Fwd: Bagels and pizza

From: Hannah Fouts
Date: Mon, Aug 17, 2015 at 4:49 PM
Subject: Bagels and pizza

No time, this is mostly so you all know I am not dead. I ate real New
York bagels and pizza this week! Not at the same time. Did anyone else
know bagels are a big deal in New York? I didn't until I got here, but
there are bagel shops literally everywhere. The pizza was awesome. I
will eat more of it tonight. WOOT WOOT.

I saw Throgs Neck Bridge and waved at Erin Geiger over in Bronx and
Shane Hinckley, even though I'm not sure if he's in the Bronx this
week so that was fun!
What else is about it? We had exchanges which was AWESOME. The sister
I was with reminded me so much of my cousin Kate and so now I'm
jealous of all the companions Kate had ever.
We were almost attacked by some squirrels so that was weird but no
worries, we were safe in the car. The squirrels here are INSANE.
They're scary creatures, let me tell you.
What else. Emails are hard under pressure!
Our investigators are all awesome! We're really close to baptismal
dates with a few of them! We had to drop N's because she isn't
coming to church, and we're way sad about it. But we're still working
with her and she's still awesome!
We got to lead the primary kids in singing time on Sunday and that was
hilarious! They're so much fun!
My mom sent me a shark towel and now everyone here is convinced I'm
obsessed with sharks which isn't untrue, so that's super fun!
Haha sorry this is a lame email. I love the gospel and I love being a
missionary! It's harder than I expected, but in good ways. I'm growing
and learning and it's great!
I love you all! Don't forget to pray and to rely on Christ! He can
overcome anything you're going through, pinky promise.

I love you! Have a great week!

ᐧ

Fwd: Tout bagay yo

From: Hannah Fouts
Date: Mon, Aug 10, 2015 at 4:26 PM

So this week was crazy! We had some people stop us and ask if we were
Christians, then one asked if we were Mormons, and that's how we got
almost 3 new investigators!!! Almost because we only got a return
appointment with one of them, but all three wanted to come to church
and they're friends, so it'll be easy to get the other two. It was
seriously he coolest thing! They were all talking to us at once and
they were all so excited to learn more and get our info. I've never
even thought something like that would happen!

We had a mega zone conference and the mission president came. It was
so cool! We learned so much!

N didn't come to church again, but we're still working with her.
We had to drop one of our investigators because she wasn't keeping any
commitments and that was way sad. It's hard because we don't want to
give up on anyone, but at the same time we can't be wasting the Lord's
time.

We taught more in creole! One lady told us our creole was very good,
and believed it when we said we speak it because we're from Haiti, and
another lady asked us to please speak in English because she couldn't
understand us. You can't please em all, I guess! But we're improving
and that's good to see!

One thing I really learned his week is how important families are and
how important it is to be obedient to ALL of God's commandments. Lots
of people that we teach are dealing with a lot of hard things, and
it's really sad to see people living the way they do. But if they and
their parents and their grandparents had access to and a desire to
commit to live the gospel, they would still have problems and life
would still be hard, but they'd be free from all the natural
consequences of disobedience. God gave us commandments because he
knows they'll keep us safe and happy! Follow the commandments,
friends! It will seriously work wonders. Something I really liked from
sacrament meeting was "Our family isn't perfect, and our lives aren't
perfect, and we still struggle, but we are happy!" And it's true! The
gospel truly brings us happiness!

I love you all so much! Have a wonderful week!
Love
Sister Fouts

PS shoutout to my young women in Bountiful for that beautiful package
of letters! It was like Christmas came early! I actually almost
started crying. The mission has done weird things to my tear ducts.
You're all amazing and I love you so much!

ᐧ

Fwd: Straight outta Lynbrook

Hello friends and family!

What a crazy week! It went by way faster than the first week I was
here, for whatever reason. We taught some more Haitians, and that was really fun. It's way exciting to get to teach in Creole, especially after teaching in English so much. One of the ladies' houses belongs on that show Hoarders. There was stuff everywhere and the chair I was perched on was about to break. It creaked and swayed around whenever I moved, so I just held really still. She talked a lot. I caught maybe 50% of it which I guess is pretty good!

We were knocking doors one day and found this girl named A. At first we thought she wasn't interested, but then she finds out we're with a church and she says, "Wow! I'm actually so glad I found you guys!" Like what? And then she called us on Friday and asked if she could get a ride to church. Um, yes. Yes you can. So that is the sweetened condensed version of my first investigator who came to church.

We also got a baptismal date set for N! She lives in Hempstead,
which is where we aren't allowed to go after 6 PM, and she is awesome! She's not coming to church, which is problematic, but hopefully we'll get that figured out soon. After we left that lesson with her where we set the date, I wanted to heel click for joy, but A) it was raining and windy and those are not good combinations with a skirt and B) we were in Hempstead and I'd probably get beat up for heel clicking so I refrained.

We had another way good lesson with an online referral (someone who requested a Bible, Book of Mormon, or missionary visits on mormon.org) and her husband. They were asking tons of questions and seem really interested! It was so great!

Then there's K. Holy cow that woman is amazing. I actually don't know why she isn't a member already. She's been coming to church for like 5 years and had an honorary calling and took the temple prep classes and everything. In our lesson she was asking more questions about the temple than she was about baptism.

We have had the most delicious food this week. The members here love feeding us and it's the best. We've had Dominican food which is incredible and Philippino food which is equally amazing and this week we have some visits with Haitian members so that will be real good!

OH I HAVE TO TELL YOU ABOUT THE FLOWERS. So there are lots of really beautiful flowers here, but lots and lots of people "plant" fake flowers. Like they get the plastic and fabric flowers from dollar tree and then they stick them in the dirt and pretend they have a really nice garden and it's the funniest thing ever.
That about sums up my week! 

Thanks for all the support, you're the best!

Avek lanmou,
Sister Fouts

Fwd: Live from New York

From July 27, 2015 Email:

Okay so my list doesn't work on my iPad, so there are significantly
less people getting this than normal. Mother, if anyone asks questions
about why I'm not emailing them anymore that is why.

Well wow! I'm really here!
The first day we landed, got our luggage in the car and went street
contacting in Jamaica Queens. It was awesome! There were people
everywhere and Haitians everywhere and food carts and snow cones and
smells and buildings and wow. We were the only white people. It was so
fun!!! I wasn't afraid to talk to people, and we placed some pamphlets
(or got people to accept the booklets we have on various principles of
the gospel.) I was the only one in my group who had fun with it
though. The other elders and sister were way freaked out. I guess I am
crazy. But it was fun!
I found the cure for cancer. It looks very sketchy, it's herbal, and
it was being sold by some guys who looked like they'd been high for a
few days. It also cures HIV and many other diseases. Who knew?
I HAVE SEEN FIREFLIES.
My companion is named Sister Wheeler and she is great! We're in the
Lynbrook area, which is more suburbs than city. We have a car. There
aren't as many Haitians out here, but there are a few in our ward and
we found a Haitian family when we were knocking doors. They let us
rift in and we had a lesson right then and there! I was able to
understand most of it and say some things. I also told them a krik
krak  and they thought it was hilarious. Because it was.
Sister Wheeler and I have found the perfect quesadilla. You take the
tortillas, some kraft Mac and cheese, some real cheese, some canned
chicken, and you make a quesadilla out of all of it. Then you melt
cheese on the outside and done.
It's beautiful here! There's so many trees! The humidity isn't
terrible, either. My hair is loving it. What else is about it?
My first day was rough. Everyone shut the door in our faces except the
Jehovah's Witness who talked at us for half an hour and the partially
deaf man in his underwear.
But since then it's been great! We've found a bunch of families who
are ready and the work is progressing! I love it! We gotta go, so I'll
talk to you more later!
I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Love,
Sister Hannah Fouts

View from my kitchen window!

Fwd: Pitit zwazo yo toupatou!

From July 14 Email:

Fun things of this week.

I see Samantha Gentry and Kevbot literally all the time. If you don't know these people, I'm sorry. They're super great. 

One day we practiced tense markers outside and there were literally 15 baby quail(s?) running around under the flowers in the flower bed and it was absolutely the cutest thing I have ever seen in my entire life. Then the mom quail came and herded them away into the bushes and there was much Haitian/English squealing from me. I think all the elders in my district (so my whole district) lost some respect for me, but it's fine. I'm way over it.

We got to attend a broadcast of Elder Packer's funeral, and it was beautiful. The Holy Ghost was definitely there. It was cool to be able to here apostles testify of the Plan of Salvation and families being together forever. President Monson spoke and he is just the sweetest man on the planet. 

I started teaching a gold tag investigator named Dylan with my two companions. We actually just invited him to baptism and he accepted!! He said that he would pray about the Book of Mormon and whether or not Joseph Smith was really a prophet of God, if he really saw God and Jesus Christ, and if it was true he'd get baptized. BOO YEAH. We were feeling real good until we found out he is in fact a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints already, and then a little air was let out of our happy balloons, but not too much. The Holy Ghost was most definitely there, and we taught under His direction, so it was a success. 

Well, I ship out to New York on Monday morning at 3:30 AM. I'll be traveling with a group of 10, and I haven't met any of them before. It will be so fun! I can't believe that this time next week I'll be teaching real people. And speaking my broken Kreyol. And walking the streets of New York with a real companion. I AM SO EXCITED. LIFE IS SO GOOD. GOD LOVES YOU SO MUCH.

I'm kind of still on the first vision because of our lesson with Dylan, so get ready. I know that Jospeh Smith saw God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, after praying to know the truth. The power of prayer is so real. If you ask God anything, even if it's something you think you already know but you want to be reminded of, He will hear you and He will be so happy you asked and He will answer you. If you want to know if Joseph Smith really saw God, and if he was really a prophet, and if he really translated the Book of Mormon, ask God because He was there with Joseph. He would know. And He will give you a witness of the truth of that through peace in your mind and good feelings in your heart or however it is you feel the Holy Ghost.

Thanks for everything! You're all fantastic! If you have any favorite food carts in Queens or Brooklyn, hit me up. 

M renmen nou anpil!

Soeur Hannah Fouts

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From July 7, 2015 Email:

Okay wow. I literally can't remember anything that happened this week except for the 4th of July. The 4th of July was great. There was much celebrating on my part. I was the most patriotic human at the MTC, I'm pretty sure. We had a special devotional about Murica which was great, we sang some songs and there was a parade of flags. Then the speaker stands up after about an hour of these festivities and talks FOR AN HOUR AND A HALF. We could hear the fireworks happening outside. It was torture. I definitely did not have the right attitude about that and I'm sure I could have learned a lot if I wasn't so focused on this spectacular country of ours, but I was and I have repented and let us move on. He kept saying "I know our time is short, but..." and other things like that when really what he should have said was "I know you don't actually want to hear me talk about Christopher Columbus for 20 minutes, so how about we just go watch the fireworks?" I was actually planning an escape route at one point, but as it involved leaping and I was wearing a patriotic skirt, I couldn't carry it out. But we still saw the fireworks and they were beautiful!! The only downer was the a giant tree was blocking the finale, but it's okay because we could hear it and see the light and there were glowsticks and it was so fun! Also you could see the people in the field behind the MTC, and I knew they could see the finale, so I lived vicariously through them. 

We said goodbye to lots of people this week, including our oldest District (and my companions) and our beloved Apostle Elder Packer. That makes me sad, but he served for such a long time and he did so much good in the world. He loved the scriptures, so we should too! The Lord takes care of His servants, and we know Elder Packer is at rest finally with our Father in Heaven. 

I leave for the New York in 2 weeks. It's fine. 

Also apparently shark week came early this year and this is so exciting!!! Everyone go read your scriptures and celebrate sharks! 

My new companions are great, and one of them went to USU and knew lots of the same people I do. I do not know how we didn't run into each other, but how fun is that??? So fun. That is the answer.

Also we now have a full room with 6 girls, but it's such a good thing! They are all so fun! Today we had a jam session because one of the girls has a ukulele so we sang come thou fount in a round with Joseph Smith's first Prayer and it was so fun. 

Oh! The teacher I taught with, Soeur Waldron, left for Mongolia this week. She won't be back until after I'm gone, so I'm now teaching all my lessons by myself. It's interesting, that's for sure. One of the investigators, Jean, has a baptismal date, but he really likes to drink. It's okay because we are working on that. Also Pierre, the less active member I'm teaching, is making progress as well. My teacher Fre Chandler (who is also the man who pretends to be Jean) told me to find a "gold tag" investigator. Gold tags are volunteers who just come to the MTC and hang out for a few hours so we can contact them and teach them. Some of them are members, but most of them are not. They're interested in the church and what we believe, and they're here to find out and also help us learn how to teach. So that will be fun! I'll teach the Gold Tag with my new companions, though, so that will be exciting! 

Spiritual gem of the week: A lot of times, especially as missionaries, we talk about being able to recognize the Spirit and being able to tell the difference between a prompting and just our own thoughts. A lot of people, including myself, go with the idea that if it's better than ourselves, it's the Holy Ghost prompting us. But think about this for a minute. How often do you think Christ had to be prompted by the Spirit of God? Probably never because He did everything the way He did it because He was perfect. He didn't need that help. In the bible, we learn that He gave His apostles the Holy Ghost AFTER He left them. They didn't need it when He was there because they literally had the Son of God with them to show them they way. As we become more and more Christlike, the less we will need the Holy Ghost to show us what to do. Don't get me wrong. We are imperfect and will be until the resurrection. We absolutely need the Holy Ghost for everything we do. I pray for His help and guidance probably 50 times a day. But stop worrying so much about whether it's a good thought from the Holy Ghost or a good thought or idea from you. It doesn't actually matter. Every good thing is from God, so just do it! You feel like you need to help that lady weed her garden? Go for it. It doesn't matter if it's your idea or the Holy Ghost's idea, it's a good thing to do! Don't second guess nice things just because you suspect it might not be divine inspiration. Do what Christ would do. Strive to live so you can have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. It's a wonderful gift! We need to show Christ what we will do to honor it. I hope that made sense. If not, don't worry about it. Just do good stuff and you will be blessed. That's all. 

Funny thing of the week: A sister in our zone twisted her ankle really badly (not the funny part. Just wait.) during gym time, and we all thought it was broken but it wasn't (still not the funny part.) On Sunday, we walk around the Provo temple grounds, but when you are on crutches that is a hard thing to do. We get to the gate and the guard guy asks if we want a wheelchair. At that moment, an elder pushes his companion by in a wheelchair and Soeur Pace (one of my new companions) asks if we can have that since they're done with it. But here's the thing. I've seen the kid before Sunday in this wheelchair. He didn't have crutches. He needed the wheelchair, but he just is like, Uh, sure? And hops on out of it. THEN HE HOPS ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE MTC. HE HAD TO HOP UNDER THE ARM THAT STOPS CARS FROM GOING THROUGH BECAUSE THE GATE CLOSED. WE STOLE THIS POOR ELDER'S WHEELCHAIR. It was the funniest and saddest thing I've ever seen!! He was so confused but so nice! Oh my goodness gracious it was hilarious.

Okay I love you all and I will send pictures this week. Good deal. 

Avek lanmou,

Soeur Hannah Fouts

Petry our creepy vent orange.

Souer Waldron (my teaching person who left for Mongolia) and me accidentally matched and it was adorable.

Soeur Lonas and I purposefully matched the flag because America and that too was adorable.

Fwd: Bon bagay!!!

From June 30, 2015 Email:

Wow, this week has been so crazy! 

Remember how all the mission presidents and all the Apostles and the Prophet were all going to be here? Well I didn't see any of the Apostles, and there were no sightings of the Prophet, but I saw lots of mission presidents. I got to meet mine, and they are the cutest people ever. They're both really short and nice and they gave us ice cream and they told us really cool things, like how I will be trained by a Creole sister, and how they will keep us speaking our assigned languages until we have reached every person who speaks our language in our mission, which makes me happy. I was worried they'd switch me around a lot. It would be cool to pick up on other languages, but I'm sure that will still happen and I will be able to spend my whole mission with the Haitains!! HOLY COW I LOVE HAITIANS SO MUCH. Thursday and Friday, they had mission presidents practice teaching in various districts. The ones assigned to our district were President and Sister Raphael, who happen to be the future mission presidents of the Haiti Port au Prince mission. They are both Haitian, and holy cow they speak fast! Let me tell you the story of how we offended them in Haitain. It was really good.

Remember how we learn krik kraks and it's really fun? Well one of our teachers taught us a phrase that is only to be used when you're on very good terms with the person and it supposedly gets a lot of laughs. Well, Elder Child told them our new krik kraks at the end of their lesson. We got really good reactions. You can be having a perfectly normal conversation with a Haitian, but as soon as you pull out the krik kraks, it's like their 5 years old. President Raphael even pretended to be donkey for one he told us! Then we told him to say our new fun phrase. He does, and before it's halfway out of his mouth both of them are gasping and waving their arms and talking really fast and saying, "DON'T SAY THAT! DON'T SAY THAT!" Then Elder Petit (Child) got a lecture on learning the culture of the people so he doesn't offend anyone and how to never ever say that again. The poor elder looked so scared!! We were torn between laughing at his face and being as scared and apologetic as he was, but now we know. Do not call someone, even your companion, uglier than Jean Jacques Desaline. Ever. It is bad. Just say no. 

We got to teach in TRC, which is where members who speak our language come and we teach them as themselves instead of as fake investigators. There was a mix of return missionaries who spoke Haitian and Haitians, and we got to teach a few of each. It was so cool! Wow I love Haitians. Have I said that already?

Also, as far as other languages go, I accidentally said my prayer last night starting in French, half Kreyol and half English in the middle, and ending in Kreyol. It's a confusing life. On top of that, one of the elders in my zone is from Tanzania and he is teaching me Swahili. Then I made friends with an elder from somewhere in Africa going to Madagascar, and he is teaching me words in Malagese (I think that's what it is.) WOW! ALL THE LANGUAGES! 

I have 3 more weeks here, and it's weird to think that I'm half way through my time here. I'm a little nervous because I have so much left to learn, but at the same time, I am so excited for NY. BUT I've started teaching almost all my lessons on my own, and I can now teach without notes in complete Kreyol. Holy cow life is cool. Also on Sunday they picked me to speak and I gave the whole talk in Kreyol. SO FUN!!! 

OH! Funny thing. So they made all the sisters move into a really big, nice new building called 17M. We moved in on Tuesday. Then they discovered bats, so they had us move back out of 17M and into a different building to avoid the rabies disease. It was very deceptive, actually. They called an emergency sisters' meeting, and everyone thought this was when we'd meet our general authority!! Then he's like, so we about to straight up change yo lives. We were even more excited then, and no he didn't actually talk like that. Then he's says, you are moving back out of 17M! My comp and I were actually pleased with this because the new rooms had weirdly large, open showers and small closets, but there were 6 closets so we had one specifically for snacks. We even had them organized by drawer, so that was a bummer, but other than that it was fine. We ran home and packed up and moved! All the elders in the MTC helped out, and it was just one enormous moving party! It was so fun! We helped sisters move their stuff up the stairs, because the elders couldn't come in the residence building. After every sister in the MTC was moved, I realized I was missing two of my suitcases. So then we had adventure number whatever and went to find my luggage!! Don't worry, I found it. It was good. Especially because one of them only had my pillow in it, which would have been sad to lose.

Also we now have a mini fridge. Don't ask. It may or may not say "MTC Dining Facilities" on it. We keep ice cream and drinks from the cafeteria in it and for some reason my roommate keeps fruit snacks in the freezer part of it. That is all. 

Life is so fun!!

Also can we talk about the Holy Ghost for a minute? He is just the coolest. Once you're confirmed, you can have the constant companionship of the 3rd member of the Godhead. HOLY CRAP. SUPER COOL. Also I really love the scriptures. They are my favorite! So moral of the story is live worthy of the Holy Ghost, because He loves you just like our Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ and He will give you all the guidance you ask for! Wow. So cool. Okay. 

I love you all! Have a wonderful week, friends! 

Avek lanmou,

Soeur Fouts

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