Week 38 - A Spiritual Feast

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Bonjour! ça va? :)

Wow! This was an awesome week :) Tuesday was absolutely incredible. That night we had a lesson with three young kids from Saint Martin. Their family are all members of the church, but they have not been baptized yet. Recently they started coming to church with their grandma and they said they all three want to be baptized!! So we had an amazing lesson with them on Tuesday about the Restoration and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They loved answering our questions and sharing their thoughts about the Gospel. All three of them have incredibly strong testimonies. There is one 13 year old girl and then twin boys who just turned 11 (Tuesday was their birthday so we got to eat cake with them!). They have a really amazing story. They lived in Saint Martin growing up, until the island was hit a few years ago by a really bad hurricane that basically wiped out the island. They told us their story of following the spirit to go to a room in their house where they would be protected as their house collapsed around them. They talked about having almost no food, water, or electricity for weeks, and how they all saved each other from falling walls, broken glass, and lots of other dangerous things. We feel so incredibly blessed to know these three wonderful children and to be a part of their baptism into this amazing Gospel as well! Their baptism will be on March 9! :)

Thursday was also an incredible day-- we were lucky to have Elder Teixeira, from the Presidency of the 70, and his wife here in Guadeloupe to give us a special missionary conference. He asked us what things are hard to overcome as missionaries in our specific areas and gave us solutions to all those problems!! He told us he was basically giving away the "secret pearls of missionary work" haha. Needless to say, I took TONS of notes!! He talked a lot about doing every little thing with the big picture and eternal perspective in mind. We need to have a vision! He promised us that there would be stakes and a temple here one day, even in the next couple years, if we give all we have to the Lord and His work. So that really got us excited to work hard!! :) He also had a special fireside that night for the members that we got to attend. He talked about how keeping the commandments is like a boomerang. When we keep the commandment, we throw the boomerang. Sometimes the boomerang goes far away and it's hard to see, like how it's hard to know sometimes WHY we have to keep this commandment. But if we're patient and stand where we are and not move, the boomerang comes back with TONS of blessings!! I liked that analogy a lot. I think it's cool how general authorities have been placing such an emphasis on keeping the commandments lately. I've come to know myself that that's the way to true joy, peace of mind, and love in our lives.

On Friday night we got to go to another branch's talent show so that we could sing with the other Soeurs!! We sang "Love One Another" along to the guitar and we had tons of fun watching all the acts! Guadeloupe has TALENT!! There were lots of skits, dancing, and singing (especially the Greatest Showman). It was AWESOME. 

Saturday was so wonderful because there were two baptisms and zone conference!! One of our friends came to one of the baptisms. He called us this week as well and told us, "Hey sisters, I have a secret for you.... I want to get baptized!" Haha all three of us flipped out when he said that! So he will probably be baptized on March 16!! He's been taught by missionaries for a long time, but recently has seemed to have a bit of a change of heart. He's been coming to every activity he can at the church and is so excited to be baptized!!

One miracle from yesterday was as we were searching for this man's house that we met a couple weeks ago so we could give him a Book of Mormon, we stopped and asked some people for directions. It turns out they know our friend, and one of the young guys hopped on his bike and let us follow him over there! That showed me how loving and willing to help the people are here. My love for them grows so much every single day!!! :)

So all in all things in Guadeloupe are going so well!! Next week I'll get to share the transfer news! :)

Love to you all!

Soeur Gardner