4/13/2015: Another great week!

Koman ou ye? :)

This week was kind of slow but great. haha. 

Herdy, (Eddie)  had his baptismal interview on Saturday and passed! He was so nervous but did great. Yes the power went out for this one as well haha. Just at the end though. So he will be getting baptized on Saturday at 7 pm and we can't wait! He is super excited and so are we! 

We also had a great lesson with Bencita. She lives near Sister Blanc and her husband who invited her to General Conference. Well we got to her house and one of the first questions that she asked us was, 'So how long does it take for someone to get baptized?' haha.... Hold up... What? She had read the Restoration tract and prayed to know if it was true and felt that it was. She also understands now the importance of the priesthood and it was so cool! Sister Blanc was able to testify strongly to her and helped us out with some translating. We had an awesome lesson on the Restoration though and she loved church! We asked her if she had any concerns and her only concern was that she didn't understand how we sing the hymns in sacrament meeting haha! I can live with that! I'm excited for the next lesson we get to have with her. 

Other than that, that's pretty much all that's exciting that happened. Sorry it's not much. I hope you all have a great day. Thanks for the emails! I'll talk to you all next week. :)

Love,

Sister Mouritsen

A morning run with Sister Lewis

A morning run with Sister Lewis

4/7/2015: Easter Weekend!

Bon Jou Mwen Fami!

Man this was just the best week ever. I love Easter Weekend with Conference and everything! It was great! 

So on All Fools Day, we had District Meeting and right after District Meeting Sister Nelson and I had follow-ups with the Zone Leaders so Sisters Wint and Lewis left. As they were driving out they saw a family standing outside the gate of the church. Apparently they are members and they were vacationing in Nassau. Well it was their last day and the wife woke up and just had the strongest impression to find the church and the missionaries. So they went driving and they stopped someone and asked him if he knew where the church was and he said he knew one of the members so he gave them his number. They called the number and he referred them to another member who gave them directions to the church. And then lucky enough we were there! Which is pretty rare. They live in Japan but they speak Spanish fluently and also Japanese. They have two daughters who only speak Spanish and Japanese. The husband is teaching the wife and daughters English so he would translate for us. But they were SOOO excited to see sister missionaries haha! The wife just kept talking about how her daughters only ever knew of Elders and she wanted them to see sister missionaries so they would have a desire to serve missions as well. The husband taught at BYU as well. Well they wanted to take us out to lunch and it was about 1:30 and their flight was leaving at 3:30. So we went somewhere quickly and then they left. But it was a really cool experience as they were telling us about how they followed the Holy Ghost's promptings. It was definitely a testimony builder. 

General Conference was AMAZING! As always! We even had 3 investigators come all together well.... 2 1/2..... hahahaha. But one of them was Eddie who came to all 5 sessions! He is great and just loves loves the church!  Man conference was great! We watched it at the church online. It had to buffer a lot and we missed some things but that's the beauty of the Liahona magazine :) I can't wait to go back and read everything over again! I had so many favorites! One of my top favorites was definitely Elder Pearson. He's just so blunt and strong and straight forward. It was great. But I had SO many favorites! 

We also got transfer calls this week but nothing changed here in Nassau haha. But Sister Garrett is training in Cayman! I'm so excited for her! I'm a Grandma... haha! :) 

So the 1/2 investigator that came to conference, Ronale... yeah... We went and had a lesson with him yesterday and found out he is actually a MEMBER. WHAT!? We had even committed him to be baptized! What the heck. We flipped. So we had just had a GREAT spirit filled lesson on the Restoration and he says, 'so... what if I've already been baptized into the LDS church...?' Jeez man! This lesson totally just changed subjects. haha. He got baptized in 2000 when he was living in Florida but soon after went less-active. So he thought that because it had been like 15 years that his name was just written off the books haha! Ronale! He is so funny! So now we are shifting gears a little bit and still working on him coming to church but just with the mindset that he has been baptized haha. It was so funny though!

The Creole is coming a long well! I can pray and have been able to bear my testimony in lessons. I love it. A member said that he would give us lessons on Mondays as well. Sweet! Who knew I'd for real be speaking another language besides Patois out here. :) 

We have had some great lessons with Eddie as well. He is really progressing and has been reading the Book of Mormon consistently and like I said, just loves the church so much. His baptismal day is April 18th and we couldn't be more excited for him to get to make this covenant finally! 

I love this work and I can't believe I only have about 6 1/2 ish months left. Don't talk about it! Oh.... I brought it up. haha. Well I love you all so much! Mwen renmen vou! Stay strong, keep the Faith.

Love,

Sister Mouritsen

Birthday cake!

Cake in milk - yum!

The four of us!

3/30/2015: Zone Conference!

Good afternoon!

We had a really awesome week this week! I really do love missionary work. And I don't have much time so this is going to be short again. 

But Zone Conference was awesome! We picked up the Turks sisters on Friday and the others sisters picked up the Cayman Sisters Friday night. It was so much fun getting to all hang out together here in Nassau! 

The Freeport Elders, President Brown, Sister Brown and their new baby Jerom, and the AP's flew in on Saturday morning. Sister Lewis and I had to drive without our companions to go pick them up. I felt so sick to have to drive by myself.... ugh...haha. After picking them up we drove to the church and then drove back home to pick up all of the sisters. And Zone Conference was AMAZING! It was just so inspired! It is really rejuvenating. AND we got to watch Meet the Mormons!!! I know you all have seen it already...... So it's nothing new..... But man it was great!!!!! Wasn't it?? haha. So spiritual. :) I didn't want it to end!  

After Zone Conference the sisters' investigator was getting baptized. Her kids all are baptized and she is the last and man was it great. Then after the baptism we had General Conference and man was that good too! :):):) Overall it was just an awesome Spirit filled-day. 

It was great to get to see Sister Garrett again as well and to get to hear all about how my Cayman family is doing. :) I miss them like crazy. Today we are taking them to the airport to go back home. Sad day. But it's gotta happen. Time just moves by so quickly. 

Life is good. Lavi Bon. :)

Love,

Sister Mouritsen 

These are the off-island sisters.  

Sister Rampersad is going home in a week from wednesday! And Latario..... haha.....a member.

3/23/2015: 11 Months Today!

Good Evening Family!

JETER! OH my! He is the cutest thing that I ever did see. I can't wait to meet this little man! Is he lifting weights yet? Running? He's had to have thrown a baseball right? No time to lose!

I got my package this week too. Thank you! Haha The longest birthday I've ever had. :) Heck yes. It's March 23rd though so it's my mission birthday. Good timing mummeh! Thank you! I can't wait to open it again. When the customs lady opened it I closed my eyes so it would be a surprise. :)

I had my last date with Doctor Downes on Friday. I don't have to wear a bandage anymore and I can even shower normally now too! Life is good. And life moves quickly......... 

This week was great of course. I don't have much time today because we spent the day deep cleaning the house. Literally all day. haha. It was like it hadn't been deep cleaned for YEARS. No really. So it was good. We got rid of the roach and lizard nests and had a lot of fun doing it. :) 

Not too much exciting happened this week. It's getting hot though! 

We had another funeral in the branch.... I hadn't ever met him either though. He was in the other sisters' area. Thankfully it was at our church though. It was a great way to teach the family though and find some new investigators. They definitely seemed interested when President Ferdinand spoke about the Plan of Salvation.

Islande is still progressing well. She came to church again. She can't wait to be a member.

All is well here in Nassau. I get to see Sister Garrett on Friday!!! Cayman, Freeport, and Turks/Caicos are coming out to stay with us until Monday for Zone Conference! I can't wait! Crazy how things worked out like that. :)

Well, sorry for the short, non-detailed email. I love you all! Have a great week!

Remmay,

Ser Mouritsen

Sister Nelson and I are getting so good at Kreyol! (Apparently that's how it's spelled.) I'm proud. :)

3/16/15: Best Mission Birthday Present Ever! :)

Hello Good afternoon! :)

We had a great week this week! Man it was awesome! Last Monday we got to go to one of the biggest resorts in the Bahamas, Atlantis! A member has connections. It was so cool. I mean just watching all of those people in swimsuits in the hot sun slide down water slides and hang out at the beach and the pool. Man. Life of a missionary. haha. It really was cool though. We got to see all of the aquariums and stuff. 

Yes indeed, Sylvia got baptized on Saturday and confirmed yesterday!! It was quite the ordeal though.... Wednesday night she was supposed to have her interview at 7:30 right after the broadcast for the YSA's and President Ferdinand was supposed to pick her up but he got the times wrong again for the broadcast so instead of it ending at 7:30, it ended at 8:30 so he didn't come pick her up, and we wouldn't have had the computer until after and it was too late to do the interview at 8:30. So we rescheduled for Thursday morning at 11:45. But Wednesday night someone decided to use their agency and brake into the church. All the doors inside are supposed to be locked and he broke into every single room, tore apart the Branch President's office, shattered all the glass in the doors and shattered a hurricane proof window as well. When he broke into the Family History center he only stole two things, a projector, which he replaced with a different projector he had stolen earlier, and the webcam for Skype! Jeez! Of all things. We needed the webcam for Sylvia's interview with the Zone Leaders in Freeport! Man! And that morning Jerome couldn't find where Sylvia lived to pick her up so we had to go show him and when we went to pick up the members to come with us for a lesson before Sylvia's interview they were running late. Oh gosh.. Stress man. Stress. Eventually we got the church though and that's when we found out that someone had broken in. The Police were supposed to come dust for prints at 2 and they didn't show up until hours later as well haha. So we couldn't really touch anything. Camillot offered for us to go to his house and pick up his iPad and Laptop to see if we could use that and so we did and when we got back to the church the internet stopped working. Man. Eventually we got it to work and the interview happened! Camillot was there to translate what was being said. So the interview was like 2x as long because of that... 

But the baptisms were great! The sisters had one of the investigators get baptized as well! So Dach and Sylvia both got baptized! The crazy week ended really well on Sunday with the confirmations. :) Sylvia even brought someone to church with her who wants to learn more about the gospel! She is such a great missionary! :)

Tuesday we had another great lesson with Mr. Hinds. He is so prepared, even if he doesn't know it. Someday he'll be a great member if it's not now. But the questions he asks are just so crazy! He is a really smart guy and moves quickly. We taught him about the Godhead and it just completely blew his mind haha. He started like teaching us about the pre-existence without even knowing it. He didn't think there was a pre-existence before we came and taught him. I'm excited to see what happens with him. :)

After Mr. Hinds' lesson we went to see Wyslanda's mom and boyfriend. They don't speak much English as well so President Ferdinand and Lisa translated for us. Man it was a great lesson! We taught the Restoration and Islande, the mom, just kept saying how she didn't know she was looking for this but that she needed it! And she came to church on Sunday! She will be baptized I have no doubt about that. :)

Overall it was a great birthday week. I know this church is true and I know that the Lord is hastening his work. This is a great and marvelous work that we get to be a part of and I love it. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else but here right now. Love you all. Thanks for the emails!

Love,

Sister Mouritsen

Atlantis! With Sister Nelson

Atlantis! With Sisters Nelson, Wint, and Lewis

Pi Day! B-day! Bap Day!

Baptism for Sylvia and Dach!

3/9/2015: March already?

Hi Family! :)

We had such an awesome week this week! And it sounds like you all did as well for the most part! I'm so glad to hear that! Thanks for the emails!!

Silvia is still progressing well. She has her baptism this week on Saturday and her interview on Wednesday! I'm so excited for her! And she is as well. Some nerves of course but she loves the Gospel. She comes to church every week and reads her Book of Mormon all the time!

Joycline is doing great as well! She also came to church. She's making this big change and has been loving it! She just loves that she can't stand the smell of smoke any more! hahaha! it's amazing what the Gospel can do!

On Saturday we went and visited Wyslanda. She is a young girl, 12, who was baptized last year. When we got there her parents were there and we invited them to sit in on the lesson with us and they did! We talked about the importance of prayer and a bit of the restoration. Man it was so cool because they have not been receptive until now! They speak little English though and Wyslanda doesn't know much Creole so on Tuesday night President and Sister Ferdinand are going to come with us to share more of the restoration with them. I'm so excited!!!!

Other than that, that's mostly what happened this week. I had another date with Doctor Downes on Friday and he said that I only  have one more visit with him and then I am finished! Yes man! Finish. I'm ready to have a normal Friday. He's taking up our proselyting time... And he's not interested really. :( 

Well I hope you all have a great week! Thanks for the package mom! I got it last Monday! The blanket is the best thing in the world! SO soft! But even better than that were the letters. Thanks! I love you all so much! Have a safe week! 

Love,

Sister Mouritsen

3/2/2015: Translating, translating... translating....

Good afternoon! :)

Yes this week was transfers and the branch was so sad to see Sister Judd go as was I. :( 7 Months is a long time in one area though. She's excited for Jamaica again. We dropped her at the airport Tuesday morning and Sister Lewis, Sister Wint and I were a trio for a few days! It was awesome! Monday was COLD! Tuesday was blistering so Wednesday, man, we all three woke up looking like death. We were so sick.Throwing up again, coughing, sneezing everything. Nassau has been rude to me! haha. Every single week since I have been here, there is something going on with my body. Since last Wednesday, when we were sick, I lost my voice... Yah... It's funny though because NOBODY can understand Sister Nelson. She's got the THICK Jamaican Patois, and I have no voice except for what sounds like some puffs of air coming out. So you can imagine how it's going with me translating but not really translating and the people still understanding us. Hahaha. It's quite fun though. Good thing the Spirit is the one who testifies and the one that matters.

But Sister Nelson flew in on Thursday in the afternoon. She's awesome! She's from the Parrish of Clarendon, May Pen and she's been out 10 months on her mission as well. :) She is hilarious and such a hard worker! I love her! I bet we will be companions for at least 2 transfers so I'm really excited!! :) 

We've been able to have some great lessons with Gislaine. She is amazing. She was able to come to church on Sunday as well and she even bore her testimony! That's scary! I was so happy to see it though. She is really doing great and progressing well. She says that since she stopped smoking since Wednesday, she can't even stand the smell of smoke. It's fantastic. She really loves the Book of Mormon and sees the strength that it has given her. 

We also saw Augustine this week and he said he was so excited to see us, which was weird because he never says that. There was just something different about him.... A light in his eyes. We sat down and he immediately started telling us that he had read the Book of Mormon and prayed about it like we had asked him to do last time. And he knew that it was true. It was such a cool experience to see the change of heart in him. He has to go to Haiti to sort some things out though and then he said he will be able to come to church. His cousin who has sat in during all the lessons whom we thought could be interested, (she only speaks Creole, little English) turns out that she was telling the member that we shouldn't be there teaching him and that he doesn't want to hear from us, but Augustine said okay just stop, and she stopped. He knows these things are true and I love the progress he's made! He just says he needs some time and he's not ready to be baptized until he comes back.

Well thank you for the emails. I love you all. Be safe. Have a great week! 

Love,

Sister Mouritsen

P.S. My nickname for this week is Gangster. Because of my harsh non-existent voice that nobody expects to come out of my mouth. haha!