This Is It

8/28/2018

Hello everybody! Well, this is it, my last email home. Usually this is the part where I give the transfer news, but we all know where I'll be transferring to haha. But Elder Jocelyn will also be leaving the area to go to Hollywood Creole, and Elder Nielson will be coming in with a trainee! What a wild ride haha. This was a good week to send it off.

This week we had a zone wide exchange, and Elder Tucker from Immokalee Creole came and joined me for the day. We didn't have much planned, but those plans were destroyed when we discovered that Elder Jocelyn had taken the car keys with him to Immokalee! Oof! And Elder Diego was borrowing my bike for the day! Oof! So Elder Tucker and I got to ride around with the Spanish elders all day and tried to find productive things to do haha. Let's just say that I got to know Elder Tucker pretty well haha.

We also had a lot of blitzes, where a bunch of missionaries go to one area to knock. It's pretty fun, we get to switch up companions while we knock. I've knocked with pretty much every elder in the zone by now haha.

This week we also had a day where we got to stay the night over with the Lehigh Acres elders to be able to work more in that area. That was a fun time, if only you knew Elder Meredith and Elder Campbell, then you would understand haha. We slept on the couches in the living room, the closest thing I've had to camping out since the hurricane haha.

On Sunday, you guessed it, they asked me to give a talk haha. I didn't prepare anything and just talked about some of the lessons I've learned from my mission and some experiences that I was grateful for. I'll probably be giving a more formal version (in English haha) in a couple weeks, so stay tuned haha.

I am truly grateful for all the experiences I've had from my mission. I had thought that by the end of my mission, I would have "caught every fish" so to speak. I would have gotten the answers to every question, had every experience, and would be set for life. But looking back now, I realize that the point of my mission was not to catch every fish, but to learn how to catch every fish. And that is the lesson that I am truly grateful for. I have so much more to look forward to, and I thank my Heavenly Father for the miracle that was my mission.

See you soon!

 Lanmou,

Eldè Stevenson 

10 More Days

8/20/2018

Hello everyone! This was a good week. A couple interesting things happened.

I had my last interview with President. It was good,we just talked about things for a little while. He asked about my plans for when u get home and gave me some good advice. One of them was strikingly similar to what I shared from my departing testimony. He shared d&c 58:27-28 and stressed the importance of "of their own free will". He said that even in the professional world, there is a direct correlation between how much supervision someone needs, and how much they get paid. He said "If you can know what to do and just do it without having to have someone else tell you to, companies love that!" haha.

Thus week I also had an exchange with one of the ZLs, Elder Callahan. It was my first time being "in charge" of this area haha.We had a fun time together.

On Sunday it was a member's birthday, and he brought a big lunch to share with the branch. It was really good, but I wondered if it would be the last Haitian food I ate on my mission haha.

The works been moving along, we're teaching a lot of cool people and doing all we can to help them get to church. They just announced that our stake will be splitting next month, and elder Neil L Anderson will come to stake conference to do that. Kinda bummed that I'll miss that haha, oh well. It'll be interesting to see how that affects our branch, which cover the whole stake.

That's pretty much it. I forgot to mention last week that it technically marked 23 MONTHS as a missionary, and was also my 100th WEEK haha. Milestone. Today is another milestone, as it marks 10 DAYS until I depart. Where has all the time gone. Next week will be my last Pday, 2 days before I fly out. Time to make it count! Have a great week!

 Lanmou,
Eldè Stevenson

The Natural Man

7/30/2018

Hello everybody! This week was a pretty good week. The biggest highlight was probably zone conference. Hard to believe that it was my last one. It was a good conference, and I gave my departing testimony. Here is a paraphrasing of what I said:

Elders and sisters, I've thought long and hard about what I could share that would be meaningful to each and every one of you. What I want to share with you is a testimony I'm borrowing from my father... Well, actually I'm not borrowing it any more, it's mine now. It's one he gave me before I even came on my mission, and it's one he reiterates to me in virtually every letter I receive from him. It is this: the key to success in life, and in this work, is to learn how to make yourself do things that you don't want to do. And I'm here to tell you that the only way that is possible is through Jesus Christ. Because the natural man in you won't let you do it, so perhaps a better way of phrasing it would be to learn how to do things that the natural man doesn't want you to do. 

That's what consecrated obedience is. That's what meekness is. We see that even Jesus Christ Himself had to learn to do things that even He didn't want to do. We see as He was in the garden of Gethsemane, that He didn't want to do it. He asked Father, isn't there some other way? I don't want to do this right now. Nevertheless, Thy will, not mine, be done. He was about His Father's business. And we are about His business. I testify to each of you that as we learn to do things that the natural man doesn't want us to do, that is when the power of God is manifest in our lives, and that is how we will find success in this work. I testify that Jesus Christ lives, and that He restored His church through the prophet Joseph Smith. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I testify in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

This week we found a lot of new friends, which was awesome. We had a couple of the friends we've been working with come to church, which was also awesome. We're working with a lot of cool people, but for one reason or another it's been hard to get them to progress. Coming to church is still hard, not as hard as it was in Immokalee, but rides are still not an option so it limits who we work with. We're focusing on people that are able to get themselves to church, which is harder but it'll be worth it in the long run.

We did a little "blitz" in cape coral, and it was very rich haha. Not many people opened their doors. I feel for those sisters.

Friday was a very busy day, we left our house at 11 and had straight appointments until 6. It was good though, I like being busy like that, at least as a missionary haha. That's honestly like a missionary's dream day haha, I appreciated it.

That was pretty much it for this week. Today officially marks 1 month until I depart. That's the real countdown. It's crazy, it hasn't really hit me I don't think. All these things I have to think about and plan for, and I hardly believe it. I'm excited for it like it's a trip, a onetime event, not a new phase of life haha. Anyways have a great week!

 Lanmou,
Eldè Stevenson

The Church of Change

 7/23/2018

Hello everyone! So this was my first week in Fort Myers! Nothing too out of the ordinary, just the area itself is very different from Immokalee haha. While my area in Immokalee was about 5 miles wide, my area now is about 30 miles wide haha. One of the smallest areas to one of the biggest haha. I'm actually back in civilization, actual cities haha. There's also lots more diversity than just Mexicans and Haitians, everything from Americans to Jamaicans to Puerto Ricans to Brazilians haha. As President Garns has said, "if you don't like change you're in the wrong church" haha.

My companion Elder Jocelyn is pretty great, he's a Haitian but he's from Pennsylvania. He's been on his mission almost a year, and this was his first week as a district leader haha. I have to admit that it feels weird to be the companion to the DL again, takes me back to the early days of my mission haha. He's been a little stressed but he's doing great.

We do have some cool people we're working with, a couple of them with dates to be baptized next month! We're gonna do all we can to make sure that happens haha.

Finding Haitians is difficult here, one thing we've been doing is driving around and using the white pages app to see the names of people in the area and picking out the Haitian sounding ones haha. It's kinda fun, makes me feel like a secret agent haha.

That's pretty much all I have to say for the week, still the same work just in a different place. Tomorrow is zone conference, which means that I will have to give a departing testimony. Never thought that day would come haha. I also have started on My Plan, a program the church has for missionaries in their last transfer to plan for life after the mission. One of the things I took away from this last week was that my purpose and "mission" will still be the same, to invite others to come unto Christ, I will just be acting in a new sphere. The mission is the MTC of life, and it shouldn't be the highlight of my life but a springboard into the rest of my life. I'm just going to finish strong so that I can go into the next chapter of life well prepared. Anyways have a great week! 

 Lanmou,
Eldè Stevenson

The Final Countdown

 7/17/2018

Hello everybody! So, most of what I have to talk about is transfers, so we'll get right to the point. I will be TRANSFERRING to FORT MYERS CREOLE and my new companion will be ELDER JOCELYN! I will be in the same branch! It's funny because this week we had a zone exchange, and I went there with him for the day haha, so I already have an idea of what the area is like. Plus we always talk in the branch so I'm pretty up to speed already haha. Elder Dorilas is also transferring, we whitewashed! They let us know that we would be whitewashing a day early, which was nice because it gave us time to make some good notes and try to let everyone know. He's going to Miami Beach Creole with Elder Loftus! Coming into Immokalee will be Elder Tucker and a trainee! Lots of changes! My new address is --- Central Ave --- Fort Myers, FL.

This week went by fast, but not too much really happened. I already mentioned the zone exchange, that was fun.

One of the biggest news is that we found Saintana again! She was living with a godmother in town, but now she's back at her house as Astrel has come back from Georgia! She's going well, very pregnant at this point, she's due in just a couple weeks. She says once she has the baby she'll make it out to church again, and the relief society has been good about keeping in contact with her. Astrel is looking for work again, he doesn't really seem as interested anymore. He likes the church and the missionaries, but just doesn't seem like he's really thinking about it for himself anymore. Kind of a bummer that it was this late that we got back in contact with them, but at least I got to talk to them before I left the area, and I'll still see them if they come to church!

We also had an exchange this week where Elder Dick came out with the both of us for a day. It was great to be with him again, probably the most fun I've had in a while. We had lots of people to stop by, and we were laughing pretty much the whole day.

In other news, this week we did some fun service painting for a member of the Spanish branch. Turns out painting is very relaxing and satisfying.

The last bit of news is that this is my last transfer in the mission, transfer 16! That's extra wild. Lots of things to think about and tie up, but I'm glad that I have this last bit of time to serve. Have a great week!

 Lanmou,
Eldè Stevenson

Picking It Back Up

 7/9/2018

Hello everyone! This was a pretty good week, definitely above average haha. Several things out of the ordinary, but in a good way haha.

One random out of the ordinary thing was that I ate at burger King for the first time in probably 10 years haha. It was better than expected.

Also it was the forth of July! Wooo! All missionaries had to be home by 8pm (an hour early). It was fun, Immokalee had more fireworks than I was expecting haha, I whipped out my good camera and got some great pictures.

The biggest thing that happened was that we got a friend to church! Wooo! William came to the branch and had a good time. He's an older man that lives on his own, so he's happy to have us over and liked how welcome he felt at church. We stopped by afterwards and talked to him about it, and he accepted a baptismal date for the end of the month! He still wants to visit the church and learn more, but now he has a goal to work towards.

Carline was also all set up to come, but she got a last minute call to visit with a lawyer so she couldn't come. She's one of several people we know that have court appearances this week, keeping our fingers crossed because with things as they are it doesn't look good for them.

Also apparently Haiti is having huge problems over gas prices. There's rioting in the streets, burning tires and apparently many people have died. It makes me sad that this is exactly the kind of stuff that makes Haitians risk their lives to come to this country and now they're being sent back.

One other noteworthy item, and you'll have to really dig in the archives for this one, but this week we found Anise again! For those of you that've been following along for these many months, that's the first person Elder Charles and I taught together when we got to this area about 5 months ago! She was really cool, but had boy problems that kept her from coming to church, and she went to fort Lauderdale to work out some legal issues and we never heard from her again. She lived in the complex we had been doing all of our knocking in, so when we got to her door we knocked and she was there! She was very happy to see us again! We got caught up, she's still living with that boyfriend, but today is going to put in an application for her own house! She's also pregnant (I guess pregnant women are the most receptive to the gospel, seems like that's all we teach haha.) She remembered a lot about what we had taught, considering it was 3 months ago haha! We're hoping we can pick up where we left off, at one point she had a baptismal date!

The rest of the week was mostly average. Still blazing hot, unless it's 4-5 in the afternoon then it's thunderstorms (yes, it is that predictable haha). Still on our bikes every day. The church let us get a food tracker app, it's pretty nifty, I've been using it to stay on top of what I'm eating and I've lost a couple pounds! Yay! This week marks 22 MONTHS as a missionary! Wowzers! That's a big number haha! It's crazy that next week will be the start of my last transfer! Where does the time go? Have a great week!

 Lanmou,
Eldè Stevenson

ICE ICE Baby

7/2/2018

Hello everyone! This was an interesting week.

One of the interesting things was that ICE came through town. They went around town with white busses and took people away. There was a lot of fear, the Spanish branch president even canceled an activity because they didn't want everyone gathered in one place. Not many people wanted to open their doors to say the least. One of our friends, Carline, said that she had to stay in Naples to work an extra day and that was the day ICE went through her neighborhood. Pretty lucky. The problem isn't so much them taking people away, but the fear they created is chasing more people out of town. Not what we needed haha.

We did a service project this week helping pick mangos at a ranch museum place. They were getting ready for an event where they give out mangoes to local families. It was pretty fun, I got pretty handy with the fruit picker haha. Naturally we got some to take home haha.

We spent pretty much all of our finding time in one little complex this week, and we started teaching 3 people there! Pretty neat.

Another fun thing this week was that we got a brand new car! Our 2018 Malibu is much nicer than our 2015 Corolla haha, I'm having fun (last time I drove a Malibu was a year ago in Hollywood!)

Our friends Guenson and Witnise came back to church again this week, and they're committed to being fully active again! Guenson had a temple recommend interview and is hoping to go for the next Creole session on the 21st! They're also finishing payments to get a car within the next couple weeks! Yay! Solid members!

Our branch had a baptism yesterday, it was someone from Naples who told the missionaries "I don't want to wait for the 15th, I want to be baptized this Sunday" haha! A missionary's dream haha.

That was pretty much it for this week. It's officially July now, pretty crazy! Anyways have a great week!

 Lanmou,
Eldè Stevenson

A Creative Title

 6/25/2018

Hello everybody! Well, it was a pretty good week. Not a whole lot really happened, just a couple highlights.

One thing we learned this week is that Saintana is living with a friend during this month that her husband's in Georgia. Not sure if she's still in Immokalee or not, she hasn't gotten back to us about that yet. Bummer.

This week we talked to one of our friends named Carline! She's really cool, she had walked to the chapel here in Immokalee to check it out and wants a church family to be a part of since she's new to the country. Being that she's new to the country, she has lots of problems, but she's really interested in the church and is willing to do whatever it takes to get there on Sunday. We'll be working on making sure she can get there.

This week we also had interviews! Strange to think that this was my second to last one. Most of it was working on plans for my release. Crazy!

When we got back from interviews, we had a whole evening open so we decided to walk a cross town and talk to every Haitian person we saw. Which ended up being a grand total of 1 haha. It was some good bonding time for Elder Dorilas and I though, and our feet were really sore haha (walking is way different than biking haha). Turns out the Spanish elders followed our example and ended up talking to a pretty cool person, so it wasn't a total waste haha.

We had some pretty crazy thunderstorms, there were a couple times when lighting struck super close to us. We made sure to get off our bikes and wait under a safe place haha.

Sunday was pretty good this week, we had 2 less actives there from Immokalee! Guenson and Witnise had called us the day before saying "we're coming to church tomorrow and we need a ride" so we arranged one and they came! They had a good experience and are coming back again this week. We're also trying to work with them to help them get to the temple. Yay!

That was pretty much it for this week. It was one of those weeks where we reported 0s in every category. Bummer. As of this week I only have 2 months left in my mission! Crazy! Another crazy thing is that the church announced changes to preach my gospel! It's been updated for the first time in the 14 years since it was released. I've found it very interesting to have the old and the new side by side and finding everything they changed. Sometimes it's just a simpler word or a rephrase sentence, other times it's adding or taking away entire thoughts or quotes. Pretty exciting! Anyways have a great week!

 Lanmou,
Eldè Stevenson

And Yet I Am Not Alone

 6/18/2018

Hello everbody! This week was kinda interesting. We got lots of rain and lots of heat. That's probably just the way it's going to be from now on haha.

We had our zone conference this week. It was good, we talked about the importance of love and of the Book of Mormon. No major announcements, just a standard zone conference. 

We had exchanges this week. I went up to Lehigh with Elder Jones and Elder Jackson came down here with Elder Dorilas. I was kinda nervous about leaving him with the area haha, he'd only been here a week. It turned out ok, they only got a little lost and only forgot about 1 appointment (which our friend also forgot about so it was ok, we saw him the next day). I enjoyed my time in Lehigh, we taught a 91 year old man about the Book of Mormon. He's an interesting character, he's met with lots of missionaries and kinda tries to run the show when we're there haha. Very nice though. We also had one of their members, brother Harris, take us out to dinner. He's a professor at a local university, and is working on a study about black holes! Very interesting guy, a nerd like me haha. 

The only other exciting thing was that we found a pretty cool guy. His name is Sem, he was sitting in front of his house under some stairs. We came down the stairs and I saw him, could've easily said hi and walked past, but I made the effort to talk to him for a minute. Turns out he's talked to missionaries before and remembered the name Joseph Smith. So we had a lesson right there about prophets and the restoration, everything made sense to him. He's pretty familiar with the Bible, and said "everything you're saying agrees with the Bible. It makes sense how Joseph Smith doesn't go against the Bible, just adds more. I wonder why the rest of the Christians don't follow Joseph Smith" haha! We showed him a Book of Mormon and mentioned about how it's the evidence that all this is true. I feel pretty stupid right now, I should've talked more about it and given it to him, because we haven't been able to see him since. We didn't want to take a lot of time, so we said we'd talk about it next time. Should've just gone for it, totally could've, hopefully God will forgive me and let us talk to him again this week. 

In other news, Astrel left town. He's up in Georgia now. He's planning on being up there for the next month, coming back before Saintana is due in early August. Bummer. 

This week I was kinda frustrated. If I could find a word to describe it, it would be abandoned. Physically, I'm in a town 5 miles wide in the middle of nowhere. There are no members to help us. The branch itself has been abandoned by the members supposed to be attending. Even Immokalee is being abandoned, as the field workers move up to cooler climates. 

On Saturday, I was pretty down. I'd been on my bike in 90+ degree heat for hours. We had people to see every hour of the day, and they all fell through. It was the middle of the afternoon, and I was about ready to give everything up. It's hard to find words to describe what happened next. 

I'm crying now as I remember feeling cheering from heaven. It was a feeling so strong I swear I could've heard it. I perceived that it wasn't just anyone cheering, it was my family. Family both past and future. My Parents were there. I felt how proud they all were that I was trying, that I just needed to push a little more. I felt them say "Now you're a little more like Jesus." This was one of the strongest feelings of the Spirit I've ever had, I fought back tears as I biked down the highway. I'm not sure that I would've continued if it hadn't been for this experience. I share this that you may know that although "the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that [they] shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me." (John 16:32) I am so grateful for a Family that loves me and pushes me to be better. If you ever feel as I did, please remember that, and have a great week! 

 Lanmou,
Eldè Stevenson

New But The Same

6/11/2018

Hello everybody! This week was pretty different. It seems like it just dragged by haha. A couple interesting things happened though.

We had transfers! Now I'm with Elder Dorilas, a Haitian from Calgary, Canada. Funny enough he never spoke Creole, so he's having to learn same as I did haha. This is only his 3rd transfer, so he's still pretty new. He's kinda shy still, but we'll work on that haha.

We talked to a potential investigator that we've been trying to talk to for a while, Martha, turns out she was baptized already! She was baptized in Haiti, but then lived with catholic nuns and basically became catholic, so she considers herself catholic now. Interesting situation, haven't seen her since but she loves the missionaries still so we'll stop by every once in a while.

We also got back in contact with an old friend, Loneve, that's super cool but also super busy. We talked to him a couple times about the Book of Mormon and he's looking forward to reading it and asking us questions about it!

It's funny how it seems like Satan uses the same tricks on everybody at the same time. There seems to be patterns, or waves that kinda affect everyone at once. For example, we've had several people this week give us problems because of baptisms for the dead, something that hasn't really been an issue but all of a sudden everyone wants to know about it. Interesting.

Astrel went out of town yesterday, but it should only be for a couple days or so. He's trying to stay as much as he can to help Saintana at home. He's one of the one's thats been asking about baptisms for the dead. We've tried to help him see that what he's really asking is if the Book of Mormon is true, but it seems like he's just kinda losing interest.

It's been feeling pretty lonely out here. There aren't really a lot of people anymore. We're pretty much just going back and knocking on the same doors again, hoping for a different result. It's kinda like a twilight zone episode where there's no one to talk to, and almost anyone you do talk to either don't want anything to do with you or can't come to church, but you still have to talk to them. It's not as bad as I make it out to be, there are the exceptions to the rule but in general that's how it is.

That was pretty much it. We had a crazy random storm the other day, I've got some videos about it. It was also my birthday! Fun! Didn't do anything special really haha. I did buy myself a blender though! Pretty neat, I've been making myself smoothies every morning haha, good stuff. Hope you all have a good week!

 Lanmou,
Eldè Stevenson

Craziness🙃 🌞 🌩️

6/5/2018

Hello everybody! This week has been pretty crazy haha. So many things that were just out of the ordinary. We'll start, as always, with transfers. I will be STAYING and Elder Charles will be TRANSFERRING! Wasn't what either of us were expecting haha, we thought either we both would go or Elder Charles would stay and I would go. My new companion will be Elder Dorelas, a newer Haitian missionary that just finished being trained. Elder Seal and Elder Belnap will both be leaving, Elder Seal will train in Miramar and Elder Belnap is going to be a zone leader in coral springs zone. Elder Fields will be taking their place with a trainee as well (apparently he was trained here, that's interesting). We're in for an interesting time, as starting just last weekend about 75% of Immokalee is leaving town, the majority of them being Haitians. The picking season here is over, all the workers are leaving on contract to go to Gainesville, Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, etc where there are other fields for them to work in. Several of our friends are among that group. I'm going to fill in President Garns about the situation and see what he wants us to do.

This week was a little stormy. Especially the beginning of the week there were thunderstorms almost every day. We even got hailed on while we were biking, twice haha. Crazy stuff. 

But when it wasn't raining, it was really hot. Yesterday was the hottest day we've had, getting up past 90 and with lots of humidity from the recent rains. We were basically getting deep fried haha. We bought ourselves some snowcones from one of the Mexican ice cream trucks and I got tan lines on my face from my sunglasses from just the one day haha. This week it looks like it's going to stay hot but there should be a little rain to help cool us down. 

We tried again to have an English class, we had many people committed to coming, but it rained that day so no one came (remember, Haitians are terrified of the rain!) None of our ideas like this have worked (think back to when we tried FHE) so maybe we'll have to stick with the basics (even though most of the Haitians are leaving...) It will be an interesting time.

Other than that the rest of the week was mostly visiting with friends and talking to people whenever we can. It's kinda sad to know that a good number of those we've been working with and talking to are now leaving, I'm kinda nervous to see how this all is gonna work...

Astrel was set to come to church this week with Saintana but his car broke on his way to go buy some stuff. He's one of the one's that's leaving. I believe he leaves on Friday but is slated to come back sometime late July as Saintana is supposed to give birth early August. Yup, he's leaving his pregnant wife with their other baby to take care of all by herself... It's a pretty hard life people live out here.

That's pretty much it for the week. Lots of craziness happened, with lots more on the horizon. Hard to believe that I'm on my 15th transfer now... My 2nd to last. Not only that, but my birthday is on Wednesday. I pretty much forgot about it haha, I'm turning 20! That doesn't really register for me yet. Speaking of registering, registration for BYU is next week, I'll need to finalize my schedule today. Like I said, lots of craziness with lots more on the horizon. Hope you all have a good week!

 Lanmou,
Eldè Stevenson