She's arrived!

We haven't heard too much from or about Soeur Gardner since she arrived, but we know that her plane landed at about 10:00 pm Monday night. We received a very short email from her on Tuesday night saying that she is going to serve in French Guiana with a Swiss companion. Of course, we were very excited about the Swiss companion! And we've heard great things about French Guiana and the members there!

Today, her mission president's wife shared a few photos of the new missionaries - we were surprised to see that there were 9 since she only traveled with one sister. Most of the English-speaking missionaries go to the Dominican Republic MTC though. The pics aren't shareable, so I just snapped a pic of a pic so we could at least document her beautiful smile. 

Here are a few fun facts about French Guiana:

• It has been a region of France since 1946, but has switched hands between the British, Portuguese, and French since the 1500s
• It is the second largest region of France, and the largest region not on the European continent
• It is the only area of the mission that is not an island (it's located on the South American mainland, just north of Brazil)
• There are currently 2 sisters and 6 elders serving in the branch there, which has about 450 members on record
• She's over 3,000 miles from home and 750 miles from her mission office. This is the most distant location from the mission office in her mission (by quite a bit, most are less than 200 miles)
• The language is primarily French, but there are several large immigrant groups that speak other languages, namely Hmong and Brazilian Portuguese. There are also many Haitian immigrants in French Guiana, who speak Haitian Creole (which means she might not understand them at first, but they should understand her we hope!)
• French Guiana has the highest quality of living in South America, and has a high life expectancy
• The French prefer "Guyane" to "French Guiana", but to distinguish it from Guyana, FG is most often used by English speakers
• Borders are Brazil to the south, Suriname to the west, and the Atlantic ocean to the north and east
• Most missionaries that we've talked to who served there said it's their favorite area, mostly because of the diversity and the fact that it's not as touristy as the islands
• The French space program is housed there
• The weather sounds divine! The lowest temp ever recorded is 64 and the highest 97. I'm sure the humidity amps that heat up, but it pretty much averages in the mid-80s to low-90s all year.

Soeur Gardner has had a very busy week! We can't wait to hear more from her on Monday!!