1 March 2017 - Goodbye Koutio, Hellooooo...... wait for it!

............Paita!!!!! 

So there you have it! We got transfers and I am in the Paita/Dumbea secteur with Soeur Brown!! The area is technically just Paita, but now there's two areas in Paita so President called our area Paita/Dumbea, but we call it Nogouta 'cause that's the little neightborhood where our apartment is. So I'm no longer STL-- I served a good 11 months as STL and I'm grateful to have a change :) Paita is beautiful!! So green and more "bush" haha. Our apartment is super nice and is huge and has A/C. SO BLESSED. We're walking, but we have BIKES! (So Megan if you have any tips on riding a bike with a skirt on, that'd be much appreciated.) I haven't ridden my bike yet 'cause it's only been two days and the back tire is flat... But we'll get it fixed up and we'll ride! :) And we're also gonna see if there are buses we can take to the really far away places in our area. There's one part you can get to only by taking the freeway... At least, we don't know of any other roads that connect the two neighborhoods. But yeah, I'm super excited for this new adventure, and I'm excited to be with Soeur Brown. She's a new missionary and will keep me working hard to finish strong!  

On Saturday, an amie that I taught a little from Koutio before (now she's in Dumbea Sur Mer secteur) got baptized! She asked me to speak at her talk, so I gave a talk on baptism. I still get so nervous talking at church things. I think the thing I hate the most is the microphone, haha. But it turned out okay, and the best thing is that Sonia is finally baptized!! Today she came and brought Soeur Brown and me some food (because the members think we don't have any, but hey not complaining) and she's already such a great member and she's the best and I love her :) 

Oh yeah, and before I left Koutio, Soeur Davis and I taught our ami Leopold with a member, Soeur Nirua, who turns out to be his aunt! (slightly distant, but still related). It was such a great lesson and everything he says he believes is exactly the same as what we believe. He says he only believes in the Bible and that he'll stay Protestant forever, but last time he was like, "Hey, you never know... maybe I could change." So progress! We're just hoping that the Nirua family will really help him out and encourage him, because he'll progress and change a lot faster that way and he'll have friends at church already. 

Here in Paita, we have a couple of recent converts, one of which is Marie-Christine! Woo hoo! So happy to see her and how much she's progressed! :) We have one ami and lots of potentials that Soeur Fuller and Soeur Brown found and a couple inactives. There's only two active member families that live in our area, but both are awesome and invite us and offer to help us in the work, so that's awesome :) There's work to be done here and I'm excited! :)

Oh yeah, btw we can't send pics from these computers sooooo no pics for a while. SORRRYYYYYYYYY. 

That was pretty much my week! I hope you're all doing well! 

JE VOUS AIME!

Tata nana bisous!

Soeur Matheson