Week 29 - Je vous souhaite une Joyeuse Noel!!

Merry Christmas Eve to each of you!

This week was a good one! 
On Monday night we had a family home evening with our friend Fabienne at a member's house, Soeur Joannie. Another member, Soeur Yvette from Guadeloupe was there too (she's here in Guyane for a few months to work). We talked about the Christmas story and shared our testimonies of Christ, it was the best. Totally got us all in the Christmas spirit again! It's hard to remember sometimes that it's Christmas when we're sweatin' like none other in the heat among palm trees, not a snowflake anywhere to be found... but when we talk about Christ and are with the people we've come to love so much, I can definitely say I feel LOTS of the Christmas spirit :)

On Tuesday we had the BEST District Council because Soeur Anne-Gaelle, our recent convert, was there to participate! She talked about good things the missionaries did (that means me and Soeur Krucher haha!) and advice she would give as well. It was the coolest and Soeur Anne-Gaelle is the BEST :)

On Thursday we did lots of contacting and it was a fun time. I accidently introduced myself as Soeur Morrell to somebody, that's when you know you've got a unified companionship hahaha :)

Friday was awesome because we worked with Soeur Magny, the cutest little old French lady you ever did see. We had three good lessons that day!!

Saturday we did a lot of follow ups with our friends and invited tons of people to come to church for the special Christmas meeting the next day!! We also went into downtown Cayenne again to sing carols with the Elders and invite more people to come to church. We met some really cool people-- one guy from Haiti who spoke super good English and a really awesome woman who both sang with us for a little bit! We sang lots of Christmas songs that are just in the French Anitlles, and they are SO fun! I couldn't keep up with the words because they move so fast, but you can't help but dance when you hear those songs :)

And yesterday (Sunday) was so fun!! We had lots of people come to church and had an amazing meeting. We sang "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear" in the choir and it went well! As I looked out at the congregation singing praises to the Lord in French, I had a bit of a re-realization moment of where I really am and what I'm actually doing. It really sank in that I'm seriously a missionary in French Guiana among these AMAZING members and friends that I love with all my heart. What a lucky ducky I am :)
Last night we got together with our zone (all 8 missionaries in the country haha) and caroled to some of the friends and members in the branch! Seeing their faces light up was the BEST part.

So even though I may not be in a winter wonderland, I am in the Christmas spirit and I'm so excited for tonight and tomorrow!! We'll be spending time with the members, watching a movie (Incredibles 2!!!) and talking to our families!! It'll be a great day full of love and happiness. What more could a soeur want? :)

I love you all so much and wish you a Merry Christmas! Enjoy every moment :)

Lots of love,
Soeur Gardner  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pre-mission preparations

Image
Soeur Gardner got on a plane a few hours ago, and now it's time to update her blog with all of the pre-mission preparations! February: Call received, started preparations for her visa, studied all we could about the French regions in the Caribbean March: Visa paperwork turned in, went through the Provo City Center temple for endowment April: Finished up the semester at BYU and traveled home for a few weeks May: This is where it got kind of crazy, so we will detail this! The first big event in May is that Morgan's best friend, Jacob, left on his full-time mission to Arizona. We love Jacob and wish him all the best as he serves the people there. Sometime in the middle of May (3 weeks before she was to leave), I heard from a mom in the Facebook group for the Barbados mission that she would need a face-to-face consulate visit in order to obtain a visa for the French regions, otherwise she may end up being a visa waiter. Not that it would be a huge deal to visa wait, but...
Read more

Week 59 - Sad Goodbyes but Happy Hellos!

Image
(Note: pictures from this week did not load correctly, so I took this one from the mission facebook page. This is Soeurs Gardner, Morrell, and Watling welcoming Soeur Kitchen to Guadeloupe.) :) This  week was pretty much crazy!  I said goodbye to my companion, Soeur Christianson, which was crazy hard!! She's become one of my best friends and it's a bit sad imagining the rest of my mission without her, but God also provides something new and wonderful, which in this case is my super cute and amazing new companion, Soeur Kitchen!! She's from Riverton, Utah, and these last few days with her have been so fun. She has such a sweet heart and is really motivated to get out there and dive into missionary work! We get along super well and I'm excited for the time we'll get to spend together :DOn Monday night we had a soirée familiale with Albie, another recent convert named Luther, the Eclar family, and a lady from the Abymes branch and it was a weird mixture ...
Read more

Week 10 - I Get to Stay in FG!!

Hello all!! This week has been a pretty good one! I found out for sure that I get to stay here for one more transfer with Soeur Krucher, and I'm so excited! This is Soeur Krucher's last 6 weeks in the mission field, and she's dedicated to making the most of it, so we've been busy doing lots of teaching and contacting!! :) We definitely felt God's hand in the work this week. We were able to cross paths with some really amazing people, and were guided to see those who really needed an extra boost of happiness. We felt prompted to visit a less active woman in the ward, and when we stopped by she told us that her sister-in-law had just passed away from cancer. I felt so strongly that God truly guided us to see her in this moment. We were able to give her an uplifting thought and just spend some time with her in this difficult time. She lives alone, I think all her children and family live in France, and she doesn't really have anyone here in French Guiana. But s...
Read more