Fwd: SHOUT OUTS FOR DAYS

From: Hannah Fouts
Date: Mon, Dec 14, 2015 at 3:01 PM
Subject: Re: SHOUT OUTS FOR DAYS

Some fun pictures called we had family home evening with G and
P at the Relief Society President's house. All of the people in
the picture are Haitian and we were just having a great big Haitian
party! Also Sister Landaverry and I found a Christmas tree in the
closet and we spent a long time taking tacky pictures with it. The
troll is named Zetwol, but we call him Zetty for short.

ᐧ

Fwd: SHOUT OUTS FOR DAYS

From: Hannah Fouts
Date: Mon, Dec 14, 2015 at 2:53 PM
Subject: SHOUT OUTS FOR DAYS

People of my life! How you be? Bon? Bon! Bay m sa byen! Tell me
everything! Or don't, do whatever makes you feel good.

It's time for some shout outs.
Shout out to my little brother Ben for conquering the mouse in his room.

[Note: He shot it with an airsoft gun and killed. Go Ben!]

Shout out to my parents and aunt for the best Christmas package ever.

[Note: It's true. You other parents can feel free to ask for tips.]

Shout out to tiwi, the annoying black box in our car that yells at me
when I speed.
Shout out to Sister Landaverry for being the best companion evah.
Shout out to the Holy Ghost for helping us not get too lost this week.
Un shout out to the elders who used our gps this week.
Shout out to G and P, who asked who would baptize them and
where they'd be baptized, but still haven't agreed to pick a date.
Shout out to the two less active members who came to church this week
when none of our investigators did. Special shout out to the one who
doesn't have a leg and can't use her left arm due to a recent shoulder
surgery. Big shout out there.
Shout out to Lucky, the giant 7 foot tall black man who put out his
cigarette to watch A Savior is Born. "Not everyone belongs on the
streets, that's why they have sidewalks." Thanks for that big apple
wisdom, Lucky!
Un shout out to our zone leader who asked us to sing at Zone Training
Meeting 3 days before. We sang Far Far Away on Judea's plains because
it's one of the two Christmas songs that have translated into Creole
and they wanted us to sing part in Creole but then changed their
minds, so we just sang the most unChristmasy Christmas song in the
hymn book. It's whatever. Also I still can't sing, the mission hasn't
changed that.
Shout out to the guy who let us in in traffic, that was a good day!
Shout out to M, the sweetest Haitian lady ever who changed her
mind mid sentence about being baptized when she knows the Book of
Mormon is the word of God.
Shout out to "A Savior is Born" because it's basically all we think
about right now.
Shout out to the murderer that didn't kill us in Elmont. I actually

don't know if it was a murderer, but we were just looking up some
people when all of a sudden there were 15 police cars, with more
lights than Temple Square at Christmas time, and maybe 5 or 6 police
dogs. We kept knocking, but weirdly enough nobody answered their
doors.

Shout out to our Heavenly Father for sending His Only Begotten Son to
the earth to live for us, to suffer and die for us, and then to live
again for us! The gospel is my favorite and I love being a missionary
and I love New York and I love Creole and I love all of you! I hope
you all have a very merry week, and maybe someone can solve the
mystery of Chanukkah for us. All the signs for Hanukkah spell it
Chanukkah and also we don't even really understand this holiday. At
the mall last Monday there was a dradel(?) spinning contest so that is
cool.

Mwen renmen ou anpil anpil anpil!
Pase bon jounen!
Sè Fouts

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Fwd: Prayers go up,,,blessings come down (Pictures)

Our super cool spiritual rulers.

On Jamaica Ave in Queens they have Christmas lights across the street the whole way down!! This is a bad picture. In real life it looks way cooler.

Fwd: Prayers go up,,,blessings come down

From: Hannah Fouts
Date: Mon, Dec 7, 2015 at 12:36 PM
Subject: Prayers go up,,,blessings come down

Zanmi m, fanmi m, e nenpot lot moun ki ap li let sa,

I swear all the best things happen Monday night right after we go back
to work, but last Monday we contacted a headquarter referral, B,
who said she wanted to learn more about the Book of Mormon. Spoiler
alert: 30 minutes later we have a baptismal date for December 27th!!!
Um okay that's fine.

Some other fun things that happened: A Savior is born came out!! It's
the best and we be showing all the New Yorkers. If you haven't seen
it, go to Christmas.mormon.org because wow it is powerful! The New
York missions have been given a challenge (shoutout to Hermana Geiger
& Elder Hinckley) to show the video to 30,000 people and get an absurd
amount of new investigators from showing it, and it's harder than
you'd think. Some people won't even let us show them the 2 minute
video, let alone talk with them. But when we have someone watch it,
you can see the tension fall from their shoulders a little bit, and
their faces get softer. It's a Christmas Miracle!
After we showed one of our current investigators the video, he gave us
presents. They are heavy metal rulers that have very lovely quotes on
the other side. No worries, pictures will follow.

On Wednesday we met with a girl the elders had found and sent to us.
She's 15 and has questions about the bible I could never have thought
of. Also she is now scheduled to be baptized on the 27th. WHAT THE HOW
COOL IS THAT?!?! It might end up being pushed back because she hasn't
talked to her parents yet, but either way it's a huge act of faith to
schedule a baptismal date.

We got bible bashed a few times and I got a little sassy with one
lady. She was saying she wouldn't pray about the Book of Mormon, but
she was going to talk to her pastor about it because she trusted God
more than man. That makes 0 sense and I pointed that out to
her...probably shouldn't have done that but the Atonement is real and
I have since repented.

We had a zone conference with about 56 other missionaries and I
learned so much about being a better servant of God and it was so
exciting! Also I had probably the biggest fall of all time and was
very glad I'd worn my really long skirt that day. After that every
elder that was there either offered to get me a helmet and padding,
told me to watch my step, or just straight up laughed at me.
Apparently a mission has no affect on my clumsiness level.
Also we battled 2 enormous silverfish this week and it was terrifying
but we smashed them in the end. They were probably as big as my
pointer finger. Straight up nasty.

Okay last story! We found out that one of our referrals was actually
baptized 20 years ago, moved, lost his records, and then went into a
coma for an undetermined amount of time (this story was being told
over the phone in Creole. I didn't catch it all.) and now he's out of
his coma (obviously, since I was talking to him.) and he wants to come
back to church! Super the coolest.

Well tis the season, so today I'm going to talk about Christ, our
Savior. Surprise surprise! How amazing is it that more than 2000 years
ago our Heavenly Father gave us His Only Begotten Son? And it's even
more incredible that Jesus Christ volunteered for that! If you're
feeling alone or forgotten or abandoned or kind of brushed aside by
God, go take a look at one of my mom's beautiful nativities and
remember that you are not.
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah because I guess that's today, and
remember to thank God for literally everything because without Him
we'd have literally nothing.

Peace and love!
Sister Fouts

Fwd: Stop eating animals, Obama!

From: Hannah Fouts
Date: Mon, Nov 30, 2015 at 5:44 PM
Subject: Re: Stop eating animals, Obama!

Well this week was swell!
My new companion, Sister Landaverry, is just my all time favorite.
She's an Aggie too, and we discovered we actually were at lots of the
same places in Logan, and so chances of us having seen each other
before are about 200%. It's really fun!

Highlights of the week:
Thanksgiving! Turkey bowl! I got two touchdowns and tripped lots so
people thought I was being good and two hand touching people but I was
actually just clumsy. Go team!

We ate 3 Thanksgiving dinners, 2 American and 1 Haitian. The Haitian
food was delicious, but when the chicken legs and head came out my
heart dropped. Fortunately I didn't have to eat those, but there were
in fact lots of bones from various parts of animal skeletons in my
mouth at multiple points during that meal. The American food was also
delicious, and it was a relief to have boneless mashed potatoes!
Also there was a Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday night. I've never
eaten so much in my whole life and I think I gained all the weight.
Woot woot!

Some miracles of the week: G has officially claimed this religion
as hers. She still hasn't been baptized, or accepted a date, but
hopefully we'll change that soon.
D, the one with the cell phone, finally came to church! I almost
cried tears of joy when that happened.
M.G. said that she isn't ready for the Savior to come again, and
she knows she needs to come to church and be baptized in order to
prepare for Him. But she still doesn't want to come for some reason.
We'll figure it out eventually, but definitely keep her in your
prayers.

The subject line is from the most creative stop sign graffiti I've seen so far.
The squirrels are getting scarier because they're getting fat for the
winter. I think they might eat small children in order to fatten up.

The spiritual thought of the week is CHRISTMAS!!!! Christmas is coming
and I'm so excited!!! Long story short, remember the true meaning of
the season and look for happiness in Christ, not in the latest gadget
or whatever else you crazy kids buy these days.

I love you all so much! Have the best week and keep on keeping on.
Sorry that was lame.
Love you!
Sister Hannah Fouts

THIS IS SISTER LANDAVERRY AND SHE IS MY FAVORITE

ᐧ

Fwd: Wake up, eat, sleep, repeat.

From: Hannah Fouts
Date: Mon, Nov 23, 2015 at 4:38 PM
Subject: Wake up, eat, sleep, repeat.

That subject line pretty much sums up my week.
Nah, I did more than that, but there was a heck of a lot of sleeping.
A few interesting things:
We looked up a potential investigator that turned out to be a
different family in the elders pool of investigators. They are crazy.
They've been investigating for over 14 years and once painted their
elders nails and did their make up. It was the first time they let
"female Mormons" in the house, and it was actually really funny. They
gave us a cactus fruit and nicknames before we left, and now I'm
having an identity crisis because I don't know if I'm Merida like the
primary kids call me or if I'm Anna like the crazy family calls me.
It's a rough life being a Disney princess look alike.

We invited another potential to culture night, AND SHE CAME. THEN SHE
CAME TO CHURCH THE NEXT DAY. And she wanted a Book of Mormon in French
and she s going to call us or we can come visit her and teach her and
she is Haitian and it is literally my best day.

G and P update: they are my favorite people ever, we are
going there for Thanksgiving, and Patricia knows she wants to be
baptized. G's still a little worried about it, but she thinks after
the holidays she'll be ready. I'm not too worried about it, because
they are so ready!! They want to do it together, so P's going
to wait for G. They're keeping the word of wisdom and coming to
church and doing all the things!!! Except daily scripture study. Which
is key. So we're going to work on that and hopefully that will help
G.

culture night!! I am officially not picky anymore. Nobody can say that
about me ever again. I ate lots of things that I'm not even sure what
they are. A picture will follow. Also I ate jerk chicken which
literally burned my mouth off. And soup tèt cabrit (goat head soup)
which is actually super duper delicious. I was lucky and didn't get
any bones in my bowl. Also goat meat isn't bad.

Transfer calls came! Sister Wheeler is leaving, I am staying....and
TRAINING. AH SO EXCITING!!!! My new companion is a Creole sister as
well, so the count is back to 3 tomorrow!!

The thought of the day is salvation cake. We see this beautiful
delicious cake of salvation, and we want the recipe. We want to be
able to achieve that. We're given the recipe and told if we follow it,
we'll get the same result. Well we get a little sloppy with the flour
and we don't actually have 3 eggs so we'll just use 2 and oh awkward
we let Sister Fouts* put in the vanilla, which is bad because I always
poor in too much on accident, and we're trying to accommodate my dairy
free dad* so we use margarine and coconut milk instead of the cow
kind, and Hailey* really likes sugar so we add a little extra of that,
and then when the cake comes out its not the same and we're bummed and
a little annoyed. That recipe was guaranteed! What happened? Um we
didn't actually follow the recipe. When we don't follow the
commandments and the council of the prophets, we won't get the
promised results. When we don't heed their warnings, and pay attention
to the little stuff that doesn't seem too important, our salvation
cake won't turn out the way we want. D&C 82:10 says, "I, the Lord, am
bound when ye do what I say; but when he do not what I say, ye have no
promise." And that is that. Amen.

Haha I love you all so much! I'm not dying, and it's in the Lords
hands when I'm good enough to work all day without sleeping. I hope
you have literally the happiest of happy thanksgivings, and that you
eat all the feasts!!

Love
Sister Fouts

*this is a fictional story created to illustrate a gospel principle.
Any reference or similarities to actual persons living or deceased is
purely coincidental.

ᐧ

Fwd: Wake up, eat, sleep, repeat.

From: Hannah Fouts
Date: Mon, Nov 23, 2015 at 4:42 PM
Subject: Re: Wake up, eat, sleep, repeat.


Sometimes after culture night you eat passion fruit. It's actually
really sour and slurpy and pretty fun to eat.

ᐧ

Fwd: MIRACLES LITERALLY EVERYWHERE

From: Hannah Fouts
Date: Mon, Nov 16, 2015 at 5:25 PM
Subject: MIRACLES LITERALLY EVERYWHERE

Hello people who I love!

This week was one for the books. Is that an expression? What air. 

[Note: pronounced: "whate'er". It's in the same family of words as "' 'Murica!"]

I drove in Queens, no big deal. And got lost and did u turns and other
fancy maneuvers to avoid death on the crazy New York roads. A yellow
taxi even cut me off and there was much yelling.
We sent our car in for repairs and so we walked all over the place and
it was ridiculous. But we looked up a former investigator because why
not? She let us in and we were able to answer lots of her questions!!
She used to come to church with her older sister who's at BYU and was
baptized 2 years ago. So fun!

We talked to C, who's from Haiti. We'd talked to him once before
and taught him the restoration, but I guess we didn't know he was
Haitian until this time because he was so shocked we spoke Creole he
told us he couldn't not come to church now. Benefits of being a white
girl speaking Creole. What what!

We got our car back on Thursday and got to go to Flushing, the Asian
part of Queens. Funnily enough the autobody shop was called
"Hallelujah Praise the Lord Autobody." It was the only sign in English
in town and so funny!!

Friday night was the biggest miracle. I had a weird thing happen to my
body/brain and couldn't control or feel my body for about an hour. Can
I just say scariest thing to happen ever? My awesome companions got me
to the emergency room and kept me awake, and Heavenly Father literally
gave us so many blessings it's ridiculous. I got a CT scan which was
cool. My results say my whole brain is unremarkable, which would be
offensive under different circumstances, but is a huge miracle. The
only thing keeping me calm was my Father in Heaven. I was able to feel
peace in the worst of it. I knew I'd be okay, and I could feel the
spirit so strongly. By the time we got to the hospital (yes, it took
an hour. New York is ridiculous.) I was able to walk and talk and
smile, and one of the nurses ended up talking to us about religion and
is going to try to come to church soon. The Elders gave me a
priesthood blessing, and I'm just so thankful for that!! It's
seriously the coolest that the priesthood has been restored! I love it
so much!! Someday when I have more time I'll go into more detail with
this story, because literally every detail had God's hand in it. The
power of prayer is so real, my friends.

Saturday and Sunday I played sleeping lions and just napped lots. We
had one really awesome lesson with a lady on Saturday night and she
was so impressed that we were so sure with our answers to her
questions. She said she wanted that conviction for her and her family,
and that when she knows this is what God wants for her she'll be
baptized.

I know that Heavenly Father has a plan for each of us, and it's so
full of happiness and peace we can't even comprehend it. I'm so
thankful to be here and I'm so thankful that I don't know everything
God does. If we could see the end from the beginning, there would be
no adventure! Not to mention no faith, and faith is just so good.

Also Sister Wheeler is getting her hairs cut for reals this time so
that's really exciting!
Have the best week. Count all your blessings and jump in crunchy leaf piles.

Avek tout lanmou m,
Sè Hannah Fouts

[Note: Hannah was diagnosed with a "Complex Migraine". We are working closely

with the Mission nurse to make sure she is taken care of. She's fine, it's just really inconvenient.]

ᐧ

Fwd: The beach, gyros, and probs other stuff

From: Hannah Fouts
Date: Tue, Nov 10, 2015 at 2:48 PM
Subject: The beach, gyros, and probs other stuff

Good day, my people!!
First order of business: Happy Birthday, Hailey Grace! I love you! 13
is so old!! WOW!

I'm emailing on Tuesday because Sister Wheeler is going to the temple
today and so our preparation day got changed. I know you all thought I
died, but you can rest easy.

This week was full of miracles and it's just so fun!
We visited S, my favorite. She's 72 and Haitian and we met her
because we helped her push her grocery cart home. I think I've told
you about her. But we weren't sure how much she was understanding,
whether that's because we don't speak great Creole or because she's
older. We prayed to know if we should keep meeting with her, and asked
for guidance to know if she was getting any of it. Well we got our
answer! We asked if she'd prayed about baptism, and she started
talking about how hard it would be for her to change religions. She
told us all her fears, and finished by saying "Se difisil pou mwen,
men Se pa difisil pou Bondye." For those of you without google
translate, that's "it would be hard for me, but it's not hard for
God." Then she told us if God tells her, she'll change, but she needs
an answer first. Um yes I think she understands why we visit her. It
was an incredible answer to our prayers!! Also the last time we
visited she was really sick. We prayed with her and left, and she said
as soon as we left she felt better. WOAH. MIRACLE. SO COOL. And it was
her birthday, so she taught us how to sing happy birthday in Creole
and the three of us sang happy birthday together. It was probably the
happiest I've been ever.

Then. Came. The. Best. Day. Ever!!!! We got to service....ON THE
BEACH. We were planting grass because I guess that helps when
hurricanes happen. So we got to spend a few hours on the beach and it
was beautiful and made my soul so happy.

Sunday was great! G and P came, and brought their
cousin/niece. I just love them so much! I'm so thankful Heavenly
Father is letting us help them! They're still rocking it with the word
of wisdom, and G told us if we ever needed a place to stay or food
or anything, to come to her. She wants to be our mom away from mom and
it's the cutest.

On to the spiritual thought(s)!!!
We visited a less active member who stopped coming to church because
of questions she had. We walked in and she was very upset about a
statement the Prophet made, and I hadn't heard anything about it until
she told us. At first I was shaken and had to let my companion talk
while I went back to what I know to be true. After a minute I was able
to join my companion in testifying of President Thomas S Monson,
Joseph Smith, and, most importantly, our Savior Jesus Christ and our
Heavenly Father. The church will not stray from the commandments of
God. The gap between what is socially acceptable and what is right is
getting bigger and bigger. Don't ever leave your testimony because of
what the world is doing. There will be times you have nothing else to
turn to, and those times will be hard. But when you have an
understanding and a testimony of the basic truths of Christ's gospel,
you will be okay. Things will work out. Life will go on, and you will
be safe.

That leads me into my next schpeel. When you see the grass we planted
on the beach, you'll be like, what the heck will that do in a
hurricane?! It's thin and doesn't have lots of roots. But when planted
in straight rows, an even distance away, it gives the sand a lot of
strength. When the wind comes, when the waves hit the sand, the grass,
planted deeply and often, will fortify the beach and help to slow the
floods. When we do the basics - reading our scriptures, praying,
showing love to each other, going to church and partaking of the
sacrament - on a daily and weekly basis, we will have the strength we
need in the hurricane.
Yes, that was tacky. No, I'm not apologizing.

Have a spectacular week, everyone!! I love you all!

Love
Sè Hannah Fouts

ᐧ

Fwd: The beach, gyros, and probs other stuff

From: Hannah Fouts
Date: Tue, Nov 10, 2015 at 2:53 PM
Subject: Re: The beach, gyros, and probs other stuff


Plantin grass, savin beaches. Also shark shirt because ocean. And
that's not a pogo stick, that's a poker for the sand. You put the
grass in the hole made by the poker and done! Beach saved!

We made cool Haitian shirts.

This is my companion for the day! Sister Bujingo! This was taken moments before we got gyros from the most delicious halal food truck evah.

ᐧ

Fwd: Peace and love

From: Hannah Fouts
Date: Mon, Nov 2, 2015 at 6:00 PM
Subject: Re: Peace and love

Hey friends and family...jokes on you! Or me. Or someone. But I didn't
actually cut my hair. Here is a more accurate picture of our hair
length, just normal. Sorry not sorry. Wow we think we are so funny!!
But thanks for the support if I did cut it. You all rock.

ᐧ

Fwd: Peace and love

From: Hannah Fouts
Date: Mon, Nov 2, 2015 at 1:06 PM
Subject: Peace and love

Hello friends and family! Loved ones! How is life? That is so good!
This week was seriously so much fun. All the fun!

One day we were looking up some investigators we hadn't seen in a
while and found J-B V. He was way excited to talk with
us, and wants us to teach his son S about God. S wasn't too
excited to talk about God, because he's 7 years old and the word his
dad uses to describe him most is "dezod." I haven't checked the
dictionary yet, but from meeting S it basically means running
around nonstop and making lots of messes. But he's cool and we finally
got to teach him a little bit!

We also talked with the mom of a less active member who apparently
moved a while ago. Her name is C and she loves reggae gospel
music and she got so excited talking to us that she ran at me  and
hugged me. (I thought I was going to die even though she's about a
foot shorter than me. It was a like a Hailey hug at full speed.) As we
were leaving she gave us the peace sign and yelled "peace and love!"
Thanks, C! Peace and love to you too!

We knocked a door and the lady who answered was Haitian. At first she
wasn't interested and had no time to talk. We started talking to her
in Creole and she started answering before she realized we'd just
spoken her native language. She had the cutest reaction I've ever
seen! She gasped and all of a sudden had 5 minutes to hear about the
restoration of the gospel! She told us we speak better creole than
her. I highly doubt that, but it's a better reaction than those people
that we heard bust up laughing at our Creole as we were walking away.
Over it!

We met with A again, and she's changed her mind about baptism.
Noooooo!!!! But we talked it out and she decided to keep learning more
and she'd keep thinking about baptism, but the date is off for now. It
was a miracle that she didn't shut us out completely, and I'm so
thankful for that!

Okay now for the best part of the week: TRUNK OR TREAT. Seriously so
fun! We were in charge of a room and decorated it with the only thing
we had lots of...really cheap toilet paper!! Woot woot! Sister Wheeler
even made a fake mummy and it was legit. "But Sister Fouts, that's a
lot of toilet paper gone to waste!" Never fear. We are reusing it. Go
team! Also Jan-Batis and Samuel came so it was so good!!

Fun New York thing: I've learned what's truly important - Dominican
hair salons and collision car repair places. I know they're the most
important because there is at least one of both on almost every block.
Also sleepy's mattresses. Lots of those.

Miracles: our mission is counting baptismal invitations on the first
or second lesson as a key indicator, or the numbers that go on our
weekly reports. So we invited this lady to baptism on the second
lesson and SHE SAID YES. I actually didn't hear her, so I didn't
extend a date just in case she'd said no, but I thought she said yes
so I just testified anyways. Afterwards sister wheeler confirmed that
she'd said yes so that's an awkward encounter avoided. Whew.

Also haircuts. Picture to follow.

Also we had to be in at 6 on Halloween and a member gave us an already
gutted pumpkin so you know I carved that thang! Also we ate candy and
donuts and lots of soup and played games. SO FUN.

Creole mistakes: we accidentally asked J-B if his husband (we
meant to say wife. Awkward.) was going to be home because we couldn't
meet with him unless there was another woman in the house. He was
pretty confused. Also I answered in the affirmative when he asked if
we were Jehovah's Witnesses because I didn't actually understand him
and I just usually say yeah and smile and nod if I don't understand.
Fortunately Sister Wheeler saved me on that one.

Spiritual thought: Luke 7:36-50. Wow this is such a good story! I love
it sooooo much! Especially verse 42. Basically we are ALL indebted to
the Lord. We all owe something, even the most righteous of us. Even if
we owe 1 pence, that is still 1 pence short of the glory of God and we
cannot enter His presence. The sad part about that is not all of us
are the same amount of grateful when that debt is forgiven. For some
reason, the more we are forgiven the more we love Christ. That sounds
good, but when we're forgiven for something little we tend to forget
it faster. HELLO. It doesn't matter how big or little it is, when we
sin we cannot live with God again. But when we turn to Christ, He will
"frankly forgive" us. Sorry this is jumbled, but essentially always
repent and always ALWAYS recognize and be grateful for the forgiveness
and blessings you will receive as a result of that repentance. Also,
let others repent. We don't know their debt, or their heart. Don't
hold grudges and just love everyone! Obviously I'm not perfect at any
of these things and don't expect you to be either. But we can all try
a little harder to be more grateful for the Atoning sacrifice our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ made for us.

I love you all so much! Thanks for all your love and support! You rock
my socks! Let me know if there's anything I can do to help. I have
some pretty cute notecards if you want one of those.

Avek tout lanmou m,
Sè Fouts

ᐧ

Fwd: Interpretive dancing and whatnot

From: Hannah Fouts
Date: Mon, Oct 26, 2015 at 3:45 PM
Subject: Re: Interpretive dancing and whatnot

Pictures for this week's email!

ᐧ

Fwd: WOW, etc.

From: Hannah Fouts
Date: Mon, Oct 26, 2015 at 3:43 PM
Subject: WOW, etc.

Greetings, friends, family, people of my life. You are so great!

So this week was pretty fun. Let me tell you about it.

First, we found a family!!!! *insert the "we found a family dance"
here* The mom had requested a bible and was so happy we brought it
that she let us in, called her children, and 15 minutes later they
knew about the restoration and had been asked to be baptized. They
said they wanted to know more before making a commitment like that.
Perfect, can we come back in two days? Yes? Okay great! Two days
later, all of her kids were present and now they know where they came
from and why they're here. So fun so fun so fun!

We followed up on the word of wisdom with G and P and they
are rocking it. "I didn't drink coffee all week! All my coworkers be
drinking coffee and I didn't. I just drank tea." Oh. Awkward. So she
brought out all her tea and we helped her figure out what was herbal
and what was not. Go team! Also we committed them to be baptized
November 22 and they invited us to eat Haitian food with them on
Thanksgiving. Apparently there's a pumpkin soup you make a wish on.
Hopefully I'm still here for that! Also P told me I'm Haitian
on the inside and could rock box braids. I'm thinking yes.

Then we taught the word of wisdom to a less active and her non member
husband. Turns out she'd never actually been taught the word of wisdom
by the missionaries who baptized her and this is the first time she's
ever heard about it. Hm. At first she flat out refused to keep it, but
by the end of the lesson she was saying she'd think about it. Miracles
do happen, people.

We taught the restoration to some Hindus and they agreed to read about
Christ in 3rd Nephi. It was a really spirit filled lesson. I'm so
grateful I was able to bear testimony of Christ being the Son of God
in a way that got them interested to learn more instead of getting us
kicked out of their house. The Holy Ghost is really the best teacher
in the whole world, because not only does God Know exactly what the
people we teach need to hear, He knows what He needs to tell us in
order to get us to say it. Being the imperfect mouthpiece for the
perfect message is seriously the coolest.

Thanks for all your prayers for my safety and stuff. God has
definitely been watching over us and I'm so thankful for the guidance
and protection of the Spirit. Woot woot!

Food I ate: liver of something. Don't actually know what. But I ate
its liver and so that is cool.

Bugs: there was a large bug that looks like a mustache with legs
called a silverfish on our wall. We get lots of tiny ones, but this
one was really big. We tried catching it but dropped the cup and then
it ran inside our wall so that is gross. I'll attach a picture. So
fun!

Well people, I love you all so much! Thanks for everything you do and
all your prayers and support. I couldn't do it without you!
Love,
Sè Hannah Fouts

ᐧ

Fwd: Interpretive dancing and whatnot

From: Hannah Fouts
Date: Mon, Oct 19, 2015 at 2:04 PM
Subject: Interpretive dancing and whatnot

Hello people who I love!
So my mission is doing this thing where we have a miracle newsletter,
and everyone writes a miracle from their week and they send the best
ones out to everyone. I'm thinking I'll probably just start sending
that out as my weekly. We can pretend they're all things that happened
to me. Thoughts?
Okay well until I hear back from you on that, here's what happened this week.
We taught A again and he told us he thought the purpose of life
was to fulfill Gods calling for him, which he told us was making music
and possibly interpretive dancing. (But he believes in God now so
we're making progress!)
Our most favorite investigator, K, dropped us. She's the one whose
been investigating for years. She told us she would still live all the
standards and we were still welcome at her house any time, but she
wasn't going to get baptized and she knows we need to be focusing on
the people who will be. It was sad but I think it needed to happen.
We're still going to see her every two weeks or so.
We taught G and P about the word of wisdom, and it was
awesome. They decided right then to keep it 100%. G is going to
give her coffee to her coworkers. I don't think she's told her husband
they're getting rid of it. Awkward.
The thought in my brain for this week is about repentance. There's a
scripture called 2 Nephi 9:45. It's super good. It uses the wording
"shake off the chains of him that would bind you fast," talking about
the chains of sin. Okay pause. If you have chains on you and you just
have to shake them to get them off, how tight are they? Not. But Satan
wants us to think its impossible to remove the chains of sin. He wants
us to lose hope under the weight of the chains and he's going to try
to trick us into thinking we shouldn't even try. But because of the
atonement of Christ, those chains only have to weigh us down as long
as we let them. They're not actually as binding as the ultimate father
of lies wants us to think they are. I hope this is making sense.
Anyways, trust in the Lord. Trust in His love for you. Rely on Him and
shake off the chains! I love you all and hope you have literally the
best week of your life. That's all.
Oh, weird New York thing. Everyone is a big fan of really big blow up
Halloween decorations. There may or may not be a shortage of air
because of how many blow up decorations these people have.
Love you!
Sister Fouts

ᐧ

Fwd: So hobos are fun

From: Hannah Fouts
Date: Mon, Oct 12, 2015 at 1:55 PM
Subject: So hobos are fun

This week has been SO GOOD. We taught 22 lessons! Wow, so many lessons!
Also we got a new investigator named A and we are best friends. He
is a hobo and he lives at the library and he reads lots of books and
does lots of drugs but as of Friday one of the many books he's reading
is the Book of Mormon. When we met him it was pretty funny. We were
talking to him and he wasn't too interested, but he gave us his dad's
number. I don't think he actually likes his dad, but hey! We still got
a referral! One of the things he's looking for in his religious quest
is the purpose of life. Ding ding ding! He said, "no living breathing
creature on this earth, human or animal, can tell me why we are here
and where we are going." I raised my hand and said "I can!" And then
he laughed really hard for a long time and then we set a return
appointment. Good stuff, my friends! At the next lesson we talked more
about the meaning of life, and it was so cool. I love helping people
realize they're children of God! I think that's the biggest gospel
truth hats the easiest to forget. But if we remember that were Gods
children and He loves us, then literally everything else about the
gospel makes sense and if it doesn't, it's okay because He loves you!
Also it makes it ten billion times easier to keep all the
commandments.

Something I learned this week: Dont talk about Halloween with
Haitians. Last week we were in a lesson win one of our investigators
who's so close to baptism, and at the end Sister Wheeler asked if she
was excited for Halloween. She got super concerned and at the lesson
this week, she was like, "I've been thinking about what you said last
week about Halloween. You really celebrate that? That's an evil
holiday." We tried to explain that we just trick or treat and carve
pumpkins, but Halloween = voodoo in Haiti apparently. Awkward.

Some advice: stay away from Taco Bells "quesurrito." That's all I'm
going to say about that. That thing is straight up nasty.

Transfer calls came this week! I'm staying in Lynbrook (which is
Brooklyn flipped, how fun is that?) with Sister Wheeler for another
transfer. Huzzah!

I had a Haitian tell me "ou pap janm pale Kreyol tankou moun Ayisyen."
Which is "you'll never speak Creole like a Hatian." One day, N,
one day!

P and G came to church again and we almost have a date set
for baptism! P was talking about serving a mission and said she
just hopes she doesn't go somewhere too hot. So fun!
Some of my favorite New Yorker quotes of the week:
"Who hypnotized you?" - an tiny old man we talked to.
"I probably shouldn't come to church smelling like (insert illegal
substance here), right?" - my hobo friend
"I want to get closer to Christ, and I know God sent you two girls
here to help me do that." -L the cat lady
Basically New York rocks and so do all of you! Don't ever forget how
much Christ loves you.

Cool thing I realized this week: we can receive
forgiveness for our sins through missionary work and through temple
work, which are actually the same thing. We need to do temple work!
It's so incredibly important! Elder Richard G. Scott said,
"Do you...want a sure way to eliminate the influence of the adversary
in your life? Immerse yourself in searching for your ancestors,
prepare their names for the sacred vicarious ordinances available in
the temple, and then go to the temple to stand as proxy for them to
receive the ordinances of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. As
you grow older, you will be able to participate in receiving the other
ordinances as well. I can think of no greater protection from the
influence of the adversary in your life."
So that is a super cool promise and I'm thinking you should all try it
out. #eliminatetheadversary2k15
Haha I thought that hashtag was funny, hopefully you chuckled a little
bit. But seriously. Do it.
Have a great week, zanmi m! M renmen nou anpil!
Love,
Sè Fouts

ᐧ

Fwd: Lo., La., and almost J

From: Hannah Fouts
Date: Mon, Oct 5, 2015 at 2:00 PM
Subject: Lo., La., and almost J

Alo zanmi m! M renmen ou anpil! Kouman ou ye? N ap boule? Bon bagay!

So this week was super great, as per usual. No bad days! Some of my
favorite parts were:
J. She's a pal. We had a scheduled appointment for this
weekend, but she tricked us and headed to Bermuda instead. It was kind
of a bummer, because we'd prepared a lot for her. But it's okay
because J is actually the hurricane that was supposed to hit,
not an investigator. Ha! Fooled ya! Haha I actually am laughing pretty
hard at that, so if you're not, that's too bad. But we did prepare. We
even went emergency grocery shopping and sister wheeler was surprised
to discover that I wasn't kidding when I claimed I could live off of
granola bars and fruit snacks, because that was literally all I added
to our shopping list. No hurricane, all the granola bars, best day
ever. Also my dad sent me a package with more granola bars and various
other survival materials, so shoutout to him!

Lo. She's the cat lady from last week. We met with her again, and
she didn't invite us in, thank goodness. She opened the door and I
thought I was gonna die. She had us meet in the car, which also
smelled strongly of cats. It's only through prayers I got through that
lesson. We asked how many cats she has. More than 10 inside, and more
than 10 outside, plus the one that just had two kittens, plus the 10
that died this year and the 6 that died last year. ALL THE CATS.
LITERALLY ALL THE CATS IN THE WORLD. She's really sweet though and
wants to find the truth! I'm so excited to help her learn more.

La. We were walking away from a door after the guy inside quoted
the Bible at us for many minutes and then called us a cult (PS The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is not actually a cult.
Just to clear things up.) and we saw a guy walking across the street.
He said, "Hey, are you from the church?" Um yes, why yes we are. Turns
out La. had met with missionaries a while ago and wants to meet with
us again! Wow! It was awesome! We haven't met with him again yet, but
will hopefully this week.

P and G came to conference and are so close to accepting
baptismal dates! We're so so happy! [Bringing] people to the gospel is so
fun, and it's even better when they come as families.

Conference. Okay. That was the best. No big deal. I LOVED CONFERENCE
SO MUCH. Three new apostles, so much guidance! Did you get answers to
your questions? I know I did. I know Thomas S Monson is a prophet of
God, and I know we have he fulness of the restored gospel of Jesus
Christ on the earth today! Some of my favorite messages I heard
include but are not limited to:

• His grace is sufficient, and not only sufficient, but mightier than ALL. 
• You will never be too far to be loved and saved and gathered in by your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
• Be worthy of the Holy Ghost. When we follow the promptings we receive, we will always be led in the right direction. We will always be led home!
• Our choices do matter. We decide how happy we will be in this life and the reward we will get in Heaven. 
• Follow Christ, stick with the church, and all will be AMAZING.
• Be patient and wait on the Lord. He knows better than you, and He will always take care of you when you let Him.

There's so much more, but I want to end on the note that I know Christ
lives. I know He lived His life for us. He is there for you to lift,
strengthen, and teach you. I know this is the true church and I am so
SO grateful for that knowledge.

I love you all so much! Thanks for all the love and prayers you send
my way. I definitely feel it! Have the best week ever with no bad
days, deal? Deal!

Aver lanmou,
Sè Fouts

Fwd: Jewish?

From: Hannah Fouts
Date: Mon, Sep 28, 2015 at 2:23 PM
Subject: Jewish?

Okay. This week has been so long and so good and so full of miracles!
We met some really funny people, including a cat lady with a front
porch covered in cat food and a Jamaican man who said he was Bob
Marley's son because my bag has green yellow and red on it. Then he
quoted Bob Marley song lyrics at us for half an hour. We taught cat
lady the restoration and got a return appointment! Hurrah! Haha as for
the subject line...we're sitting in the mall emailing and a Jewish guy
of a questionable age (facial hair said 23, hanging at the mall with
buddies said 15) runs over to us and asks "Jewish?" No....and then he
ran away and joined his Jewish friends. We narrowly avoided being hit
on. Its what we get for wearing church clothes in Lynbrook, I guess.
Fun fact, there's actually a really big Jewish community in our area.
Okay good story.

Wow. This week! Remember how I talked about the promise of asking
everyone who we can teach and getting an abundance of people? This
week was mostly looking people up, but next week we have 19 set
lessons. 19!!! Woo!

Miracle:
We delivered a bible to a media referral and A) she was Haitian, B)
said, "oh, you be talkin about Jesus? Come on in!" And then we had a
Lesson with her and her daughter and they almost came to church his
Sunday. But they're way solid and we'll hopefully get them to a
session of conference this weekend.
Miracle:
We had 3 investigators come to church!!! Wow! So fun! Two of them were
Haitian and we've only met with one of them before, N. But N
brought her friend, M, and they loved sacrament (which was
awesome, because some of the members bore some pretty interesting
storie-monies, and one of them said a prayer to end world hunger over
the pulpit) and they wanted to pay tithing by the time they left. Um
how long does it take to fill the baptismal font again? ;) the other
was K, the one who's been coming for the last 10 years but stopped
about 6 months ago. We're really excited about this, because we think
she's almost ready to set a date!!! She's almost ready, just has some
fears holding her back.
Miracle:
Remember the red head who we helped paint a mural for peace day? Well
we finished the mural and taught her about and left her with the Book
of Mormon this time! She was super interested and excited to read it!
I'll try and get some pictures of the mural so you can see it.

New York is great. It's starting to be fall and it rained this morning
and people are crazy and there are speed trap snap claps everywhere
and it's just a real good time!

Okay friends. Conference is this weekend! Who is SO excited?!?! Nah?
Well you are WRONG! Haha but seriously, conference is such an
incredible opportunity. The Pope was in Manhatten this Last week
(sorry, not my mission. Herman Geiger, where you at?) and people had
to buy tickets to see him. I have no idea what he said, but it doesn't
really matter. As wonderful as that man may be, he is not the Prophet.
And we get to hear the real true honest to goodness Prophet of God and
the Apostles of the Lamb teach us this weekend. WOAH. We get to
sustain 3 new Apostles! We have revelation from the living God! Wow!
So challenge of the week is to write down a few questions you have. "I
don't have any questions." Make one up, I believe in you! If you
really have nothing, ask Taci. She probably has lots. "I don't know
how to write." Have my mom write it for you. She has good handwriting.
That's all the excuses I have in my brain, okay next step. Listen!
Listen to every session of conference you possible can! Open your
hearts to the message these men have to share with us. I know when you
do that, you WILL get answers.

Okay interjection. It just happened again. The Jewish thing. This time
they were carrying a weird assortment of fruits and herbs and used a
complete sentence instead of one word. I dont actually know what is
happening.

Also does anyone have anything on type 2 diabetes yet?

Haha I love you all so much! Thanks for all your support and love! I
couldn't do this without you! God lives. This is the true church.
Christ is the Savior of the world, and your personal Redeemer. Have a
wonderful week, zanmi m!

Love,
Sè Fouts

ᐧ

Fwd: Tout mirak yo toupatou!

From: Hannah Fouts
Date: Mon, Sep 21, 2015 at 1:22 PM
Subject: Tout mirak yo toupatou!

Hello people of my life!

How is everything? Bon bagay!
Wow this week was so good! So crazy but so good! We had a member of
the 70, Elder Bennett, come speak to our mission. He and his wife came
and spoke to us for many hours of the day and it was so AWESOME. From
9 am to 5 pm we counseled. He talked about where our mission is
slacking (turns out that is everywhere) and how it's causing a major
problem for the work. We have the lowest percentage of missionaries
waking up at 6:30 of all missions in the world. Awkward. (I'm waking
up on time, no worries!) He said "Not waking up at 6:30 and being on
your knees praying at 6:31 is choosing to start your day in
disobedience. Not being in your bed at 10:30, lights out, is choosing
to end your day in disobedience. If you aren't willing to do the
basics, how do you expect God to bless you?" Woah. Okay. So we have
made a mission wide goal to do that, and we are definitely seeing the
miracles that follow exact obedience. We continued talking about
obedience for 3 and a half hours. There is so much! Friends. If we
don't obey, we don't get blessings. It's as simple as that. When we
disobey we are telling God we know better than Him. Yeah, obedience is
kind of a big deal. It can be hard, because sometimes God asks to do
things that aren't easy or comfortable, but nothing Christ ever did
was easy. How can we possibly hope to become like Him if we have an
easy life? (Don't give me credit for that thought, that's Elder
Holland.) but it's the truth!

We also talked for many hours about being bold, so sorry if any of
this comes off as strong. Haha just kidding, I'm nowhere near as bold
as he was! Another thing he talked about was talking to everyone. He
promised us that if we would ask everyone we talk to who they know
that we can teach, we will "have an abundance of people to teach." And
we have been doing that and man have we got an abundance! We're
getting so many referrals we can't keep up with them. And we spent the
first half of the day Saturday speaking Creole. It was a beautiful
thing, except for the time it was my turn to talk and the guy who
answered was definitely Haitian but couldn't understand a lick of my
Creole. Awkward. Sorry, sir.

I'm sorry this email is all over the place. I can't think of anything
too ridiculous that happened, other than the man putting in his
laundry next to me right now that is dancing like a tree spirit (I
don't know what that means, but it's accurate) and humming.

We set a baptismal date with one of our investigators! Her name is
A and she is so awesome! She requested a Book of Mormon online and
has been reading and praying and wow! She's he best! We might have to
transfer her to the young single adult ward which would be a bummer
because those missionaries would take over, but it's okay.

Weird New York thing: all the fire hydrants are blue with white tops.
They look like smurfs. Sorry if I already told you that.
It's just been a really good week and we've taught a lot of lessons
and met a lot of people who are genuinely interested! I'm excited for
the upcoming week. My goal: be so bold! I'm supposed to tell my peers
my goal because it's more likely to happen that way. So there's that.
Have the best week! Find ways to be obedient to God so you can get
blessings! Eat Nutella banana pancakes, it makes life good. I know
because we made them twice this week.

If anyone has some free time, I'd be interested to know how hard it is
to give yourself type 2 diabetes because That could be in my future.
Thanks friends! I love you all so much! The church is true and God
loves you! If you've forgotten that, stop.

Oh that is a funny thing I learned. The best way to become more
obedient is to stop being disobedient. The best antidote to pride is
to stop being prideful. The best way to be positive is to stop being
negative. The best way to have an eye single to the glory of God is to
focus and work hard. Basically, there's no magic cure for any of it.
Just stop doing what's bad and start doing what's good. Done. Haha
okay yeah love you! Have the best week EVER!

Love

Sè Fouts

ᐧ

Limiting Reactants and Fire Alarms

From: Hannah Fouts 
Date: Mon, Sep 14, 2015 at 2:06 PM
Subject: Limiting Reactants and Fire Alarms

Bon jou zanmi m ak fanim m! Kouman ou ye? Mwen byen, mesi![Good day my friends and family! How are you? I'm well, thank you!]

This week has been SO FAST. Seriously like how are we only 3 weeks
away from general conference?
Really quick, here are some weird things about New York. Sorry if i
already told you but I'm gonna tell you again.

The sirens. I Have not heard the same siren twice now. I don't even
know how that is possible because i thought there was just one generic
siren for all emergency vehicles but apparently here they each have
their own customized siren. Weird. Not even two fire trucks sound the
same.

There are 4 runners EVERYWHERE. For those of you not aware, my car is
a 4 runner named Bruce. He is really good at everything. At first i
didn't know why New Yorkers love them so much because they don't get
the best gas mileage compared to compact cars, but then i realized it
was so they could go over barriers and curbs when the traffic is slow.
Literally people just do whatever the heck they want. Oh! Emergency
vehicles will a lot of times turn on their lights and sirens, get
through the red light, and turn them off again. Whatair.

Crazy things.
We helped a recent convert we've been working with, A, move boxes
around her house. Her landlady was there and i guess some of the stuff
was hers because man she was bossy! Also she had the longest fingernails i have [e]ver seen. Fact: when you never clip your nails,
they curl. They were about 5 inches past her hands and man were they curly. Also you have to paint them a gross black color because they
turn yellow and gross black is the only thing that covers gross yellow, apparently.
A child pulled the fire alarm at the church. 4 fire trucks and a bunch of other cars with sirens showed up. Like previously stated, all their

sirens were different and it was super crazy!

Food i ate:
Jamaican. So good. SO GOOD. Mutton curry and jerk pork and rice and
wow! Its really spicy because apparently in Jamaica pepper keeps cancer away. And by pepper they just mean all spices that are spicy.
Japanese and Chinese. This doesn't super count because a member took
us to a sushi buffet that also had Chinese food, but i still ate lots
of sushi and lots of orange chicken so there is that.
Watermelon. I ate half a watermelon and got sick. Moral of the story:
don't do that. Except still eat watermelon, just maybe not half of
one.

Service! We got to help out at the bishop's storehouse and that was fun
because it was like grocery shopping but also service. Holla! We also
pushed [people] in wheelchairs around a carnival and that was fun. I saw Sister
Young and we took pictures and one of them is literally the ugliest
picture I've ever had taken of me in my life, including pictures from
junior high. Its bad, people. I'd send it to you, but its on Sister
Young's ipad. Never taking a candid laughing picture AGAIN.

 Miracles:
So many. All the miracles. We finally got a hold of two women we've
been trying for ever since i got here and man! They are both so
prepared! The Spirit was so strong in both of the lessons, and one of
them started crying when she was saying the closing prayer. Its so
cool to be able to help people talk to their Heavenly Father!
I Taught a lesson in Creole by myself because we were on exchanges.
And it was awesome! I was able to understand Sofie, and she was able
to understand me! The gift of tongues is real.

On limiting reactants:
I once went to college and took a chemistry class and learned about
limiting reactants. Basically you have a chemical reaction. One
reactant is in excess, or you have more of it than you do the other
reactant. Thus it can only react to the extent of the limiting
reactant. Is that making sense? Anyway, we are the limiting reactant.
God is trying to work through us, but He is all powerful, all awesome,
stuff like that, and then there's us. We're so small and so afraid to
do His work, and so we limit ourselves and God. Man that is
depressing, Sister Fouts. Why would you say that? BECAUSE first of all
we need to recognize that God can do anything. We need Him. But He
also needs us to take care of each other, to share His gospel, and to
grow. When we open our hearts, square our shoulders, and move forward
in faith, He can accomplish much greater things through us than when
we let fear take over or when we decide it's too hard or too late or
we're too tired or not good enough. You ARE good enough. It is NEVER
too late. Through God, ANYTHING is possible. Sleep when you're dead!
That's all. I love you all so much! Thanks for all your support and
love! You rock at life!

Love,
Sè Fouts

Fwd: Be happy about acne!

From: "Hannah Fouts"
Date: Sep 8, 2015 3:57 PM
Subject: Be happy about acne!

Hello people of my life!

 Did you know how awesome you all are? The coolest. That's all. So p
 day changed for the holiday! How fun is that? Super fun!

 Cool things that happened this week:
 We painted a mural for peace day because I have red hair. We were
 tracting and found a lady cleaning her garage. We offered service,
 discovered we are kindred spirits because of the red headed ness, and
 bam. She invited us back to paint! She wasn't interested in the
 gospel, but we were able to help her realize Mormons aren't Amish and
 also we believe in peace just like her! The school she teaches at
 holds an annual peace day and it sounds like a party. We won't be able
 to go, because Brooklyn isn't in our area, but it was fun painting.

 Nou tè pale Kreyol! We knocked a door and the guy who answered said
 they were busy for Labor Day, then saw our name tags and was like, is
 that Creole? And we were like, wi! Eske ou pale Kreyol? And he was
 like, wi! And then his wife heard us and was like Vini! Chita! Chita!
 And then she showed us all her wedding photos which were so so so good
(and that translates to funny) and then bam. We had a lesson. She told
 us she went to church because she could feel the Spirit of God fill
 her whole body, and she could feel that same spirit with us. I love it
 SO MUCH when people say things like that because literally that is the
 goal. I pray for that about 50 times a day. I fasted for that on
 Sunday. We study for 4 hours every morning so we can have the Holy
 Ghost with us so powerfully people can feel it immediately. It is just
 the coolest and I love it!

 I literally ate all the food. All of it. The ward had a Labor Day
 picnic and we went because 5 hours of interacting with active members,
 less actives, and non members in a non threatening situation (the
 church was 5 minutes away so if we needed an emergency baptism it
 wouldn't take too long 😜) is just the best situation to be in!! And
 we stayed for all 5 hours. And because it is a picnic, there was food.
 Which I ate, for about 5 hours. It was just so good and there was food
 from different countries which how do you say no to that? You don't.
 You just eat it.

 Oh! We had transfers this last week. No changes, I am staying here. Huzzah!

 Now for the subject line. We dropped by a less active family this
 week, and they are the coolest people ever. The mom is 42 and recently
 accidentally dyed her hair green and was happy about it. She was happy
 about everything. She told us she was getting some acne, and people
 told her she shouldn't be getting acne at this age. She told us "pf! Acne means 

your skin is alive! Do you know what has nothing growing on
 it? A desert. A dried up cracked desert. I don't want my face to be a
 desert. I want my skin to be alive and growing and healthy!" So here
 is the challenge of the week: be happy about acne. If there is
 something hard or ugly or painful or pussy in your life right now,
 find a reason to be happy about it! Even if it just means you are
 alive! Because "Adam fell that men might be, and men are that they
 might have joy." (2 Nephi 2:25) God didn't create you to be miserable
 or sad, He created you to be successful and happy and awesome. So go
 do that. That's all I have to say. Yup. Okay love you all so much! I
 know I didn't get back to pretty much anyone on letters and emails
 this week, but I promise I read them and I think about you and I
 watched Kate's wisdom teeth videos, so I will reply one day! Have the
 best week ever, my fabulous friends!

 Avek lanmou,
 Sè Fouts

Fwd: 2/10

From: Hannah Fouts
Date: Mon, Aug 31, 2015 at 4:28 PM
Subject: 2/10

Wow I have no time today because we played handball with the elders. I
am very bad at handball. But this week was AWESOME!
We had the most spiritual lesson of ALL TIME this week! I'll write
about it next week because I need more time. But yeah, it was the all
time coolest!
We found a lot of Haitians, including one who is positive we are her
best friends. Whenever she sees us she shouts "Zanmi m! Zanmi m!"
Which is "my friends! My friends!" And it just makes my heart feel
happy.
I had to give a surprise talk on Sunday. We walked in to church and
the 2nd counselor was telling us how awesome sacrament was going to be
with our awesome speakers, Elder Young, Brother Carter, and Elder, I
mean sister Fouts! Um excuse me not elder and fine. I will speak. So I
did and it was great!
God loves you and I love you and I'm sorry I can't write everyone
back! I will get on that next week! Love you! Look at Alma 34, it's
the best.
Love,
Sister Fouts

-Also, from an email to Ann - 

"...This week has been good! It's weird because I've almost been out for 3
months. A year and a half seems a lot shorter after 3 months because
then it's only a year and three months. Weird. For [some] reason I
literally cannot remember anything that happened to me this week. I am
so sorry! Haha oh yeah. There is a thing. We were knocking [on a door] and a lady
was crossing the street. We said "hi" and she said "alo" and my Haitian
senses started tingling! But we'd already knocked so we couldn't walk
away from the door for another minute and by that time she was an
awkward distance away from us...so I yelled, "excuse us!" And stopped
her. Sister wheeler said her first thought when I did that was "oh no.
What is sister Fouts doing? She's so awkward!" Hahaha but it worked
out! She was in fact Haitian and no speak English, and we found out
she knew the church from Haiti and really wanted to visit but couldn't
find one here. "Um yes we can help,with that."..."

ᐧ

Fwd: Pete the Music Maker

From: Hannah Fouts
Date: Mon, Aug 24, 2015 at 4:57 PM
Subject: Pete the Music Maker


Things that happened this week:
Sisters conference.
 All the sisters in the mission got together in Rego Park for a day of 

clothing exchanges, salad, and spiritual enlightenment! I got a new
outfit, discovered I don't actually hate salad, and realized that A)
sin and weaknesses are not the same thing. B) the Atonement of Christ
covers both of them, but it's through repentance we can be clean from
sin and through grace that our weakness can be made strong. C) God
shows us our weakness to help us turn to him. When we turn to him in
prayer and ask for help in overcoming our weakness, he can make us
strong! D) there is nothing we can do that will separate us from the
love of God. Literally nothing.

I ate Haitian food.
Haitian spaghetti, which is spicy. Mushroom rice, which is spicier.
This weird combo of cubed beets and carrots mixed in mayo, which turns
pink because of the beets. Also spicy. Legume, which is meat with
other stuff mixed in. Spicy. All the diri (Zooey, or rice) that I can
eat! Mamba, which is Haitian peanut butter. Also spicy. I really
really really like Haitian food. Like a lot. I don't think I'll ever
go back to regular peanut butter. That's a lie because I literally ate
regular peanut butter this morning, but it's because we don't have
mamba.

There was a flood.
It stormed on Friday and our apartment parking lot was full of water
ankle deep. It was so fun!

I drove!
I am now a New York driver. Everyone prepare themselves for when I
come home. Jk, it was only for 15 minutes so I could get passed off to
drive in the future, but there were pedestrians and cars and bicyclists
everywhere and people are crazy. I almost died 0 times, but I felt
like almost dying lots more times than that.

We got taught.
There's this family, a husband and wife, we'd been teaching. I don't
know if said anything about them previously? Anyways, M and
Ch. are awesome. They're super sweet and always have way good
questions and truly want to know the truth. Ch. turned his life
around when he found M and the bible and wow their stories are
amazing! But this week they dropped us. They let us in for our lesson
and immediately started bible bashing in the nicest, most loving way
known to mankind. They were so worried for us because they'd found a
website comparing the bible and the Book of Mormon who's whole point
was to disprove the Book of Mormon. They even bore their testimonies
of Gods love for us. Holy cow. Talk about role reversal. But at the
end they hugged us and gave us hand shakes and gave us back their Book
of Mormon. While we were praying after the lesson I cried some tears
because I just love them so much! It's so hard when we find people who
are almost ready! Their hearts were being hardened and they didn't
even know it. It was so hard to see the gospel slip through their
hands like that! But I know God has a plan for them, and they'll have
more chances when they're ready.

Pete happened.
Pete the music maker, and the subject line of this email. What a guy.
Haha we had all our people cancel on us and so we were in the car
looking at our area book and praying. In the middle of our prayer Pete
tapped on my window. Thinking this was an answer to our prayers, that
we found someone to teach, I unrolled it and instead of teaching a
lesson we ended up telling him we don't date on the mission but we'd
love to see him at church sometime. He asked for a number, so we gave
him the elders. Hopefully Pete gets over the rejection quickly and
gets baptized. We can always hope, right? [In a separate email, Hannah 

explained that Pete told them he makes music to be more attractive to the 

ladies. Hm. Sounds like a couple people she knows. ;)]

Sorry this is so long!
But I just want to take a minute and explain God's love. I can't. It's
too all-encompassing. But try to imagine for a minute someone, your
Father, for instance, loving you so much that He created a world for
you. He sent His only perfect son, Jesus Christ, to live, suffer, and
die for YOU. He knows you, He knows your struggles, He knows your
happiness, He knows all of it. He made you you so you could get back
to Him. He loves you literally no matter what you do. No matter what!
How crazy is that! He constantly forgives, loves, guides, comforts,
all of that because He loves you! No matter what you're dealing with
right now, God is providing a way for you to get through it as we
speak. I know He hasn't forgotten you and He won't ever. If you need a
reminder, open the Book of Mormon or the Bible and let him remind you.
Actually, do that even if you think you don't need a reminder. Just
always do that. That's all. Okay. Love you! Have the best week, deal?
Deal.

Sister Fouts

 Haitian food!!!!!! The black stuff on top is sos pwa and it black bean
soup. You're not supposed to put it on top of food like that, but we
don't know how you're supposed to eat it. Also rebels.

 [That mouth was MADE for New york Pizza!]

 [Awww, how...strange?...Wait...what?? They can't BOTH have Giraffe shirts!!]

[Since Sister Fouts doesn't tell us much, I divined that this is her trainer, Sister Wheeler.]

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