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

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

October 21, 2013

Conférence de Zone! Zone Conference!

Cette semaine. C'était bien passé. Je suis comme Pono! This week. It was fine. I'm like Pono.

Well, that's about enough of that.

So Wednesday, we left for Suriname-like the third time that I've done that this transfer. Hah, no joke, President shook my hand and said "You again! You're all over the place!" Which, I guess it's true. Third time that I've seen him in three different countries this month.

Also, I feel like I've mentioned this before, but it struck me again this week that for the first time, I am both the oldest missionary and the most Guianne-experienced missionary down here. It's weird. I mean, I still just got here!

One of the things that we talked about in zone conference was stress management. But then it kinda shifted into a message on "be still, and know that I am God". I got a cool little perspective on that. 

-This world is, currently, the kingdom of Satan. Him and one third of the heavenly host are doing everything that they can to keep it that way. But guess what-we're here. And before the foundations of this world, we were foreordained to come to the earth now, just so that we can kick him out. That's what we're doing! It's incredible!

-God is at the wheel. I mean, what does that actually mean, "omnipotent"? Well, a part of that is that the kingdom is not in trouble. The ark is not tipping. God is going to win, regardless of whether or not we're on his team. We don't need to worry, because nothing that we can do or not do will change that. He just asks us to do our best, knowing that in the end, He's the one that makes the difference.

Aand, just like that I'm out of time.

I love you! Hopefully you'll get a baptism picture or two in November.

-Elder Santos

October 14, 2013

No place like home!

Yeah, I'm back. Tuesday, I flew from Trinidad to St. Vincent, to Barbados, to Dominique (which, incidentally, is outside of our mission), to Guadeloupe. Wednesday was from there to Martinique to here. But, I finally made it back, safe and sound.

The big change for this week has been the arrival of Elder Call's new companion, Elder Miyasaki. Do you remember him? We were both in Martinique (in the same apartment) for his first transfer. In any case, he and Elder Call have been kicking butt since he's gotten here, and it's been really fun to be able to see them work.

As for Elder Fraley and I...we laugh way too much. He reminds me quite a bit of a certain Jack Henry. The only thing is that I've been way to lenient on the English front, and so this past week we took the resolution to absolutely abandon English. If we speak in english, than we don't get any nutella for the next meal. We'll see how this works for us...

Aand...other than that...oh! So we went to visit Evita this past week, and when we asked her how her Book of Mormon reading was going, she said "It's going great. I read whenever I get the chance. Today I left off in...2 Nephi 8".

!!!

And that in a week. I'm really very excited about that, because so far in my mission, I have only ever had two investigators read that far into the Book of Mormon. And both of them are now members. Preach My Gospel talks a lot about the converting power of the Book of Mormon, and it really is true. No one can read far into this book without discovering for themselves that it is true. So! We're going to see her again tonight and ask her to be baptized in a couple weeks.

Also, this next week is Zone Conference (again! can you believe that I've already been down here for more than three months?), so we leave Wednesday and come back Friday. Just because that three hour drive to St Laurent hasn't gotten old yet...

Yep, that's all I've got for this week.

Tchimbé red! Take Care!

-Elder Santos

October 7, 2013

It sort of wasn't my fault this time..

But yeah, I don't have a great batting average for emails in the past little while...

Well anyway, let's start back a little bit. Last Sunday! We met a woman a while ago named Evita who has been doing great-she loves our visits and keeps her commitments.

Stupid English keyboards. More on that in a bit.

But anyway, we had a lesson scheduled with her for last Saturday, but she had a last minute thing and wasn't there. Which was a real bummer, because she had come to church the Sunday before, and one of the things that we were hoping to coordinate with her was to come to church again the next day (since she lives pretty far and doesn't drive). She didn't have a phone at that time, so we had no way of getting in touch with her other than showing up at her place, and it was already Saturday night. So we basically just said "well shucks" and focused on the other investigators we wanted to get to church.

But then, Sunday rolls around, church starts, and out of no where, Evita walks in! After sacrament meeting, when I asked her how she had gotten here, she said "Oh, well last week I loved church so much that I asked the sister that came to get me last time to come back and get me every week".

!!!

That is the first time that I have ever had an investigator get to church without us figuring out the specifics and inviting them during the week. So that was a great feeling. Another investigator that came to church last Sunday was Madame Joseph (have I already told you about her?). When we first knocked on our door she let us sit down to teach her. We gave her a restoration brochure and asked her to read it and pray about it. And when we came back, she told us that she knew that everything in the brochure was true. She's getting baptized this month.

Oh, and another one. Okay, so as a missionary, NO ONE calls you. I mean, other than missionaries and wrong numbers, I feel like we almost never receive calls, except for the occasional heads up to cancel a rendez-vous. But, last Monday, an old investigator sent us a message saying "hey, can you call me? I was wondering when you could come teach me". Her name was Saby, and we had sort of given up on her after about a month of failed rendez-vous and not being able to get in touch with her. So, yeah, that was unexpected. So I called her back, and she was like "Yeah, I want you to come over at these two times every week". Also unheard of. Little miracles all over the place!

So other than that, last Monday President Mehr came in to town. He taught us missionaries Tuesday morning, gave a member fireside Tuesday night, and then did personal interviews Wednesday morning. Oh, that's also why I didn't get to email last week. Monday I drove three hours to the border to pick up President from Suriname, and another three hours back. So we just didn't have time for emails. I would have done it another day, but we were just busy and then I didn't get around to it. Wednesday we did another three hours each way to drop him off, but this time I was the one that drove back. Which is big news, because it was in a manual van.

I now know how to drive manual. Sort of.

Well, I had to learn because, although since I've been here we've been driving an automatic truck, it didn't have enough spots for President, Sister Mehr, the assistants, my companion, and myself. Monday Elder Maoni drove there and President drove back. Tuesday, President took the truck, but I got like a 15 minute crash course on how to drive from the assistants. Then it was just me and Elder Fraley. The first time I started driving off, I pulled out to the main road, got ready to turn left...and then stalled. Like 5 times in a row. Elder Maoni ran out and made the turn for me. Then he left. I looked at Elder Fraley and said "Can we say a prayer?" So we said a prayer, I started the car, and we drove off. Yeah, I still stalled several times during the day, but we managed. In any case, I did the 250 kilometers back from Saint Laurent the next day without a problem.

But yeah. So that was exciting.

Then, Thursday of last week we went on an exchange-I was with Elder Maoni, and Elder Call and Elder Fraley stayed together (keep in mind that between the two of them they have less than three months of experience). Then, just to make it even more crazy, Friday at 3pm, the assistants called with the challenge of a lifetime-find some way to be in Suriname for a 6am flight the next day. That was followed by a lot of craziness and phone calls, which ended in our discovering that it wasn't possible for Friday...legally. So we ended up leaving early Saturday morning and, again, driving 3 hours to the border. This time though, Elder Maoni and I got to keep going. Crossed the river again (I wanted to take another picture, but my camera wouldn't turn on), and took another 2 hour taxi ride, showing up a half hour late for the first session of conference. Hah, we show up on the doorstep of the church building in Suriname, and all the elders but the zone leaders are like "Hey! What the heck are you doing here?"

Conference was great, by the way. I tried something new this time, inspired by a comment by President about taking notes-this past conference, I did my very best to not write anything down that was just an exact quote or an approximation of what the speakers had said. After all, we've always got the Liahona. But this time, I only wrote down thoughts or spiritual insights or applications that were not copy/pastes of what they were saying. It was great, and a much bigger learning experience. I found myself reflecting more, and learning things as I was writing them. Which, incidentally, someone later in the conference quoted as a way of knowing when they were speaking under the influence of the spirit. So that was a really new experience for me. One of the things I wrote down was that God was not really trying to be subtle with us this time. The focus is on missionary work and the family. I imagine Him watching us now and saying "Can you take a hint??"

And yes, we did watch priesthood session real time, which ended at 11pm here. Then, with missionary travel and all, we didn't end up getting to the host apartment until aftermidnight. Slept in my church pants and didn't undo my tie, because we had to get up at2:30 to go to the airport for our flight to Trinidad. Came to Trinidad, went to conference (this time I was SO TIRED), good stuff.

Also, that's the thing about the english keyboard from up above. I'm in Trinidad, so the keyboard is in English again. I had gotten used to the french one after leaving Martinique, because I could no longer change it to English. So now, all the numbers are weird and the "a" key is in the wrong place. But! I also got to play football with some of the Trinidad missionaries this morning for a p-day activity. It was great.

Hey, I'm told the Seahawks are doing awesome!

So yeah. I fly out Tuesday, spend the night in Guadeloupe, and then fly back to French Guianne Wednesday. Oh, I technically got my transfer calls, but nothing changed.

Come to think of it, it has been a pretty crazy couple weeks. Also, I'm way out of time.

Love you all!

-Elder Santos

September 23, 2013

Surprise!

So no, the camera isn't fixed, but it turns out that it's still taking pictures fine, and, what's more, it uploads them! Here's some old ones from traveling to Zone conference.

Other than that...it's been an exciting week. Thursday we got to go do a service project for a family that lives way out of town (we ended up driving 150 kilometers that day), and that is almost completely self-sufficient. The sister told us that the only things that they buy are salt, oil, and gasoline. One of the highlights of that visit was getting to try a new fruit that the english-speaking brother called a "star apple". It's purple, and rather tastey.

We also had an exchange this Saturday; Elder Fraley went to go work with Elder Maoni, and Elder Call and I got to work together. It's true that he's still working on his french, but he's not letting it keep him from participating in lessons and bearing testimony. He's a hard worker, a good missionary.

Here's a cool experience for this week.

So last week friday, we had just finished our night and were heading home (like we were in the car, driving, and not too far from our place) when Elder Fraley sees someone sitting on the side of the road and says "let's go contact that guy". Yeah, I thought it was kinda weird, but I didn't want to spit on his greenie fire, so we parked the car and went back to contact him. As we were talking to him, I just felt like he wasn't really that interested (rastas tend to be surprisingly devoted to their religion), but that since he likes talking about God, he invited us to come see him another time, at his home which was close by.

Skip to this past Tuesday, and we decided to go try and see him again. We were walking up to his house, when three women sitting on the other side of the street called out and told us that that's where they live. We asked if our friend was there, and they said no. So, we contacted them too. What we discovered is that one of them had, recently, found a "The Restoration" brochure on the ground, had picked it up, read it, and started to answer the thought questions in the back of it. "But," she said, "some of the answers are in a book that I don't have-that book that it talks about". (author's note-this conversation was indeed happening in english, because she is from Guyana. Yeah, she just happened to find an english restoration brochure). Well, we offered to come back with a Book of Mormon for her in english, and she happily accepted.

When we came back the next day with her Book of Mormon, she mentioned that normally, she's always in the house, but that her sister had just suggested that they go outside that day. She said that she knew that God had done that, so that we could meet each other.

One of the cool parts of that for me is that we don't always see what God has in mind for us, and, as Elder Anderson said, we rarely get the miracle that we expect. Rather, we find that God has something in store for us much better than we had imagined. Do your little part, talk to that last person. Do what's right, because even if we don't see it, our little part is making miracles every day.

Also, did I mention that I cut my own hair this month? I've been finding surprise long hairs all over the place ever since. And I look like JJ. Still looking for that silver lining.

I hear everyone back home is moving, so good luck with that! I always hated moving. I guess living in the same home for just shy of 18 years will do that to you.

Yep, that's all I've got for now. But I love you guys!

-Elder Santos