Another great week!

Bonjour President

So we had another great week this week!  Once again the Pommier family the Duflo family and David came to church, that makes three weeks in a row!  David and Cindy are progressing very nicely.  They are very humble and open. They come to church and participate and the members have brought them in so lovingly, its incredible!  They continue to be very involved in the lessons and are keeping engagements very well. Cindy wasn't able to come to church because sick with  her pregnancy, she is going to get tests done today and they are going to be finding out if there are maybe twins.  I love this family a bunch!  We are going over tonight and I am going to teach them how to make cookies for family home evening.

It's been really funny being with Elder Stewart-Johnson!  He's such a great guy!  He hasn't quite adjusted to the missionary eating schedule yet (which isn't very scheduled, its more of, we'll eat if we find time)  I have gotten so habituated to it that it doesn't bother me if a meal goes missed because something unplanned comes up, but he gets very worried if we miss a meal haha!  This morning we had to get up early because we were hiking to the first Chute du Carbet.  Naturally I chose sleep over breakfast, but as the alarm went off he was up and cooking, so as soon as I finished saying my morning prayer he was shoving food in my face.  I just looked at him all, "Elder, its 4:30 in the morning, I don't know what you want me to do with this..."  I still just can't eat that much in the morning, my stomach just can't take it.  But he chowed down.

Well... I'm not really sure what else to say... hope you all have a great year, I'll be seeing you soon! Crazy! I've got 5 days until I've reached my sister missionary mark... getting close!

Soyez prudent!

avec amour,
Elder Call

Merry Christmas!

The sunsets are beautiful here!

Eklder Okano and I on bikes

It's been raining a lot lately

Hike this morning.  With Elder Johnson

Can you see me?

Me and my distant cousin Elder Glover!  Together again!

Elder Stewart-Johnson and I got really distracted during planning one night, that's a pizza box

Joyeux Noël et Bonne Nouvelle Yeat!

Bonjour!

J'espère que vous avez passé une joyeuse noël! C'était bien pour moi!

This week was really great!  For Christmas day we didn't really have a lot of stuff that happened festive. Most of our time during the week was spent walking everywhere and giving people cookies that we made and caroled just the two of us, we made a ton of cookies!  Saturday was one of the greatest days ever. Elder Stewart-Johnson and I started a fast before we headed out that afternoon and right afterwords Fr. Abenzoar called us up to help him clean the group building.  When we got there he was going crazy zealous for missionary work!  He was asking when he could come with us to see all his friends, he finished painting his house and is ready to start inviting everybody over to learn about the gospel and even called up a few of his friends on the spot to talk to us.  Right after we stopped by, a lady that I had contacted with Elder Drennan came over. Her kids were sick and it seemed like they hadn't had such a Merry Christmas.  So Elder S-J and I sprinted home to make them a big ol' batch of cookies, I even cut them into gingerbread men and Christmas tree shapes. We gathered plates of cookies and sang silent night for them.  It was very moving even if we weren't the greatest singers.  Then as we were walking Fr. Abenzoar showed up to take us around. I realized that we were close to where Davis and Cindy lived so I asked if we could stop by and say hello.  We were there for a good little while and had an incredible discussion with them.  They were telling us how they wanted to be a part of a church but never felt right anywhere, but it felt good at our church.  They have one of the happiest families ever, its incredible!  Their 5 year old daughter Mindiya is so cute haha! Every couple of minutes she would run up to her mom and ask her to kiss her boo-boos haha.  I testified about temples and how the family can be together forever.  The spirit was incredibly strong!

Better yet was the next day, Sr. Duflo was at church, the Pommier family, and David and Cindy.  It was a miracle. Sr. Duflo and Sr. Pommier testified a lot about the church during Sunday School and I had a hard time keeping from crying and just prayed that David and Cindy could feel the spirit too.  David even asked me if he could choose who would baptize him during church. I can not deny that the Lord is preparing people, he sure has prepared this family, it amazes me every time I think about it.

During my personal study I had a thought about Christ. Christ had a perfect knowledge of everything, everything was before Him.  Past, present, future.  Imagine how successful He must have felt as he was going about His life!  With every action, every step, every word, every miracle, He saw perfectly the impact of what He was doing.  For example, as he opened the eyes of a blind man, surely he knew the significance it had for the blind man as well as his family and friends.  Yet, He also knew perfectly that one day some guy on an island in the Caribbean would read the account of what He was doing and be comforted, someone He knew by name and loved profoundly, not to mention every other person that ever read that account.  If only we could see the eternal perspective of what we were doing right now, how much more hopeful and grateful we would be.

I love all of you so very much!
avec amour,
Elder Call

Christmas dinner with the missionaries

My two former companions, Elder Johnson and Elder Glover

Using my new apron and making cookies

Our Christmas Bûche that we bought (Yule log)

Christmas is coming!

Bonjour la famille!

So this week was great!  Things moved slowly but surely along, I had 2 exchanges that I did this week one right after the other on Thursday then Friday.  The first day I brought Elder Lever down with me in Basse-Terre.  It was a great learning experience.  He has been having a great mission and has learned a bunch.  So I just sat back and tried to learn all I could.  At the end of the day we went to go get some bokits at the boardwalk along the beach.  Elder Lever showed me how it was done contacting people.  He is very comfortable talking with everyone.  I am going to try to apply some things I learned from him and hopefully some miracles come out of it.  I tried applying some stuff the very next day with Elder Johnston (not Stewart-Johnson it was another exchange)  We once again went down to the boardwalk (all the other missionaries are dying to have the bokits from Basse-Terre for some reason) but as we were sitting down and eating, Elder Johnston and I were having a deep, reflecting conversation about the mission and I leaned over and just started talking to a man sitting on the bench next to us.  I simply said "Hi, how are you?"  He replied simply and we both went back to eating then he turned to me and asked, "What does God think about father's who don't like their children and abandon them?"  It was one of those great questions of the soul that us missionaries are just praying to hear.  I had a prompting to turn the conversation a little away from the depressing thought and more to the importance and blessings of families.  We had a great conversation and I gave him a Book of Mormon with a Christmas card talking about the "He is the Gift" video of the church. A while later his friend came and kind of turned us down and took a lot away from the spirit, which is why we weren't able to get a return appointment or a way to contact him. but afterwards I felt great.  I felt like I did what the Lord had sent me there to do and it was very satisfying.

Then in church there were 30 people that came to the group!  I was so happy!  We even had a young couple show up that I had invited form our English class, who are married, actually married!  And they were incredibly accepted and integrated by the members.  Their daughter had a great time and didn't want to leave! haha  It was the best!  But not only that, The Pommier family came as well, and the Duflo family! During the Sunday School lesson they were the ones who participated the most!  At the end of the day I was just filled with love for these amazing people as well as gratitude to the Lord for having heard my prayers and fasts.

Today we all are going to watch the movie Frozen at 4:00 and then have dinner at a member's house at 6:00. All the new missionaries that have seen it aren't too excited for the movie, but the rest of us are super pumped to see it.  We've heard a lot about it.

I can't wait to talk to you all on Wednesday, have a great couple days!
I love you lots!!
avec amour,
Elder Call

Fr. Potan and me with his Christmas lights

The decorations we have in our car

Exciting news from the Mission President!

Bonjour Ma Famille!

So big news first, no, not the tooth, I'll get to that later. But President Mehr just announced, if you havent heard already:

"I have been authorized to announce by the First Presidency that as of July 1, 2015 the West Indies Mission will be split. The new missions will be named Trinidad Port of Spain Mission and the Barbados Bridgetown Mission. 

The Trinidad Mission will consist of Trinidad, Suriname, Guyana and the ABC islands off the coast of Venezuela.

The Barbados Mission will consist of the Islands north of Trinidad already in the mission including French Guiana that is part of the Guadeloupe District."

So that's pretty big. Too bad I won't be seeing it. They will split the mission the day I leave. So instead of 1 new mission president coming in, we'll get 2. As for me, I'll just fly home on the same plane as President Mehr, which should be fun!

Well zone conference was great. I got to see everybody, Elder Miyasaki was there, Elder Fraley, Elder Lewis,  it was great. I also had to be the translator for the second half of the zone conference. Not much else happended during the week. We had to stay up with the Capesterre Elders in order to get to Zone conference, then District Conference the next day Saturday and then Sunday.

The tooth that's loose is one of the ones that have no permanent teeth behind it.  So much for making it through the mission with them right?  But it's not right in the front so if it falls out I won't look too much like a hillbilly.  Since the dentist says it won't be a problem I'll wait until I get home to fix it.  Don't really want holes being drilled into my head here in Guadeloupe!

You aren't going to like it but I am out of time, I took all my time trying to send those pictures. I could probably Skype at 5 o'clock my time which would be 2 o'clock your time in Utah. I'll keep watching the tooth and update you!

Love you lots!

A bientot!

Me and Elder Stewart-Johnson

I got to translate for the 2nd half of zone conference.  It was a bit tough, but really fun!

My original district and MTC room mates reunited!  The other guy is Jonathan Bonbon, my Branch President's son who came for the zone conference. He is preparing to leave on a mission. We invited him to jump in with us.

We took a picture of the "Miyasaki Family" all the people he trained were all together and then of course Elder Stewart-Johnson who I'm training.  So good seeing Elder M again!

Great seeing Elder Fraley again too!

New Companion

Bonjour ma famille!

Well I guess I'll get to the questions off the bat.

My new companion's name is Elder Stewart-Johnson, he's great!  I like him a lot!  Yes, I misspelled his name last week, actually I didn't know half of it...  He's from Arlington Texas.  We are going to have a good time together, I feel like he's already trained haha, all I have to do is help him with his French!

They did open the package, they opened the wrapped socks then re-taped it up, not sure what they were taking out of the socks but it had a note  in there about something glass. But all the others were still wrapped up.

So first off I am District Leader, and well, not too much has changed with that other than I have to call in at nights to see how everyone is doing.  I won't be teaching any district meetings until next week so its not really too different so far.  Training is great.  It's different being the older compainon, I've only had companions that have been out longer than I have so its been easy for me if I ever have questions about anything, now its me that needs to answer all the questions.  Definitely a change of roles.  But its great.  Elder Stewart-Johnson is a great guy and full of energy haha!  He's ready to conquer the world and I think its a great thing.  He's ready to talk to everyone and is not afraid at all that he doesn't know French!  I think I'll be learning a lot from him.

The Pommiers are doing alright.  They were going to come to church this week but I'm not sure what happened yet.  Church was at Capesterre so it was a ways to go.  I'm still working on translating and haven't gotten the letter to her yet.

We saw a pretty cool miracle this week.  As I took Elder Stewart-Johnson to go get his first bokit on Guadeloupe, one of our really cool contacts happened to be working at the stall that sold it.  I was going to take him to a different place because I had gone to this particular stall a couple times but he told me, "nah lets just go here because you know its good."  So we did and it happened to be her first day on the job.  We contacted her (Tisha) a while back and couldn't get a hold of her.  So we were able to fix a rendezvous and we taught her the next day about the Book of Mormon and she really understood it and is going to pray about it!  Elder Stewart-Johnson has been making deals with everyone that he'll teach them English if they teach him French and we have been getting some good teaching opportunities from that!

Well I hope all is well on the mainland!  Hope you get some snow and save some for me, and tell Brianna not to forget to shave that beard, its getting pretty long ;)

je vous aime tous!
avec amour,
Elder Call

Trainer and District Leader

Bonjour Maman/ ma famille

Well first things first, we got our transfer calls and there is going to be quite a bit that is changing...  No I'm not moving so don't worry abut that.  BUT Elder Drennan will be going up to Baie-Mahault to be with Elder Broadbent while Elder Santos goes home (*sad sniffle)  Elder Glover is going to be coming back up to Guadeloupe and is opening a new area in Petit Bourg with Elder Ehlert.  Elder Lever is coming up form Guyane to Capesterre to replace him.  The district is getting split into two, north and south.  As for me, I got called to be the district leader in the south district and I will also be training, my new companion will be Elder Johnson who is probably just getting into Trinidad at the mission home.  Its going to be a pretty crazy transfer to say the least!

Also I got the birthday packages!  Thanks everyone!  It was awesome!  I have so much cake I don't know what to do with it!  Also I got your letter for Sr. Pommier, I am working on translating it, the Google translation you sent was a bit interesting haha!

This week however was a good one.  Our numbers hadn't been the greatest recently, just trying to get a hold of people and finding people.  But this week we had a lot of exchanges because we had to make them up for the whole transfer.  But all the time that we had in the area we got to work.  Mostly we knocked doors, but we found some petty good people and yesterday at church a new member showed up that has two kids. One boy about to turn 12 this month, which means we'll have a deacon!  Woot!  The branch is really starting to progress and I am very excited.  I am also loving having Fr. Duflo as the Branch mission leader, its going to be fun!

I had a great party thanks to all of you and the birthday stuff, funny thing is, you sent me so many scripture marking supplies, but none of it was actually purple.... There was a purple pencil, but it just had normal pencil lead in it... haha!  I think its hilarious!  But don't worry, if I find time this week or the next I'm just going to go buy one thanks to the money I was given by Chris and Grandmère K! Thanks!

I would have loved to send you the picture of all the cakes that I have, but the pictures are being weird, hopefully you got that one you were wanting for the card I also hope it was what you were looking, it was the best I could do with the time I had.

I can't wait to talk to you all for Christmas!!
avec amour,
Elder Call

Thanksgiving is today!

Bonjour Ma famille!

Well today is Thanksgiving for us.  We are going to be having a meal right after I finish our emails.  All the missionaries are going to the church aux Abymes and we'll probably play some frisbee too.  Should be fun.

This week we had Branch conference, we all met at the Capesterre branch. Fr. Abenzoar got released as the Branch Mission Leader to be the 1st counselor in the branch and Fr. Duflo is now going to be our Dirigeant Missionnaire de Branche.  Afterwards we had a branch meal together.  My goal was to try all the homemade juices that people brought.  They were so good... Cherry was actually the best, I also hear that the Carribean Cherry is one of the healthiest fruits in the world :)

Then after that we had a missionary fireside. We watch the movie Finding Faith in Christ, then had a big activity thing.  We set the chairs up as a maze, blindfolded a member and sent them through as another member directed them through (acting as the Holy Ghost)  It was fun and it was different.  It was also pretty funny watching them trying to figure it out!

Yes, we should be Skyping on Christmas Eve.  The end of the transfer is on my Birthday, then people move areas the next Wednesday.  So when I find out who my companion is I'll be able to better plan it.

I really doubt that I would be moving, who knows?   From what I understand I should be staying here while Elder Drennan leaves.  There is talk of two new Tahitian missionaries coming and a new area being opened in petit Bourg on Basse-Terre (this half of the island, not my area)

The Pommier family is doing alright.  We were late getting to their house because of the English class we have on Wednesdays, they were about to leave when we got there (by Bouillante) they did let us give them a mini lesson at the door for about 10 minutes though.  They didn't make it to church because it was in Capesterre for Branch Conference.

I love all of you so very much as I always say but as always I always mean it! Haha  Thank you for the Birthday wishes and prayers!  Can't wait to talk to you next transfer!  I know that this church is true and I know that sometimes the Lord asks us to climb mountains, but from my small knowledge of the scriptures, I can't think of anytime that someone has climbed a mountain for the Lord and didn't receive some sort of miraculously spiritual experience.  I love the Lord and I am so very happy to be here to thank Him for all that He has done for me and for you guys!  Don't forget I love you too!

avec amour,
Elder Call