Long Week.

It has been a long week. Well, maybe not long but it's been a rough one for sure. We recently dropped almost everyone so the days go slow. Lots of knocking doors. We did set a date last week though! That was the gem of the week. It's with Javier for the 28 of May. We just need to help him with drinking. The problem isn't so much the alcohol so much as giving in to pressure from his friends. Other than that, we don't have a whole lot going on right now. Wednesday was full of meetings. The first one, zone conference, went from 8:30 to 4:30 and then we had stake correlation from 7 to 9.

Last week I got to do exchanges. I went to Riverview with Elder Clayton. That was a fun experience.

It's weird that my last call home for Mother's Day is only 3 days before I actually go home. We are allowed to skype but I will probably just call. I can't believe I'm so close to getting home!

I can't think of any other news... I guess I will send this. Sorry it's so short, we just didn't have much happen this week. I love you!

Happy Easter!

Yes, the dog is pink!

WOOT baptism!! Fransisco.

This Easter was a great one! The mission is a great time to really focus on the resurrection and atonement. I love teaching the atonement so much! That really is our religion. Everything else only is important because Christ suffered for us.

Well last week we took kind of a road trip. Our area is so big that sometimes, in order to save miles, we spend the night at other elders apartments. Friday morning we left and worked all day in Brandon and went to the baptism in Ruskin and stayed the night there. The next day we worked in Brandon and Tampa again and stayed the night in Brandon and went to church in Ruskin the next day. It feels like every weekend we are taking road trips. It is fun at first but sleeping on the floor and old couches isn't fun at all. By Sunday night I was so happy to get into my own bed and get a good nights rest.

Friday I called about my pump. The buttons have been getting really bad lately and I found another crack down the battery casing. I called Animus and got everything all figured out and they sent me a replacement pump until the insurance approves a new one.

In other news, Jose Mercado from Haines City is getting baptized on Mother's Day! I told the sisters there to tell him that he needs to get baptized before I go home and he said yes! So I will be able to go to that. What a way to end the mission, with a baptism a few days before I get home!

I don't think much else happened last week. I got to call home, which was fun. I started writing down thoughts for my homecoming talk. I still can't believe how fast the end is coming. I'm way excited to see all the changes in the family.

Well I guess I'll get this sent. I love you so much!

Great Week!

Natasha's baptism.

So this last week was a good one! We ended up having Natasha's baptism on Saturday. It went really well. She got confirmed yesterday in church. We went over to teach another family but the dad was passed out drunk. That was a major disappointment. He had been doing so well about not drinking but caved. I guess he told his wife he was thinking about waiting up to a year to be baptized. We are pretty bummed about that. We have been teaching a lot of members lately. One, Carmen, was a Jehovah's Witness for 40 years before converting. She is such a nice lady.

Yesterday we had dinner with the Rebolloso family. It was one of the girl's birthday and she wanted us over. She turned 11. That family is so solid! They come to every meeting and do so much! The mom was asking us why her family didn't receive trials like everyone else. She said that her family really hadn't had many trials, which is really cool because they have been through a lot the past few years but they always look for the best in everything.

I got my "Trunkies" in the mail the other day. It had my travel itinerary and everything. It said that I land in SLC at 1:55 but that the flight duration was 4 hours and 5 minutes. I think that officially gave me the right to be trunky haha. I don't think I'm very trunky. I guess there are different kinds of trunky though, one you just are excited to get home but you still work hard, that's the one I am; the other is where you can't concentrate on the work and you just want to stay in all day, that kind is bad.

I have another funny story for this week! So one day we had a lot of member meals lined up and Hispanics always make you eat a ton! So we got pretty well filled on our first appointment after 2 big bowls of spaghetti, salad and cake. Less than an hour later we had another member meal lined up. We got there and they had 2 large pizzas just for us three elders. They ate in the other room and left us to ourselves with the pizza. I ate one slice and couldn't put down any more. Park ate 3 and Christensen couldn't even put down one. In order to not offend the members we had to stuff the pizza into our backpacks for later! We always carry plastic bags with us to use in such situations, so we started stuffing pizza into these bags! We had almost 2 full pizzas in Christensen's backpack leaving that house! And the dog kept coming and sniffing around the bag looking for the food. Later that day we got fed yet again! I'm weighing anywhere from 145 to 150 lbs. nowadays.

Well I think that that is all my news for today. I can't believe how fast the time is flying. I am going to miss so much being a missionary. I love you!

So Bad but So Funny!

A sign outside of a church in our area.

Hey! So we had a pretty good week this week. We taught a lot of lessons and we will be having a baptism this weekend. Her name is Natasha Martinez and she is from Andalucia, Spain. She's 21 and has 2 kids and is a Book of Mormon reading machine! She reads at least a chapter everyday. We are trying to set a date with a guy named Javier Nuci. He is the dad of a family of 10. The whole family was baptized (except for 3 that were under 8) but he keeps saying that he wants to wait a little while more. We asked him if he was praying about baptism and he said that he wasn't because he knew what the answer would be. We have tried just about everything with him. We are going to try just not mentioning baptism to see if he's just being stubborn or what.

So about that dryer... we took dad's advice and tried to change the cord out instead of the outlet. We went and bought a cord from Lowe's and installed it all right. We plugged it in and pushed the button. Nothing. Turns out, the dryer we had is a lemon. So I spent $23 on that dryer cord for nothing. Now we have to air dry all our clothes.

So a funny story. We have, once a month, a sacrament meeting in the evening here in Plant City. So we were scrounging up all our investigators to come for the meeting and everyone was bailing on us. Even our most promising family was stuck at work. So we started visiting potential 'gators and found one that would come with us. We figured that one would look a lot better than zero. We didn't realize that the one we brought would be a lot worse than zero. So we showed up at his house and asked him if he wanted to go to church. He said he had already been to a church that day so we asked if he wanted to go again. We didn't even know the guys name but we got him a ride and when he got to the chapel he got down on his knees and started doing Our Fathers (the Catholic prayers). He was on his knees for a good 15 minutes before we started. We were having a nice testimony meeting and I bore my testimony and then he got up and walked to the pulpit. Oh, no! I thought. This guy is Pentecostal! He's gonna start speaking in tongues or something! He got up and started talking about how we has been Pentecostal for 4 years now and how he stopped taking his medications and thanks to a blessing from his preachers he was healed. At one point he said that he had a dream about him being crucified. He talked for over a half hour!!! The whole time I was embarrassed because our branch president can tell when we bring someone who really isn't interested. I was trying so hard not to laugh so I had my face in my hands the whole time! Oh, it was so bad but so funny!!

Other than that not a whole lot has happened. We rode 25 miles on our bikes one day in 90 degree weather. I am doing exchanges today with one of the district leaders in the zone until Wednesday. I can't believe that my last transfer is almost half way over. A week is a lot bigger when they are numbered. I can't imagine what I'm going to do when I get home. I don't hardly remember not being a missionary. I'm excited to get back, though. I love you so much!

What a Week!

On Tuesday I left Haines City at around 9 am and got here to Plant City around 10:30. We immediately set out on bikes and it about killed me! I haven't had to bike for quite a while now! We did a lot of follow-up visits and taught a few lessons. We have one date set right now for the 16 of April for a 21 year old girl named Natasha. Her mom was just baptized and now she is going to join as well. We have so many people to work with here! This is a brand new area. I guess we used to be in Brandon more but then we moved up to Plant City because there are tons of Hispanics up here. Our teaching pool is really big right now. The members here are great! We have a family of 10 that just got baptized (well, I think 5 of them got baptized, the rest were too young) and we are working on the husband now. There is the Regolloso family who brings us food every night at 9:30. This is one of the most solid families I have met! On par with the Vazquez family!

Conference was wonderful! I loved the talk on hope. I also liked the one where he said that to do without being is hypocritical and to be without doing is equally hypocritical. I don't know if that is exactly how he said it because I was listening in Spanish for all but the first session. I took so many notes! Probably 6 or 7 pages front and back.

So funny story - we didn't have a washer or dryer but the APs got us one of each and brought them over. Well it turns out that the washer works but the dryer has a different plug than the outlet. The outlet has 4 holes but the dryer has only 3 prongs. No problem, we thought, we'll just go to the hardware store and switch out the outlet for the right one. Well in the process of changing it out we turned off the breaker and got to work. Once Christensen got a little shock we turned off a few more breakers. While unscrewing some screws we saw a few sparks and decided to call it quits for the day. Well that night we were at it again. We decided to powerbox the whole house, just to be safe. I guess Christensen stood a good minute in an ant pile and got covered! They started biting and he got naked so fast! Since we had no power I had to hold the flashlight while he showered so he could see. Finally we got everything figured out and plugged in the dryer. Turn the knob. Push the button. Nothing. Push the button, again. Nothing. Disappointment. Oh that was frustrating. We are going to try again today, though.

The zone here is great. I like all my elders. My comps are the best. We have so much fun together. The members here that I have met are great. I'm really looking forward to serving here. I am so sad that it has already been a week since I got here. When there are only 6 weeks left a week is a big deal. I am kind of sad with every day that passes but I'm so excited to get home. One of those bittersweet things, I guess.

I'm so thankful for the chance we have to hear the words of the prophets twice a year. They are really inspired to help each of us individually. One thing that really stuck out to me was the story of the gold miner who was so busy looking for the big pieces of gold that he ignored the little pieces and lost out on a lot of treasure. That is helping me to look at the little things that are going well and value those things more than being disappointed when the big things don't work out.

Well I think that is everything I have. I love you tons!

Nothing As Constant As Change

Well, the news is in and I'm out. Friday night Elder Bell and I decided that one of us was going to be super upset the next morning but it turned out that both of us were mad! Elder Bell is going down to Imakolee and I'm going to Plant City. I will be with Elders Park and Christensen and I guess we are all zone leaders. I'm not super thrilled about the added responsibility for my last little bit but it will be alright. When they announced that we were leaving the whole branch gasped! They were so sad! The area is being whitewashed again and sisters are being put in.

My new area should be good. There is a family that just got baptized that bring us food every night and give tons of referrals and there are tons of Hispanics in the area. One month they had 15 baptisms! I'll still be on full car but I hear we bike a lot because our area is so big. I can't believe I only have 6 weeks left! I'm excited to get home but super sad to leave here. I've been thinking about what stories to use in my homecoming talk and it's going to be weird not having things like that happen regularly.

I'm super excited for conference this week! It should be really good! Well I think that is pretty much all my news. All my investigators are going to the sisters. I love you!

Week 6 Already!

Bribing the mailman?

Me, Elder Bell and the Sanchez girls.

I can't believe how fast transfers go by now! In the beginning of the mission a transfer seemed forever long but now they are hardly enough time to get stuff done! It doesn't seem like I have been with Elder Bell for very long. This Saturday we will find out about transfers. I have been praying that I will be able to stay here in Haines City this next transfer. I really don't want to go into a new area knowing I will only be there a short while. We'll see how it goes I guess.

This week was a good one. On Monday we went to the Sanchez family's and they had tacos and cake. It was a really nice cake as you can see from the picture. They sang to me and then had me follow a Hispanic tradition called "que la muerda" or "take a bite" where you have to take a bite of cake and 9 times out of 10 you get your face pushed into the cake. I was definitely one of those nine. After cake we went to a wildlife reserve near Lakeland and walked around and looked at gators and other animals. We saw a bunch that were 5-6 feet and a ton that were 10+ and one or two that were 14-15 feet long. Huge animals!! Thursday we had a leadership meeting that everyone was invited to so it was really like a zone conference. Saturday and Sunday were stake conference and it was excellent! A lot of really good talks were given on work, following the Spirit and Rigobert Vazquez bore his testimony of his conversion in front of everyone! I remember one of his fears of being baptized is that he would have to speak in front of people and now he is in the branch presidency and speaking in stake conference! What a change! and Kevin Vazquez, the youngest of the kids, is getting baptized this Sunday and they are planning on going to the temple April 9th.

Great birthday cake.

Gotta love tradition.

I'm 21 now so you know what that means....

One of the 14-15 footers.

Since it was stake conference it was tough for people to get to church so we didn't have any investigators show up. Sunday night Sister Draper performed an organ recital and had over 150 people there including the mayor of Winter Haven. She did a really good job. There were a few Bach numbers and several hymns. I think that is all the big stuff that happened this week. We have been doing a lot of finding, so that is fun...

I love you and can't wait to see you all again!