeloupe that day, so President Mehr flew us in early to help out. We spent all day getting the building ready (the church rented a bigger one out, because the chapel there is tiny), and then a little bit before we went out to give invitations to everyone and their grandmother. No joke, they gave five companionships a ton of invitations, and then dropped us all off in the middle of town with 45 minutes to get rid of our stack. By about a half hour in, we would begin walking up to someone, and they would see us coming and start waving the invitation that they had already recieved. Hey, the good news is that everyone was invited! Then, just before the beginning of the big meeting, Elder Anderson had a very quick private meeting with the missionaries (there were 21 of us). I got to shake his hand, and in a picture that he took with us, I'm almost standing right behind him. So that was pretty cool for me! Then in his talk (delivered in french), he talked about several things, but one of the ones that I really liked was his account of the story of the man blind from birth, who was healed by the Savior.

HIJACKED SPIRITUAL THOUGHT: So just to refresh your memory-Jesus heals this man on the Sabbath, Jews see him and get angry, and take him in for questioning. They start by saying that Jesus is a sinner and disrespecter of the law, and then ask him what he knows about the situation. He says that he doesn't know about Jesus, but he knows one thing-he was blind, and now he can see. There is something simply profound in this statement. As a member of the Church, I am not obliged to defend anything. I don't have to know how things work, because I can see the results. I know simply that I was blind, but now I see. I invite everyone to share this simple testimony, if you have already felt this change, and if you have not, I promise you that you will, if you seek it.

Anyway, I also learned that Apostles are very good at time management. In the meeting of about 400 people, Elder Anderson shook hands with everyone who wanted to, stopping for a quick picture or a short conversation. Everyone got their chance, and everyone knew that they were loved. And then, as soon as he got to the end of the line, he grabbed President Mehr and was out the door in 30 seconds. As of Tuesday night, he was meeting with the members in Haiti. It's a busy life!

Zone conference Tuesday was a lot of fun as well. One of the best parts was getting to meet so many new missionaries besides the three that are with me on Martinique. There were 10 other elders already on Guadeloupe, and we were also joined by the St. Martin missionaries-3 sisters, 2 elders, all english side. In my zone, there are 6 missionaries from Tahiti, 2 from Europe (Britain and France), one each from American Samoa and Montreal, and then a bunch of kids from the states. One interesting thing I discovered is that in companionships, there is a difference between not having conflicts and having unity. There is grey space in between, and for a big chunk of time, the difference is a concious effort.

But yeah. Then Wednesday we flew back to Martinique, and I get a little time today to write an email before we're back to the normal schedule.

WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT MYSELF:

-I apparently am, at the least, not very consistent in how I speak french. Since I have been down here, I have been told that I speak with the following accents: Metropole (which translates to "like a person from France"), American, German, Spanish, and Quebecois.

FIRSTS:

-I'm adding a "firsts" column for the first time.

-I had my first zone conference, but I've already said that.

-I got my first piece of solid mail this week! It came all the way from Hungary, and arrived in Trinidad on January 31st, although they held it there until the Assistants came up for zone conference. Thank you Elder Quinton!

-I have my first mission CD: "Consider the Lillies" by the one and only MoTab. They were giving them out at Elder Anderson's meeting, and had leftovers. Incidentally, they have a very liberal music policy here, but I'm still working on how to profit from that.

-I sent my first letter from Martinique! It was written last Monday, but I didn't get it in the mailbox until late Friday. So...let the timer begin!

-I have my first solid Baptismal date set: Her name is Callista, and she's going to be baptized the 23rd of February. In the ocean. Most of her teaching happened before I got here, but hey, I get to see the baptism!

THE LITTLE THINGS:

I am grateful for Juice. For those of you who don't know, I was really not a juice person before coming out here. Water, milk, and Dr. Pepper. But here we get plenty of the first, the second is too expensive to have on its own, and the third is nonexistant (the only sodas here are Coke and Sprite). But the Juices here? Absolutely amazing. Nothing like back home.

INVITATION:

This one's new too. But I've learned already since coming here that this work simply doesn't work without members. I personally believe that in a perfect world, Missionaries wouldn't do any finding-they would be too busy teaching all the referals that come from all the members. Since coming here, I've seen two referrals, and both of them came during contacts, not from members. For the record, neither of them have become new investigators. So, I have a challenge for my family members, and for anyone else who wants to play: Some time in the next month (before March 14th), please prayerfully find someone who could benefit from a visit from the Missionariesof your ward, and give them a referral. They will love you for it!

I'm running out of time (as usual), but I'll talk to you again in four days!

Bizus, Elder Santos

February 4, 2013

There was some trouble with the pictures he sent. I'll keep working on it.

I'm going soft...

Hey all!

So, first things first. Yeah, there was definitely a transition period. I think I got here, and I just realized that two years does seem like a long time, but it's been a really good week as far as perspective goes. I mean, talk about learning something new every day!

WHAT I'VE LEARNED ABOUT MYSELF:

-Either I'm mellowing out in my old age, or I'm just not that intense. So far this week, I've had two investigators tell me that I'm always smiling, and another one was talking about my companion and I, and said that he was a stronger personality, but that I was more "doux". I mean, it's not necessarily a bad thing, but I was surprised all the same.

-I understand a tahitian french accent better than I do an antillian french accent. And I can understand everything my white companion says.

-I'm delicious. Now, I know that may sound self-serving, but I didn't say it; the mosquitos did. Every. Single. One of them.

No joke, I have five mosquito bites on my right hand; like above the wrist.

But yeah! This week was significantly slower than last week numbers-wise, but I'm doing really well despite that. In the past three days, for example (not counting today), we are hitting a 1/9 on people actually showing up to the lessons we scheduled 24 hours earlier. But, we just figure something else out and adapt. And really, some of the really cool teaching experiences have come when we've just been scraping for something after a cancelled rendezvous.

As far as day-to-day life questions though:

My appartment is nice, albeit different than I had expected. If I did everything right, than the first photo should be a picture of my bed. And if you can't tell from the picture, I am indeed sleeping outside on the balcony. I have yet to be cold at night, and I have yet to sleep with more than my sheet. Second picture is my view; welcome to Fort-de-France, Martinique. Incidentally, I wake up a lot easier when I'm in sunlight. Third picture is our church building. Well, our half-church building. We meet above a car shop, and the room holds about seventy if every seat is filled. Right now we see about sixty on a weekly basis. All the rest of the rooms for auxilarys and stuff are tiny-tiny, but it's big enough for now. The members here would love to have a chapel on Martinique, but we don't have the numbers quite yet. One thing about the membership here-we do get baptisms (I speak in the genearal "we", since I personally haven't gotten one), and they do stick around, our retention rate is high, it's just that it's a slow process. The requirements to form a stake in the french antilles are posted on my wall above my desk, and so far we have about two-thirds of the required members and about 85% of the required tithe-paying priesthood holders. So it's really strong membership here, but we progress slowly.

As far as what standard of living is like here-I mean, there is a good amount of diversity, but in general it is much higher than it would be on the english side of the mission. Lots of people with smartphones, and I've even seen a couple of Ipads down here. So yeah, although there are poor people here, it's not as bad as you think it is.

Also, on the suitcases thing-I will be able to buy a carry-on down here, which I will have to do before I get transferred. For now, I sorted through my stuff again and decided on a lot of it that I wouldn't need. That all went in suitcase #2, and I will be taking that with me to zone conference next week. From there, the assistants will take it back to Trinidad, where it will be stored in their apt. Hopefully it will stay there safely for the next two years.

Mail: I don't know how long it will take things to get here, but I wouldn't suggest sending anything too important in the first half of a transfer, just in case. Send things directly to the Martinique address-especially packages, because those I would have to pay duties on if they went english-side. My companion has been getting all his stuff safe and sound, without any problem. Again, I can buy just about everything I need down here though. Letters pack just as much love!

I am running out of time way too fast.

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT: This week, on change. We've already heard the old saying that leopards don't change their spots. Fortunately for us though, we're not leopards. Change is not only possible, it is an essential part of the human condition (Mosiah 27:26). Already, I've heard people say "that's just the way I am". The sad implication underlying this statement is that you are out of your own control, that nothing that you can do will change who you are. I promise you, that is not a thought that originates with God, and in fact I would contend that it falls squarely in line with the teaching of the adversary, who, having failed to rob us of our agency, now tries to convince us that it is no worth. Don't listen. Don't settle. Because, believe me, we all need to change, but first we all need to know that we can. Start the process now!

That's all for now. I'm sure I forgot something, but hey.

But yes, as a closing statement, I may not be quite as happy as Pono (reference number of exlamation points), but I am over the shock of first getting here and happy to be right where the Lord wants me to be. I mean, how often do you have an assurance of that? I dunno, it's cool for me anyway.

I love you all!

-Elder Santos