Boots on the Ground

BONJOUR!

PHOTO GALLERY

A friend we have made at the outdoor market.  If we miss a week, she asks us where we've been.  All the best apples, oranges, grapes, and kiwi's come from her stand.  She's a worker and a wonder!

The mornings here have been so clear and beautiful.  We look out over the ocean and feel like we can see forever.  The rainy season needs to start soon because we are in a drought.  It is hard to believe that you can have a drought on a tropical island in the middle of the ocean, but we can really see a difference from last year.  We need those torrential rains again.

After  church with the former branch president, a member of the grand council, and an investigator.  My seat is the bare spot.

Sunset in St Pierre.  I tried to zoom in, but it made the picture fuzzy.  Still, I wanted you to get an idea of the spectacle we witnessed.

Same photo, full view.  We arrived in St Pierre to attend the Young Women in Excellence evening a little early - you ALWAYS have to allow extra time for traffic - so we drove along the beach, which turned out to be a great idea.

AND here are most of the young women of La Reunion Island.  A very special night as they shared their talents and their fun personalities.

JoJo relaxing on P day....a rare event indeed.

Bonjour a tous,

Surprise, surprise...photos first; stories later.  Like our life here, things keep switching, changing, rearranging.  As our time here is speeding toward the finish line, we are struck with a great feeling of urgency and a little anxiety.... which brings to mind many of our earlier struggles here.

First day:  Arrived at 9:00 AM, and were met by President and Sister Adams.  We dropped our bags off at the apartment, cleaned up a tiny bit after 30 hours of traveling and were whisked off to lunch.  Oh...did that ever taste good... a REAL meal.  We then spent all afternoon in meetings, and Brent had more meetings in the evening.  Our heads were spinning; our eyes drooping.  The next morning President Adams set Brent apart as a counselor in the Madagascar Mission presidency and then they were off again to Madagascar.  What is next?  No other couples here....

We laugh as we remember our first few weeks.  We didn't really know what we were supposed to be doing.  We didn't know how to get where we wanted to go; addresses made no sense at all to us.  We didn't know where to buy what we needed.  Funny story: There are beautiful pharmacies everywhere, and we kept wondering how the people here could possibly need that much medicine. Only last month did we discover that all of the good, nongrocery items that we had been used to buying in the grocery stores at home, were sold in pharmacies on La Reunion.  Contact solution, (I had been very stingy with mine, thinking that I would run out) waxed dental floss, Listerine, EVERYTHING that we thought we couldn't buy, we found because we needed some ibuprofen and finally went into a pharmacy.  It was like Disneyland for us...LOOK AT THAT...I can't believe it!...and we found all this out fifteen months too late.  I can remember Brent going into a store that would be equivalent to AT&T to buy service for his IPhone...couldn't understand a word they said and came out devastated.  The missionaries laughed when we told them about it, "Hey, don't worry Elder Heap; they weren't speaking French; they were speaking Creole."  What a relief, but still, at first, the language was difficult and talking on the phone...IMPOSSIBLE.  I thought of that a little while ago when Brent went to the Toyota dealership to purchase a new car for the missionary fleet here and was so fluent and persuasive that he saved the church 5,000 euros.  I guess we are what you would call "Boots on the Ground" here now.  We finally know our way around, know the members, know how to get what we want and need, understand what we are supposed to be doing and, for the most part, how to do it...and it is ALMOST over!

However, many of the things we have learned LATE (like grocery shopping) will benefit others.  We have many missionaries here who take an interest in cooking, like to eat healthy meals, and want to make their euros last, sooooo Joanie has a new focus...helping the missionaries with their culinary skills.  I can remember feeling sick to my stomach when I would enter the grocery store.  I assumed, when I came here, everything would have the same name, just in French.  Not so.  I soon realized that I had no idea how to find what I needed, didn't know what I was buying, couldn't look everything up in the dictionary as I shopped because it took too long, and that half the items I used at home didn't exist here.  We ate a lot of fruit, bread and cheese at first.  I digressed, sorry.  I have learned the art of substitution, have learned what things are, and have learned how to make dishes taste like home...somewhat.  Each week at district meeting, we pass out 3-4 new recipes to everyone: healthy, quick, and cheap.  Finding them has been so much fun for me and, because we know the missionaries likes and dislikes, one of our elders even likes quinoa, a favorite of ours, the searching for "the perfect recipes" has become a quest. (It is my "end-of-the-day" unwind.) Those darling missionaries are so grateful, anxious to see them, try them, and report their success.  SO FUN!

This has been a lighter post, but we do want to share something that has touched both of our hearts in a special way.  There was a convert baptism the first of September.  A single, older gentleman, quiet, with a patch over one eye.  Brent and I have watched his transformation as the gospel has enriched his life.  He supports everything:  each baptism, each activity, each meeting.  His manner is more relaxed; he talks and laughs more, and enjoys conversation with other members; he now sings in the branch Christmas choir.  When General Conference was shown here, he and Brent sat together during the priesthood session, and he told Brent after the meeting, "You don't know what all this has meant to me.  I love these meetings; I love this Gospel."  We watched, three weeks ago, as he stood at the sacrament table, now a Melchizedek Priesthood holder, ready to bless the sacrament.  His face beamed (even though we could see he was a bit nervous) and he looked so good in his white shirt and tie. It was easy to see what performing that ordinance meant to him.  Sometimes, we can appreciate the gift of the gospel more fully when we stand back and observe its blessings through the eyes of someone who has just received it.

Highlight of the week: When we attended church in St Pierre, a young boy came up to us after Sacrament meeting with a picture he had drawn for us.  It showed a BIG airplane on the tarmac, a square man and an even squarer (?) woman flashing huge smiles wearing name tags, with text bubbles:  "I am Sister Heap;" "I am Elder Heap;"  and his name signed with love.  He was so excited to give us his drawing; we felt like his grandparents.

Lowlight of the week:  Brent opened the "pantry" (which I created in part of a hall closet) and saw the gecko running around on the wall.  "Hey little friend, let's get something straight! You are welcome under the couch and behind the curtains, and even under the bed, but you are NOT welcome in the pantry!"  Now everything that is not in a can, is in a plastic zip baggie.

                             "Boots on the Ground" and loving ALMOST every minute of it.

                                                              A bientot, with much love

                                                                     The Castaways