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