Again, we continue to have little surprises from the weather. We plan our day around biking the streets of Boca - especially trying to spend time biking the A1A (the road that runs parallel to the intracostal and coastline) - but we wake up in the morning and gray skies greet us. We even kept our bikes on the back of our car, but all the bikes got was a nice shower from the rain pour. Oh well. One of these days we are going to do some contacting on the A1A! One fun experience was contacting on foot through an apartment complex. We go to this complex often so we don't mind walking from one end to the next. Unfortunately, we didn't realize the rain was going to pour on us. None of the buildings were connected so we walked from one to the next, getting soaked through and through until we finally reached our car. Yay for Florida rain! I can't wait to see what the summers are like!
An activity our ward is really looking forward to is the annual Pinewood Derby. This will actually be the second year the ward has done one, but plans are underway to hold them more often. Who doesn't like a Pinewood Derby? And, we just got a brand new forty-two foot aluminum track that has four lanes. Apparently, aluminum is the best material for a track. We have a member in our ward who is quite proud of it. :-D Sister Gardner and I have completed the cutting, sanding, and painting of our cars. Her's represents the baptism by water and by fire while mine is the CTR shield (CTR of course being in Chinese). I actually had a bit of fun with mine. I read a few tips from a book - another member in our ward LOVES Pinewood Derbys - so my car was baked to evaporate any water weight, I sanded it smooth, painted it, sanded it again to smooth it out, then put on some auto wax for a sleek shine. :-D Don't worry - we only worked on our car during P-Day or right before bed. We'll see whose car is faster!
Right now, for personal study, I am having a lot of fun reading old conference talks. Our apartment has Ensigns from 1984, so I flip through them each morning and read two or three talks. The only thing we can take with us after this life is our knowledge, so I might as well use my time trying to add to my mental library. Maybe I don't remember much of what I read now, but I like to pretend that my mind is a mini library and any book I read here, becomes a book in my mind and is placed on the shelf for a later time. For now, I collect my favorite quotes by writing them down in my scriptures and/or my journal. It's funny how my journal is more of a collection of quotes and stories than an account of my daily activities.
I am so glad all is well with the family. That is awful to hear about the experience with the truck. I couldn't imagine what that would have been like. I'm so glad Mom is safe and the only thing we lost was the truck. I kind of feel proud to say I've driven the whole border of the Boca area and the length of probably every major road. I'm even trying to conserve time by making use of I95 that goes through our area, but I'll make sure to keep driving defensively. I still have my goal of driving no higher than the speed limit - although at times I will follow the flow of traffic if it's safer to do so. With bikes, we should be driving less and less - if the weather will permit. To make contacting easier, we bike on paths and sidewalks instead of the main roads. Also, we make sure to pray for safety each time we leave our apartment.
Lots of Love!
‘Make no small plans: They have no magic to stir man’s souls.’ This is the vision I have for the South. I believe that one day the South will baptize more people into the church than all other English speaking missions in the world together. There are great hosts of marvelous Baptists, and members of the church of Christ, Methodists and Catholics who are honorable people, and have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and love him. As they see their church veering off to the right or to the left of these basic teachings, they will begin to search for the truth. And as pivotal teachers come into the church and have influence, we will see the time when we baptize hundreds and thousands, tens of thousands. In your day you will see a million members of the church in the South. There will be Temples plural in the Southern States. What a great call you have to serve with these marvelous people. ~Spencer W Kimball (1974)
