Christmas!

Christmas was great! I was able to talk to the fam for a while and loved every minute of it! We had 3 meals that day. It was pretty tough, but we made it through all the food. :) Our first one was at a members house who had just got out of the hospital. It was really fun. The family is really nice and really enjoys having us over. After that, we went straight to the church to eat with the spanish Sisters and our Zone Leaders. That was pretty fun. Then we watched the new 'Night at the Museum' movie. I enjoyed it. I'd reccomend it if you haven't already seen it. Then we went right to another members house for some more food. We had eaten at there house the night before as well. The food was great and after we played Disney's Scene It. It was a lot of fun.

Now, before Christmas, on either Wednesday or Thursday, we went with the spanish sisters to an investigators house to eat. It is known as 'La Casa.' And apparently there is always something interesting that happens there. But when we went, it was just a fairly normal visit. Except that I couldn't understand most of the conversation as it was in spanish. But then they brought out the food. It looked kinda strange so we asked what it was. They said it was beef. Then they added a spanish word, which being translated means tounge... So we were able to eat cow tounge the other day. Not too bad if mixed with rice and put on a tortilla. But it does have a pretty strange texture. But all in all, it wasn't too bad. I'd eat it again as long it was cooked well.

Yesterday, at church, a guy named Bryan Levi came for the first time to see what it was like. He has been talking with missionaries in Salt Lake for a while. He said the he grew up in a baptist home and only heard bad things about the church, but has seen members and they always seem to be happy. So he diecided to come and check it out for himself. We gave him a church tour before church and he liked it. Then in our gospel principles class they taught the plan of salvation. Which he really liked and said it answered a lot of his questions. Then in priesthood there wasn't really a lesson planned so we just talked. It ended up being him asking us questions and everyone answering the best they could. It was really cool and the Spirit was really strong. He said he really enjoyed it and looked forward to our next meeting. We set up a lesson with him then he left.

Then later that day, he gives us a call and said that he is not ready for this big of a life change right now and for us not to come by or to call him again. We were extremely bummed after this. We aren't sure what happened. But we are praying for him and asking the Lord to try to help him remember what he felt at church and all the things he said.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Y'all!

This going to be a short one. Just letting everyone know I am getting transfered tomorrow up to Haines City. And I will be serving with Elder Watson. I am really excited. Christmas is going to be awesome and I am way stoked to talk to the fam!

Baptism!

Sorry about last week. We weren't able to get to the library at all. It was a pretty interesting week. We were on exchanges for a good portion.

But last week we did have the baptism of Debbie. It was really good. There were a lot of people there. I was really impressed. There were almost more people there then usually at church. It was great. We are planning on teaching her a bit more, but she was sick all of last week, so we are still working on that.

We had our Christmas Zone Conference this past Tuesday. I really enjoyed it. A lot of my mission friends were there and it was great to see them. Quite a few of them will be the last time until I get home because they are going to be headed home after this transfer. But it was a great conference.

Yesterday for p-day, we went to the stake presidents house. He used to work for UPS and was really high up in the company. So his house is huge! But they had the whole zone over and fed us really good food. They have a pool table, ping pong table, air hockey, darts, and even a poker table. We had a lot of fun. And we were able to get on his yacht and look around. Couldn't go for a ride, but that's fine.

This is the view from his backyard. Pretty awesome!

Transfers are coming up next week. Right before Christmas. I am expecting to be gone. But I am fine with that. We find out on Saturday what is happening for sure. Should be interesting.

Thanksgiving!

So this week was pretty good. We were able to teach Debbie a few times. She is still ready to be baptized on the 5th. We are excited for that. We taught her yesterday morning and set up her baptismal program. She seems pretty excited for it.

We were able to talk to Sarah on Sunday a little. We had a branch social after church and she wanted to sit next to us. It was fun. Kids are always interesting. We have her reading the kids Book of Mormon Stories book and she is also reading the Book of Mormon. And she is enjoying it. But things are going to be a little slow still, as we can only see her on Sundays.

This Thanksgiving was probably one of my favorites. We were invited down to a member in North Port. That is the Sister's area. So we were with them all day. We had a lot of fun. We had 1 lunch and visited a few different members. We even had a fire at one. That was cool. We were able to watch the new Ice Age movie. And also we watched a movie called Taken. That was a really good one. I would reccomend that if you haven't seen it yet. But we had a tomn of fun all day. It was great. And, of course, we were able to watch a little football. Good times!

Adn that is about all that I've got for this week.

Yup...

So things are still going well. This week was pretty good. We were able to teach Debbie a few times. She is very ready to be baptized. She just needs to quit smoking. But she is well on her way. We have changed her date until the 5th of December. With the week being Thanksgiving, she is really busy and we are not going to be able to teach her as much as we would like. And that is another reason we moved her baptismal date back a week. But we are excited.

We had Stake conference this week. So we weren't able to teach Sarah. We talked with her grandma a bit through out the week. But things are still at the point of us teaching her at church. So hopefully we will be able do that next week.

Adn that is what we have going on for now. We are still trying to find more people to teach. Not getting much. But trying.

Alive and kicking!

The work is still going about the same. We were able to teach Debby again. We focused on the word of wisdom. She smokes and that is the only thing really in the way right now. She is trying to quit though. But things are still going good with her.

We were able to start teaching Sarah, the 8 year old girl, on Sunday. She is really smart and already knows quite a bit about the gospel. Right now, we can only teach her on Sundays at church because of some things at home. But her grandma is trying to work things out. But she is still excited and wants to get baptized.

Yesterday we went fishing again and some of us actually caught some good sized fish. We also played a little football and soccer. It was fun.

Transfers...

So this week was the last week of the transfer. So that means this was is transfers and today is Transfer day. Yippee...? What happened for transfers is definitely not what we were expecting to happen. President Colton talked with both of us at interviews about bringing in a spanish missionary and we were pretty sure that that was what was going to happen this transfer. But, instead, Elder Schramm and I are still together and are now in a tripanionship with Elder Zahl. So this next transfer is going to be interesting. And our apartment is going to be fairly full. But I am still excited for this transfer.

The work is moving along well. We were able to teach Debbie a few times this week. And are going to be teaching her again on Thursday. She has a baptismal date for the 28th. We are excited for that. She knows a lot of people in the Branch so she has a lot of support.

We tried to teach the 8 year old girl, Sarah, but her grandmother was busy so we had to keep rescheduling. We have some things for this week and hopefully they will work out.

Halloween!

As I mentioned last week, we had interviews with President Colton. Those went pretty good. I am now a 2 time winner of the shiniest shoes! Last transfer I won a thing of spray hand sanitizer and this time I won a can of Chunky soup! Which was much needed because Elder Schramm and I were running low on food. Every transfer at interviews, Sister Colton always makes home made bread for us. Which is amazing! But this time, with it being pumpkin season, she also brought home made pumpkin bread! It was awesome!

After interviews, I went up to the Sebring area with Elder Zahl. That was pretty fun. Every week they have a volleyball night and I was able to be there for it! It was a lot of fun. Then, my last night there, they had there trunk-or-treat. Which was also pretty fun. We got lots of candy.

Then we switched back on Thursday. That day, a member took Elder Schramm and I out to eat. The place we went to served gator meat! So of course we had to get some of that. It was pretty good. Not the cheapest, obviously, but I would for sure have it again.

While I was on exchanges, Elder Schramm and Elder Reed set a baptismal date with an invexstigator. We are pretty excited. She came to our trunk-or-treat on Friday. She seems really excited and she already knows a good chunk of the people in the branch. We are going to be teaching her again on Wednesday.

The trunk-or-treat we had was pretty fun. For being in a small branch, there weren't a whole tom of people there, but we still had fun. Near the end of the night, we had a donought on a string eating contest. And of course, the missionaries have to participate. The out come was, I got 3rd place. But had I gone against the person who got 2nd during the 'tournament' I would have probably been 2nd. Oh well. It was still fun.

Today, we went to a members house who has a lot of WWII things such as jeeps, tanks, planes and such. He gets them and restores them. It was really cool. He also has a canon that he let us fire off. It was cool. Here are a few of the pics I took.







We also got to ride around in that jeep.

The canon!

18 months!

I am finally doing somewhat better. I now mostly just have a cough. But I still am getting pretty bad head aches. And cold symptoms off and on. But it's getting better.

Things are going pretty well here in Arcadia. I am actually currently on exchanges in the Sebring area from today until Thursday morning. We were able to teach a few people last week. Jose and Georgina. they would be baptized already but they aren't married. But they can't get married until Jose gets citizenship. But he is working on that. We haven't been able to teach that little girl yet. Neither her nor her grandma were at church this past week. And her grandma moved from where we thought she lived. But we are going to try to see them this week.

Yesterday, we went down to Port Charlotte for p-day. The sisters set up something for us to do. It was a lot of fun. We just played a bunch of games. We had musical chairs, a 3-legged race, a water balloon toss, and such. And we carved pumpkins! We all had a lot of fun.



Then today, we had interviews with President Colton. They went really well. We showed Sister Colton the pictures of the snake and she told President that she wanted one we they got home. Haha. It was pretty funny. She was joking though. President said it would be fine. We'll see if that happens.

And this past Friday was mine and Elder Schramm's 18 month mark! So we had a bon fire at a members house and burned our stuff. We were also able to teach a lesson out of it. It was awesome. So we had an actual 'fireside.' Haha. But the people are pretty much golden. We are excited. We are going to be teaching them again this Friday at the trunk-or-treat.

Still sick...

So, I am still feeling quite sick. The cough is still around. It doesn't hurt quite as bad anymore but is still very present. I think that I am starting to get a cold too. So, I don't think the sickness is going away just yet. Which sucks. But I am going to be calling Sister Colton after this and probably going to be setting up a doctors appointment.

We had Zone Conferance this week. It was pretty good. I enjoyed it. There were a lot of missionaries there that I didn't know. But the ones that I did, I was glad to see. It was fun.

Then on Sunday, we had a branch social after church. We were talking and decided to drop one of our investigators cause nothing was really happening with them. And right after we decided to do that, a little girl comes up to her grandma sitting by us and says, "I want to get baptized and my mom says it ok." Her mom isn't a member. And we were like, we can take care of that. So now we have someone else to teach that wants to get baptized! We were pretty stoked about it.

Then yesterday, for P-day, we went down to the North Port area to a members. The guy was awesome and had the biggest mullet I've ever seen. He has a ton of crazy animals like snakes, crocs, raccons, turtles, lizards, and such. I took a lot pictures that are in the slidshow thing to the right. But it was a lot of fun. I was able to hold some pretty huge snakes too. We took his biggest snake, 18 feet long, outside and all held it up together. Then took turns holding it by our selves. It was awesome. It just about choked me though. It had it's tail wrapped around my neck. And it was pretty tight. But it was cool. And we also got to hold an Australian Salt water crocodile that was about 4 feet long! It was awesome. He said that he used to have Siberian tigers too that would play with you. But he currently doesn't. But is working on getting some more soon. So if he does, we are definitley on our way back!

So that was our week. Hopefully I'll get better this week. We are still going to try to teach when we can. And as you may know, my 18th month mark is Friday. So Schramm and I are going to be going to a members house to burn our clothing. I will have pictures and video up next week. We are really excited.

Sick....

So, this week has been a very long and boring week. I have been sick since last Tuesday. It hasn't really gotten a whole lot better since then either. Near the middle of last week, it started out as a sore throat. And since has developed into a really bad cough and sore throat. We stayed home from church this Sunday because I felt horrible that morning then started to get better that morning. But then Monday rolled around and it was pretty bad again. I called Sister Colton yesterday to see what she thought I should do. She gave me some suggestions of medicine to take and so I went and got some. She told me to take some Nyquil along with other things so I would be able to sleep at night, cause the coughing was so bad it was keeping me up all night. Let me tell you, that stuff is amazing for getting to sleep quick and staying asleep. It was great. But this morning when I woke up, the cough is still here and it still hurts a lot. So we'll see what happens. I'll be seeing Sister Colton tomorrow at Zone Conferance. So I'll talk to her and see what she wants me to do. I'll probably be getting a doctors appointment sometime near the end of the week.

So that was our week. Me being sick. We are both pretty bored and are sick of being in the apartment all day. So hopefully I'll start to get better soon.

Fishing, Transfers, and GC!

So, I wasn't able to update last week because we had a pretty busy day. I found out last week that I was being transfered. So I had to pack and such. Which takes me a while because of 2 things, 1 I have a lot of stuff, and 2 I get distracted quite easily.

But last week for P-day we went fishing. Didn't catch anything but had a lot of fun. We were able to see a dolphin swimming right by where we were fishing. That was pretty awesome.

Now, I am in the Arcadia area. Serving with my other MTC companion Elder Schramm. Yes I had 2 MTC companions. And yes it is awesome to have served with both of them out here. We are having a lot of fun so far. Except for the current time, I am a bit sick and am not enjoying it. But it will pass. Hopefully soon. Last night was not a good night. But I'll get over it.

Yesterday, we were able to go fishing again. It was a blast again as well. And again, we saw a dolphin! Crazy! But out of the 9 of us there, we only caught 2 fish. We had a grill there with us and cooked hamburgers and hotdogs. We also cooked one of the fish we caught and all had a little bit of it. But we all had a lot of fun. And we'll probably be going again this transfer.

And this weekend was General Conferance. I absolutely loved it. I especially loved Elder Hollands talk and also Elder Callisters. Those were 2 of my favorites. I can't wait until next months Ensign comes out to read and study them all.

Old People Home

So this week was an alright week. We were able to teach a few lessons and such. On Saturdays, we are now going to be doing a weekly 'lesson' type thing at an old people home. This past week, we got there and we were supposed to find a member that works there. At first we couldn't find her, so we went to the main desk. They asked us if we were the missionaries that were going to be teaching. We told them we were so they led us to a room with a bunch of old people in there that were all kind of out of it. It was interesting. But we started by reading out of the Bible. Then watched a movie on Christ.

As we were watching the movie, the member found us and told us we were actually in the wrong room. So Elder Garner went with her to the other room where they were reading out of the Book of Mormon. I finished the movie and then went into the other room. It was going really good in there. They were having a Q&A type discussion. We are excited to go back next week.

Jello, anyone?

Things are going well here. We have kind of run out of people to teach here, though. This past week we went over to Scott's to teach him a little bit. He made it to church yesterday was able to get confirmed. So that was good. But now that that has happened, we are a little low in the teaching pool. There is one guy that has come to church twice, but we can never get a hold of him or set up a time to teach him. But we are still trying. He knows a lot already and is basically ready to be baptized. We just need to be able to teach him.

Other then that, not a whole lot has gone on. We had a few lessons set up that fell through. But we are still trying to find more people and working a lot with the members. So things are still going good.

Throughout the transfer, we have been having this prank war with a member in our ward. The Bishops daughter. It all started when she toilet papered our car. Then we incased all of her hair elastics in jello. Then she thought she was clever in taking Elder Canfields scriptures. But, she also mistakingly left her's behind. 25 boxes of jello, a few ziplock bags to protect the scriptures, and 4 missionaries later, we finally returned them. The container weighed about 25 to 30 pounds. We attempted to extract the jello from the container, but as you can see from the video, it didn't work as well as we had hoped. But it was still funny.

After this, she gave Elder Canfield his scriptures back. Although, they were in side a big, huge bowl of macaroni and cheese. It was interesting. But all had fun.

Labor Day

So the libraries were closed yesterday so we weren't able to get to some computers. But with it being Labor Day, the stake had a big party down in Clearwater. It was a lot of fun. The whole zone was there. I played volleyball most of the day. Then we played a bit of tennis. Which I am not very good at. Then we played a little softball. It was a lot of fun and there were a lot of people there.

So, last week we baptized Scott and he was going to be confirmed this week at church. We called a few people to be able to get him a ride. But couldn't find anyone that could. When we finally found someone to get him, they went to pick him up and he said the he had something to do and couldn't come to church. So we're not sure what's up with that. But we are going to go visit him and talk to him.

Other then that, our week was pretty slow. But things are going to be picking up pretty soon. Hopefully

Baptism

Things are going pretty well here. We had a baptism yesterday. His name is Scott Abshire. The missionaries in this area have been teaching him for about a month. I've been able to teach him about 4 times. But he was baptized yesterday. It was cool. This ward is great. There were a lot of people there to support him. It was cool.

We are also teaching his girlfriend Lynn. She isn't progressing quite as well as he did. She is understanding everything we teach. But she has a hard time coming to church. She did come yesterday though. So we are going to continue to teach her.

This past Thursday was zone conference in Tampa. There were quite a few people that I didn't know. I guess that's what happens when I spend 8 months in the same zone. But it was fun.

About a year ago, Elder Glauser, my zone leader while I was in Riverview for a while, had a Ute tie that he dubbed the FTM Ute tie. And decided that he was going to pass it on to a Utah fan in the mission and have them do the same when they go home. He went home in May and I wasn't sure what he did with the tie. I found out on Thursday that he gave it to Elder Barlow, a Spanish missionary that I shared that little house with in Apollo Beach. And he was supposed to pass it down that day because he went home on Friday. So now, I am excited to say, that I am now the proud owner of the FTM Ute tie! It's pretty awesome. And I will have it for the next 8 months of my mission until I go home and pass it down to someone else. Just thought I'd share my exciting news! I am going to try to get a copy of the passing of the tie soon. Then I will put it up.

Transfers

Sorry I didn't update last week. It was transfers and I spent a lot of the time last p-day packing and wasn't able to email. And then I didn't get here in my new area until late Tuesday and still wasn't able to get to a computer. Oh well.

Anyways. Like I said, I got transfered. I am now in the Hudson B area. It used to be the New Port Richey ward, but they combined the 2 not too long ago. So there are 4 Elders in our ward. But it's fun. Apparently there are a lot of people that are being taught. They have had a baptism almost week for a while. It's pretty awesome. And the ward likes us a lot. But I'm liking it here so far. My companion is Elder Garner from Midvale, Utah. He has been out just over 13 months. He got out here 2 transfers after me. But we are getting along really well so far. I am back in the St. Pete stake as well. Which is pretty cool. The stake president came to our sacrament meeting yesterday. He is my favorite stake president that I have had out here so far. He's way cool.

I forgot to mention something. Last week when we got our transfer calls, my move wasn't originally to come to Hudson. I was supposed to go back to Gulfport with Elder Grant. I was really excited to be going back to my greenie area and also to serve with Grant. But then, about an hour after I got the first call, I get another one. This time they say that there has been a change. Grant is now going to be training and I am going to Hudson B. At first I was a bit bummed, but then I got over it pretty quick. But I am enjoying my time here so far.

Once again in Florida...

So things are going alright for me. Last week was a slow week. All of our appointments fell through. So what was a bummer. And things were almost better this week then last week. We had some really good potentials. But once again, they didn't work out how we had hoped.

One was a member refferral. We went over to the kids house and tried to talk to him, but then he just told us that the girl must've been mistaken. It was really wierd. Then we were informed by the girl that gave us the refferral that he and his girlfriend that was a member, had had a fight or something and wasn't in the best mood. So we are going to wait until things cool down I guess.

Then the Spanish sisters gave us a refferral that they were going to be teaching, but then she said that she would rather go to the english ward. So we got a ride for her to come to church yesterday. Then the member's show up and said that they couldn't find the house. The sisters went over there while we were at church and talked to her. We set up a lesson for Wednesday. And we are going to follow up with her some time tomorrow. Hopefully things will work out here and we'll be able to continue to teach her.

Beachhouse!

Well hello there again from the sunny, hot, humid, kind of nasty feeling, Florida!!!

This week was kind of a slow one. We had all of our lessons fall through that were scheduled with our investigators. But we are still trying and not letting it get us down. We try to make sure we always keep a good outlook on things and have fun even when things are hard. I really think that that is a good thing to learn.

This past Tuesday, the ward mission leader from the Citrus Ridge ward, Brother Staber, came down and took us out to eat. That is the area that Elder Arbuckle just came from. He took us to a place called The Beachhouse. It was probably the best eating experiences I've had. It was right on the beach. And we went at around 7:30 or so, just in time for the sunset. It was amazing. It was a bit pricey, but the food was amazing and the atmosphere was definitley worth it. The DJ, John Dewey, was awesome. He came and talked us for a while and mentioned how he had taking the lessons a few times. We tried to get him to do it again, but he was good with not. So we just talked. It was great.

This is John Dewey. He was pretty awesome!

And here is us and Brother Staber.

And that was our adventures for the week. Hope you all enjoyed! Let me know what's going on with y'all!

No A.C.!

So, things are going fairly well out here. This week we had pretty much all of our lessons fall through. But, that's missionary work. We were able to give a blessing to Debbie though. She was beat up last Friday by someone. And if I were to some how find this guy, I think I would beat him with a bat. I don't know why anyone would want to do something like that. She is such a nice lady. I guess that's why I won't ever find him. But she wasn't doing very well. So we went over a gave her a blessing. She felt a lot beter afterwards. Then we talked with her for a good 30-40 minutes after. It was good.



We weren't able to teach Terry at all this week. Weren't able to get a hold of her. But we are going to continue to try as time goes on.



This Sunday was an interesting one. Last Thursday, someone stole 4 of 6 air conditioners from the church. So we had a 25 minute sacrament meeting and that was it. And it was quite a warm one too. Especially in a suit. But we survived.



Then today, we were all at the church playing volleyball and 2 different news stations came to do a story on it. It's too bad that we don't know a whole lot about what happened. Well, our zone leaders do, but they didn't want to be on the news. So they gave the maintenance guys phone number. But it was interesting.

Here are some pretty Florida sunset photos. Enjoy!

Wow. It's been a while since I've updated. Sorry. I'll try to do better.

Well, this week is transfer week. We found out on Saturday what is going on. Every companionship in the zone in changing. With me, I am staying here in Bradenton and Elder Knudson is going to be a Zone Leader in Tampa. I am getting Edler Arbuckle. I have met him a few times at Zone Conferences and such. He seems like a pretty cool kid. I'm pretty excited. There are three people in our zone that are training. So that means three new people. Should be interesting. But fun.

This past week were able to get a hold of a lady that we at one point thought might be dead. We haven't been able to talk to at all this whole transfer and she has cancer, so we weren't sure. But we finally saw her and she has an awesome testimony of the church and wants to be baptized. She came to church yesterday. But she went to the Palmetto ward cause she has a friend there that took her. We are going to be teaching her and hopefully she will be baptized next week. I'm way excited.

We taught a few lessons to Terry. She has a strong testiony of the Book of Mormon. The only problem we have now is she won't come to church. She has missed the past few weeks. We talked to her on Saturday and said she was coming and then we can't get a hold of her Sunday morning. But we are going to keep trying.

Things with Amanda and her daughter are still kind of there. We haven't been able to see them in a while. But we are planning on trying to this week.

The first video you see here is of my companion, Elder Knudson, being his alter-ego, Xander, a huge computer nerd, playing with a light saber trying to block darts being shot at him from a nerf machine gun. It is quite entertaining. At least we think so.

This next video is of Elder Knudson dressed up as Optimus Prime. Really, we just found a bunch of cardboard boxes and taped them to him and a member had the helmet. It was rather fun.

Hope you enjoyed!

Family

This week was a fairly decent week. We were able to set a baptismal date for this coming Saturday! We are pretty stoked about that. We are not quite sure if the lady, Terry, is really aware that it's happening this week. When we talked about it yesterday at church she didn't seem to be. That is something we will be covering in our next lesson.

Yesterday, we were able to attend a baptism in the Spanish Branch. Once again didn't understand much of it. But I did enjoy it. Then after that, there was a 'farewell' party type thing for a girl leaving on her mission in a couple of weeks. It was a lot of fun. And there was a ton of food. It was great. She is going to be a great missionary.

This past week at our weekly Zone and District meeting, during district meeting, we talked a little bit about families. It made me think my family. Obviously. But I'd like to say what I thought of:

I am incredibly grateful to have the family that I have. One thing that is usually mentioned in the scriptures is '... the brother of...' Now, I remember a time when if someone referred to me as either 'Jordan's brother' or 'Adri's brother' or 'Derek's brother,' I would be kinda upset for the fact that nobody knew me as me. But I thought about that a bit, and I am grateful to be known as someones brother. It means that I fave a family. That there is someone there for me all the time. Someone to turn to when things get hard. Some people my think that my family is kind of crazy. And I would definitely not be the one to disagree. I would actually be the first one to agree with that. But that's one of the reasons I love them so much and wouldn't trade them for anything.

Love you guys!

Zone Conference

This week was a fairly busy week I suppose. We had quite a few lessons. And they were all pretty good. We also had zone Conferance this past Friday. That was an all day thing because it was in Bonita Springs which is about 2 hours or more away. We had to wake up at 4:30 in the morning. No fun. Then we drove about 100 miles to Port Charolotte where the mission van and truck picked us up and drove us the rest of the way to save on our miles. Both were packed full and we still had to take one car. But Zone Conferance was pretty good. There were a lot of missionaries that I didn't know there. Because it was with the most southern zone and the language zone as well. But it was fun. We didn't get back from that until about 6 or so. So our day was pretty much gone. Then that night we had scheduled a lesson but it fell through. We were exhausted so we went to bed early.

The next day we had a booth at the flea market. We do this every Saturday. And it is always quite interesting. We get to talk to a lot of people. And meet a lot of interesting people too. We were all still pretty tired from the previous day, but we held through. We were able to set up some times with people. Hopefully they will work out.

Yesterday we had a couple of people come to church. One was a guy named Kerly and his family. The missionaries here have been teaching him for about 2 weeks. But this was the first time I met him. We are going to be teaching him again tonight.

The other person was Nico. He is 19 and just moved from D.C. He is living with an old lady in our ward. I'm not sure the connection between them, but that doesn't really matter right now. We were able to give him a tour and first lesson before church started. He said that he enjoyed it and that he would be coming back next week. We are going to be teaching him sometime this week.

Also, we ate at a members house yesterday before a lesson. And they made us a lot of really good food. And we ate quite a bit of it. Then we went to the lesson. Where they just happened to make us a lot of food as well. When we walked in and I smelled the food, my stomach was like, 'Are you kidding me?' But we ate what we could. The food there was also really good. After eating we had a sort of Q and A desscussion. It went really well. Then we set up 2 more lessons with the family for this week. I think that things are going to go really well here. After the lesson, they told us that they had cake and ice cream. By then we were ready to explode because of the amount of food already in us. We were able to eat a little though. It was good.

I think that is all for now. Keep me updated on what's going on back there. :)

Transfers!

Hello again!

It is now transfer time once again! The thing I was expecting, and also quite a few other people, didn't happen. I was expecting to be going back to Apollo Beach for this upcoming transfer. But that is not happening. I was a bit disappointed by this. But it's ok. I am going to be serving in the Bradenton area with Elder Knudson, my MTC comp. So I am pretty excited. I am kinda sad to be leaving Sarasota. I wish I could've stayed longer. But maybe I'll get the cance to go back. I hoping for it. But we'll see what happens.

With yesterday being memorial day, our ward had a big party. We went to a park and had a bbq. It was a lot of fun. When we first got there, there weren't a whole lot of people there. But within about 30-40 minutes, there were quite a bit of people there. We played volleyball in the sand pits there most of the time. It was a blast. We had to leave early to go to a zone p-day. But we would've stayed all day if we could've but the zone would've been pretty upset.

For our zone p-day, we played dodgeball most of the time. And made hamburgers and hot dogs and such. It was a ton of fun. The Sisters were being quite vicious at dodgeball, which made things really interesting. But we had a lot of fun.

Ok. So this entry is pretty short. Well, that's ok. :)

Mothers Day!

So, yesterday was Mothers Day. And a few of the people that read this I was able to talk to. So.... Yeah. But I'll still write something for those of you that I didn't get to talk to.

This past week has been a fairly normal week. We did a lot of tracting. And even at 10 a.m. it is really hot. Usually around 85 degrees. And add a very high amount of humidity to that and you have yourself a natural sauna! One of the best things to knock doors in! But we still do it. And try not to complain, (key word being try.)

This past Saturday we baptized an 18 year old girl named Lucy. We have been working with her and her family for a few weeks now. She is a very shy girl and was extremely nervous about it. But she knew that it was the right thing to do. It was a really cool experience.

Then, yesterday, we were able to confirm her. Her mom was able to attend Sacrament Meeting to see, but then had to leave for work. What a great Mothers Day gift! We are going to continue to work with the rest of her family.

After church a family invited us and Lucy, her younger brother Bernardo, a recent convert named David and some other youth in the ward over to their house to do stuff. It was really fun. And it was great for Lucy and her brother. Lucy is getting to be a lot more comfortable around the ward and Bernardo is making a lot of new friends. After a while they decided that they wanted to get in the pool. And as missionaries, we can't do that. So we just sat there and talked with the parents and such. But it was a lot of fun.

And, as I kind of mentioned before, with it being Mothers Day, I was able to call my family! It was great. Only one more phone call for me out here in the mission field! Next Mothers Day I will be home! My sister had a really big surprise for me yesterday. She invited somebody out to my house to talk to. I was talking to her when the phone went wierd, then I call back and someone answered. At first I didn't recognize the voice. But then, after a bit, I realized that it was Cydne! It was awesome!

And now, I finally have the Attack of Chimpy Video. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

We had a lot of fun that day. As you can probably tell.

Crazy Emergency Transfer!

Ok, so last week was a pretty nutso week. Let me explain. Here's what would have been of last weeks post.

This week was going fairly normally. I 'celebrated' my 1 year mard by burning a shirt and a tie. I was going to do it at the Spanish Elder's apartment where there is a fire pit, but we ended up not going over there. So I did it in my grill! So now there is a nice pile of ash. And if you look close enough, you can still see part of the design that was on the tie. :) It was pretty fun. Then after the burning, Elder Pattie and I walked a good 2-3 miles to the Publix to get some drinks and candy to 'celebrate.' Then we took our recliners that a ward member gave us and put the on the 'deck' as we call it now. But it is also known as the roof outside our upstairs window. We just sat the for a while talking and watching traffic go by. And we still are not quite sure if people can see us or not. Oh well!

On Saturday we got a call from President Colton. He informed us that because there are 2 missionaries going home on that Monday, that we were going to be emergencied transfered. So I am now in the Sarasota area with Elder Wire. I'm still in the same zone. And we think that at the end of this transfer I will be going back to Apollo Beach. But we'll see. And Elder Pattie is now in Tampa. So we spent all of Saturday packing and a bit Sunday night.

Then in church, they released the bishopric and put in a new one. So it was like smacking the Apollo Beach ward in the face. No missionaries for 4 weeks and a new bishopric! The new bishopric came at a total surprise to everybody. Apparently the old bishop, Bishop Reynolds, is going to be moving to Washington pretty soon and didn't tell anybody. He announced it yesterday during his testimony. Elder Pattie and I spent a few hours over at there house yesterday. His son and grandchildren were there again. They are such an awesome family. I will definitely miss them. I got to play Yahtzee with the 2 little girls. They were trying to cheat. But I wouldn't allow it. Haha. We had a lot of fun.

Then we were at another members house and her husband is a private pilot. And he has a lot of extra jackets, so she gave each of us one! They are awesome. But we won't be able to wear them much because apparently it's illegal or something. I'm not sure exactly what she said about that. Haha. But they are awesome.

So that's what happened last week. Pretty crazy. Never a dull moment in the FTM!

It's been another fairly crazy week. Wire's last companion didn't tell anyone that he was leaving. So nobody in the ward new. So everytime we saw members, they would ask if we were on exchanges. It was pretty interesting.

And for the first time on my mission, I missed church yesterday. Elder Wire has been pretty sick the past few days and yesterday, we called the High Priest group leader to give us a ride and he told us to just stay home, and then he called Sister Colton and she said the same thing. So we just stayed home all day yesterday. So most of the ward still doesn't know about the change and that I am now here. It's fun.

But we had a family that we are teaching at church yesteday. They have a baptismal date for this Saturday. We are really excited about that. We are going to be teaching them a lot more this week to get rid of any concerns they might have.

Also this past week we had interviews with our mission president. I asked him what he was planning on doing with the Apollo Beach Ward at the end of the transfer. He said that there is a pretty good chance that I will be going back there. So I am excited about that. I really like that area and ward.

And that is what is going on in the wonderfull world of Florida. Pretty nuts. But that's what makes things fun. Sometimes. :)

Easter!

Ok, so last week was yet another annoying time at the library. And today isn't turning out to be a whole lot better. Last week my camera was dead so I couldn't put up anything with that. And this week the video I want to put on isn't working right. So I'm sorry. But here is was would have been last week.

April 13, 2009

So this week was another fairly uneventful one. Last week we spent all of p-day down in Bradenton with the zone. We had a blast. We played softball and volleyball and made hamburgers and hot dogs. As I had in my last post, we did a prank on the Sisters. Well, they just happened to bring the monkey, Chimpy, to p-day. An unfortunate event happened with Chimpy. He was killed. One of the zone leaders grabbed a knife while we were playing with him and stabbed him. It was a very sad time. But Chimpy came back. With a vengeance!

The attack!

Unfortunately the video is not working currently. It is the best part. Hopefully it will start to work soon.

Then with Easter this weekend, our ward had a cook out and Easter egg hunt. We played a little football with some of the ward members. It was extremely hot and we were in our vests. Not the smartest. But it was fun. Then the primary kids sang a song.

Then they were off. The only problem with egg hunts out here, is all the ants in the grass. Pretty much all of the eggs had some ants in them. It was interesting. But everyone is fine. It was a lot of fun.

Then yesterday, the Bishopric all gave talks on the Atonement. And in between the primary kids and the choir sang a song. It was cool. The talks were really cool and the Spirit was there so strong. I loved it. They focused a lot on Elder Hollands conference talk. I really enjoyed it.

Now, with transfers, Elder Pattie and I are staying together for yet another transfer. We are both pretty excited. At the end of this transfer he will have been here for 9 months. So we're pretty sure this next transfer will be his last. But we will work hard and have fun while it lasts.

And that was last week's post. Now on to this week.

So, things are going. We just got done with the first week of the new transfer. And we're not sure what is going to happen. The 2 kids we were teaching are still on the list. We're not sure what is happening with that family anymore. Other then the fact that they are moving to Wyoming this June. They aren't sure if they are going to be able to adopt the kids anymore. We have an appointment to teach them tomorrow. And that's about all that we can do.

Tomorrow is also our Zone Conference. So tomorrow is going to be a long day. With that, we also have the lesson that night, a meeting before the lesson with our ward mission leader, and then a member is taking us out to eat before that. So it's a pretty packed day. But we're getting food in the process, so we won't complain. And those days are usually better.

The 'new' zone is pretty good. Elder Knudson, one of my MTC comps is my district leader. It's pretty cool. Our district is rad. There are only 2 companionship's, but we all get along great. So it's fun.

This week, a very neat thing is happening, I will be hitting my year mark! Pretty sweet, eh? Yeah, I thought so. But that means on with the traditions! In the Florida Tampa Mission, every 6 months, we burn something. At 6 months it's a tie, at 12 it's a shirt, at 18 its pants, and at 24 its a suit. Some people will just burn the item itself and some people will actually add each item as they go. I am still debating between the 2. I do have some ties that I wouldn't mind burning with a shirt, but at the same time, I am trying to collect as many ties as I can. Oh well. I would ask for input, but I probably won't get the chance to read it unless you put it up today. But I guess you can say it anyway.

April Fools, Conference!

Ok. So I didn't post anything last week. I had something going and then we had to leave quite abruptly. So, here is what I had:


Happy Birthday to me. Yesterday was my 20th birthday. When really it was not. It was actually the 20th anniversary of my Birthday. I have not been born 20 times. That would just be no fun. I did have some fun, though. I had birthday horns and balloons and some 'just add water and microwave' cake. It was amazing, by the way. So yeah. It was fun.


We had our interviews with our mission president this past week. Elder Pattie and I requested to stay together for a 3rd transfer. And President Colton said that there is a good chance that it will happen. We are working really well together. And the members are trusting the missionaries again. Which is nice.


This weekend is General Conference and I am really excited. But I wonder where the time went since the last one. It seems like it wasn't that long ago. It's amazing how fast time goes out here.

And that is what was of last weeks post. Not much. But like I said, we had to leave very quickly.


Now on to this week. This past week has been an interesting one. As you know, this past Wednesday was April 1st, more commonly known as April Fools Day. So we thought we would have some fun. On Tuesday, the Spanish Elders in the area found a dead pig on the side of the road and for some reason took it back to their apartment. Then we got the idea to put it in the Sisters apartment. :) Now, some of you may find this cruel and mean, but we found it to be quite hilarious. Even our Zone Leaders were in on this one. The Sisters had done something to them earlier in the transfer. The plan was to take the pig to the Zone Leaders apartment and leave it on there deck until after our meetings. That went really well. During the meeting, Elder Pattie and I were able to get the key to the Sisters' apartment. So everything was going well. Then, while we were on the way back to get the pig, we get a call saying that one of the Sisters had just got a blessing of comfort. So we decided to abort the pig plan.

Then we decided, instead, to go to a party store and buy a ton of streamers and such to trash their house with. We ended up getting a few more things as we searched the store. We got a giant blow up monkey that we named, Chimpy, and a wig and pink boa to put on the monkey. Along with the streamers of course. And also a wall sticker type thing of Belle from "Beauty and the Beast." When we were done the apartment looked quite nice.

Here is what we did. Quite neat huh?

Well, that is not the whole story. When we left, we left the key in the apartment and left it unlocked so they could get back in. But, a few minutes later, the one of the workers there, came by and locked it. Then the Sisters called us and were mad the we stole there key. We felt extremely bad. And it wasn't until midnight that they were able to get in after the Zone Leaders called a locksmith. The Sisters then found the irony about the whole thing. It was a great April Fools Prank that lasted pretty much all of April 1st! It was awesome. But now we are kind of scared for our lives. We are going to be spending p-day with the zone. Hopefully we will still be alive at the end of the day.

Conference this weekend was awesome. One of my favorite talks was definitely Elder Perry's talk on member missionary work. That is truly the best way to do things. In this area, the members have started to realize this more and more. I am loving the ward we are working with and their excitement for the work. It's great. I can't wait for the conference edition of the Ensign to come out to read the talks and study them.

Yesterday, after conference, Elder Pattie and I got home and opened our freezer and found it to be a lot different then we left it.

It was quite an adventure to clean it up and quite wet as well. But it's all good now. We think that there is a leak somewhere involving the ice maker. So we turned it off and so far it's fine. We're kind of scared to turn it back on though. We don't to mess with that again.

And now, it started to rain really hard again outside. But it will shortly end I'm sure. As do most of Florida's rain storms. Actually, I now look outside, and it doesn't seem to be raining anymore. Crazy. But that's how it goes.

Just another week in Florida.

This week was another slow one for us. Yesterday was a pretty good day though. There was a baptism of an 8 year old. The family is one of the coolest families I've met out here.

Side note: It just started to rain really super hard outside. Cool. But it will probably be over in about 15-20 minutes. That's usually how these rainstorms work. But they can be fun while they last.

Back. The baptism was really cool. They have a 17 or 18 year old that doesn't come to church very often that came to the baptism. I only hope that he may have gotten something out of it.

Then after church we went to another members, the Mullins, house for lunch. It was probably the most fun lunch that I've ever had. We talked about everything from Cache Valley cheese to Obama to slaughtering animals to elphants sitting on people. It was quite interesting. But we had a blast. We of course left on a good note with a nice thought on prayer.

Then we went to the MacQuarry's house. They are the family that had the baptism. We had some more food. Just small sandwiches and such. But it was really fun to visit with them. Brother MacQuarry has a Yamaha V-star. Really pretty bike. He showed it to us and I just drooled a bit. But I'm ok now.

We also found out that Brother Brightly, a member of the Bishopric here, is now able to adopt 2 of his foster kids and they both want to be baptized before they move out to Wyoming in June. It was really exciting news for them. We are going to begin teaching them on Tuesday. We are really excited about that.

Now, about today. We were planning on going to play some sand volleyball today and some basketball as well, but we woke up to it being very wet outside and kind of sprinkling. So now we are not quite sure as to what we are going to do. But it is no longer pouring outside. Like I said earlier, it only lasted about 25 minutes. So maybe it will dry up enough that we might be able to at least play some basketball. We'll see.

As some of you may know, today is my 11 month mark!! It is crazy to think that I have been out here for that long already. Time is really flying by out here. It's nuts. But I am loving it.

And as maybe a few more of you may know, my birthday is this upcoming Sunday! I am going to be 20! Wierd! No longer a teenager! That's right, mother, you only have one more of those left. It's crazy. But it must happen I guess.

I think that is all that I have to update on for this week. I hope all is well for everyone back there.

Oh. And you all should check this amazing new photographer. The website is http://www.adripaigephotography.wordpress.com/. And be sure to consider using her for any upcoming events you may have that requires a photographer. She is amazing!

'Mountain' Biking in Florida

Hello again from hot and humid Florida. It seems to be that time of year again. When it gets even hotter and more humid. The past few months have been fairly nice, for Florida that is. I could've used a few feet of snow. But what can you do? I'm not really enjoying the humidity, but I know that I only have one more summer here. So I think I'll survive. At least try to. :)

Every Thursday we have exchanges with the Elders and High Priests. Elder Pattie and the Elders president, Brother Coates, went to visit a recent convert of the Spanish Branch that will be moving over to the ward and his wife. The wife is not a member and we plan on teaching her. Elder Pattie said that it went really well. Bro. Coates can speak very good spanish so he spoke a lot. They both speak english but the husband is still learning it. But they went over the Plan of Salvation with them and Pattie said that the spirit was there very strongly and she was crying.

I went with the High Priest Group leader, Bro. Thompson. We went to a less-actives house. He lives out in the middle of nowhere. As we were driving, we are passing all these old rundown homes that are not very nice, then we see his mailbox... He has an elctronic gate with a calling system and a large brick wall surrounding his house and tons of property. We call in and the hired help/ maid answered and said, "Mr. Gaskill is not in right now. He should be home around 9." His hosue was about 100 yards back from the road and it was huge! It looked like one of those plantation homes. Giant! We were pretty dissappointed that we didn't get to go inside. But Elder Pattie and I plan on going back sometime. The Bishop said that he is a really nice guy.

We then went to visit another less-active that was on the way back to the chruch. They live on a ranch and are very much ranchers. Accent and everything. So I got along with them quite well. They were a really nice family. They told us pretty much their whole life story, (we get that a lot as missionaries.) But it was a really good visit.

Today, being P-Day, we decided to have some fun. We went to the Alafia State Park Bike Trails. We have been there a few time and it is always a ton of fun. There is this one trail that we really like called Rollercoaster. We usually hit it at least twice each time we go. In about the middle of the trail there is a nice jump that we always hit and go back around and hit again and again and again. It is a lot of fun.

This is a video of me doing the jump. This time I started from on top of a hill and had a lot more speed then usuall. So it was exciting. You'll notice that I hit the jump just fine and land it nicely too. Then the fun part happens. Apparently my front brakes work a lot better then I gave them credit for. They thought they should teach me a lesson for doubting them. It was fun.

This is part of the bike trails with commentary by Elder Pattie. I found it quite interesting. But it is a lot of fun.

This is me with a trutle that we found on the trails on our way out. Sorry that it's sideways, but I didn't have enough time to rotate it. So have fun looking funny while turning your heads. :P

And that is all that I've got for this week. I would love to hear how everybody out there is doing. Keep me updated.

Quincenera! And lots o' ties!

Hello again from the FTM!

This week has been kind of another slow one. The area is kind of dead at the moment. Not many people are willing to listen and those that do, don't stay. But we did have some fun. This past week was transfer week. Elder Pattie and I are still here in Apollo Beach, living it up in our awesome town house!

This past Saturday, we were able to go to a Quincenera on Saturday. That is a big huge party that the spanish culture has for their 15 year old girls. It was pretty nuts. But we had a lot of fun there. It 'started' at 4 and they usually go until about midnight. We, obviously, were not there for that long. We got there at about 4 and walked around kind of lost for a bit. At first we didn't see anybody that we knew. Then when we saw some members it was better.

After a while we had some really amazing spanish food. They had a live band perform and then at about 7, the girl and a group of her friends/relatives that she chose did a few different spanish dances. It was really cool. Then another band played and they had a dance and such. We just listened to the music and attempted to talk to people over the music. It was way fun though. We had a blast.

This is the 4 of us: Elders Cheney, Smith, Hardy, and Pattie. And the picture that Elder Smith is holding up is the girl for whom the party was for. As you can see, we had quite a bit of fun.

This is a video of Elder Pattie and I dancing. Or something to the effect of dancing.



This is the 'Mexican Boy Band' they had. They were really cool and fun to watch.

As I'm sure you can see, I wasn't able to post last week. But that doesn't mean that we didn't do anything. One night, we got home a bit early and had some time to kill before we went to sleep. And Elder Pattie and I have quite a collection of ties. So, we thought that it might be cool to tie all of our ties and then put them on the floor in color order.

That is the finished product. Unfortunately, we found 5 more of my ties after taking the picture. So there are 5 missing. I had to get onto Elder Patties shoulders to get all of them in the picture. We counted, and we have a combined total of 127 ties. I have

Yesterday, a guy, who wasn't a member and also someone we had never seen before, just came to church. He said that he had an aunt and uncle that were members that used to come to this church and he had just gotten into a bad car accident and needed some money. And he knew about the welfare system. So he walked 14 miles from his house on really banged up legs and ankles and such. It was nuts. He said that he started at about 4 in the morning and wasn't able to get any sleep during the night. The Bishop wasn't there for the first part of the meeting. So he came to Sacrament and then Elder Pattie and I kind of taught him a bit of the Restoration and such. Then Bishop came and met with him. He seems to be pretty interested in actually learning more about the Gospel and not just getting help. So we are going to continue working with him.

Unfortunately, right now he is living out of our area. So we have to give him up to the Zone Leaders in the Brandon North zone. Which is my previous zone and also my previous companion, Elder Cropper. So I know he will be thought and taken care of. But he said that he is looking for a place for his family down here. This is where he grew up and he know's and likes the area. So he'll probably be down here again fairly soon.

I think that that is all I've got for this week. Now, I'm not sure if anybody is actually reading this. I really have no clue. So if you do, please leave a comment or something so it doesn't feel like I'm just doing this for the heck of it. :) Thanks.

Hmmm... What to say...?

Hello again from Florida!



Things are still going pretty good. Sorry for not putting anything last week. My library experience last week was quite frustrating and didn't make me a very happy person. But we're good now. :)


Here are a few things that have happened...

Oh the vine swing! In the backyard of the Spanish Elders little house, there are a lot of trees. And on these trees, there are quite an amount of vines. So we couldn't resist.

Then last week, we did a 'talent' shwo with the Spanish Branch. We did 'The day in the life of a Missionary.' We did record it, but it is currently not letting me upload it here. But I did put it on my youtube page. Here's the site: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7sd_RMx8AI

It is in spanish, but you should get the gist. We had a lot of fun doing it. The person on the right is Elder Smith with Elder Pattie's arms and then Elder Barlow is on the left with my arms.

We had interviews with our mission president the other day. They went really well. Elder Pattie and I requested to stay together another transfer. We have been getting along great and having fun and working really well together. And from President Colton said, we think that it will happen. Transfer calls are on Saturday, so we'll find out then.

Since we have moved into our new place, (I will upload a 'tour' of it sometime soon, hopefully) we have been getting quite a few different things from our ward members. We now have 8 chairs, 4 couches, 4 lamps (few rooms have lights of their own), 2 recliners, a kitchen table, a very nice coffee table, and a desk. It's quite nice.

I believe that is all that I have for now. Hope everything is going well for you all!

Apollo Beach!

Hello again from Florida! Things are going really well for me out here. I am currently in my 3rd area with my 6th companion Elder Pattie. We are getting along really well. And also having a lot of fun. Cause if you don't have fun while doing missionary work, it can be a lot more discouraging. So we make it fun.

This is me and him in our 3 piece suits before a meeting. We think were pretty cool.

For the first couple of weeks of this transfer, we were living in a very small house with the spanish Elders in the area. The house has about 500 square feet of usable space. It was wonderful to have 4 missionaries, (the smallest being about 5' 10") with all of our luggage and other stuff. It was an adventure for sure.

Told you it was small. And cramped. But we are now moved out. We moved out on Wednesday. I don't currently have a video or pictures of it yet, but will next week. So stay tuned! But our new place is aweseome! It's a 2 story townhouse. 2 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath, nice kitchen with all new appliances and new washer and dryer. It's great! We are liking it a lot more then the little house. We are still wondering what we are going to do with all the space. Haha!

So things are going well. If you have any questions for me feel free to comment or email me at landen.something@gmail.com.

Love you all!

Hello everyboby!

Hello from the Florida Tampa Mission (FTM)! I will be writing here in this blog for anybosy that wants to maybe know what it is that I am doing out here. Enjoy!