Week 36 - Salut!!

Salut!!! ça va??

Hope everyone had a great week as usual! Island life here in Guadeloupe is going pretty dandy!

It started off really good with an awesome district council on Tuesday about the Spirit and revelation. It's incredible that each and every one of us, as children of our All-Knowing Heavenly Father, have the right and privelage to receive answers, guidance, and comfort directly from Him?

On Tuesday we had almost an entire day of contacting out in the sun, and it was AMAZING!! We talked to a lot of people that were really cool and interested. We made a run to Burger King for dinner and there was a super adorable little girl there that I played hide and seek with while we waited for our food.

On Thursday we taught a lesson to a really amazing woman, and her little 6 month old grandbaby was there. Man oh man was it hard to stay focused during that lesson, that baby was cuuuuttee!! It was one of the sweetest things, Soeur Elise, the member we brought with us, was holding the baby and singing one of my new favorite hymns that only exists in French (Souviens-Toi). I'll have to translate it for you all someday, it's such a sweet and beautiful song. So anyway, that almost made me cry haha!

On Friday we got a ton of rain in Guadeloupe, the streets were flooding! So that was a blast haha! We also had a really good lesson that morning with our friend Alan. He's a really sweet older man. We brought a member, Soeur Bouchaut with us. She is an ANGEL, seriously, one of the sweetest older ladies you could ever imagine. I love her to bits. We had a great lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and he told us he wants to be baptized! He doesn't feel ready to choose a date, but we're excited for him :)

Saturday was sorta crazy, but it was AWESOME!! First we visited less active family. They are so sweet. They have one daughter with some mental disabilities and then another CRAZY little 2 year old. We shared Ether 12:27 and I opened up to them a little about how recently, it feels like a lot of my weaknesses have been exposed. Moving away from Guyane and adjusting to a new area and 2 new companions have caused me to see some things in myself that need changing. I think that's a lot of what missions and other big changes in life are all about-- learning from your mistakes and becoming a better disciple of Christ. 

I'm just thankful for missionary work and the chance I have to share my own personal experiences and testimony with people. I've found that that touches them so much and is what really brings about change. And the next day, the family came to church for the first time in months!

On Saturday we also had this awesome lesson with our friend Daria and her boyfriend, Sebastian. Sebastian built this beautiful house for Daria up on this luscious hill on Guadeloupe-- basically a fairytale haha. They are both so open and receptive and we a lot of potential in them as well!!

Saturday evening was a DREAM!! We decided to try something new and set up a stand in one of the busier parts of our area. Soeur Elise came with us, and MAN, it was amazing!! We split off into teams and I contacted people with Soeur Elise, which was so soo fun! It made me want to be so much more involved with missionary work when I get back home. But for real, the stand was super successful! So many people accepted a Book of Mormon and we met a lot of people who opened up to us and expressed that they've been searching for something more in their lives. So that's a miracle!! 

Hahaha we talked to this one man walking with his cute little son and he told us he doesn't speak french. When we told him we speak English, he went, "Ahhh SHOOT!" (except he didn't say shoot haha). Nope, he didn't get out of talking with us haha ;) 

Yesterday was a super good day too! At church this white family walked in that looked verrryyy American! So after sacrament meeting we walked up and found out they're from Canada, here on vacation! So I got to translate in Relief Society for them, which is a harder job than I expected! It was so crazy talking to another family of members pretty from basically my culture-- but fun at the same time :)

Last night we had a super good lesson with our friend Marie France watching the Restoration video. She got teary-eyed during it and expressed such a sincere desire to know for herself if the restored Gospel is true. I know that she'll receive an answer and think she might be baptized as well :)

So yeah, that was basically our week!! This morning for P-Day we drove down to Basse-Terre (on the other side of the island) again to go to the zoo. It was AWESOME of course because I love zoos. Lots of spooky bugs and super cool bridges through the trees again. :)

Hope you all have a great week, and Happy Valentine's Day!! My love goes out to you all :)

Bisous,

Soeur Gardner