Soeur Gardner's Caribbean Adventures

Wowie! Even though it hasn't even been a full week since I last emailed, it feels like lots has happened! We had a super good week here in Guadeloupe! On Tuesday night, we got to have the awesome experience of going with one of our friends to his church! It was Evangelist-- it was my very first time ever attending a service at another church, and it truly was a cool experience. We started off all standing up and singing lounges (hymns of praise) along to the band, which was probably the highlight of the whole night. Singing praises to God with a bunch of Guadeloupean mamies is now going down as one of my favorite hobbies haha :) Then we got to listen to a pastor talk about how we must love, forgive, and judge in the way that God wants us to, which was good as well! All in all it was pretty awesome and I'm super thankful I got the experience to go! On Wednesday we mostly contacted all day in the rain and then went to a members' house that night for dinner. It w...

ice cream! Byenbonjou frè et sè mwen!!! (Hello my brothers and sisters!!! In creole) This was another awesome week on the island!!! On Monday we drove up to Sainte Anne and did some shopping, plus ate ice cream while looking at the BEAUTIFUL ocean-- I felt like I was dreaming the entire time. It was a happy, happy time :) Tuesday was a bit of a crazy day, as Soeur Johnson flew in from St. Martin for transfers! That was our last day as a trio with Soeur Morrell (which was sad because the last week I was basically doing one of my favorite things (talking to Caribbeaners in French about the gospel) with some of my best friends.... we had a good time together!!). We took one last trip to our friend Albie's restaurant and got some good ol' chicken and fries and then drove to the airport to pick up Soeur Johnson and get everyone settled!  Wednesday morning was pretty funny. We went to stop by our friend Junie's house, but only her kids were home. Her HIL...

Hello friends and family!!  This week was definitely one for the books. Monday night started off SUPER well with an awesome lesson with this couple we found a few weeks ago. They were really open and receptive to learning more!!  On Tuesday we taught our three really cool friends preparing for baptism! It was super funny, when we sat down to start the lesson, Richardson gives us this super cheesy smile and says, "Today it's my birthday!," knowing all three of us were about to freak out (which we very much did and we loudly sang happy birthday to him). We had a good lesson focused on baptism and helping them prepare. They came to conference last week and talked about how much they loved it, how they felt answers to their questions and a really strong spirit. We're really hoping they'll get a confirmation to get baptized this month because they are SO wonderful!! Later on that week we stopped by just to do a quick follow-up, but turns out they weren't th...

WOW!! This has been just about the craziest week of my life but I'm absolutely loving it.  It started off normal enough, Tuesday was a nice day! We saw one of the sweet members, Soeur Kancel. She is the epitome of adorable. She gave us some mango jam, pineapple jam, and nutella a few weeks ago and on Tuesday we had a really great conversation about her conversion and how she shares the Gospel with others. She is an example to me of quiet faith and consistent efforts of love and reaching out to others. That evening we came across the FUNNIEST couple while contacting. We "to to to" at this cute little home and the happiest little Caribbean mamie walks out the door. We chat just for a second before her husband walks up. He looks like a Caribbean man version of Albert Einstein (I think it was his hair and his eyebrows hahaha). We start talking to him as well, and they invite us to come sit down on their porch. We take a seat, and the mamie excuses herself for a mome...

-April 1 This was an awesome week! It started off in the best way-- with a Family Home Evening and banane pesée! It was with the Afoy family-- I love them SO much. Frère Afoy kinda reminds me of a funny uncle, Peggy (who is getting baptized in April) is a complete angel, and Mélissa, their daughter who got baptized last month is SO sweet too. We had a great discussion about service and they even gave us some cake for my birthday-- they're so thoughtful :) We also had a lesson with a really cool new friend. He's 17 and has been raised in a very religious home. He has a really profound understanding and love for the Savior. He understood the Restoration SO well too. We are really excited to see where things go with him :) On Thursday we had exchanges and I got to be back with my sweet amazing old companion Soeur Morrell!! <3 We had a BLAST being together again. We met the two coolest Dominican ladies EVER wearing "mango lipstick" (basically just mango on th...