A Creative Christmas

​Here's my district when we crashed the Spanish Ward's
Christmas party after choir practice one night.​

Hey all! So there was a lot of things that happened this week, mostly Christmas, but I'll try to cover everything else too.

We were able to do some service this week, which was good. The other Elders knocked into this old Jamaican lady and she asked us to help pull weeds out of her lawn. All of us went over the next day and she was super grateful. She was like very stereotypical sweet old lady. She made us this super sweet Kool-Aid with cranberry juice, it was awesome. We also helped one of the student families move, which was fun mostly because they lived in a building with 25 stories, so when we finished we all went to the top and looked at the view. I'm not allowed to take pictures while proselyting otherwise I'd have some here. Florida is so flat, we could see for miles.

Adline has a date for her divorce now! She needs to be divorced from her husband in Haiti so she can be married to the man she's living with now so she can be baptized. Her divorce will be finalized in 8 weeks, which is a long time for us to wait but at least things are moving again. She's been taught almost all the lessons twice already, but I went and taught a very simple lesson about the Word of Wisdom with her in Creole yesterday. It was my first time doing a lesson in Creole with an investigator, mostly because she's our only investigator but still. It went pretty well.

They gave these ornaments to all the missionaries,
and they have my favorite quote on the back!​

We had Christmas Conference as a mission a few days ago, that was pretty fun. Each zone presented a song, and in ours we had the Creole missionaries (aka just us 4) sing the first verse in French. It was cool, kinda like singing in a barber shop quartet with only bass and tenor. We also did a white elephant exchange, I gave a weird carved stone Medusa head looking thing that was in a frame that I found in goodwill. I don't have any pictures though. I got a 2017 inspirational psalms calendar, which is actually useful. Also a giant bag of buttercream mints. Also no pictures of that either.

So Christmas happened too! It was pretty fun. My parents sent me a Gingerbread house in the mail, but it wasn't packaged very well so all the cookies were cracked. We tried to glue them together with icing but it didn't work, so instead we turned it into a post-apocalyptic earthquake destroyed house. Some of the other elders got... Creative. Viewer discretion is advised.

A big thank you to everyone that sent gifts! They were all super thoughtful and generous and I feel so loved.

On Christmas our Haitian choir sang! It was pretty good, I mean we put hours of practice into a 2 minute song so yeah. I have a recording of it down below that I sneakily took on my nifty new voice recorder that I got for Christmas too! Enjoy that.

The final product. Elder Lund even cut out a G-Whip for the front lawn.
Those are everywhere around here, and people just park on their grass all the time.​

Most of Christmas was spent at the Doxey's for Skype. It was super fun to see my family. It wasn't as weird as I thought it would be either. We ended up staying at the Doxey's for a while since Elder Bissereth was having trouble contacting his family in Haiti. He got it figured out eventually. Fun stuff.

After that we went to a less active family for dinner. That was fun. We went there for thanksgiving as well. They're a cool family. The husband isn't married [Editor thinks he might mean baptized, not married] but the wife really wants him to be.  They're in the other Elders' area so hopefully they can do something there.

So that's about it, I want to hear about how all your Christmases were back home! Send pictures too if you have them, I love seeing pictures of everyone. Talk to you soon! 

My haul from Christmas Conference. Lots of goodies!​

​Missionary: Noun​

​The Making of a Monster. WARNING: MAY BE SHOCKING TO SOME VIEWERS.
VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.​

​Here's a picture of my new invention: "Grown-Up Chicken Nuggets"
I'm keeping the recipe a secret.

​​

Here's a recording of the Haitian choir singing!

Lanmou,

Eldè Stevenson

WINTER IS (never) COMING

​Here's my district! From right to left it's Elder Smith, the ZLs Elder Alexis and Elder Riggs,
Elder Widney in the back, Elder Lund and me, and DL Elder Bissereth with Elder Blood.​

Hey all! This has been a pretty good week. Lots of excitement for Christmas!

So this week we had transfers and we got to meet the 2 new elders! They are Elder Blood and Elder Bissereth. There's a picture with my new district and everything so check that out. They are cool guys and look like they're good missionaries too. It'll be a fun time with them. Elder Bissereth is pretty much straight from Haiti, he's been living in the States for about a year before his mission. He speaks pretty good English but is still learning a few things, which is fun haha. I figure if he can learn English then I can learn Creole haha.

When the other Elders left they gave us one of their recent converts to work with. Her name is Pierline, she's cool. The morning before transfers we went out at 7:00 in the morning so the other elders could say goodbye. We walked with her and her son to school which was fun, brought back some fun memories of walking the girls to school.

Probably the most exciting thing this week was the ward Christmas party on Saturday. It was one of those things where they set up the gym to look like Bethlehem and everyone came dressed up and brought authentic food platters and stuff, it was pretty fun. We helped set it up though for hours before hand, and then when it was time to take down it was already getting late so we had to rush everything and it was pretty crazy. We had our car packed with stuff to bring back to a members house and then it was a scramble to get home on time, but we did it. Overall it was a stressful experience, but it was still fun to see the members having a good time.

Haitian Choir is sounding pretty good now, we have one more practice before we sing in church on Sunday. That should be really fun. Our zone is also doing a song for Christmas Conference, the mission wide conference with the Mission President also known as when I get my Christmas presents! I'm a little excited haha.

My advice to get into the Christmas spirit is to study the Atonement, that's what I'm studying now and I can see that it's starting to change my life. Maybe it's just because I have a new perspective while on my mission, but I'm starting to understand just how huge and important and wonderful the Atonement of Christ is. My suggested reads for that are the Book of Mormon (of course), I think the first 20 or so chapters of Alma kind of talk about it, so does Mosiah a bit. I don't really remember where, that's just where I am reading right now. There's also a really good talk from Elder Scott that my parents sent me a copy of. It's called Personal Strength through the Atonement. My parents will link to it in post I'm sure. 

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

Some of the food from the party. I say some because there was a ton more that people brought later.​

Ward Christmas Party​

​This is our bishop, Bishop Robles.​

Ward Christmas Party​

​I found my family in the Bible videos! Here's me posing with them.​

​Here's a better picture of it. Emma's on the left and Mom's on the right, with Jesus in between.

Lanmou,

Eldè Stevenson

22 More Fast Sundays!

[I stole this from Elder King's blog. Can't turn off the Calculus!]

Hey all! Emails are awesome. I have another line from a song down at the bottom, so be sure to look for that.

So last Sunday our district decided to do a musical number in sacrament meeting. Our plan was to sing "I Need Thee Every Hour" in Creole, "Mwen Bezwen Ou Tout tan." So we started talking and I mentioned that I had a solo in choir. Then everyone wanted to hear me sing solo, so I sang the last verse of the song. Everyone was amazed, so they decided that we would all sing 3 verses and on the last verse I would sing solo and they would hum. Cool. That was Saturday night. 

They have actual mountains here.​

Fast forward to Sunday morning. We hadn't had a lot of practice time, so like 10 minutes before we leave for sacrament everyone is feeling bad about it. So we decide that instead of everyone going up, I would sing THE WHOLE SONG SOLO, with accompaniment from the piano. 

So in sacrament meeting they announce that "District C will give a special musical number" and I walk up by myself. And guess what? No pianist. Maybe he forgot or was confused or something. So I just sing. I'm up at the podium singing solo for about 100 people. And needless to say, it was amazing. I had several people come up to me after to say that even though they didn't know what I was saying they could feel the Spirit. 

​I love this tie with this suit. Thanks Papa!​

President Willes said thank you as well. I still get people every once in awhile come up and be like "Hey, you're the one that sang in sacrament huh? That was super good." So yeah, that's the story of my solo in the MTC. Scored some major points with the sisters Just kidding!

Brother Augustin is doing a thing where he pulls each of us aside and tells us what he thinks our mission will be like. He told me that I'm a competent missionary, and that I will be a favorite companion. He also said that I'm a lifter, as in I lift other people up. That was pretty cool, I can't wait to see what it's actually like in the field.

Our Tuesday devotional was with Elder Richard J. Maynes, one of the presidents of the Seventy. He spoke about the worth of one soul, and the impact one missionary can have. In devotional review I shared the story of The Mighty Thor that Dad sent, and everyone liked it. 

Last night, Elder Firth wasn't feeling well so he asked if I could give him a blessing. It was my first priesthood blessing ever. We did it in the classroom, Elder Hassell anointed and I sealed. I had Elder Burns next to me holding the white handbook so I knew what to say. We all stood in the circle. I felt almost like I wasn't worthy, like "Shouldn't you go ask an adult? Wait..." It was a neat experience, and really showed me the importance of the priesthood that I hold, and that I need to be way more diligent about keeping myself worthy in case something like that happens again.

My Haircut. It feels really short.​

Just got back from the temple. Did sealings again today because there was a wait for initiatories. Made me think of the Sheranians and how Marie is getting married tomorrow. Elder King, Elder Firth and Elder Duffin got their flight plans today because they leave a week before the rest of us going to Fort Lauderdale. Firth and Duffin are going to Orlando and have a direct flight, so there's a good chance mine will be too. That means that if you want to call home you have to do it before your flight in the airport instead of on layover. That also means that you'll have to be up pretty early to get the call, so we'll see how it goes. I'll probably get my flight plans next Friday, so I'll let you know. Exciting but also a little sad.

That's pretty much it for this week. Keep me updated on everything going on! I miss the news. I love it when you send notes and pictures too. Just a little while longer before I'm out in the field! I love and miss you all!

This guy [another Elder?] had a mattress pad wrapped around him and a cardboard sign that said "Anything Helps, God Bless" while he slept outside. It was pretty funny.​

Accurate depiction of our teachers.​

​Elder Lantor drew portraits of us. I'm convinced I look like Danny Devito or something.​

​Someone drew this on the Tongan whiteboard and it reminded me of the reunion.​ [singing I Lava You]

​Creepy pic of my comp.

Here is my song for the week:

"Ki moun kapab di kote wout a fini, kote jou a ale, sèlman tan."

Lanmou,

Eldè Stevenson