Week 10 in Guyane Française

Bonjour,

We had a pretty good week down here in South America. We are excited to be having our first baptism this coming Saturday!! Marie came to church again on Sunday and is ready to be baptized! 

 
We were also able to set another baptisimal date last night with Anjellica. She is 12 and originally was planning on going to Guyana to be baptized by her Dad. We had been thinking about it a lot and felt that she needed to be baptized here in the branch she will be attending. We had tried and tried to have a lesson with her so we could set a baptisimal date but she was never available. last night we went over and her Mom told us that she is no longer going to Guyana so she can be baptised here! We talked to her and set a date for November 29. I love seeing the inspiration of the spirit.
 

We contacted a family with a pet monkey this week. I almost got to hold it but it was scared of me and my companions. we think it was because we are white. Contacting is always an adventure here in French Guyane.
We have a really sweet couple we have been teaching that we love. Their names are Anthony and Eay. They have such big hearts and are so concerned for all of the struggling people in the world. We asked Eay to start reading the Book of Mormon last time we visited and when we came back she said she had read a little. She had read to 1 Nephi 13! We were so excited! Most people won't even read the introduction and she read 13 chapters! We are excited to see them and continue teaching them. 
 

I'm running out of time to write but I have been reading in Mosiah about King Benjamin and have learned so much from his teaching. I'll talk more about it next week when I have time, but go read it; its amazing! I love you all and have a great week!!

Lots of love,

Soeur Banks

Week 9 in South America

Bonjour,

It has been a good week 9 in Guyana Français. We saw some miracles. As you might remember a few weeks back I wrote about a less active family that we had been looking for for a long time that we finally found. We have been visiting them every week but they have not put any effort forward to coming back to church. Last Sunday during testimony meeting a member (he is a recent convert, he was baptized at the end of August) got up and bore his testimony and we thought how he could help the father of this less active family. We took him to our lesson with the family this week and it was amazing. It turns out the dad and the member used to work together a long time ago. They talked about their conversion stories and by the end everyone was crying. That member was exactly what this family needs. It was an amazing experience. We are going to keep bringing him with us to our lessons with this family.

Another miracle this week was our investigators Marianela and her son, Eusery, finally came to church because one of the members was able to pick them up. It's really hard for them to come because they don't have a car and she has triplets who are only six months old which is a lot of work to take them all out. They are the cutest! They came to church and loved it. They made friends with the members and another family offered to take them to church next week. Our branch here is the best, I love them with all my heart.

So much has happened this last week that I can't write it all. I'm so happy to be down here. I know that our Heavenly Father is watching over us and is guiding us as we do his work. He loves us and wants nothing more than he wants us to return to him. I love it down here and I love all you back home as well. Keep reading the Book of Mormon every day, its the best thing to do!!

Lots of love,

Soeur Banks

My 8th Week in French Guyana

Bonjour,

We have been working hard here in French Guyana. The three of us (Sister Riley, McDaniel and I) call ourselves "a wall of righteousness" because we block the road if we walk in a row; We definitely get a lot of weird looks because we are three white girls walking around Matoury or driving around in our silver truck.

They don't really celebrate Halloween here like we do in the states but Saturday was Day of the Dead. They clean up their cemeteries the week before and then decorate the graves with flowers and candles. They do other things at the cemeteries on that day as well. The cemeteries are so colorful right now. We walked around one of the big cemeteries in Cayenne earlier today. They don't really celebrate Halloween, but the big holiday is Carnival in February. They say in French Guyana it gets really crazy, the craziest part of the mission is on Carnival because the Brazilians really get into it. Hopefully I will still be down here for it.

I sent a few pictures this week. I hope you like them and they give you a little taste of life down here in Guyana Français.
We have been teaching a lot and have found some great people. We are looking forward to some baptisims this transfer.

Love you all lots and lots,

Soeur Banks

Me Sister Riley and Sister McDaniel on her first day in the field.

Chelande (recent convert she was baptised in July) and her neighbor Nana
wearing our badges being sister missionaries! The best thing to be!

Me and Mamie Lulu, another recent convert. She is 83 and the
sweetest old lady in French Guyana. We visit her every week.

Me, Sister McDaniel and our investigator Cecil and her little siblings.

Our branch in Cayenne. It's not everyone but a good number of them, taken a couple of weeks ago.

Week 7 in Guyana

Bonjour a tous,

I can't believe it is almost November! I'm glad to hear it's cooling off at home, it is still roasting here. Wet season is supposed to start soon so it will cool off a very little bit, but not really.

We have a new sister!! Sister McDaniel! We picked her up from the airport Thursday night. We are excited to have her.

We were so excited to see three of our investigators at church this Sunday! We have also found more less actives this week. We contacted a man a couple of weeks ago and we went back to visit him this past week and it turns out his whole family are members of the Church. We were sitting in a restaurant today and a lady came us to us and told us she is a member from Brazil and she wanted to know what time church is and where it is. So many people are members from other countries who move to French Guyana and don't know where the church is. We hope to continue finding more of these people every week.

Here in the W.I.M. we have a Book of Mormon reading schedule and we read the Book of Mormon every two transfers. We just started again. I just read the story of Lehi's dream (1 Nephi 8) and have been thinking a lot about it. After Lehi eats the fruit he is desirous that his family should partake as well (vs12). In verse 14 he sees his family but they are standing there as if they knew not what to do. He then beckons them over and calls unto them with a loud voice (vs 15). This is exactly what missionary work is. We are all family, but some of our brothers and sisters are standing there because they don't know what to do. It is our job to call unto them and invite them to come unto Christ. Some won't come like Laman and Lemuel because the great and spacious building looks like more fun, but it isn't. We are excited here in French Guyana as we see more peole come when we call them and beckon them over to partake of the gospel. We also see our investigators turn to the great and spacious building, which is sad. But everyone has their agency, which sometimes can be frustrating, but it is a blessing.
We are looking forward to a great transfer here in Guyana. Have a Happy Halloween back in the states. The Church is true and your Heavenly Father loves you more than you know. I love you all too. Until next week.

Love,

Soeur Banks

Week 6, Transfer Info and More!

Bonjour

I have been in French Guyana for six weeks! We got our transfer call on Saturday. Transfers work a little differently here in the W.I.M. than other places because transfers usually involve planes. We don't have a transfer meeting like most missions because we are spread out over so many countries. We get transfer calls! We got our call Saturday afternoon from President Mehr telling us that we are staying in French Guyana but, we are getting a new sister missionary, Sister McDaniel! We are going to be in a trio and Sister Riley is going to be double training!! She is flying into Trinidad today and then to French Guyana on Thursday!!! We are so excited! I met her in the MTC because she got there a few days before I left. Most everything else is staying the same down here in Guyana. One Elder who has been here for about a year is being transfered to St. Martens but that is it.

This past week was great. I finally got to meet the rest of the French side sisters over skype. We (Sis Riley, me, and the zone leaders) had to take a trip to the border of Suriname and French Guyana to take care of some passport stamp issues. We spent seven hours in the car. We got stuck in a rain storm on the way back. Rain here is definitely nothing like rain in the states.

We have had some cool teaching experiences this week. After finding so many contacts last week we have some promising new investigators. We visited one woman who we found who had said he had a lot of extended family who were members. We were teaching her and her 17 year old son came out and she told us he was a member of the church! He was baptised when he was 8, but once they moved to French Guyana from Peru he couldn't find the church so he found a different church to go to. We were so excited and we hope the rest of their family will want to be baptised.

On Tuesday before district meeting we got a call that one of the Elder's investigators in Cayenne was being kicked out of their house so they needed help moving. They were living in an area of illegal shacks basically and the government was making all 150 people move out. We spent the morning helping them get everything out of their house and move it to another house in another area. I can honestly say it was something I never expected to do in my life, helping illegals move. There were news crews all over the place; one of the Elders ended up in the back of the news report on TV. He had a few members call him and tell him. As we were helping a lot of people were wondereing why a whole bunch of well dressed white people were helping people move out. Service is not something a lot of people understand down here. A lot of people are really suprised when we ask if we can help them with anything. Some people down here are very friendly and kind, others aren't.

I was so excited to hear you got to meet Sister Riley's family! I have heard all about them and they sound pretty awesome! Right after emails we are going to print out the pictures of you together so we can hang them on our wall!!

We are excited to keep working hard down here. I hope all is well back in the states; Love you all.

Soeur Banks

Week 5 in French Guyana!

Bonjour,

It has been a good week here in French Guyana. The Lord blesses us in ways we don't expect. We were disappointed that none of our investigators with baptisimal dates came to church on Sunday, but we did have one investigator at church, Fode! We found Fode one Sunday when we were walking around on our way to see if an investigator was home. He was just chilling in his yard. He is Muslim but he is interested in our message. Hopefully he will keep coming to church and get baptized.

This week we had to drop one of our best investigators because he proposed to Sister Riley. We were really disappointed because he would have been a really cool member and he had a baptismal date for November 1. Hopefully some other missionaries will be able to start teaching him someday and he will be baptized.

We have found a lot of new people to teach in the last week because as a zone we had a goal for each companionship to contact 25 people. We did! We have found some people who have really been prepared for the gospel.

The Elders came out to shadow us as we taught on Friday.We had our zone leaders and another Elder who was in French Guyana for a day from Guadeloupe to finish some legalization stuff with us. It was a bit nerve racking having three other missionaries there watching us teach, but it went pretty well. Learned a lot from the Elder from Guadeloupe.

Today as a reward for us all getting our 25 contacts we ventured out into the jungle as a zone. We drove past a couple monkeys but that was all the wildlife we saw. Lots of bugs, we got eaten by bugs. We climbed around on a cool waterfall. Sometimes I still have moments where it really hits me that I am a missionary in South America, it blows my mind. Holy cow! French Guyana is such a cool place!

It is crazy to think that this is the last week of the transfer! I've been here for almost 6 weeks!! Time flies! I love you! You are in my prayers. Keep being awesome and share the gospel with others!!!

Lots of love from South America,

Soeur Banks

This is where I sleep

This is a typical road in French Guyana

 

This is our living room with our desks and the view out our window.
You can almost see out truck outside.

Another Great Week in Guyana and General Conference!!!

Bonjour,

I hope you got the pictures from my companion last week. Here is a quick explanation of those. The one of me by the tree and looking at the ocean were from our nature hike last p-day. The hike is about ten minutes away from where we live on the Rue de Plage. There is the picture of the boat we took to Suriname, that is Elder Pratt one of our zone leaders in the pic. The last picture is of me and Sister Riley. I thuoght you might like to see a picture of who I spend 24/7 with. We took that picture two p-days ago on the beach.

This week was a good week and it flew by. We definitely had some adventures. General conference was awesome! I loved Elder Bednar's talk about why we are a missionary church, so true. We have some really cool investigators with baptismal dates. We hadn't been able to visit our investigator in a while and were worried she wasn't that interested and committed anymore, but when we visited her she had been reading and she had gone over the baptismal interview questions and written down her answers! I am so excited for her to get baptized! the only hard thing with her is that her parents don't like us and they lie to us and tell us she isn't there when we go over. The good thing is the work of the Lord is stronger than a couple of people who don't like us.

I think I wrote a little about Christian before and how he had already drastically changed his life before we met him and he knows the Bible really well. He tells us a lot of stories about his life and Sister Riley and I were both thinking how cool it will be when he can share these stories in fast and testimony meeting with the members of the branch.

We have three investigators with baptismal dates who are siblings. Sister Riley started teaching Jean Claude a while ago then they found his sister, they didn't know they were related at first. Last week he told us his other sister was interested in hearing about the gospel. The gospel blesses families:)

Nothing can stop the work of the Lord. I'm proud to be a part of the missionary force in the world today. I know Dad got an elbow in the side every time they mentioned missionary work in conference. Every time they mentioned it there was a reverent but enthusiastic cheer coming from the clerks office in the chapel, which is where we were watching. The church is so true and conference was a testament of that to me. I love you all. have a good week!

Love,

Soeur Banks