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.

The Answer to the Puzzle

Some of you were close in guessing that it was fabric of some kind.

It was my skirt.

I was bored one day while we were driving and took the picture.

COOL, eh??

These are ALL oranges.  The red ones are delicious.  

The orange ones are very sweet.

The yellow ones are good too.  We use them in juicing.

The water here is so rusty in many places.

The marks on the house are from the garden hose watering.

Isn't that amazing?

This is at the same house.

The fence has been watered as well as the other posts there.

Here you go Jordan.

This house is right beside the elders old apartment.  

They moved this week to a new apartment.... brand new!!

Little goats on the side of the road.

They are so cute!!

There are quite a few cacti here.

Not as many as in Arizona.

Some fun colors!

This bush is covered with flaming vine.

Pretty pink flowers are along a lot of hedges.

This tree is covered tightly with vines. 

 I'm going to watch and see if it gets leaves this year.

The leave are starting to come now.

Another fun house.

Here is a good picture of an orange grove.  

This is very well taken care of.

Of course these oranges are all picked.

Pictures with the vines covering the undergrowth.

I was looking for alligators in this little pond.

It's kind of marshy at the edge.

We see quite a few horses down here.

This is an osprey nest.  

Can you see her sitting on the nest up there?

She'll sit there forever until the birds are hatched when the father brings food to the nest.

This was a Tarpon Springs.

There are tons of pelican here waiting to be feed.

There is a sea food shop right along here.

They are waiting for the scraps to be dumped into the water.

Isn't this a beautiful home along the edge of the water.

Pelican in the water.

I like the way they put their beaks right down on their necks.

This osprey comes here every year for the past five years.

At the end of the season the nest is destroyed but she builds a new one every spring for her next babies.

We took this so you can see how the nest is built better.

They use quite big pieces of wood.

Another beautiful home along the water's edge.

They have a beautiful boat too!!!

THis was a funny boat that went speeding by.

They must have built the chair up themselves.

COOL!!!

Now this is what I call 'therapy'.

These are those birds that have to sun their wings feathers until they are dry before they can fly again.

An Anhinga bird

Sister Mott and I are gathering sea shells.

The best ones are just out in the water a little.

I decided to get my shoes wet!!

She went barefoot and got her feet cut on the broken shells.

Heading back to the boat.

Our bags are full though.

Sister Summerhays is on the phone.  

Elder Chambers is carrying his shoes with the shades on.

Elder Leavitt is sitting with his arms folded on his lap.

Sister Mott is in the foreground holding her camera.

We passed this tiny island.  There is a man on it and tons of birds.

We have a dolphin travelling with us.

At the docks the pelicans are just waiting for dinner.

More pelicans.

The one lying down with his back to us 

but his head is laying on his back so his face is pointing towards us.

He's just on the left side of the two posts together.

The fish for sponges here.  

There are lots of them for sale around town.

I'm holding one of my shells here.

Elder & Sister Tuft are coming along.

She's in white and has the black purse over her shoulder 

and he's right behind her.

Dinner at a Greek Restaurant

From left to right around the table:

Leavitts, Knights (can't see them well), me, 

President and Sister Summerhays across from me,

Tufts, Chambers (They have gone home now.  This was their send-off.)

Sister Mott has her back to us.  Elder Mott isn't well today.

Elder Draper got a shot of me going into this little shop.  

I didn't buy anything!!!

This is the moon just coming up.

It is the orange ball just under one of the street lights down on the left.

It didn't take long for it to lose its orange color.

I liked this one.  The moon just over the tree tops.

This is the sun setting the next day.

The orange color didn't show up very well.

It really was a deep orange color.

An osprey caught this fish in the lake behind Brother King's house.

Then he dropped it in his front yard.

We could see the punctures the talons left on the fish.

These flowers are coming out before the leaves show up.  

They are all over and they are so bright and beautiful.

I was out in the car ready to go for the day's work.

I guess I should wear shoes!!!

These would be more comfortable though.

A little lizard on the wall.

I love the different signs they have here.

This is an Orchid tree. 

Isn't it gorgeous?

Tomorrow we are having a Ward Chili Cook-off.  We have some friends coming to it and we're excited for the event.  All the men are making chili.  It will be judged.  The women are taking salads and desserts.  I've made a Chocolate 4-Layer Dessert.

The weather is getting warmer here now.  It's not too hot though, just about 30 C.  I know that's better than your weather but I can feel that it is going to be a difficult summer for me.  My hair is one of my big concerns.  They do have hairspray here that is to block the humidity.  We'll see.

The orange blossoms have started coming out and we smell them for the first time last night.  My goodness, it is wonderful.  When I step out of the house it is overwhelming and a welcomed smell.  I wonder how long this will last.  I hope it's a great long time!!  It just fills the air.  It's hard to go somewhere where you can't smell it.  Ahh, the beauties of the earth!!!  I'm grateful for all these creations!