Joyeuse Paques!

Happy Easter my dearly beloveds!

Fun fact: The other day we were at an ami's and she said she saw our pictures on facebook. Hahaha and they were ones that I sent home. Hahah so what do you know somehow they made it back full circle all the way to NC.

Easter was such a different experience this year. In the best way possible. All the distractions of the commercial side of this sacred day were taken away and all that remained was the true, beautiful reason that we celebrate on Easter Sunday. Our Savior. All week we shared spiritual thoughts centered on our Savior, HIs Atonement for us and His Resurrection. About the fact that we can overcome not only physical death, but also spiritual death (being separated from the presence of our Heavenly Father) because of HIM. What a beautiful beautiful message to get to share.

On Sunday we got to church early because Soeur Beagles had to play the piano. But she didn't get to pick the songs, so she couldn't fully play them. Hahaha so picture this. Room full of islanders. Two white missionaries on the stand. Both sitting on the piano bench. Me playing left hand and Soeur Beagles playing right hand. Ahahaha it was interesting. But we ended up not having to play two of them, so Heavenly Father clearly knew the best way to invite the spirit was to keep our hands off the keys ahaha.

And we were sitting up there on the stand when, 10 minutes after the start, OUR INVESTIGATORS WALKED IN!!!! I cannot even express the joy that welled inside me seeeing 3 of our investigators walk in with the member that drove them (bonus: he offered to drive them himself!). That is was pure joy feels like. Oh man, if it wasn't silly enough looking with us on the piano bench, the addition of our ginormous grins and sneaky nudges of excitement made for quite a sight. But it was amazing! They stayed for the whole time, and what a blessing it was to, as a missionary, "sit back" and watch as the members envelopped them with love and warmth.

Sunday evening there was also Concert de Paques. It was all of the youth and young adults. What an incredible sight: all of the beautiful youth, with their radiant spirits, singing in celebration of our Savior and His Resurrection. As they sang, these incredible youth of New Caledonia, I was so impressed by our Heavenly Father's love for them. Here we were, in the middle of the ocean, on an island, in one of thousands of stake centers, but I KNEW with all surety that our Heavenly Father and Savior were listening and pouring out their love upon those youth who shared their talents and their testimonies that night. To make it even better, our investigators from church came to the concert too! AND. We have a teenage boy who we  teach English to. We invited his family to the concert and THEY CAME TOO!!! Oh my, what complete happiness.

Other highlights of the week:

-visited an abondoned shipwreck that is on the beach in our secteur. So cool. And spooky.

-being fed absurd amounts of food yet again. hahaha obsessed with the people here they are hilarious. and feed us so much.

-making a video with an 11yr old investigator who picked us some pamplemousse from his tree and then explained the story of the Nephi's vision to go along with the fruit. hahah precious.

Love you forever,

Soeur Evans

ps I forgot my cord today :( pictures coming next week!

(not edited for misspelling because of cute French words.. Love the gift of tongues-- Her MOM)