Monday, March 10, 2014

A Whole Lot of New (Week 31)

Oh man, oh man. So, the thing is, this whole mission thing is totes cray cray for realz. But really though, it's super crazy. You can never expect what's going to happen because nothing you expect to happen ever happens, and everything that you expect not to ever happens, happens. Tis true. Why do I say this? Well, let me give you a snippet of what happened at transfer meeting this week:

The read-off of new companions and new areas had already started. Left and right people were being assigned to their new lives for the next six weeks. There were lots of laughs as people were assigned to zone leader positions, and a few squeals of joy as sister missionaries were paired together. As I watched Elder Brockbrank be assigned as the newest zone leader and take his place with his new companion, I couldn't help but wonder what was in store for me. Obviously I'd mapped out all of the Creole Elders and who could possibly be joining me in Fort Lauderdale. However, when every Creole missionary was already assigned but Elder Claude, it seemed the unexpected would be happening and we would be paired together once again. Then, something even stranger happened.
"In Fort Lauderdale Creole area, Elder Skidmore and Elder Perkins."
Who the cheese is Elder Perkins, was the first thought that came to my head. True story. I'd never heard of an Elder Perkins before. As I scanned the room to try and find my newly called companion, I noticed that all of the Spanish elders were laughing and looking at one of the Elders in their group. Then a tall Elder stood up, walked over to me, and gave me a huge hug. Yup, his name was Elder Perkins.

This transfer is definitely going to be very different for me. Not only am I taking over the area of Fort Lauderdale Creole, but I also have a Spanish companion. The first few days were very stressful because I had to do all of the Creole lessons, and I was terrified of messing up and not having somebody to fall back on. However, on Saturday after praying for a very long time, I finally realized that I always have somebody to lean back on, and that's the Spirit. I don't speak Creole well at all, but when I have the Spirit I can speak almost fluently, and they understand the message and the Spirit that they feel. My companion, Elder Perkins is also always there for me. Just because he doesn't speak much Creole yet doesn't mean that he can't help out in lessons. Though I'm still pretty stressed about trying to teach all of these incredible Haitian people that the Lord has blessed us with, I know that I have my two companions who are always there to testify of truthfulness and help these amazing children of God to accept baptism. 

Plus, I get to stay here for the temple open house so heck yeah!!! I don't know if we'll be doing anything for it...but still! Lots of excitement going around because of the temple!

So I don't know if I talked about Rose yet, but I'm going to now because she be awesome. Rose is a 70 year old Haitian lady who we found a little over five weeks ago. In that time, she's already read the whole Book of Mormon, and she's stopped drinking tea and coffee too. She finally made it to church, and is preparing to be baptized this Sunday!!!! Heck yeah Ellis! Rose is one of the most elect people in the world. She just hasn't been able to come to church the last few weeks because her niece is really really sick and in the hospital, so they've all been going over there on weekends to stay with her. But now Rose is going to be baptized and it's going to be the best thing ever! 

I just remembered one of the funniest jokes ever. Or rather, should I call it an account? I rode my bike into a bar yesterday. Well, I was riding my bike and my face hit a horizontal bar. I was really confused, for it blended in with the road. Thankfully, there's no cosmetic effect. I just have a good story from it. It's fun, because I'm sure the Lord protected my beautiful face. It's one of his masterpieces after all. I kid, I kid!

Well, I've definitely grown a lot in my testimony of the necessity for the Spirit in teaching the gospel. Not only that but I've also realized that members are the best thing that ever happened to missionary work. We took a member out with us every day this week, and the lessons were so much more powerful. People were a lot more open too, which was really good. If you ever have a chance, you should go out with the missionaries. It be cray cray. Our ward here has so many funny and very interesting people in it too. I'd try to explain but I can't do it justice, so I'll just have to take you all here one day to introduce you.

Well, you all be awesome sauce and stuff. Please don't get killed by a meteor shower, because that would be the lamest thing ever. Which reminds me of a quote from Chad Stephens from this week. "You know what's the lamest, sir? When somebody's deheading your head, sir!" Gotta love Jamaican kids. Haha, I love you all. Have a great week!

Mwen renmen nou anpil anpil anpil!!!

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