July 21, 2013

my mini me!!

Well, actually, she's kinda a mix of Soeur Lamb and me... But it's fun.

Ma chere famille!!

How are you!! I have about 10 mins. Sorry, I had a long email for President
today, cause I had to give him the last two reports for exchanges and tell
him about how training and stuff.

But! yah. First, My daughter!! Soeur Amanda Beagles!! She is from Pleasant
Grove, UT. She went to UVU and she actually just graduated before her
mission. She is 22. And she plays CELLO. And piano. And! She runs in the
morning, so that's fun. She's a people person like Soeur Lamb, we're
working on the French, she was a rebel in the mtc like Soeur Lamb, and
didn't like PVL ing, and she doesn't understand a ton, but I passed by
there too. So, for right now, I'm speaking as much french as I can to try
and help her. It's fun.

Being a trainer is exhausting though. It probs didn't help that we had two
exchanges this week... haha. But yah, I have never been more tired in my
life. It's good though. I'm so happy! Lots of responsibility, but lots of
fun. It's kinda nice to go back to the basics and everything. And in the
end, I know that I will probs learn more from her than she will from me.
But! My goal is to make her a better missionary than I am. Just like my
real kids in the future. I want them to be better than me!! So yah, we're
working hard and it's going great. We're gonna try to work more with the
members this week, cause we kinda slacked last week on that, so someone
check back with me on that.

Also, we had two exchanges this week. One with Soeur Tupai, (new STL) in
PK7, and one with Soeur Kailiponi in Paita. And, all that I have time to
say about that is that the Lord knows what he's doing!!

I'm starting drivers ed in french this week, so pray for me please! Oh!!
And I'm sooo happy for pup! I know that he will do great things!! You are
all in my prayers!! I love you!

L'evangile est vraie!!

Love, Soeur Santos

July 14, 2013

It's a girl!!

I've been waiting to use this subject line for awhile now... But I didn't think it was gonna be sooo soon after I got the STL calling. But!! I guess Soeur Tere and I did a good job with zone conference, cause we both got released. And he asked both of us to TRAIN the two new soeurs that are getting here Fridayy!! What is happening?! We found out Friday during planning. Which kinda derailed the second half of our weekly planning. hah. Mais bon. it's good

Ma chere famille!!

I am sooo happy to be a missionary. It's the first thing I say thank you for in every prayer I say. Outloud and in my head. It's just the best. I have seriously never ever been happier. Which is crazy. Cause I've been pretty happy in my life. hah. Funny story about that vite fait. quickly Went to go take a few passport photos today for drivers ed today. And the guy had to take the photo like 10 times. Sans blague no kidding, cause he was like, "il faut pas sourire." We need to smile hah. Quel echec What failure. He probs thought I was a kray kray. Mais bon. 

Anyways, with that said! This week is Soeur Tere and my last week as dirigeants formatrices formative leaders! And we're going out with a bang. We have two exchanges fixed for this week, transfers friday--and we're gonna do a formation there, and we getta go cherche our filles pick up our girls at the airport!! It'll be fun. And crazy. comme d'hab, quoi as usual. But!! The best part of this all, is that Soeur LAMB is taking my place as one of the new STLs. And I'm STOKED for her. She will do great things. Also, they are moving the dirigeants leaders to Dumbea, just next door to Paita. So yah. We will be in the same district now, which I'm stoked about. It'll be fun. Also, Soeur Tupai will be the other new leader. She's great! She speaks english like a champ. And I love both of them.

As far as my future baby. I'm stoked. In a "mince, I can't even keep a goldfish" kind of way... But! with the Lord, all things are possible! That much I know. And so, I can do it with His help. Her name is Soeur Beagles, and all I know about her is that she's a certified nurse. So, she's a smart little cookie. I'm excited to meet her though!! I made her planner this morning and we're gonna go home and do some house warming cleaning and rearranging fung shway. (I just spelt that houw that sounds...)

But. The funniest part about this week is that I sang a solo. hahahh. I don't remember the last time that happened. Soeur Raney called me this week, she's the pianist, and asked if I could sing for their musical fireside, Cause apparently she and Soeur Lamb have been searching high and low for a cello for me for awhile now, with no luck... They wanted me to play. So yah, I thought that she was gonna sing with me, but we got to the repet Wednesday night and she gave me the music for a solo, "Shepard of My Soul." Sally Deford. So, we played and sang it through a couple times and the performance was Saturday night. And it actually went pretty well! Soeur Tere played Mom and Mele for the night and cried when I sang and everything. haha LOVE you two.  And! A family that came to the musical fireside. The husband's name is Penicio, and I don't know the wife's name, but they are Wallisien and Catholic. They came to this fireside, where I sang and it was really good! They were touched by the music that was performed. And also, we had a lesson with Penicio earlier that day, and he said that when we started coming over to visit and teach him, he wasn't interested- he let us in because he is a hospitable person. But! Since we have come and started to teach him the gospel, he says that he has changed. And we can see that. But he basically bore his testimony and said how since we've started coming over he's started saying his little prayers again and his faith has grown. This gospel CHANGES people. It's incredible. And it's true. I see it every day. And it's incredible.

Oh how I love this work. This gospel. These people. I am so happy!! Oh. Also, Soeur Lamb may be planning a trip to Tahiti for both of us and maybs Soeur Kailiponi for next July... haha. We're talking about it. Anyways! I love you!! And happy birthday to Grandpa and Pup my BFF!!! I love you both! And I loved the miracle week that you had pup!! Thanks for your example!! Share the gospel guys! It's AMAZING. And I can promise you that you will NEVER be happier than when you do this work. 

I LOVE YOU ALL!!

L'evangile est vraie!!

Love, Soeur Santos

July 7, 2013

'MERICA!!

Hahah. Pup got mad at me the last 4th of July cause I said that too much... Mais bon. This year was pareil similar/the same.

Anyways, Ma chere famille,

Sorry, I have exactly 5 minutes to fill you in on this week, cause we had a survey that we had to do this week and I had to email President the notes from our Mission Leadership Council that we had this week before Zone Conference.

Mais bon. The big things!!

1. Soeur Tere and I got to chauffer President and Soeur Brewer around this week cause the Zone Leaders can´t drive. haha. So yah. That was fun! I LOVE PRESIDENT and SOEUR BREWER! They´re the best!! We ate at Quick with them.  This is the best I got: it's the name of a fast food chain there: https://foursquare.com/v/quick/5019d79fe4b081fdc282d30e

2. Soeur Tere and I diriged directed/conducted/led this missions first zone conference that´s directed and organized by us! the STLS, they´re doing the second next week in Vanuatu. It was an INCREDIBLE esperience. I loved it. And Soeur Brewer said that that´s the best zone conference that her and President have had since they´ve been here! It was great.  (Editor's note: this news is pretty amazing...GO PONO!!!) 

3. Soeur Lamb and Soeur Kaili`poni and I wore Red white and blue like crazies on the 4th of July. That´s when the conference was. hah. We took pics. I´ll send them next week.

4. Half of the island was almost flooded this week. It rained hard and long for half the week. President said that when they flew in, half the island was covered in water. The north.

5. We had interviews with President and they were amazing!! Comme d´hab. As usual.  EVERYTIME I go in there I wish I had a recorder with me. He says some amazing things. That I will share after the mission. But, I do the second best thing and get to my journal ASAP after.

Well. I´m outta time. But!! I love you all! Thank you so much for your love and your prayers!! They are much needed and I feel the support that you give me everyday! Know that you are in my prayers too!

L´evangile est vraie!!  The Church is true!

Love, Soeur Santos

July 1, 2013

I getta take driver's ed in french.

Ma chère famille!!

Wow. Soooo much to say, so little time. Good thing I keep a pretty good journal. I'll try and catch you all up when I get home, but until then, I'm just gonna see how much I can type in 20 mins.

Ok. haha. So, first of all, the subject line. This is not a joke. So I may have forgot to mention, but we've had about 3 car accidents here in New Cal in the last month ish. This is bad. And I dunno how we found out, (it may have been because of our not very awesome driving record this last month...) but apparently, the Americans and Canadians, and actually everyone that does not have a French license are not allowed to drive after they have been here for a year. This is bad news bears for a few people. Most prominently, the zone leaders, because both of them have been here for more than a year. Also, the two Elders of Tontouta. Because one of them was the driver of car crash number 3, and the other has been here for more than a year. Oh. And Tontouta is currently the sector that covers half of the island. Tontouta jusqu'a is near/next to Kone... (Look it up. C'est grand.) And also the entire district of Magenta who rely on the zone leaders to take them everywhere. And also, all the Americans and Canadians now... Because the way that we have decided to fix this is that we all get to go to drivers ed... in FRENCH. C'est grave. It's serious/intense. Le code is the first part. It's the rules of the road and all that jazz. And apparently it's kinda intense... And then we got auto ecole car school/driver's ed. in a manuel car. Applying all the things that we learned. So yah. hah. that's the news! The zone leaders started yesterday, and Soeur Lamb and I are heading out the Soeurs since we're the oldest of the gang and our licenses expire in November. Chyeah. So yah. Prayers please!! I'm gonna need them. But, I know that Heavenly Father will help us pass this stuff quick too, so that we can be legal and all.

So yah. That's exciting news number one. haha. Soeur Tere's being a champ though and helping me out with vocab and all that. Every time we get in the car now, she quizzes me and stuff. It's hilar. Oh. Also, apparently there are some exceptions to this rule. We were playing chauffer for a few elders today since no one can drive at the moment, and Elder Shumate, who's from Texas apparently doesn't have to do french driver's ed because he's from Texas... And apparently Texas has a deal with France where they can just change their driver's license in for a French one... Anyone wanna riddle me that? Is there like a Texas-France exchange that I missed in my hours of History class? Megs? Leave it to Texas...

Also, this week we got to do exchanges with Sixieme. Soeur Raney came to Paita with me and Soeur Tere went to Sixieme with Soeur Lamb. It was great! I learned lots. Comme d'hab. As usual. Seriously though. These soeurs that are coming from the MTC are amazing!! Soeur Raney taught me how to ouvre ma bouche open my mouth, more than normal even, and also to talk to everyone. It was good. She is a good missionary. Also, she's a singer, so we sang lots during our 24 hours together. It was great. Also, I almost killed her with the dinner that we went to that night. Soeur Kailiponi and I had a motto that we coined when we were in Paita together, with Soeur Blucker, "I can't even keep a goldfish!" Because she'd always get sick with us for some readon... And I was reminded how true that is this week, with Soeur Raney, who can't eat gluten, and ate half a baguette this week cause I forgot to take it away from her when the family offered it to her. hah. Mais bon. Elle est toujours en vie, donc ceb.  Oh well...she is still alive, so ____ (don't know what "ceb" is short for.  From context, I'm gonna guess she means, "so that's good."  She's abbreviating words I don't know...so sorry...I dunno...)

Mince.(literally means thin, but colloquially here it means "darn", "shucks", "oh no", you get the picture...)  I have three minutes. We also had lots of miracles this week!! Firstly, The Work of Salvation. I know mom and Keala, and Elder Santos watched it, but everyone else who hasn't gotten a chance, hop on the computer ASAP and watch it. It is incredible! And it is TRUE. I loved it. I was completely inspired and uplifted and I am ready to work with the members more than ever before. Guys, this work belongs to YOU. Vraiment. Truly. We are simply the instrument, the teachers of truth. But you are the finders. The finders of our Heavenly Father's children who are ready!! And it's incredible. It is a work of SALVATION!! I am soooo honored and happy and forever blessed to be a part of this work that is rolling forward and that cannot and will not be stopped, despite the evils of the world!! I am sooooo happy and blessed.

I love you all! Pray for and actively look for missionary opportunities and have the faith to ACT. You are in my prayers. I pray that you can be effective missionaries in this work of salvation!! I love you SO MUCH!! Until next week!!

L'evangile est vraie!!

Love, Soeur Santos

June 17, 2013

bigfala hair.

Sooo, in bislama, "the great apostasy" is "Bigfala Apostasi." I thought it was an appropriate adj to describe my hair. It's seriously enormous. C'est grave. This is serious I need a thinning job, where's Rolland when you need him? Anywaysss,

Ma chère famille!!

Ça va tout le monde? Literally, it is everyone. not sure what she meant here. How are you? I love you all! Thank you for your emails and letters! I love them! They make me happy!

Happy Birthday Smooz and Nicole! And Happy Father's day Dad and Smooz!! I love you all!

This week. In one word? Miraculous. MIRACLE after MIRACLE. It was amazing. And I think it was because me and Soeur Tere are s'efforcing to be as obedient as possibly possible. We've always tried to do that, but it's hard with some things, like staying less than an hour to mange chez les membres eat with members. But! We did that this week. Even if we had to run out the door and take the food with us, we were exacly obedient. And as a result, miracles came.

We did lots of finding this week. And lots of placing Livres. And it was incredible. The Lord led us to exacly where we needed to go everyday and as a result, we had success. In Alma 31, Alma is preaching among the Zoramites and he says a prayer. And in this prayer, he asks for success. I didn't really know that we could ask for that in our prayers as missionaries, but we can! The key however, is found in Alma 32:1-2. We can pray and ask for success like Alma does at the end of chapter 31, but then we have to go to work and be obedient. And if we do these things, we will have success like Alma and his freres brothers in chapter 32. 

Also, it turns out I don't know the baptismal invitation in English... hah. I don't wanna talk about it. Basically, I tried to invite our Vanuatese amie to be baptized in English and I slaughtered it. Luckily, the spirit was there!

Also, I lost the phone again. Friday morning we had our meeting with the dirigeants de zone, and I lost it, I think in the geneology center. But! Heavenly Father answers prayers! And we just found it just before coming here to do internet. Chyeah.

Soeur Tere and I decided to take a vacay week and not do exchanges this week, but we have to do two this next week because of it. But it'll be good! I'm a little nervous for mid juillet when we'll probably have another equipe of Soeurs to do exchanges with. Six! But it'll be good.

Soeur Tere and I are in charge of zone conference in July, it's the 4th. So we get to do the program for that this week, which will be fun! But yah, it's cool, cause right now we have 19 elders and 13 soeurs. But we're getting two new soeurs mid juillet sisters mid july and losing an elder, so we'll be at 18 and 15. Almost 50/50!! CRAZY. But I'm stoked that I get to be in the field to see that happen! It's incredible!! Qu'est-ce que j'aime cette oeuvre!! I love this work
Also, I'm advancing in my french ranks. hah. I gave my first surprise talk in french last Sunday, I dunno if someone was sick or what, but the episcopat came and talked to me five minutes before sacrament and asked me to speak. J'avais peuuuur I was afraid. But! It was good. The spirit was there.

Anyways, I love you all! Thank you for your love and support and prayers!! They are much needed! And I feel your love and support!! Have a good week!

L'evangile est vraie!!

Love, Soeur Santos

June 24, 2013

fruit flies like a banana.

Ma chère famille,

These weeks are passing like seconds, no joke. I can't believe it's Monday again!!

Anyways, this week was good. Interesting, but good. First of all, I finished my second mission journal this week. Whaaaat. I'm super old. And I also finished my ten thousand jars of birthday pb. (that actually lasted longer than I thought it would.)

But this week. We had two exchanges! One with Magenta, Tuesday to Wednesday, and the other with Ducos, Thursday to Friday. Unfortunately, I I dunno, the stress of that took both Soeur Tere and I out or something... Cause she was out all day Saturday with a migraine. Like no joke. She slept from 10 to 7:30. I studied and wrote letters and made two planners. But it was funny. I was kinda going crazy... It's weird having nothing to do, when you know that people are waiting for you. And also, entertainment options as a mish are kinda limited... So it wasn't nearly as fun as a sick day at home. hah. Mais bon. Oh well. Also, last night, I was out for a couple hours cause I did something funky to my neck this weekend. So we went to church yesterday, ate, had one lesson, and then were gonna come home and do our etudes before having a couple more lessons at night, but I needed to rest, so we stayed home. 

But the middle of the week was good! And I'm excited to get back to work. My neck is doing considerably better, so that's nice. So yah, exchanges. I was in Paita with Soeur Hall Tuesday and half of Wednesday, and that was great! We did some finding and teaching and it was fun. I learn lots from every single soeur here, and it's humbling to be taught by everyone. I LOVE IT. 

And Thursday exchange, well, that was probs my fave exchange to date. I was in Ducos with Soeur Andreasen, and she's brand new. She got here a couple weeks ago. And I can't exactly explain, but it was great to be with her. Because I learned a lot. And I saw myself at the beginning of the mission in her. Soeur Andreasen is shy in english, so she is especially shy in french. During the lessons, I was mostly the one talking, and I'd have to invite her to talk to get a few words out of her. And I was exactly the same my first month here. I felt so inadequate, especially with two francophone companions. But, I loved this exchange because I was able to share with her my experiences and the things I learned because of the beginning. I was able to testify to her that she is important and that she is here for a wise purpose that she will see as she has the faith to open her mouth. And it was also cool to see where I've come from and where I am now. I see the gospel change people's lives every day. But until this exchange, I didn't really see how much it had changed mine! HUGE tender mercy. The Lord knows what He's doing.

Also, a quick "time is precious" miracle. We had just finished a lesson on Wednesday and we had about 10 minutes til our next lesson. We prayed and we yelled bonjour at exactly one house. Where we found a man named Mathius, who had already spoken with the missionaries. We placed a Livre and set up an appointment. It was incredible!! And that just goes to show that with the Lord's help, even porte a porte can be efficace. effective

Anyways, time's up. But! I love you famille! Thank you for all that you do for me and for your prayers! Know that you are in mine all the time and that I can feel your love and support all the way in New Cal! Have a good week!

L'evangile est vraie!

Love, Soeur Santos