Week 7 - Busy Busy Week!

Happy Monday everyone!! Hope you've all had a wonderful week and that you're enjoying the summer!! :)

This week was really good for me, it was a week full of lots of adventure!!

It's been so interesting to see how much of a role the Spirit truly plays in missionary work. I can see God's hand guiding us along almost all the time. Our teaching appointments often fall through, but this gives us an opportunity to go out and find people who are really ready to hear the Gospel. Everything always works out and at the end of the day I look back and I'm in awe of how much the Spirit truly helped us that day. :)

This week one of the members, Soeur Sabatine, did lots of missionary work with us! She's a convert and was baptized in Haiti, and she's really sweet. She did some contacting with us and went with us to lots of lessons! I love having members there to bear testimony, they really bring a special spirit to the lessons. 

On Thursday, we had a 2 hour plane ride to Martinique for exchanges!! Flying for transfers to another island is super fun, but also stressed me out-- not a fan of airports! I'll be an expert at them by the end of my mission though, Heavenly Father definitely placed me in a mission a little outside of my comfort zone, but I'm thankful because it helps me to grow! :)

Martinique is surprisingly very different from French Guiana! It of course has more of an islandy feel, and is more developed because they get lots more tourism. The missionary work is a lot more challenging there, most people aren't as open to hearing to Gospel, and the men are a LOT creepier haha. On Thursday night, I was with Soeur Cooper contacting an apartment complex when we ran into these 2 young guys, making kissing noises and shouting "Bisous!!!" at us, asking us to bring them back to America and get married haha. The way they looked at us made me super uncomfortable, like we were pieces of meat--definitely makes me want to make sure that I raise my sons to have lots of respect for women, and other people in general. 

Soeur Atkins, the STL, told me that Martinique is the most developed and most challenging place to serve, Guadeloupe is kind of in the middle, and French Guiana is the least developed, but has the most success because the people are more humble and receptive. So that was interesting!

Some of the people we met in Martinique were so kind though, one woman gave me and Soeur Atkins both these huge mangoes!! They were cold so we just held them against our necks as we finished contacting to cool us down haha, that was really sweet :)

I got to work with a couple of the members in Martinique too, they are wonderful!! One of them, Soeur Martial, is from St. Lucia (an English speaking island in the Caribbean). She went with us to a lesson on Friday, she's so so sweet. I'm excited to hopefully serve in Martinique again and see her :)

On Saturday we flew back to FG and got right back to work! I ate at my first McDonalds outside of the USA, and it honestly was basically the same haha. But it was fun going through a drive through in French!

We went back into that little neighborhood in the forest, and we found a woman there who was sleeping in an abandoned van-- apparently she's blind and had no idea where she was or how she got there. She spoke Portugese, so it was hard to understand, but we said a prayer with her. One of the other people who lives there said he found someone who can help her, so we'll check back there soon and see if everything worked out for her.

We also talked for a second to another man that lives there who's from English Guiana, so it was fun to speak English with him! It was super awkward and funny at first, we went to shake his hand and he literally pulled us in and did the "bisous" (the cheek kiss) with us! We're only supposed to do that with women, so it was interesting haha! I don't really blame him since normally that's not really a weird thing to do here in this culture, it's just 'cause we're missionaries that is was funny. But anyway, he's a very cool man. He talked about how he's struggling right now, he has a job but is barely making enough to pay the bills. He said he wishes had more money to treat his wife and his children to something nice, to give them a more pleasurable and easy going life. We talked to him about focusing on what's most important and just being patient, that God will bless him for working hard and for living the Gospel. We set up another appointment to talk with him more. At the end when we were leaving, he told us how amazing it is that we're here to help others as missionaries, leaving everything behind and serving. He told me in particular that I'd be very blessed and that I'd have LOTS of babies in the future!! Haha, that was a funny moment, he specifically told me I would have 2 beautiful boys and 1 beautiful daughter (I dont really think of 3 kids as a lot, but maybe he just didnt see ALL of them haha). We'll have to see in the future if he's right! :)

What else... One of the Elders got bit by a dog, it ripped the nail off of his finger... yikes!!!  I'm not surprised though, there's lots of random dogs and cats that roam around here. I really hope I don't ever get bit haha!!

Today we're planning to all go the the zoo, I'm SOO excited, apparently they have monkeys and sloths!! I love zoos so I can't wait :) I hope I'll get to see an actual wild sloth and monkey sometime while I'm here!

I can't believe my first transfer is already going to be over soon!! I hope neither Soeur Krucher or I get transferred, then I can "kill" her (meaning I'm the companion that she has right before she goes home)! We shall see!

You're all in my thoughts and my prayers, thank you for your love and support! <3

Gros bisous,

Soeur Gardner

(Mom note - no pics this week - she sent two but I couldn't get them to open)