Bon Courage 15 100 days down!!! hhaha don't worry I wasn't counting February 25th, 2014

Hello! This week I turned 100 mission days old so we celebrated by making cookies for all of our investigators and I used the frosting that Allyson sent me for Valentines day so that was just divine. 

This week was crazy with ups and downs and things falling through and things working out and the Lord providing a way. So the week went pretty normal until Saturday when we had the best day ever!! It was amazing because Friday was the worst day ever. But on Saturday we went to our first appointment and it went well, side-note, there was a random pig head just sitting on the front steps of this persons house and it was terrifying. After that we saw this family sitting outside their house and we went up and contacted them and they told us to sing to them; naturally we whipped out families can be together forever. It was great and they sang along and we taught them about the plan of salvation. The mom said she was catholic but believes in reincarnation but by the end of the lesson she loved the plan of salvation. Its so perfect! Like I would pick the perfect plan of happiness over reincarnation too. Our investigator M called us and told us he couldn't com to the baptism with us because he forgot it was his birthday and his family and friends all came over to surprise him; but he wanted us to come to his party! We told him we would come after the baptism. Then we went to a baptism and on the bus on the way contacted this man who came to the baptism with us! He isn't in our area so we can't teach him but the elders are very excited. We went to grab M a birthday milfoy (pastry thing with custard in it) and at the boulangerie met this dad who was so closed to the gospel but then talked to us for a minute and asked us why we are on missions and his heart was softened and now we are having lunch with him and his family and teaching them on saturday. Then we went to family G (muslim dad and Jehova Witness mom) and had the best lesson ever because it was totally guided by the spirit. We went in fasting to resolve her concerns about the Book of Mormon and thats exactly what happened! She gave the most powerful prayer at the end pleading to know if everything was true. I just wanted to listen to it over and over! Then we went to M and taught a lesson at his birthday party to him and all his friends and he came to church and it was just a miracle day!!

Sister Tenney and I are getting along great. I look up to her so much, she is such a good missionary. We were watching the district for Training this week and at one point one of the sisters says 'I know Heavenly Father is proud of me as a missionary' it was just so powerful (and I maybe embarrassingly started crying during the district) I just want to make Heavenly Father proud of me as a missionary!

I love you!!

abs 

Bon Courage 14 Jaime ma bleu! February 17th, 2014

Hey family, fun fact, in french missions instead of saying greenie we call new missionaries bleu, sounds so much nicer don't you think? Anyway, after a crazy mixed up flight schedule this week Soeur Tenny finally arrived on Friday and we got right to work! She is awesome and already fluent in French and so willing to get out there and work and loves it already. She has great enthusiasm and courage which will serve us well! Although we are both new, we are expecting some miracles this transfer. I don't believe that the Lord would let us mess up His work if we are trying our best. He wants his children to come back and live with him so we are going to do everything we can to make that happen and let the Lord take us and our amis the rest of the way. 

This week Max our hindu priest investigator came to church and the talks were on eternal families and baptism, so inspired. He wants to badly for his girlfriend and her kids to get baptized with him so they can all be in the church together. It is going to take time, but I have faith that this family will be eternal.

On Friday night we met with this new ami named Isabelle that we found on Tuesday. She is SO PREPARED. She met with the missionaries 20 years ago and she basically said thank you for coming back to find me after all these years. She has the greatest family and her oldest son joined us for the lesson on Friday. She is so loving and ready for the gospel. We also stopped by this Haitian we have been teaching but i felt like he wasn't actually that into it after that. Of course, he was awesome and super interested and prayed to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet and knows the gospel is restored. It just goes to show that we need to love and share this gospel with everyone because we don't know who the next person is that will get baptized. 

Im so grateful for all your emails this week, I've been pretty overwhelmed but I know you are praying for me and the Lord is with us.

Love you! 

soeur eyre 

Bon Courage 13! February 10th, 2014

The thing making this week so weird was transfer calls. I was expecting to just continue being with sister Hawkes and finish my training, but I will actually be training a new sister this transfer so that is a little terrifying. I was really really stressed about it and finally just before I was going to sleep the other night, after I had said my prayers and everything, I was laying there thinking of all the things that could go wrong and all the people who could be dropped if I couldn't understand what they were saying or I just messed up as a teacher, and all of a sudden I felt this strong impression "Trust in the Lord." It was almost like a rebuke, no one is going to be converted, or read the book of mormon, or stop smoking because of me. In the same way, if I am doing my best the Lord isn't going to let His children be lost because my french isn't very good or because I am not the best missionary yet. So thats the goal for this next transfer when I am training sister Tenney. Trust in the Lord, let the Spirit guide.

Last night we had a little bit of a miracle that shows the power of the Book of Mormon. We were porte a porting (tracking) and we both felt this strong impression to visit a less active. On the way to her house I stopped in front of this other house and asked "have you contacted them before" Sister hawkes said "ya but I think we should do it again" we contacted them and the man living there had actually met with the missionaries a lot and been to church 10 years ago in Haiti. We read Moroni's promise with him and he was like astonished by it. It was awesome. He committed to read every day before our next appointment. He is really golden. Also Last night we visited D. We have really been focusing on setting a baptismal date with him, but last night we decided just to read the Book of Mormon with him and help him feel the spirit. At the end of the lesson he finally set a baptismal date!! This book is really the most powerful book on earth and I love it!! I never thought I would look forward to having an hour to study the book of mormon every day but I absolutely love that part of the day! It just makes me so happy!

The best part is its all true!!
wish me luck this transfer, it is going to be wild.
I LOVE YOU!!
abs

Bon Courage 12!! February 3, 2014

Bonjour ma famille! I'm writing from the new senior couples apartment because sister Hawkes is in St Lucia for Visa stuff. This senior couple is the best! they are from Tahiti and are just so willing to work! The zone leaders said they were showing them around a few night ago and as they were walking they looked back and (the couple) had naturally just started contacting people. I love it! also they just will do anything for anyone and also bring food to any meeting haha awesome Tahitians. They are so great!

This week has been kind of an adjustment week. Our area is so small that contacting is really just checking up on people that we have met. Literally all of Goyave just knows us so thats pretty funny. So we decided to expand and tried a couple different places. Finally Sunday night we were able to find some success in this huge apartment complex that we walked  about a half hour to find. We contacted there and found 3 really interested contacts in just a few hours! It was an answer to our prayers. We were able to teach the Restoration to one of them (a man who would say a sentence in french and then attempt to translate it into english-at one point he said "my name is myself" Later yesterday evening we taught one of our investigators who is really super. We met him during our first attempt at "windows" and he came up to us. He was high at the time but is working so hard to change his life. He is really trying to quit smoking and it is amazing to see his conviction to the gospel when he is so new to it. We are working with him on prayer right now so that he will understand that Heavenly Father wants to hear from him, and he isn't wasting His time. Fortunately for us, after the closing prayer he asked if he could say a prayer of protection for us. It ended up being a song in maybe hebrew so sister Hawkes and Frere Bon (the branch presidents son) and I were really trying to be respectful but Frere Bon (who is normally the most soft spoken person ever) was really having a hard time holding in his laughter. The song was just so west indian.

 Unfortunately David (this ami) and all of our other investigators couldn't come to church yesterday because there is a huge gas strike. People still pump the gas for you here and all the workers have gone on strike so that was pretty frustrating yesterday. Apparently this happens all the time here. clllaaaaasssiicccc gaudeloupe.

P is ammmaaaazing. His girlfriend broke up with him this week because he decided to get baptized and she is evangelist. He is still getting baptized though and knows the church is true. The new testimony he has is already being tried but he is holding firm. It is so amazing. He is going to be an excellent member and he even told us that he wants to be a missionary!

Finally M has decided that he needs to be baptized, which is awesome! We are working on helping him with his testimony of the Book of Mormon, he knows it is true because he feel the spirit when he reads it but it is hard to get him to pray to know if it is true. This is a recurring problem for people.

We are really trying to work with the members here because the branch is struggling. There are only four families in the branch and they need a little help getting along so we are trying to visit them and work with them more so they can have more love for each other and work together to do missionary work. We had a great lesson with the B family this week and it was a great example of teaching people instead of lessons. It did not go how we planned but it ended up going where they needed it. They are even going to work with us this week which will help a lot, the investigators that progress are the ones we bring members to. It is so true. The only way the work hastens is through members!

I hope all is well and I love you!!
soeur abs