Week 58 - Dwight

 It's official - our mission has been extended until June 30, 2025!

Our 18 month mission was supposed to end in January 2025, but that date is coming way too fast, so we requested an extension for 5 more months and we got it!  We'll now be here through the month of June and are really excited that we don't even need to think about going home yet.

We had our stake president, President Frankie Jones, at church today.  He interviewed three of our new Haitian members to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood in two weeks at our stake conference.  Exciting!

This week has been a week of teaching and a bunch of social work while Tropical Storm Debbie blew through dumping a lot of water and causing flooding in some areas.  We have a lot of Haitian brothers here without their wives and children, who are still in Haiti.  That country continues to be a mess.  The social work piece has been helping several of our members make applications to help get their families here to be with their husbands/fathers.  We've also tried to help several friends find a home to rent and I helped 3 with their job interviews at the Butterball turkey plant near Mt. Olive.

Mackendy, Frantz, Luz (Butterball recruiter), Dwight, Saindelene

As a side note, the company I worked for in NC and Utah for 32 years, Smithfield Foods, used to own 49% of Butterball.  You'd think that would give me an "in" with them in helping people get jobs - but it doesn't.  Luckily, I met Luz early on and she has been great helping me set up interviews and get people hired.  It's a little bit of work to help them get started, but they are becoming very self-sufficient once they have jobs.

With everything we have going on, we've tried to divide and conquer a bit with the Young missionaries, Elders Bates and Hansen.  They have been trying to learn Haitian Creole and up until this week it's been pretty slow and they have relied on me, and others on the phone, to help them a lot with their teaching.  Last Sunday we gave them a priesthood blessing and promised them they would have the gift of tongues and be able to hear what was being said and speak the words needed.  The blessings were very powerful.  This week as I've been with them in person or on a video call, it's been remarkable the improvement they are making, a little miracle!  They still have a ways to go, but they are progressing at an accelerated rate and soon will not need any help at all!  We're starting to teach more separately and that will be a great relief for the work and allow us to be in more homes teaching and testifying of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

In some of the home we teach a gospel lesson and then an English lesson.  This is working great.

Saindelene and her step sister Monica during an English lesson

While life has gotten a lot more busy recently, we couldn't be happier, with the exception of a lingering sickness Susan has been struggling with this week - but doing much better today.  We feel like we have renewed friendships with people we've known for decades, but have now restored those friendships and made many new friends as well.  I happen to believe that in our pre-earth life, we knew each other there, family and friends.  I also believe that the bonds of friendship we have here will be a special connection we have throughout the eternities as we reminisce on the challenges, good times and bad times we shared together here. Here, in this life, so important to our eternal existence, we share some of our best and most challenging times together.  As we learn to meet those life's struggles together, we develop a special bond of friendship that will last forever.  One of the great purposes of life is to, with God's help, become something more than the natural man by choosing to follow the Savior. We need His help, but we need each other too!  You, along with family members and friends that have passed, have blessed our lives so much and we will be eternally grateful!