Thursday, June 4, 2009

"Guadeloupe Farewell"


PRESIDENT & SISTER ROBISON'S LAST FRENCH ZONE CONFERENCE

What a great week we had last week! President and Sister Robison are the best, and I have appreciated them for all they have done for me, for the members, and for also for my testimony. Each zone conference was always such an uplifting experience, and was always centered on the atonement of Christ. Its so true that that subject, that atoning sacrifice, is the center of all we work for as a church. We had our last zone conference and it was great. It was the final hammer or the final nail in the coffin of their mission. Later after the conference, we had interviews with President Robison...and he wanted to do them differently where he would give us words of wisdom, or his advice for after the mission (kinda trunked me out a bit, but only for a minute). That was really nice, and helped me decide a little more about some things.

Overall the week was kind of a roller coaster. Elder Wright and I really were able to get the missionaries pumped up that we would have 10 baptisms...we fasted and prayed all week, not knowing how it would happen but knew it could have been done. I honestly thought for sure it would be a miracle that would happen, and two days before Elders wright and Julian had a breakthrough with a mom who hadn't let her two daughters get baptised for over a year even though they had been going to church. They got her to say yes...we thought our prayers were answered and were so excited to tell all you all we would have 10. Little by little our baptisms started falling through. First, I had an interview with a lady and her son, but they were just not ready. Second, some elders had two of their baptisms get cold feet, and lastly that mom we talked about had a change of mind the day before! Talk about a hole in your sail! (we think he didn't learn that phrase in Salt Lake) But, we tried not to let it get us down...we were still able to have two baptisms: Christopher, who Elder Heiner and I had been teaching, and Madame Gustave in Moule(whom Andy found with Elder Garotta and had been teaching prior to missionaries moving back to Moule. It was a great reunion, and Christopher's family was all there so it really was a blessing. Thanks for all your prayers ... it really means a lot to me, and to the Lord. But I still feel most of those baptisms will be baptised in the next few weeks. It's great though, Guadeloupe is still baptizing faster than it ever has and its all thanks to the obedience and hard work of elders, members, and also your prayers.

It's true that our zone is really young, but some of these new elders are studs! They are strong and ready to kick butt. There are even two elders who have only been out 2 months and they are together tearing it up.

We are still finding many people to teach. It's getting tough for me because as much as is going on with having to do things for the other missionaries, legality things, and having many people to teach I don't feel like I'm handling it the best. I'm not the most organized person and I'm just shooting myself in the foot...luckily no lost wallets or keys....yet ....but hopefully this will help me overcome my weakness of unorganization (is that a word?). One of my favorite scriptures is Ether 12:27, and it really applies to all things, even something as lame as organization.

The French is getting better...Elder Heiner is such a hard worker, but still kinda struggling with the French so we have been going all French and it's really helped me a lot...I can probably say the French of the West Indies is probably no where near as good as the French of the French missions in Europe, but it's just different.... BUT THEY CANT SPEAK CREOLE!

Well it sounds like everyone is doing well. I cant believe Tuck is graduating! That blows me away! He is old! Pretty soon he will be 19; I still can't believe homes is 18! I miss ya buddy. You need to let me know what's up with the sports, and the uncles...I heard from deeds that Alex, Spence and John started a kick ball team? That is awesome haha! Anyway, sorry emails are late this week...hopefully they will be regular for Monday.

Love ya all.

Andy

Andy and his companion, Elder Heiner

1 comment:

neffgang said...

What a great letter!

I can't wait to run into the Robison's, and without introducing myself, simple shout, "Hurrah for Israel!"