Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Bonjour from Martinique!

Bonjour ma famille!!

Its been a crazy week that's for sure!  I was very sad to say goodbye to everyone in Guyane, but that's how it goes I guess.  Martinique by the way is incredibly beautiful.  Elder Jex and I just can't get over it.  He has an interesting story.  He was in Suriname last transfer speaking  Dutch.  At zone conference President Mehr told him he was going to go to the French side, I was there, and it was crazy . So he just got here just the day before I did.  He really wanted to learn French and now he's got his chance, especially since he is with Elder Ardesh who is from France!  But anyway, whenever we are driving around I have to stop the conversation in the car just to stare in wonder as I see something else incredibly beautiful...  I have tried my best to take pictures of it but it doesn't work so well in a moving car.  Sorry.  Elder Johnston is my new companion and I think we are going to do very well together.  For the first couple of days we have just been talking and telling each other about ourselves.  We have an enormous area and we have a car so we have a lot of talking time.  Our area, by the way, is basically the entire south western 1/4 of the island.  We live just outside of Ste. Luce in a neighborhood called Trois Rivières and we are almost right on the beach! haha! Our area is Ste. Luce all the way up on the south side to the city of Ducos.  It's very touristy and beautiful!  Oh my gosh...it's great!

Everything went just fine with the flight over here.  It was different flying by myself for the first time but I went straight there so it was nothing major.  There really wasn't an immigration for me to go through because it still is France. I didn't even get a stamp coming into the country, I really wanted another stamp for my passport...

My new companion, Elder Johnston, was in the MTC with me for a week before he left and actually he was trained on Martinique by Elder Miyasaki right before he came down to Guyane, so we talked a lot about our times with him, with lots of funny stuff... Elder Johnston is from Arkansas and we have quite a lot in common.

My apartment here is A LOT bigger and A LOT nicer... we live in this super nice neighborhood by the beach.

Church on Sunday was very good, the accent here is a lot easier to understand and I feel a lot better with the language.  I'm enjoying just talking to all the members!  I'll take some time next week and tell you more about the members here.  There are no couple missionaries here right now, but I think some are coming very soon, maybe in April.

Here is my address:
Residence Aigue Marine
Appt. 7 Bat. A3
Rue de la Dorsale
97200 Fort-de-France
Martinique

It sounds like everyone gets their mail here, Elder Johnston gets letters every 9 days or so!!!

So some cool stuff has already happened in the short time I've been here, I have already seen some miracles happen!  The first night I arrived in the Martinique we received a call from America telling us that there was someone in the hospital that we needed to see.  When we got there we met this LDS couple.  They were on a cruise ship when the brother had intestinal problems and needed immediate attention, so they stopped the boat at Martinique for surgery, then they had an incredibly hard time trying to talk to the doctors, and luckily they were able to get a hold of their daughter in the US. Their daughter found the number for us in Martinique and asked if we could go help them.  We arrived and he had just gotten out of surgery and we were able to give him a blessing.  Just yesterday we went back to give them the sacrament, the brother couldn't take it yet, but the sister could and their thanks and appreciation was amazing.  It was one of those moments that I really will remember forever and that makes me realize what an honor my calling is, I can really see how the hand of the Lord is in this work!  Even cooler is that the sister's maiden name was Call. She is related to Anson of course, how about that?  Small world...

I love it here and I love all of you!
avec amour,
Elder Call



So glad I got to see Aline before I left.  She's getting baptized on Saturday!  So excited!




Saying goodbye
















This is the most beautiful place I've ever seen!




Fort-de-France, the capitol.  I'm not in this area but it's really cool!







Our apartment



We have this whole room with nothing even in it!  It's huge!




The view from Frère Coïné's house