Soeur Gardner's Caribbean Adventures

Hello everyone! Happy last day of 2018 and Merry Christmas again! I hope it was wonderful for you all!  My Christmas was AMAZING! It started on Monday with Christmas Eve. We went to Soeur Virginie's house to have a Haitain Christmas Feast of Banane Pesé. It was SO good. We played some games like Tic Tac Toe and Hangman with her two sons, David and Abraham as well. Then we read the story of Christ's birth together and sang Silent Night. We LOVE Soeur Virginie and her sons!!! :) Then Soeur Morrell and I had a little movie night in our apartment in our PJs and blankets! We had popcorn, hot cocoa (with a fan blowing on us so we wouldn't sweat to death), and watched some of the videos from "Stand in Holy Places," the Youth Theme from a few years ago. It brought us back to our days as young women. (side note I just remembered-- with Soeur Virginie her son Abraham muttered under his breath at some point (as a young ...

Merry Christmas Eve to each of you! This week was a good one!  On Monday night we had a family home evening with our friend Fabienne at a member's house, Soeur Joannie. Another member, Soeur Yvette from Guadeloupe was there too (she's here in Guyane for a few months to work). We talked about the Christmas story and shared our testimonies of Christ, it was the best. Totally got us all in the Christmas spirit again! It's hard to remember sometimes that it's Christmas when we're sweatin' like none other in the heat among palm trees, not a snowflake anywhere to be found... but when we talk about Christ and are with the people we've come to love so much, I can definitely say I feel LOTS of the Christmas spirit :) On Tuesday we had the BEST District Council because Soeur Anne-Gaelle, our recent convert, was there to participate! She talked about good things the missionaries did (that means me and Soeur Krucher haha!) and advice she would give as well. It...

Coucou mes chers amis!!! :) Phew this week was a bit of a crazy one! It started off bright and early, because we had to wake up at 5 am (flashbacks to seminary) to take Soeur Morrell to an appointment for her France legalization (yup, we gotta be legal with France even though we're in South America haha!). Although, when we got to the place they were veeerryy closed, without a person in sight except a couple from Albania who also supposedly had an appointment that morning. So we waited for about half an hour just listening to Christmas music in the car until we finally decided to go back to the apartment. What made it even crazier is the Elders had to borrow our truck to move apartments, so it was a mess trying to organize that with them haha. But hey, it all worked out, we got to the appointment again right as they opened and then had to go to ANOTHER appointment in downtown Cayenne. But there were a couple really cool things that day! The couple from Albania that was there ...

Coucou mes chers amis!! :) This was quite the rollercoaster of a week for me haha. But right now I'm on a high of happiness so all is well!!! :) On Tuesday we had a great district coucil and in the afternoon we got to work with Sister Baksh. She is an awesome member who is from English Guiana, has Indian heritage but has lived in FG for over 20 years. She is the sweetest lady ever and it was SO fun teaching with her! Her life is very interesting, her and her husband were actually wed through an arranged marriage. She talked about some of the struggles that came with that, but gave Soeur Morrell and I some suuuper good marriage advice for the future. We had a great time with her :) Wednesday we spent some time in Mont Lucas, a poppin apartment complex full of lots of jolly Haitains and many adventures haha. As we walked around contacting that afternoon we saw one of our friends riding around on his bike holding a little snake in his hands hah...

Mom Note: This week Soeur Gardner reaches her 6 month mark! As I look at these sweaty, red-faced pictures, I sure hope she is remembering to wear sunscreen! Howdy y'all! Little did you know there's a neighborhood thing here in Guyane called Texas! I ain't as far from home as I thought haha :) Anywho, this week was GREAT! On Tuesday we had an awesome day-- two of our friends were ready for baptismal dates!! One of them is Venor, he a Haitain man around 34 years old. He's very cool, loves music (plays the bass) and paints. We started teaching Venor a few months ago with Soeur Krucher, but recently he really started progressing and said he wants to be baptized!!  The other man is Christophe. He's also been taught by missionaries for a long time (at least a couple years). He's a verrrry sweet older man who also is OBSESSED with music. He can play basically anything on the piano by ear and just loves jammin with his buddies hah...

Bonjooouuurrr!! Happy belated Thanksgiving to everybody and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!  This was a very good week! We had lots of fun things going on! On Wednesday we had a branch coordination meeting with the branch president, the mission leader, and the branch missionaries (who are two of the branch's recent converts, Soeur Raena and Frère Moise; sooo cool!). President Francillette had us read the dedicatory prayer from when Guyane was dedicated for missionary work long long ago in the 1900s (haha it was like the 80s or 90s). But it was so cool to read the promises that Russell M Ballard, the apostle who gave the blessing, gave to this area. It mademe feel so blessed to be a missionary in this unique part of the world. We talked about working with the branch to push the work forward and keep progressing towards stakes, wards, and a temple one day!! Man, the day this mission gets a temple will be one of the happiest days of my life! :) On Thursday we had a f...

Happy almost Thanksgiving everyone!  This week was a pretty exciting week! For disctrict council we watched the church's new Light the World videos and got pumped up to spread the Christmas cheer as missionaries!! I hope you're all getting excited for Christmas as well and are remembering our Savior. This is the perfect time to follow His example and show more love for those around you! Other exciting things: -I turned my driving privileges over to Soeur Morrell this week! I'll miss driving Brucie (the truck) but this will help her learn the area in case I get transferred in a few weeks! -Soeur Morrell also gave a very motivational speech this week to me about submitting to Heavenly Father's will. This phrase has taken on a new meaning for me as a missionary. A lot of things we've been asked by God to do are really hard or just not really what we want as the natural man. But as we humble ourselves, become meek and submissive to His will, EVERYTHING...