"COLLETTE GOT BAPTIZED" - week 42

(written january 18, 2015)

youll be an amazing young woman girls camp director!!! it'll be so fun :):) I loved girls camp some of my favorite memories :):)

this week!!! it was almost non existent lol we just stayed inside for like 4 days soeur Jacobsen got Zekia.... its this mosquito disease that just makes you hurt.. and if a mosquito bites someone with this disease then bites you.. you get it. think vampire. but I didn't get it!! so that was rad. she's doing better now we can do missionary work again :)

COLETTE GOT BAPTISED it was so amazing. She was so excited she told us before that she just knew the things we were saying were true and just wanted to share the way she felt with everyone!! and that she couldn't sleep the night before because she was so excited. and right after while she started walking out of the water she ran to soeur Jacobsen and I and gave us the biggest hug and we all started crying then she started hugging all the members. It was a really good day.:) Then we headed to go see frère drapin and hes doing good he came to church again on sunday showed us the pictures when he got baptized and we had a really good lesson with him! It was a really good week :)

We also met this rad Haitian family and they taught us how to make rice!!! ITS DELICIOUS. We tried to make it I added WAY to many peppers it was ridiculous hot and spicy. so well try it again and soeur Jacobsen said this time she'll be in charge of the peppers lol

love you all!!! have a good week :)

soeur driggs

"chicken pot pie is totally an american dish" - week 41

(written january 11, 2015)

MOM HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

so rad today is the exact day of your birthday hahaha I was so stoked I got to email you ON your birthday :)

thanks lol oh my goodness they look so good in their ties:) oh my goodness right!! the pants are SO COMFY!!! I also bought a shirt today for you I saw it and was like... my mom needs this shirt so ill send it sometime lol to be honest I miss Mexican food!! it doesn't exist here lol its like a different type of spicy food that's delicious but taccos don't exist haha but that's alright they've got a bunch of other cool stuff! WHAT THE that's so rad!! tell them I say hi:) and give them a book of Mormon for me will ya?? lol and I mini one would be perfect!! I looked and I couldn't find one here so thanks:)

sooo she disappeared we've gone to her house a few times and she is just never home slash doesn't answer our phone calls anymore so that was kinda sad but I have a feeling shell see the missionaries again one day and be inspired to talk to them. :)

IT WAS SUCH A GOOD WEEK!!!! so Colette is so excited to get baptized cuz she owns a bakery and just LOVES cooking we told her we would teach her how to make amzeican food so we planned this FHE for her to get to know members more and so we could also talk to her boys about the gospel lol and were like chicken pot pie is totally an american dish so we told her we would make it!!! .... we have both never made chicken pot pie ever lol..... so we totally made up a recipe I had her teach me how to make the crust (which was supper easy!!) and we made this pie and she taught us how to make this pudding desert thing. It was so fun!!! and the pie tasted real nice!! it was real good. were so excited to get her ready for her baptism!!

ALSO we've been working with this less active his name is frère drapin!! he came to church this sunday and told us he wanted to stay :) I began to cry in that moment I was so excited for him and soeur Jacobsen and I were talking about how we feel like we really didn't do much in helping these people make these choices but how important the spirit was in all of this and how this work is only accomplished with the spirit. I love being a missionary lol

anyway love you all!!! have a happy birthday mom :)

Oh and one of the members bought me a matching necklace as her and we wore them sunday :) it was a good sunday lol

soeur Jacobsen got sick this week so I wrote like this 4 page paper slash letter about hope for you lol

cool beans ill do that!! there was this really rad one (nativity set) of a coconut but they only had one left and soeur Jacobsen took it... ill look for some more though just in case!!

ALSO!! tell HK we met someone from hungary this week!! he said he moved cuz he was looking for something to change in his life. taught us how to say a few words in Hungarian he was cool!

annnd last p day for an FHE we went to this members house and she feed us cow foot... its so gross. it tastes like the fat on a chicken and the hair is still on it. not a favorite lol but the member is awesome!! so it was cool getting to know her over this bowl of cow foot.

when you come out ill make sure she cooks it for us lol

"this cardboard cutout is hilarious" - week 40

(written january 4, 2015)

oh my goodness this cardboard cut out is hilarious nice work on the cake!! its my favorite!!! lol hey if you havent sent the package yet wanna sneek in a little crystal light energy things lol some days you just get a little tired lol

so colette is about 60 or 70 shes older but looks like shes 40... its crazy! and i didnt know either of them.. but thats cool for them!! hahaha you keep in contact with joe?? and transfers are in 2 weeks... were pretty sure im staying cuz jacobsens been here for 6 months and president doesnt like when someone stays longer then 6 months in one area but you never know!

yess!! i love that scripture :) i think we should share that one more often with people here actually and well switch the word for love! thanks for that:) i even thought of a member who we could share it with later this week!! i found a quote that i really liked its "hope is trust in gods promise, faith that if we act now, the desired blessings will be fulfilled in the future." and how there is a difference in believing in god and believing god. and how we hope and have the faith that god will fulfill all his promises as we are obedient. i hope that made sense but thats what i found for this week!!

the other soeurs are still with us!! there apartment fell through so they get to stay with us for a little longer :)

This week was so good!!!! so colette is just so excited to be baptised she had her interview already and is so excited!! OH and then this week we kinda had all our appointments fall through lol so we prayed and we prayed saying specifically where we should go in the prayer gave a few options and we both turned to each other and said we felt impressed to go this less active part member family house lol so we went and they were not home. lol but we both felt like we had to be there for some reason so we walked to the top floor and rung the doorbell a nice lady in only a towel came to the door we began talking to her and she actually did most of the talking telling us about her relationship with god probably 10 min later she was like... come inside! and then went to the back room and put some clothes on lol and we had an amazing lesson with her!! we talked to her for a while and she told us that usually she doesnt talk to people like us and especially doesnt let them in the door but she said she herd a voice in her head that said "let them in the house" and then again she herd the same thing "let them in the house" so she let us in and said that the night before she prayed to have more help and guidance in her life and then we just showed up at the door and she said she felt so happy and that she know we were sent from god and then she came to church on sunday!! she told us she knows this is where god needs her to be and loved church. she calls us her guardian angles and it was just an amazing experience. mom i have never felt so close to the spirit in my entire life. or gotten so emotional so often and been so happy. I cannot describe the life as a missionary here but i love it.

annd

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TATE!!! so excited for you and its so cool you get to receive the priesthood this week im sad i have to miss that but its truly such an amazing thing. LOVE YOU!!

and happy birthday stina!!

oh ! and tell salena thanks for the christmas gift!! i just got it :) 

they play this game here for the entire month of january lol you made a cake and put a little person from the nativity in it. and whoever gets the person is the king for the year!! this boys name is nathal and he won!! never seen a kid so excited lol

"i have an engagement for you"- week 39

(written december 28, 2015)

MOM!!! it was so good seeing everyone at christmas time :) everyone looks good cant believe goob was Santa thats hilarious... i cant believe ill be 20 either.... i remember looking up to people that were 20 and now im gonna be 20 i feel like im 14 for life lol but its been good!!

THIS WEEK was so good:) remember colette?? well we taught her this week about the temples and talked about her daughter and how she can do the work for her and she was so excited!! in the lesson she began to make plans on when she could go to the temple and the different temples she wanted to visit i just started crying in the lesson i was so happy for her and her son was there for this lesson and she told us that he could see the difference in his moms life and we invited him to begin reading and praying and come to church with her to have the blessings that he sees in his moms life in his life too. He said he would and i cant describe how i felt in the moment but it was a good moment. At the end of the lesson she said she chose a baptismal date but didnt want to tell us the date until the next lesson so we have to wait 3 days!! felt like an eternity lol but her birthday is actually the 18 of janurary and she wants to get baptised on the 16 two days before so she can start this new year clean being a disciple of christ. I cried again lol i havent ever teared up so much in my life but i love it! Were so excited for colette and miguael its just so good.

Lately weve been working with this less active man named frere drapin. he is one of the nicest people i have ever met!! We made resolutions with him last night and we asked him what he is going to be doing this year to grow closer to christ! He said he wanted to really study the scriptures to understand and know them (so were going to call him everyday to see how his studies went lol) to do genealogy work and come closer to church (im not exactly sure how to translate the work he used with it but it was something like that) it was such a good lesson!! he said he can come to church this next week and were so excited for him!!

anyway i actually left my camera home so im supper sorry about that one... next week ;) ill send photos of the app too!! LOVE YOU!!

soeur driggs

MOM i have an engagement for you :) this is something we do every transfer but i realized it selfish to not share lol i know there are a few preach my gospels at home so every transfer here is 6 weeks so every 6 weeks we can switch it up!! but to choose a christlike attribute and study it for 6 weeks study what it means how christ showed us this attribute how the prophets in the book of mormon and modern prophets are an example of this attribute and apply it in your life!! right now im working on hope :) and every week ill share what i learned with you and what i learned from the week about it:) and then next transfer we can choose a different one!! we dont have to do the same one unless you want to but to work on them together would be really cool :) anyway i hope that made since it talks about a few on page 117 in preach my gospel!! LOVE YOU:)

"I just want to say that i love our family" - week 38

(written december 21, 2015)

This week has been CRAZY but so fun its been transfer week and you'll never guess BUT GUESS WHO IS ON THE ISLAND WITH ME!!! 

SOEUR WINTER:):;):):):) were not comps but were on the same island so thats cool. lol They dont have there own place to stay yet so they are staying with us and its awesome! they'll stay with us until the 30 i think! its been real fun :) Her comp is soeur cruz she's from sagas and she's so sweet! i like her a lot!! 

So we found this family a while back i think i told you about them its a family of 6 mom dad 2 boys 2 girls everyone is older then 16 and they're just the sweetest family!! We've been teaching them for a while now the mom when we met her said she had a conversation with her daughter about how she can become closer to christ and the next day we contacted her!!! So we taught them and earlier this week we talked to them about their prayers and the importance slash how its helped them in their lives. They dont all pray everyday or as a family so we made them all prayer rocks so they wouldn't forget!! one morning on a run we picked up a few rocks lol ill sent you a picture of them. In the same lesson we taught them about reading in their scriptures and going to church! THEY ALL CAME TO CHURCH THIS SUNDAY minus the dad but he had work. It was probably one of the most exciting experiences of my entire life. im not even kidding when i saw that lol i was so happy to see them all walk in. They said they felt good and they felt happy we talked to them a little about baptism and they said they'll pray about it and oh man it was such a good week. ALSO they taught us how to make the national dish of saint lucia sword fish! and boiled bananas it was not very good but im excited i know how to make it lol 

Then other miracles we visited this less active man this week he hasn't been to the church for a while but when he went he was like supper crazy active!! had like 4 callings and just loved it. He was baptized in france but then moved here and stopped coming to church :( BUT we saw him this week and we took a member with us and by the end he was like..; alright i think i need to come back and offered to give this member who gets stops on sundays to give her a ride!! AHHHH it was such a good lesson!! he didn't come... but next week! lol i can feel it:) 

this week we've been teaching a lot about the plan of salvation and i just want to say that i love our family i love that we can all be together for forever its such an amazing thing!! Its so powerful teaching it to families too cuz god created families on earth for us for us to grow together to practice his gospel and come closer to him. Its such an amazing blessing he has given us. Im so excited to skype but mom you can't cry. otherwise ill cry. i dont  think i wanna cry lol anyway i love you!!! and info for skype ill be doing it at 10:50 here 7:50 your time i think? sorry our members have to do things later on in the day it was the only time we could? lol but im excited the same!! :) anyway LOVE YOU!! 

merry christmas:) 

"it's christmas time!!" - week 37

(written december 14, 2015)

MOM!!!

its christmas time!! 

soeur jacobsen got real sick this week just so many random things happened to her she got like jardia and then some weird thing happened to her face it got all swollen and she broke out in hives it was not supper fun for her. She is a newly lactose intolerant i feel so bad for her lol but this week is going to be better for her we said a prayer and she's feeling good!!

Colette is doing so good!! she has to move so she's moving about 40 min from where we live when before she was only about a 5 min walk from our apartment. She is doing so good though!! working on closing her bakery on sundays and just loving church!! haha i just love her so much. We had zone conference this week!! every zone conference they randomly choose 2 people to give a talk and i have been chosen every zone conference to give a talk lol

for the talk this time i talked about the apostle peter and how he starts off saying to christ "lord depart from me for i am a sinful man" and the lord then replies "fear not" and just how peter starts off feeling so unworthy and its through his experiences in this life that made him this great apostle whose testimony changed the world. and how its easy for us to compare ourselves to peter that through our experiences our testimonies can grow and we can become these great disciples of the lord. An attribute that peter has that i love is he has the most interesting combination of boldness and fear he had enough faith to walk on the water but then he denied our savior three times anyway thats was just a little schpeal. i love you all and i hope you have a good week!!

soeur driggs 

joyeux noel!!

"people just love singing here"-week 36

(written december 7, 2015)

yeah!! wasn't it so good!! we watched it last night at like 9:00 cuz were 2 hours behind utah but it was amazing!!

Colette is doing so good!! she read this week in the book of mormon from 1 nephi to ether!! we were both like.. uhhh just had no words we were so excited for her. She believes the book of mormon is true and just goes of on the blessings she's seen in her after she started meeting with us. This week we invited her to close her bakery on sunday and she was all for it! we invited and she was like yeah alright i can do that. It was so cool!! she has a testimony of these these things and its just amazing she's going to get baptized on the 19 so just keep her in your prayers! actually she defiantly starts work every morning at 2 in the morning were going to see if we can help her one monday morning and maybe learn how to make some pain of chocolate! 

Jordan is doing really good he keeps telling us all he wants to do is follow christ and is just searching for what christ wants him to do. Its so cool to see how humble the people here are and so many people we are teaching right now just want to follow and be on the right path to follow god. The people we teach are even examples to me and how open their heart is and there strong desire to follow god in their lives just amazes me everyday. 

Its christmas time!! I absolutely love christmas lol its probably one of my favorite times of the year:) its just filled with love and people just love singing here lol I loved the song that Motab sang last night i dont know what the songs called but its off the verse in 2 nephi 19:6! just a special time to think of christ and what he has done for us and what we can do for him. we ask a lot of people here how they show their love for christ in their lives and in return how christ shows his love for them personally. We get a variety of answers but one of my favorites is comfort how god doesn't take away our trials or difficulties but he helps us get through them in Mosiah chapter 24 it talks about how the people are persecuted and god doesn't deliver them from their trials not right away anyway but in verse 15 it says the lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the lord. this just seemed too be an ongoing theme throughout this week but its true and I know the lord is with us always and through growing closer to him we can find comfort and paix dans notre vie et its just amazing. 

anyway love you!! hope you have a good week!! 

soeur driggs

this is our sweet christmas set up 

found a car wrapped entirely in bottle caps 

we had sister house this week soeurs from gwada came to stay with us!! 

"I gotta tell you about Collette" - week 35

(written november 30, 2015)

YES SNOW!! haha its still so hot here lol and we definately missed the fact that it was even thanksgiving... i was on for nightly phone calls and elder c was like well happy thanksgiving good night! and then i turned to soeur jacosben and was like.. hey its thanksgiving today... at that moment we both just had two huge bowls of ice cream to celebrate lol it was fun! 

Jordan is doing good!! still going strong i think we are working with him a lot but he's so ready and he has this desire to know if these things are true and just loves the message so were stoked for him. ALSO i gotta tell you about Colette I'm SO EXCITED FOR HER she's amazing so this week we just stopped by her house to say hello and she just gets so excited every time she sees us i love her! and on tuesday we had a lesson with her and we asked her the blessings she's seen from keeping our invitations slash the commandments and she went off for like 20 min on how many blessings she's seen and how she is just a happier person and even in her bakery she's seeing blessings and she said her son who is currently not taking the lessons said he can even see the blessings the difference in her and now he wants to learn more!! he wanted a book of mormon for himself so he could know slash have these blessings for himself. It is just so cool to see how the things that god promises us are such a real thing!! Colette comes to church now and every week she is just like "this goes by way to quickly!!" she's loves it!! oh my goodness im getting so excited just writing about her lol anyway that was a huge highlight of my week 

the HUGE FAMILY so we went back and our plan of action was to just knock on the families individual doors so we could teach every one separately and teach to their needs. They live probably a 30 min drive from where we live. and we chose a day when 0 of them were home lol so well go back again this week! 

love you!!! have a good week sorry ill send pictures next week!! 

"one of my favorite words is Remember"- week 34

(written November 23, 2015)

i did not realize tate was a smarty pants who just likes chemistry lol thats so rad!! and plays!! what the thats so cool i think he will love that. Oh man if i told you what we ate.. yeah lots of fruits and we decided this week were going to be better at eating veggies we actually are going healthier we have had maybe not the best diet lol 

MOM we had just the coolest experience this week on friday it was amazing so we went RCLA hunting this week and while we were looking for this person we stumbled on this family of like 10 people we told them we are looking for someone and then they were like well wait who are you why do you have badges?? we explained and they told us to sit down they wanted to talk to us. So we just taught this family of like grandparents there kinds and then there kids the restoration and gave them book of mormon and then they said to come back next saturday cuz thats when they'll all be together again!! after that they said they think that the RCLA person lived in the house next to them which was also just more of there family its just this huge family that lives in the same neighborhood! so they walked over with us to see if out RCLA was there and he wasn't bet then the next family was like well who are you and so we explained again and there was 21 people there just all sitting outside on this deck asking us questions so naturally we taught them about joseph smith and the book of mormon we didn't have enough books for everyone but they said to come back next week too!! now this entire family is 7th day Adventist and so they got a little funny when we said our sabbath day is on a sunday and so I just testified that we can know these things we can know if joseph smith is a prophet and if the book of mormon is true if we pray and read and after they were all like "amen!" i just felt like in that moment we were living the stories in the book of mormon for some reason and were going back this saturday to teach them again cuz they want to see us again which is so cool. and even better the less active is a member of the family and so we get to talk to him as well lol it was honestly such an amazing experience! 

The best part about the week though was probably when president herrington came to speak to the branch we had a little fireside. He talked about how in life we have a lot of ups and downs life is good and then sometimes it gets hard its not so good but how are faith everyday needs to be increasing through the good times and the bad and that it should not falter with the sate that we are in. it should just always be increasing and invited us to think about things we are doing everyday to increase our faith. We had an investigator there his name is jordan he said he wants to do everything he can to be baptized after that. We told him to go home and to write about how he felt and to not forget it and to keep the engagement that president herrington gave us. I think i have decided one of my favorite words is remember. anyway i hope everyone has a good week!!

Welcome the newest member of the Abymes Branch. Annie got baptized! (This was casey's investigator in Guadeloupe. She was transfered to Martinique a week before this day)

Pictures below:

first one : nothin's cooler then being cool

second one: sometimes we do studies on the beach 

third: road trips so the other side of our area 50 min away

"I got homesick like once" - week 33

(written november 16, 2015)

I got homesick like once i think at the beginning of my mission. just like a random day i looked up and saw the clouds.. a little weird i know... thought of home and then we have to get on our bikes and bike up a huge hill and then my thought went to heavenly father please help me bike up this hill lol but no i dont get homesick its just a little different you dont really have time to think about yourself or family its just like how can i help the people here and things like that you know?? i think it be different if i had down time though lol  YEAH kennedy is awesome!!

remember that one time we volunteered at keen and that required us just basically running for a solid 3 hours with some kids and it was the best three hours of our lives!! i remember that lol 

the branch here is small its just like on top of this car garage place with a laminated sign that says church of jesus christ... but its growing we had like 15 investigators at church on sunday between all the missionaries so good things are happening lol i dunno when i start driving i think soeur jacobsen loves driving so I'm guessing not for a while lol and its the same as america the right side. round point are the best things invented!! and banks is coming here on the 1 so she'll just bring it with her! it'll be good :) thanks for sending it!! also tell grandma thanks for the letter!!!!! i love her:)

alright this week lol i dunno why but this week was just full of so many miracles!!! like so many it was incredible i loved this week lol we started off the week teaching this woman from st lucia its another island and they speak english there so we teach her in english SHES SO CUTE and she has really bad eyes so she had trouble reading the book of mormon but we told her she could listen to it online and i think at our next lesson she had gotten to like chapter 15 in first nephi and she just LOVES it!! she said she wanted to get baptized and now her and her and her boyfriend are working on their papers to get married:) gaah so cool and then her friend was in the lesson with us just cuz she was hanging out with justina and her friend was like well i want this book and we said she could definately have one lol and now were teaching her!!

we have been trying to help luke share these things with his wife like the book of mormon the lessons and explain what this means to him and this week he did it!! he read in the book of mormon with his wife!!! and she's going to be at the next lesson with us:) 

rene joseph we met him like two weeks ago and he is my favorite person reminded me of grandpa driggs 100 percent just the nicest person and he started reading in the book of mormon and praying about it and just accepts everything we invite him to do!! 

Lastly collette she started reading in the book of mormon this week too she got to chapter 8 i think and just understands everything in it!! she started reading it and then all the sudden she found the time to come to church and pray and read more she says she loves the book of mormon. 

basically the book of mormon is so powerful!! it gives us strength and encouragement to continue and for me personally just help me feel the love of god the love he has for all his children. i think its hel 15:7 and it talks about how its through the power of the scriptures that brings us to have faith in christ and to repentance and its so true! oh my goodness i love the book of mormon lol more than i ever have in my entire life!! :) it just fills me and the people we teach and see with so much joy its incredible!! 

anyway sorry for the novel i was just so stoked on this week lol there were so many other miracles too just like random people helping us out!! anyway i love you!! hope you have a good week :)

soeur driggs

thats so weird lol it doesn't snow here i still sweat throughout the day haha oh and if you send another package at some point wanna throw in a motab christmas cd? were only allowed to listen to motab or reverent hymns good thing my entire iPod is motab lol tate!!! i love this photo. also while i wait for these pictures to load we went RCLA hunting this week and we thought we found a less active person but turns out it was his cousin! so we knock on this door and this little girl answered she ran to go get her mom her mom was in the shower and came to the door in her towel we told her we were looking for a philip she said that was her cousin told us to wait for her so we did she runs in the house and gets dressed runs outside told us to get in her car so we did and she just drove us to her cousins we ended up teaching her and her entire extended family cuz there was just a gathering of them at her aunts house we gave her and her boyfriend a book of mormon and they started reading it!!! then she left for france and won't be back until janurary but she said shell continue reading it!! it was awesome lol and then they gave us a ride back home. i love being a missionary lol

love you!!