I guess I'm not a greenie anymore?

This week we met some cool people and had some good lessons. The work is going well here. The big news for me, though, is that I hit my 1 year mark. Depending on who you ask that means I am no longer a greenie, or newbie.

So this week was interesting. Tuesday the Longwood Elders came and tracted in our area with us for the whole afternoon basically, because their car was getting a repair done in our area, so they just came and worked with us. That was pretty fun.

Thursday we had Zone Conference all day until around 5.

Friday was our temple trip that took our whole morning. The temple was amazing as always. 

Saturday we had to fix our tire, which took Tires Plus 2.5 hours. What?!

Basically what I'm saying is that we had some time consuming event almost every day this week, so we didn't have as much time as we normally do to go finding. But even with our limited time we had some cool miracles.
     
We got a referral for a guy named Mark about a week ago. We had been texting him to set up a time to meet, but never could. Then he just randomly showed up at church yesterday and met a bunch of people and really enjoyed it. We also set up a dinner and a lesson with him and a members house. Awesome!
     
We also had a referral named Brandon whose phone didn't work so we couldn't contact him to set up a meeting. We had stopped by a few times, but were never able to catch him. Then yesterday we felt like we really needed to try again, so we drove out to his place and caught him right as he was leaving. 
     
Without going into details, he told us he had been going through a lot of things and was trying to change his life around. He knows God needs to be a bigger part of his life, and he also knows that the Book of Mormon can help him. He was so excited to be able to start reading it. He said he'll read it and pray and that he wants us to send him more stuff to look at during the week. He really wants to start doing things right and becoming better. He might end up being the person we spend the most time teaching in the next little bit. He really needs some help and is super humble and wants us to help him. I'm really excited to see how he grows.
     
Anyway, so Thursday was my year mark. I guess I'm supposed to know what I'm doing now or something like that. Hmm. It was great, though. Mostly because I got a package from home with my favoritest homemade cookie bar things ever. I love you mom!!
 

Group that came out with Erik at the same time. 4th Elder to the right of Erik is a cousin of sorts. They both have the same aunt but different sides of the family. My sister-in-law Brittney is aunt to both.

   

Anyway, it really was a good week. Lots of things going on. Lots of cool new people to teach. It's exciting. Looking forward to another great year here in Florida. Hopefully I'll get used to the heat and humidity this year, but probably not. 

Number 8 Half Completed

Last Saturday I ran another half marathon with Katie, her friend, and my friend Brittany.

It's been 3 years since my last one. No money and no time will do that. This year I was up for another one and feeling settled enough to tackle the training that goes into these. Except we are already a month into school and I am feeling anything but settled. Our school board pulled a fast one this summer, moving our short day (aka, planning day) from Wednesday to Friday. That's a rant for whole 'nother day.

The original race plans included way more in our party. All four of us sisters and Kiersten and Jason were going to run the Little Grand Canyon that takes you through part of the San Rafael Swell. Two months before that race they cancelled and kindly refunded our money.

(I found this shirt at the DI to commemorate the race we were supposed to have run.)

However, we still needed another race within the same time frame and that still cost about the same. That's hard to do when pricing starts to go up. We found one outside of Richfield . . . the Clear Creek Half . . . and our party was reduced to me and Katie and some friends to fill the family void.

It was a cold morning, high on that mountain, as we waited to start. It only took three miles for my hands to unthaw. At about mile 7 a runner passed me. She and I played leap frog for the next three or four miles as she told me this was her first half and she hadn't really trained. Oh no, I thought. She doesn't know what's in store for that last couple of miles. They can be brutal. At mile 11 I caught up with her again and she was struggling and asked if we could finish together. I wasn't aiming for a particular time but knew I wouldn't finish within my usual time span if I stayed back to finish with her. I went on ahead slowly, but would stop and glance back every so often to make sure she was coming. I knew I had to keep moving forward or my legs would stop working. She would catch up and then I would go on ahead again. We did this until the last half mile where she caught up and we ran together. Even though she could see the finish line, she kept telling me she couldn't do it. And I kept encouraging her as she crossed that finish line, her first half marathon completed.

Life's journey has us all at different places along the path. It's not a race to a final destination, but a journey with ups and downs and side trips and aid stations and setbacks and helpers. May I never become so distracted with my agenda and my goals that in my race to the "finish line" I leave someone behind who could have used my encouragement and help.

**Love my sister even though she never lets me win.

And love my neighbor and friend who runs with me even though I'm a slow turtle. 

Two missionary emails . . . because . . . I'm behind

Monday, September 9
FALSE ALARM
So there wasn't actually a hurricane here. It turned last minute and went off shore (at least for us). We still had to spend last Saturday to Wednesday indoors though. It was a very unusual week. We woke up late, played games all day, relaxed... it felt pretty weird.

This week we also got to go listen to Brad Wilcox speak to our mission. I got a picture with him. I really enjoyed listening to him, it was pretty enlightening. He spoke about the tribes of Israel and how we are children of the birthright, and that we have a calling here on Earth. It was also the first meeting I've been to where the entire mission was there all in the same place. Usually we meet with half the mission, but everyone was there which was super fun.

We also got transfer news this week. I'm getting transfered to Sanford tomorrow. I'm really going to miss Rockledge, this has been my favorite area so far. I've heard good things about Sanford though. I'm sure I'll enjoy it. 

Monday, September 16

NEW COMP, NEW AREA, SAME WORK

I've been in Sanford for about a week now. It's a lot different from my other areas. I miss Rockledge, but I hear Sanford is great. I really like the ward. There are also some other perks that come with this area, like I am full car and I have a first story apartment. The highlights of the week include meeting lots of new people, having a 4 hour district meeting with President Ashcraft about Facebook, and going back to Rockledge on Saturday.

So there's a kid that's scheduled to be baptized here named Cameron. He is 9 and his parents are recently returning members. He is excited for his baptism, but we just need to help him get to church every week so he'll be ready. There are also a few other investigators that potentially could get a baptismal date soon, but I'll have more info next week. 

Cool thing about this week, our district was chosen to be the first district in the mission to be allowed to use Facebook. We are the guinea pigs. We had a very long 4 hour training meeting which was incredibly exciting and entertaining about it on Friday. Gotta love meetings. I think it will be really good, though. I'll be able to reach way more people, even if they aren't in my ward boundaries. There are tons of possibilities for finding people to teach using it. We'll see how it goes. 

It was kind of weird, I went back to Rockledge on Saturday right after I had left Tuesday. There was a funeral for someone that Elder DeMoux, my new comp, and I knew from when we were there. We had a member take us all the way down there for it. It was kind of funny to see people I had just said goodbye to again. 

I also got to watch the young adult face-to-face event last night with our district. If any of you young adults or regular adults want to watch it, do. It was really good. It was just over an hour and there were some good insights from Elder Suares about lots of different things. 

All in all it was a pretty good week. I'm sure they'll keep getting better as I learn my new area. So far so good though. I hope you all have a good week. 

P.S.- Funny story if any of you are still reading. Day 1 of Elder Harris' mission, we had just picked up his brand new bike. We start driving back from transfers and go on the freeway, next thing we know there's a lady honking at us and pointing behind us. We look at our bike rack and realize the bike is missing.

We get off on the next exit, flip around and head back. We found his bike on the side of the road with almost no damage. It was kind of a miracle. 

I also had to take a new profile picture now that I'm using Facebook again. I think this one was pretty good. 

So there's a cat 5 hurricane approaching

This week was quite the adventure. Like honestly it has been probably the craziest week of my mission so far. We were sitting down to dinner on Wednesday with a family and they were talking about a tropical storm. That was the first we had heard of it. Then it turned into a hurricane, then they predicted it would be a cat 3 when it hit us, then cat 4, and now it is almost the most powerful cat 5 hurricane ever. It looks like it might just glance the edge of Florida, and I'm in Central Florida bunkering down right now, so I'll be fine.

After we found out about the hurricane, we did almost nothing but service all week. We didn't even have to put on white shirts on Thursday or Friday. We put up shutters for a whole bunch of members. It was quite fun actually. It's nice having a break from knocking doors. The only problem was that it was pretty hard work and we did it all day in the blazing heat. I don't think I've ever sweat so much before.

We also had to buy a bunch of supplies for the hurricane. It was pretty unusual walking into the store and not being able to buy bread or water. Gas stations also started running out of gas on Saturday. After we bought all of our supplies Saturday, they evacuated all the coastal missionaries further inland. So I'm currently in St. Cloud for who knows how long. We aren't allowed to drive too far, so we have been sitting in that apartment doing nothing for a few days, and we'll probably have at least a few more days of sitting ahead of us.

That's about it for the week. There's a hurricane coming, and it messed up our whole week. I'll probably get some good pics this week and some good stories, so stay tuned for next week's email. 

Anticipation, Isolation, Waiting, Bunkering, and a Birthday

What. A. Week!!

When Erik got his mission call to Florida, he told me that all he wanted was to experience a hurricane (because missionary sleepovers and lots of service). Last Wednesday I got "wind" that a hurricane was brewing in the Atlantic. The projected path at that time was that it was going to slam into Central Florida as a cat 3 hurricane . . . Exactly where Elder Leary was camping out in Rockledge, a mere 25 minutes from the coast.

But as you know, these things have an unpredictable mind of their own. For the next two days Erik helped people get ready and board up their homes. And on Saturday he was evacuated to St. Cloud, a town more inland to hang with a couple of other missionaries.

And they sat.

And waited.

And anticipated.

And waited even more as Hurricane Dorian stalled out over the Bahamas as a Cat 5 storm and then gradually inched it's way north and west.

They played games.

Ate a lot of food.

And even got permission to watch some movies that they deemed appropriate.

In the meantime, our mountain was burning down at home. While Erik was in isolation and bunkering down, I was racing home to see what was going on behind my house.

Our mountain was on fire and has been for two days now.

Tyler's birthday seems to always bring out the worst in Mother Nature,

the worst being a micro wind that took down a tree and fencing at our Stansbury home.

Hurricane Dorian decided to play nice and remained off the coast of Florida which also meant no big service opportunities for Erik. He called us on Ty's birthday to let us know he was back "home" in Rockledge.

Tyler celebrated his birthday with dinner downtown. We almost decided to be spontaneous and get last hour tickets to the Elton John concert happening right across the street from where we were . . . and then we didn't and went to the DI instead.


Like Erik said in his last email, this week has been quite an adventure as we've witnessed Mother Nature try to take over the world.

I finally went to the ranch, and saw a rocket launch

So there's a massive church ranch out here in Central Florida that I've wanted to visit my whole mission, and I finally got to go this week. We also had interviews with President Ashcraft this week which was amazing as always. We also helped Howard and Suzie prepare for their baptisms.

I heard about the ranch here before I even got to the mission from my great-grandparents because they had served a few missions there a while ago. I got to go visit it while I was on exchanges with the missionaries that cover it. It was pretty fun. I got to knock some doors there, see some cows, and visit some of the members that live out there.

I got to have an interview with President Ashcraft this week. I love him and his wife so much. They are the sweetest people ever and I'm super excited to continue to get to know them better moving forward.

Howard is getting baptized this Saturday, so we spent a lot of time getting him ready this week. He is prepared a d is excited. We are super happy for him and know this will change his life.

Suzie also said she wants to get baptized. She is moving to Alabama for a month in September, but said as soon as she gets back she will be ready tog et baptized. We will probably call and read the Book of Mormon with her over the phone while she is gone to help her prepare.

I am super blessed here in Rockledge to be able to help these people change their lives for the better. I can't believe how much Howard, KK, and Suzie have changed since we started meeting. The gospel and the atonement can really change people's lives and being. I'm almost halfway done with my mission and I just hope I'm changing as much as these people are.

In other news, I finally saw a rocket launch this week. It was a daytime launch, so not as cool, but it was still amazing. I put a video in the Google Drive of the whole thing. What you can't really hear in the video is how much the whole earth is just rumbling as it goes up. It's pretty cool. 

Also, this rolled ice cream stuff is pretty good. They pour out liquid on a super cold plate and freeze it, then scrape it up into a swirl thing. Good stuff.