28 March 2016 - Week 20: BIG CHANGES!

Hi everyone!! Happy Easter!!

So for the transfer this week, there are BIG changes for me! haha

I'm going to the NORTH!! Yay! I'll be serving in Koutio with Soeur Rooarii (she's Tahitian.) I am going to be DRIVING. And... we're going to be STLs! WHAT WHAT WHAT BIG BIG BIG CHANGEEEE!!! President really likes to have young leaders.... And because I'm going to be an STL, I'll be going to Vanuatu from next Sunday to Wednesday for leadership training. All the zone leaders and STLs in the whole mission will be there, so that's cool!

[Mom's note: STL = Sister Training Leader, a leadership position]

The transfer is on Thursday, so that's when everything will change! This afternoon until tomorrow morning, I'm going to have an exchange with Soeur Caress so that I can have some practice driving the Juke before I have to drive on my own, haha. It'll be so weird to drive again!

[In response to Mom’s questions/concerns] Okay, the "north" isn't even really north, just btw. It's just a little bit more North than Noumea. Yes, there are missionaries there (the STLs have been serving in Koutio for a while) and the juke is the car I'll the driving. I think it's a Nissan... It'll be that for now, and maybe later I'll drive a different car. We'll see! The juke is like a middle-sized car. There are 5 seats. It's smaller than a Sorento.

Soeur Tellus is staying in Vallee des Colons for her last transfer with Soeur Snow. Soeur Vogel is going to be in my zone and she'll be driving too! And Soeur Flake will be training a new Tahitian sister, and she'll be in my district. Soeur Casuga is going to be an STL in the South, and she'll be driving, too, haha. Lots of change this transfer!! 

Oh yeah! We had a special Sacrament Meeting this Sunday. The missionaries planned and prepared it all. The theme was the reasons for our hope, and we based it all off of the Restoration lesson. We had lots of testimonies from members and hymns! It was actually kinda like the primary program, haha. It was great, though! It's part of our effort to get the members interested in working with the missionaries. I won't be in Magenta to see the results, but I really hope it will have helped! 

Oh, btw I didn't email yesterday because it was the day after Easter and a holiday. Everything was closed, so we just spent our p-day at the chapel with the members and played volleyball and ping pong and ate. We had a little FHE last night with them, too. We were literally there all day! Those members are the best members in the ward here. They're all super awesome and invite us to eat every Sunday afternoon at the chapel. 

There was also the baptism of Keyliah Tuahivaatetonohiti on Sunday! She's the cousin of the two recent convert boys we were teaching. It's not a convert baptism, though, because she's 8 and the daughter of members. But anyway, it was great! I gave a talk on baptism because she wanted me and Soeur Tellus to give the talks. We had pretty much been teaching her and preparing her for her baptism while we were teaching her cousins. She was there for pretty much all the lessons. She's adorable, and I'm so happy for her and her family! They're all growing strong in the Gospel and sharing it with the other members in their family. It's so cool! :) 

So yeah, that was pretty much my week... Everyone was just thinking about the transfer all week, hahaha. But our ami Lucien is still going well, and we're still praying for his baptism the 16th of April!

I love you all!!!

Soeur Matheson

OH YEAH BTW I most likely will NOT be emailing next week because I'll be in Vanuatu. SO DON'T EXPECT ANYTHING FROM ME! (MOM, that means you, haha!)

21 March 2016 - Week 19: Pain Riz Mayo

Bonjour tout le monde!

I think I mentioned it before, but there's this graffiti tag that we see EVERYWHERE in Vallee des Colons: PAIN RIZ MAYO [bread, rice, mayo] hahaha! I took about 7 more pictures of it in different places during the week. It just makes me laugh :)

Good news! Our ami Lucien now has a baptism date for April 16th, not in September! This week when we saw him, we decided to pick a date exactly a month away to push him a little. Then we talked about how he already has the desire to be baptized and he's making the changes in his life already. His testimony is growing as he's seeing the Gospel improve his life. That's why he accepted to advance the date of his baptism. :) I'm super excited for him!

On Saturday morning, we played sports at the chapel. It's part of our effort to get to know the members and integrate our amis, but no one actually came except an ami from Vallee du Tir, which isn't even in our district... and eventually one member. So we just ended up playing with them a little and mostly just among us missionaries for the most part. We're hoping the members will start coming more! It has been raining the past two Saturdays, so that's a reason why they don't come, I guess. Hopefully it'll be nice this Saturday so people will come!

The rest of our week was good, but nothing super special. We just keep working in our secteur with the amis who want to see us, haha. We lost two amis this week: one who just straight out told us that she doesn't want to have the lessons anymore and another who just avoids us. And there's another who keeps rescheduling her lessons, but I know she's still interested. She's just busy because she works a lot during the week. We were only seeing her on Saturdays, but now her family is in town so she's even more busy... Sad. But I know we'll get to see her again eventually!

In other news, we're having a full-mission meeting with President tomorrow morning. He's here to introduce the new senior couple who is going to be working in the bureau here in New Cal. They're American, but they speak French, so that's cool :) So tomorrow I get to see everyone in the mission! It's cool to be in such a small mission because you can get to know everyone. And, like I said last week, we'll have the transfer news at the end of this week, so next Monday you'll all know where I'm headed (or if I stay here.) We'll see!

I'm loving my mission! New Cal is an amazing place, and it's so cool to see so many different cultures all mixed together in one place. And it's even cooler to see how the Gospel is for everyone, no matter their background or race or how much money they have. The Gospel brings joy and peace to everyone! :)

Bonne semaine!! Je vous aime!!

Soeur Matheson

14 March 2016 - Week 18: William was baptized!!

Bonjour tout le monde!!

GREAT NEWS! William was baptized!! It was awesome because a lot of members came to support him and he was really excited to be baptized. Afterwards, he really wanted to bear his testimony, but he was nervous (he's shy) and just went up there and close his eyes the whole time he was talking, haha! I was really happy for him and super proud! He really has a strong testimony, and I know that this work is true!!

I had a really great week this week! We had a good amount of lessons, including more with members! I just felt more busy this week, too! And I had an exchange with Soeur Snow on Friday! She's from Tahiti and we got to the mission at the same time, but she started out as an STL. I love Soeur Snow! She's cute and really fun to be around and I like talking to her. Plus, she helps me with my French and I help her with English, haha. We had two lessons and we tried finding some non-pratiquants and we contacted some people! It was a great day and she loved getting to walk. (Haha, she doesn't like being in the car all the time.)

Soeur Snow :) la plus belle

Also, some small but good news is that we saw Corinne in her car the other day. Even though she's not answering our calls and we haven't been able to have contact with her since her baptism, we know that at least she's alive!

Another small thing is that one time we were at the Place de Cocotiers and I saw these tourists from a cruise ship (I like tourist-watching). I saw these two, and I just knew they were Mormon. Then they came up to us and said they were members! I'd been waiting for the day to meet Mormon tourists! They were from Australia and were surprised that I spoke English (but that's because Soeur Tellus was on the phone with an ami speaking French.) Anyway... my dream came true and now I am satisfied!

The Jehovah's Witnesses knocked on our door! They were super nice and we were nice to them, but it's always awkward to cross them.

Oh yeah!! I contacted a guy at the grocery store! In the produce area, they have a person to weigh your fruits and veggies and price them. I went up and then the guy started speaking to me in English and I was like, WHAT. It turns out he's from Lifou [one of the outlying islands of New Caledonia] but he really likes hockey (especially the San Jose Sharks--what a coincidence!) and he listens to the broadcasts in English. And he reads the Bible in English. I gave him a card with our number because he said he was interested. Woo hoo! I love talking to people in English! :) Now we wait for him to call!

French-wise, things are going well! I actually gave a small talk during William's baptism and a lot of members complimented my french! :) And I can comprehend most things now, but sometimes if the person speaks way fast or too soft or has a more difficult accent, it's harder. 

So apparently there's going to be a small transfer at the end of this week and then another one at the normal time (two weeks from now) because there's 3 new elders coming this week and then 2 new sisters the next one. And apparently, lots of things are going to be changing with the new transfer (including more cars!) So we'll see what happens with that!

I feel like I did so much this week but right now I can't think of anything to write. Just know that I'm happy and I love my mission!!

Bonne semaine!

Je vous aime!

Soeur Matheson

a la plage! [at the beach]

7 March 2016 - Week 17: Playing "cache cache" sur la place and making cheese in our fridge...

Bonjour tout le monde!

To explain the subject: "Cache cache" is hide-and-go-seek in French. We have lessons with William sur la Place de Cocotiers en ville, but la place is actually pretty big, so it's hard to find people you're trying to meet up with. William has decided to start hiding somewhere and not tell us where he is when we call him to find him... He gave us a hint one time, so it was easier, but this week we wasted too much time just trying to find our ami, hahaha.

And the cheese-making part... Soeur Tellus spilled her goat milk in the fridge and we didn't think anything more of it besides that we just had to clean the inside. Then, we started to notice a weird smell in our kitchen. It wasn't terrible but also not that great. So yesterday we started to really investigate. We pulled the fridge out, and VOILA! There was cheese in the back of our fridge! The milk had gone into a hole in the back of the shelf that we hadn't noticed and leaked into the catch tray in the back of the fridge above the motor (or whatever it is--the thing that makes the fridge run). So Soeur Tellus' goat milk turned into goat cheese! That was gross and also explains the smell--not terrible, but not that great! It was hard to clean (haha, actually I made her do it). So yeah, if you ever want to make cheese at home, just spill milk in your fridge!

I am doing great and even though the work in our secteur was a little slow this week, things are going well!

William is super ready for his baptism this SATURDAY!! Woo hoo! He acts like he's not excited because he's shy, but he totally is. And the members have really been welcoming him. They invited him to eat with us on Sunday afternoons and they've been inviting him to FHE. So great! And the past two weeks, I've really seen him become more sure about his testimony, and he's more comfortable with sharing what he knows. It's really cool! He's so ready! And you can tell he's seen the changes in his life that the gospel has brought him--the peace and the happiness and just the confidence of knowing who you are and why you're here on Earth. I'm grateful that I've had the knowledge of the gospel my whole life, and my mission is really helping me appreciate that. And I'm so grateful to be able to share it with the people of New Cal! 

William et Lovina (she's a member and also his girlfriend!)

Our ami Lucien has decided he wants to be baptized, but not until September...we're going to work on advancing that date! He's been coming to church and he went to an activity in Riviere Salee on his own (like, we didn't invite him--he listens to the announcements at church). His mom, Linda, is a recent convert that we teach as well, so he already knows a lot about the gospel and the commandments (especially the Word of Wisdom--he helps Linda with that! It's great!) It's cool that he's not dependent on us, the missionaries, because there are ward members who talk to him and have invited him to FHEs and stuff. We're just here to teach him the basics and help him know how things work, but he has a bigger support group than just the missionaries. Every ami needs that!

The missionaries in the Magenta district/ward (there's 8 of us) have been trying to work with the members more. We had the fireside on missionary work and the members loved it, and we're going to have a Sacrament meeting program based on the Restoration. The theme is that all the things in the Restoration are the reasons for our hope. We, the missionaries, planned it but we're inviting the members to participate. There'll be lots of testimonies and songs, and I think it's going to be awesome! That's the 27th. We also are going to go to each member's home in our areas and share our plan of action with them. And we're going to have a sports activity every Saturday morning from 8-10! Just so y'all know, I'm getting way better at volleyball since I've been on my mission! :)

Sunday lunch with the members

The mission is hard sometimes because it's hot, and you don't want to work because you're so tired, and sometimes you're scared, or you don't think you're good enough. You can have so many doubts as a missionary, but you just have to remember that you have been called and set apart to preach the gospel and that Heavenly Father will help you when you ask for it. It's all about faith and trusting in God to help you do the things you didn't think you could and to help you become more than you thought you could. I've been relying more and more on prayer, and I know that Heavenly Father hears and answers my prayers. I've seen great things happen, and even though sometimes the great things are few and far between, you just have to keep going with faith. 

Thank you for all of the prayers and the emails! I love hearing from you guys just as much as you like hearing from me! haha :) Remember that Heavenly Father loves you, he knows you, and he wants to help you! All you have to do is ask!

Bonne semaine à tous!! Je vous aime!!!!

Soeur Matheson

la plage (beach)

29 February 2016 - Week 16: Things are looking up!

From the top of Mont Dore

Bonjour tout le monde!

This week was a better week than we've been having! The good news is that our ami William finally has a baptism date and it's all approved by the bishop. It's March 12th, so we're praying and preparing for that day!

Other good news is that we had the fireside on missionary work! We had 50 members come last night and during the fireside we had 4 "workshops" in four different rooms that they'd cycle through and we finished altogether back in the chapel. The four workshops were 1) what the missionaries do, 2) how the members can participate in lessons with amis, 3) how the members can invite people to hear the gospel, and 4) how the members can integrate the amis, recent converts, and inactive members. It was a really good fireside and the members were really motivated by it. We gave them a challenge to invite the missionaries over to talk about the plan of action we came up with (it's that they invite one ami to the church, and integrate one recent convert and one inactive during the year.) We already had a family that lives in our secteur ask us to come over at the end of this week. It's only the beginning, but it was a good start and I hope it lasts!

The bad news is that Corinne still hasn't answered our calls... We need some divine inspiration to know how to help her!

Also, there's this eye infection going around that EVERYONE is getting and I'm kinda worried that it'll be impossible to avoid with all the bisous-ing we do here. It's gross looking and I think it's similar to pink eye but I feel like it's worse. ANYWAY, haha. Let's pray that I don't get that dumb eye infection!

Oh yeah, we're starting to have more cockroaches in our house and it's super gross. I think on Thursday or Friday morning there was a cockroach climbing EVERYWHERE and we were freaking out. I used almost a whole can of bug killing spray to kill it. Haha, it was HUGE! We survived, but it was a little hard to refocus on our studies after that!

We have these amis, an old couple, who give us a papaya almost every time we go over. They have a papaya tree and they have tons! And they're really good papayas :) News foodwise, Soeur Tellus tried making us a pizza the other day because we REALLY want pizza but we just had the stuff to make the dough, some tomato sauce, and some cheese. We wanted more on it, so we put corn on it, hahaha. It was not great :) But then the next day Soeur Tellus made us couscous with rataouille and merguez. SO GOOD. And we went to Andre's restaurant again this week and had raw fish salad :) You have to enjoy the little things in life and food is definitely one of those things! 

It was raining a lot for a week and it cooled down a little, but now it's warming up again. I used my raincoat once and my umbrella a few times. Yeah, when it's humid and you're wearing the raincoat, it's lame. I don't mind getting wet, but I like to try keeping my bag from getting wet (it's definitely not waterproof). It gets to be like 90F I think, but it's gotten higher than that.

We have an ami from Vanuatu and she's been reading the Book of Mormon in Bislama and she speaks Bislama. She's prayed in Bislama for both of our lessons and it's so cool. And even when she speaks French, she'll say some things in Bislama, but they're English words, so that's cool :) She's knows the bible really well and has a lot of faith. She just wants to take the time to really read and understand the Book of Mormon. We're hoping that she'll want to get baptized soon!

President Granger has really encouraged us to find, find, find! That's the way we'll be able to find those who are already ready to hear the Gospel. That's our goal for this week: more finding! There's four more weeks in this transfer, and I hope we can do a lot of great work in that time! After that, who knows where I'll be? haha

Passez une bonne semaine!! Je vous aime!

Soeur Matheson

Pics from Mont Dore from last week. 

We were literally in the clouds!

But before that the view was beautiful!

22 February 2016 - Week 16: It's Never a Normal P-Day

Bonjour ma famille et mes amis!

I only have a couple of minutes to write today! Sorry! The reason is that we hiked Mont Dore as a district yesterday! That was really fun and it was raining a little so we weren't really hot. But on the way down I slipped and fell twice... hahaha but all is well and I just have a little cut on my hand that's healing and I'm really sore today.

(pictures to come next week!)

SAD NEWS! Our ami didn't get baptized! She didn't show up to her baptism on Saturday

... and she won't answer our calls anymore... We'll keep trying!

But this week we really faced a lot of adversity--no baptism, lots of cancelled lessons. It was hard, but Soeur Tellus and I are using it as a way to look at how we're working and what we can change to be better.

Sorry I don't have tons of time and I have to go now, but I love you all and thank you for all the love and concern and prayers for me and this mission!

Next week will (hopefully) be a normal week P-day-wise!

Tal!!

Soeur Matheson

Mont-Dore

Letter to her sister Rachel, dated 11 January 2016

Dear Rachel,

I just got your letter two days ago, so I guess it takes about a month for mail to get here. So you’ll probably get this in February! I’m doing well and adjusting to the lifestyle here—not just the mission life, but island life. It’s cool because here in New Cal there are so many different kinds of people all living together. There’s Caldoches, Kanaks, the people native to the Loyalty Islands—Lifou, Maré, Ouvea, Isle of Pines—some native French people, lots of Tahitians, and Wallisians and Futunians. There’s so many different kinds of people living in the same place. Oh yeah, there’s a lot of Asians too! Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese—it’s kinda weird to hear Asians speak French, haha.

The people don’t really mix together a lot, though. The members of the church mix, but most other people stick to themselves. There is some ethnic prejudice between the Kanaks and Wallisians, Futunians and Tahitians. If they’re drunk, they’ll all just fight… But don’t worry, we are home by six and avoid all the sketchy-looking people. But honestly, most people here are nice. Some people are mean—lots of people’s cars get stolen by Kanaks and they’re found burned later. An Elder was punched in the back of the head once, but he’s up north in a sketchy area. One missionary and companion had someone threaten them with a gun while they were contacting, but they got away. I know people here have guns, but I haven’t seen anyone with one yet. But I’m also in the city, so… On verra! Most people here believe in God. There are a lot of Catholics and Jehovah’s Witnesses. People keep thinking we’re JWs, haha.

Also, people here love to drink. And almost everyone smokes. So when people decide to join the church, they make big lifestyle changes. It’s cool. Some cultural things we do are to always take off your shoes when you enter a house. And we “bisou” or kiss the cheeks of the women (we can shake the men’s hands only, but men and women can bisou if they’re not missionaries). ...I think people don’t shake hands a lot, outside of the Church. If you are casual with someone, you can slap hands and fist bump—we do that with the Elders!

Right now we are under a cyclone alert, so we’re not supposed to go far from our apartments, so we can’t email today… So I’m writing letters! We don’t think it will hit us… it’s closer to Vanuatu right now, but we’ll see!

BTW, love the pictures! Keep ‘em coming.

I love you! Stay awesome! DON’T WORRY ABOUT ME!

Love,

Laura