Bonjour a tous,
It has been a good week here in Gwada. We have a baptism for our investigator Fedler planned for this Saturday, but it is still up in the air. He moved this past week from our area to a different area on Basse Terre, the complete other side of the island. He said he would be in Abymes Saturday and Sunday to finish getting his stuff so he would be able to come to church and have his second interview, but he didn't show up and didn't answer his phone. We gave the Elders in the area he lives now his number, and we'll see what happens. We are going to try to keep in contact with him too. On vera (we will see what happens).
Sister Dorsan and I got to watch Women's Conference on Saturday and it was so good!! I am so excited for General Conference!! And we get transfer calls on Saturday, wow six weeks has flown by!
We had an awesome lesson yesterday with a lady we found a couple of weeks ago. Her name is Marie-Christine. As sister Dorsan was sharing the First Vision with her she said she felt something. She had told us she lets all people of all religions talk to her, but she had never felt this feeling before! We explained to her that it was the Holy Ghost testifying the truth of these things to her. She can recognize the spirit speaking to her, which is so important to gain a testimony and comunicate with our Heavenly Father. She also said that she liked that our message does not put other religions down and argue that it is better than everyone else. She is prepared for the restored gospel! We have another lesson with her tomorrow.
We have been teaching some awesome referrals from members, that is really the best way to do missionary work. We have had the oppourtunity to share the new Easter video with a lot of our investigators and other people we have contacted. If you have not watched it yet I highly recommend you watch it after you finish reading this email. I love it and how it reminds us of all Christ did for us. He is the reason we are here, we have this gospel, we preach the gospel and we have everything that we have. Because he lives.
I am looking forward to hear the words of a living prophet and apostles this weekend! General conference is like Christmas! So many gifts through the spirit and the words of God's servants.
Thank you for all of your prayers and all of your love. I love you and hope you have a great week!!
Bisous,
Sister Banks
Monday, March 30, 2015
Monday, March 23, 2015
Week 28 in the West Indies
Chere famille et amis,
It has been a long, but awesome week here! Yesterday we had Zone Conference with Elder Cornish of the Seventy. It was amazing and I learned so much. Martenique and Saint Marten skyped in. We talked a lot about member missionary work and the atonement. Elder Cornish is awesome and has an amazing knowledge of the scriptures. That was the awesome end to our week, but a lot of other stuff happened too.
Tuesday we finally got to work with one of the really cool members in our branch, Sister Felicite. It was a great day and we set another baptisimal date with Fedler. We finally got the Mormon Message called The Story of the Book of Mormon on our thumb drive to share with our investigators. We were so excited because it explains the Book of Mormon very well and bears a powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon. We are already seeing it help our investigators.
Every other Wednesday we work with the senior couple, the Richmonds. They are a funny little Tahitian couple. We have a sister in our area who is stuck at home because she has had a few surgeries on her leg, and she can't walk right now. She also lost her sister last week. We went over to lift her spirits a little in this hard time, but her spirits were already high. She has amazing faith! Her sister was not a member but the day before she died she asked to learn more and showed a desire to be baptized. After her sister died Sister Miath knew she had to prepare to do the ordinances for her sister, because she knows her sister is ready. Sister Miath is stuck in bed right now because of her leg, but she said she knows the Lord will prepare a way for her to go to the temple in October to do the work for her sister. She doesn't know exactly how, but she knows it will happen because it is the Lord's mission for her. Her faith was a great example for us especiallly as we are teaching so many people who are lacking that faith to put all of their trust in God. I wish we could bring her to our lessons.
Thursday was Sister Dorsan's mission year mark! So we ate banan peze to celebrate! It is crazy that today is my 8 month mark for my mission!! Time flies!
Friday we spent the day shadowing our zone leaders in Morne a Leau. We contacted for most of the day. We met some people who could be really cool potential amis for them. It is always nice to work with other missionaries and learn new ways of teaching from them.
Saturday was a busy day; we started out the day in Point a Pitre, which is not actually our area but a member gave us a referral of his girlfriend and wanted us to teach her. It was a great lesson and he had already taught her a lot about the church, but she still has a lot of questions. She had already started reading the Book of Mormon and taking notes on it; she said she had not been able to read very much, but she was in Mosiah already! We were surprised and pleased. We are excited to go see her again next week! That evening the sisters of Moule had a baptism. We went and Emilio was able to come too. The guy getting baptized was so excited! I had taught him a couple times on exchanges and was so happy to finally see him get baptized. It was an awesome baptismal service.
Zone conference yesterday was great. This morning President and Sister Mehr came to our apartment to do interviews; we have the best Mission President! I will be sad to say goodbye to them in June. I learned so much in my interview as we talked about Zone Conference and about prayer. We only get to see the Mehrs one more time at their last Zone Conference before the mission splits. Time flies.
It has been a great edifying week. Sister Dorsan and I are going to keep working hard because these are probably going to be our last two weeks together. Know that I love you all. Have a great week!
Bisou,
Soeur Banks
It has been a long, but awesome week here! Yesterday we had Zone Conference with Elder Cornish of the Seventy. It was amazing and I learned so much. Martenique and Saint Marten skyped in. We talked a lot about member missionary work and the atonement. Elder Cornish is awesome and has an amazing knowledge of the scriptures. That was the awesome end to our week, but a lot of other stuff happened too.
Tuesday we finally got to work with one of the really cool members in our branch, Sister Felicite. It was a great day and we set another baptisimal date with Fedler. We finally got the Mormon Message called The Story of the Book of Mormon on our thumb drive to share with our investigators. We were so excited because it explains the Book of Mormon very well and bears a powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon. We are already seeing it help our investigators.
Every other Wednesday we work with the senior couple, the Richmonds. They are a funny little Tahitian couple. We have a sister in our area who is stuck at home because she has had a few surgeries on her leg, and she can't walk right now. She also lost her sister last week. We went over to lift her spirits a little in this hard time, but her spirits were already high. She has amazing faith! Her sister was not a member but the day before she died she asked to learn more and showed a desire to be baptized. After her sister died Sister Miath knew she had to prepare to do the ordinances for her sister, because she knows her sister is ready. Sister Miath is stuck in bed right now because of her leg, but she said she knows the Lord will prepare a way for her to go to the temple in October to do the work for her sister. She doesn't know exactly how, but she knows it will happen because it is the Lord's mission for her. Her faith was a great example for us especiallly as we are teaching so many people who are lacking that faith to put all of their trust in God. I wish we could bring her to our lessons.
Thursday was Sister Dorsan's mission year mark! So we ate banan peze to celebrate! It is crazy that today is my 8 month mark for my mission!! Time flies!
Friday we spent the day shadowing our zone leaders in Morne a Leau. We contacted for most of the day. We met some people who could be really cool potential amis for them. It is always nice to work with other missionaries and learn new ways of teaching from them.
Saturday was a busy day; we started out the day in Point a Pitre, which is not actually our area but a member gave us a referral of his girlfriend and wanted us to teach her. It was a great lesson and he had already taught her a lot about the church, but she still has a lot of questions. She had already started reading the Book of Mormon and taking notes on it; she said she had not been able to read very much, but she was in Mosiah already! We were surprised and pleased. We are excited to go see her again next week! That evening the sisters of Moule had a baptism. We went and Emilio was able to come too. The guy getting baptized was so excited! I had taught him a couple times on exchanges and was so happy to finally see him get baptized. It was an awesome baptismal service.
Zone conference yesterday was great. This morning President and Sister Mehr came to our apartment to do interviews; we have the best Mission President! I will be sad to say goodbye to them in June. I learned so much in my interview as we talked about Zone Conference and about prayer. We only get to see the Mehrs one more time at their last Zone Conference before the mission splits. Time flies.
It has been a great edifying week. Sister Dorsan and I are going to keep working hard because these are probably going to be our last two weeks together. Know that I love you all. Have a great week!
Bisou,
Soeur Banks
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| Sister Dorsan, Emilio and Sister Banks |
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| Sister Dorsan and Sister Banks |
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| President at our apartment to do interviews |
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| Zone Conference |
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| Zone Conference |
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| Shadow With The Elders |
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| Shadow With The Elders |
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| Les Soeur Missionaries |
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| Les Soeur Missionaries |
Monday, March 16, 2015
Week 27
Bonjour mes cher famille et amis,
This week didn't turn out to be exactly what we thought it would be. Sadly, none of our three baptisms happened. A lot has happened this week, so here is the story... Monday night we went over to see Emilio and Evans. They are 16 and 17 so we had to get the ok from their older sister for the baptism. We stopped by and the other sister told us that the older sister is not okay with them being baptized and she does not want us coming over during the week, only on Saturday. Mais c'est pas grave (but its not a big deal/it's not the end of the world) they still want to be baptized and we have our game plan, the spirit with us, and God on our side, to soften the sister's heart. The baptism is going to happen, just not at this moment. We had the miracle of one of our other investigators bringing Emilio and Evans to church on Sunday. It is just a small drempel (that is dutch for speedbump) on their path to the Celestial Kingdom.
Our other ami, Fedler, has been getting a lot of opposition from his girlfriend back in Haiti. It's been a rough week for him. He is coming around. He knows this gospel is true, Satan is just fighting really hard against him right now. If you remember the story of when we met Fedler, he contacted us on the street and told us he wanted to come to church and get baptized. He will get baptized, he just has to figure some stuff out first.
Though our plans didnt go quite as planned, we did see miracles this week. Our ami, Gregory, finally came to church yesterday! And one of our new amis, Lambert, showed up yesterday too! We have seen God's hand in a lot of little ways this week.
One of the biggest things I have learned this week is the importance of having faith in Christ. Helaman 5:12 comes to my mind. When we have a solid foundation of faith in Christ we cannot fall. When we have faith in him we may not know what is going to happen tomorrow, but we know everything will be alright.
We have zone conference this week! Elder Cornish from the Seventy will be there. We are all excited. It is going to be weird walking 5 minutes to get to zone conference and not having to take a car, a boat, and a taxi to get there. Not quite as long of a journey to get there, but it will be just as exciting.
I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Bisou,
Sœur Banks
This week didn't turn out to be exactly what we thought it would be. Sadly, none of our three baptisms happened. A lot has happened this week, so here is the story... Monday night we went over to see Emilio and Evans. They are 16 and 17 so we had to get the ok from their older sister for the baptism. We stopped by and the other sister told us that the older sister is not okay with them being baptized and she does not want us coming over during the week, only on Saturday. Mais c'est pas grave (but its not a big deal/it's not the end of the world) they still want to be baptized and we have our game plan, the spirit with us, and God on our side, to soften the sister's heart. The baptism is going to happen, just not at this moment. We had the miracle of one of our other investigators bringing Emilio and Evans to church on Sunday. It is just a small drempel (that is dutch for speedbump) on their path to the Celestial Kingdom.
Our other ami, Fedler, has been getting a lot of opposition from his girlfriend back in Haiti. It's been a rough week for him. He is coming around. He knows this gospel is true, Satan is just fighting really hard against him right now. If you remember the story of when we met Fedler, he contacted us on the street and told us he wanted to come to church and get baptized. He will get baptized, he just has to figure some stuff out first.
Though our plans didnt go quite as planned, we did see miracles this week. Our ami, Gregory, finally came to church yesterday! And one of our new amis, Lambert, showed up yesterday too! We have seen God's hand in a lot of little ways this week.
One of the biggest things I have learned this week is the importance of having faith in Christ. Helaman 5:12 comes to my mind. When we have a solid foundation of faith in Christ we cannot fall. When we have faith in him we may not know what is going to happen tomorrow, but we know everything will be alright.
We have zone conference this week! Elder Cornish from the Seventy will be there. We are all excited. It is going to be weird walking 5 minutes to get to zone conference and not having to take a car, a boat, and a taxi to get there. Not quite as long of a journey to get there, but it will be just as exciting.
I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Bisou,
Sœur Banks
Monday, March 9, 2015
Week 26
Bonjour a tous!
It has been an exciting week and it is going to be another exciting week coming up! We have three baptisms planned for Saturday!! The brothers Emilio and Evans and our Hatian friend, Fedler. It's all looking good for Saturday, we just have to get the final permision from Emilio and Evans older sister. She seems a little hesitant, but we are praying and have faith that all will go well.
Speaking of baptism, I got an email from Sister McDaniel today saying that the Tavares kids (the less active family Sis Riley and I found) got baptized on Saturday! I was so excitecd to hear that it finally happened! And their Dad was able to baptize them! Another girl I taught down in Guyane is getting baptized next Saturday! So exciting!
We had some great lessons this week. We were having trouble getting Emilio and Evans to read the Book of Mormon. We told Emilio and Evans we were going to do an experiment, we told them to read in the morning and see how it changed the rest of their day. The first time we asked them to do it, they didn't. We asked them again on Friday. We showed up on Saturday and they had done it! They read more then we thought they would! They gave us an awesome detailed summary of Lehi and his family leaving Jerusalem and Nephi, Laman, and Lemuel going to get the plates from Laban! It was awesome! They asked us how the story of Nephi ends, but we told them they have to keep reading to find out.
We have seen miracles this week, that was just one. Their sister, Janet, joined us for a few minutes during a lesson this week. Our friend, Louisette, went to the Relief Society sewing activity Saturday and had a great time and made a lot of friends. She came to church on Sunday too! We found some cool new people this week.
In other non-spiritual news, we got to go to the beach today! It was the first time on my mission I have been to a pretty beach (Guyane beaches look more like chocolate milk than water) As a zone we had a barbeque and played volleyball in Moule. Attached is a picture of me, and a picture of my feet in the water. It was the first time in my life I've been to a beach with clear beautiful water like that. And you can also see my funny shoe tanline:)
We've got a big week in front of us! Keep us in your prayers. I love you all, until next week!
Bisou,
Soeur Banks
It has been an exciting week and it is going to be another exciting week coming up! We have three baptisms planned for Saturday!! The brothers Emilio and Evans and our Hatian friend, Fedler. It's all looking good for Saturday, we just have to get the final permision from Emilio and Evans older sister. She seems a little hesitant, but we are praying and have faith that all will go well.
Speaking of baptism, I got an email from Sister McDaniel today saying that the Tavares kids (the less active family Sis Riley and I found) got baptized on Saturday! I was so excitecd to hear that it finally happened! And their Dad was able to baptize them! Another girl I taught down in Guyane is getting baptized next Saturday! So exciting!
We had some great lessons this week. We were having trouble getting Emilio and Evans to read the Book of Mormon. We told Emilio and Evans we were going to do an experiment, we told them to read in the morning and see how it changed the rest of their day. The first time we asked them to do it, they didn't. We asked them again on Friday. We showed up on Saturday and they had done it! They read more then we thought they would! They gave us an awesome detailed summary of Lehi and his family leaving Jerusalem and Nephi, Laman, and Lemuel going to get the plates from Laban! It was awesome! They asked us how the story of Nephi ends, but we told them they have to keep reading to find out.
We have seen miracles this week, that was just one. Their sister, Janet, joined us for a few minutes during a lesson this week. Our friend, Louisette, went to the Relief Society sewing activity Saturday and had a great time and made a lot of friends. She came to church on Sunday too! We found some cool new people this week.
In other non-spiritual news, we got to go to the beach today! It was the first time on my mission I have been to a pretty beach (Guyane beaches look more like chocolate milk than water) As a zone we had a barbeque and played volleyball in Moule. Attached is a picture of me, and a picture of my feet in the water. It was the first time in my life I've been to a beach with clear beautiful water like that. And you can also see my funny shoe tanline:)
We've got a big week in front of us! Keep us in your prayers. I love you all, until next week!
Bisou,
Soeur Banks
Monday, March 2, 2015
Week 25
Bonjour a tous,
Follow up on the story of Sister Bank's bike. It has not been found, probably never will be (it's probably in Dominica by now) but not to worry, I have been riding one of the Elders extra bikes around and I am getting a new bike today.
We have had a good week down here. We have three investigators with baptisimal dates coming up and they are all doing really well. Emilio and Evans were able to come to church yesterday, we had a couple of lessons with them this last week which went really well and they came to play basketball with us on Friday. Their older sister is starting to become interested in us and our message as well. Our Hatian friend, Fedler, is doing really well too. We had an awesome lesson with him and a member from the branch, Fredo. It is so cool to see these people understanding the gospel and coming unto Chirst.
As I was reading in the Book of Mormon this week I read a scripture that describes the joy of missionary work in Alma 29:10, "And behold, when I see many of my bretheren truly penitent, and coming to the Lord their God, then is my soul filled with joy..." I love this scripture and I know how Alma feels, and it is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, feeling in the world.
We saw a lot of little miracles this week. Every night during nightly planning we write down the miracles we saw that day, and we saw a lot this week. we found members to work with, we got stops, we found people we had been looking for, and so many more.
I love you all and hope all is well back in the states. Have a great week!
bisou,
Sœur Banks
Follow up on the story of Sister Bank's bike. It has not been found, probably never will be (it's probably in Dominica by now) but not to worry, I have been riding one of the Elders extra bikes around and I am getting a new bike today.
We have had a good week down here. We have three investigators with baptisimal dates coming up and they are all doing really well. Emilio and Evans were able to come to church yesterday, we had a couple of lessons with them this last week which went really well and they came to play basketball with us on Friday. Their older sister is starting to become interested in us and our message as well. Our Hatian friend, Fedler, is doing really well too. We had an awesome lesson with him and a member from the branch, Fredo. It is so cool to see these people understanding the gospel and coming unto Chirst.
As I was reading in the Book of Mormon this week I read a scripture that describes the joy of missionary work in Alma 29:10, "And behold, when I see many of my bretheren truly penitent, and coming to the Lord their God, then is my soul filled with joy..." I love this scripture and I know how Alma feels, and it is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, feeling in the world.
We saw a lot of little miracles this week. Every night during nightly planning we write down the miracles we saw that day, and we saw a lot this week. we found members to work with, we got stops, we found people we had been looking for, and so many more.
I love you all and hope all is well back in the states. Have a great week!
bisou,
Sœur Banks
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