Happy Bastille Day

Zot,

So Bastille Day was this past Monday. Unfortunately, Sr Gardiner and I thought it was the 13th of July and not the 14th so we were surprised that everyone started celebrating the evening before the actual date. We originally had a lesson planned but when he didn't show up (to his own apt) we decided to walk around and contact people. We saw huge crowds moving their way in a direction and decided to follow them and then contact at whatever event was attracting all the crowds. Much to our surprise it was a huge festival and there were more people there than I have ever seen in one place in La Reunion. All celebrating the national day in France! There were tons and tons of people!! We tried contacting people unsuccessfully for a couple of hours and then as we were about to leave we saw a less active who told us there would be fireworks in half an hour. So we stuck around and saw one of the least traditional firwork shows I've ever seen. It was magnificently times but all the music was either current american pop music, old american jazz, or extremely over-dramatic classics like "Ride of the Valkeries" At one point they played a sound clip from Star Wars when Darth Vader urges the soldiers to search the ship for the rebels. Hahah. But not one single traditional french song. I didn't even hear any french song. No french anthem or anything. Apparently all the traditional things had been done in the morning with the army parade but we missed it. All we got was the super modern pyrotechnic but not patriotic show. 

Another fun event this week was Youth Conference! There was an island wide youth conference and we were invited to come and do a few activities with the youth about the Book of Mormon. After that we stuck around and helped the youth with little sketches about For The Strength Of Youth and ate typical creole food and sang some songs. It was the best! The youth here are so strong! They have to be because Reunion culture is definitely not conducive to the standards in FSY. I was really re-inspired again by the FSY and the standards the prophets have given us. I can see so much better now as a missionary WHY they are so important and HOW inspired they really are. We as missionaries have lots of very specific, very straightforward or strict rules. Why? Because we are set apart and trying to do everything we can to have the spirit with us 100% of the time. So if you want to have a life that is different and set apart from the world and feel the spirit even as an everyday person they one would have to have very specific "strict" standards to achieve that sort of life. 

Basically I am realizing more and more that missions are just direct metaphors for life. Everything that we do or happens in a mission directly relates to "real" life and teaches us what we should do and how we should follow the Lord's commandments after the mission is over. 

In other news: our ami Therese continues to progress amazingly. She has started picking up brochures on the table during church and then when we come over during the week she has already read them and highlighted the sections she loves. Wow. What a miracle! This week we taught her Law of Chastity and Word of Wisdom. Turns out a member mentioned to her a week ago that we don't drink coffee in the Church of Jesus Christ of LDS so she prayed that she wouldn't get headaches and just stopped like that. She had already stopped a week before we taught her and shared how her prayer had been answered and made it easy for her to stop drinking coffee. That is some incredible faith folks. She is so prepared and so humble. I feel like I learn a lot from her example about what it means to be teachable and humble.

We did exchanges this week for the first time since I've been "Sister Training Leader". It was fun. I was pretty nervous before-hand because I felt like I still am figuring out how to be a good missionary and how to get better so I didn't think I would have any tips or knowledge or suggestions to help or give on to the other sister. I was pleasantly surprised to find that while I have tons and tons and tons to still learn and perfect, my time on the mission has also given me a lot of experiences to draw from and I could share some of the things I've learned - even if I didn't feel like I had a lot of "training" to do or pass on, I still felt like the past year has really shaped me and taught me a lot.

Love,

Sr Stewart