16 February 2014

Our mission activities seem to be arranging themselves into a pattern. We are usually scheduled a certain way each week. On Sundays we pick up family or two in Quincy and take them to church. Afterwards, we take them home. Sometimes we stop at home for lunch. It seems the members that don't have cars or less money live farther from church and have a hard getting to church. We do our best but we can't take everyone to church. We should have brought a large van to the mission instead of an ordinary car.

Mondays and Wednesdays we teach 2 families in Quincy English, Spanish reading, scripture reading, gospel principles and are generally their friends. On Tuesdays and Thursdays we teach English classes to branch members in Tallahassee. Tuesday mornings is District meeting with other missionaries in the Tallahassee area working with Spanish-speakers. Also on Tuesdays and Thursdays we visit one member that is having health issues, visit and help an investigator with grocery shopping, and work in other visits as we can. On Fridays we have our personal preparation day to do shopping, cleaning, and such. On Saturdays we go to Bainbridge and teach new member lessons and another English class. In between we prepare lessons, read our manuals, and study the scriptures and spanish.

We are also helping out the branch with Sister Huddleston helping out in the Nursery by teaching, organizing, training the other teachers. I am currently on assignment to help train the Executive Secretary to prepare agendas and get organized.

Next week we have a zone conference. Interesting to see how that goes.

2 February 2014

We arrived in Tallahassee on December 11, 2013. We were unable to meet the mission president because it was a transfer day with missionaries moving to and fro within the mission and some leaving for home and he was just too busy. That day 30 new missionaries arrived. With the young missionaries, as opposed to old missionaries like us, they change companions occasionally. Some within the mission are transferred every 6 weeks. So if you are young you never know if you will be transferred until the transfer day comes. Below is a picture of the missionaries in our district since the time we arrived. Over the six week transfer period, through district meetings, coordination meetings, and church meetings, we get to know the missionaries in our district pretty well. The day before transfers Sister Dawe was worried that maybe she would be transferred. I asked her why she was worried, thinking the Lord's work was pretty much the same anywhere. When transfers did come and she was transferred to a non Spanish-speaking area, I understood. First, we lost a good friend, and second, she had to give up speaking Spanish and meeting with Spanish speakers. Her mother is Hispanic but she didn't learn Spanish at home. Does this sound familiar to anyone? And, 4 missionaries need to learn how to live with new companions. Fortunately, Sister Huddleston and I don't need to worry about this. We are companions forever.

Sometimes you are at the right place at the right time. While we were at the mission office picking up materials the phone rang. The caller was speaking Spanish and the office staff could not understand her. So Sister Huddleston came to the rescue. The phone connection was bad so we went to the motel to see what the situation was. She was stranded in Tallahassee with a 4 year old boy and expecting in 2 weeks. In this desperate situation she recalled a high school friend that was currently serving a mission in Orlando and called the mission office for help. We were willing to drive her to West Palm Beach on our preparation day but the church was able to provide a bus ticket and a nights stay in the motel. Since she was a non-member and we are missionaries, we gave a lesson, and offered a prayer. Hopefully, she will remember the help she received from the church in the days ahead and be receptive to missionaries in the future.

The Daily Dose English learning program continues to roll forth. Last Tuesday we held a training session for the Tallahassee area missionaries and plan to start the class next week. On Saturday we had the first class in Bainbridge, Georgia with 4 students present, all from Honduras.

26 January 2014

I just realized I didn't post last week. Time is going faster than I think. So this post will cover two weeks.

Last week we received a pleasant surprise. One of the families we have been working with came to church for the  first time in at least 6 months. The wife has been working on Sundays at a restaurant. She is helping to support her family here but mostly working to support her 2 children and mother in El Salvador. So the job is very important to her. Last week, however, she told her boss that she was going to church. She would get everything prepared in the morning and only be gone for an hour or so. We were worried she would lose her job so we prayed for her. The president of the branch didn't think she would show up but she did with her husband and child. We were very happy.

We have also been preparing to teach English classes in a little larger setting with 6-8 students once or twice a week in Tallahassee and Bainbridge. We also held a training session for the Marianna Elders to teach English in Marianna.

For a month now we have been assisting the Marianna Elders teach a young woman from Guatemala. She needs to be married before baptism. Things were going well. We went with her to find a dress but were unsuccessful the first time looking. She wanted Guatemalan mole for the dinner so we tried a recipe to see if it would work. Unfortunately, it didn't. She didn't like it. Anyway that wasn't the most unfortunate thing. Now she doesn't want to get married at all.

So goes the life of a missionary. We have ups and downs based on the decisions of those we work with. But that is all part of God's plan. Everyone has the power to choose for themselves. Maybe the time is right for them and maybe it isn't. We have done our part though in giving them the opportunity to make a decision. Too often we keep going through our lives without making real decisions about what we really want to do; just letting life take us along.

12 January 2014

Another great week!

This week was unbelievable, almost. The first part of the week was unusual. As we started our week with our first appointment a cold cruel fact hit us. It was cold and cruel to those unprepared for the cold. Two nights it got down to about 20 degrees and stayed fairly cold all day. For those unprepared for this kind of weather, it was bad. At our first appointment, we had to cancel our lesson because it was too cold. The family is living in a mobile home with no central heating only 1 portable electrical heater in one small bedroom. The plumbing froze and they were cold. In fact, every place we went the next 2 days, pipes were frozen. So instead of teaching, we rounded up heaters and blankets. Thankfully, we were in a well heated apartment so we didn't have to worry about ourselves just everyone else. So for all of you reading where you think it is "really" cold, and envying us in sunny Florida, it can get cold here, too. In fact, on Tuesday I checked the temperature in Tallahassee and Homedale and they were exactly the same, 21 degrees. On the other hand, by Saturday the high temperature had risen to 72 and low of 60.

Saturday we helped the Marianna Elders teach an investigator from Guatemala again. In the United States and in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we have a rich history of pioneers trekking across America by wagons, and handcarts. Sister Huddleston asked the investigator how they came to the US. Her reply was, "we walked." Hard treks across countries is not just in history. It is also evident in some lives today. Let us honor all those who sacrifice and do hard things for their families.

5 January 2014

The weeks are going by fast. Last week was New Year's but it didn't seem to slow us down. We had lessons in Quincy and Bainbridge as usual, but added another family in Mariana, FL. Mariana is an hour west of Tallahassee. The Elders in Mariana that we met at the 1/2 Mission conference a couple of weeks ago invited us over to meet with an investigator. They needed some help with translation. This family is from Guatemala and speak Mam, an indigenous Mayan language. Unfortunately, as you probably already know, we don't speak that language either. However, the family is learning Spanish since they have arrived in the US, and we do know (at least one of us) that language. This is the second family that we have encountered that speaks this particular language. We thought it was quite a coincidence. After doing a little research, however, we have discovered that there are a lot of people from Guatemala in Florida.

Friday is our preparation day or P-day as we call it. This is the day we take care of washing our car, cleaning our apartment, rotating our tires, doing errands, and take a little time to see Florida. This week we did all those things and traveled south to Panecea and Baldy Point State Park. It was beautiful but a cold day. The water seemed pretty cold as well so no swimming that day. We finished off the day with some yummy seafood.

Saturday, we taught a new member lesson to the family in Bainbridge. After receiving some of the Christmas cookies we had made for them, they wanted to learn how to make them. So, we also taught the mother and daughter how to make sugar cookies.

We are starting to get into our routine and enjoying our time serving the Lord. I still am far from where I need to be in learning Spanish, but I will continue to strive.