Week 75 - Livin' the Bajan Life

HELLO everybody!!

This week FLEW by!! We had exchanges with the wonderful sisters from Grenada, Sister Abitan and Sister Fauver, and we had so much fun that the time just went so fast!! 

HIGHLIGHTS:
  • This group of four youngish men called out to us from the street as we were walking and said, "Hey come look at out pet monkey!' At first we were a little weary of them but felt it'd be okay to go look from a distance, and turns out they really did have a little pet monkey in their tree named Burglar haha! There are wild monkeys that we see running around from time to time too that are super fun to see! I haven't been fast enough to catch a picture but I'll try!
  • I found out one of our friends has lots of family in Guadeloupe and she speaks a little french! It was so fun talking to her about Guadeloupe and speaking some french together :) She's a friend that we've been doing quite a bit of service for and we love helping her out!
  • Sister Fauver and I did lots of walking around and talking to everybody we ran into!! It was SO fun, there are lots of spunky, hilarious, and kind people here in Barbados. They love it when we sing so we left lots of them with a little song :) This has painfully reminded me that I forgot basically every song in English... even 'I am a Child of God' was a bit rusty at first haha 😂
  • As I said last week, Sister MacDonald has me dying from laughter like half the day. My favorite quote from her this week was her sweetly saying under her breath, "you need Jesus, booboo" at a lady dropping F-bombs from her car at a van that had just cut her off 
  • On Halloween it was Shaniko's birthday!! She's a very cute young recent convert that works with us a lot! We made her brownies and had a cool discussion about temples.. a couple of my favorite things. :)
  • Speaking of Halloween, it's not really celebrated here at all. People are pretty superstitious and not at all into messing with the "other side." Sister MacDonald and I did celebrate by getting some Chefette though (a local Bajan fastfood place). We chatted with the security guard after eating and he kinda judged me for eating my sandwich and my ice cream at the same time, one in each hand... I told him I'm sorry but both were just too good to put the other down hahaha 
  • We visited our friend B who's a really sweet man. He only has one leg because of a kinda sketchy doctor situation... but he's so kind. He's from Jamaica. He's got huge arms because he uses them so much, and as I was sharing a verse in Alma 5 with him about how we're all sheep in the fold of God, I told him "You might be a big tough guy, but in Jesus's eyes you're a precious little sheep" and showed him the picture on the Restoration brochure of Jesus holding a sheep. Both of us kinda lost it and cracked up but he liked that analogy a lot 😂
  • There was a man at church yesterday visiting with his wife from Utah, I overheard him talking about how he had served in Guadeloupe, so I walk up to him and turns out he was among the very first missionaries in Guadeloupe in the 80s! He also served in Barbados so he was back visiting here as well, but it was SOOO cool talking to him. When he arrived in Guadeloupe there was not one member on the island, but he helped it grow a lot and baptized some of the members that are now huge supports to the branches. It was very fun meeting him! 
  • Had a cuisine night with all three branches on Saturday night! Got to try some Bajan specialties and met some sweet members :)
My testimony has continued growing so much since being here in Barbados! I've had a chance to start reading "Saints" and I really love it! Learning more about Joseph Smith and getting an idea of what the Restoration was really like has been a great experience. One thing I've loved the most so far is how it shows some of his weaknesses and imperfections but how he was still chosen by God as he humbled himself and repented, I know that goes for us too-- no one is perfect and we all make choices that disappoint God and those around us sometimes. But our Heavenly Father is endlessly loving and mercifully, and as constantly as we seek to change and improve, he constantly forgives and heals the damage we may have made.

I love you all SO much and wish you a very wonderful week!
Big hugs,
Sister Gardner

Picture is from Cuisine Night!
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