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. :)