Welcome to Naples!

​New house: Elder Spotts, Elder Steed, Elder Dick, Elder Stevenson.

Hello everyone! My first week here in Naples has been an interesting one, that's for sure. I'm officially on the west coast now, about 100 miles away from my last area. It's weird being in a "full creole" area now, meaning we only really teach creole speaking people and all the English people we find we have to refer to other missionaries. One thing I've noticed too is that it's WAY more chill and calm over here, and the average age is WAY higher. Our ward is basically a branch now because all the "snowbirds" left haha.

So transfer day happened, and I got to see a lot of my old companions and missionary friends, several of which were going home. It was a big group of missionaries leaving and probably the first where people I got to know well left. It's weird to see how old I'm getting! 

My new companion is Elder Dick. He's from Tualatin Oregon. He came into the MTC the week before I went home for surgery, and I was his DL there. Now he's my DL for his first transfer as DL. Crazy! The other people in my house are Elder Steed and Elder Spotts. Elder Steed is from Texas and this is his last transfer, Elder Spotts is from New Mexico. It's been pretty fun so far so we'll see how it goes! On the transfer call, the APs informed us that President Garns wanted us to know to expect to stay in our areas longer than we may be used to, whatever that means haha. 

Transfer day was also my first day EVER biking as a missionary! I was hoping I could keep the streak going at least to my year mark but oh well. It's been alright, definitely an adjustment. We've mostly been staying pretty local so far, so it's only been a couple miles a day. However, this area is HUGE. I'll see if I can send a picture of the map or something. We haven't found hardly any Haitians yet, apparently because they mostly live farther south. We'll be heading down there pretty soon though.

Driving into a rainstorm on our way to Naples.​

This week we helped a family move out. It was pretty smooth it just took a long time. He thought it would only take an hour (it never does) and it ended up taking 3 and 1/2 hours. It was fun though, everything was organized and in boxes already so that's good. He was also pitching becoming a Nurse Anesthesiologist pretty hard, it's tempting if it didn't take 9 years of school, but we'll see.

Friday I went on exchange with Elder Long, one of my ZLs. It was fun, even though everything was in Spanish. It's amazing how much Spanish I can actually understand. I can't speak it to save my life but I can follow a conversation pretty well. Maybe it's just because I speak missionary haha.

So far we really only have one solid investigator that they were working with before the transfer. Her name is Janette She's the daughter of one of the members in the ward. She seems pretty solid, she came to church on Sunday even though she was out late and got into a car accident. She has a [baptism] date for the 30th, so hopefully everything keeps working out for that.

Other than that, it's just been knocking and biking all day. Fortunately it hasn't dumped rain while we were biking yet, but it'll come. It rains at some point every day pretty much, which I love because it brings lightning! I don't know if I'll ever get sick of lightning haha. Anyways hope you're doing well and thank you all for your support!

Lanmou,

Eldè Stevenson

What A Week - Transfer!

​All the creole missionaries at meet the president.​

Hello everyone! So, first off this week is transfers, and I will be TRANSFERRING to the area of NAPLES CREOLE and my new companion will be ELDER DICK. Wooooo! First time being companions with someone from the MTC! It is a car share though, which means I'll be biking for the first time my whole mission, and lots of it. Naples is a big area. I've heard very good things about Naples too, it should be a fun time! Also President Garns told us that we can expect to "stay in our areas a little longer than we may be used to", so I guess I'll find out what that means. Just got the new home address, [ask my Mom for this if you want it.]

​Our 4th of July dinner.​

Lots of stuff happened this week. First we had 4th of July. We mostly just chilled in our apartment all night, we tried to go out on the golf course to see some fireworks but there were trees blocking them all. It was still a fun night though, our member fed us lots of really good food too. 

We also got to meet President Garns this week. We basically had a mini Zone Conference with just us and the Coral Springs zone. Him and his wife shook each of our hands and then told us about themselves and their family and all that. He was still kinda in general authority mode which was funny. He started off his talk by talking about all the amazing things about his wife, giving the men marriage advice, and then giving her a kiss on the forehead hahaha. He's a super great guy, I already love him. He gave a little training based on analyzing the painting of Christ and the Rich Young Ruler (Bible story video below) that was super good. He's coming in strong with a few changes, like our investigators need to come to church 3 times to be baptized instead of 2. He also wants to get rid of "mission slang" like "dad, mom, baby, born, died" etc. I think he's exactly what this mission needs right now.

 

​President Garns!

Elder Celestin made the whole district matching planners.​

​Me with my trainer, Elder Lund! He's going home!​

That day we also went to a super fun meal appointment with one of the sisters in the ward. She had a bunch of family from New York over and we were talking about New York slang and all that. Elder Celestin taught us a lot of terms already and they were surprised we new them "YUUUUURP." Plus the food was super good, we had ribs and stuff. Then, we heard some "skurt skurts" outside and there were 2 guys street racing right outside. the member kinda lives in the ghetto so we all went outside to watch. It was like a Nissan vs a beat up tricked up g-whip and the Nissan was creaming him. Then we hear someone say "sheriff!" and a cop car rolls around the corner. The guys in the Nissan just pulled into their driveway and the cop didn't notice them and went after the guy in the g-whip, he pulled up next to all us and is like "which way'd he go?" and we kinda pointed (snitches get stitches??) and he roared off. it was super cool. Then later we go outside and see that the g-whip had gotten away somehow and was back in the driveway! Talk about dinner and a show haha.

​Our poor Malibu​

So, this week I may or may not have gotten into an accident in our brand new Malibu... We were going to a member's house to pick up food, and got to an intersection where I had a stop sign but the other way didn't. I stop at the sign and head forward and out of nowhere a guy on a moped comes on and even though I swerved to avoid him he hit the back bumper and fell off the bike. He was laying on the ground for a bit which was kinda scary, he wasn't wearing a helmet or anything, but while I talked to 911 Elder Celestin and some other people helped him up and he was just scraped up and bruised a bit. He's an older Cuban guy that speaks like zero English, and we speak zero Spanish. The back bumper on our car got pretty banged up. Hopefully it doesn't come out to more than $3,000 damage otherwise the whole mission bikes for a day, oops haha. Everyone's fine in the end, and we got our member food so all is well.

Missionary work wise things went pretty well this week. We had dinner with Bishop and they invited their neighbor friends over for us to meet. We taught them a quick plan of salvation lesson and they committed to baptism! They've been a little slippery since then,. They had to cancel our return appointment but they seemed really sincere so hopefully they don't completely fall off. Bruce unfortunately fell off, he wasn't there for our appointment and didn't answer texts or calls and wasn't home whenever we stopped by. Oh well, it happens.

I think that's it, there's probably more I'm forgetting because it's been a crazy week but that's definitely the main points. Hope all is well with all yall, It'll be an interesting change going over to the [Florida] west coast, it's WAY different from over here, lots wealthier so Creole should be interesting. Apparently it's still a really good area for missionary work so we'll see haha. Thanks for all your support! Also, got lots of pictures this week!

​​​The ZLs getting egged for a competition they did last week.

​Elder Briggs chasing Elder Celestin haha​

​Brother Pablo, our "gangster" member that takes us out teaching every week.​

​Some cool evening storm clouds.​

 Lanmou,

Eldè Stevenson

​

Surprise! Transfer Week!

P-Day in Miami

Hey everyone! So I feel like I should preface this letter by saying that I forgot to tell you that during transfers, P-day is on Tuesday instead of Monday so that you can pack if you are leaving. So I didn't forget about you. More on all that later!

So this week was kinda slow and boring again. One of the main things we did this week was help the Murray family in the ward move. They're a middle aged couple that's pretty well to do and they were moving from one ritzy apartment place to another ritzy apartment place. So naturally I made sure to ride in a rolling office chair through the halls. I definitely know that they have security cameras set up everywhere and that I probably shouldn't have but eh. It was a pretty rushed move too because only Sister Murray was there to help us, and then after we loaded everything into the Uhaul the other Elders had to leave, so then it was just me and Elder Lund helping her move all the stuff into the new place. On top of that we were only allowed to be there for 1 hour because you had to reserve the freight dock in advance if you are moving in. In the end we went 30 minutes over the limit and made friends with the maintenance guy so that we could keep using the freight elevator. But we did it! Then Sister Murray took us out to eat at a pancake place afterwards. I got biscuits and gravy and it was super good.

We also are doing the Haitian Choir still. It's pretty fun. We got a lady in the ward to play piano for us. Her name is Sister Vogel and she used to play organ for MoTab! She even learned to play organ on the tabernacle organ. She's down here for retirement now. She had shoulder replacement surgery so she had to retire. Also she has arthritis in her hands but she still wants to help us out. Cool lady. We're singing Premier Noel (first noel in French) on Christmas. Should be good.

So transfers were yesterday! Elder Lund and I are both staying put (thankfully) but Elder Ajayi and Elder Child are being whitewashed ["whitewashed" is when both missionaries transfer out at the same time] out. The new Elders coming in their area are a Haitian named Elder Biseret (I don't know how to spell his name yet, it's pronounced bee-sir-ette) and Elder Blood! Yes, the very same from the MTC. That makes 2 Elders that I knew in the MTC that I'd have lived with in 2 transfers. 

Almost forgot, on Sunday we had The United Methodist Church of Opa-Locka come sing to us in sacrament meeting. Apparently a few months ago the ward did a service project for them so they wanted to come sing for us. They sang a few hymns which they were pretty timid about, didn't seem very well prepared, and then the last song they got all out singing this song that goes like "JESUS! JESUS! OHHHHHHHHHH WHAT A WONDERFUL CHILD" and it was all gospel-y and stuff. Pretty fun, never thought I'd see something like that in sacrament meeting. 

That's pretty much it. We have 1 cool potential set up though. His name is Franz Pierre, he was a Bible referral and wanted a BoM [Book of Mormon] as well. He seemed really interested in going forward and was going to come to church on Sunday with his girlfriend (who he said would also be really interested but lives up in Fort Lauderdale) and we were going to teach them afterwards. But his work schedule changed so he was working all day and couldn't come. Hopefully we can start teaching him.

​I made Donna's [our neighbor] banana bread this week! It was pretty good, but I started it kinda late so I had to take it out of the oven with flashlights (lights out is at 10:30) and I covered it until morning. It got a little bit

dried out but still really good.​

Here's my planner for this transfer. Made it myself. I think it turned out pretty good!

Lanmou,

Eldè Stevenson

Here's My Number, So Call Me Haiti

Hope you enjoyed that Haiti pun, courtesy of Elder Duffin and Elder Firth. This week was kinda boring to be honest. There were some high points though. Sunday was good. It was fast Sunday so we had a mission conference where President Burgess spoke to us. Our devotional that night was Chad Lewis, a former BYU football player. Everyone seemed to like his talk, it was pretty motivational, but I couldn't really relate to him and his stories.The best part though was when we watched "Missions are Forever" by Elder Holland for our movie. It was a talk where he came to the MTC without notes or anything and just talked about missions. It was really good. He talked about how you shouldn't waste any time as a missionary and how your mission should extend into the rest of your life. I took lots of notes.

These two of the board are an overview of
pretty much everything we've learned so far.

Monday Elder King's back was hurting after playing basketball, so he and I went back to the room during our last class time to rest. It was nice, not gonna lie, just to lie down in quiet. He's feeling better now though, just has a cold or something. We call it MTC Sickness because everyone's pretty much just in a constant state of sickness here. I haven't really gotten sick though, just a headache and stuffed nose here and there.

For our Tuesday devotional, Elder D. Todd Christofferson came and spoke to us. That was a cool experience, and he gave a good talk. He talked about repentance mostly, and at the end he quoted David O. McKay and said "It is better to be trusted than to be loved. The Lord will love you no matter what, but can he trust you?" That was probably one of my favorite lines from the MTC so far.

Wednesday was pretty normal, I stayed in with Elder King during exercise time and took a nap. That was nice.

Yesterday was different, we had a day long conference called In-Field Training. It was good, they have the best teachers here teach it. It talked about all the different aspects of missionary work in the field, like finding, teaching, working with members, etc. It was a good change, the day went by pretty quick because of it too.

Cousin letters plus my scriptures and "Jesus the Christ"
(which I've started reading and boy let me tell ya, it's a head-full)
Makes me remember the song:
"Wish I could turn back time, to the good 'ol days"

I got a fun letter from the Indiana Nicolaysens this week, I took a picture of it because I thought it was so fun. I love getting pictures from the cousins, they brighten my day. If you can't see, in the one David [age 5] drew there's descriptions of what everything is, there's "Elder Stevenson and his companion" and "Someone crying because they don't know the gospel." So fun. 

Elder King, Elder Duffin and Elder Firth leave on Monday. That'll be kinda sad- they're the people I'm closest to here I'd say. Especially Elder King, he's kinda my companion. I don't know how that's gonna work once he leaves, I'll probably be a trio with somebody.

I just checked the mail and nothing so far- packages or flight plans. Just a letter to Elder Firth from his girlfriend (oooOOOOOoooohhh!) I'll let you all know what the plan is. I can call home from the airport, either before the flight leaves or on layover. Some missionaries are having a throw away phone, like tracfone or something mailed to them before hand. Depending on how many missionaries are in my travel group and how many phones they've got that might be safer, and probably more reliable. We'll see once I get my plans.

Frè Augustin looking fly

With everyone getting ready to leave it makes me excited to leave, but I still have a week. We're getting new missionaries next week, so those of us who stay it will be mostly review. We'll probably be teaching some of the lessons ourselves even. It'll be an interesting week either way.

Keep sending notes and pictures! I love hearing about everything going on back home and with the family. 

Here's my song for this week:

"Manman mwen pa renmen ou, epi li renmen tout moun."

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

A Good Week For Devotionals

The Plan of Salvation in Creole

First off let me just say that I was inspired by my dad's priesthood emails [those he sends to the Young Men in our ward] and I will be including a game at the bottom of my emails from now on. Have fun!

So let's see, what did I do this week? This week was a good week for devotionals, on Sunday we had the Nashville Tribute Band come and perform for us. Of course I was in the choir, and it was the largest choir in MTC history, 1703 people. That's 5 Mormon Tabernacle Choirs. We filled pretty much all of the gym with just the choir. Anyways the band was great, we sang 3 songs with them live. They were called I Was Born, John's Song [This is the only song with a video presentation, The others are just audio], and When He Comes Again [I think this is the one he means, although the title is a little different]. Whatever you do, DO NOT LOOK UP THE SONG (aka look it up) The Hardest Thing I Ever Loved to Do. You will cry. You have been warned. Anyways really cool devotional but it was kinda weird not being able to clap afterwards. The Tuesday devotional was Juan A. Uceda of the seventy. It was a great talk, maybe you can find a recording of it somewhere. He was a convert, so he went through and talked about what helped him. I took lots of notes.

Elder Stevenson with his doppelganger Elder Duffin 

I guess one thing I should mention is that I'm the District Leader now. Here in the MTC a district is everyone learning the same language, so 8 of us. Some languages are split because they're so big. District Leader basically means I get the mail. I also go to Branch Council on Sundays to report on the district progress, hold interviews with the district, and lead District meetings after the devotionals. In my first Branch Council meeting I was asked to give the spiritual thought. I didn't know the format yet so I didn't really know what was expected, so I just stood at the front and told the story of the pastor and the bird cage (dad will know which one I'm talking about) and it seemed to be pretty well received. So far it's been a good thing for me, because it confirms to me that I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. Frè Augustin told me in a one-on-one that he was glad when he heard that I was the new DL. He also said I've exceeded his expectations in the language, which is reassuring.

Notes and pictures from his cousins in Houston

I love the letters I've been getting, I got a fun one from the Houston Nicolaysens with a bunch of pictures they drew for me. I'll send a pic, so fun. I love getting pictures and updates so keep sending em.

All the Samoans, Tongans, and Fijians left early in the week. That was kinda sad, they were all super fun and friendly. This Wednesday the newbies came to replace them, they seem like they could be nice too. It was weird thinking that they just came in from the outside world, they seem a little dazed. I wonder if I was like that, probably was. It's honestly so hard to remember what I've done, even just to write in my journal, everything blends together.​​​​​​​​

Class has been going on like normal. Last Saturday we had our first TRC appointment, or Teaching Recent Converts. We go in and teach members, sometimes investigators, that speak our language. All the rooms have cameras in them so our teachers can observe us. Elder King and I taught one white guy that served his mission in Fort Lauderdale and then we taught a couple that had come from Haiti. The couple spoke so fast, it was almost impossible to understand what they were saying. I just mimicked their facial expressions and got along as best I could. The husband in the couple ended up teaching us pretty much, we'd ask a question like "What is faith to you?" and he'd just go off. He even gave me a referral for a friend of his in Fort Lauderdale, which was cool. The wife said that Fort Lauderdale is pretty much Haiti, as in there will be lots of Haitian people to teach.


Q&A:

"Beach" volleyball for exercise

How much free time do you get?
Depends on how you look at it. My typical schedule goes like this:
Wake up at 6:30.
Get to class for personal study time at 7.
Breakfast at 7:40.
Our morning block is from 8:10 to 11:10, we'll either have a teacher for blocks or it will be PCL study (Personal, Companion, and Language).
Then study until lunch at 11:45. Some days we then have exercise time from 12:30 to 1:30, other days it's not until like 2:40.
After exercise we have our afternoon block from 2:00 to 5:00.
Then dinner at 5:00.
Get back to class at 5:45 for study until
evening block from 6:00 to 9:00.
9:00 to 9:30 is planning for the next day.
Then back to the rooms and lights out is 10:30.
If you haven't caught on, it's a lot of study time. My district in particular has a hard time focusing and staying on task, so some of it gets used up with chatting, that's one thing I'm working on fixing. A lot of those like 15 minute study sessions are just like breaks, and sometimes we finish early so we'll have some time then.

Best part and worst part of the day?
Best part of the day is sleeping. Worst part of the day is waking up.

Did you take a map photo?
I haven't seen any big maps anywhere yet.

Let me know today if you have other questions and I can answer them, or I will answer them next week.

So this is the game. I'm going to think of a song (which is super hard I'm finding out) and then use what knowledge of Creole I have to translate it. Then you have to figure out what song it is. That way I am guaranteed to get emails. ;) [his email is: hunter.stevenson (at) myldsmail (dot) net]
So here's my song for the first week:

"Yon moun yon fwa te di mwen, mond la pral woule mwen. Mwen pa se a pi file zouti nan remiz la."

Lanmou [Love],

Eldè Stevenson

Week 3? Already?

Alo fanmi ak zanmi! Mwen kontan ke mwen ka ekri nou jòdi a. MTC a ki pral byen. Mwen renmen Levanjil a JeziKri. Di mwen tout bagay w ap fè. Si ou gen kèk kesyon pou m, mwen pral eseye reponn byento. Mande mwen tout bagay, konsènan levanjil a oswa konsènan lavi mwen. Mwen manke tout moun, mwen pral wè ou pita!

Translation: Hello family and friends! I am happy that I can write you today. MTC is going well. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ. Tell me everything you're doing. If you have questions for me, I will try to answer soon. Ask me everything about the gospel or about my life. I miss everyone, I'll see you later!

Hey all! It's already week 3 at the MTC! Time is flying by it seems, the days are long and the weeks are short. I'm already almost halfway done in the MTC.

This past week has honestly been pretty uneventful. Sunday I watched “17 Miracles”, that's such a good movie. We've been teaching fake investigators with our teachers. This week we started teaching Ivan (Brother Augustin). On our first visit we knock on his door and he barely opens it and peeks his head out and is like, "What do you want?" It was funny, but we were not prepared for that. We go into the room and barely can say anything except questions like "Kijan ou ye?”(How are you), “Èske ou gen yon fanmi?” (Do you have a family), “Kisa ou fè pou travay?” (What do you do for work) and Ivan is all like, "You come into my house to ask questions?" and kicks us out. He did that for all the groups, and none of us were expecting that. It's funny now, but we were all like "Is this how it's actually gonna be?" Turns out it was mostly our teacher messing with us, Ivan has been very receptive since then. I'm sure that'll happen at some point though.

No apostle for Tuesday devotional this week. Rumor had it that Elder Holland was coming because he was in town for Education Week, but instead it was Sister Bonnie L. Oscarson, Young Women's General President. Her talk was really good, took good notes. She's on the missionary board or whatever they call it, so it was all pretty relevant. I can't remember what she talked about now, but she showed the video of Hugh B Brown's currant bush. I love that story.

Food here is good, it's pretty much cafeteria food. I like the chicken cordon bleu we sometimes have, it's not as good as the ones from home though. None of it really is, of course. I've been doing the weight machines every day still, some days more than others. Last I checked I had gained about 2.5 pounds (all muscle weight, of course ;) ) and I haven't been drinking chocolate milk as much as you might think. I think the real reason we get fat in the MTC is not because we're eating unhealthy food (which is debatable) but because we get 3 full meals a day. I'm surprised I haven't gained more weight to be honest.

That's pretty much it. Tell me all about what's going on in the world right now (heard we're absolutely dominating the Olympics, no shocker there *cough* Michael Phelps *cough*). Tell me about school and what not. Mr. R sent me a nice email saying he ran into you guys at Mod Pizza (I'm gonna miss Mod Pizza.)

Here's my spiritual thought for this week, figured I should start doing that:

"Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a seed there a long time ago."

One of the Elders in my district told about a friend who went to the same mission as his dad, and in his farewell he said, "My dad planted a seed, and I'm going to check on the tree." I think that's really powerful and inspiring.

Love,

Elder Stevenson

The MTC is Amazing

Official missionary tag. The Haitian Creole reads: The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

So yeah. I have my journal here with me to try to help me remember everything that happened. Sunday was super great, definitely a rest from all my labors. We had a testimony meeting in our zone during church and everyone gave it in their mission language (we're encouraged to do so). I especially liked the ASL [American Sign Language] testimonies.It was weird how I could feel the spirit with absolutely no clue what they were saying. Elder King and I led a discussion about The Book of Mormon during priesthood meeting, we had some good participation so it went well. We also had a mission conference and we were watching in the overflow and it felt just like general conference. The temple presidency was reorganized so they all spoke to us. Later there was a devotional with Matthew Holland, president of USU [Utah State University] and Elder Holland's son. He spoke about Joseph Smith. I sang in the choir piece afterwards, we sang Praise to the Man, the MoTab [Mormon Tabernacle Choir] version and it was really cool. Mostly guys. Anyways, then we watched The Character of Christ talk by Elder Bednar and it's AMAZING. I wish I could find it outside of the MTC [Missionary Training Center] but they say you can't find this version. Look it up for me, it was a Christmas morning talk at the MTC with Elder Bednar called The Character of Christ.

Missionary Training Center in Provo, UT

Monday morning we did service. Just cleaned around the residence building. Elder Blood left for Fort Lauderdale. We sang God be With You Till We Meet Again in Creole with him and I got a little teary. He was super helpful the first week, we could ask him literally anything. I'll probably see him around. We started exercise on Monday, we went to the gym because Elder King was "just tryna ball". I stayed on the top floor running the track and using the weight machines. That's what I've done every day pretty much and I enjoy it. I like using the elliptical and bike machines. When we got back our water was off, it was all super hot and the drinking water had green stuff in it. They were working on some pipes or something. I went downstairs and got a powerade from the vending machine to drink, but no shower. 

Tuesday was Neil L. Anderson's 65th birthday. Ask how I know that. Because, to quote my journal, "he freakin CAME AND TOLD US." And guess where I was. Sitting with the choir not 50 [feet?] yards away as he spoke. He came for our Tuesday devotional. There was a spirit about him as he spoke, I took lots of notes.One of the main points was "Be clean, Be obedient, Be busy." We sang I Believe in Christ afterwards and it was super spiritual. This sounds weird, but as I sang I didn't have to try so hard to get the harmonies. It felt like someone was singing through me. 

Study Break

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful, just classes and study. We had Chick-Fil-A for dinner one night, that was cool. I didn't know that could happen. The language has been coming pretty well for me so far, and I feel like it's discouraging for some of the others, Elder King maybe especially. He feels like he's falling behind all the Elders with a French background and getting frustrated. Some of the others are maybe feeling the same way. He was also sick yesterday so that didn't help matters any. I pray for him and my other companions every night.

That's pretty much it for this week, I'll start the Q&A now:

Did you know that Elder Duffin is from Aunt Erica's stake?

No I did not and I told him. He said his dad lives in G. P. We were excited, I seriously think we could be brothers in another life.

Can I see emails on day other than P-Day [Preparation Day]?

Yes I can. If I find a few extra minutes I can read emails but I can't respond. I'd actually prefer that you send them throughout the week if you can, that way I don't have to play catch up. I'm a slow reader.

Did you get our cookies?

Yes I did and they were delicious. 

Did you get any mail?

Yes, I got the Dear Elders from Dad, I can also see those in my email. I got a letter from Auntie Lauralee that was super nice and had notes from all the family. Also missionary jokes that I told to my district and we loved them. P.S. send more jokes.

Where are your pictures? 

So the computers are not letting me access the camera or card reader due to a lack of proper permissions it seems like. I hope it's a temporary issue but for the time being I can't get into my card. I'll try to get to it but these computers are heavily tampered with to provide only basic functions. I can get to my portal and language training and that's about it.There's not even a way to search for files, you're supposed to be able to find it on the desktop but it won't show up. When the autoplay box pops up when I first plug it in my access was denied. We're going to try other computers later today because everyone in here has the same problem, hopefully that will solve the problem. [Obviously he got it worked out since they are on here now.]

Haitian Creole Language Book

Are you going to say anything in Creole?

Wi. Mwen renmen tout fanmi mwen, mwen konnen Levanjil a vre. Atrav(e accent grave) Ekspyasyon JeziKri a, nou kapab resevwa padon pou peche nou. Atrav(e accent grave) Levanjil JeziKri a, nou kapab viv av(e accent grave)k fanmi nou pou toutan. Mwen ap w(e accent grave) tout ou pita! Translation via google translate: Yes. I love my family, I know the Gospel is true. Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we may receive forgiveness of sins. Through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we can live with that family forever. I'll see you all later!

Has Hannah moved into my room yet? Send pics.