Elder Santos

Elder Santos

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

November 18, 2013

Well, I was running out of excuses anyway...


Which works well, because I don't really have a good one for this past week. Basically, the 11th was Armistice day, and when we eventually got some email time on Thursday, I didn't have enough time to send out my group email. But, thank you for news and love anyway!

So I'll try to cover the last two weeks if it's possible.

News items first-transfer calls were this last week, and nothing is changing. All four missionaries down here are going to be exactly the same. But, fun fact-that means that next transfer is going to set two records for me; both longest stretch of time in one area, and longest stretch of time with the same companion. Also, I will have been here as long as I have been in all other places combined. Which, hey, is nothing compared to Pono's 7 transfers in Paita. Félicitations! C'est bien que tu aimes Dumbea, parce que je parie qu'il pourrait être ton dernier secteur. Amuse-toi bien! Congratulations! It's good that you love Dumbea, because I bet it could be your last sector. Have fun!

Since last time, I got to do a couple of exchanges too-in fact, in our itty-bitty-little micro zone down here, exchanges mean that every missionary works with every other missionary down here every transfer. So last week, I got to work with Elder Call, and really appreciated it. For as young as he is, he's already speaking great french and participates really well in lessons. And, he happens to be a very gifted chef. This week's exchange with Elder Miyasaki was lots of fun too; he is just always having fun and enjoying life. Also a great cook. And yes, we've already all had fun laughing about how the two people who know how to cook are together and the two people who don't know how to cook are together.

Whiich leads nicely into our next fun item-a while ago an investigator taught us how to make a traditional haitian dish named banane pesée (sp?) translates to banana weighing, and then this past week we did a service project for a member, and at the end they gave us a bunch of green bananas-exactly what the dish is made with! So, we went out on a limb and made it ourselves. And it sort of worked! I'll make it for you when I get home.

Couple cool stories from the past couple weeks too. We went to see one of our recent converts this past week, he opened the door, I asked him how he was doing, and he said "good, but I'm not going back to church anymore". Heart. Stops. But he still invites us in, we talk for a while (there was a little misunderstanding at church-he's a native english speaker, and in french, he understood something that offended him), and before leaving he accepted our invitation to come back to church the next week. He was one of the first members there on Sunday, and even came to our fireside on Saturday night. But I just remember that right after he said that at the door, the entire time we were there I was just praying so hard. 

But probably one of my favorite experiences happened on that first exchange with Elder Call-in the morning, we had a Mission Leadership Council, and one of the things that President talked about was how we react when rendezvous fall through. He said to stop being frustrated and to look around quick, because an omnipotent, omnicient God doesn't bring us places for no reason. Even if the person that you had in mind isn't there, God's probably got something better in store. Well, that afternoon, we went to an appointment, and who would have guessed it-they weren't there. So we turned around and decided to start talking to the neighbors. Well, we had really only gone down the road a little ways, before we call inside of a house, and a woman comes out and says "How did you two get here?" I was a little confused, so I said "Well, there was a plane, then a car, then we walked a little while..." But she kept on going, and said "No, this address! How did you find this address?" We shortly discovered that this woman was a member of the church, less-active for a couple years. She told us that for a couple weeks, she had been having dreams about people dressed like us, coming to her door. "I couldn't decide if it was the PAF or missionaries, but here you are!" She was very emotional as she explained to us how much she loves the church, and how much she wanted to come back. We testified that her loving Heavenly Father had not forgotten her, and, even if we didn't know it at the time, He had brought us here just for her. She came to church yesterday, and said that she's planning on bringing her husband and son next week.

Well, that's pretty much my time, but for a few last comments:
-Yes, last Thursday was the hump. It's really crazy to think that it's been a year since I last saw any of you, a year that I've been wearing a tag. It's scary to think that people say that the second half goes quicker, because...
-A couple people have asked things about Christmas. Well, I really have been slowly losing confidence in the mail system down here, so I am going to kindly ask that no one send me anything. I love you and appreciate all that you do, but it's disappointing for everyone when things don't show up.


Yep.

Love,
-Elder Santos

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

November 4, 2013

Happy November!


Crazy.

But anyways, this one is probably going to be short.

Hah, so funny story.

There's a place down here, a little neighborhood, which I believe is a solid 95% Brazilian. Like, we were finding down there last week, but we were walking around with a portugese Book of Mormon instead of a french one. JJ, I don't suppose you could teach me how to contact someone in portugese?
In any case, we did have a fun finding experience down there, because we were walking around late at night, and there was a group of women talking in the street. We went up and introduced ourselves, talked about the Book of Mormon, placed two, and then promised to come back later with more (we didn't have enough for everyone). But hey, teaching groups of people is great! Especially because a couple of the women were making big connections on their own and were teaching part of the lesson to their friends for us.

Other than that, the cool experience for this week was seeing a less active woman come to church for the second week in a row, and this time she brought friends! Well, she brought her boyfriend, and her daughter came with her friend. She got up and bore her testimony, and talked about how scared she was to come back. It's hard! But that just means that it will be that much more rewarding for her.

Pray for us! We're arranging a couple weddings, trying to get people to come back to church, and hey, laughing all along the way.

Hope everyone had a fun halloween. You know what I miss most about halloween? Having that huge bowl filled with leftover candy for another month. Until all that's left is the lollipops and other stuf that no one wants. Then we would lower our standards and eventually eat those too. Yeah. Let the thanksgiving festivities begin!

Also, this next week, all of the senior couples from everywhere french side will be gone. So...pray for us.

I love you all!

-Elder Santos

October 28, 2013

We have exactly two seasons down here...


And the rainy season just hit us like a train. We've been having clouds in the sky for a little while now, but it's still been sunny and hot. Then, we woke up this morning and it was pouring. So, welcome to the rainy season! Also, I'm told that French Guianne is the hottest part of the mission, and that October is the hottest month of the year here, so if that's true it means that I've officially seen and beaten the worst that they've got to offer. Fingers crossed, in any case.

Other than that, it's been a good, although trying week. I think the most interesting part for me has been the chance that we've had to visit a handful of our less-active members. What I've discovered is that ward directories are filled with kind and faithful people, who are faced with an incredible challenge, and maybe could use a little help to beat it. Whether it's the family that used to be very active but that hasn't been to church in multiple years (the mom came to church yesterday though!), the relatively recent convert who just needs to feel some hope again, or the returned missionary who's just scared of the challenges, these are people with testimonies and righteous desires. But do we really understand how difficult that is, to return to activity after years of not going to church, and possibly years of mistakes and crippling feelings of unworthiness? I think that to be able to help these people (and make no mistake, we do have a covenant responsability to do so), we need to try to understand what they are feeling and going through. We need to be motivated, of course, by the pure love of Christ within us, by an unsullied desire for this person's well-being. Please, let's not make the mistake of approaching these people as a judge. Approach them as a friend. Help them find the courage to do a very hard thing, as well as the encouragement to continue despite adversity and potential failures.


Also, Elder Fraley has a picture of us at Zone Conference. That language would happen to be dutch. And I totally know how to say this in Dutch; "How are you? We are missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! This is for you."

Which, it turns out, is all that I needed to be able to place a pass-along card. Next time I go there I've just got to figure out how to say "I don't speak dutch", and I'll be golden.

Yep.

I love you! Have a good week!-Elder Santos