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.