Favorite Sunday on my mission!

Bonjour! 

Well sadly, my email didn't work until I had just about 15 minutes left so I'm going to do my best to get as much of your beloved info in here. 

Zone conference was last Sunday and we had our interviews this Tuesday. It was nice, nothing to exciting but I felt good talking to the president, he told me that he's going to move me this transfer which will be next week. He also told me about the deal with getting home. I'll be going home the same day as Elder Fraley. They are cutting my last transfer a week short so that the new presidents don't come in on a weird mid transfer thing. So I'm getting shorted a week...

Yesterday was an awesome Sunday, one of my favorites on the mission. It was a fast and testimony meeting and everybody had a chance to share. The spirit was so strong, especially when David got up and bore a testimony about trials of faith that he had and how he was thankful that they brought him closer to God. Afterwards everybody talked about trials. It was very powerful. Then he helped me teach the gospel principles class and bore an awesome testimony on baptism. It was really cool. I felt very thankful to be a part of this branch, and with general conference next week, it may have been the last Sunday I get to see everybody.

Sr. Duflo got called to be the Sunday School teacher, the Pommiers are going through interviews with the Branch President and should be getting callings soon as well. Its just great. I love these people! We went to the Duflo's house last night and sang some hymns. Sr. Duflo wanted to come with us to help teach some people. Its most definitly one of the places that I want to come back and visit after the mission. Its going ot be very hard to say goodbye. David and Cindy keep asking if I can get permission to spend a whole day with them haha, we are going to try to drive to Pointe de Chateau next P-day (which is actually going to be on Tuesday next week so don't freak out, because of the holiday everything will be closed and we won't be able to email until Tuesday)

I love you all so very much! Tell dad I'm sorry I could shoot him an email today but I'll get back to him, I love reading his emails haha! I love yours too, don't get me wrong, I love all emails!

I love you all!

avec amour,

Elder Call

Zone Conference

Allo bonjour! Ca va bien?!

What a weekend!  On Friday we drove up to pick up Elder Christensen, an assistant, who came and worked with us for a day.  We planned out the entire day and had some 50 back ups for all our rendez-vous, all of which fell through.  It really bummed me out, but Elder Christensen was a good sport and helped us contact a lot of people even though he couldn't speak French haha.  The best part was when Fr. Potin came with us and we split up.  Elder S-J took the assistant and taught, mostly by himself because he was the only one who could communicate with people, while I went to do a training with one of our members.  I heard he did really well!  When we met back up at the boulevard he was teaching one of our less actives and Fr. Potin bore an incredible testimony.  I felt the spirit so strong!  I love that guy!

The next day we drove up to Capesterre for the Baptism of "Jackie" Chan.  He was the guy that I did the baptismal interview for a while ago.  It was great, not many people showed up because it was the district relief society activity the same day.  But I was very happy for him, as well as the sisters. They've been working hard, and he was really happy as well.  We stayed in Capesterre last night to save us from having to drive up again this morning to email.  That's why I'm on so early today.

For the Zone conference the next day, we drove up early the Sunday morning for the church service.  I missed the meeting at Basse-Terre, I missed David bless the sacrament for the first time :(  But I hear it went well.  We spent the whole day aux Abimes. The zone conference was great, we talked a lot about the atonement.  I didn't get to take notes because I translated.  I love, love, love translating!   Its so hard, but so fun!  Too bad there won't be much translating for me to do in French when I get back home.

Sorry I got to go!  I got too distracted with the other things that I didn't get to talk more about conference!

Love you lots!

avec amour,
Elder Call

The Gnomes, er...Dwarfs, nope Gnomes!

Hola mi familia!

Since your all speaking the espanol I thought I'd join in! haha  I hope you had a great time in Mexico!  I could go for some nice toastadas or some Hangman street tacos right now, with some Oaxaca cheese....mmmm memories!  haha

Updates on the eastern coast:  Zone conference will be this Sunday, and, well... I'm not quite sure what else to add to the list, I guess I'll just move on.  But for zone conference, its going to be rapid fire because Elder Cornish (area president) will be blowing through the islands faster than an iguana climbing a tree.  Its going to ALL be on Sunday.  We will have church in the morning at Abîmes, then zone conference right after and then the member fireside right after that.  Should be a crazy day.  I'll be at the church building the entire day.

ALSO! Dd you see David and Cindy's picture on the mission newsletter?  Alright!!

Recently I've been trying to focus a lot more on training the members.  I realized that if we want to have anymore progress we need a better foundation. I've finally gotten my hands on a Handbook 2 and have been studying according to the members callings.  I started with Fr. Duflo (Branch Mission Leader) and gave him the responsibility to call the other members of the branch council and fix appointments for us to stop by their house to do training for their callings.  It went very well!  He's gotten a hold of everyone within 2 days and we now have rendez-vous for this week and next week to talk about our member's calls.  I wanted to simply go to their house and start talking about their responsibilities, most of the time when we ask if we can help, they say no.  I assume it is because they don't know how we can help.  So as we talk about theirs callings, we'll be able to find questions that come up and give engagements to help them further the work in their specific area . I'm going to be talking with Fr. Abenzoar (1st counselor in the branch) and try to get him helping us with the training so that we can get some follow ups going between everyone.

The baptismal interview was a very interesting and spiritual learning experience for me.  I was very nervous going into the interview, because the man said that if he didn't get baptized that weekend he'd never come back and would not be happy.  So yeah, I was pretty nervous, because I felt like he should wait a little longer.  But during the interview I could see the Holy Ghost soften his heart and when he left he was smiling and determined to be ready the next time.  I just did his next interview yesterday and he has changed quite a bit and the baptism should be for this weekend.

As for Elder Stewart-Johnson and I things are going well. We have been taking more time to have fun together which I believe is something that we were missing. He has made a lot of progress with his French. Being a trainer makes me really appreciate how much the Lord has blessed me through my mission. Being able to see Elder S-J at the beginning as I approach the end has made me realize how far I have come and the things that I have learned.  It has been a miraculous year and 3/4, hopefully the Lord has some more tuning to give me, before shipping me back home.

I love you all a ton!
avec amour,
Elder Call

You're darn right...we made a fort!

Well, he always did enjoy fort building as a kid

 Our Roamin' Gnomes

I tried to tell Braden that these aren't "Gnomes", they're  two of the Seven Dwarfs!  But he insisted that the French don't have "Dwarfs" they have "Gnomes!"

Nice lava-lava Elder!

An interview always trumps a letter...

Bonjour!!

I'm really sorry that you aren't going to be getting the super long letter I imagine you were waiting for in Mexico, but I need to go do a baptismal interview with a man from Goyave who wants to get baptized this Saturday.  We have been having trouble scheduling a time to meet because of distance and today is the only day he has off of work this week. I judged that his salvation is worth more than my P-day... sorry.

This week went really well, we had a ton of people to see and members to work with us, but things just kept falling through.  I'm not sure what it was but we just couldn't catch a break.  But we did see some improvement with Fr.Théor, an inactive, he finally read the BoM on his own this week!  That's never happened in such a long time!!

Well they're calling me, I gotta go!  Sorry!  Enjoy Mexico!  I'll talk to you next week!

avec amour,
ElderCall

Serious French study

Bonjour ma famille!

How are things on the mainland!?  Just to go quickly with your question, yes that would be perfect to send the picture frame, another good one that I like was one of them hugging out in the water, not sure if I sent that on or not.  Either one would work though!  Merci buckets!

This week went by tranquillement. Something fun, or well interesting I would say, is that for language study this week we picked out 50 words in the house and put up sticky notes everywhere with the French translation and practiced them all week then took a quiz on Sunday.  If we pass we get to buy Agoulous during the week.  We are also going to go without English more and more.  This week we went all Sunday with no English, next week we're going to go 2 days with no English, and so on and so forth until the last week of the transfer we won't speak any English.  Should be good!

We also had a really cool experience with Sr. Gouanvé this week.  We were at her house talking to her when her friend rang the door bell.  Sr. Gouanvé invited her in to talk with us.  Apparently she had been talking to her about the gospel and how it can help her in her life.  She sat her down and turned to us and said, "Well, go on, do your thing" haha The best part was that she kept saying, "Tell her about Joseph Smith! Tell her about Joseph Smith!"  But when we started talking about the first vision, Sr. Gouanvé jumped in and almost recited the whole thing from memory.  I was so impressed and amazed at how excited she was to share the gospel!  Her friend Annik even came to church with her yesterday!

Well the internet place is deciding to close, so I don't have much time.  I love you all so very much!  Have a great week!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRI!  Tell everyone I say hi... No, tell them I say Bonjour! ;)

avec amour,
Elder Call

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