Miracles and a volcano

Zot!

So I can firmly say that we say miracles this week. There have been so many instances of things that seemed like stories one would read out of a Liahona. The Lord has just been pouring out blessings on this area and on our companionship - it is incredible! So I have to cheat because I don't have enough time to write a good email...so I am letting Sr Gardiner ghost write one for me! So if the following doesn't sound like me - it's because it is her writing but I 100% endorse everything she says :)

Happy 4th of July! I don't think I was ever very patriotic until right about now. We WERE going to eat burgers and fries but since it's chilly here my companion and I caved and ate some soup BUT to celebrate our newfound love of our country on the 4th, she did bring out her violin, I got out my english hymnbook and we performed a mini concert in our apt. went out onto the balcony and sang our hearts out. I sang all the patriotic song and we ended with the Star Spangled Banner while looking out over the city from our balcony.We ended with a moving rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner" and I think the entire apartment complex could hear us. The Madsen's applauded for us since they live right below us. We wanted to sing it facing the direction of our homeland but then we realized that we could pretty much face any way and we would be looking towards America since we are on the other side of the world. It was so cheesy it was hilarious! But also surprisingly nostalgic and touching. 

This was a very happy week. Exhausting and stressful, but God is pouring out blessings on us! 

So right now we are teaching Yousouf and his mother Safina (the muslim lady that we met contacting) we invited Yousouf to be baptized and he was like "when is the next baptsimal service??" He was already baptized Christian when he lived in Mauritius and his whole family persecuted him because they are all SUPER muslim, but he really understands the restoration and even Safina (who speaks the craziest mauritien créole that I've ever heard-I swear she is just throwing Arab words in there) understands the importance of prophets and authority. She wants to be baptized but her ex husband is super super muslim and will uninherit her children if she does. 

So when we taught them this week they explained that they wanted us to skype and teach Nazroomah (safina's daughter that lives in Mauritius) about Joseph Smith. She lives with her muslim husband and his family and she was sneaky skyping us. . It was crazy because she kept covering up the speaker and looking around to make sure that no one in her family was listening. She's been trying to get her hands on any christian literature that she can and she already knew a ton about Jesus Christ We're going to give her the number of Soeur Packer and Soeur Berchel so she can keep learning and get a book of mormon

We're still teaching Therese and she's already read the Book of Mormon 3 times! She's gotten over the fact that no, this isnt "l'eglise normale" (the catholic church) and she understands that Jospeh Smith wasn't just another Catholic Saint. She is so ready for the gospel and she accepted a baptismal date this past lesson!

We had a miracle lesson with Sarah and Dominique. I had almost given up on them because they had told us a million times that they could never not go to catholic church. But we brought the Aurieng family with us for what we thought would be one last lesson. It must of been inspired because turns out Sarah knows Soeur Aureing from Mada! and Soeur Aureing was able to bear testimony in Malgache. (her family was also found by missionnaries just a few weeks after moving here) Her daughter jessica even invited their kids, Melissa and David to youth conference. At the end we invited them to pray to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet and if our message was true. They were hesitant at first but after we explained that we werent their to change their faith, but to add to it, and after Soeur Aurieng shared her testimony in Malgache, Dominique said boldly "I dont know about the others but I'm going to pray to know if its true; And I hope that God responds quickly, I don't want to wait 10 years". Mostly it was a beautiful moment because Dominique had been so unwilling to even ask the question before. 

other highlights of a beautiful week:

Our ami Sebastien the pastry maker made us delicious pastries! (called Paris-Brest)

We finally had another lesson with Laureano! still have so much faith in that kid

We hung out with our friend Laura last P day (the one who grew up all over the world in missionary communities)

Our lesson went super well at Zone Conference

President Adams says next MLC (the meeting we skype in on as "Sister Training Leader") we might go to Mada!

Safina made us this delicious Indian food for breakfast!

The other part of the Chion Hook dynasty invited us for dinner!

See why this week was so amazing but also SO crazy? I didn't even mention how we had a zone conference that lasted ALL day Thursday. It started at 9 and ended at 4! But we did take an hour break for lunch of course, but it was really great. President told us our little 30 minute lesson was "superb" and everything worked as planned so I considered it really successful. The musical number also went really well. We performed "I love to see the temple - Oh j'aime voir le temple" in French while Sr Gardiner played violin and Sr Isham was at piano. I sang. People told us it was "celestial" and "angelic" so I also counted that as another success!

Basically all week long we were running around teaching lots of lessons and trying to get members to go to all of our lessons with us. I have had the impression lately that if we use more members our amis will be touched and we will see more success. So far it is really working and I know that (like ALL the prophets and apostles keep saying) MEMBERS are the secret to missionary work. The Area seventy gave a talk during our Saturday night district conference centered on how members are the key to missionary work. I think his greatest quote was when he said that more tracting is not the answer to more missionary success. More contacting is not the secret to more missionary success. The answer is members doing more missionary work guided by the holy ghost and helped by the Lord. I know that is so TRUE! So get out there and invite people! Invite them to come to a Home Evening! Invite them to a fireside! Invite them to find out why your family is so happy! Invite Invite Invite!

All my love,

Sr Stewart

P.S. I forgot to tell you that the volcano exploded about 3 weeks ago on the island - crazy right? You should google it. There was real lava just running down its sides and no one was concerned! It didn't cause any damage but still errupting volcano! Actually it was quite exciting for everyone because it erupts fairly rarely maybe once every 5 years.

Also because it is "winter" which means it feels like autumn, everyone is falling sick. Like our attendance at church has gone way down because people keep getting a cold or the flu and then are practically on their death beds or something crazy. That's what happens when the weather in a tropical island drops down to the 70s. Everyone catches cold and then gets consumption or something.