So, did you get the Picture CD from the package? I do hope all is well with the pics I send. I don't save them on my camera card. It annoys me to have clutter so I swap out between my three camera cards and delete the old pictures. What I send you is the only copy of my pics. If you want me to send a cool florida/disney photo album, I can do that. Just let me know what you think ... or we can just decide after the mission -- of course.
"It may present a small problem when coming home"? Well isn't that an interesting comment. Well, I can promise I never give things away - the smallest things for me have a lot of sentamental value. You should see the random things I still have at home packed up in the boxes. Most people would just throw them away after a while, but I just can't seem to do it. My future home is going to have shelves full of random odds and ends, each with their own unique and special story. Also, if you can mail it to me, I can always mail it back at the end of my mission. I'm sure I'll have at least one or two more packages sent home before March. A few days ago, I found the paper tree that you had sent me the year before and we have posted it up in the house. Soon, we'll decide what we want to do for decorating it. Also, we live in a nice neighborhood and we are seeing all the houses around us start decorating for the holidays. We are so tempted to go to Big Lots or a dollar store and buy christmas lights to wrap around the trees in our lawn or something to make it look like we also have the Christmas spirit. We probably won't since we don't have money, but it's the thought that counts... maybe we can find some members who are throwing away old lights that we can salvage and use ... :-D
So, my Thanksgiving... well, last week was an interesting week for us. Thanksgiving dinner was a lot of fun! We went to a member's home (the Pease family: Bro & Sis. Pease, Rose, Maggie, Emma, and Becca) and was able to have a potluck with two families from Lake Nona (Sis. Northcutt and the Hahn family: Bro. & Sis Hahn, Allie, Kelsey, and Keaton) and two sets of missionaries (Elder & Sis. Campbell and the Hunters Creek West Spanish Elders). We had a great array of food and were able to play games together and socialize. It's interesting how I grew up not liking sweet potatoes at all! I would just scrape off the marshmellows on top. But since last Thanksgiving with a member making a revised version of the Boston Market sweet potatoes (they added more brown sugar), I've fallen in love with them. YUM!! I can even pop in a sweet potato wrapped in foil in the oven and eat that with brown sugar sprinkled on top. We had a really good homemade recipe for sweet potatoes this Thanksgiving too and we were able to bring home leftovers. That's my favorite part! Since it was a potluck, I had made the recipe of Grandma Hadley's refrigerator rolls (we did it after planning one night. Sadly, we didn't have a big bowl nor a mixer. Let's say, not enough flour, raised to overflow all over the stove, and then in the morning it overflowed in the fridge (but I expected it to happen to I had the bowl on a baking sheet). Also, we still don't own a cookie sheet. We randomly have a turkey pan, though. Well, I got lazy and forgot to do the nice rolling it into a ball, pushing up with your thumbs to get it nicely rounded (I only had an hour of breakfast to get the rolls ready and baked and it was 7am!) so it didn't look as nice. I did pinch off the dough balls from the batch, so it wasn't too bad and it did taste great! But leftover rolls weren't as good. They harden fast. But I learned my lesson. And it's the thought that counts. Oh, so I put rolls in the bottom of the turkey pan, in two small pyrex bowls, and the top of the turkey pan (that was fun because of all the slits, but it worked.) The rolls in the bottom of the pan burned the bottom, but the others worked great. And, that's my Thanksgiving story.
Last week was hard for us. Sadly, our numbers were awful this week and we don't enjoy talking to our district leader about it too much. President told us not to worry about numbers, but the district and zone leaders only care about numbers, so it makes us stressed. They do mean well, but our district leader is better at encouraging Elders to work and improve. It's not the same when you talk to Sisters. Sadly, we cringe whenever he calls for nightly accountability, but we should probably work on that this week. Honestly, I did pray for him here. I was too good at justifying and rationalizing with my last district leader so I asked the Lord to help me get rid of my justifying habit... so he sent me a new district leader who I can't rationalize worth beans. grrrr.... we've got a lot of work ahead of us, but there's only one way, and that's up! Ever onward.
‘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)
