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| Jean Claude, 1st Haitian new member in Mt Olive |
On March 10th of last year, Jean Claude (76) was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the first Haitian new member in the Mt Olive ward. We've been through a lot together. He's been through a divorce. He's nearly going blind now with glaucoma. There have been ups and downs and through it all we are good friends. Today he went to see the bishop to get a temple recommend and we're going to do baptisms for his family on Wednesday. During the interview he found out we would be leaving soon. We thought everyone already knew. When he came out, it was one of the sweetest, and at the same time most heart-breaking moments of our mission. He said in broken English, "Brother Potter, you didn't tell me you were leaving. You're leaving and never coming back." Tears were streaming down his face. I reassured him we would be back to visit. It was a stark reminder that our time is short and it's not getting any easier. We bought a few boxes so we can start packing, but neither one of us has had the heart to actually start (plus, we don't have any tape).
We had two new members confirmed today that were baptized yesterday. We helped Leccius move to Mt. Olive in January. Although he's legal to work, he was living in a work camp earning meager wages. We wanted to help him find better employment. We found out he had very poor vision in his pre-employment physical. That led to discovering that he had glaucoma and pretty severe cataracts in both eyes. Now, four months later, he's on meds for the glaucoma, he's had two successful cataract surgeries and the doctor is a member of the Church that has been touched by the whole process as well as his staff. Wednesday we have hopefully the final surgery follow-up visit and hope to get him a final pair of glasses and he should be able to start work in June. The doctor said that the surgeries, his vision improvement and his pressure from the glaucoma are all significantly better than he could have imagined. Leccius rightfully sees all this as a miracle.
Maria we've only known a few weeks, but she is a very sweet person who loves Jesus Christ.
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| Elders Nordgren & Bates, Leccius, Dwight, Susan, Elder Hafen |
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| Elder Hafen, Dwight, Susan, Maria's mom and sister, Maria, Maria's brother, Elders Reheis & Nordgren |
Recently we started having the Haitian Group meet together separately twice a month for sacrament meeting. We quickly realized we still needed translation services for those visiting that don't speak Creole.
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| Elder Bates translates back to English today |
I realized today that we are woefully behind on our goal to make sure each Haitian member's picture is in the ward directory before we leave. So, I started taking pictures. We had four of the five Haitian young women there and snapped their photo together. It is just so great to see them together and to see the joy on their faces. We feel so bless to know them and all the Haitian members.
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| Ruthnael, Wolffencia (getting baptized this week), Brinette, Monica |
This week, one of our new members, Provilene, asked us to stop by and talk to her aunt, Geremene, about work. She wanted us to also share with her our beliefs and we had a wonderful, spirit-filled discussion. We've been back twice this week since then and she came to church today. Once the Haitians join the Church, they are most anxious to share it with their family and friends. Never seen anything like it! Geremene is quite amazing with lots of questions. Such a joy to get to know her.
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| Provilene, Jaden, Geremene |
It feels like we have so many opportunities to serve every week. We had a bed donated we were able to deliver to Maria this week. We participated in our Wednesday night Haitian Home Evening and had about 20 people there - starting to grow! We were able to participate in a bunch of lessons either on the phone or in person. I took my buddy JR to lunch, which was actually a treat because we went to Murray's Restaurant in La Grange, NC and they cook some of the best country food in NC! We went to the Lafortunes twice. Once was for Evena's birthday party (She turned one). A Haitian birthday party may be a little different from what we do here. They invite all their friends. They hang out, they cook, they eat and they laugh. We were treated to fried fish (pwason fri), grilled pork (kochon griye), pikliz (spicy cabbage and other vegetable salad), diri ak djon djon (black rice with mushrooms), fried plantains (bannann fri), and a pasta dish I don't know the name of. Sadly we didn't get a picture of the food, but we did get a picture of the birthday girl.
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| 1 year old Evena |
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| Bed delivered to Maria |
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| Musical Chairs at HHE |
With count down week 5 done, we only have 4 weeks left. This next week we have a lot scheduled and that should keep our minds focused on the here and now and not worry about what's coming. We're grateful for the time we have left and for the people we've been able to help in some way, but it pales in comparison to how we have been blessed by everyone here that has touched our lives. We have built and rebuilt everlasting friendships and will never forget these experiences and the people we love.
Love,
Elder and Sister Potter
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