Unlike my last 50 or so weeks, this week was not amazingly happy or even supper happy, but the only word I can think to describe it is sad. Almost everyone we are working with and a lot of people I know from Brooklyn are affected by it. It is the disaster in Haiti that occurred on Tuesday. I don’t know if I knew too many Haitians before my mission, but something a lot of people don’t know about NYC is there are over 150,000 Haitians here, so we know a lot of them. They are heavily based here in Jamaica and in Canarsie, a neighborhood I covered In Brooklyn.
On Tuesday night I received a call from Phalles, a man I baptized in Brooklyn and he was in total shock a despair at what he saw on CNN. He has all of his family in Port-Au-Prince, and felt totally helpless and didn’t know what to do or even say. We talked and talked, and he felt comfort in the knowledge that he has in this gospel. He is an amazing man with a powerful testimony.
Later that evening we got a call from our investigator Janet, who also has all of his family in Port-au-prince. As the night went on, the calls continued to come in. In fact, of the people we are teaching in Jamaica right now, all of them are from the area around Port-au-prince.
The first night we couldn’t really understand the magnitude of what had happened until later on in the week. Thankfully, God provided many miracles to help us out during the week. On Wednesday night we had an amazing lesson with Janet about the plan of salvation. He found comfort and peace in the knowledge that God provides every single one of his children the same opportunity at salvation. I love that knowledge as well. As the week went on, more information trickled from Haiti to NYC, and people started to find out the fate of their relatives. It was difficult to learn one of the recent converts here had lost 6 siblings, and found out through a text message.
I wish I could describe the relationship I feel to these people, but it is truly impossible, since they are like family, so this has been a hard week for me to see so much of my family in pain.
The work of God does go forward and we did see a miracle occur on Saturday. We were teaching Jean, who is also from Port-au-prince. During the lesson he was telling us about his family and his feelings at the time. He then expressed a desire to be baptized next Sunday. We are going to have to do a lot of teaching before Sunday, but he is ready and we are excited for him to have the testimony he does. What an awesome man Jean is.
Church was awesome yesterday, and we had a new Haitian man come to church who is a friend of a Haitian Recent convert. He was to be taught the lessons and become a member as well. So many good things are going on here it is a great time to be here in Jamaica. That is also some good news. Elder Merrill and I are both staying here for another transfer, but one of our roommates is changing. Also, Sister Kevan, the sister missionary who I have been serving with for a year now is going to finish her mission here in Jamaica so we will have served together for a record 10 transfers in the same ward. It’s been nice to have consistency when working with the other missionaries when one of them is always the same.
I hope everyone who has the opportunity can help with the Haitian relief effort. Haitian people are some of the nicest people on earth. Whenever we knock on a Haitian persons door, we get let in and have a warm place to stay. They are so friendly and nice, and Phalles and Mendy, the couple baptized in Brooklyn are amazing examples of charity to me. They were willing to do anything for me, and always helped us out.
I hope all of you have a great week, and I know this next week will be the beginning of a rebuilding for those people, as well as a time where a lot of people continue to progress towards Christ. Sometimes disasters have to happen to help us recognize we do have a Lord and Savior.
Love,
Elder Skyler Thiot
On Tuesday night I received a call from Phalles, a man I baptized in Brooklyn and he was in total shock a despair at what he saw on CNN. He has all of his family in Port-Au-Prince, and felt totally helpless and didn’t know what to do or even say. We talked and talked, and he felt comfort in the knowledge that he has in this gospel. He is an amazing man with a powerful testimony.
Later that evening we got a call from our investigator Janet, who also has all of his family in Port-au-prince. As the night went on, the calls continued to come in. In fact, of the people we are teaching in Jamaica right now, all of them are from the area around Port-au-prince.
The first night we couldn’t really understand the magnitude of what had happened until later on in the week. Thankfully, God provided many miracles to help us out during the week. On Wednesday night we had an amazing lesson with Janet about the plan of salvation. He found comfort and peace in the knowledge that God provides every single one of his children the same opportunity at salvation. I love that knowledge as well. As the week went on, more information trickled from Haiti to NYC, and people started to find out the fate of their relatives. It was difficult to learn one of the recent converts here had lost 6 siblings, and found out through a text message.
I wish I could describe the relationship I feel to these people, but it is truly impossible, since they are like family, so this has been a hard week for me to see so much of my family in pain.
The work of God does go forward and we did see a miracle occur on Saturday. We were teaching Jean, who is also from Port-au-prince. During the lesson he was telling us about his family and his feelings at the time. He then expressed a desire to be baptized next Sunday. We are going to have to do a lot of teaching before Sunday, but he is ready and we are excited for him to have the testimony he does. What an awesome man Jean is.
Church was awesome yesterday, and we had a new Haitian man come to church who is a friend of a Haitian Recent convert. He was to be taught the lessons and become a member as well. So many good things are going on here it is a great time to be here in Jamaica. That is also some good news. Elder Merrill and I are both staying here for another transfer, but one of our roommates is changing. Also, Sister Kevan, the sister missionary who I have been serving with for a year now is going to finish her mission here in Jamaica so we will have served together for a record 10 transfers in the same ward. It’s been nice to have consistency when working with the other missionaries when one of them is always the same.
I hope everyone who has the opportunity can help with the Haitian relief effort. Haitian people are some of the nicest people on earth. Whenever we knock on a Haitian persons door, we get let in and have a warm place to stay. They are so friendly and nice, and Phalles and Mendy, the couple baptized in Brooklyn are amazing examples of charity to me. They were willing to do anything for me, and always helped us out.
I hope all of you have a great week, and I know this next week will be the beginning of a rebuilding for those people, as well as a time where a lot of people continue to progress towards Christ. Sometimes disasters have to happen to help us recognize we do have a Lord and Savior.
Love,
Elder Skyler Thiot
Oh how sad, I don't know any Haitian people, and I have felt so bad about what is going on over there. It must be horrible knowing people whose lives are affected by the disaster. Our prayers are with them!!!!
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