Let Go and Let God

Cheeehooo! Its been such an amazing week! I think i might cry...hahah jk i dont cry. Anyways! This week started out a little slow but ended really great! Jacob told me that i should share more about my investigators cuz i havent really said much about them. But we are teaching mostly young people! Our most progressing investigators name is Shelove shes a  17-year-old Haitian girl! Super funny! But she likes with her aunt and uncle who are members but the aunt is less-active. Im going to get to the Aunt in a sec.. But one of our other investigators is Hope Green. Shes 9 and We had her on baptismal date for this next Sunday but her mom who is less-active is re-considering it... Super sad because we can tell that Hope really wants to get baptised! So were working on it. Our other Investigator is David! hahaha one of my favorite! Hes 27 and Hes a Rapper! hahahah Hes kinda Got something wrong with him but for the most part hes Accountable. Such a Goofball though! He lives with his dad whos a Less-active member. Those are all our investigators though.. we mostly teach less-active Members..But I Talked about Shelove's Aunt that she lives with thats a less-active member. Her mane is Sister Jean-Marie. We are great friends with her and visit her a lot. But She hasn't Been to church in a long time. we think she might have been offended by someone but we've been trying to get her back to church for a while now. But on Sundayas i was sitting in Sacrament meeting just listening to the talks i felt my companion tap my shoulder and say elder look! and we saw Sister Jean-Marie walk in with her sister (who is an Active member)! We were soooo Happy! Such a Great sunday! So then the class after sacrament meeting is Gospel Doctrine class which is for investigators/resent-converts that my companion and i teach. But we sometimes assign some of them to teach the lessons. So we Had one of the Recent-converts: Sister Barner (big 70-year-old black lady in a wheelchair) Teach the lesson on families! Shes sooo funny and she always says " You  just Gotta Let Go and Let God". But she has a ton of kids and grandkids so she knows a lot about families! But she taught a great lesson and at the end she said: "in closing if theres anything you got from this lesson it should be to just Let Go and Let God" hahaha but there is soooo much Truth in that Little saying! A great example is our experience with sister Jean-Marie. We visited her every week but there was only so much we could do. we did our part of teaching her but our teachings would have been worthless with out Gods help and with out the spirit! This applies to all that we teach as well. This last sunday was such a great Testimony Builder! Im so Grateful for the Lord's hand in our work.            

Our Branch is so AWESOME! We had the opportunities to have dinner with our Branch President, President Hinds and his wife and Family this Week President Hinds is sooo Smooth! Hes this huge black guy with Dreadlocks! hahah When he was called as a Branch President I guess its was Elder Bednar presiding over the meeting and he said that he had special permission to keep the hair for cultural reasons. Him and him wife are from Guyana!  But when we were visiting we watched some Bible videos with them and my companion Elder Augustin said: "I've always wanted to play as a slave in a movie". and there son Malakie whose like Jareds age Says:"I've always wanted to Play in a movie as Jesus" hahahah we all started laughing so hard and President Hinds Goes: " Son, Maybe in a Baptist Film Because they think that Jesus is Black". hahahah

I'm loving it out here though! I wish i could stay in the area my hole mission! Its crazy how I've gained so much love for people so fast that i've known for such a short amount of time! 

Aaaanyways.. I hope everything I going great at home! I love all your letters! keep me updated! Love you All! Until next week!

-Elder Fotu    

Another Great Week!

Ooohhh Man! I wish my whole mission was recorded on video so that you could see all the great things that are going on here! Things are going great here! Some things can be frustrating though. our branch consists of about 60 members that show up to church, and about 120 less-actives that we have never seen! There have been a lot of Bucket-a-Chicken Baptisms here! Bucket-a-Chicken Baptisms are where a missionary offers some one a bucket of chicken if they get baptized! hahahah not really but thats just what they call it when someone gets baptized and you never see them again. (and everyone is black around here there for they love fried chicken). But other then that things are great! We could use a lot of prayers for our investigators! 

Sorry fo the short Letter but ill have more time next week so stay tuned!

Love you all!

-Elder Fotu

SAK PASE!!! ("Whats Up" in Creole)

Its been a very interesting week. Tuesday morning as Elder Augustin and I woke up and started our attempt to work out, we kept hearing Helicopters outside. We didnt really think anything of it at first until the apartment started shaking! hahaha we ran to the window and looked up above our street there was a police helicopter only about 60 feet above the road just hovering there! So we ran outside with our cameras and saw that there were like 50 cop cars at the end of our street! hahahah i guess some guy shot at a police man and then stole a car and crashed it into a tree a couple apartments down! Great way to start off the week! hahaha I wouldn't have it any other way!

Some Exiting things are happening with the church! We got to watch the Meet the Mormons Movie on wednesday before it comes out on the 10th! Such a Great Film!! Really clears up most of the the Wrong things that people believe about the church! But my advice to all members is DONT GO SEE IT!! SHARE IT!! It talks about stuff that we already know as members and it wouldnt really be worth our time to go see it (might as well just go to church or seminary). Dont get me wrong, it a great heart touching film but the church didnt make it for us as members. It should be used to touch the hearts of Non members and people who need to know more about the church. Im pretty sure thats why the church created it. The film will also help our job as missionaries much easier! People that will see this film will have questions and will contact us for more information, then we will start teaching them!! Thats Why we need to share it! post it on Face Book, Pintrist or whatever but share it a ton! Its going to be a huge tool in hastening the work is these last days!

General Conference Was AMAZING!! One of our recent converts, Brother Warren planned on watching the last session with us. But then he called us and informed us that his mom had passed away the night before and he didn't think he was going to come. We felt sorrow for him but were kinda bummed that he wasn't going to come. But sure Enough we showed up at the church and there he was in his Turquoise blue shirt, Purple slacks and Turquoise Alligator print shoes! hahaha We was so happy to see him!! His faith to Attend Conference even thought his mom had just passed truly strengthened my testimony. It was his first time watching General Conference and im positive it helped him cope with the passing of him Mother. 

I especially loved Elder Scott and Elder Bednar's Talks in the last session! Elder Scott Pretty much gave us the answers to the test of Enduring to the End! I have found that, that is the hardest part for new converts after they are baptized. They Dont get in to the habit of Praying, Studying, Meeting with their family every week and Attending the Temple. Not getting into the habit of doing these things eventually leads to inactivity shortly after their baptism. They get used to having the missionaries always there to tell them to do it! We as members especially youth cant get into the habit of having our parents tell us to do these things, we have to get into the habit of doing them on our own. That is how we Endure to the End, by getting into these habits. Elder Bednar has always been my secret favorite ever since i watched his talks at the MTC! One of my questions going into General Conference was: Why am i REALLY on a Mission? hahah Dont worry im not thinking about coming home or anything! I just needed some real assurance of why im here and he answered all my questions just in that one talk! Im soooo exited to take what i learned from Conference and apply to the work! 

Well I should be going now... I love you all and Hope here from you soon! 

Ofa Atu! 

-Elder Fotu