March 16, 2014

The things of which I know.

Ma chere famille,

Well, here it is, the big finale. Which will probably not actually be a big finale, cause all I really want to do this week is rendre mon humble temoignage. bear my humble testimony I think President Hinckley gave a talk at conference that was entitled this. But I would just like to add my testimony to his and the things that he said in his talk. 

Ma chere famille, I love this work, and after 18 months of doing this work, I can truly testify that it is absolutely the work of salvation. The work for OUR salvation as well as our freres and soeurs. Cause wow. Doing this work changes everything. Your heart, your mind, your very insides. And it is incredible. And I will be a missionary for the rest of my life. Because I know that the Lord blesses His missionaries and their families. I know that Heavenly Father lives, and that He loves and knows us, not in a superficial, only knows our name kind of way, but in a very real and incredible way. He knows what's best for us. And He wants what is best for us. We are His children! How wonderful a truth! After being here and serving Him with all my heart, might, mind, and strength during this very short time, I have come to understand more profoundly the importance of this eternal truth. It means that we are eternal and that we have a grand potential. I know that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and our Savoir. And, I know that thanks to His Atonement we can really repent and be cleansed and healed spiritually. But, that is not all that the Atonement does for us. We sometimes forget about its enabling power. We can do ALL THINGS with the Lord and His Atonement. I KNOW that this is true. We can love that person that we think is impossible to love, and we can forgive our enemy. Because of the Lord and the power of His infinite Atonement. I love this gospel, which was restored by Joseph Smith the prophet. And I love the Book of Mormon and the Bible, which teach us how to become as the Lord is. I know that as we study them and try to apply and plead with the Lord to help us apply these teachings He will help us. I know that the Lord is and will be at our sides and that He will never leave us. It is us that need to decide to stay at His side and to never leave Him. Oh how I love this work! Oh how I love these people of New Caledonia! My brothers and my sisters. They are precious to me. And I will be eternally grateful for this precious time that the Lord has given me to love and to serve his children and to really forget myself. 

I'm outta time. But! I love you all. And I will probs not email next week, cause we're dropping off Soeur Tupai at the airport. But! I will see you all in a week. I love you!

L'evangile est vraie!!

Love, Soeur Santos

March 9, 2014

at peace.

Ma chere famille!

Combien je vous aime! Ok, so just a warning. I just wrote President during more than 45 mins of internet time... So there's not a lot of time that rests. Luckily! I'm gonna see you all in two weeks, so it's ok if this ones a little on the shorter side. 

Anyways! This week flew by, faster than the last week even. And! President and Soeur Brewer came to eat lunch with Soeur Tupai, Soeur Teahe, Soeur LAmb, and I to say goodbye and we had our parting interviews and blessings. Sooo weird. And sad. I am going to miss President and Soeur Brewer, cause they are THE BEST! I know that President Brewer was called of God to lead and direct this mission. And he may be short in stature, but he is a giant of a spirit. I am privlidged to have worked with him during these last 18 months. 

The interview and blessing that he gave me were my favorite. More detes on that later. Like maybs when I see you all face to face, cause there's no time. But! The big difference between this email and the last one that I am no longer FREAKING OUT to come home. I'm ready. And not in a, I'm peacing out for the rest of the time that I have here, I'm gonna give all that I got to the end! But, I'm ready to come home. And I'm even excited about it. That was the big thing that changed with being with President and hearing his councel and my blessing. I feel at peace. I feel good. I know that my time is almost done and I know that it's good. And I'm happy.

Anyways, I love you all! That's it for this week! Thank you for all your love and support! And I will see you all in a couple weeks!

pics.

the gang!! with President and Soeur Brewer,

me with President and Soeur Brewer.

And we did an exchange with the soeurs of Magenta. (Me and all the Tahitian soeurs in the mission. And I've served with all of them.) DUCK FACE bien sur. 

JE VOUS AIME MA FAMILLE!! A bientot.I LOVE MY FAMILY! A soon.

L'evangile est vraie!

Love, Soeur Santos

March 3, 2014

prie pour Yvonne!!

Ma chere famille,

I am sooooo happy to be here in New Cal and to be a missionary for the Lord and His church. Qu'est ce que j'aime cette oeuvre, et mes freres et soeurs ici en Caledonie! Ils vont me manquer plus que je peux dire. Anyways, I'm gonna miss speaking french too, cause, "c'est la langue de mon coeur." Well, that and franglais. Soeur Tupai and I are grave. She speaks english like a champ, so we always swing in and out of french and english. haha. J'aime biennn.

Anyways! Famille, not much to raconte this week, cause Soeur Tupai and I were in the house all day Tuesday-Saturday cause she was malade. But! It was still a good week. We got to talk a lot, I tried to take care of her, and I read lots. It was good. But it's nice to be out and about again! hah. It's funny though. We're a little rusty. We realized it on Sunday when we taught again, after not teaching since Monday night. It's all coming back though, slowly but surely!

And!! One of the best things about this last week was that we had a lesson last night with Yvonne, one of our amis! And I've been teaching her since the beginning, december of 2012, when I got to Paita, cause she lives in Dumbea and Dumbea used to be a secteur for elders, so the Soeurs of Paita taught her until they put soeurs here about 6 months ago. Anyways, she's great. FANTASTIC, actually. And she does everything. She reads her scriptures everyday, prays, goes to church, etc. But she's not baptized yet. It's hard to explain... I've been analyzing for a year plus now, but! last lesson a week ago, we invited her to pray for a date, and she did! And the date is the 19 of mars. And that would be the BEST parting gift EVER. Because she is so ready and wonderful!! And I would love nothing more, because I know that she will be so blessed! Even more blessed than she is right now for all the things that she's doing. So yah. Soeur Tupai and I are STOKED. But we are going to be praying and fasting like crazy people jusqu'a la fin, for her specially. So, please pray for her that all will go well. 

Anyways. Miracles! Miracles are happening. And faith procedes the miracle, ALWAYS! Isn't it incredible that God is a God of miracles! I love it. And I know that it's true!! And I'm so happy!!

Also, mince, shout outs, really fast. I'm sorry everyone. I've given up on letter writing these last 2 transfers... And this one too. But! I just wanted to say thank you to Sister Larsen and J-dawg for the packages!! So kind! And the chocolate was delish, Sister Olson, Angie Cluff, Laura, Mai, Megan, and everyone else that has written letters to me lately. Des. I've been a slacker. But! I'll see you all soon! And thank you for your love and support!!

I LOVE this gospel!! It is the Lords. And I'm so happy and blessed to share it with all around me! I love you all! Open your mouths and they will be filled! 

I love you all!

L'evangile est vraie!

Love, Soeur Santos

February 23, 2014

a rolling snowball.

I've been thinking of an analogy for the mission and what I can compare it with, and I think this is the winner. You know how when you start a snowball rolling at the top of a large hill and it starts out small and it starts rolling slowly, and after a bit of time it gets bigger and starts picking up speed like a crazy? That's it. And that's how it feels. The weeks are going by faster and faster. And they were already flying. But it's good. Kicking it to the end!

Ma chere famille!

I am so happy to be a serviteur et représentant de Jesus-Christ. representative and servant of Jesus Christ I love being a missionary. I love the people of New Caledonia, and I love this country. I was just talking to Soeur Tupai this morning, and it really feels like chez moi home. That'll be so weird to come home again, because this is my pays. And these are my people. And I LOVE THEM SOOO MUCH!!  I have learned so much from loving them and serving them and they will always be in my heart.

This week was incredible! Elder Andersen came to visit us and it was unlike anything I have ever experienced in my life. It was sooo weird. that is the closest that I have ever been to a disciple except when President Uchtdorf came to see us play Ein Heldenleben at BYU, but this was different, because he stayed with us and talked to us for a few hours, just us the mishs! And it was POWER, quoi. Incredible! I took lots of notes. And I'll try to share them with you later, cause well, I have about 5 mins left before we gotta bounce. But! en gros, he talked about miracles! And faith. One of my favorite quotes, "There are miracles where ever there is faith." Chyeah. And he told this incredible story about a miracle that occured when he was mission president in France. And he talked about fixing goals! And now Soeur Tupai and I are on a crazy goal fixing kick, and it's super fun! We're trying to nous depasse as much as possible until the end! And it's fun :]

And one other story that I wanted to share with you all and all the members that are reading this. So, Soeur Tupai and I were doing porte a porte a few weeks ago, and we talked to an uncle with two kids, named Ashley and Cedric. So, we talked for a bit, but we said that we were going to come back to talk to the parents. Well, it took a while for us to get back there, but we got to talk to the mom of these two kids last week. They are Wallisien, and the dad and the mom both know a member who lives at Koutio. And this lady, named Anna is like HYPER prepared. Like, Soeur Tupai and I were completely stoked to be talking to her, because she is incredible and she wants to learn more about Jesus Christ and His gospel. But, she talked about this member friend of theirs, and she said, "On dirait il voulait pas parler de son eglise quand on a parle avec lui." Translation, "It seemed like he never wanted to talk about his beliefs to us..." Even though she is INCREDIBLY prepared and wants to learn more. This killed me. And J'ai beaucoup reflechi, et je me suis posee la question I pondered a lot and asked myself the question, has anyone of my friends ever thought this of me? That I was ashamed of or that I didn't want to share what I believed? I've thought about what Anna has said this entire week, and I just wanted to invite everyone that is reading this, to OPEN YOUR MOUTH!!! Because this is too important to doubt, to fear. This is salvation on the line. And! We never know what could happen. Maybe that neighbor that you have is suffering and needs the healing power that the gospel and the Atonement of Christ brings. We don't know. So we need to talk. Yes, there will be people that say no. So what? That doesn't change our testimony. We did our job. And they cannot come to us on the other side of the veil and ask why we didn't share this wonderful news with them. So do it! And I will too. Even after I'm releved. 

I love you all soooo much my family and friends who are praying for me! I feel of your support and your love. You are incredible. And you are my heroes. You are in my prayers. And I pray that you will have the faith needed to open your mouths! The joy that comes is UNCOMPARABLE. I'm SOOO HAPPY!!! I love this work. And I love you all!

L'evangile est vraie!

Love, Soeur Santos

pics: 

1. Soeur Seamons and I en echange on exchange.

2. Soeur Tupai and I a la plage encore on the beach again.

3. And our sweet artistic mish pic. La blague, I only spent one transfer of my mission a pied. walking

February 16, 2014

a quatre. four

pics.

1.) Danny et Rosita. They are the best!! And they live at Dumbea s/ mer, so we saw them for the last time this week before our secteur split.

2.) Duck face! And the sunset in the background.

3.) Me, Soeur Frost (nouvelle news), and Soeur Tupai after we picked Soeur Frost up from the airport on Saturday.

Ma chere famille!!

Sooo, I'm assuming that you got the travel plans, cause Soeur Call said that she sent them to my parents and my stake president. So, I'll see you all on March 25th! But, there is still a lot of time left before the end! So that's all that I'm gonna say about that for the moment.

Thank you family for your love and support!! I hope that you are all doing so well! I love you and I pray for you.

This week was good! It was our last half week where we covered both sides of Dumbea, but Soeur Frost got here on Satirday and she and Soeur Raney, her trainer moved in to the apt on Saturday. So we're all together in the apt now until our house on the other side of Dumbea is ready. But it's going pretty well actually. Soeur Tupai and I moved everything into a room, our beds, desks, and we just stay there when we are home, but we're not home a lot, so it works out great!

Soeur Frost, the new soeur is great! She's a converi recent, and she's a music major at a university in Missouri! She plays the violin, so I've been having fun geeking out and asking her what pieces she played last personally and in orchestra and all that. I still have no friends... Mais bon. Oh well

And, Soeur Tupai and I are working on the super pretty pride and prejudice side (that's what it reminds me of) of Dumbea. Which is fun! This week the key word is FINDING. Which we're stoked about because we know that the Lord has prepared people for us to teach! Just like Elder Andersen said in his general conference talk of April. Something like, "As the Lord has called more missionaries to serve His children on the earth, He is also preparing more hearts of His children to hear and accept this wonderful message!" I know this to be true. Which is why Soeur Tupai and I are stoked to find this week. 

Tomorrow Elder Neil L. Andersen is coming, and we are sooo excited! We invited all our amis and all the people that we've talked to, so that will be fantastic! And we are really excited.

It's time to go. Sorry. I spent too much time looking at travel info... Mais! I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! And I am so proud to be part of your family! Thank you so much for your love and your support and also for praying for and looking for opportunities to share this gospel with those around you! Because that is how you will find and experience a joy that you have never ever had before! Pup can testify of that for me. I love you family! You are in my prayers!

L'evangile est vraie!!

Love, Soeur Santos

February 10, 2014

davantage!! Furthur/More

Ma chere famille,

The subject line is Soeur Tupai and my theme for this week. That was the question that we posed all week long. Comment est-ce qu'on peut faire DAVANTAGE? How can we do MORE? And we worked all week trying to step it up. That's something that I love about being here! Always striving to improve, to be better. It's the besttt. 

Sooo, Soeur Tupai and I are staying together for our last transfer!! And we're still STLs, the only thing that's changing is that Dumbea is being split. So there will be an equipe of soeurs at Dumbea sur mer, (where we live now,) and we're gonna move back to Dumbea l'autre cote. So that'll be fun. We don'e know exactly when that's gonna be though, so we'll see. We think that we're gonna be living 4 to the apt where we are now for a couple weeks until they find us a house. And we're not exactly the priority either, because sooo many changes are happening it's crazy! They opened Bourail and La Foa, up North, so we have to find houses for them as well. and there are two Elders and one Soeur that will be getting here at the end of this week. They also changed up the districts a little bit, so Soeur Tupai and I will be moving districts. But it's all good. I'm pretty excited about it actually, cause as President says, "the church moves forward on change." 

This week was good. We had lots of good lessons and did lots of finding. And one of the women that we found is named Anna. She lived in France before, but she comes from Camaroon, (is that a country in africa?) And she speaks ENGLISH! That's actually her native tongue, so Soeur Tupai and I taught the lesson in English, which was fun. It actually made me kinda excited because I know that that's the language I'll be sharing the gospel in after the mission. But yah, she is fantastic, and her faith is so big! She has two adorable children, and her husband does not believe, so she prays for him and tries to set the example for him. 

Also, we had pas mal d'ami that came to the chapel this week and that was so great! Nothing makes a missionary more happy than when an ami comes to church. It's the best! And We took a picture with some of them, but it's on Soeur Tupai's camera, so I'll have to get that later. 

Anyways, I'm outta time for this week. It rained buckets this week, I think we're on our fourth depression or something. Dumbea flooded. And we had to push back our exchange. but it's been good! And it hasn't killed our fire.

I LOVE you all sooo much! This work is magnificant. I'm so happy to be a missionary and to serve the Lord with all my heart, might, mind, and soul! I pray for you all! and thanks for your prayers!!

L'evangile est vraie!

Love, Soeur Santos

February 3, 2014

the prophet's call!

Ma chere famille! 

Turns out that Pup and I are on the same transfer schedule. That's weird. So yah. The last missionaries to leave before the four of us at the end of next transfer leave this Sunday for Tahiti. Weirddd. Also, funny story of the week. When I served with Soeur Beagles, I made her three awesome planners. And I always joked with her that I wanted her to make me my last planner in the field. She gave it to me this morning, and it is hilarious. It has her and my face on front, just her on the inside, and a picture of our coin de feu fireside choir on the back. She's a crazy. I'll try and take pictures with it to send next week. 

Anyways! This week was incredible! We did a lot of work with members this week, and that always goes well. We had two soirees with members and our amis this week, and that was sooo good! The first one, we had at a members house and we invited our amis, Danny and Rosita. We left after an hour, but they ended up staying until 11pm. So that went well. Also, the BEST soiree familiale of my mission was this weekend, with the family Li-Khau, a different famille Li-Khau than that of Paita, it's his brother Anyways, He's inactive, and his wife and children are not members yet, but they are incredible. We are hoping to be able to teach them soon. But, they invited us over for a soiree familiale, as well as two families than they are friends with and some of their family that live up north. And it was incredible! We had sooo many referals at the end of the night. And my testimony of the importance of members in this work grew encore. 

Soeur Tupai and I were AMAZED. We were discussing afterwards, and these were our thoughts. The people that live here know the members already. They know and love and trust them. And the atmosphere of being in their home with us is the perfect atmosphere for the Spirit to come and testify that the gospel is true. When we go door to door, it's just not as good of an opportunity. They don't know us and usually they don't want to have the time to talk, even if we smile a lot. But it's just infinitely better if there are members to help them along, to testify and to answer questions. It was INCREDIBLE. I love this work! And as much as I'd love to be a missionary for the rest of my life, I'm not as sad thinking about the end anymore, because I realize that it's not the end. 

Also, where I'm serving right now, Dumbea, is sooo beautiful. I can't get over it. We've been having depressions here, (I think that's a cyclone term...) But basically that just means it rains a lot. And it's so green here and it makes me think of home. You might be able to see a little bit in the pictures that I sent, but it's so green! I love it. See pics. This was our adventure of the week. Mt. Koghi.

I AM SOOO HAPPY TO BE A MISSIONARY. Soeur Tupai and I are working so hard and it's so much fun. I love these people. They are incredible. And I can't wait to tell you more about them. And this work of course, what JOY! I have never been happier. I know I smiled a lot before, mais franchement, rien a voir but frankly, nothing compared  with now. 

I love you family! Read the prophet's words at the beginning of this last conference, and get inspired. Also, Alma 19 and 20 in the LdM. Member missionary work. And the success that they had! It's incredible. I know that that kind of success exists, but only when we work together. 

Know that you are in my prayers! And that I pray for you to have occasions to share this wonderful message! I LOVE YOU ALL!! Thank you for your prayers for me!

L'evangile est vraie!

Love, Soeur Santos

That's Dumbea behind us!! also, I'm super blanche... And also, the third picture was a failed attempt at a timer jumping picture... But I like it. ha.