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.

January 26, 2014

guess who's coming to New Cal?!

Ma chere famille,

This week was another good week full of miracles. I really gotta work on the journal writing... There's so little time, but it's super important. So I'm gonna try and get caught up on that today.

Anyways, President Guidi announced it to the public hier, so I'm allowed to say that Elder Neil A. Andersen is coming to NEW CAL February the 18th!! And I'm STOKED. He's gonna talk to us the missionaries in the morning, and then he's gonna give a fireside at night for all the people of New Caledonia!! So that'll be our job, to invite everyone and their dog to come. I'm sooo excited! And the best part is that he's gonna speak in French! Which is super exciting. I'm reading every Elder Andersen talk that I can get my hands on in preparation. But if you want a super fantastic discours to read, October General Conference, his second discours that he gave as a 12. It's about Repentance, and it's incredible!

This week, the miracle that I wanted to share happened this Tuesday. It was a lesson that we had with a woman named Patricia. We actaully heard about her from one of the amis of another secteur. So that was awesome. Anyways, it was a testimony of what Elder Andersen said in the general conference of April 2013 (I've found someone to replace Dale Clevenger... you should see my desk. All the ensigns and liahona's are opened to the page with his discours stacked on my desk. Yikes.) As the Lord as called several more missionaries in the world to do this work, He has also prepared the hearts of many more people to recieve this grand message! And It's true! Anyways, we had our first lesson with her, and she said the prayer at the end. She was talking about how she wanted peace in her life during the lesson. And we got to testify that this gospel is the way to find this peace that she is looking for. And after she said the closing prayer, she cried and cried. It was incredible! The spirit melted her heart, and I felt so happy and blessed to be there and to know that the Lord used Soeur Tupai and I as instruments in His hands to help the spirit talk to Patricia, spirit to spirit.

I'm out of time. But I testify of the joy and the peace that doing this work brings! Badge or no badge, we are all missionaries, and we can all receive the blessings of doing this work of salvation! I love this work. I am so happy! And I LOVE being a missionary, a servant and a representative of the Lord. Keep opening your mouths, and keep praying to have these occasions! They will come! I promise.

I love you all! You are in my prayers, always, and thank you for your love and support!

L'evangile est vraie!

Love, Soeur Santos