God's Plan

We got soaked in the rain.
Elder Charles and Elder Stevenson

The most interesting thing that happened was zone conference. We had a member of the seventy, Elder Klebingat, come and speak to us. It was a long conference, took the whole day, but it was worth it. He knows the scriptures so well. He started off by explaining exactly who we were in the pre-earth life, and what that means we have to do now. Super good, here's some of my favorite quotes:

• Tell yourself "I am here to fulfill a pre-mortal covenant to gather Israel"

• The pain of discipline is always better than the pain of regret

• Once we yield to temptation, we give the adversary ammunition with a memory

• You need to be better than yourself tomorrow

• Fear, typically, is not to be overcome, but to be managed and controlled

• You are choosing today where you want to be for eternity

• Everything you do today is a reflection of the depth of your conversion

• Never make the first mistake once

• You cannot teach what you don't know, and you will not teach what you are not excited about

Lots of good stuff.

God's Plan

We also had our best lesson with Astrel and Saintana this week. We taught the plan of salvation with some little toys that my family had made for me and gave me last Christmas. It really made it all click for Astrel, he really liked the part about the spirit world and how nobody burns in hell haha. He took pictures of the final setup, each one moving the people down. I reenacted it to show you what I mean. He asked us to get some Scriptures from the Bible that talk about it so he can share it, so we went back yesterday with one for each of the major parts. They also got a car now, so hopefully Astrel  can drive them all to church. Good stuff!

We also had our first member meal appointment since coming to this area haha. We got permission to go to Lehigh to have dinner with the Knoop family, and they made us a really nice meal. Grateful.

We didn't have any investigators come to church yesterday, but Saintana was there which was great. They had the baptism of the lady that wanted to get baptized after seeing Saintana's baptism, that was pretty neat.

That was pretty much it from this week, just a couple highlights but it was a good one. It's been raining off and on all week here, which is kinda nice. We've been needing some good rain, it keeps us cool while biking haha. Anyways hope you all have a great week!

Getting chases by a dog on our bikes. haha

Rain

Vulture drying out in the sun. There are tons of vultures here.

Saintana had this on her TV last night, snagged a pic haha

Lanmou,
Eldè Stevenson

Saintana Day

So this week was a pretty good week. Transfers happened, so now Elder Belnap is here. He's a cool guy, should be a fun transfer! There was really only one event that dominated the whole week...

Serious

Laughing

Saintana got baptized! Woooooooo! It was an amazing experience and I'm so glad that I got to stay here to see it. There was the usual last minute scramble to make sure that everything happened, but in the end it worked out. Elder Charles and I stayed up till midnight the night before making cupcakes and brownies to bring to the church haha. We had the baptism during the 2nd hour of church since we have sacrament meeting last. Elder Charles did the baptism and I did the confirmation. It was an awesome experience overall. We also had the baby, Astahna, blessed during sacrament. Saintana's husband Astrel came, along with the baby's "godmother" and "godfather". We didn't have much of a chance to follow up with them afterwards but everyone seemed to enjoy it. The branch was super supportive of her, church was pretty much all about Saintana yesterday. They even had all the missionaries give their testimonies during sacrament meeting for her, which was kinda weird but whatever. (Bonus fact for those of you that have been following along, Saintana got baptized on the 1 year anniversary of when Bertina got baptized in Hollywood!)

Afterwards they threw a party at their house and had a bunch of their friends over, so we went. We ended up just sitting outside in the back, chatting and eating all the barbecue haha. There was one guy who tried bashing with us because our church teaches that God is not 3 people in 1 person, but another guy came that was pretty chill so we're gonna try to stay in contact with him. There was just a little too much alcohol to really get anything done, which was a shame.

BBQ

One of the people we talked to was cutting this guy's hair
and asked Elder Charles to take over for him haha

We're still working on "fixing" the branch haha. Rumor has it that we're gonna be able to get a van, but I feel that's just a surface solution and doesn't get to the root of the problems. It's just a remedy for the symptoms without curing the disease. It'll be helpful, but is not going to be sustainable in the long term. But we'll see what happens.

That's pretty much it from this week. Not much happened, but a lot happened. The end of this month means that I only have 4 months left. Pretty crazy, I just want to make this time count. Hope you all have a great week!

Lanmou,

Eldè Stevenson

Back in Business Baby!

​Ray got baptized! (and I got a haircut haha)

Hey everyone! So this week was pretty normal, especially compared to the last month or so. But there were a few exciting highlights!

The first one being that Ray got baptized! Wooo! It was a bit of a scramble at the end, part of why it's been hard to baptize him is because he's so busy that it's hard to get in contact. But this being the first week where we haven't had to do service we jumped on the chance. As Sister C[......], his wife, stated: "This day has been 37 years in the making." Yeah, he's been investigating for a while haha. We're so excited for him, and the ward is already making sure that he feels welcome and won't be forgotten.

Another thing that was exciting was being able to go to church again! This was the first time in about a month that we've had a regular church service, and it was so refreshing. I actually feel like I belong here now that I've met the ward and got things established. To make it even more exciting, Peggy came to church! She loved it, and is excited to come back next week. In her own words she put it this way: "I have been praying about if I want to be baptized, because my father was a pastor and I had a dream where he told me that I was already baptized. But now I want to be baptized so that I can have the Holy Ghost, so I will keep praying." So elect! It was awesome for her to be able to watch Ray be confirmed in sacrament meeting as well and to talk about it with her afterwards. We're going to meet with her again this Thursday with a cool member and go over Acts 19 with her and give her a baptismal date. I think it should go really well!

Not a whole lot else happened this week, we had other people that we were teaching but they all kind of fizzled out so we're kinda at square 1 again. It happens. We did get to watch most of conference this week, it was really good. I've watched all of Saturday and about half of the Sunday Morning session. I've been taking notes about what stands out to me in each of the talks, but I don't have them with me right now. oh well, I'll have to include some next week and by then I should have seen the rest anyways. Anyways that's pretty much it from me, hope that you all had a good week too!

​

Lanmou,

Eldè Stevenson

Surprise P Day for Hurricane Irma​

Hello everyone! So.... as I'm sure you've probably heard, Hurricane Irma is headed our way. I put most of my thoughts for this week's letter in a recording. Here are the highlights:

-Darwins got baptized.... ON THE BEACH! Yes, we got permission from president to combine our baptism with a member's baptism that were good friends with Darwins. Which means yes, we did go to the beach! And yes, I took lots of pictures and will be sending all of those as well.

-Hurricane prep. We are getting things ready, stocking up on water and food. What we know at this point is that Hurricane Irma is heading our way and is a Cat 5 storm. Exciting! We will be well taken care of by the church and by God, so don't worry about us just send your prayers for those that may not be as well prepared as we are.

-Temple trip was cancelled. Because of Hurricane. Bummer.

-If anyone has any good advice on things to have and do to prep for a hurricane, feel free to let me know haha.

-The work is going well here. I am so happy to be doing what I'm doing and to be here when I am. Next week it will official, but technically I've already hit the mark that puts me 1 year out from my return date. That's crazy, I definitely don't feel that old in the mission haha. My mission has definitely helped me to become a better person. I love the Lord and I love the Haitians and I love you all and hope that you have a great week. 

Talk to you soon! Keep up the good work!

​E Anderson and E Rock​

​Beach selfie!​

​Darwins and Pauley, the other boy being baptized​

​Jamesly, the only member in his family until now (and going on a mission)
getting to baptize his little brother 

​Me and Elder Blood​

Obligatory artsy shell pic (good wallpaper)​

Funny...​

Lanmou,

Eldè Stevenson

Wow, That Felt Good!

​Zariah, Bertina, Noah, and Donell​

Hello everybody! So here are the highlights from this week, it's a pretty good one so stay tuned.

So, BERTINA AND HER FAMILY ALL GOT BAPTIZED! That's super amazing, I don't think it's quite set in yet that it actually happened! I'm so glad that I got the privilege to be the ones to find them (knocking!), teach them all the lessons, and see them baptized! It was a super great experience. Knocked on their door April 1st, baptized April 30th! I feel like that if I had to go home tomorrow I would be completely satisfied just because of them. The baptism itself went pretty smoothly, and the ward really took care of pretty much everything which is super nice. It's the first baptism this ward has had in a couple months, and between us and the other Elders we had 5 CONVERT BAPTISMS (Bertina+Donnell+Noah+Zariah+other elders' investigator). I even got to confirm 2 of them, Zariah and Bertina. It was a very spiritual experience being able to feel what the Spirit directed me to say in their blessings, and a very spiritual experience overall.

​A picture of us together with Brother Davis,
the member that baptized them.​

There were even a couple laughs. Donell was being super talkative for some reason, usually he's super reserved. After he came out of the water he went into the room to change and said "WOW, THAT FELT GOOD!" really loud. It was pretty funny. After his confirmation too he went around shaking hands saying "Good job, good job, thank you." It was weirdly out of character for him, but at least it made it memorable. Another funny thing was that the Primary and Relief Society were all prepared with lots of books and things to give out, and then the Young Mens [Leader] guy wasn't there so another man from the Presidency gets up and has no clue what to say. He ended up shaking their hands a bunch and saying how much they'll like the Young Mens [Program]. Sounds like Young Mens I guess.

Another big announcement came this week from our Zone Conference. About a year and a half ago, the General Authorities for our region said that we could no longer go to the temple to do baptisms for the dead because some missionaries in another state had been camping out at the temple all day. President Richardson went to a conference with some of them and told them about the temple program he used to do, and they counciled and decided to reinstate it! Which means that we can go to the temple for baptisms! It used to be that you could only go in on the last day of your mission and if someone you baptized was getting their endowment, but now we can go with them to do baptisms for the dead! The only caveats are that it's only for people you baptized in the ward you're serving in, for their first time only, and a member has to be with you. A really great rule change, because the mission saw a huge drop in retention rates when the missionaries couldn't go with them to the temple. Which also means that we can go with Bertina!!

​Elder Foster gave me a haircut last night.

Nice and short.​

Yet another announcement from Zone Conference is that we can spend up to 2 hours a week working on our personal family history, to find family names we can bring to the temple for baptisms! I'm going to try to utilize this time, so that I can learn how to do family history and have family names to take with me to the temple when I go with my converts.

That's pretty much it for the week. We have a couple people that we've met that might progress, but we've only seen them once so it's not solid yet. I'll let you know if they stay cool. Hopefully we can find more people to teach, because now that Bertina got baptized our teaching pool is pretty much empty. We're still going to meet with them for the "new member lessons", which is just going over the lessons again slowly and in depth, without the time crunch which is nice. But the work moves on, and it's time to find more people to be baptized! I love you all, thank you so much for your support! Keep up the "Good Work"!

Lanmou,

Eldè Stevenson

​

Transfers Are Here Again and...BAPTISM! (Also picture spam)

​ADLINE GOT BAPTIZED!​

Hello everyone! So, let's get the big important news out of the way.... I will be TRANSFERRING to the area of HOLLYWOOD CREOLE. As I don't know my new address yet, please refrain from sending mail for a bit ;) . My new companion will be Elder K Hatch! I've heard good things about him, should be fun. Exciting stuff. It'll be weird getting used to a new area but it should be good. Also, all the others will be transferring too except for Elder Bissereth, and they're changing it back to having 2 Creole Elders and 2 English Elders instead of splitting the ward in half. 

So here's the next big news. You may remember a while back when I told you about Adline. She was an "eternigator" [eternal investigator] that was waiting on a divorce [to be final] to be married and then baptized. [When a woman and man are living together, they must be married in order to be baptized. This is because of the law of chastity.] Well, the other day on Wednesday I was on exchange with Elder Taylor again, and I decided to stop by to see her daughter, Alicia, last thing at night since we're working to set her with a baptismal date and had extra time. (I'm glad I did, I could have been like "my creole is not good enough to hold a conversation on my own" but I just went anyways.) Well, she was sick but her mom was there! 

So she and I just chatted and I asked "I'm still curious about how the divorce is going?" and she was like "Oh, I'm divorced already!" 

What?! "That's great! So when do you think you'll be able to be married?" 

"Oh, I'm married already, I just did it at court!" 

WHAT?! (Turns out she has been married for 15 days already!) So yeah, once we found that out we got her to talk with Bishop and got her interview and everything and she got baptized LAST SUNDAY! And I was the one to baptize her! Woot! So many miracles.

Also, last Pday I went to the beach for the first time! Got some great pics. We went fishing on a pier in Sunny Isles. Super rich area- There were ads for apartments that said "starting from 1.4 Million to 5.4 Million!" Jeez louweez.

​My awesome comp and DL, Elder Bissereth.​

​Say "Fishing is fun and not boring!"​

​Panorama of the beach.​

Me at the beach!​

Elder Bissereth dancing with pelicans.​

​My new planner cover.​

​My awesome district! Gonna miss these goofballs.

Lanmou,

Eldè Stevenson