Week 20

Bonjour,

So here is a quick run down of Guadeloupe. Guadeloupe has two parts Grande Terre and Basse Terre, they are the two wings of the butterfly, look at a map it willl make more sense. I am serving on Grande Terre. Here we have eight missionaries, two companionships of Elders and two companionships of Sisters. I am in Abymes which is where the church building is here. There are twelve missionaries on Basse Terre with one companionship of sisters. Sister Dorsan has served all her mission so far in Guadeloupe. She started in Goyave on Basse Terre and then Abymes. She goes home in September. I got to meet all of the Basse Terre missionares on Saturday because we had a training meeting with the second counselor in the mission presidency. It was fun to meet people that I have heard about but haven't met because I've been all the way down in Guyane. Also got to see some people again who I have served around but havent seen in a while.

It is a bit different here than in Guyane. it is more developed here in the way that there aren't a bunch of illegal shack neighborhoods and a lot of stray dogs. All the streets are paved here. Most of the people here are Guadeloupean or Hatian. There is not as much variety as in Guyane. There are a lot of cows here. I haven't really seen the ocean yet, but I hear it's beautiful. I haven't had any pineapple yet but I did get to try sugar cane. We were contacting on Saturday and a guy we were talking to gave us some. It's good!

Do you know what is crazy? I've been on my mission for six months already! Last Friday was my six month mark! Time flies!

We found a cool new investigator this past week. Actually he found us. We were teaching Xavier on the bench in the park where we always teach him when it started to rain a little, so we ran behind the church there and sat on the back steps. As we were sitting there teaching, a man came up and started to talk to us. He was interested in our message, we gave him a book of Mormon and set up an appointment. We met with Eddie for the first time the next day in the same spot. He had already started reading the Book of Mormon and wanted to know more. Eddie is homeless, he lives behind the church where we met him. He has already started changing his life and it was no coincidence that we met him because the gospel is exactly what he needs. We gave him a restoration brochure and when we met he basically taught us the restoration because he had studied the brochure. He is a little nervous to come to church, but he said he will come this Sunday.

Things are good here in Guadeloupe. I'm sweating more than I ever have in my life, but I'm loving it here. I'm getting more used to riding a bike everyday. I love you, I love the Lord and I love the people here. Have a good week!

Love,

Soeur Banks

Sister Dorsan made me a cake for my 6 month mark, she is the best!

Sister Dorsan eating sugar cane

Abymes Sisters living the bike life