Bonjour à toutes et à tous, Hello to you all

Let's jump right in! I'm hoping to attach two pictures to this email, so fingers crossed!

I wanted to start out by wishing a biiig happy birthday wish to my best friend in the whole world! I love you Sister Santos! Sorry I forgot to say that last week! Also a big congratulations on your new assignment-I'm positive that you are going to do great. I pray for you every day.

Other than that, the big news from this week is that we got transfer calls! And the four of us that are on Martinique aren't moving at all! So not too much to talk about there. But, the exciting news (we've known this was going to happen for a while now) is that we are going to get two new missionaries here this week. One of them is coming from French Guiana, and the other one is coming from Provo. In fact, all I know about him is that his name is Miyasaki, and that he's actually from Hawaii. But hey, we should have some new charachters coming up next week! Just to give you the run-down, they are supposed to be covering the southern end of Martinique, but in fact for the moment they will be staying in our apartment in Fort-de-France, and they will not have a car. So...I don't know how we are thinking this is going to work, but I'm sure we'll burn that bridge when we get there. The biggest change that we'll have to deal with for now is just having four in the apartment. Like I may have mentioned before, it's really not all that big, but it's housed four in the past, so it'll work out somehow.

I really don't have a whole lot of news for this week. Come to think of it, that can't be a good sign. But...I'll work on making sure I have something great to share for next time! Just some quick experiences though. We went contacting in the rich area of Fort-de-France the other day (it's actually called Bellevue-go figure), and I discovered that even after just three months, I've gotten into a weird state of mind where white people stress me out. No joke, we were walking down a street and there were more white people than black people, and for some reason in the back of my mind I was thinking "I feel like I shouldn't be here...". So...going back to Washington and Provo will be quite an adventure. Oh, but probably my favorite moment of the week happened just this morning-we went to a little recreation area by the ocean to play basketball with some amis, and afterwards as I was just hanging around on a park bench, a pair of Jehovah's Witnesses came up to contact me. Hahaha I think the best part was when they were asking where I was from and all.

"You're here on vacation?"

"Well, not exactly."

"Oh, so you're here for some sort of formation (that's the word in french, I'm pretty sure in English we would say training)?"

"...yeah, you could say that."

Anyway, eventually they found out who we were and left. But hey, crazy stuff happens when you're not in a shirt and tie.

The other fun thing that happend this week was that our Zone Leaders came to Martinique for two days, because neither of them has ever been here, and they wanted to know the island and us a bit better. So for Wednesday and Thursday we were a trio, and it was a great learning experience. One thing I learned is that you really do have to talk to everyone. Gordon B. Hinckley was once asked how he got so many couples at the height of their professional careers to give up everything and go serve as mission presidents. His answer? "We ask them". And while, granted, the results aren't always the same when trying to teach people, one important principle is that people cannot accept an invitation that you do not offer them.

Well, keep on praying for me! I couldn't make it by without you guys. And keep yourselves safe; I hear life has gotten a little crazy recently for the U.S.ofA. Know that I pray for you all!

Bizus,

-Elder Santos

Ps-photo is from the top of a building in Bellevue. You can see a lot of Fort-de-France from there (note the stinking huge cruise ship). Also, the sun was in my face, so you'll have to excuse the grimace.