This week we had the baptism of Marie-Christine!! Woo hoo! And everything with the program went exactly as planned (the complete opposite of Moise's baptism, haha!) The funny thing was that Marie-Christine had asked for President Guidi, the stake president, to give a talk at the baptism and to do the confirmation on Sunday. Haha, we were really surprised, but she said she really likes the testimonies he gives. And it's true, his talks and testimonies are awesome. Haha, our DMP (ward mission leader) was skeptical that President Guidi would be able to come, but we asked and he said yes and it was awesome! The baptismal service was great and the Spirit and the love was there! And it was great because Marie-Christine had invited some of her family and they came! I was really happy for her. :) She's Melanesian, from Belep, which is an island waaaayyyyy up in the very north of New Cal. She had a bit of a rough life growing up and ended up having kids really young. She's only 55 but she has 10 kids that are all grown. I think her life situation hardened her and when we first met her, she wasn't super open. But now, she's soft and patient and loving and that's because she's had un changement de coeur! The gospel really changes people and I've been able to see that change in Marie-Christine. And it's awesome because she has a lot of support from her son and her daughter in law and from the ward members. She's already going to be put in a visiting teaching team! Moise is doing great! He had a bit of a rough time last week, but this week he's a lot better because he's relying more and more on the Gospel to help him in his daily life. And the awesome thing is that he's a real missionary! He talks about the gospel with the people at work and he invites his brothers and other family members to church and activities and even to take the lessons! His older brother came to church on Sunday (in the Ducos ward because it's earlier) and Moise said he was really into it. And he (and Michele. his sister in law) had invited his other sister in law Amelie to take the lessons and we've taught her once but the second time she had to cancel. We hoped to teach her this week but it's Bastille Day and the long weekend and they're doing things as a family. And Moise has really taken charge of helping the ami (named William) of the Guidi's. Joyce, the daughter, invited him to church and he's been coming for a couple weeks. He lives in Riviere Salee and for the moment there's no missionaries there, but now he wants to take the lessons. We decided that we can teach him at the chapel and Moise wants to be there for every lesson. This week for the long weekend, a lot of the ward members are going up to Kone to go camping and Moise invited William and now they're going together and I'm sure Moise is going to be talking about the Gospel the whole time with him, haha. But it's awesome and it's so great to see recent converts progressing so much and really diving in to the work here!
Oh yeah, I don't know if I already told y'all or not, but William, the recent convert from Vallee des Colons, got married to Lovina, his girlfriend! Now we're just waiting for them to be able to go to the temple together to be sealed! :)
The rest of the work here is going little by little. A lot of our amis want to be baptized but they can't yet because they need to get married (or break up but we don't encourage that because we preach families!) We teach them every week but they don't progress because all that's left to do it get baptized... But we're working and praying for it! And a lot of the other work we've been doing lately is visiting inactive members. On Monday, we went out with a counselor in the Relief Society to find some inactive sisters and had some good visits. It's always way better to go visit inactives with the members because it helps them have a connection with the ward and not just with the missionaries. They're more likely to come back to church if they have the support of the ward members. We're still praying and working for miracles here in New Cal! It'll take some time, but they will come! :)
That's all for this week! Je vous aime tous!!
Bonne semaine!!
Ta ta na na bisous!
Soeur Matheson
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