Staying in Guadeloupe!

Bojou tou moun!

Cabo? Didn't you just get back from Hawaii?  And I thought I was going crazy with plane flights all the time, guess I'm not the only one!

It's transfer week and I'll be staying here in Basse-Terre with Elder Stewart-Johnson for another round!  Pres. Mehr told me that he wanted to keep us here to help set up the branch, I'm pumped!  I really wanted to spend some more time with everyone here a bit more, especially David and Cindy.  Elder Okano will be going up to Baie-Mahault with Elder Drennan AND Elder Ehlert; Elder Broadbent and Elder Glover are going to St. Martin.  Elder Riviera is coming to be with Elder Lever in Capesterre.  Which is all that concerns my island.  I'm not too sure what else is going on in the mission.  I heard Elder Dayton is going to be with Elder Boadbent on St. Martin and Elder Hatch is going down to Guyane. Other than that I don't know.  Let me know what you find out, because I assume you'll be reading everybody's letters...

As for the week, everything was relatively calm, Carnival ended.  We are back to the doors trying to find everyone the Lord is preparing, and I know they're out there, I just need to be ready like with David and Cindy.

Yesterday when we got to church it felt somewhat empty, our numbers were low and I felt terrible.  I prayed and asked the Lord what more I could've done to help.  I feel like I have been giving it my all.  Then I thought of all the people that weren't there and prayed for them, that they were OK and that they would want to come.  Just as I finished the Pommier family walked in.  I was so happy to see them get to church again!  I love these people!

Elder Stewart-Johnson and I are doing well.  Our companionship studies have gotten really good.  We found some topics that we both are interested in and have shared study tactics and are now studying questions together.  I have never had great topic study with a companion before, it always turned into separate studies on the same topic, but we've been doing well.

We haven't seen Johanna for 2 weeks now, she was sick on Sunday.  We brought up baptism after she said that she knew the Book of Mormon was true. Since then it has been a struggle to get a hold of her because we set up rendez-vous through Sr. Abenzoar, and if one or the other isn't available it doesn't happen.  But she has loved coming to church and asks all the right questions!

Tonight we should be going to the Huc's house to have Raclettes! They invited their friend and everything, its going to be great!

I love you all!  Have a great week!  Soyez prudent!

avec amour,
Elder Call

We went on a hike with the branch on Tuesday to the 2nd Chute de Carbet.  The missionaries had already been,  but surprisingly, some of the members never had...

Splits with Elder Lever

Soccer with the zone

Baptism in Guadeloupe!

Bonjour!

Sorry you're just getting this email today on Tuesday, yesterday all the email places were closed because of Carnival and the place where we usually go was in Carnival central, but the sisters convinced their friends that own this place in Goyave to open shortly for us.  So here I am, I don't have a lot of time but it was a great week!  David and Cindy were baptized!!!

This week was crazy.  We tried to see the David and Cindy everyday this week.  It was tough but we did good.  They have been reading and praying as a family and they are just perfect.  David wanted me to baptize him and Cindy wanted Elder S-J to baptize her because I gave David his Book of Mormon and the same for the others haha.  The day of the baptism we met at the church before we went out to the ocean for the ordinance.  The day was beautiful and sunny, but not hot.  I will be honest I was pretty nervous going up to it.  I mean, I had no idea what I what I was doing.  But everything worked out just fine.  I was sort of expecting to have an incredible, over-powering, spiritual experience during it, but I didn't.  I felt good, calm, and at peace.  Nothing spectacular, nothing unnecessary.  It just felt right.  The best part was seeing David giving Cindy a hug after she stepped out of the ocean.

The confirmation on Sunday was also great.  We had a bunch of people at church and I am talking with Pres. Mehr about turning the group into a branch, and we are trying to take the next steps.  I'm really excited for this area.  Good things are coming in the future.  We are teaching Johanna, Sr. Abenzsoar's friend that she invited to church a while back.  She has come 3 times now and is reading the Book of Mormon, but has recently been really busy.  She even shared the Book of Mormon with her boyfriend, who has read a little himself!

Things are great on the islands, I'm happy as can be.  Thank you everybody for your prayers and support, I love you all.  Faith can move mountains!

Transfers calls are this Saturday so I'll be telling you whats going on next Monday.

avec amour,
Elder Call

David, Cindy and Mindiya

I love this photo of David and Cindy

Revenons-en a' nos moutons...

Bonjour ma famille!

How is everybody! just to let you know the baptism was not scheduled for last Saturday, but THIS Saturday. So if you all can keep David and Cindy in your prayers that would be amazing. I don't think I have prayed for anyting more in my life. 

Things are going good other than that. David and Cindy had their baptismal interviews on Thursday. It went well and now we just have to keep going to Saturday. They were really sick yesterday and couldn't make it all the way up to Catpesterre for fast Sunday, but we are going to try and see them everyday up to Saturday. 

I really don't have much else to say about this week.  Nothing too extravagant happened. My studies have been going really good. I started a thing were I write down all the titles of Christ that I find and their references. I have only gotten through 2 Nephi and the list is pretty substancial. I have really loved studying the Gospel and plan to keep studying the rest of my life. The scriptures have opened up my understanding so much. Even though it may take a long time to get answers and sometimes we don't get the answers that we are looking for but they come in due time. Who's up for some companionship studies when I get home?! I'm pumped to share what I've learned but it would probably take too long for email format and I'm just going to wait until I get home to get real in depth.

I've had some fun with finding French idioms and sharing them with members haha. There's one that I use all the time. "Revenons-en à nos moutons" which means literally "lets get back to our sheep" basically it means to get back on subject. I use it just about every night during nightly calls with the other missionaries because I enjoy getting off topic too much haha. I shared it with Fr. Duflo, he understood which made me super happy haha! 

Last night we went to the Duflos house and sang hymns on their front porch. I love singing hymns. Ever since you sent me that article about memorizing hymns I have been going crazy with them. I've memorized around 50 already. Its going to be so hard to come back and have to sing in English again. To be honest I kinda like the hymns better in French.... haha! So thanks for that article, it helped me a bunch!

Hope you all have a great week!

love ya bunches!

avec  amour,

Elder Call

Late letter

Bonjour Ma Famille!

Hope things are A-OK stateside! Things are going pretty good still over here!  Even though today was a little stressful. We had to stay over at Lamentin with Elder Johnston and Telga so we could get up early to take the car into the shop.  Afterwards we were stuck in Jarry until we could get picked up after 2 hours. Then we had to grab our stuff and bus it all the way back to Basse-Terre.... and when we got here the power was out so we had to wait to email... That's why this letter is so late.  It was a rather stressful P-day, and tomorrow we're going to have to take another bus back up to pick the car up.... Should be fun.

On the good side, the week went well.  Yes we had an area conference of a sort.  President Packer, Elder Holland, and Sis. Oscarson gave some great talks.  They also said they were going to be going around the islands sometime, but they never said which ones.... Fingers crossed they stop by Guadeloupe!  The conference was great but it was aux Abîmes so it was difficult to get people from our area up there.

David and Cindy are doing great!  David just drove by in his car as we were walking to the Cyber-Base and waved to us.  I like that guy! Haha  Cindy had some struggles with her driving test, the instructor failed her on some little thing and she wasn't very happy about it.  She had enough points in the test to have her pass but the instructor wouldn't let her get her license because of the one mistake.  So she was a little upset the last time we saw her.  But normally their interview for baptism will be this Thursday.  David reads the Book of Mormon all the time, its incredible to think that he didn't even believe in God before we met him.

Teaching French is super challenging!  It makes me really appreciate that I can speak now. Elder S-J is a great missionary and French is all that he has to work on.  I don't know how I am doing as a trainer, I think I am doing alright... Sometimes I forget I'm training, he's just so great!

We finished up cutting all the trees down on the church property, my hands got pretty blistered from swinging the machete so much.  Maybe you should invest in a machete!  It makes weeding a lot easier!

Not sure what else to say about this week.  We are in week 4 and the transfer ends 28 Fevrier. Its blowing by!  I just realized I have 3 transfers left after this one!  Holy cow!  I keep forgetting and then remembering just about every Monday haha!

Well that's about all I can think of this week!  Have a good one!

avec amour,
Elder Call