Our Home in Haines City, Florida

This is our little Christmas corner.

The little heart hanging down the lowest is filled with sand and small sea shells.

The tag says:

"When you hang this on your tree,

Remember the one who walked the shores of Galilee."

The sand dollars were given to us at a Multi-Zone Christmas Conference.

The Christmas card with Simeon holding the Baby Jesus is from the First Presidency.

We feel very honoured to have received that.

This is our living room.

It is a really bright little room but we hardly ever have a chance to sit in it.

There is no time to sit around while you're on a mission.

This is the living room from the other corner.

We don't watch TV but we have two of them.

They don't have DVD machines in them so we can't even watch church DVDs.

Those are our supplies on the shelves and also my music.

This desk sits across from the dining room table.

It's perfect for our computer.

This is our sun room. All these windows open up to screens.

It will be great in the summer if there is a breeze.

We have them open quite a bit right now.

You can't see it here but a little more to the right is where the lake is.

We have a huge yard - 5 acres filled with citrus fruits and other fruits too.

We eat on this table for most of our meals. This is also where we study.

Note that those grapefruits are on dinner plates. They are so good!!!

This is the master bedroom. It has a cute chenille bedspread.

It nice and bright too.

The little door goes into a small walk-in closet.

This is the master bathroom.

It's small but it works.

There is a little shower in this room too.

This is the main bathroom.

The bathtub behind the door has a shower in it too.

This is our guest room.

If you come to visit this will be your room!!

We can push the beds together if you want to.

There is also a large closet in this room.

I've claimed it!!!

There are nice dressers in both bedrooms so we are quite comfortable here.

The Dining Room

The desk is on the left and the table on the right.

We are standing in the kitchen to take this picture and it goes right down into the sun room.

The living room is off to the right just down before entering the sun room.

You turn left just before the desk to enter the bedrooms.

This cupboard is on the kitchen wall end of the dining room.

We are standing at the doorway to the living room looking into the sun room.

This picture is taken from the sun room looking down the other way.

The kitchen is at the end of the house with a bright window at the end.

We have lots of windows to let the light in.

The doorway on the left is the way to the bedrooms.

Another picture looking into the living room.

This is taken from the door of the sun room.

This is a project in progress on the fridge.

I need some more pictures of your children.

I don't have up-to-date pictures of some of the children.

Send me lots of pictures!!!

The pictures Dad took just before we left are not very good.

This is from standing in the doorway - The Kitchen.

Kind of a cool stove, eh?

I like this kitchen. I don't have to take a lot of steps!

A close-up of the little cupboard in the dining room.

This is one of the pictures I made from Mom's funeral flowers.

The other little ornament is a gift from a grand-daughter.

I think of you Aubrey when I see it.

Just like I think of Taelor & Nena when I use their crocheted cloths I use for hot pads.

She even looks a little like you, Aubrey, with long blonde hair.

I have such thoughtful grandchildren!!! Thanks to you all!!!

Well, that's our home away from home.

We feel very blessed to have it.

Hello to everyone!!! There are miracles around us all the time.

I want to tell you about a lady from our ward who we visited in the hospital. Her name is Jackie. A couple of weeks ago she stepped on a staple in her house and it went right into her foot. She pulled it out and cleaned the wound really well, she thought. It didn't seem to bother her until about the third day after it was sore and a little red. She didn't want to ruin Thanksgiving so she decided to go to the doctor on Friday instead of the Wednesday. It was getting more red and sore. Friday she saw the doctor who drew a line around the red part and said that if it went past that line she must go to the hospital right away. It didn't go past the line so she didn't go in. Monday she went to the doctor who asked her what had changed. Jackie told her that it smelled really bad. The doctor immediately sent her to the hospital. The hospital doctor came into the room, took a deep breath in and said, "Gangrene!" Nice gentle way to be told that news, eh? They were trying to get the infection out and within the week they had decided to go in and possibly take off her foot. By Saturday evening they said that they couldn't wait any longer. This was life threatening and now they may have to take her leg off but for sure she would loose her foot. She is younger than me. Sunday was Fast Sunday and the ward was fasting for her. We had been praying for her the whole previous week. Saturday night a brother from the ward, who used to be the Stake President, and gave her a blessing. He blessed the doctors through her and all that would care for her and asked that if the leg could be saved that that may be the case. They went into surgery just as Sacrament meeting was starting. By the time Sacrament meeting was over we had news that they didn't have to take the leg or the foot. What a miracle that was!!! They opened up the bone and drained it and put something in there to keep draining off any infection. She is not totally out of the woods yet but they seem sure that this will work. She also got a flesh eating disease that had eaten away a lot of the foot tissue during that time. She won't be able to put any pressure of any kind on the foot for at least 2 or 3 months. Then she will be in a wheel chair for at least a year. This all has to heal well and the foot needs time to repair what the flesh eating disease destroyed. My goodness, what an ordeal all because she stepped on a staple. She was grateful for our visit. She feels so blessed and is so humbled by her blessings. We were so happy to meet her. She is a really sweet lady and so grateful for the Lord's blessings in her life. She has some less active family in the ward that the bishop wants us to visit. She told us a little of their story. I'm hoping this is a good time for them to turn their hearts to the Lord and decide to make some changes in their lives. We'll see how that goes. We haven't been able to catch them yet but hopefully this week we can. Heavenly Father is so good to all of us. He blesses us all the time. We need to express more gratitude for all that we have. We brightened her day and we felt so edified for having visited her too! The spirit was so strong in the room while we spoke. I'm so loving having the spirit with us in a way I have never felt before. I know Heavenly Father is aware of us here serving in Florida. He wants us to serve and bless these peoples lives but as usual, we seem to receive more blessings than we can receive. It is a wonderful thing to serve a mission. Our testimonies are strengthening. I hope yours are too.

We love you all.

This is an Avocado!! Can you believe the size of it?

It sure was good!!!!

This Palm is a little bit different. I like the thin strips that grow on it.

I should take a picture of the whole tree.

Isn't this a beautiful church building? It is the First Presbyterian Church.

It is on the corner and stands high so we can always find our way home.

I'm not sure if the Presbyterian church should be our beacon though.

This is taken from the side of that church.

It is a very big building! The grounds are lovely.

This sign stands at the exit when you leave the parking lot of the church.

We thought it was quite fitting to take our picture here.

We are on our morning walk.

This gives you an idea of how sandy the land is around here.

Even when you are walking on grass the ground is spongy because of the sand under the grass.

This is in an orange orchard.

Another view of our lake, Little Lake Hamilton.

We are still on our morning walk.

Note the pine tree down by the water. It almost looks deciduous, doesn't it?

The lake is beautiful!!

The sun is rising over the trees in the distance just as we are taking our walk.

What a pretty picture!!! I love the light!

A beautiful Oak Tree covered with Spanish Moss along our road.

I don't know why the moss grows on some trees and not on others.

This moss is growing on an orange tree. You can hardly see the tree for the moss.

I think it looks kind of spooky, don't you?

Can you imagine it on Hallowe'en?

How do you like the size of this grapefruit?

It actually isn't a grapefruit but Brother King couldn't remember the

real name of it at the moment.

He said it wasn't nearly as juicy as a grapefruit but

we thought it was REALLY juicy.

We haven't eaten a fresh grapefruit here yet though.

I should have posted one of the other pictures of this sign without the fence through it.

This is a sign I've never seen before.

No Swimming Allowed

Beware of Alligator

You would think that you could see if there was an alligator in there or not

but apparently they ARE hiding.

This is a mobile home park.

Apparently they are quite sensitive to the term, trailer park.

There are a lot of the here.

Frosty just doesn't look the same in the heat and green grass.

He belongs in the snow. I can see that I'll be a little homesick for the snow at Christmas.

It doesn't seem at all like Christmas to me.

Hopefully it will.

This picture is for Mandi. We thought of you when we saw it.

I wonder why?

I thought this looked like bamboo and then I looked at the stalks.

Yup, that's bamboo alright!!! Neat, eh?

This is the First Presbyterian Church in the evening. Isn't that a beautiful window?

Becky, wouldn't you love to do that?

This feels more like Christmas than any yard decorations so far.

"My arm is out-stretched still."

We had a good chuckle over some of the street names.

Lacy lives on Cut Across Shorty Drive.

However, we didn't see any possums trotting along this avenue.

You never know down here.

We have armadillos that will come and live under our house sometimes.

They have animal control come to take them away when that happens.

Apparently we'll hear them when they come.....

armadillos and racoons.

Hornbergers, you know what it's like to live with racoons, right?

Here's another fun road sign.

We couldn't find our person that was supposed to live on

Broken Wheelbarrow Lane.

We liked the sign though!!! haha

The sign in the front of the house said, "Beware of Dog".

Are these big dogs or small horses?

Actually we did see the dog tied up closer to the house afterwards.

I cropped the picture of the Red Cardinal from before.

It's blurry but you can see it better.

It sure was beautiful and it is the Cardinal we've ever seen in real life!

Elder Draper picked this lemon so we could make some lemonade.

It really is a lemon!!

It's not the right shape or anything but it sure tasted good!!!

Sunset has arrived.

It only takes a few minutes to go from this to dark!! I miss the twilight!!

Grandma Bell and I used to sit through the twilight all the time and visit.

I love that time of day!!!

The sun has just disappeared over the other side of the lake.

The end of another wonderful day here in Haines City, Florida.

We miss you all and love you too. Thanks to you all for your support.

Give us a little comment so we know you're still out there. :) ;)

We've had some really nice experiences already. We stqrted to visit some people on the records of the church to begin finding people.

We knocked on the door of Carole Strickland. She is a woman in her late sixties. She welcomed us into her home right away. It was evident that she has poor health by the presence of an oxygen machine and other things. She began by telling us her son had just passed away and she buried him on November 15th. That was the day we entered the MTC. She was quite teary, of course, as she spoke of him. He had been her care giver for about 15 years and now she was alone and missed him terribly. She was baptized about 12 years ago. She has been endowed in the temple. About 4 years ago she quit coming to church. Her health has been part of her problem but there are others obstacles too. Her Home Teachers visit with her by phone so she has some contact with the church. The Bishop has also visited with her recently, when her son died. The Ward Mission Leader, her Home Teacher, officiated at the service for her son but at the funeral home instead of in the church. We had a very nice visit with her as she told us about her son and other things. She said that she was going to get a blessing one day from someone in the church. When she said that I told her that Elder Draper could give her a blessing. She lit up and asked, "You can?" He said that he could and she asked him if he could give her one at that time. She was trying to quit smoking again and wanted help with that as well as all her health concerns. She has some tests and surgeries coming up that were worrying her too. Elder Draper gave her a beautiful blessing. She was so grateful! After the blessing she asked if we felt "that". She sat in her chair trying to take in the spirit that she was feeling so strongly. We felt it too. She seemed so pleased and amazed at the same time. She said she wanted us to come for dinner and we made an appointment for the following Sunday. We are taking the sacrament to her today with the Bishop's approval. She also asked us to deliver some tithing slips to her. Elder Draper asked if we could help by getting some groceries for her or taking her places she needed to be. She has no way to get around to all her appointments except for the help of her neighbours there. We visited a while longer and then left forgetting to leave our phone number with her. So we returned yesterday to leave our number.

She had been for some tests that day to check her pace maker and she was so tired as a result. She seem quite down when we arrived but as we visited with her her spirits lifted and she was very happy when we left.

We will take the sacrament to her today in about an hour. She is so open and told us the first evening that we were an answer to her prayers. She had prayed for help and then we came. I'm glad we were here to help her and hope to be able to continue to become good friends and help her return to activity in the ward as her health permits.

We also visited with another woman in her late forties yesterday. She seemed so happy to see us and welcomed us into her home. Her name is Lacy. She had a friend there visiting her. They had been playing cards which is a common past time for them. Her friend, Sherry, stayed while we visited and soon Sherry's sister, Kim, came in and joined our discussion.

None of these women are in good health. Lacy was born with pancreatitis and now has Non Hodgins Lymphoma. Sherry had a stroke and also had an emergency surgery for a brain aneurism. She had to learn to walk and talk all over and has some lasting effects from the stroke and probably needs another surgery after Christmas in connection with the aneurism. Kim is receiving Chemotherapy. These three women are such supports to each other. Lacy was raised a member of the church although in a home where she was taken from her mother several times growing up. Sherry and Kim never had any religion as children. Sherry told us that Lacy taught her how to pray because she had never known how. Kim said that Lacy has her calling God Heavenly Father. It gave us opportunity to give a portion of the first discussion in talking about God being our Father and how much he loves us. They all bore witness that God had always helped them. We invited them to come to church and Lacy said she would come. She and Kim will also come to the First Presidency Devotional tonight. When we called Lacy this morning to check on her (We were going to pick her up.), she said she wasn't feeling well and couldn't come but that they still wanted to come tonight. We are hoping that they will follow through with that. We'll call them later to check on them. Lacey also told us that we came in answer to her prayers. She had prayed the day before that she could receive some help with her life and getting things on track. She is sure we came in answer to her prayers.

The Bishop is helping us by giving us the names of people he would like us to try to see. If we all work together I know we will have success. One of the things they kept telling us at the MTC is that the Lord didn't call us on this mission to fail but to succeed. And we will!!

Florida, Mission Home, Thanksgiving, Finally Home

These trees are all pine trees.

The shape is so different from what we see in Alberta.

This is a perfect example of the vines growing up the trunks of the trees.

The vines totally cover the under growth like a blanket of leaves.

It is so beautiful!!!

This is another picture of the blanket of vines.

Sone more tree trunks covered in vines.

This is the same.

I love the beauty of the sun in the clouds!!

One lone palm tree in the field. Isn't it pretty?

Okay Jordan. More license plates for you!!!

New Jersey is even far from where we are here.

I don't know how I did this double but enjoy it!!

Does your Dad like this one? This is his mission area right?

We are seeing lots of these ones now.

I like the alligator on this one.

This is an interesting decal on the rear window of their family.

We sure see some interesting signs down here in the Bible belt.

We hit some traffic on the freeway and this is what I see when I look out of my window.

It was like this, stop and go, for over an hour. Yikes!!!

Needless to say, we were late arriving at the mission home.

We're into the palm trees now.

Aren't they so pretty? I'm sure that I'll get used to them but not right away.

Hooray!!! We are almost there!! It's such a looooooong drive.

Look at the shape of this pine tree.

More sun in the sky! Can you tell I like it?

Out of order pictures. These are our landlords in Haines City.

Brother and Sister King. He is the patriarch here and also is a temple sealer.

What fine people they are!!!!

They are treating us like gold.

At the mission home in Tampa.

Elder Draper is carving the turkey.

This is all they had so they said.

As soon as he put this apron on, Pres. Summerhays came out in a nice masculine apron with a big grin on his face! haha

Outside our new home with Sister and President Summerhayes on the right, us and

Elder and Sister Mott on the left. The Mott's found us our home. We love them for it!!!

Elder Draper was trying to take a picture of the bird behind the tree.

He didn't see the squirrel on the tree.

Good shot!!!!

There were Sand HIll Cranes out back. When Elder Draper opened the door to get a picture,

they flew up in the trees. They came down again. Luckily I got this shot.

Notice the color of it's eyes! It is such a pretty bird.

This one came right up to within 8 feet of the back step we were on.

They peck their bills deep into the ground. The ground is very sandy here.

If you can see closely, he is scratching his head with his foot.

His eye is closed in the picture.

We are back at the mission home in Tampa.

This is out the back door. Heaven? I think so!!!!!

President Summerhays has these shoes on his mantle to remind him of how hard the missionaries are working. The soles are worn right through.

Me with Sister and President Summerhays the morning we leave for our home.

Sister and President Summerhays with Elder Draper

This hibiscus is just outside the mission home. I love it!!

I should have cropped this picture. It is a Cardinal.

This is behind Brother King's house in Engineer Lake.

Can you see the turtle?

It is just below the fish that is catching the food out of the water.

Look at the center of the picture about 2/3's up.

We had fed the fish. This little duck is looking for food too.

Brother King feeds them every morning.

This is at the end of our back yard. Lake Hamilton is just off the property line.

I don't think I'll go into the reeds any further though.

"Alligator Haven"

In our backyard.

Looking up at the back of the house. Those windows are in our sun room.

That's where we eat our meals and study.

See the Spanish Moss hanging off the trees?

These are BIG trees!!! I love the moss!

This is in the front of the house. We have lots of orange trees.

YUMMMMY!

I'm holding a Hibiscus in my hand and I guess you recognize the pointsettia.

Can you believe it?

I'm standing in the street out front. The driveway is to Brother King's house.

The colorful tree is beautiful. Those blossoms first are bright red and then change shades.

They are all over the place.

He must have something important to say!!!

Note the tree behind him.

Another plant in the garden.

Spectacular!

This is also in our front garden.

Here are the sandhill cranes again.

I love how they cock their heads as if to see around a corner.

Looking for food. He's only 10 feet away.

It is amazing to see them. They live here all the time. Normally they run away but for some reason today they are our friends.

They really put on a show for us and we loved it.

We're ready to get to work now. We'll go to church and meet with our Bishop and get some instruction from him. Then we'll be off finding people to teach and to re-activate!!

EXCITING!!!!