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

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