Week 18 - Full of the Spirit and Home-cooked Food!!

HELLO everyone!!! I am so happy right now because I just got back from an amazing weekend with all 25 of the sisters serving here in the Barbados Bridgetown Mission!! It feels a bit like a dream now but it really pumped me up for the work here in Guyane! I know that there are incredible miracles that are about to start hitting this mission like crazy!!

Soo let me back up slightly and talk about the beginning of the week (Monday til Friday). Well I guess there's not really a whole lot to share, but it was still a great week. I think the most exciting thing is some of the progress one of our friends has been making recently! She is the sister of a member and we've been teaching her for maybe a month or so (she's the one who said her knees were healed after that earthquake we had a bit ago). But she's been making so much progress and has just recently began the process of quitting coffee! I know that's a hard habit to quit but she is dedicated to doing it. I have lots of hope for her! 

We are also teaching another younger man who's had an incredibly difficult past. His mother was killed in Haiti when he was young by black magic, which is just a really scary and complicated situation. So he's been struggling to forgive the person who did that ever since. But he told us that he's been searching through countless churches, but there is something about this restored Gospel that is really touching him. He is just so sincere and ready for change. I really hope he'll be able to fill his life with peace and find rest from all these trials he's been facing.
He's also kind of funny because we teach him fairly often with a young less-active woman. He's trying to get HER to come back to church haha! He promised that he'd come to church if she did. I just thought that was really cool of him but also slightly awkward and funny haha :)

Then on Friday we started making our way to Sisters Conference! On the way to the airport we looked at a beautiful sunset and listened to this amazing song by Vocal Point that gets us super pumped up. I started crying in the car because I was just filled with so much love for Guyane hahaha. My mission is turning me into EVEN MORE of a crybaby!!!

We got to spend that night in Martinque with the trio of Soeurs (Hamner, Christianson, and Cooper), which of course was crazy fun with five sisters in one little apartment. We then got to fly to Barbados together!! Flying back into Barbados reminded me what it was like going into the mission for the first time. It was a surreal feeling!! We got to stay in the mission home with the Fishers, eat really yummy home-cooked meals and be spiritually fed by General Conference with all the sisters! I was really feeling the Girl Power haha. :)

CAN WE TALK ABOUT GENERAL CONFERENCE?? It was amazing for me!!! Something about it this time felt really special and I learned a load of things. I loved how focused it seemed to be on Christ and His Gospel. I can't choose a favorite talk, but one of them was definitely Elder Uchtdorf's (his German Shepherd joke was gold). When he was speaking, it felt like the Savior himself inviting each of us to come unto Him and partake of the joy we can feel in living all the principles of the Gospel. I just loved it :)

After conference weekend we had a super fun day on Monday!! We went on a little hike in this gully where there were monkeys (!!!), really cool plants, and a zip line!! I re-discovered how much I like things like zip lines, maybe I'll make one in my backyard one day haha :) We got poured on and had a blast with each other!!

Then we had a free car wash!! I was out on the street holding the sign and dancing like a wild woman haha. My voice is a bit gruff now! But I had so much fun, the people in Barbados are honestly so hilarious hahaha. It was a good time :)

Well anyway, my time is getting short! Lots of love to you all! I'm pumped to be back in Guyane and work hard!!

Have a great week (it'll be a short one because my next P-Day is on Monday like normal)!! 

Hugs,
Soeur Gardner







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