August 5, 2013

Elder Santos was busy answering personal emails this week so there was no general email. But here are some tidbits about his new area that he sent us:

There are only four elders in French Guianna. Different apts. And, here's a fun fact. Of those four, two of them are definitely leaving at the end of this transfer, and the other two are Elder Maoni and myself. Elder Maoni has only been here for about a month, and me for less. Which means that we're not going to have really any missionaries with a whole lot of experience/knowledge of the area.

The country is really not too terribly different from the islands, although it's true that it's hotter here. The accent isn't really a problem here-at least, I still haven't been able to pick up if they speek differently than in my previous areas. The biggest difference, for the country and for the accent, revolves around the fact that no one is really from here. Compared with the islands, I see tons of Asians (fun fact-one common term used around here is "le chinois". It literally means "the chinese person", but it is used to refer to the little gas-station-but-without-the-gas stores that are all over the place here), lots of white metropolitans, a huge number of Brazilians, and a good number of spanish speakers from other nearby countries as well. So, yeah, there is an accent here, but I don't know if you could technically call it a Guiannais accent.

We've got one branch here that isn't actually attached to any district-we're just a part of the West Indies Mission. Interestingly enough, a few years back Guianne had three branches and its own district. Unfortunately things have not been moving in the right direction.

Being a Zone Leader is...well, I'm kind of a special case. I mean, I can't imagine that there is a zone in the world that is smaller than the one that I am in now. And I know that, at least in the mission, I'm the only Zone Leader who isn't companions with another Zone Leader. But yeah, for the moment I get to be the bad guy that has to ruin everyone's party. I guess that's what I'm told being a parent is like. Man, I am so sorry.

I had already served with Elder Johnston in Martinique (not as companions), I had only met Elder Maoni at two zone conferences, and I had met Joseph Jomie when I was in his branch in Guadeloupe. Both the companionships have cars actually, but we aren't supposed to drive them too much.

Food is pretty much the same here-well, I've been the master chef at our appartment so far, and I have been making the same things, so...not sure what are the good local dishes, but I'm sure I'll get to taste them eventually.

July 29, 2013

Never a dull moment on the south american continent!

Hello family,

So this week has been a fun little adventure. But to start that story, I still have to introduce you to some people!

MAIN CHARACHTERS:

ELDER JOHNSTON: we know already! He's still the big tahitian who was with me for three transfers in Martinique. I was sure I was never going to see him again, too! I don't know how well I really knew him the last time I did this for him, but just to tell you, he's one of the goofiest, funniest guys I've ever met. Always a joke and a smile.

ELDER MAONI: is his companion, and happens to also be from Tahiti. In fact, he and Elder Johnston were in the same ward. They knew each other really well-they don't say that they were best friends before the mission, but they said that they hung out together a lot. Anyway, Elder Maoni is a great teacher, and speaks english well, because he recently came back from english side.

ELDER BATKH: Is not, in fact, the 16-year old Guadeloupeen. He is, rather, a 17-year old Guiannais. Lives in Mattoury, and in fact his family lives in our area. He was born in the church; both his parents were converted a long time ago. Anyway, we picked him up to start his mini-mission Monday. Then, he ended up going home on Friday. Before we left he mentioned that, in fact, it was more of a micro-mission. But hey, that's just the direction that technology is heading these days, isn't it?

which brings us right to...

ELDER JOMIE: who IS the 16-year old Guadeloupeen. But really, he turns 17 in November, so he's not like a baby baby. He's lots of fun, lots of laughs, and is having an exciting time.

Oh, and for a bit of setting-information. Both companionships are affected to Cayenne, so we are really pretty close. The other companionship has "in town" and the areas directly around-technically they're bike missionaries, but they actually have a car too, since the senior couple left one behind. Our area is, technically, all of Guianne that is not in the small bubble of their area. But in a more practical sense, we stay relatively close. And, I get to drive a car! For some reason, they haven't asked me to take french driver's ed. Does someone want to look up if it's legal to drive on an american licence on french soil? 

And here, I'll make a map.

                                                  Church

                                                    l l

                                                    l l

Cayenne    ------------------Their---------(   )--------------------Our

(downtown) ------------------house-------(   )-------------------house

That thing in the middle is a roundabout. They're EVERYWHERE here.

So one realization for this week is that I'm the only missionary here whose first language is english. No senior couple, no americans, no squat. Hey, it should be good for my french!

So yeah. For a quick summary, the Batkh family is not really what you would call "fully active"-I didn't get to meet them my first sunday. But Andrew is a smart kid, and he seemed to be doing fine. But then Wednesday he asked to go home. So we talked about it, and he said that he said, in essence, that he doesn't feel good asking other people to come to church if he isn't coming to church. We talked about it some more, but in the end he still wanted to go home. In fact, it was all we could do to get him to stay until Friday night, to give us a bit of time to find a replacement. Friday, he went home, and Saturday morning we went to pick up Elder Jomie. Hah, he scared me at the beginning too, because he mentioned that he had told the senior couple in Gwada that he would like to do a mini-mission, but that at the same time he said it thinking that he was still too young, and was sort of half-joking. But then he said that he left all his fear at home, and so far he's been living up to his promise. He's great, and we're getting along really well.

THE SMALL THINGS: Having a francophone companion is full of fun little perks. He was asking about movies that I've seen, and we started talking about "The Incredibles". Well, the name is different in French, but I just translated it directly to "Les Incroyables". And that, of course, reminded me of the bomb-throwing bad guy from the beginning of the film, who, as we all know, speaks french! So I asked what they did for him in french, and guess what...he speaks italian! I don't know why really, but that made me laugh so much. Anyway. Everyone has their stereotypes, right?

Aand there goes all my time.

Address!

Chemin Giglia 

3249 Route de Baduel

97300 Cayenne

Guianne Francaise

there you go.

Thank you all very much for your prayers and your thought-waves sent my direction. I promise you they make a difference. In fact, I've attributed the fact that Guianne isn't as unbearably hot and buggy as people told me that it was to your guys' prayers. Not sure if it's that, but hey.

Bizous,

-Elder Santos