Baptism

We had our first baptism in our ward since we've been here.  A young 9 year old boy was baptized.  He was beaming.  It was so wonderful to see the support he was getting from the ward.  One of the deacons came up to him after and said, "Good going buddy!"  He put his arm around the young boy and invited him over to his house.  It was nice to see.  His grandfather who isn't very active came to the baptism.  His grandmother wanted to be there too but she has cancer and is not doing too well.  His less-active mother was pleased. She has some things to do in her life too and I think she'll start changing things now.  I think of my Mom being baptized at 11 years of age and know that this young man can make a big difference in his families lives.  I played the piano for the baptism and Elder Draper and I gave the prayers.  What a wonderful day!!!

Second half of January

This is our Camellia bush.

There are hundreds of blossoms!!

Isn't it a beautiful flower?

A new blossom just coming out.

I took this picture to show you the garden around the tree

as well as the green in the trees across the street.

A little surprise visitor.

This is on the ceiling in my bathroom.

I was a little surprised to see him there but I'm getting used to them a little.

They say they eat bugs that are in the house so I let them be.

You can see that this one is a baby.

I enlarged him so you could see him WELL!!

This must be a warehouse of some sort 

but the building on a building is something I've never seen.

There are people going up into the little house on top.

These are parasites on the electrical wires.

They live in the trees too.

It looks like eating the live wires gives them a bad hair day.

They can kill the trees.

Sandhill Cranes

We came around the corner to a group of at least 60 of them.

We usually only see 2 or 4 of them at a time.

When I got out of the car to take a picture they all took off in flight.

It was quite a sight and they went 'honking' all the way.

I love them.  They are beautiful.

We also have some video of them.  

I don't know how to put a video on the blog.

This is a cedar tree.

Can you believe the size of this?

This is for those of you who don't know what Manatees look like.

Another shot of the Camellia bush.

I love it!!!

Michael, don't you love this blossom?

Some interesting colors for houses.

This is in between pink and lavender.

There are green houses much brighter than this one.

The combinations of color and decor is interesting.

This is a neighborhood where all the houses have swimming pools in the back yard.

They must be screened in.

This is a gem!  

Here we have home, an RV and a yard pool.

Who could ask for more?

It is a nice car though.

From the other side the house is almost all yellow with green trim.

Not so many windows on that side.

Can you see the orange on this little home?

Such beautiful big trees here.

they have to trim them for the traffic to go beneath them.

Another orange house.

This little church with colorful bricks.

This is a very nice motorhome park.  

The landscaping is beautiful in this park.

Dad took this picture in early morning with the fog and the sunrise.

It is looking out over the lake.

One morning we had frost on a spider webs.

Pretty neat!!

Enjoy the pictures.  There will be more to come.

I need to keep my camera with me all the time so I can show you all the different things here.

It's fun!!!

We love you all!!  Prepare to serve a mission!!!  You won't regret it!!!!!!

Learning to Listen

We had a great Sacrament Meeting today in the Lake Hamilton Ward, Haines City Florida.  Our former Bishop, Ronald Spears spoke and told of some experiences of being led by the Spirit.  Two experiences were from when he was a missionary in Texas years ago.
Tracting in the cold rain, he and his companion went up the street door by door not finding success along the way.  They determined to go back home at the end of the street.  When they arrived they saw a semi-circle of houses at the end of the street but still turned to go home as planned.  They both felt that they should turn around and go knock on those doors, which they did.  As they knocked on each door they were turned away until they reached the very last door.  The man opened the door and said, "Come on in.  I've been waiting for you.  I want to know what you have been selling that is so important that you would work out on a cold, wet day."  They replied, "We are not selling anything.  We are giving it away.  We are missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  We have a message that we would like to share with you."  He invited them in and they taught him the first discussion.  The man said, "My wife is in the kitchen.  I want her to hear this."  He got his wife and the missionaries taught the first discussion to the wife.  Then the man said, "Wait.  Some of my children are here.  I want them to listen to your message."  The man returned with his children for the missionaries to teach the first discussion for the third time.  Another son returned home from school and the man asked them to please teach this son as well.  The missionaries repeated the first discussion for the fourth time for this son.  The man once again said that his Dad needed to hear this message to so he went and got his Dad to come over.  For the fifth time, the missionaries gave the first discussion and at this point the man was bearing testimony that the things the missionaries were teaching were true!!  All of them were baptized.

Another time they had been teaching a family that were wonderful.  They were accepting everything that was being taught to them and were planning to be baptized.  When the missionaries went back for the last discussion they were met at the door by the man.  They could feel the adversary very strongly.  There was contention amongst the family.  When they started to teach, the man was very angry and physically started to throw them out of the house.  As he was so doing,  The Spirit said to Elder Spears, "Testimony."  He ignored the prompting but once again the Spirit said to him,  "Testimony."  As they were being pushed out the door Elder Spears turned and put his foot in the door so that the man couldn't shut the door on them.  He said, "I testify to you in the name of Jesus Christ that what we have taught you is true."  The adversary departed, the spirit immediately changed and the man invited them to come back in.  The family was baptized.

The third story was about Brother Spears taking his 12 year old son, a deacon, with him to do some visits.  They went to the home of a woman in the ward and knocked on her door.  There was no answer. So they made another visit somewhere else and came back again.  They knocked on the door and still there was no answer.  They made other visits and were about to return home.  His deacon son said that he felt like they should go back to this first woman's door and try it again.  Brother Spears said that they had already gone three times and that she probably just wasn't home.  The son said that he really thought they should try one more time.  This they did.  They knocked and still there was no answer.  They knocked again with the same result, no answer.  By this time the sun was setting in the sky and from the step they could see the silhouette of someone lying on the couch.  They knocked again and then tried the door.  It was unlocked so they went in and tried to waken the woman.  She awoke and they talked with her.  She seemed frail so Brother Spears asked her if she had had anything to eat that day.  She had not so he went into the kitchen and prepared some soup for her and brought it in for her to eat.  The woman said that she felt like she was going to die that night.  Brother Spears felt that she was right.  He went and got a Relief Society sister to come and sit with her through the night so she wasn't alone.  This woman did pass away that evening.  Brother Spears was so grateful that his young, deacon son had heeded the promptings of the Spirit and prevailed upon him to return to the home of this woman.

These are marvellous experiences and he surely brought the Spirit into the Sacrament Meeting.  We, with the young Elders, had 5 investigators there and 10 less active members there.  It's nice to have good meetings for these people to attend and feel the Spirit of the Lord.  We love this work!!!

January (first half) 2011 Life is GREAT!!!

I think I posted this already.  

Christmas snow in Florida!!!  haha

Kim Eubanks, Lacy Lloyd, Sister Draper, Sherry Buck

Kim and Sherry are sisters, investigating &

Lacy is a less active member.

They live on the same street and are good friends!!

Sorry Katie - another sunset

I can't help myself, I love the sun!!

This is in a higher class neighbourhood than we work in.

Notice all the screened in swimming pools. 

 They must be screened in to keep the alligators out!!

Sunrise!!

Christmas decorations

Interesting, don't you think?

This is advertisement for an RV lot.

I'm not sure how they did this but I thought it was funny!!

Take another look!

Wild turkeys just outside our home.

We got a video of one of them running across the lawn.  So funny!!

Just after a big rain storm, the moss looks more green than gray.

I like it!!

One of our investigators lives here.

She lives in this little cottage with a HUGE swimming pool.

This is at a nursery and it is beautiful!!

Some of the nursery.

I love these palm trees.  They are being watered right now.

A better shot of the being watered. 

 Each tree has it's own sprinkler head.

Sun dogs.  

Dad didn't get the car stopped soon enough to get the really good picture.

They were so bright and the rainbow in it was beautiful!

Zoomed out picture.

You can see the sun dogs way to the side by the tree. 

It was so colourful just moments before this.

Orlando Temple

We went with some senior couples.

One of the couples were escorts for new patrons.

I'm lucky to get this shot.  

Look at that bottom branch!! 

These are such great climbing trees.

The Tampa Bay!

I love this!!

The courtyard of our hotel in Sarasota.

See the Manatee?

Just his head poking out.

There are several Manatees in this picture.

Some of their backs are showing above water.

Can you enlarge this picture?  I don't know.

This shows the nostrils poking out.

The back of the Manatee.

You can see the body shape beneath the water.

We enjoyed talking to Laila and Sadie and Elizabeth.

What little beauties!!!

These are factory stacks where the Manatees come.  

I thought the billowing smoke was beautiful.

I also made Dad take a video of this.

Isn't it beautiful against that sky?

This is a good picture for people to guess:

What is this??

What are your guesses?

Barnacles on the bridge

Way cool!!

You can see the Manatee body under water at the top

and the string rays at the bottom.

There were also many sharks here and other fish.

I loved it!!

More smoke stacks

You can tell when I like something can't you??

There I am on the dock out over the water where the Manatees are.

They hand out all these pirate necklaces and stuff.

We went to an Amish restaurant for dinner.

The food was fabulous.

This is President Summerhays.

This is one of our tables.

On left:  Motts, Chambers, Whites & Tufts

Our table:  Drapers, Summerhays and Leavitts in front.

Sis. Leavitt isn't in the photo.

Then we went to the Amish quilt store.

Elder Mott says he just loves this store.

This is why!!  Great chairs for waiting!!!

Elder Mott, left and Elder Chambers, right

They are office missionaries.

This is in the Amish neighbourhood.

It is the bicycle parking lot.

They don't have the Amish horse and buggies but they ride bicycles and lots of large tricycles.

I'd like to bring a tricycle home.

This is our Zone just before transfers.

Our Cowboy Hat elder wore it to transfer day with his suit and I think President took it from him.

He wore it all the time!!!  Not any more.

Me with Elders Wright & Rhodes

Elder Rhodes is transferred to Naples and we'll sure miss him!!

I told Sister Summerhays that transfers are going to be hard on me.

We love our missionaries we work with.  

These two were such a good team too.  They worked so hard.