Week 86 - Dwight

 

Ruthnael & Monica singing their hearts out!

This is one of those weeks that feels like while we were living it that we weren't accomplishing very much because we've both been fighting sickness with flu like symptoms early in the week and lingering coughing and fatigue late in the week.  But, looking back, there were somethings we were able to participate in that feel pretty significant.

For the last month we've been planning a temple trip for yesterday (Saturday) for the new members.  We were hoping to take 7 or 8 for the 1st time.  Unfortunately, Wednesday brought a winter storm that was forecasted to bring 6-8 inches of snow.  In the end, it only brought mostly freezing rain.  But, because of slippery roads, all the processing plants in the area closed down for 2 days.  These closings caused the production to fall behind, so all the plants opened on Saturday to get caught back up. Everyone that had planned to go to the temple was called in to go to work and could not go.

Freezing rain on bushes at our house

Freezing rain, broken limbs in the background

That morning, once we knew no one could go, we went online to cancel our appointments for that day and just before touching "cancel", there was a flash of inspiration.  We have 2 Haitian young women that have been before, but might enjoy going again.  We also have a wonderful young woman that's not yet a member of the Church that we thought might want to go see the temple in Raleigh.  Turn out, they could all three go and so we picked up Wolffencia, Monica and Ruthnael.  They enjoyed the trip up to Raleigh.  After a brief explanation to all of them on the purposes of the temple, they got out their music and started to sing some of their favorite popular songs in French.  We had a great time.  Wolffencia, who is still deciding if she wants to become a member, was really impressed with the temple.  Recently, with some of the changes in immigration policy, she's been worried if news stories are true about ICE coming to her school or church to deport her, even though she currently has a legal status.  But, she walked the grounds of the temple.  She sat in the waiting room of the temple and read scriptures and just enjoyed being there.  As we left she said she has never felt so much peace in her whole life.  

Dwight, Ruthnael, Monica, Wolffencia, Susan

Raleigh NC Temple

Today, we attended sacrament meeting in the Woodington ward for the first time in about eight months.  While we spend most of our time in Mt. Olive working with our Haitian brothers and sisters, our mission president has never recinded our assignment to also work in Woodington.  It was so good to see everyone again and we ended up going to have lunch with our friends the Wards to celebrate their granddaughter Clair's birthday and got to get to know her cousin Ruby better. Had a wonderful time.

Unfortunately, we missed a baptism that took place today while we were out of town.  A fine young man Roosevelt was baptized today.

Elder Bates, Roosevelt, Elder Nordgren

Late in the week we went to see our friend Charlemise because we've been meaning to take the parts over to hook up her dryer vent.  It was a bit complicated but we had the right man on the job!

Plumber Dwight on the job!

The other significant thing that happened on this slow week was that Jean Edrice ordained his brother Christmonor a priest in the Aaronic Priesthood.  The bishop gave us permission to go to their home and to do that.  Then, today, they blessed the sacrament together!  These two guys smile and make us smile more than anyone we know!

Jean Edrice, Christmonor, Dwight

Hopefully we'll get over this sickness soon and get back to 100% very soon.  Sometimes I think we get sick or have difficulties so we can learn to appreciate better when things are good.  Believe me, we do!  But, even being sick doesn't slow down the time - it's going way too fast.  Love you all!

Week 85

Zone Conference is something we always look forward to. We get to see missionaries from three zones... lots of missionaries we've served with in the past and senior missionaries that have become great friends, we get great training, and there's always good food.

Us at Zone Conference

The Goldsboro Zone and the Stevens

Here are a couple non-missionary related items. First for anyone that plays Wordle, I play the daily game every morning. I usually guess the word in 3-5 tries. On Monday, this was my game.

I don't think this will ever
happen to me again. :)

Also on Monday, I opened my Duolingo to start a new week. Each week they put you in a new group. I was surprised to see that I was in the same group as my sister, Karen. We're just a little competitive and pushed each other all week. We ended in a tie!

Wednesday we went out with our young missionaries to visit several friends. This is becoming a regular occurrence. Even though I don't understand much, I really do love watching the young missionaries and Dwight in action. I can always feel the Spirit. Wednesday was also, as always, Haitian Home Evening. This time though, we had a special celebration. It was Elder Bates' birthday. We found out that his favorite flavor of cake is "Chocolate Zucchini." Dwight was all over it. We brought cake and cookies to celebrate. I don't think our Haitian friends were big fans of the walnuts on top of the cake, but other than that, it was really fun! Happy Birthday Elder Bates!

Elders Bates, Nordgren, Hafen, Smithson, & Potter

Thursday, the 13th, we went out with the young missionaries again. That night we went to dinner with our old friends Doug and Paulette Jones. It was fun reminiscing and catching up. I am so sad that we didn't take a picture! For Dwight and I, it was our Valentine's date because on Friday I was sick, and Dwight spent the day with the young missionaries. We/I did get several Valentine's surprises. We felt very loved.

These beautiful flowers came first... 
they are from Elder Bates' family. How
sweet is that?

This came from our "landlord," Sandra.
She spoils us. It's a candy bar bouquet,
a candle that smells fabulous, and 
some fun NC napkins.

The flowers, cookies, and homemade
card are from Dwight. The California
oranges are from his friend, JR.

The young missionaries and Dwight on 
Valentine's Day. This Haitian friend made dinner
for all of them.

Saturday started early for Dwight. He got up at 4 am and went across the street to help prepare for the "Albertson Fox Hunt," an annual event. I can't believe we've been here for two of them. Anyway, Dwight helped cooked breakfast and then helped cooked hush puppies for lunch.

Anyone want a hush puppy?

Also on Saturday we had three baptisms. I was still not feeling well, but I had to go. Our friend Provilene was baptized. She's one of our friends that we have been involved with from the beginning. She asked Dwight to baptize her. Today during church they were all confirmed and received the gift of the Holy Ghost. (After church we had another baptism.)

In 2019 our stake president, Frankie Jones, was in a meeting with Elder David A. Bednar. President Jones shared something he remembered from that meeting. He said, "Elder Bednar was asked a question while participating in a training in Africa by a member of a bishopric. The bishopric member told Elder Bednar that they really needed to stop baptizing so many people because the confirmations took all the time in sacrament meeting and there was no time to give talks. Elder Bednar replied, 'the only reason we have those crummy talks is because we're not baptizing enough people!'" 

We have worried about that before--not leaving enough time for people that have prepared talks. After hearing Elder Bednar's (probably not meant to be quoted) comment, I don't feel so bad. Today the confirmations took time away from Elder and Sister Potter's "crummy talks"! 😁 

Desca, Provilene, Susan, Dwight

Elders Nordgren & Bates, Desca, Provilene, S & D

Elder Nordgren, Marie, Elder Bates

Elder Hafen, Davidson, Jonel, Elder Smithson

Elder Hafen baptized Odoth today after
church. (Elder Smithson, right)

Sunday evening we were invited to Jennipher and Roger Edwards home for dinner. Their daughter, Elizabeth is going on a mission trip to Costa Rica next week, and they were giving her a farewell party. Jennipher's brother, Jeff, was there. I haven't seen him in years. He looks exactly the same as he did when he was a kid--except for the long beard. ;) We had a great time visiting with them. They are such a wonderful family.

Dwight, Roger, Elizabeth, Susan, Jennipher

This is a quote from President Nelson that I used in my talk today, "“There is no limit to the Savior’s capacity to help you. His incomprehensible suffering in Gethsemane and on Calvary was for you! His infinite Atonement is for you!”

We love you all!

Sister and Elder Potter

Week 84 - Dwight

Stake Conference in Goldsboro

 We had stake conference today in Goldsboro and 39 of our Haitian members and friends attended. The missionaries, along with Davidson (Haitian member that speaks English) translated the whole meeting and I just enjoyed being there.

There are now 38 Haitian Church members (including children) in the Haitian Group and it's growing every week!  We had two more baptism yesterday.

Elder Hafen, Gary Docteur, Bishop Heath, Lestrat Casimir, Elder Smithson and Clarenn

The baptism service was great.  Clarenn, Lestrat's niece, helped him to get ready.  These are all just very eager yet humble people, seeking for truth.

Susan has had a cold for a lot of the week, so she wasn't able to get out as much as she wanted.  But she did get out early in the week.  I had a lot of projects that didn't require her, so it worked out well.

Here are a few of the lessons we participated in and people we worked with.

Leccius Sainpale is the Haitian friend that was not able to start work at Butterball a couple of weeks ago because he didn't see well enough to pass the pre-employment physical.  We quickly got him an eye doctor appointment and found out that he had glaucoma and cataracts.  We got him on drops for the glaucoma and that seems to be in control now.  Even though he has cataracts, we got him a pair of prescription glasses in the hopes that it would help him see well enough to pass the physical.  We failed!  He's applied for other jobs and now waiting.  On Monday this week, I took him to the social security office to see what benefits might be available to him.  It looks like he'll be able to get a little assistance and be able to go on Medicaid until he can go back to work.  We've made an appointment with an oncologist  that will lead to the cataract surgery in a few weeks.  He's anxious to get back to work; and once he can see, it'll be easy!

Monday night we went to a normal visit with our friend Provilene.  She's a young widow with two small children.  She lost her husband one year ago to an accident.  She's so excited to be getting baptized this next Saturday.  Monday night we could tell something was wrong.  After the lesson, we asked her what was going on and life is just getting hard.  She's missing her husband, no money and no job prospects, with two small children.  She wept openly.  Elder Bates gave her a blessing.  The next morning I was with my friend Luz, a recruiter at Butterball, with three people I was there to help with interviews.  Normally three is all she allows me to bring each month.  I explained Provilene's situation and Luz told me to bring her in for an interview the next morning.  She started work the next day!

I wish I had a picture, because Susan came with me to the interview for Provilene with Luz.  Luz reminds us of our dear friend Pauline in Utah.  They are both of Puerto Rican heritage.  Anyway, Susan has heard her voice, but never met here.  They met for the first time Wednesday and hugged like they were old friends.

Tuesday we took Nesly, Judeline and Donald for job interviews.  All went well, except Judeline did not have the hand strength to do the job they had her down for.  She'll have to wait for another opening.

Friday was a beautiful day - sunshine, in the 70's.  I'd been promising my friend JR that I would replace a small board on his deck that was rotten.  I finally got it done Friday!  My payment?  A jar of his sister Linda's fresh pack dill pickles!  Well worth the effort!

JR, my handywork and my payment!

Today at stake conference, one of our Haitian members, Paulimis Louis, was ordained an elder by another Haitian member, Davidson Michel.  Most of the Haitians attending hung around to witness the ordination.

Marly, Paulimis, Davidson, Darley

Last thing I'll mention from this week happened Saturday night.  We went over to visit a new member that just got baptized last Sunday - Christmonor Fils Aime.  We knew Christmonor was ready.  He's had and caused us to have amazing experiences while learning about the restored gospel.  His brother, Jean Edrice, another wonderful person, became a member a few months ago and helped his brother a lot.  Anyway, Christmonor met a young Haitian (Marc) in his English class and invited him to church and he's been coming.  On the way to see Christmonor, we picked up Marc and brought him with us.  Christmonor was so happy to see him.  As we started the lesson, Christmonor stopped us and said he just wanted to share his testimony.  He said that the Book of Mormon and the Gospel of Jesus Christ had absolutely changed his life.  As he reads the Book of Mormon every day, he feels peace.  He said he was a little scared of going in the water before his baptism, but as he came up out of the water, he just felt liberated and full of joy.  Beautiful!

Serving a mission isn't always easy, but experiences like these make it worth all the effort.  We love you!

Elder and Sister Potter

Week 83

You all know that I don't speak French or Haitian Creole, but I do attend a lot of lessons and meetings in those languages. It's kind of amazing how much the Spirit will whisper when you don't understand actual words. However, I have learned that spiritual understanding doesn't translate to taxes. 😁 The word is out that Dwight not only speaks French, but that he is also a CPA; so our Haitian friends have been asking for help. I'm glad he can help them, but to me taxes and accounting are boring in English... enough said. :) Dwight is going to try to teach one of our Haitian members about taxes so that he can help more of our friends.

What hasn't been boring are our lessons with some amazing people. One of those people is Charlemise. She is a single mom (widow) with two small children. This week we visited with her three times. Twice she had on a green face mask giving her the look of Elphaba from "Wicked." (Which is not important to the story, but it does explain the picture.) Anyway, when she was asked if she wanted to be baptized on a certain day, you would have thought she won the lottery. She kicked her legs around and punched her arms in the air, and giggled like a little girl while saying, "Wi, wi, wi!" ("Yes, yes, yes" in Creole). I don't think I've ever seen anyone so excited.

Susan and Charlemise

I got almost as excited when we visited our friends the Lafortunes and Wendy was there. Wendy is a young man we taught probably 10 months ago (a nephew of the Lafortune brothers), but he's either been working or out of state for a really long time. I didn't think we'd ever see him again. He sat in with us while the young missionaries taught a lesson in Creole on one side of the room and Dwight helped some Haitian men fill out employment applications on the other side of the room. There is always so much going on.

Wendy and Dwight

We have been on our mission for 19 months. The whole time we have be in North Carolina I have wanted to see a black bear in the wild. I hear people talking about seeing them in their yard or as they are driving, but I haven't seen one. But last night, we were driving a couple Haitian young women home from an activity, and we saw a bobcat! I wish I had had my camera out and ready. Bobcat... black bear... I guess that's a fair trade off. One of the girls saw it. The other one didn't, and had no idea what a bobcat was; so I looked it up and showed her this picture.

If you know how much I love big cats,
then you know this was a highlight 
of my week.

The activity the girls went to was a multi-stake dance in New Bern. We picked them up in Mt. Olive and dropped them off at the church in Albertson. They went with a group from that ward. Tracy Cruze, one of my seminary students and young women from 30 years ago, is now the young woman leader and drove them. She took them to Chick Fil'A after the dance. As we drove them home from Albertson they talked and talked about the dance and the Chick Fil'A. They had such a good time. I'm so proud of them for getting up early today and coming to church even though they got home late last night. Wolffencia helps translate during sacrament meeting. They are both awesome young women.

Monica, Wolffencia, Susan and Tracy

On Thursday, Dwight and I went to Raleigh for our own activity. All the senior missionaries went to President and Sister Stevens house for dinner. It was wonderful like always. President Stevens does a lot of the cooking and Sister Stevens does none of it (they have a helper that does a lot of cooking, etc.)... I love this arrangement. It sounds a lot like Dwight and me. :) 

On our way up to Raleigh we stopped to take a man from Africa that speaks French to the eye doctor to get some information for a cataract surgery. A former senior missionary couple from Utah that served in Raleigh became very good friends with this man and his family. They are going to help him out with the surgery but needed someone local to help with the translation.

Senior Missionaries

Dwight tried something new this week with his sour dough bread. He made a small loaf. It's a great idea so we don't waste so much.

 

The best thing that happened this week was the baptism of Christmonor. He is the brother of one of our friends that has been a member for a few months. We have worked with these two brothers from the beginning. They are like our sons. They call me their American mom. Christmonor was so excited. He doesn't speak much English, but after sacrament meeting today he said, "I get baptized TODAY!"

Elders Nordgren and Hafen, Susan, Christmonor,
Dwight, Elders Bates and Smithson

Because the baptism was after church, we
had a big group in attendance!

We're so grateful for all the experiences we're having as missionaries and don't like thinking about how short our time is. We love the people here. We love sharing the message of Jesus Christ and His plan for us.

We love you all!

Sister and Elder Potter