Salut!

Salut!

Whoops! Well you all know I'm awful about birthdays so I'm wishing a great belated one to DAD! Aparently in France it is bad luck to wish someone happy birthday before the actual day. One of our amis told us it was their birthday the next day and of course I responded with an enthusiastic "Happy Birthday" only to be informed that I had now wished bad luck on the person by doing it before the actual day. My Bad. So I wanted to avoid that with you Dad, thus the late wishes. On the other hand Kylee I know yours is coming up really quick and I think you are young enough to escape bad luck so I'm going to say an early HAPPY BIRTHDAY! now so I can't forget :)

Not much happened this week. My best story comes from a lesson with a less active. We see around 10 less actives or new converts a week. It's a pretty big part of our work especially since we have nearly 0 amis. It's always our meeting with the less actives that have the funniest moments. This week we went and saw one of the older members who is in a retirement home named Sr Pastey - she is soo funny! Seriously such a hoot! Because she is always sawing the funniest things in just such a manner-of-fact way, you know the way older people sort of say it like it is. Anyway this week when we were chatting at the beginning of her lesson we asked her about her family and childhood. Then I saw some old pictures on her wall and asked her if that was her. They were these old black and white beauty shots probably taken in the 40s of her looking so young and sort of serious - like a movie star. When she responded that it was her and told us how old she was (only 17) I remarked (sort of jokingly) "Wow Sr Pastey, you looked so mature! I'm already 19 and I don't look that mature yet!" In response she said "Don't despair yet, there is still time and hope for you" Hahaha I laughed so hard to myself after the lesson. I'm glad Sr Pastey still holds out hope for me ;)

The other cool thing that happened this week is that I got to do exchanges with one of my favorite sisters on the island - Sr Gardiner! She recieved a call from President about a week or so ago informing her that our mission is now going to have Sister Training Leaders (aka basically like a District Leader just for sisters) and she was going to be the first! So congrats to her! The best thing about her calling/title is that now I get to see her even more than normal because she does exchanges with all the sisters! So we sort of felt like we were having a little sleepover since she came down to St Paul for the night and slept over and then the next day I went to St Denis for half the day to be with Sr Isham. It was pretty great - although it was a little bittersweet being in St Denis again with my old companion. It brought back a lot of nostalgia because even though I LOVE St Paul and my new area, being back made me miss the way things were still. I still am a struggler with change on the inside of my heart.

Sr Hurst passed her year mark! Which is a huge thing for Sisters because that means she only has 6 months left! In missionary terms it's like you're a sitting duck! Especially for this island that is the time of only 1 more transfer (our transfers normally happen every 3-4 months). In the same line of news... guess which sister is hitting her half way NINE month mark?! Thats right - This Girl! Sister Stewart. I have no idea how I feel about that. It's crazy, but also I feel like I've been here for a year. But then at the same time it feels like only 4 or at most 6 months. It's weird. Missionary time definitely doesn't go the same speed as normal time. Especially since we practically have no seasons here so it's like always summer, always the same season, always the same time - time doesn't move. Luckily I still have 9 full months left (which still feels like a nice good amount of time since I don't even leave this year) I'm sure when I get to a year I'll start freaking out but I'll let you know then.

Other than that not too many big things are happening here, we had a pretty low number week so we are really trying to think of ways to find amis and get people to respond to our phone calls so we can set up and have more lessons! But hey, sometimes the work is slow and it's not our work so we don't really set the tempo, it's the Savior's and when it is time for things to come to pass they will. And we will work everyday to turn and turn and turn at the wheel and keep things going and keep on working - diligence! It's a Christlike attribute that we get a lot of chance to grow :)

! Please remember to always do the little things in our lives to keep us on the path, daily scripture study, daily prayer. Never let the "spiritual" things get pushed to the side in our lives. We have so many things we have to do but those are the things that really matter that really move us along the path toward our Heavenly Father in our lives. 

All my Love,

Sr Stewart