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