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