July 28, 2014

Transfers!

So, that's two records in the books. Longest I've ever been in an area is five transfers in Morne-à-l'eau, and longest I've ever been with a companion is three transfers with Elders Fraley, Harrison, and potentially Broadbent.

That's the name of my new companion, by the way. I'll tell the full story.

Saturday morning, I got a call from President Mehr (which, already is weird-normally he only does transfer calls for important things), and he started by telling me that he was looking at the transfer board and discovered that he had a lot of missionaries french side who were over one year and who had still never been in a leadership position, so he was going to release some zone leaders. He then told me that he was going to be releasing me and moving me out of Morne-à-l'eau, and thanked me for my service. I'm going allllll the way to Baie-Mahault, which is as short a distance as I could possibly travel and still change branches. Incidentally, this is the first time that I've been transferred without getting on a plane.

So, yeah. My mailing adress hasn't changed. In fact, now the senior couple lives in my area, so  it's actually even more accurate. I'm going to be with Elder Broadbent (don't know much about him yet) and will not be serving in any leadership position. I'll also be back on bikes. Pray for me. I don't even know wh

Dangit. Whoever put tab and "a" next to each other on the french keyboard is in trouble.

Sometimes it's really hard to get motivated for emails. Not that things don't happen, but come Monday…it's just gone.

Yeah.

July 21, 2014

Soo many conferences.

Oh, and a birthday. And a companionship exchange, and someone else's birthday...which brings us right back around to today! I'm in a cybercafé, on a rapidly ticking clock. 

Love you!

-Elder sAntos

July 16, 2014

Conferences and stuff.

District conference was first, on Saturday and Sunday, followed shortly by Zone conference on Tuesday. Equally exciting was having President Mehr come and play football with us for our P-day activity. For the record, this man, about to turn 60, is 6'4" and was an all-everything athlete back in the day; he's still as good as any of the missionaries.

But, I tell you what, I've actually decided that when I get home I'm going to go ahead and type up my notebook (my little composition notebook is dying), so I'll send you the interesting parts then.

My camera isn't working today, so I'll have to save pictures for next time.

I'm sorry, I'm really not in an emailing mood today. Hah, by the time I get back I'm only going to be capable of communicaiton on Mondays. Look forward to that!

I really do love you all,

-Elder Santos

July 7, 2014

Happy 4th!

We celebrated by teaching a zone meeting about fasting and then having a Mcdonalds feast. No, the irony of it was not lost on us.

Speaking of which! So, I don't know if I wrote about this very well at all, but last September, we had a mission wide fast, after President taught us the principle of the fast, and we in turn taught it to our missionaries. He told us to plan for effective fasting through purpose, preparation, and prayer. It was really cool. I'll tell you all about it later.

But then, in this month's mission leadership council, he basically started it off by saying that we were going to cover the same basic doctrine. Fun fact; apparently, I am one of eight missionaries that was present for both of those mlc's. Well, this was Wednesday morning. From that point until lunchtime Saturday when we started our fast, we just ran around and taught almost all the members in our area the principle of fasting. We ended up having eight people fast with us. One of the good things about missions is that you get better at recognizing blessings when they come.

Other than that, Slorane is doing very well. Highlights include that she has been tearing through her gospel principles book like none other, and that when a 25-year old male investigator came to church on Sunday, she asked if she could help the missionaries teach him afterwards, and then told him that he needed to keep the law of chastity.

President and Sister Mehr are flying into Guadeloupe this week, and will be staying here until the 17th (sound like an important date to anyone else?). We have district conference this saturday/sunday, and then Zone conference next Tuesday. Wish me luck!

That's really about all that I've got for the moment. Keep on praying. Pray for miracles. Oh, I just thought of one last thing.

So, in connection with his lesson on fasting, President Mehr sent us a quote from Lorenzo Snow (teachings, chapter 17). "I know not any sacrifice which I could possibly make that I was not willing to offer that the Lord might grant our request". I often use Matthew 13:45-46 with investigators to teach priorities. By definition, our highest priority is that thing for which we are willing to sacrifice everything else to have. It is both interesting and important to know what your highest priority is, because, as Elder Maxwell teaches, "What we insistently desire, over time, is what we will eventually become and what we will receive in eternity". The frightening truth is that God is going to give us exactly what we want. Free agency is more than being allowed to follow our desires, but it means in fact that God will support our decision and grant our request (Alma 29:4). What do you desire the most? What request do you make of the Lord, for which you are willing to make any sacrifice?

There we go, that sort of looks like an email. I love all of you!

-Elder Santos

The picture is from this morning's sunrise hike at la pointe des chateaux. I've officially been on this island long enough to do the same hikes twice.

June 30, 2014

Just one thing...

Slorane got baptized on Saturday. I got to give her the gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday. Picture is with her entire family. Karine is the mom, and Oceane and Matis are the younger sister and brother, respectively.

So, that was really cool.

I love you!

-Elder Santos

June 23, 2014

Guess who!

POWER EMAILS!!!

So a big thank you to Pono and to Brother Caldwell, whose letters I received this past week. I especially liked having the missionary update!

Anyway, let's talk a bit about Slorane, shall we?

For those of you who don't remember, Slorane is the 14 year-old daughter of Karine, who has been supposed to be baptized twice now. Well, recently (although I don't remember if it was before the last two weeks or not), we started teaching Slorane again, because Karine wanted to put her life in order, but she said that she wants her daughter to get baptized first. We talked to Slorane, and explained to her that, yes, she should be baptized, but that she should NOT be baptized if it was not her choice. So we started talking about it, we actually read 2 Nephi 9: 23-24 with her, and she was like "ok, well then I'm going to get baptized this Saturday". Well, we explained that maybe she should be going to church consistently before being baptized. So we decided to have her go to church three Sundays in a row before getting baptized. Which makes baptismal Saturday the 28th of June, this week. So we'll see what happens with that. Since we set this date, she has been power reading her Book of Mormon. Actually, an interesting side note to this story is that, unforunately, Slorane's old boyfriend died very recently, and she has been thinking a lot about that. But, yeah, she's been reading her book of Mormon, marking up the stuff that she likes, coming to church on her own, and, just generally being really cool. So we're working on that! And I feel a lot better about it this time than I ever have in the past.

On the other hand, Karine has been much harder to get a hold of, but she has been showing a real desire to get baptised. In her prayer for us this past week, she prayed "please make it so that I get baptized very soon". So we're working on it!

Also, tahitian day. They did tahitian dance and everything. It wasn't any PCC, but it was still lots of fun. I learned like three cords on the Ukulele, and I decided that I'm going to need a real one when I get home. Double stringed? Plz?

Oh and Mom, as far as the package question goes, I thought about it, and the only thing that comes to mind is that President Mehr has approved two books for our mission- Kimball's "the Miracle of Forgiveness", and Callister's "The Infinite Atonement". I don't know if I have the weight for those things in my suitcases, so if they exist in paperback, that would be cool. If not, I don't really know. Socks? Not tons. I don't know.

Guaaahahh!

Email time always feels like I'm on one of those cooking shows trying to prepare twelve meals in one hour. I'm like "I barely know how to make rice!"

I love you all, and am praying for you.

-Elder Santos