August 16, 2014

"John-Eve"

Since it was pointed out to me that some people might not know how to pronounce his name. Incidentally, when I'm on the phone with other missionaries, I usually call him "John-wives".

But yes, Jean-Yves was baptized on Saturday. It was actually a little interesting this week.

So, the frequent visitors of the Elder Santos mission blog will know that, in the past, a baptism or two have fallen through very close to the planned date. Well, I'm sure I'm not the only one, but I say that because I've become a bit...hesitant to count eggs. Basically, until their knees are wet, I'm not really sure if it's going to happen. As an interesting side note, I've fasted with the person being baptized these last two transfers, and so far that seems to work much better.

Jean-Yves was doing great at the beginning of this week and was right on track. That was made more exciting by a really good FHE that some of you have already heard about-basically, the man was as excited about temples as I have ever seen him before. The baptismal interview is always interesting. No matter how well the person is prepared, you always will have some nagging doubts. This one actually was pretty fun, because while District Leader Drennan was doing the interview, Desir-family-six-year-old-granddaughter was hanging out with me and her grandmother. Because I didn't know what else to do, I handed her my hymnbook and told her to pick her favorite song. I then spent the next 40 minutes singing every single hymn in the book. She opened up to the end, pointed to a page, and asked me to sing. I usually got through about the first line, and then she would flip the page and point to a different one. Lather, rinse, repeat 200 times. It worked out pretty well time-wise; we finished the book about three minutes before the interview was over.

Anyways, after that Elder Drennan explained that during the interview, he had shown a good understanding and acceptance of all the necessary principles, and seemed to be ready for baptism. He also said that they had read through the guide des écritures definition of a testimony, and Jean-Yves said afterwards "I don't have that". "He does," Elder Drennan said, "but he doesn't know it yet". He asked us to work on recognizing a testimony with him before the baptism.

Skip to Thursday night, about 36 hours later. We're in a branch meeting with President Desir (his good friend, and the one who referred him to us-have I already explained that?), who gets a phone call from...you guessed it, Jean-Yves. President said that he wanted to talk to him about a question he had during the baptismal interview.

...and the doubts start flowing.

I explained to him what Elder Drennan had said, without really having any idea what Jean-Yves wanted to talk about, and told him that I believed it to be a problem of recognition, not of preparation.

Saturday morning, 7:22am. The phone rings, it's President Desir. My heart drops. I answer the phone, preparing for the worst. He says that the two of them had talked, and that they wanted to speak with us, the missionaries, thirty minutes before the baptism. Gnnraaaah!

Well, they show up fifteen minutes before the baptism is supposed to start, and without saying a word they get into their baptismal clothes and sit down in the chapel. Song, prayer, two talks, and then he's baptized.

And that's the story! Probably a little bit more than you wanted, but hey. That was my week.

Oh, also I fell off my bike for the first time in my mission. I felt soo dumb. I don't even know why, that's the thing. It was as we were going to our first lesson with these people, and we had just barely gotten to the point where they could see us. Boom. I'm on the ground, hurting and feeling like an idiot. Yeah. But, I'm better now!

I love you all!

-Elder Santos

August 4, 2014

...ow...

Now, I'm not sure, because I don't have those emails from a year ago in reach right now, but I would feel pretty confident in betting that a lot of the things that I'm going to say in this email will mirror what I said in my first emails from Guadeloupe-back in June of last year.

So, the basic gist of it is that I've been four full days on bikes now (including a full day fast), and everything hurts. Neck, from craning up to see the road in front of me, shoulders, from holding myself up as I lean forward all day, lungs, because they're not used to having such a big order to fill, back, from the angle that I'm at when I'm sitting down on the bike, butt, for reasons that will be obvious to anyone that has ridden a bike before, knees, from bending more times than they have in the past year collectively, and calves, from having to push all day long. No joke, it's all sore.

But, I'm actually doing pretty well!

Elder Broadbent and I are having tons of fun. He's from Socal, very politically opinionated, and also very intelligent. We just have fun all day long. When I finish panting, that is.

The most exciting thing going on here is that we're teaching a member referral from our Elders's Quorum President, who is going to be baptized on the sixteenth of this month. Jean-Yves is super cool, and yesterday (while we were fasting together) during the sunday school lesson on the sabbath day, he shared a story about how his boss had insisted that he come to church that day, and that he had told him "no, I'm going to church". We're going to do a FHE with him tonight. Pray for us!

I also want to quickly thank everyone for their love and support, advice, encouragement, patience, and prayers. I'm not going to have the time to thank all of you individually right now, but know that you are amazing, and I'm so grateful to have you.

I love you all! A bientôt,

-Elder Santos

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