This is a Confederate Rose
It's getting pinker.
You can tell that it is night time when the pink is getting darker.
The next morning there is a new white blossom out and the pink ones are spent.
Fresh Papaya from the neighbour's tree.
Star Fruit from the same neighbour, Brother King
Bart Jensen came to visit with Lindsay.
He's in our back yard where the wild hogs have dug up the ground during the night.
Hog foot print
Our neighbour's yard
The hogs dug right up by their house.
They make such a mess!!
We went for a walk in a park and these grasses grew there.
We caught a cardinal in the trees.
Right in the very centre of the picture you can see
the head of an alligator in the lake.
The alligator has his head out of the water a little more
and the bird is coming in for a landing.
The bird flew in and landed right up in the tree.
A beauty!
Bart taking a picture of Lindsay and me.
We went to the temple in Orlando while they were here.
What a great day it was!!
Lindsay and me right outside of the Celestial room
of the temple.
In the park we saw this caterpillar. Cool!
We have a lot to talk about.
It's been almost a year apart!
A beautiful turtle in the pond.
Here are the four of us:
Bart, Lindsay, me, Elder Draper
This little lady is a real dancer.
She's on fire!!
She got along real well with Bart!
Elders Cornia and Taylor
at their home in the Lake Wales Ward.
That's right, they live right on the lake!
Here I am right down at the dock.
What a beautiful spot they have.
Notice how white the sand is and it is very fine.
When we went to inspect their apartment (my least favourite job to do),
they had some plumbing problems, no water.
We taught them how to flush the toilet. Get a bucket of water from the lake.
Lucky for them the lake is close!!
This was a baptism the Lake Wales Elders had in the lake.
The Elders were the witnesses and walked out into the lake in their suits!!
They rolled up their pant legs to the knee but then walked in up to their thighs.
Oh well.
These little red bugs are here again..... everywhere!!
Our new home .... yeah, right!!
It belongs to the bishop of the Winter Haven Ward.
We're here for a P-day.
Outside the back of the house there is a cooking area with TV.
Look the other way & it is a sitting area with TV.
Look out in the yard and you have a play station for the children.
We are down at the dock on the lake in this photo.
The Cypress trees are everywhere here.
They grow Cypress knees around the roots of the tree.
This is how the tree breathes.
A Cypress tree
See the knees at the base?
Elder Boehme from Idaho.
He's a bull rider and lots of fun.
He's been with us in our zone for about 5 transfers I think.
We love him.
I love him too!! Elder Draper
More Cypress trees and knees.
A beautiful butterfly flying around my legs.
Inside the missionaries are having a great time.
The sisters are Hermanas. (Spanish speaking sisters)
Hermana Clinger & Hermana Guerra
A fun game of pool and a pin ball machine against the wall.
Here is the keeper of the equipment for pool.
Elder Draper has been talking with Elder Taylor.
Elder Taylor must be expounding on what HIS opinion is.
They have a lot of fun.
Out the back, just past the cooking area are the pools.
I'm standing in the back by some Sand Piper fountains.
Notice the Dolphin fountains closer on the other side of the pool.
Brother Cox from our Lake Hamilton Ward.
It's his 50th Birthday.
His family and friends shared lots of stories about him.
Now we know a lot more about him.
In our side yard the missionaries in our Lake Hamilton ward are holding up our poinsettias.
Elder Weston is about 6'6". Elder Chadwick is the shorter of the two.
We love these Elders!
Here we are at the baptism of Joseph.
He's 11 years old. The same age that my mother was when she was baptized.
Elder Draper and I with Joseph's family.
Joseph with the two of us.
Elder Draper had the privilege of baptizing Joseph.
Elder Draper took a candid shot.
Here I am with the Sisters (Hermanas) and their new convert, Emilio.
I love these Sisters. Sister Vincent & Sister Wright.
Sister Wright and I did a lot of music together.
She accompanied the choir for our Missionary Fireside.
Sister Wright, Nerris, Sister Clinger
This poinsettia is planted outside in our front garden.
Just beginning to turn red.
Here we are at Burger King of all places.
This is at the end of the month when no one has any money left.
Elder Gonzales, Sister Guerra, Elder Chadwick in the back, Sister Clinger, the princess.
Elder Gonzales is now the prince.
We have a lot of fun with our District.
At the North Mission Christmas Conference Sister Thomas
had a Florida earring attached to her ear.
I thought it looked like fun so I tried it too.
I love these little lizards so I'm not afraid of them.
You can feel him take hold of your ear but then you feel nothing so it doesn't hurt at all.
Isn't he adorable?
Our Camellia bushes are covered in buds.
This is the flower it opens up into.
Another one with a little purple on the tips.
I think they are so beautiful!
Another flower in our back garden.
This is a pom-pom bush. The flower looks like powder puffs.
Our large poinsettia plant in the back garden.
I had to take this photo. It is 1 day before Christmas and there are
tomatoes on the tomato plant, together with the starts of more tomatoes and
a poinsettia.
This is another blossom in our garden.
This plant is at the front door of Brother King's house.
It's tall and covered in yellow blossoms.... so pretty.
We enjoy it from across the street.
I must find out the name of this tree.
You saw some already in the yellow stages and now it is its pink stage.
Elder Call at District Meeting. He's lots of fun and I love his dimples and his grin.
He's our District leader.
We take pictures at the last District meeting of the transfer.
Our District is always trying to figure out some fun picture to take.
This one had to be in the tree outside the church building.
Everyone got up except for me and Sister Vincent.
Someone had to remain on the ground to push all the camera buttons.
Here we are again.
Elder Boehme jumping down.
Citrus Ridge Ward
Elder Nielson is a very fun Elder. He's full of life!
He had some additional ideas for Elder Gonzales and himself.
Elder Gonzales has climbed out on a limb.
Elder Nielson is hanging on for dear life.
Doesn't he look like he's having fun?
They are both keeping us all laughing.
They're having a great time up there.
They never stop.
Elder Call jumping down.
It was so funny! He almost hit the dust.
Elder Nielson is scouting out investigators.
He's jumping down and I'm having a bird because he just had surgery on his knee
and is supposed to be taking it easy.
He did land on the right foot.
He had to jump a couple of times to keep his balance.
All's well that ends well.
Elder Gonzales jumping down.
Oops! He almost bit the dust too.
We are returning with all our equipment into the church.
This is an ant hill but these are "Fire Ants".
You know it if one of these bites you!!
A big and beautiful bird. (sorry Katie)
Can you see the yellow and black stripped butterfly in the middle?
Here are Brother and Sister Hernandez dancing a floor show at their branch social.
We always get invited to these and have fun even though we don't speak the language.
These ladies are out there dancing alone and having a great time.
The little lady is so fun to watch. She loves to shimmy!!
... and she's good at it. Ask Bart.
What a beautiful little Spanish girl with amazing green eyes.
I'm hugging the Spanish sisters from the other District in our zone.
They came to the Social too.
Sister Griffith is in the black. I'm hugging Sister Gallegos and Lindsay is watching.
Elder Gonzales is also in this photo.
This is Goya, a new convert. She's amazing.
Sister Wright talking with Lindsay & me.
This is the Jensen's big cruise boat.
Departing Elders ... so sad to see them go.
Elder Wright, Elder Orr from Grand Prairie, Elder Johnson. AP & Elder Cook, AP.
Elder Johnson was also our Zone leader at one point. What a wonderful Elder he is.
Elder Wright was serving in our ward when we came. He's also a great missionary!!
These are the picture takers.
Sister and Elder Satchel & me.
Here the four Elders are posing with the Satchels.
Elder Wright with Elder Draper and me.
Don't the leaves on this tree look like butterfly wings?
Here is an ordinary ant hill. There are tons and tons of these!!
Little blue berries on the bushes
My favorite little fellows
Isn't his tail curled up so cute?
Here's a close-up. He's looking out there for something.
I love these little guys.
Another lizard.
Hibicus trees at the church
Around at the back door I found this little sprig growing out of no where.
It's right down by the bottom of the door.
Berries on the trees.
This is a Palatka Holly tree.
Here is a look at the whole little tree.
This is Susan, one of our reactivated friends.
This is her first visit to the temple where she received her endowments this day.
Susan & me
We love Susan!!
The Orlando Temple
It is so beautiful!!
Here I am with Susan and Cindy, our bishop's wife.
Me, Susan & Elder Draper
This is another yellow tree that has turned pink.
These are the pink blossoms on the tree.
They are like little Chinese lanterns and inside of the lantern are the seeds.
Our new convert, Heady with her daughters & the sisters.
Sister Wright & Sister Clinger
The girls are Janellee, by her mom & Tanai by the wall.
The Elders found Heady tracting one evening and gave her to the sisters to teach.
The sister taught her and then they got transfered out.
They gave them to Elder Draper and me to finish teaching and Elder Draper baptized her.
This is a fabulous woman!!! We love her.
Here we are: Elder Draper, Janellee in front, Heady, Tanai, me, Sister Wright
We went to pick Sister Clinger up for something one Sunday and this is
typical of what you find with her. The children adore her. She is so fun!!
Elder King is out early in the morning to feed the fish for Jonathan to see.
Jonathan came for a short weekend visit and we had a GREAT time with him!!
The fish know they get fed every morning and they are there waiting.
Here is one jumping right out of the water.
\Here's another fish jumping but the turtles and the alligator come for food too.
Can you see the dragonfly on the twig?
It's right in the center of the picture.
This is a beautiful purply blue berry on a bush.
We took Jonathan with us to this swamp
that we as Senior Missionaries went to for one of our monthly activites.
Here's a little alligator.... his mouth barely open.
He opened his mouth up wide for us.
There, he shut it again.
Can you see the orange and black snake? We don't know what kind of snake it is.
No one else seems to know either.
This is a bigger alligator in the same swamp.
He's about 8 or 9 feet long.
There I am with my boy! We're so glad he came.
This is the river just at the edge of the swamp.
You can rent canoes to paddle in here.
I'd be a little worried about being in a tippy canoe at the edge of a swamp
or in any water for that matter.
This is Florida.
See the big turtle over at the other edge of the water.
It's about 1/3 of the picture from the left and right in the middle top to bottom.
His shell is kind of shiny.
Elder Draper with our mission president, President Summerhays.
He is a wonderful president for us. We love him! ... his wife too!!
Elder & Sister Draper with Jonathan
Another alligator in the swamp.
What a cute little squirrel.
Another squirrel. We have lots of these in our yard.
The alligator is lying on that log in the middle.
This is a sac of eggs.
Jonathan looking back at President Summerhays and Elder Draper.
Cypress knees at the swamp
Snail shells are everywhere.
Here's a little turtle.
Looking out into the swamp.
See the two big Cypress trees. The trunks are beautiful.
Here's a close-up of the trunk with some knees.
Sister & Elder Thomason with Elder Knight in the middle in stripes.
Sister Summerhays, mission president's wife
Jonathan sees something.
There is so much to look at here.
A little greenery is growing out of the tree trunk.
There are lots of holes in the tree trunks too.
These tree trunks have some really weird ways of growing.
More branches growing out
This is the group of senior missionaries that we spent the day with.
Left to right: President & Sister Summerhays, Drapers, Satchels, Thomasons, Knights,
Leavitts and Nielsons.
We are the senior of the senior couples.
We've been here the longest except for the Summerhays.
Of course, the Summerhays are here for three years.
Our back yard on P-day
We've had a Bar-B-Q and now they are playing games.
Some of us are visiting.
Sister Guerra, Elder Sims, me, Sister Clinger (red hair),
Sister Griffith (long blonde hair) and Elder Kitchen just behind Sister Clinger.
Oops.. the ball got caught up in the tree.
Elder Nessen is retrieving it.
Sister Clinger
Elder Kitchen
Elder Sims
P-day: the parking lot for Disney's Animal Kingdom
The parking lot is in our mission but that's as far as we can go.
Our district: Elder Cornia, Elder Boehme, Elder Nielson, Sister Clinger, Sister Draper,
Elder Chadwick, Sister Guerra, Elder Gonzales & Elder Taylor
Our District: Elder Cornia, Elder Nielson, Sister Clinger, Sister Draper, Elder Draper, Elder Gonzales, Sister Guerra, Elder Taylor, Elder Chadwick
We're all running toward the kingdom.
This picture is so funny because Elder Boehme is off course and running into the trees.
This is Engineers Lake.
It is the lake behind Brother King's house across the street from us.
It was a beautiful still morning.
A turtle swimming in Engineers Lake
A bird flying in.
This same bird lives right there at Brother Kings dock until it migrates.
He comes every morning to feed on the fish that Brother King feeds!
Here it is flying off.
Up, up it goes. I like the legs straightened right out behind it.
It's interesting how the wings shape as they move.
This is a turtle under the King's dock.
An old rusty ladder is sitting beside the tree trunk with all sorts of greenery growing.
Our side garden. The colour is just beautiful.
That cactus has really grown this year.
It was cut off at the top and all that new growth has come this year.
Our big poinsettia bush
This tree is across the street on Brother King's land.
Here is a close-up of the flowers.
It looks like cotton growing or something.
This was their exercise for the day.
Elder Chadwick and Elder Nielson
Time for another District picture.
Elder Nessen is hanging from the basket.
Elder Cornia was trying to hold on and Elder Boehme has totally fallen to the ground.
Elder Nielson is looking on and Elder Gonzales is watching from the left of the picture.
A SUCCESS!!
..except for Elder Taylor didn't quite make it.
A TOTAL SUCCESS!!!
Sister Guerra and Sister Clinger are holding me on the left.
Elder Chadwick is sitting in the basket while Elder Nessen is hanging from the basket.
Elder Hall is holding Elder Cornia on his shoulders.
Elders Taylor & Boehme (left to right) are hanging on the board.
Elder Draper is peaking out from the piano underneath Elder Boehme.
Elder Nielson is planking the piano
while Elder Simms is playing upside down while lying on the bench.
Elder Gonzales is simply looking cool!!
One of our friends, our Sandhill Crane.
We have a few that live at our house while they reside here.
Departing Elders & Sisters
Sisters left to right on the couch: Sisters Fox, McArthur, Dollahite, & Thomas
Kneeling down on the ends are Elder Elmer & Elder Gonzales.
Back row: Elders Call, Sims, Wight (from Lethbridge), Kitchen, Burton, & Davis
I must be talking about something very serious with President & Sister Summerhays
but look at Elder Sims in the background.
Elder Sims with the Summerhays
Sister Dollahite with the Summerhays
Elders Sims & Kitchen
Elders Call & Sims
Elder Gonzales & the Summerhays
Sister Satchel, the mission secretary
She's amazing!
Back: Elders Elmer, Kitchen, Call, Wight
Front: Elders Davis, Burton, Sims & Gonzales
Elder Sims and Elder Kitchen singing for us this last night here.
They sang "Joy to the World".
We are sitting around getting ready for the testimony meeting at the Summerhays home.
President Summerhays, Elder Wight, Sister Draper, Sisters Dollahite & Fox,
Elder Moffett (an AP), Elder Bartschi (an AP),
Elder Gonzales, Sister McArthur in the chair.
I think Elder Kitchen's back is to us on the couch.
At the Orlando Temple they have a Nativity.
It is beautiful!!!
Mary is holding the baby Jesus with Joseph looking on.
There are beautiful fountains at the temple.
This is the moon in the sky the night we went to the temple for our Bishop's son,
Nick to receive his endowments. It was a beautiful evening.
More Fountains
A view from behind
The Nativity in front of a gorgeous palm tree
Me at the back of the temple
Looking up to Moroni through a Palm tree
The Nativity
In front of the temple is a fountain with beautiful flowers.
The red ones are poinsettias.
Here's a better look.
I love the snap dragons too. . . in December.
The palms at the temple all lighted up.
Orlando Temple
Another shot of the night sky with the moon.
Elder Draper being a little camera shy.
These were the decorations for our Christmas parties.
The Spanish branch and our ward shared the decorations.
Our Ward put up the lights and the trees around the edge of the floor.
The Loma Verde Branch made all the paper decorations and the chandelier.
Here's a cute little Spanish girl singing for us.
A darling little Spanish girl.
This is the Branch President, President Ramirez with the decorator.
She also made this little doll to dance with on the program. She was a hit!
A couple from the Branch. He just baptized their son.
The TOMMY girls one more time.
A little English girl at the party.
This little boy was helping her feel comfortable in coming up to dance with all the children.
Here she is with her sister. Cute girls!
She is the daughter of the Fernendez's in our ward.
Here they are dancing to what their leader is telling them to do.
Lake Hamilton Ward Party
Joseph with his mom & grandma in the front.
Sister King is in the red dress and Brother King is to her right.
Sister Clinger and I played "What Child Is This?"
This is the Quiros family. The father in the pink shirt is a member.
The others are Catholic. I'm in the picture too with Elder Weston.
The poinsettia in our front garden. It really grew.
A close-up
The poinsettia in the back that is so tall.
We went Carolling as a Zone. We had so much fun.
I took the pictures for the evening.
We're knocking on the door and singing.
I'm taking pictures of the decorations here.
Nice snowmen with candy canes.
Santa and his Reindeer are about to take off for the night.
Here we are singing to people who passed in a car and stopped for us.
A nice Nativity
Notice the green grass.
Elder Taylor, our District leader.
Another Nativity
The missionaries are lined up on the other side of the column.
Here's Frosty waving a Merry Christmas.
Pooh Bear is handing out gifts.
I love the little train filled with packages.
Sister Clinger darting in front of Sister Griffith, two great Sisters.
Three Kings
A beautiful Christmas tree inside someone's home.
I thought this was a cute idea fora Santa.
The carollers
It looks like Elder Nielson is having a nostalgic moment.
Elders Hall, Nielson, Meiners, Larrabee
Elder Larrabee looking back at Elders Sharp and Forbush.
I really like this Nativity.
I backed up so you could see the star.
Elder Jackson
There was a projector on the lawn projecting this image on the wall.
That's a plus for not having snow. You can run the electricity on the lawn.
Waving good-bye as a car drives away.
Elders Nielson & Taylor
Elder Bartschi, an AP
He is such a great missionary and has a beautiful singing voice!!
Santa is in an air bubble like a snow globe.
Mickey is everywhere down here.
Santa is ready for his flight on Christmas Eve.
Elders Jackson, I'm not sure, Meiners, Larrabee & Morris
Can you see the runway for Santa's sleigh?
This was a cute lawn display.
I love the snowmen and polar bear sitting there on green grass.
Cute
This house was beautiful!!
They have a nice Nativity at the side with beautiful angels playing horns by the stairway.
The lights on the interesting roof lines look so nice.
The Elders are singing at the door.
I'm singing too where ever I am while I'm taking pictures just so you know.
This is of one of the angels closer up.
We're ready to move on to the next house.
I've never seen pumpkins as Christmas decorations before but they had quite a few in their garden.
This yard had no grass. Without grass here you have plain old sand for a yard.
This snowman was a moving one. He's raising his hat to you.
Then replaces it on his head.
Here is another Santa with reindeer ready to take off.
Some yards were so pretty and covered with lights.
Another snowman
This Nativity was set up by there yard lamp.
We had a good time.
Sister Phelps, Elder Bartschi (AP), Elder Hall (ZL), Elder Moffett (AP), Sister Clinger
Santa sits on the step to wave at people passing by.
Great Christmas tree
This yard was GREAT!!
The tree had sparkling lights on them at the edge of the yard.
There were lots of other things all over the lawn too.
A close up by the hedge.
Singing Sister Phelps (I love her hair, all those curls), behind her Elder Hall with the flashlight
and Elder Bartschi looking over his shoulder.
Elder Draper is singing too.
I like the presents that are up on the lawn.
People ride these golf carts all over here in Florida.
They were out for an evening ride to see the lights so they stopped for us to sing to them.
This is the other end of the cart.
It was a nice evening to be out.
They sang along with us and it really was an enjoyable time.
We have Elder Nielson (1/2 of him), Elder Meiners who is right into his singing and
Elder Larrabee is the happy one at the back.
Our Elders are next, Elders Chadwick & Weston.
This is Sister Guerra & Sister Phelps.
They are both Spanish speaking sisters.
Another very nice Nativity
In Florida they wrap the tree trunks lots.
It is a good way to light up palm trees and the big oak trees.
This air bag has moving parts. It's cute.
The propeller twirls around and the Elves are coming in and out.
More pictures of Elders singing.
A disney lit hedge. The heads flash on and off.
This is another beautiful Nativity.
A big blown up snowman
More singing with Sister Clinger, Sister Phelps, Elder Bartschi,
Elder Johanson, Elder Chadwick and Elder Madsen up in front.
Many people have these white Christmas trees here.
The wreath is on the side of the house.
Lots of lit up trees at this house.
This is a small billboard at the side of the house.
Elder Moffett (the middle of the photo) looks serious about his singing.
Elder Hall is still using his flash light and Elder Forbush is on the right side.
Everyone posed for a shot with us all. I took the pictures.
This was the little tree that Brother King lit up in our front garden.
This is where we had dinner on Christmas day.
It is Sister Dicks home. What a beautiful garden!!
I love the big green bow on the lamp post.
At her front entrance she has her snowman sitting on some snow (Yay), the poinsettias are beautiful.
She got them from Costco here for $15. Aren't they great?
She had several of them in the house too.
This is the patio where we ate. This is her lanai.
She is a great cook. We had a marvellous meal.
This is one of the spare bedrooms in her home.
I love this Santa with his gifts.
Her house is decorated from the top to the bottom in Christmas beauty.
We are rehearsing for the South Mission Christmas Conference.
Sister Johnson is playing the violin and Sister Vogelsberg is singing "O Holy Night".
I'm accompanying them.
Here I am rehearsing the choir for our Musical Fireside that we did in the end of November.
We had to rehearse everyone in small groups and went around to where ever the
conferences were being held to practise.
Elder Larson is accompanying here for me.
We are now at rehearsals for our Musical Missionary Fireside,
"A Song of the Heart"
Elder McDougal is conducting the My Family Medley while I accompany him.
Singing are Elder Craner and Elder Larson who are filling in just for this rehearsal with
Elder Moffett and Sister O'Neil and Sister Dollahite that are in the quartet.
These are the singers in one of the quartets.
Sister Dollahite, Sister O'Neil, Elder Moffett,
Elder Larson & Elder Larson (companions) are filling in for Elder Kitchen,
who is in another zone.
They got some good faces of me trying to get out of them what I want.
Rehearsal with a bigger group.
These Sisters are practising for a number that is a Sisters Choir.
Here Elder Moffett is accompanying me for this group.
Elder Durrant on the far left, Elder Nielson who is helping out,
then Elder Bartschi, Sister Remington & Sister Vogelsberg.
Just before the first performance Elder Gonzales, who isn't singing, is helping to set up.
Here he is goofing off pretending he is in charge. He's always a lot of fun.
Sister Clinger doing her Cello solo.
Elder Gonzales taking pictures, Elder Chadwick helping set up the sound system,
I'm looking at something for these sisters.
Elder Draper was the biggest help in getting everything ready for me.
Elder Chadwick is always having fun.
This is the first practise that we had all together and it was just 2 hours before the performance.
We are working hard here to get everything together.
It took a lot of faith to put this program together knowing we didn't really get to rehearse all together.
Getting ready to be seated
Sister Wright with her big grin.
She accompanied for all the full choir numbers.
President Summerhays conducted at the fireside, "A Song of the Heart".
Our 115 voice Missionary Choir presenting
"A Song of the Heart" This is the rehearsal
in Bonita Springs, Florida
Next week the fireside was
in Brandon, Florida.
Sister Clinger and her Cello with Elder Abbott on the right
This is a Sisters Chorus who sang a medley, "His Son/I Stand All Amazed"
It was beautiful!
This is the whole choir.
Elder Fangupo sang a solo of "O Lord, My Redeemer"
We're still rehearsing here at the first performance.
Our first rehearsal where we were all together.
This double quartet sang "Faith".
Sisters O'Neil, Phelps, Salinas, Wright, Elders Larson, Fangupo, Durrant & Parady
The Elders are singing "O Savior, Stay With Me"
and they are watching. Even the sisters are watching.
The Elders on the other side of me are watching too.
I drilled that into them! It was needed for a successful performance.
Elder McDougal sang a solo "Be Still, and Know That He Is God".
He has a beautiful voice. His voice has been well-trained.
After the performance it felt good.
They did a fabulous job!!
I was very pleased because the Spirit was so strong.
That made it a very successful evening.
That was a highlight for our missions in the Florida Tampa Mission.
We had 115 voices in the choir and some had never sung in a choir before.
If they wanted to sing they were invited to do so.
They all had a great experience in being involved in this endeavour.
We were so grateful to Heavenly Father for sending His angels and His Spirit to attend us!!
We all had our faith strengthened as we achieved our goal.
If you got through this whole Blog entry you did a great job!!
See you soon.
