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.