"You know that item that you was lookin' at last night? It's like $5 now..."

LET ME TELL YOU. 

we had a week this week.

First of all, like I mentioned last Monday we went to De Leon Springs for district P-Day and hiked around a rainforest swamp. Twas a fun time. I felt like I was in the Hunger Games hunting with my allies... But that's just me. Like, I'm pretty sure we would have been the carriers... Only, instead of hunting to kill people, we are hunting to baptize them. I think Suzanne Collin should jump on this... She can call it "THE CONVERT GAMES"

speaking of "the convert games..."

W PASSED HIS BAPTISMAL INTERVIEW ON TUESDAY!! Holy holy holy. What?!

But before I talk about that, I want to mention that after P-Day on Monday we went to dinner with the Ballard's and after dinner we went with Sister Ballard to see Blue Springs which was right by their house, and is INFACT the coolest lil spot in all of Florida. I felt like I was in Costa Rica or something (not that I have any idea what that's like, but I'd imagine it would be cool.) Family, we must come back and swim here someday. I also saw my first living armadillo (the only ones I've ever seen have been dead on the side of the road. #RoadKill) and I saw several wild Boars. Twas a swell time.

So... TUESDAY! Like I mentioned, W passed his interview. We got stranded at the church for a lil bit because #BikeWeek and #WeLiveSoFarAway. We ate granola bars on the cement like savages. Then we had Addiction Recovery Class. Goodness. That class is number one.

Wednesday we went to Trinity United Methodist church and helped in their food pantry. We also had interviews with President Clark who is INFACT the coolest ever. I thoroughly enjoyed this interview. 

Here are some other things from my interview:

1. When I walked in he was like "your the sister that emailed me that cool quote about faith! I liked it so much I even showed it to Sister Clark!" 

1. My favorite part of the interview was when he said "Sister Reid, how do you stay so positive?" And I was like "I don't know President, I just love being a missionary!" And he was like "you just can't help but smile when you walk into the room. You have such a great attitude! Try to keep that the rest of your mission. Don't let anyone get you down." 😊😊😊

1. President told me he wants me to continue writing my blog! (citrusfruitsister.blogspot.com) Since it was a trial run with President Berry I had to run it by President Clark so he could decide if he wanted me to continue doing it. He told me he'd like me to keep doing it so as long as y'all are reading it I'll keep it up!

1. He shared this analogy with me about missionary work and how "this is God's grocery store, and these are His products. All we are doing is stocking the shelves." Which I thought my dad and sister might appreciate... S/O to all my friends working at Bowmans.

(I'm not sure why all of these are #1, and I can't figure out how to change it... Haha whatever.)

After interviews we went to dinner with Sister Wilson and I got some lemon blueberry pancakes. 👌🏻 Then we went to Book of Mormon class and Sister Clark came because President Clark had a meeting. That was fun to get to know her better! 

On THURSDAY we prepped a house to be painted with Elder Olsen, Elder Gentry, Elder Reeves, and Elder Pyle. They have these houses for homeless people her in FL and a lot of times the homeless people trash them, so this guy goes in and fixes them up and he has the missionaries help sometimes. It was really fun! We also had a good lesson with W and dinner with the Butchers. 

➡️ FUN FACT ABOUT FLORIDA: when you go to a restaurant and you want water, you always ask for lemon in your water because if you don't, it tastes like it came from the swamp. 🙊🙊🙊

On FRIDAY we weekly planned and theN WE TOOK W ON A TEMPLE TOUR OF THE ORLANDO TEMPLE AND I GOT TO SEE BABY HART. HOLY HOLY HOLY. best day. It was SO GOOD to be back in my last area and to see the temple and my lil trainee who is just the light of my life and the apple of my eye (I'm not sure what that even means.) we took pictures and did our best friends handshake/footshake. S/O to Baby Hart. You are NÚMERO UNO. 

SATURDAY was my 10 month birthday. I CANNOT EVEN BELIEVE THAT I'VE BEEN A MISSIONARY FOR TEN WHOLE MONTHS. I feel like I just got here and that I don't know anything... I'm starting to think that feeling will never go away. #4YearOldWithANametag. I celebrated with a lot of finding.

SUNDAY we went to ward council. Then to church. We got to go to young women's again because C came. So... If you remember C, she is the one that didn't believe in God three weeks ago. She decided last week after reading about half of the Book of Mormon that she wanted to take the lessons from the missionaries. Since the elders are teaching her dad they started teaching her too. She's had like two discussions.... Well.... She TOTALLY VOLUNTEERED TO SAY THE CLOSING PRAYER IN YOUNG WOMEN'S ON SUNDAY. I about cried. You have no idea what that feels like as a missionary.

Well today is Monday July 25th 2016.... Today is P-Day.... This is the last week of the transfer and transfer doctrine comes out Saturday. W also gets baptized on Saturday so that's exciting. It should be a beautiful week!

Here are my "out of context quotes"

"I'm so happy it hurts"

"That item that you was lookin at... It's like $5 now"

"I got called Wanda too..."

I love y'all more than lizards love push-ups!

Sister Whitney Reid

Feelmysunlight.blogspot.com

Citrusfruitsister.blogspot.com

🍍🍋🍍🍋🍍🍋🍍🍋

"Why couldn't the cantaloupe elope? Because it Cantaloupe."

Everybody stop what your doing...

Sorry I'm a little late. It was district P-Day today so we went to Deleon Springs and hiked around in a rainforest swamp and then went to this restaurant called Hunters and had some good breakfast food. 👌🏻

Well, I hit my 10 month mark this week.... So I'm not real sure how that happened.

Do Y'ALL WANT TO HEAR A MIRACLE? I don't know if any of you remember me teaching a girl named C when I was in Buena Vista. She moved back to New Hampshire while I was there... I GOT AN EMAIL TODAY SAYING THAT SHE GOT BAPTIZED YESTERDAY! Holy. Holy. Holy. Shout out to C. Love ya girl!

My week got a lil cray. Here's how it went...

MONDAY was p-day. I decided it was a good idea to paint my fingernails right before we went to the grocery store... Sometimes I make poor life decisions... So we went to the grocery store and Ross and then I came home and fixed my nails. 

I know... Cool story right?

The rest of p-day was normal. Then we had FHE with Sister C and the G girls. They are the coolest ever! They are teenagers and their mom doesn't want them to get baptized until they are 18 so in the mean time they are reading their scriptures all the time and when they are here with the dad they have FHE with the sisters. After the lesson they were trying to guess my first name and one of them guessed Wanda... Sister Larsen has been calling me that all week. Hahaha I also became best friends with Sister C granddaughter P who is four.

TUESDAY morning I was saying a prayer after my personal study. I was kneeling right next to the window and when I looked up there WAS A MAN STANDING AT THE WINDOW. This was very surprising to me because of the fact that we live on the second floor and men don't usually visit Windows on the second floor. So I waved at him and he waved back. He was painting the outside of the complex. It was just an odd encounter. 

That day we had some good lessons with W (he is on date to be baptized on the 30th) and his mom, M who is a recent convert. We also visited the Drakes. Brother Drake is a funny old man and he was asking us all kinds of questions. He asked me if I have a boyfriend and I said no... Then he said "can I be your boyfriend!?!?" And I was like... "Eh... Why not..."

And that's how I got an 85 year old boyfriend on my mission.

(Don't worry everybody, it was all in jest.)

Then we had Addiction Recovery class which is INFACT my favorite part of the week every week. The Atonement is real my friends.

WEDNESDAY we spent some time with Sister Dewberry. We did some crafts and had a lesson. We also had a fantastic Book of Mormon class.....

LET ME TELL YOU A STORY!!!

Okay, so there is this girl named C. She is the daughter of a recent convert named D. She's 15 and is a very bright girl. She has said for a while now that she is an atheist and doesn't believe in souls. She used to be super closed off to the missionaries when they've come over to teach her dad.

Well, it was her house that we went to the big Fourth of July party where we launched lanterns and watched fireworks. Like half the ward came and through that she decided that maybe Mormons are normal and she started to get a little curious about what the heck her dad had gotten involved with. She was the first to tell you though that she was "just curious and not looking for conversion or anything."

Every time she would say that we'd just nod our heads and smile.

We have become really good friends with her over the last few weeks. On Wednesday she invited us to come do service with her at city hall where she volunteers often. We spent a good two hours sitting and talking. Her and I bonded over our favorite Canadian TV show called Heartland and our love for High School Musical. I told her funny stories about men showing up at the window while I was praying and how I put salt in my grapefruit juice and eventually the conversation rolled around to church. She asked us a lot of questions which we answered. 

Now, I'm going to pause from this story for a second... 

So Thursday we did a lot of finding, had a wonderful lesson with W about temples and eternal families that Bishop Bachan came to. We had dinner with President Ledet who is in the stake presidency and taught his family about missionary work. Then we went to a relief society activity.

Friday we had a lesson with T. She had done some research online and was telling us all kinds of things. I was doing pretty good at answering her questions until she got to the part about how Joseph Smith saw giant Quakers on the moon.... Then I was stumped so I just testified of the Book of Mormon and she seemed satisfied. Then she gave me cake and I was satisfied.

We weekly planned and that evening we went to D and C house for dinner. We shared a message about the Book of Mormon. We showed the Mormon message "A Book of Mormon story" and asked David and Sister Huber how they gained a testimony of the Book of Mormon and testified of it's truthfulness. At this point C had read a little from first Nephi, but was "still just curious."

Friday night we exchanged with the STLs. I stayed in DeLand with Sister Christensen and we had a PARTAYYY. Sister Larsen went to Port Orange with Sister Simpson. Holy cow. Miracles everywhere. We had all these plans to go to Deltona but when I woke up the Spirit was like "nope... You need to be in Lake Helen today." And I was like "k...." So I threw away all of our plans and we went to Lake Helen....

We met a guy named R and taught him the restoration. We then bought a yellow watermelon from his wife M. Then we talked to every person in this little apartment strip and picked up a guy named B as an investigator. Then we taught a guy named S and his friend C who was standing in a hole. Haha Then we stopped by this girl's house named A and she's 19 and SO PREPARED I can't even handle it. We also taught W who has his baptismal interview tomorrow. Keep him in your prayers! Literally everyone we talked to was interested in hearing more. I don't even understand. It was the greatest day.

SUNDAY we had PEC. Then we had church and C came... Here's the rest of the story. C told the Elders that she had decided to do everything that we had talked about Friday night. Pray, read from the Book of Mormon, and then pray again. 

Everybody hold onto your horses....

SHE STAYED UP UNTIL 3 AM READING THE BOOK OF MORMON SATURDAY NIGHT. And by the time she got to church she was running on exactly ONE hour of sleep and she was in Alma 12....

K I DON'T KNOW IF YOU UNDERSTAND MY EXCITEMENT.

.... THEN, after church we were standing there with her and her dad and she said "dad, I have something to tell you while we have he sisters here. I just decided that I am open to possibly converting and I want to take the lessons and learn more." Her dad's jaw about dropped to the floor and Sister Larsen and I freaked the heck out.

*sigh*

What even is life?

So that's how my week went. Again, sorry this is such a late email. I hope everyone is doing good!

I love y'all more than Floridians love boiled peanuts.

Sister Whitney Reid

Feelmysunlight.blogspot.com

🍍🍋🍍🍋🍍🍋

"Her hair was red.. Her name was Hellen.. Her hair looked like... A watermelon."

This week was perhaps the most INSANE week in history...

Perhaps...

Last time I talked to you it was Monday... Independence Day... Happy I-Love-America-More-Than-Anything-Day...

My day when like this: We woke up and went to Wally World to do our weekly grocery shopping... WORST. IDEA. EVER. That place was like a beehive, and not one of those "Industry, everybody eager to serve one another beehives" either. But you know, it's fine.

Then we went to the church to email y'all. Then we went to Sister Miller's cookout and she lives down this BEAUTIFUL winding dirt road in the forest and I felt like I was in wonderland it was so pretty. M (recent convert) and her son W (our investigator) both came with their entire family. That was fun to have them there. Then we made our way to Tangerine Rd because Lemon Rd was closed and went to David's house. His party was magnificent. There was somewhere around 75 people and many of them were non-members. He had a blow up slide, water games more food than you can handle, and a snow cone machine. He had this live band that was superb! They played all my favorite country music that I haven't heard in 9 months and I was in heaven. Then when it started to get dark we went down by the lake and all of the houses around the lake launched fireworks that would be illegal in Utah. Then....WE LAUNCHED LANTERNS LIKE ON TANGLED AND I FULFILLED MY DREAM AND I'M NOW A DISNEY PRINCESS....BUT THEN THE FIRE MARSHAL SHOWED UP AND TOLD US THAT THE LANTERNS ARE IN FACT ILLEGAL THIS YEAR AND WE COULDN'T FINISH LAUNCHING THEM. whoops. I did an illegal thing. Don't worry... I'll send pictures. Then the city launched the city fireworks right next to us and they were magnificent and they reflected onto Lake Helen and I couldn't help but think just how perfect it was and then ash started to fall on my face and I felt good about life.

Happy Murica Day friends.

The exciting events of Tuesday consisted of meeting with J and T (the ones who refuse to call us by our last names.) I showed them a video about being a Good Samaritan and somehow they pulled out of that video that it's their duty to call the local government and ask them to arrest the Presidential Candidates... 

K well I was thinking more like "hold the door open for someone" or "send someone a card telling them how much you appreciate them" but you know... You do you. 

Haha I love them. They are some of my favorite people ever.

Then when Sister Stuck was driving us home she decided to buy us Wendy's which was so nice! Ahhh I love people! BUT THEN Sister Kuhne gave us a ride to the church for addiction recovery she insisted on going to KFC.... FAMILY WHEN I COME HOME FAT PLEASE DON'T JUDGE ME... THEY MAKE ME EAT DINNER TWICE HERE. #GodBlessTheUSA

Wednesday we were sitting there on the bench and Sister Larsen dared me to eat ALL THE LISTORENE STRIPS and I died..... And then I was breathing frozen fire for the next hour. We went to Trinity United Methodist Church and helped in their food pantry. There was this 94 year old man named Freddie working there that just made my life. He would just be sitting there sorting his strawberries in silence when all of the sudden he would break out into song and sing things like;

"Her hair was red.. Her name was Hellen.. Her head looked like... A watermelon."

And then every time somebody would bring him another box of strawberries he would whisper "everybody hates me." Hahaha he was the funniest lil old man.

#LifeGoals

We also had a pretty great lesson with W where we read Mosiah 4, and a fun time at Book of Mormon class.

Thursday we had district meeting and Sister Larsen and I said the opening and closing prayers. Word. Then we did service for Sister Dewberry and played with clay with her son Mason. They are my absolute favorite. That night we had dinner with the Mixon's at Sonny's Bar-B-Q... I'm telling y'all... When I come home fat don't judge me. ✌🏻️

Friday was weekly planning. We also had dinner with the Maha'a's (do you put two apostrophes in there???) Brother Maha'a is from Tahiti and it made me miss my BFF Lauren who's serving in Tahiti. S/O to Lauren! We also had this awkward moment where this girl we had contacted a few weeks ago brought me my food and I didn't recognize her until after she walked away.... *slides down in seat so nobody can see me*

Saturday we were going to go tract but it was hotter than Hades outside so instead we had a whole bunch of phone lessons with people in the ward. That was really cool. We also went with Sister Leedom to have a lesson with W....

...so there is this place in our area called Cassadega... Google it... It's a witch town. It's a red zone and we are only allowed to go through it if a member is driving us. Well Sister Leedom was driving us home after Will's lesson and she decided to take the road that goes through Cassadega and she rolled down her window and started doing witch chants out the window... She was just pretending...I think...

We also had dinner with the Chambers at Steak 'N Shake. 😂 

Sunday we went to ward council and witnessed the most heated discussion about hymns I think the church, and maybe the world, has ever seen. My idea was to just let the book fall open and sing whatever hymn it opens to....apparently it's not that simple. Then at church and we HAD SIX INVESTIGATORS AT CHURCH!  WHAHOOOOOO! What even is life? Since three of our investigators that came are young women age we went to young women's instead of relief society. It was a blast and a half and I've missed being in young women's. After church we did some finding and went to dinner with the Wards. They are the funniest family and Brother Ward told us stories from his mission. It was a good time. Then Sister Larsen and I came home and had a dance off and I learned that I don't know how to dance. 😂💃🏻

Well folks, I don't have much else to say other than that I think y'all are great. I love being a missionary and I know the church is true. Keep being great and don't forget to be awesome.

Out of context quote:

"I just know the face you make when you're about to say something dumb..."

I love y'all more than southerners love to fatten the missionaries!

"I took a selfie with their cat, but it looked weird so I deleted it."

Well my friends...

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!

*please hold while I type all the red, white and blue emoji's*

👹👻👖👺👀👕💋👟👔👣🐭🐳🦀🦄🐋🐞🐔🐟🐾🐁🌎🌹🐚☄🍁🌨💦🍎⛄️🌊🍓🌧🏊🏿🍒🍚🚣🏽🍅🎂🏌🍑🍥🎽🍉🍽🚙🎪🎧🚎🚗🎲🚲🚨🏍🚘🚠🚔🛳🚂🚆💺⛽️🚀🎡🎢🎠🚢🗼🌁🏭☎️⏲🖲⏰⏱🛢🌡🛁💈🎈✉️🛏📮💌📫🏮📩📬📕🗒📘📌🏳💙🖍🔎🖌❤️❕🌀‼ ️❔🏧㊙️➿🈵🏧🅱🅿️🅾💠㊗ ️🈂🈲🛄🆎🚭🆘🚰🈴Ⓜ️🅰🛂🆑🚹⛔️🚾🔴⚪️🔵🔺▫️🔹🔻▫️🔷♥️💭🔵♦️◽️🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

Happy 'Murica Day everyone. Apologies to anyone who can't see them because you are reading this on the computer.

Well now that we've got that out of the way...

The festivities today include trying to finish all our p-day stuff, eating more than I should at multiple cookouts in Lake Helen, fireworks, and laUNCHING LANTERNS LIKE ON TANGLED AND OH MY GOODNESS THIS IS MY DREAM AND IT'S COMING TRUE TODAY AND OH MY GOOdness calm down Sister Reid....

🎶🎶🎶🎶 and at last I see the light... And it's like the fog has lifted...And it's beautiful and bright... And I'm prOUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!!! 🎶🎶🎶🎶 

(this is what our apartment has sounded like all morning. Haha)

Well this week was pretty darn swell. Let me tell y'all about it.

On Monday we had P-Day and then went to the Mark's house for FHE with all the oldies but goodies. The conversation was politics for most of the night and since missionaries can't talk politics we sat in the corner and I made quiet jokes to my cohorts. 🤘🏼

Tuesday we had a lesson with Sister Dickinson and she told us about the time she almost got shot on her mission but got away, we had a lesson with W, our investigator who is doing good, dinner with the O'neals at Dustin's Bar-B-Q where they showed us every picture they have ever taken on their phone and I ate a chicken strip sandwich, and then we went to the addiction recovery class which is my very favorite thing.

Wednesday we did a WHOLE LOT OF FINDING. We also had dinner with the Nolan's. That was fun. Then we went to meet with the bishop and went to Book of Mormon class. T'was a swell time.

Thursday we had district meeting. I gave an adjusting to missionary life thought and talked about neurons making connections in the brain and how worrying is a form of mentally practicing failure... S/O to mom for making me look smart... Elder Olsen nodded his head the whole time like he agreed with what I was saying, Sister Larsen whipped her journal out and wrote a bunch of things down, all while the rest of the district stared at me with blank looks on their faces. #Science. After DM we had lunch and then PRESIDENT CLARK CAME! 🎉 We had a meet and greet with him and the rest of the zone. He's pretty cool and his wife is nice too! Since Elder and Sister Corder are in the zone they came too and I felt like I was the favorite grand child because Sister Corder had all kinds of stories to tell me. After the meet and greet we went to Rodeo Whip and the Corders bought all the sisters ice cream. S/O to the Corders for fueling my addiction. ✌🏻️🍦 That night we also had a lesson with W and then dinner with the Stucks. They are CRAZY and probably my new favorite people. Let's just say they're not your typical Mormons... But goodness... We are basically BFFs now.

Friday was weekly planning. We also had dinner with the Ledet's. President Ledet is in the stake presidency and we had planned to teach missionary work for our lesson... But then we got there and he literally has a basket by his front door with Book of Mormons and pass along cards and pamphlets.... K.... So they taught us about missionary work instead. Haha they are the coolest.

Saturday we did a whole lot more finding. We also wrote thank you cards for half the people in town. We visited sister Cammarata and she is the sweetest lady ever. She got so excited when she saw I was little like her (that is a very common reaction I get from people here haha) she gave me some shoes. When we left Sister Larsen said to me "why do people always give you things everywhere we go?" And then we went to the Ward's house for dinner and Sister Ward was like "I have some skirts that might fit you!" And Sister Larsen was like "See what I mean?!?!" Haha the Wards are so fun and I love them so much. 

Sunday we had church. After church we had a correlation meeting and went and did some LARC hunting (visiting less actives and recent converts) and we met some cool people and some not so nice atheists. We wished them a happy Independence Day. 🎊 Then we had dinner and a lesson with W. His mom, M who is a recent convert got home this week and there were SO MANY KIDS AT THE HOUSE so it was a little nuts. Good thing they all love us. After that we finished our day and went to bed only to wake up on THE ONE AND ONLY I LOVE AMERICA MORE THAN EVERYTHING DAY. 

I think I'm going to go paint my toenails blue and buy some 'Murica cupcakes. 

💙❤️💙❤️💙❤️💙❤️

Sister Larsen and I have been talking a lot about the fact that our country was founded on a desire to worship God.

So when we sing the song "I'm proud to be an American" the "men who died who gave that right to me." Doesn't only include the men and women whose laid down their lives to protect our freedom, it also includes our Savior, Jesus Christ, who died so that we all might be free to choose happiness and eternal life.

So I won't forget the Man who died who gave that right to me. 

So I'll proudly stand up next to you and defend Him still today.

❤️💙❤️💙❤️💙❤️💙

I hope everyone has a safe fun Fourth of July. Send me pictures of all the festivities!

#ProudToBeAnAmerican

Here are the "out of context quotes" for the week:

I was like "Dora is usually a Hispanic name... And DW is white.... But then I realized DW is an aardvark...."

Oh be wise... What can I say more? 

Did Yoda say that?

No.... Alma.

You're like a closet clown

I took a selfie with their cat, but it looked weird so I deleted it.

 

I think Whitney needs a creative outlet

Sister Larsen trimmed Whitney's hair

Again, I think Whitney needs a creative outlet. Fake swimming in the ocean

Yeah! Sister Stokey

Awkward photos

Whitney teaching cranes the Plan of Salvation

Break the fast from the one month fast from fast food

hangin out at the beach

Sister Whitney Reid 

Florida Orlando Mission

Feelmysunlight.blogspot.com

🍍🍋🍍🍋🍍🍋🍍🍋