Dear All

Dear All,

A few quick facts about Reunion:

There are 5 branches on Reunion - no wards.

They are in the 5 biggest cities which are St Marie, St Pierre, St Paul, St Porte, St Denis

The biggest branch is St Denis and average attendance is in the 60s

The smallest branch is St Paul which only averages in the 20s most Sundays

There are nearly 600 members in Reunion but only about 250 are active - so we do a lot of reactivation work here

I am in the biggest city which is St Denis and has 5 missionaries stationed there. My companionship of three shares it with a pair of elders

There are only two missionary districs and only 18 missionaries total on the island right now. 5 sisters and then 13 elders

 

Reunion itself is a fairly small island. Most of the cities are on the outskirts near the coast with the exception of only two towns. There are three "cirques" on the island. Which are where volcanoes imploded and now are valleys - you'll see them on the map. Inside some of the Cirques are some people who live there but it is impossible to get inside the cirques by car so many of them have never seen the ocean. Don't ask me what its like up there because I havent been yet so I have no clue. But I'm pretty sure that even without car access people still live fairly modern lives - its not like tents and tribes up there still...at least so I think. All the missionary companionships on the Island have a car - except for those who have gotten in an accident recently and lost their privelidge... which would be my trainer. So we walk and take the bus everywhere. If you look at a picture of St Denis you'll see that the city is built into the side of a "hill"/ montain. So many of the streets are like those in San Francisco - steep steep and windy windy windy. Our mission is a "porting" mission so our mission goal is to have 20 porting hours a week. Porting is zhen ze go door to door or try and contact people on the street. So we do a lot of that and a lot of walking. The apartment is pretty nice and we definitely have a shower and everything - it's like living in France. Sorry I didn't get pictures up this week but I'm working on it. We hiked up to a waterfall today for a zone activity (which includes both districts = all the missionaries on the island) It was super beautiful - can't wait to show you!

Love,

Soeur Stewart