Bonswa
nou tout manke anpil rete fò
I got transferred and found out I am officially Haitian Creole Eldè
Haitians are amazing! They are some of the best people you could ever meet. They are so kind. I was so happy to see how much joy they have when I came here.
I used to lay in my bed at night and say man life is hard, I have to work a job and go to school and clean the house......
Now, I learned young Elder Payne wasn't very smart or grateful, I was more grateful for things after my first lesson. I'll tell you what made me feel that way.
My first lesson with Mario, awesome guy, he has a deep accent which is super hard to understand. When we got to his house, he was sleeping on a beach towel on the floor. Looking at him, you would think he was starving. He said he just ate a lot of salad, but I don't know about that. Mario works 3 jobs, he always sleeps on the floor, and has no materials at home. You would think that with all the money he makes, he should be able to get a better meal and a bed. He sends most of the money back home to Haiti to keep his family alive. I will not go into depth about everything that is going on in Haiti and why so many Haitians are coming here.
Mario is so grateful that we came to talk to him; he is grateful for the sleep he finds, and he is grateful for the home he has.
Mario had more gratitude than I did, and I had so much more to be grateful for, so who am I to not have gratitude.
Don't take what you have for granted, and Remember who gave you what you have, and don't forget to thank him. (Jesus Christ)
Learning Haitian is hard, I wasn't even good at English. lol But I am trying my best and all the time in my lessons I sit and look at the mouth of who is talking, to try and learn how to say things and just agree with what my companion says.
I am serving a foreign mission, and Ohio is a foreign place by itself, but standing in a house on a wooden floor while they are sitting on the stairs is something I did not see coming when I opened my mission call to Ohio.
Now, I am convinced that I was supposed to go to Haiti, but it is too dangerous for missionaries, so he brought them here to Ohio.
I love you all, stay strong and stay oh so very grateful, and say thank you every day.
I invite you all to write down every night 3 things you are grateful for and to tell one person that you are grateful for something they do every day.
Shoot me an email if you can, and let me know how it goes. Let me know if you have seen a change in your happiness or in others.
I have done this myself, I have felt happierand have seen more blessings from the Lord in my day. I promise you as you show more gratitude, the Lord will bless you with more to be thankful for. Funny how that works.
Give everyone at church on Sunday a high five, I miss you all, and thanks for the support.
I love you all so much!
mwen renmen nou tout anpil!
