Week 63 - I Know God Answers Our Prayers

Hello!! Bonjour! <3

This was another wonderful week here in Sainte Rose!

On Tuesday, we had a combined district coucil, which made it basically a zone conference minus the prescense of President and Sister Fisher. But the Elders were late, so us and the other soeurs ran to the little bakery across the street and bought some French pastries to snack on as we waited... I love being able to do that :) But the district council was really great!! For the year of 2019 so far, we've spent every transfer working on training plans created by President Fisher about obedience and obtaining the spirit, using the Book of Mormon as a tool of conversion, using time wisely, improving our teaching skills, and helping others (and ourselves) make and keep commitments. We all shared things we've learned from the training plans and got pumped up to keep applying the things we're learning. I've seen a lot of growth in the mission as a whole and in myself as a missionary since we've been using these training plans, so I'm super pumped to see where the mission will be as we continue applying these things!

Wednesday was fun because one of our new friends named Aude,  who waves at us every time we pass his house and is teaching us creole, came to the church for English Connect!! Seeing one of your friends in the church building, even if it's not for sacrament meeting, totally melts your heart and brings you so much joy as a missionary. He was pretty lost during English class, but he made some good connections to the members and said he'd love to come back again!! Plus we brought cake so hopefully that'll give him another reason to come :)

Side comment-- this week we have made SEVEN batches of cake in FOUR different flavors. I only spilled sugar all over myself one of those times!!! I'm starting to get a reputation for being the cake-making soeur and it's all thanks to a recipe on the back of the flour bag ;)

Thursday was a nice solid day of weekly planning, teaching our friends, and grabbing something really quick to eat for dinner at a drive through before going to the branch's exercise class (I felt a little guilty eating a hamburger and fries before going to that but desperate times call for desperate measures). 

On Friday we taught these two super cute girls around our age. They're twins and they're FULL of spunk, but also love talking about the Gospel. It's kinda strange how teaching people around my own age makes me feel a lot more intimidated though-- I felt like I should invite them to be baptized but I could barely even do it because something about the closeness in age just made things seem a lot more personal haha! It was a good lesson for me though to kind of check myself and wonder WHY I'm there teaching them, and that gave me the strength to say what Heavenly Father wanted me to say. And one of them mentioned how she's felt a sense of calm and peace during our lesson, so things are going in a good direction with them!

That night we had a family night at the Desir's! I could talk for ages about how insanely cute and sweet they are. They made us banane pesée!! Yaayy!!! 

Saturday was a normal day of teaching and finding!! We taught a lesson to someone that got here six months ago from Haiti and he spoke so much creole that we had to have Soeur Victor translate every sentence we said haha :) But he understood well and he's super cool! He lives in this little apartment in downtown Sainte Rose with a beautiful view of the ocean :)

And then Sunday, yesterday, was a great day too! I really enjoyed church and we got some things ready for a DOUBLE BAPTISM the branch has this Saturday!! Our friend Vanessa, and the Elder's friend Geoffroy are getting baptized! We're super stoked! :D 

We spent that afternoon stopping at a lot of people's houses that we'd contacted, trying to find new people who we could teach a short Gospel message too. But we weren't having much luck with any of them and finally we decided to say a prayer. Afterwards I felt prompted to go to this specific neighborhood and try some people I know there from before. So we went, and those people weren't home. But we did a little bit of contacting around and two people invited us right in to share something with them! That taught me that as we turn to the Lord and follow the feelings we get, He will lead us to where we can be successful and to where we can bless His children.

Sending you all LOTS and lots of love!! 

Bisous,Soeur Gardner 🌺








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