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.]

ᐧ

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.