Week 30 - Dwight

We talked to our dear sister-in-law Sheila a few days ago and she confirmed something that I was wondering.  "Dwight, your southern accent is getting really thick again!" - or something to that effect.  Language, speech, words, etc., it's one of the major ways we communicate and interact with each other.  It's hard enough to get it right when everyone speaks the same native language (I suppose I'd call mine Southeastern United States English  - backwoods vs city talk), but when a southern boy that hasn't really spoken French for 45 years is trying to communicate deep religious theology to Haitians that are native Creole speakers, but speak French as a 2nd language pretty well, then you're just asking for trouble!  We had 8 Haitians at church today, including 5 adults and 3 children.  Let's just say that my translation of sacrament meeting was lacking a little something - except for the sacrament prayers, because I could read those!  Good thing these are very understanding Haitians.  And, they are quickly becoming friends!  Three of the adults are members of the Church and are trying to become more active.   We're teaching the other two along with several others.  We met with Marie Guetty (member) and her husband Jean-Claude (non-member) on Thursday this week and set a date in February for him  to be baptized.  He seems excited!  Since the members haven't been to church in a long time and the others are learning, we are, for the time being, teaching missionary discussion during the 2nd hour.  Today we finished Our Loving Heavenly Father's Plan of Salvation.

Early in the week it seemed like every appointment we had was canceled for one reason or another. We did get a chance to have a video chat with Kyle and Anna on Monday night:)  The kids are bigger every time we see them :(  

We were able to go to the church Tuesday with Aarayah Faison, along with her brother and cousin, and put Coach Dwight to work again teaching some basketball skills. Wednesday was a pretty busy day with our usual Wednesday morning District Council Meeting, now being held in Mt Olive.  Later in the afternoon we headed to Raleigh (Apex) because all the senior missionaries had been invited to dinner at President and Sister Stevens' home (mission leaders).  We had a great meal and enjoyed visiting with all the other senior folks.  Afterwards we went to see Jacob and Anna and the grandkids before heading back home to Kinston.

Nana teaches Clara to crochet

Thursday started with my going with the young elders in Kinston to visit a man that was a media referral.  We knocked on the door, but no one, we thought, was home.  As I drove to the back to turn around, we found him.  This man, Victor, had a fascinating story.  He was in prison for 30 years and was now out for a few and trying to change his life.  He had significant troubles, including financial difficulties.  In order to make certain that he knew we were not the ones to talk to about financial aide, we told him that the aide we offer is spiritual aide and quoted Peter in Acts 3:6 "Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee."  Peter then healed the man he was talking to.  Victor still wanted to talk to us and it went well - we'll see where it goes.

Then, we headed to Snow Hill (right by Hookerton) to see our friend JD in the rehab center.  We stayed just a minute because he was having of all things, rehab treatments.  Scooted off to Mt Olive to see Alex.  The Relief Society president, Susan Hudson, met us there and we taught him some of the Plan of Salvation to help him prepare for the temple.  Afterwards we went to talk to Jean-Claude and Marie Guetty.

Friday we headed to Greenville to see our friend Bernard that had foot surgery.  He seemed to be doing well.  While we were there, one of his nurses came in and I could tell from her accent that she was not a native born American.  Her name was Mary, and she's from Kenya and has only been here for a couple of months.  She has a 12-year-old daughter with her and her husband and two other children are back in Kenya.  We talked to her about our desire to visit Kenya someday and just had a very lovely visit.  She gave us her phone number and we hope to visit her soon to share a message about Jesus Christ and get to know her better.  That night we visited the Huggins in the Woodington area and had a great discussion about the Kingdons of Glory and Thinking Celestial.

Saturday morning was big basketball game day at the stake center in Goldsboro.  The whole Faison clan was there as Albertson/Mt Olive/Woodington combined girls team took on Smithfield.  Aarayah, in her first ever basketball game, scored 4 points and pull down 5 rebounds!  We were so proud of her!

We're a little torn on Sundays because we want to be with the people we love in Woodington, but there's a need right now for us to be in Mt Olive every week so I can translate and teach our Haitian friends.  We hated that we missed seeing the Faisons and the Wards with Claire, along with everyone else in Woodington.  But, we really enjoyed being with and seeing everyone in Mt Olive.  We had to postpone teaching Maeci until this afternoon.  We had a great discussion with this beautiful family on Becoming Lifelong Members of the Church.  Ten people were present at the discussion and over half of us had tear-filled eyes because the Spirit was so strong.

Trying to translate sacrament meeting into French is a difficult and tiring task for me.  I hope those listening get something out of the meeting.  One thing that I'm coming to understand better and better is that love transcends all languages.  Susan can't speak a lick of French, but she shows and feels love for and from these new friends.  Also, the Holy Ghost breaks language difficulty and barriers and is able to speak to the heart when words alone fail.  We're so grateful for the knowledge we have, that the Holy Ghost bears witness to us, that God lives, we are His children and Jesus Christ is His Only Begotten Son!  We love Him and we love you.

Just because today's sunset was so beautiful!