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