Wednesday, August 10, 2016

"Don't fish from the bridge"





Whoa. Hey there. Sorry this is coming to you so late in the day. I got to see the ocean today so that took a lot of time. 

This was perhaps the MOST INSANE week of my mission... I know I say that all the time, but I had no idea what insane felt like until this week.

Monday was fun. We went bowling with the district in DeLand. I'm not a very good bowler. But don't worry... I got a strike so it's fine.

Tuesday I was transferred to the New Smyrna Beach Ward with Sister Simpson! Holy. She is the greatest ever. Right now we are the only missionaries in the ward so we cover New Smyrna, Port Orange, Edge Water, Ponce Inlet, and a little bit of South Daytona. Plus we are STLs over the Daytona, Bunnell, DeLand, and Deltona sisters. We have the biggest teaching pool I've ever had on my mission and right now we are working on sifting through everyone to try to decide who is prepared. Tuesday we taught a WHOLE BUNCH of people. Like so many people I can't even remember all of them.

Wednesday we started off the AM with some good old district meeting. We drove a thousand miles to Daytona and then to Bunnell. I saw my homies Elder and Sister Corder. They always make me feel like I'm their favorite grand child. Then we taught another seven lessons. We were on this street in the hood and this guy in a wheelchair  yelled to us "I saw you give a card to my brother! Can I have one?" So we ran over and taught him. We also had dinner with the Hendersons. #GrilledPizza 

Thursday we took a road trip down to Orlando for monthly Missionary Leadership Counsel meeting (MLC) and it was probably the most powerful meeting I've ever been in. The entire meeting was on the Atonement and at any given moment you could look around the room and see someone in tears. It really changed the way I look at this work. The church was restored so that through the priesthood we can have access to the Atonement. I wish I could explain some of the feelings I felt during that meeting, but my feelings are overflowing and my writing is inadequate, so I'll simply say that to me the Atonement is everything, and I will forever be indebted to the one that gave me everything. And therefor, I will do my very best for Him.

I also found a fellow Lancer (Elder Dummer) and we took a Lancer LL picture. #GoLancers!

After MLC we taught a few people and had dinner with the Wells and they fed us black eyed peas #BoomBoomPow #TonightsGonnaBeAGoodNight and then we taught some more of our friends.

Friday we weekly planned. Then we went to Brother Cintron's and I learned how to transplant a pineapple. 🍍🍍🍍 Then we planted a tree and he told us it was going to be the "missionary tree." You guys. I have a tree. Then we taught Brian. He is my favorite. He loves the gospel but just has some things he needs to overcome before he can get baptized.

Saturday...are you ready to read about Saturday? Oh man. First of all, we had a meeting with the ZLs at McDonalds to plan ZTM. Haha good times. Then we were driving down the road and we see Lemar rolling on the sidewalk in his wheelchair so we pull over and he's like "HEY SISTERS! I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU TO CALL ME!" Then he told us he had read the pamphlet we left him and that he loved it. So we whipped our car around and taught him more about the Book of Mormon. Then his therapist showed up and we said a prayer with both of them. Word.

We taught some other people and then we were trying to visit someone in Area book, but she didn't want to talk to us so we decided to knock on her neighbor's doors so we knock on this door and this man with ONE LEG that looks like he walked straight out of a Pixar Movie answers the door and introduces himself as Jim. He tells us he lives in a "bear house" and asks us if we want to see... We both looked at each other and shrugged. So we go in and for the next half hour him and his wife proceed to talk to us about the HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS OF TEDDY BEARS they have. Like at first we think it's just some odd collection BUT it was INFACT NOT just some odd collection... After a few minutes we realized that they did indeed believe that these teddy bears were real. They all had names that are written in a book. They all also had stories, many of which we learned about. They all also have personalities and sometimes they get mad if they can't see the TV. Sister Simpson was telling the lady about how her mom is a first grade teacher and every year they have a "teddy bear picnic" and the lady goes "SHHHHHHHH!" And then whispers "don't let the teddy bears hear you! They've been wanting to have a picnic!" 

Oh man. Florida is fun my friends. #OldiesButGoodies

Later in the day after we were contacting this blind man when all of the sudden Lemar rolls up and is like "hey Sisters!" Then he tells us that "Pop" is his dad. Then he tells the other people there that we are "good Christian people." Haha what even?

Then we taught a few more people we were driving down the road and we see this lady gardening in a dress and so we pull over real fast to ask her if she needs help and we run up to her and she looked like she had rolled around in a flower bed for a hot minute. And had leaves and flowers dripping from her hair. She told us she didn't need help but invited us to come see her garden... Okay so from the front it looked like a nice trailer type house with some trees... Around back we quickly discovered she owned the Garden of Eden and I'm throughly convinced Rebecca was a Mother Nature's cousin or something. Haha so we taught her in her garden and it was grand. Then we taught Ryan and I decided I want to go skydiving someday.

Sunday we went to ward council and then church. Holy cow. This ward LOVES the missionaries. After church we contacted a lady on her birthday and said a prayer with her asking Heavenly Father to help her have a happy birthday. We also visited the Walkers and they are my number one. Then we visited the Hewlets. I watched Sister Simpson clean up a WHOLE BUNCH of cat pee... I tried to help but that didn't turn out too well. Sister Simpson is a trooper. She gets all the points for the week.

Today with sister Steflik and her three little kids to the board walk by the ocean. Oh my. It was so beautiful. Don't worry, we didn't go to the beach, but it was a blast and a half to be able to see it. Then we had lunch at her house, we went to Wally World for some groceries, went to the library for a hot minute so I could send some voice recordings and update the blog, and now were at home baking a cake. I'll send pictures. Please excuse my squinty eyes. #SunshineState



That's all I have.


Well, I love y'all more than Floridians love to protest to "SAVE BEACH DRIVING!" And they have posters so....















Sister Whitney Reid
🍍🍋🍍🍋🍍🍋🍍🍋

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