Senior Outings are the BEST!

This is Elder Johnson, an AP

They put this great photo on Sister Mott's computer.  Sister Mott is the mission secretary.

He had taken something and had an allergic reaction.  Do you think?

Sister Mott couldn't take it for long, it soon came down.

This is a bridge that goes over the harbour in Tampa.  

It is quite spectacular.

You can get quite a view from the top which is hard to do in Florida.

A pelican in flight.  

He is flying over the ocean looking for a bit to eat.  

It looks rather pre-historic doesn't it?  He's a great fisherman though.

They dive bomb their prey and they never miss.

He's got one now. 

 They come up with their prey and throw it up, 

catch it in their beak and their throats bulge way out as they swallow it down.

Here we all are looking out to sea.

We've come to love the birds here.

Sister & President Summerhays, Sister Mott, Sister Draper, Elder Mott and Elder Knight

Another view of this beautiful bridge.  

President & Sister Summerhays are in the back.  

This is the mission van and Elder & Sister Draper are in the front.

Do we look happy to be here?  We are!!

Here we are on the way down the other side of that bridge.

It is such a beautiful day and we had so much fun with everyone.

Driving along I spotted a flamingo.  It's the pink bird.

Sorry it isn't very clear but I had to take it fast.

It's not often you see a pink bird in the wild.

It's really odd to see one flying overhead but we've seen that too!!!

The color of the water is great!!

What a nice shoreline.  Beautiful homes.

I don't know what this building is but I suspect it's a hotel on the coast. 

I just thought it was beautiful.

I love kites and kite flying.

They sure have beautiful kites here and it's an art to fly them.

There are 2 kites in this photo.

Another kite at the same beach.

We are on our way to eat at Bubba Gump's Shrimp Company.

Everything is about Forrest Gump.  So fun.  

I like the boats.

Outside the restaurant we find lots of Pelicans!!!

They are BIG birds!

There are a couple of men cutting and filleting fish for the restaurant.

They throw the scraps to the pelicans and they are in heaven.

These three are waiting for the scraps thrown up high.

They'll catch them mid-air too.

They seem to be very hungry.  

They fight over the fish sometimes having six pelicans all holding on to the same fish scrap.

Sometimes they fly up to catch the piece being thrown over.

Inside Bubba Gump's Shrimp Co.

I thought Jordan would love the pillars covered with license plates.

Here we all are sitting down for dinner.  We're having a great time!!!

This portion of the bridge right outside the restaurant is opening for boats to go through underneath.

Some boats are just too high so the road opens up.

Here I am in Bubba's shoes.

See the box of chocolates on the side of the bench?

Elder Draper's feet don't quite fit into Bubba's runners .... oops, sneakers.

Pelicans sunning themselves.  It is a beautiful day!!

This is Patricia Fawcett with Elder Prince.

She is a precious daughter of God!

She is so sweet and so excited to be baptized.  

Elder Prince is an amazing missionary.  We love him!!

Our back yard with some blossoms.

More lilies in the back garden.

We had tons of them.

Elder Draper takes pictures of me practising the organ.

This is for Jordan too.  Have we almost seen all of the states now?

This is a creek.  Sometimes you can see water but mostly this is the sight you get.

You'd hardly guess it was water.

Some of the swamp water in the trees look like this.  

It's hard to tell it's a swamp because there is no water to be seen.

Elder Draper standing in front of the house.  These bushes are beautiful!!

More lilies in back.

This is actually Elder & Sister Mott's office.

Every time they leave the office the AP's use it because it is a nicer office than theirs.

Elder Mott came in and just decided to change the names on the door.  After all.......

Elder Zed (Zylstra) looks so pleased with himself.

This is the real Elder Johnson without his lips swollen from his allergic reaction.

They are fun Elders!!

This poor little frog didn't make it when the door got shut.

Sister Driggers had a fit when I took the picture. 

 She wants everyone to know that she really does clean her house..... and,

I'll swear to it.  She DOES!!!!

Sister Draper in front of the house.  I match the bush today.

We've still got more pictures to post to catch up.  See you soon.  With love from the Drapers!!!

A couple of pictures I missed.

These were supposed to have been with the others like it.

These blackbirds were in our yard for several days.

Along with them we had, without exaggeration, thousands of robins.

They were wonderful but we hardly dared go into the yard for fear of being soiled.

They were everywhere.

This is looking in one direction and the one further down is looking in the other direction.

This went on for about 2 - 3 weeks.  It was so fun to see and watch, not to mention the beauty of the songs sung.

We have lots of mourning doves and they have such a mournful song.  I love them.  We also have many mocking birds.  They really do mock the other birds.  They can have up to 200 different songs to sing.

We have taped them a few times.  It is fabulous!!

Fun in Florida

Missionaries are a highlight of our mission.  We love these young men who are so valiant!!!

Elders Wright, Navarrette, Talbot, Nemelka

They are loving their lives in serving.  It shows!!

These are two of the office missionaries.  Together these two will keep you laughing constantly.

Elders Chambers and Mott

They are always up to something.

I love this beautiful little flower.  

It looks like a powder puff.

These are Azaleas so I'm told.  They come in a variety of pinks and peaches.

Our backyard.  These blackbirds came in by the hundreds!

Fun in the backyard.

For Jordan

This is the hedge outside of..... well you know the place.

This is the Winter Haven bishop's home.

It is beautiful to say the least.  They are so generous with it too.

They have their ward parties at their home many times.  It is open for anyone at anytime.

A close-up of the home.

We were invited for dinner one Sunday but had to turn it down.

It was the Sunday of the recital.

Our Zone Leaders are in his ward.  I think our next Zone P-day is going to be here!!

A visitor at our house.

Janis will remember our own little pet turtle.

Look at the snails that have attached themselves to him.

You can see he was in a fight with something from his broken shell.

There are two spots that are damaged like that.

Jordan, I'm always thinking of you.

Is that not spectacular???

These bushes are everywhere.

This one is particularly beautiful!

Elder Draper is showing the Elders something about the oranges.

We are learning a lot about oranges!

Here he's tossing some of the last of the tangerines down.  

The ones on top are the sweetest, especially on the south side of the tree.

The longer they stay on the tree the sweeter they get and

the blossom end is sweeter than the end attached to the tree.

These were so wonderful today.

We had a wonderful experience at our home out in the yard today.

We were all fasting and this is how they broke their fast.

These truly were the sweetest oranges ever eaten!!

They even got some Grapefruit.  You can see their bags are being filled.

We are so blessed to have this fruit where we can pick whenever we want.

Any time we want we can go out to the orange grove with Brother King to pick too.

This little Azalea bush is just getting ready to blossom out.

This tree is also in our yard.  It is just getting leaves.  

It only dropped last years leaves about 1 1/2 months ago.

Below the tree in the garden are all these little trees that the tree starts to grow each year.

Brother King has to pick these all out and there are hundreds of them.

You can see the vines hanging over the bushes.  Soon they will be green and beautiful.

We have many cardinals at our house.  We wake up to them chirping each day.

One comes and sits on our windowsill about 5 minutes before our alarm goes off.

It wakes up Elder Draper and he's lost those precious last 5 minutes.

So sad!!

The is a Coral Snake.  

You have to wear gloves to work in the gardens here.

It does NOT have fangs to inject poison but it has many teeth and he will take hold of you and just keep biting and biting filling you with deadly poison.

It is a beautiful little snake though isn't it?

If black touches red it's poisonous.

We love our Mission President!!!  His personality is just what you see.

He is so full of love and support and trust.  He follows the Spirit ALL of the time.

President Summerhays with a lemon!!

Isn't that the worst looking lemon you've ever seen?

They love the lemons though so he was happy for this last little lemon!!!

The Assistants

Elder Johnson and Elder Zylstra

So he will remember us, we call him Elder Zed.

They were in the Mott's office working when we came in.

Elder Mott went and changed the names on the door because 

these guys always steal the Mott's office when they're out of the office.  

(It is a nicer office.)

Look at the look on Elder Zed's face.  He's a card!!!

We love them!!  They are great trainers too.

Time is flying by but the work is going forward and we are having fun.  Our experiences will stay with us forever and we wouldn't trade them for anything!!!

When the Lord promises that you will find your life in the service of others, he is absolutely right!!

His promises are sure!!!  We are so grateful.

We love and miss you all.  Plan and prepare for a mission now.

At the Organ

This is the organ I played my Recital on.  

Almost exactly like my organ at home in Calgary.

This was not recital day.

He took these pictures for Sister Hopkins 

with the thought that these might have been posted in the newspaper.

The recital was a success with 112 in attendance and about 40 of those were non-members or less-active members.  It was a good evening in all.  The spirit was so strong.  I played some classical organ and then played some hymn arrangements on the organ and some on the piano too.  As I introduced each one of the hymns, I told a little of their story and added a scripture about our doctrine that went with the hymn.  We put the words to the hymns in the program so that our guests could read the words as I played.  Before I played Joseph Smith's First Prayer we had one of the missionaries here who has really impressed both Elder Draper and me, recite the first vision story in Joseph's own words.  It was a highlight for the evening.  He did such a fabulous job.  He looked people in the eyes as he spoke and was really led by the spirit. There were many tears shed.  Elder J. Nemelka is his name and we love this missionary!!  His mother would be so proud of him.

 Elder Draper wants to post a little video but can't yet figure out how to do it.

Baptisms!!!!

Hi everyone!   We are still loving our mission so much.  We are having a great time working with the young elders in our ward.  They are so hardworking and are receiving blessings for their faithfulness and obedience.  We are a 'Preach My Gospel' mission.  We're all ready and studying it together right now and it's fun to see all the new things that you find each time you read.  It's like scripture to us.  We've been working with the elders in teaching a couple of women in our area.  They live in a half-way house and are the sweetest people you could find.  Their spirits are soaking in every principle we teach.  Yesterday Patricia (19 years old) was baptized and confirmed today in Sacrament meeting.  I can really see the wisdom in waiting for the confirmation to be done on a day or so after the baptism.  She got such a wonderful welcome from the members of the ward today.  Her friend, Robyn (about 40 years old) told us after Relief Society today that she wanted to be baptized next Saturday so we are looking forward to that.  The Lord loves us all and I can see these two women will be strong forever as the ward helps them with rides to activities.  Each time we go to meet with them they are out sitting on their front step just waiting for us with big smiles on their faces.  I love the sweetness about them and the trust in their eyes.  We have been so blessed in finding these darling sisters!!
Elder Draper and I were able to attend a meeting with all the Zone Leaders in the Mission on Friday.  What a blessing it is to spend time with these fine young men.  They are so zealous to achieve goals and to fulfill our purpose for being here.  Where else could you find such a gathering of such young men who love the Lord are are willing to serve with ALL their hearts, might, mind and strength?  We are truly blessed to be in their presence!  Our Mission President is fabulous.  He has such love in his heart for us all!!  I love him!  You should check out his profile on mormon.org.  His name is Bruce Summerhays.  The church came and did a special interview and video of him for this purpose.  It's great!  He is a giant of a man and his sweet wife is so attentive to his needs and serves so well by his side.  She is such an example to us!!  It's such a marvellous blessing to be serving here and now.  May the Lord bless you all as you serve in your callings too.
I am putting on an Organ Piano Recital for Missionary work on March 20th here.  It will be a Sunday night Fireside.  I hope I will be blessed to play well so that the Spirit can teach and bear witness to those attending that they may feel something special as they have an experience with the Spirit of the Holy Ghost.  Our hope is that everyone will bring a friend or two.... or three.  Please remember me in your prayers so that I will be able to play well with the help of the Lord.
We love you and think of you often.  We miss you but are so happy and busy here.  Till next time.