December 9, 2013

 Great! I might just wear my huge trenchcoat, that way I won't have to pack it! I miss the snow and mountains, but I'll probably miss the beach as soon as I leave, haha. I'm excited to come back, but also sad because we have some people really progressing! And people we thought would take a while too, God truly is in charge of this work. Well update, we are in a tripanionship now because our DL was transferred early to be a ZL and we had to give him up to the AP's at night, it seemed secretive, so I took pictures! :) So now his companion is the new DL and is working with us! He is funny, and tells good stories. He is a jock, so he fits right in with us.

 Only three days left, time to clean, burn, and pack what is left! I will not burn any of the clothes while they are on me, I'm too close to be sent home early! :) I'm going to miss this ward... so these three days are going to be filled with pictures. Thanks for the updates for the past two years! We need to save all these emails in a file so they aren't lost in case they delete this in a couple months... But the church is true, the book is blue, the angel flew, and Joseph knew!

 See y'all soon! :D

December 2, 2013

I'm pretty sure I will be able to email next week, the email's length probably won't be that long... transfers are next wednesday, and so we should have a normal monday.
>  Things are going pretty normal here. I thought about my time here in Destin and Pine Forest, and even though we haven't had baptisms, I have found that doors were opened, and feet were put in them! We have room now to work with many people here, and who knows all the people who are going to be blessed with the Gospel because of those who welcomed us! We just helped move a part-member family and their son we talked with a while and he now feels comfortable with us, we talked to him about the gospel. He accepted to have the lessons. Another door opened! It may lead to his girlfriend taking them, and his sister. No good deed goes without a good consequence! I was going to say unpunished because it fit, but it didn't make sense...
>  I did hear about the field goal return from auburn! I'm glad y'all recorded it! I'm super excited to see it, there are a few 'bama fans here...:)
>  Our Thanksgiving went great! I had deep-fried turkey for the first time, and it was great! We also ate at a part-member's house and had fresh killed turkey, and fresh seasonings, it was also delicious! Funny thing, it is difficult to say which is better! :)
>  Do missionary's always talk with the high council when they get back? That is going to be awesome, my understanding about them has increased a lot. Who is on the high council? What missionaries are going to be coming back the same time? I don't remember who left around the same time.
>  Also, black friday....on a thursday?? We saw all the crazy people in the strip malls along 98, a wave of cars in the parking lot. One of our members said they went, and didn't buy anything! :) They went because their mom wanted to go get something, and this guy is in his 40's haha. He said there were guards around the I-pads, ridiculous...
>  That's all for the excitement here! Have any last questions for me, or things I should get before I get home?

November 25, 2013

Nov 25 at 10:25 AM

 It was fun being at the Smartt's. I didn't tell many people that my birthday was here, like you saw on the video, I still feel uncomfortable with lots of attention... but they are awesome! It takes an hour to get to their house from where we live. They are very resilient!  I did get the box, and I loved it! Those were the coolest gifts, I've told everyone about my Ender's Game T-shirt! I told Elder Miller more than 5 times... :) 

 That's weird that I'm coming home the 19th, so I have another week to stay, I wonder what they'll do with me. Probably a tri-panionship until the day comes.

 Not much is happening, besides thanksgiving. We are having a turkey bowl that morning, and we are inviting a lot of people, it should be super fun! Two visitors set it up, and it turns out they are from Humble Texas! One is a shorter white guy and the other an asian looking man, didn't catch their names, but what a coincidence!

 The next biggest thing for our ward in the christmas party the 7th, it's going to be good! The sisters want to perform with us in the talent show. So far we almost solidified what song we want to do... I love last second ideas! :\ haha. 

 Doors are opening for us, we have been able to have dinner and talk with a guy we've been trying to sit down with for a while. He wasn't ready for the lessons yet, but he agreed to sit in the lessons we teach his mom. Big step! We were also able to befriend an artist with a studio on one of the busiest parts of town, Harbor Walk. We talked to her and let her know we would love to help with whatever she needed in her shop, and she said she will call us to set up her christmas display. It is a great environment, and she is a good christian.

 Thanks for keeping me up with the fam! Love y'all! 3 weeks....again... :)

November 18, 2013

 

 I don't know anything about the flight info, but I did take care of the temple recommend! pres Smith said he'd mail it to me, that was like a month ago... I'll ask him about both. I'll have to figure out about sending my bike too, I don't know if we take care of it in the mission home, or if they expect us to do it ourselves before.

 I'm excited to see BYU's basketball team, and also all other sports! Especially Dad's basketball team, I think that's cool! We should make dad a coach hat! :) and a fancy, shmancy clipboard!

 Anyway our week went alright. I got hit on by a gay guy... yes it's true, I was weirded out, and a little flattered...JK! not serious. He was a street contact that we met on the beach last pday, and we got his number and gave him a BoM and tried to get a teaching appointment later in the week, but that's not what he was after. But being cordial and polite, and blatantly blunt said God delites in chastity, and I want to follow God, if you want to learn about his happiness give us a call, but until then please don't talk like that to us. We haven't heard back from him... :) 

 There is a lot of stuff planned for December! I'm excited. And I hear ya about the weird weather, yesterday we had overcast without rain the whole day, and since this morning it hasn't stopped raining... It's like a box of chocolate. you never know what you're gonna get! :] haha, we live pretty close to bubba gump's shrimp shack. 

 About the special musical number for the 15th...who's performing? /:)

New Pictures

November 11, 2013

 Y'all already heard about our branch becoming a ward? That was one of the most exciting things that has happened this week! We didn't know it would happen so soon, I was caught off guard. There were a lot of people there, and they didn't know about it either. A less-active family came, and one of our investigators, and also a lady who isn't a member, also affiliated with the less active family. We were way excited to see all that, and now it's going to be hard to call President Riley, Bishop Riley!

 We had a terrific week actually. We have a cool story of how we found a new investigator. So we were trying to have a lesson with this black guy who we met at Publix. We got an appointment, but it got cancelled the morning of. We happened to run into him again the 2nd time ever being in publix here, and set another time. This time we didn't call him in the morning and just went over with a member. We knocked on his door, and a lady and man we didn't recognize were there, and so we thought we had the wrong house, they were very surprised. They invited us in which surprised us. Turns out this guy lives with them, and he was asleep. But as we continued to talk with them it turned out we stayed for an hour! We found that this guy was a excommunicated member, and his wife isn't one. He went on a mission, and went to BYU, but wasn't living the right way. He actually came to church in January but hadn't been back. Elder Miller mainly talked with him, and the member and I talked with the wife. We talked about all sorts of religious topics, and thank goodness Bro Proulx knew his facts! It went super well, and I felt the Spirit prompt me with certain topics to bring up. The main message was Moroni's promise, and to take it straight to God. She has a very firm belief in the Holy Ghost, and not a crazy-bark-like-a-dog believer in the Holy Ghost. She was excited to hear the restoration, which she believes needed to happen, and gave us both their phone numbers without asking. We are going to see them tonight, and have dinner with them. The husband talked to Elder Miller about how he missed being a part of the Gospel, and how he wants to return. So everything was set up for us, and these people are prepared. It's funny how we found them through this other guy!

 We also had a powerful lesson with the less-active family who came to church, but just with their 3 daughters. The Spirit was strong, and you can tell their conviction and desire by how they look at you during it. There were many distractions, telephones going off, kids making noise, but there were a couple times where there was silence, and we bore our testimonies, including the member with us, and they took it in! It was a big step.

 Many things are happening, and all we can do is keep working and pray that God will grant us more of his mercy and grace to continue to keep these things going! 

 And I saw the picture you posted on Facebook, Sis Smartt showed me! :) haha

 Thanks Dad for representing me well! I wish I could've heard the talk.

 And last big thing, We pulled a 21 miler to drop off a book of mormoon stories and see a former investigator couple. It was worth the hour and 30 minutes of straight biking, we stopped at a members house to pick up the book and the look on her face that we biked there was priceless! total of 300 miles biked since the middle of last transfer, hoorah! :) Love y'all and talk to you next week! 4 weeks...

November 4, 2013

Halloween was pretty fun, the chili was really good! All I had to eat was the test cups, and that's it. We were more focused on who we should talk to and just having a good time also. There were more than 8 non-members there, the ones we invited didn't show though... But none-the-less they all had fun we heard! When we got in for the night, around 7:40, I just watched church Christmas movies, and Elder Miller practiced on his guitar. So pretty uneventful afterwards.

 Good news though! At church, a family that we've been trying to work with decided to show up! A mom and her 3 girls, it was awesome to see them. The youngest, who is 18, said she decided to go to go to church the day before and called her mom, and they were there! I tried to commit them to come for the next 4 Sundays afterwards, so we'll see what happens! :) Now we need to get the other 3 members of their family, plus our investigator who is also linked to them...

 We had a good week. Got a new investigator, but we haven't heard of major improvements just yet. And the Hispanic side of our branch decided to throw a fiesta tonight, and invited lots of members, plus another of our investigators. It was funny because it started as a dinner appointment with 2 families, but then more and more people were invited and it turned into this!

 We also have a new sister missionary, and guess what her name is?... Sister Grady! I did tell her about our Schnauzer, she just said, oh gosh... Coincidence? I think not! :) She's from Spokane, Washington.

 One more thing, we had a Family History booth in a Indian Pow-wow festival thing, and it went super well! I found many names for people who were looking, but also failed at some names. It's impossible to look up Indian heritage, because they didn't keep records! But luckily most of the people were white. I did take pictures, they are good!

 Keep strong! I'll do the same. 5 weeks