Week 26 - Ant Attacks and Exchanges in Martinique!!

Mom Note: This week Soeur Gardner reaches her 6 month mark! As I look at these sweaty, red-faced pictures, I sure hope she is remembering to wear sunscreen!

Howdy y'all! Little did you know there's a neighborhood thing here in Guyane called Texas! I ain't as far from home as I thought haha :)

Anywho, this week was GREAT! On Tuesday we had an awesome day-- two of our friends were ready for baptismal dates!! One of them is Venor, he a Haitain man around 34 years old. He's very cool, loves music (plays the bass) and paints. We started teaching Venor a few months ago with Soeur Krucher, but recently he really started progressing and said he wants to be baptized!! 

The other man is Christophe. He's also been taught by missionaries for a long time (at least a couple years). He's a verrrry sweet older man who also is OBSESSED with music. He can play basically anything on the piano by ear and just loves jammin with his buddies haha. He's known the church is true for a long time and is truly ready! He's working soo hard to quit smoking and we are excited for him to be baptized here pretty soon as well :)

On Wednesday we got to go on exchanges with the Soeurs in Martinique!! We've got new sister training leaders, named Soeur Munlin and Soeur Cooper. They're AWESOME and we had a blast!! I got to work with Soeur Munlin this time, who was baptized herself just 2 years ago! It was amazing seeing how she could relate to the people we were talking to. When they were a little apprehensive at first, she knew exactly what that was like and just helped them feel understood and at ease haha. So I learned a lot from those few days in Martinique! :)

We got back to Guyane Friday night, and were greeted by BILLIONS of ants in our kitchen!! We left it clean but discovered they had found a way into the fridge... so that was a blast to clean up haha! I think I breathed in a little too much of the Ant Raid fumes cuz I was feeling a little funny for awhile afterwards hahaha :) But now the ant problem is solved! We've just got lots of ant corpses that keep appearing everywhere, but ya take what ya can get right? ;)

 And we were back to work on Saturday!! We had an awesome miracle that day. Soeur Morrell and I were driving around like crazy women trying to find a member who lives outside of our area (ran over a couple frogs along the way). We were super lost-- she was giving us the best directions she could but it was just so tricky to find!! We stopped at a little shop (a Chinois if you remember what that is from previous emails ;) ) to ask for directions. And then, lo and behold, two young men in white shirts and black name tags randomly come rollin' up on their bikes!! The Elders from that area just happened to stop at that exact same Chinois that we were at and were able to help us find the member's house to work with us. Man, that just really showed me that God's got our backs! I've been realizing lately that missionary work is actually pretty simple when you get down to it. Yes, if you try to do it all on your own, there's bound to be disasters and fiascos. But when you place all you trust in Jesus Christ, the one who truly loves and knows these people one by one, He guides you in every single way. You just have to let the Spirit sit in the driver's seat and be willing to follow the guidance you receive. I know that's true for regular life as well. Everything runs better if WE aren't the ones really running everything :)

Sunday was a bit of a wild day!! We walked over to Annie's so we could walk with her to church, but she was fast asleep when we got there... so we woke her up and ask her to get dressed and come with us. Luckily we made it in time and all as well :) Soeur Morrell and I decided to go with Annie to Young Women's-- it was my first time back after like a year and a half!! That brought back lots of funny memories of what it's like being a young woman haha. I really am so happy to be moving on with the next important steps in life, but it was just cool to relive some of those old memories :)

After church there was a branch Potluck to break the fast together! Everyone was seated outside the church at one looong table like a huge family haha. That really made my heart BURST, seeing so many people I've come to love so much all sitting together sharing a meal! Man, I sure got lucky to be here in Guyane :)

I love you all and hope you're enjoying the chilly weather! 

Gros bisous et tout mon amour,

Soeur Gardner