2 August 2016 - Week 38: TRANSFERS! And my 9-month mark!

Bonjour tout le monde!!

So the big news is that the tranfer call came and I'm leaving Koutio and Soeur Rooarii! SAD!  But I'll be going to Magenta with Soeur Caress and we're the STLs for the South Zone.  Soeur Rooarii is staying in Koutio and she'll be with Soeur Casuga. So as of Friday morning, I'm with Soeur Caress in Magenta. Other big news! We're going to Vanuatu (AGAIN!) for MLC with President from Sunday to Wednesday! Yay vacation!! Haha not really but it feels like that for us! :)

I'm sad to be leaving Koutio and Soeur Rooarii because we've had so many crazy and amazing experiences here together. But I know that the Lord needs me in Magenta, and I know that that's where I'm supposed to go. 

Last week, we had our district activity! We went to le parc Fayard in Dumbea and ate lunch and played some volleyball. Then we went and played Laser Game en ville [in the city] and our ami William came with us! We had invited others, but they couldn't come. But we had a blast quand meme [all the same]!! And William totally beat all of us. I was 2nd to last, haha. Soeur Rooarii was last :( But she got a free pass to come back and play for free. Now we just want to go back and play again! 

William is totally ready for his baptism, and his testimony is TRES FORT [very strong]! He's already looking forward to going to the temple, going on a mission, and being sealed in the temple one day! Wow! It's amazing to see how fast an ami can progress in just a couple weeks when they have a strong desire to learn and change and have the blessings that are there in store for them! Ahh!! The thing is that the transfer happens the day before his baptism, so now I have to make sure that there's an ami, recent convert, or inactive member from Magenta who can go to the baptism, so that I can go to the baptism.... I will make it happen!!!

Saturday night, there was a talent show for the Societe de Secours pieu and it was awesome! All the relief societies in the five wards had learned dances from countries around the world and showed them for the talent show. It was so fun and our ward, Riviere Salee, had country dancing and it made me miss Texas, haha :) I took videos (which is a miracle because my camera was supposed to die, but it made it through to the end). Y'all will just have to wait to see them until I get home. 

Soeur Bourgine, an inactive sister that we visit who's coming back to church, invited us to have breakfast with her on Monday because I'm leaving. Aooouu she's so adorable and I'm gonna miss her! We had milo and baguettes and pain au chocolat. Mmmm!

I'm really gonna miss all of the people that we visited here in Koutio, but I know I'm supposed to go to Magenta. Mission life is hard sometimes, but I think it's the hardest when transfers come around! But I'm happy and loving my mission and it's crazy to think that it's halfway over already!! WHAT! 9 months already?!? I still feel like a newbie, but now I'm one of the oldest sisters! Life passes by so fast, people! Don't blink or you'll miss it!

As of right now, I don't know if I'll be able to email next Wednesday because I don't know when the cyberbase is open down in Magenta and when we'll actually get back from Vanuatu. So for now, JE VOUS AIME BEAUCOUP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Bonne semaine!! 

Soeur Matheson

Pics!!

1) Laser Game with the Dumbea District and William!

2-3) Lunch after a lesson with William and Moise... Watch out for Soeur Rooarii!!

4) Soeur Rooarii and I with a giant stuffed bear at our ami Manu's house.

27 July 2016 – Week 37: The miracles are flowing!!!

Bonjour tout le monde!!! Ca va?? [Hello, everyone! How’s it going?]

This week was AWESOME!! You know why?? Because there are real miracles happening here in our mission, the Great VPVM! [Vanuatu Port Vila Mission]

First, William is getting baptized on August 6th!!! We invited him on Thursday during our lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and at first he was like, "maybe, yes.” I kept asking if it was a real yes or an iffy yes (a "oui oui" or a "peut-etre oui") and finally he said OUI OUI!! He's been progressing SO FAST and he has A SUPER STRONG TESTIMONY! I love it because for him, the Gospel is logique [logical] and that's why for him it's easy to accept all the commandments and everything. He even prayed to know who to ask do to the talks and everything for his baptism. He's already a member!! And today for our district activity we're going to go play Laser Game again, and we invited William and Joyce and Moise and they all want to come play with us! William especially is super excited :)

Another miracle: The daughter of the Maruhi family, Lisislena, is going to get baptized on August 27th! She's nine, so she's technically a convert even though she grew up in the church. We have been teaching her the lessons and set the date with her and her mom. We're hoping that the dad will start coming back to church because of her baptism! And they invited us over for la soiree familiale [Family Home Evening] next Monday! Woo hoo! 

AND NOW THE GREATEST MIRACLE OF THEM ALL! Manu, the ami that we had invited to be baptized WAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY back in May is going to get married and get baptized August 27th!!!!!! :) :) :) :) :) We hadn't been able to have lessons with him regularly because he works a ton, but we'd see him at church on the weeks when he could come. So when he told us on Monday that he and Nysia (his girlfriend who's an inactive member coming back to the church) are getting married and that he's getting baptized, we jumped for joy! And their goal is to be sealed in the temple one day! Miracles people, miracles!!

This weekend we had stake conference with Elder Haleck, the Area President, President and Sister Going, the New Zealand temple president (and also the famous All Blacks rugby player NBD), and [Mission] President and Sister Granger. The whole conference was all about missionary work, and it was awesome! We're hoping that this will make the stake move and get going! All the members want a temple and talk about it all the time, but they have to put in the work first. And something Elder Haleck said was to treat the missionaries like your own kids (because there are actually a lot of missionaries serving from New Cal). After that, a bunch of members gave us food. Like, A LOT of food. So don't worry, I'm definitely not going hungry. 

And for the conference, a member had called us to ask Sister Rooarii if she knows how to make flower necklaces, or couronnes de cou, to give to the temple president and his wife when they came. Soeur Rooarii said yes, and then one day we went out searching for flowers with Soeur Michele Tetuira. That was an adventure because we weren't really sure if we could take the flowers from certain places or not. But we trusted Michele because she's a policewoman, haha. Then Soeur Rooarii and I made the necklaces on Friday night so they'd be fresh and pretty still for when the Goings came. It was fun to do a crafty-type thing. I have missed that!

Last Thursday, we did a service project at the chapel to help with the gardening. We dug around all the trees and did some weeding. The member who's in charge of all the chapels promised our district pizzas for having helped him. So yesterday after our district meeting, he brought us two gigantic pizzas and juice! (Like I said, don't worry-I'm being fed!)

And today for our district activity, we're going to have lunch together at a park in Dumbea and play volleyball and then go play Laser Game! Like President says, "Work hard, play hard!" :)

Well, that was my week! And just so y'all know, the transfer call is coming this week so I tell you next week if I'm changing or not!

JE VOUS AIME!!! :)

Soeur Matheson

The couronnes de cou that Soeur Rooarii and I made for the New Zealand temple President and his wife.

Our district after district meeting (and killing time while waiting for the pizza!).

20 July 2016 - Week 36: Little Miracles

Bonjour tout le monde!

Our district has experienced some miracles this week! The sisters in Dumbea Sur Mer have an ami who is planning on getting baptized in August, the Elders of Dumbea now have a car (it's a must to have a car in Dumbea because it's a HUGE secteur) that is a yellow Juke, which Sœur Flake nicknamed the "Pikajuke," AND we have a new ami that is progressing and that we're going to invite to be baptized in August!

The ami is named William and he's a friend of the Guidi family in the ward. He's been coming to Church for a little while now, but we didn't push him to take the lessons because we were waiting for him to ask us. And guess what! He finally did! Haha, it helps that he and Moise started talking at Church and, because Moise is a super member missionary, he really talked up the missionary lessons to William. We've taught William every day so far this week, and we'll teach him every day (besides today cuz it's P-day and we need a break). He's progressing really fast and he understands everything really fast. It helps that he's already read the whole Book of Mormon and now he's re-reading it more in depth, and he's read the whole Principles of the Gospel book, and he reads all the brochures we give him. He says he doesn't like reading buuuuuuuttttt that's a lie, haha. And he's already quit smoking, drinking, and drinking coffee. He's literally a golden investigator, and he could be baptized tomorrow. But we're not gonna push too much because he wants to be sure about everything, but he's already told us multiple times that he knows the Church is true. He already refers to it as "our Church" not "your Church" like other amis do up until they get baptized. Yeah, he's a miracle!

On Thursday, we had a conference with the Grangers and we (finally) watched the Worldwide Missionary Broadcast that everyone was talking about in January, haha. It's a really good broadcast and, comme d'hab, [as always] I was super motivated to get out there and work after the conference!

On Friday, we went to visit this inactive sister that another member had told us about. We taught her and talked with her and she wants to come back to church. Awesome! But then we looked in the ward list, and she's not there. And we talked to the ward clerk to search for her in the records for the stake, and she's not there. Meaning she's not a member. WHAT. This is why we stress the fact that we are a Church of ORDER because when there's not order, people get lost. So we need to figure out what went wrong with her membership record... And yesterday, we heard that the missionaries in the past didn't always send in the baptismal records to be put in to the system, so maybe her record got lost somewhere... Oh man! Craziness!

Other than that, things are going well here in the great VPVM! Sorry, I'm out of time to write! Talk to you all next week!

Tal Toul!

Sœur Matheson

P.S. sorry for the lack of pics I know you all hate me for not sending pics............. :)

13 July 2016 - Week 35: Baptism!

Bonjour tout le monde! 

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

6 July 2016 - Week 34: Busy busy busy!

Bonjour ma famille!

This week literally flew by! We were always busy, but now that I'm sitting down to write to you, I have no idea what to say! 

Ummm... Marie-Christine is still good to go for her baptism on Saturday! Woo hoo! We had a soiree familiale [Family Home Evening] with her and her son and his wife on Monday and it was really nice. They're so humble! They don't have much money or anything, but they still offered us the best that they had: dinde et puree (turkey and mashed potatoes) and yogurt for dessert. And they gave us the rest of the yogurt to take home. This family will definitely be blessed for the sacrifices they made to have us at their home! And Marie-Christine has been inviting everyone in her family to her baptism (all of her kids, her mom, her sisters, her cousins, etc.). I'm hoping they'll all come out to support her, and that they'll feel the Spirit there!

We had a powerful experience with Moise this week. He was kind of having a crisis and lots of doubts and anger, and he was letting it all out on the Lord. We just let him talk, and then we asked him if he was ready to receive the lesson that we, as representatives of Jesus Christ, were there to share with him. The Spirit was really strong, and I really felt the power of my calling as a missionary. I know that even though I'm a sister and I don't have the priesthood, I still have power because I was set apart to preach the Gospel and represent Jesus Christ. The lesson was awesome after that, and Moise really humbled himself and accepted the message we shared with him. 

We have a new amie! She's actually the sister-in-law of Moise and the Tetuiras. They really do missionary work in their family!! Haha :) Her name is Amelie and we talked about the plan of salvation as well as the proclamation to the world on the family. She actually already knows that the Church is true because she's seen the changes in her family (Moise and his brother) and she knows that she shouldn't look any farther to find the truth. We're going to see her again tomorrow and we're hoping she'll come to church on Sunday!

We also started teaching the daughter of an inactive member (Frere Maruhi, that I talked about the other week). She's grown up in the Church but she didn't get baptized when she turned 8, and now she's 9 and she wants to be baptized. We're hoping to fix her baptism for this month because she's totally ready and there's no reason to wait! It's awesome because she practically knows all of the stories about Jesus Christ and all the miracles He performed. This little girl is so sweet and smart!

That's all the time I have for right now! Je vous aime tous!

Soeur Matheson 

Us and the APs [Assistants to the Mission President] Elder Similai and Elder Fidow after Mission Leadership Conference

June 29, 2016 - Week 33: 23 Lessons!!!

BONJOUR TOUT LE MONDE!!!!

This week was BUSY but AWESOME because we had 23 lessons!!!! We finally met our goal to have 20 lessons in a week!! We were constantly going going going and now we're tired, haha, but very satisfied!

Thursday, we had 7 lessons! Remember last week when I was talking about our exchange with Paita and how Soeur Vogel and I had 7 lessons in 24 hours? Well, we did it, too! We had lessons from 9:30 am all the way to 9:00 pm! And on Friday, even though we didn't have anything scheduled, we went out to do the sondage and have some lessons while doing that! One of the dudes that we talked to was joking about how he wanted to marry me... Awkward... He was saying that if he joined our church and received revelation that I had to marry him, then I would have to marry him. But then I said that I would have to receive the same revelation, hahaha. Fun times while contacting!

This week we were often prompted to go visit inactive members at the exact moment when they were willing and had time to receive us. MIRACLES! We ended up seeing 4 inactives just because we were following the Spirit, who was guiding us to know who to go see and when. At one point, we had decided to go see one family, but on the way there, I felt impressed that we should go visit a different inactive member first. So we went there first, and there he was outside his house fixing his car. We were talking to him, and then it just turned into a lesson! This inactive member is an RM [returned missionary] and his wife and kids are active, but he has a hard him coming back to church. He knows EVERYTHING about the Gospel but has a hard time applying it to his life. We feel like we can push him more than other inactives because he knows why we're there (he was in our position as a missionary before, doing the same thing!). We have faith that he'll come back eventually. It'll take some time and some humbling on his part, but we keep the faith!

OH YEAH! Marie-Christine is definitely getting baptized July 9th!! She had her interview and everything is good to go! It's been really helpful that she took time off work so we could have more lessons. We saw her 4 times last week and we'll see her 4 more times this week and then she starts work again, but she's totally ready to get baptized. I'm so happy and excited for her! :)

Saturday, Moise went fishing with some other Anciens (that's Elders as in the Elders quorum) and he caught this GIGANTIC fish that's as big as the two little Tetuira girls, haha. And he gave it to us! His brother cleaned it and cut it into fillets and now we have tons of fish. We actually shared some with the Elders, though, because the new Elders of Dumbea Nord got here Sunday and they didn't have any food. We really felt like the moms because we just kept offering more and more food, haha. Sharing is caring, everybody. Remember that!

I just want to let you all know once again that I know that the Gospel is true. Every day my testimony is strengthened by the experiences I have. I love being here in Koutio with Soeur Rooarii because we have seen miracles here! 

Je vous aime tous! Passez une tres bonne semaine! [I love you all! Have a good week!]

Soeur Matheson :)

22 June 2016 - Week 32: We're district leaders!

Bonjour tout le monde!!

Haha, to explain the subject line: We had the transfer a week early, and for the past week and this week we've been waiting for the new missionaries to arrive. Because our district leader left and our new one is coming from Vanuatu on Friday, Soeur Rooarii and I are the "district leaders" for our district until then. Haha, all we do is send the zone leaders our stats at the end of the week, but it's still fun to say that we're district leaders :) Two sister and three elders are arriving on Friday.

We had a great week! First of all, we almost reached our goal to have 20 lessons in a week--we had 17! Woo hoo!

We had an exchange with Paita this week and I got to go to Paita with Soeur Vogel! Reunited enfin!! I had a blast because there's lots to do in Paita. There's always a lesson planned or an inactive member to visit. We were busy the whole day, and we had 7 lessons together. In 24 hours! That's almost half the number we usually have in Koutio in a week. In Paita, they can easily have more than 20 lessons, and they do! The cool thing is that the members work a lot with the missionaries there because it's a small ward. And they invite the missionaries to eat a lot but also invite the amis or inactive members they know, so that's awesome. But yeah, I loved getting to experience another secteur in the mission. I'm lucky as an STL because I have the chance to go to multiple secteurs when we do exchanges :)

Other good news! We found an inactive member on Friday! We'd actually gone over there to find a different person (an inactive sister) but it turns out she doesn't live there anymore, but this other inactive member does! Little miracles! We invited him to Church, but he didn't come. But hey! At least we found one of the lost sheep, and we'll work on bringing him back to the fold!

And another cool thing is that we FINALLY met and taught Steve, an ami [investigator] who'd had a baptismal date for March that the sisters before us had been teaching. When we got to Koutio, we could never get into contact with him. It turns out he was in Lifou. Now he's back and STILL hard to get into contact with because he doesn't have his own phone... But he likes to balade [ride] everywhere around Nouméa and he's actually contacted us through other missionaries in other secteurs that he'd run into, like Ouemo and Robinson. Awkward... But we finally met him on Sunday, and he really wants to get baptized! We're excited for him and ready to help him learn the Gospel and make the necessary changes in his life so that he'll be ready.

Other than that, things are going well here in Koutio, and I'm loving my mission! We still have the baptism of Marie-Christine set up for July 9th and the cool thing is that she took two weeks off work just so we could have more lessons and so she can take the time to really prepare herself by reading and studying the Book of Mormon and the brochures. We're totally taking advantage of that, and we have several lessons scheduled with her this week! I just want to let you all know that I know the Gospel is true and there are still miracles today!

“And if there were miracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a God of miracles and yet be an unchangeable Being? And behold, I say unto you he changeth not; if so he would cease to be God; and he ceaseth not to be God, and is a God of miracles.” (Mormon 9:19)

JE VOUS AIME TOUS! 

TAL TOUL!

Soeur Matheson