This is our Zone at the last week before transfers.
Elders Hatch, Orr (from Grande Prairie), Nessen, Sisters McDonald, Wright, Clinger, Draper, Elders Draper, Cook (behind), Prescott, Wright
front: (on floor) Anderson, Johnson (zone leader), Mc Donald, Gonzales, Butler, Johnson (other zone leader, blonde) Nemelka, ?, Prince and in front reaching out, Elder Simms
The oranges are growing and there are lots of them.
We went to a less active members home for the first time and this little critter greeted us as we waited for her to come to the door.
A Magnolia blossom just coming out.
tiny tomatoes across the street at King's house
More tomatoes at the King's house
tomatoes
Beans in May, can you believe it?
Here is the garden and it is in early May when all these pictures were taken.
The green beans are over now.
Peppers
Hibiscus blossom
Hydrangea plant
blue Hydrangea
The whole bush
The sizes are getting big already.
We should have ripe oranges again in October.
What a beautifully large leaf, eh? Unbelievable!!
The leaf of a banana plant
Another Hydrangea
Green Beans
Here is my lonely little mailbox beside Brother King's.
126 looks lonely don't you think?
In my garden in front, a Poinsettia
A beautiful bush along the road.
There are tons of these!!
Lots of places you see the trees reaching right over the road toward the tree on the other side.
These are outdoors and so big and beautiful.
Gorgeous yellow, eh?
The garden in front of Bro/Sis Waters house.
This tree has been trimmed to not touch the wires.
There are so many trees trimmed and many times they look so ridiculous that you would think they would just take the tree out!!
Turtles on the side of the road.
When I took the picture the camera obviously focused on the fence.
The turtles slipped down into this pond.
Aren't the water lilies great?
The last turtle to disappear.
Sorry it's not focused either.
A glorious Mocking Bird. I love him!!
He comes every morning to sing for us.
He loves to sit on this wire!!
An alligator lurking behind the banana trees.
Just kidding ...... he's not real!
This is our neighbours joke!! He's had it there for years.
This is so interesting. It's a hibiscus with variegated leaves on the bush.
A beautiful bush in the Palm family.
Look at the seed pod. It's beautiful!!!
These bushes are neat.
When we first came they were pruned down to just the wooden trunks.
We couldn't for the longest time figure out what would grow there.
They looked so funny and didn't bloom forever!!!
Now they are absolutely fabulous!! and they're everywhere too!!
This is a "fire lily".
It only blossoms for a short period and then all the flower and greenery disappears and looks just like a pot of dirt with nothing in it. They are very rare now.
Brother King put a screen all around our house so that the critters couldn't live under the house.
They had to take this cactus out so he cut it down and put it in a pot to care for it.
He says it will grow. It was very tall before!!
A tree with vines starting to grow up the trunk.
You can see how they just attach themselves to the trunk of the tree.
I love all the vines that grow here.
They make everything look so green!!!
Our house. Big yard, eh?
Looking next door from the edge of our yard.
Brannen family lives there. We love them!!
They are wonderful people.
They have one less active son that we are becoming friends with.
We actually taught a lesson there to some investigators and when the woman asked some
questions Eric was sitting behind his mother and she didn't know he was even there.
Eric spoke up and answered the questions and really bore a good testimony of the thing he was speaking. His mother was so surprised and happy!!! Tears came to her eyes, I'll tell you.
She is a great woman and her husband is the most gentle and sensitive man I know!!
Their house closer up.
The King's house across from us.
An orange tree in our yard.
Our front garden.
New oranges growing. We have many different kinds.
You can see the difference in some.
More oranges.
A papaya tree just planted this spring.
This little bush I love. Look at the differences in the leaves.
All green, variegated and then even pink.
I think it's really beautiful!!
Double hibiscus at our house.
Standing on our porch looking out.
Brother King just put the little seat there for us.
The cement blocks have always been there.
At the baptism of Hunter Alcantar.
His mother, Melissa, is the woman who is so sick and could die at any moment.
She was lucky to be out of the hospital for this occasion.
The fellow baptizing Hunter is an old missionary that used to serve here and meant a lot to their family.
Missionary's wife, Melissa, Missionary, Hunter, Tahlia
Elders Prince, Wright and Sister Draper
Two great missionaries!!!!
Our sister threesome!
Sisters Clinger, MacDonald, Wright
Sister MacDonald was only here for 3 weeks and that was fun to have her here.
Sister Wright has been here just a little longer than we have.
She has the kindest and sweet personality!!
Sister Clinger is new and she is so much fun!!
She reminds me of Becky, she just wants to remain young and have fun!!!
Her favorite thing is dinosaurs and that was the theme of her last birthday party.
She's so cute and fun! They are wonderful sisters!!
We got invited to the last evening with the departing missionaries who were on their way home.
We knew many of them and were so happy to be invited.
Elder and Sister Knight, ?, ?, Elder Jones (an office elder who is staying)
At the front is Sister Sachel ( mission secretary) & Sis. Draper
Sister Sachel is a wonderful person. I like her and her husband lots.
Sis. Broderick, Sis. Larsen, Elders Bell, Cook (new AP), DeHoyas (was an AP), Elder Maughn (cant see his face, AP now) Elder Johnson (was an AP), Sis. MacDonald, Elder Talbot
Elders Bell (served with us), Talbot (served with us), Gates (he knows sign language), Johnson (our Zone leader), Elder DeHoyos (was an AP and a good one), Johnson (was an AP and a good one too, they served together), Elder Cowley (was an office elder, they'll miss him), ?, Young (he was our DL), Sisters MacDonald, Larsen, and Broderick.
Our Zone leader, Elder Jordan Johnson and us.
Us with Sister MacDonald
Elder Talbot and us. He has the most amazing color of blue eyes I have ever seen.
He sure got a lot of attention for them. They were almost a turquoise. Man they are beautiful!!!
Elder Cowley (Matthew Cowley was relative), President and Sister Summerhays
Elder Joseph Johnson (AP) & President and Sister Summerhays
Sister & President Summerhays & Elder Talbot
He served with us only he was in the Spanish Branch in our building, Loma Verde.
This was after the funeral of Janet Brown, a woman in our ward.
I don't know the woman on the left but then, Melissa Barber (daughter),
I think John (son), Claudette (daughter) and Brother Brown, the husband.
We went to the hospital to visit Melissa Alcantar and this picture was hanging in the hall. (The painter is Harry Anerson.)
You wouldn't find this in Calgary. This is why I love the South.
We found a frog one night with the Sisters.
He has really bloated himself up so he looks huge and scary to us in his mind.
Sister Clinger is so fun!!
Thought I'd give him a kiss too!
Isn't he cute?
This is a Sandhill Crane with her babies.
Aren't they adorable?
This turtle we see in our little lane.
He has quite the nose!
It has a hard (even though they call it a soft-shelled turtle) shell & funny webbed feet.
His head and nose go right out into a pig nose.
He has closed his eyes for us.
Gardenias from the yard.
Isn't it beautiful? Too bad you can't smell it!!
It is heavenly!!!
Pink double Hibicus
We are having a wonderful spring so far. The weather has been hot and the air conditioning feels wonderful. We don't have to ride bikes and tract which is a huge blessing for us.
The poor Sister and Elders.
Tonight the Sisters have a baptism which is wonderful!!
They are singing at it, "Baptism" and I'm accompanying them.
They sing well so it should be nice.
We are getting some of our people doing family history work now so they can take their own names to the temple. We are so grateful that we can go to the temple because the young missionaries cannot.
Melissa Alcantar wants to go sometime soon. She has to feel better and have permission from her doctors. It's a big responsibility to take her somewhere. What if something happens? With her you never know. She can be fine one minute and the next her potassium will drop to 0% and she'll need immediate attention. Hopefully she'll be able to get to the temple though. We love going!!!
We miss all our friends at the Temple in Cardston. It was such a highlight in our lives to serve there with such wonderful people!! We look forward to serving there again.
We hope we get to serve in Calgary too. That will be fun.
We must get busy now so I'll say good bye and we love you all. (Y'all)
Elder and Sister Draper
4 comments:
I love the picture from the hospital of the Saviour tending the sick. The world definitely needs a little more religion for sure!
(Hideous turtle, however, a little further down!)
I guess that turtle is called a soft-shelled turtle but it felt hard to me. They have gopher turtles here that you are not even allowed to touch because even touching them can kill them. Interesting!! He is pretty ugly!!
I love reading your blogs and keeping in touch with what you are up to. We miss you at the temple too and hope that you can serve there when you get back. Thanks for sharing all of your wonderful experiences - looking forward to when Gibb and I can serve a mission. Thanks for your great example!
Hey strangers! I have to admit, reading your blog made me very homesick for the mission! Loved seeing all the missionaries pictures. And spring in Florida is unbelievable! Sounds like you are doing well. We love you guys and miss you.
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