April 22, 2013

Another mormon acrynom to add to your vocab...

STL. More on that later.

Ma chère famille!

Je vous aime tous! J’espère que tout va bien chez vous! I love you all!  I hope that everything is going well for you!You are in my prayers! I love and miss you. But, I am soooo happy and thrilled and blessed to be a missionary at this special time. C'EST LE MEILLEUR!!  It's the best! But seriously. 

So, this week. The big things. ZONE CONFERENCE!! My birthday. Finding miracles. And Voila, the pics. Comme d'hab. As usual.

Picture number one: Moi et Soeur Lamb.Me and Sister Lamb. With our PIZZA!! Which, if you're wondering, is about 6x as much as it is chez nous.at home We got the fin bon. crème fraiche, pommes de terres, bacon, œufs, fromage, deliciousness. It was FIN BON. J'aime biennnn.(I have nary a clue what "fin bon" means...it must be an idiomatic expression...?  "fin" means end, and "bon" means "good"...but good end doesn't make much sense...so...I dunno?  This pizza sounds like it has: cream (like whipped cream?), potatoes, bacon, eggs, cheese.  Sounds interesting...but she said she liked it a lot.)  

And Picture two. Me with my happy pb family. I LOVE PEANUT BUTTER!! Merci mom, dad, et Soeur Lamb. This may all be gone in a month though. We've almost killed off one of the big ones.

Bon bannn, je commence. (Don't know this one either...good something?  Don't know what "ban" is...?  Maybe it's like, "anyway, I begin/start"...I'm kinda feeling like a failure this time around!)  This is where the alternate suggestion on google translate comes in, I think she just spells it different. It should be oh well, I begin. Zone conference was this week. And it was wonderful! Comme d'hab, quoi. As usual.  I learned lots and Soeur Lamb and I gave a formation, (my second formation at my second zone conference...) And I learned lots and I want to change lots!! And, the coolest part, was President Brewer talking about the mission and how it's gonna grow and fast. We have about 100 missionaries in the mission right now. He said that we're gonna double that in these upcoming months. And a lot of these missionaries are going to be SOEURS! Which, ya know, I'm pretty stoked about. And then he started talking about the leadership in the mission fields and how that's gonna change. One of the things that'll change is the Soeurs and the leadership for them. And that's where my fun little acronym comes in. STL. Or Sister Training Leader. Or leaders. But right now it's just leader. Cause there's only one of them. So, he talked about that and the changes that would come. And it was great! Then interviews came. And, just to preface a bit, we're getting 3 more Soeurs at the end of this week. And two of the Soeurs are leaving, Soeur Madsen tomorrow, and Soeur Bellais the day after that. So, at the end of this week there will be 11 of us. And Soeur Kailiponi will be the oldest, just 6 weeks older than me. Anyways, I was kinda expecting to train walking into the interview, I thought I might get a birthday baby. But! The Lord had something different in mind. As He usually does. Cause I walked in there and President asked me to be New Caledonia's first STL (It's the equivalent of a zone leader, but for the Soeurs.) And I'm STOKED. I really am, but I'm also a little bit scared. Mostly because I don't even know exactly what this calling entails cause it's brand new. But. I know that it will be great! And I'm excited to serve the Soeurs of New Cal. I'm sure it will be quite the learning and growing experience. I'll let you know more about it as I learn more about it. Cause I honestly don't know a lot now. He said something about coordination meetings with the zone leaders and himself, which I think are done over skype, and yah. But yah. Prayers please!! Lots and lots. I'm gonna need some serious divine help for this. But I am excited! That being said! Soeur Lamb's training! And I will be staying in 6eme with her and the baby for one more transfer, and then I'll probs move. It's funny. Before the mission, my biggest fear was trios. I've had 12 weeks of not being in one. I'm a trio magnet. If there's a trio in the field, I will be in it. But, it's good. lots of learning. And it's not as bad as I once thought.

Birthday!! I'm 22! KRAY KRAY. But, I could not have asked for a better birthday. It was wonderful! I was so blessed to be with Soeur Lamb! Cause she honestly made it the best birthday EVERRR. She decorated my wall above my desk and she did a 22 reasons I love you thing with post it's and she made me crepes for breakfast! We got pizza and ice cream for lunch, and were too full to eat dinner. And we had lots of good lessons throughout the day. It was grand planning that day, so that was mid day. But yah. It was a wonderful birthday! The best yet, in fact. But everything's better when you're a missionary, so I'm not surprised.

And finally, the Lord is helping us find people to teach. Just these last couple days, we've have finding MIRACLES. We found Danielle Friday night. hah. And that's a funny story, but I'm outta time. Karaoke was almost involved... And Yolina yesterday at church! A coordinee referral  from a member!! 

Anyways, sorry, I'm outta time, but I love you! Thank you for all your love and support and prayers! I LOVE this work! So much! And I'm sooo happy to be here! You're in my prayers! Je vous aime!! I love you!

L'evangile est vrai!!

Love, Soeur Santos