Boynton Beach

Well.. I'm in Boynton Beach.. It's the area directly east of Wellington. So not a huge jump geographically. But as in the people and culture, HUGE difference. It's super ghetto but the people respect us so don't worry about me. The apt is pretty nice. A lot better than my last place. We live there with 2 other elders. They are Haitian Creole missionaries. They're both from Utah (Elders Jones and Furner) Oh yeah, this is an all bike area.............................. ugh. And we bike over an over pass every day. Ugh. My comp. is Elder Ensing. No not Ensign. He's pretty cool. He's only got like 4 months left and he's a good missionary. Oh, and he's from New Zealand! haha. That's interesting. He has an accent. He says "awmen" instead of amen. And when we were locking our bikes in a way ghetto place, he said it was a "dodgy" area. hahaha. But I'm starting to like this area more. I'm guessing I'll be here for a while. Oh and since I've been here, we've set 6 or 7 dates. And a lot of them are super solid. It's awesome.

I'm doing good. I'm just super tired all the time and I just want to lie down. The hours between 10:30 pm and 6:30 am are the shortest time in my whole mission. Ugh. Anyway. The ward here is pretty good. I guess they've had a baptism a week since like December. And we're doing everything to keep that streak going. It's a ton of Hatian people so that's pretty strange. At church yesterday, there was this like 22 yo kid and he was filling out his tithing slip, then he pulls out this massive wad of cash and i'm just like whoa i wonder what he's gonna take out of that for tithing. nope. He just sticks the whole thing in there. It was insane. We are emailing here in the FHC at the church. It's a lot faster and up to date than Wellington.  

Everything is alright here. We talk to lots of interesting people and it's ok. I'm just trying to have a good time. A lot of the time, that's hard. But whatever. There are some really good investigator's here. It should be fine. I'll just continue to work hard. I miss you guys and Love you a ton!

Baptisms and a Transfer

Well... I'm transferring....I'm excited to see new places and people, i just HATE packing.  No more free mcdonalds. haha but it's ok i guess. I'll proabably go somewhere where I can actuallly learn spanish. We only met like 3 people who spoke spanish. And I bet they just said they only spoke spanish so we wouldn't talk to them. Except, I do know how to greet people. That's it. But I loved it here and I'll really miss it. Oh yeah. The baptism. So in order to be baptized, you have to come to church twice. And we have that family, Mary (mom) and 5 girls (ages 8, 9, 10, 12, 13). The mom has only been once and the girls like 4 haha. We were just gonna try to baptize the girls on Saturday, but the bishop wanted them to be baptized as a fam. So we called President Anderson and explained the situation and he asked if Mary had been to any other church activities. The other elders had a baptism the day before the Sunday Mary went to church (that was also supposed to be Keith's baptism.....) So President said that since she went to that, he gave us permission to baptize her. She worked on Saturday and Sunday, so we baptized them all on Friday and just confirmed Mary then too. Oh, and they were about 30 min late to their baptism haha. And, the girls got to sacrament right after the sacrament was passed, so it was a pretty stressful couple of days. Also, President Anderson was speaking in our ward, so That was also very stressful haha. But it all worked out. The girls are Debra (13), JoAnn (12), Starlia (10), LaNeika (9) and Esperancia (8). Esperancia is my fave. We're like best friends. So it was a pretty good week. Nothing else too exciting. Just getting that together. "T's" house arrest got extended to March 29.. Hopefully he'll get baptized ASAP.  All is well with my blood sugars. My sites on my legs keep bleeding.. I'll have to do back more often and maybe even try arm. Mom, yes i got grandma's valentines card. I actually gave the money she sent to a family who doesn't have food. I forgot that the week before transfers, they just keep the mail in the office til transfer meeting. So I just got cards from grandparents and dad's letter. Nothing else :( Next week I'll let you know where I am. And I'll send pics soon. I love you all! Thanks for everything.

Northern Half of the Florida Fort Lauderdale Mission

No Baptism, but Progress

It was an ok week. On Wednesday we got a call (I was 'privileged' to
answer it) and it was Keith saying that he wasn't ready to be baptized
on Saturday....... He wants to know more and experiment other
churches. Ugh.. He stopped reading in the BoM a couple sundays ago so
I'm sure that stopped his progression as well. It's tough, but we'll
continue to meet with him. So no baptism for us Saturday. The other
elders had one for a husband of a member. "T" is doing awesome. He
gets off house arrest tomorrow so he'll come to church this Sunday! He
is accepting of everything we teach and he wants to do all he can to
follow Jesus Christ. He even commited to live the Word of Wisdom and
Law of Chastity with no question! (WoW is usually a problem for people
here) The family, it's a mom(Mary), 4 daughters and 1 niece who lives
with them, is doing great. Mary was able to come to church yesterday!
They all even attended the baptism on Saturday and really liked it.
Mary was called into work late Saturday so she was tired during
church. She fell asleep during Sunday School... but after RS when I
talked to her, she seemed really excited about church. She wants the
girls to be baptized Saturday. We'll have to talk to Bishop and
President for permission though, since they're so young. It's tough
with Mary's job. She either has to wait a whole week to get the HG or
wait almost 2 weeks to be baptized from when she went to church. Oh
well, we'll work something out. We've got a few more gators, who are
doing well. We're jsut helping them with their testimony of the BoM,
because that's the most important thing. I've been so lucky to be able
to study the scriptures every morning. I have Loved reading the BoM
every morning. I plan to read it for just a half hour each morning,
but a lot of the time I just can't stop haha. The BoM truly is the
best thing ever. I love it. I remember once reading the story of
Clayton Christiansen. Well someone mentioned it on Sunday and it's
really cool. You all should read it. The Oxford story. 
Well.. That's my excitement for this week. Oh, tranfers are next
Wednesday! Time is flying. I miss you all like crazy but i love you more!!

Slow but Productive Week!

Keith passed his interview and came to church yesterday so he's all set to be baptized this Saturday! I'll be sure to take pictures. All our investigators are doing good. The mom and her 4 daughters and 1 neice are great. The mom hasn't been to church yet but the girls have been twice. They all have a date for the 18th but the Bishop wants them to be baptized as a family but the mom won't make it because she works every other Sunday so she won't make it twice. We'll see what happens. The rest are kind of progressing. We have an older woman who's pretty solid but she's very close to her church now. Oh yeah, so we were knocking on this girls door who we've seen a couple times, but she didn't answer. So we walk around the corner and guess who we see sitting in his driveway? “T”!! haha. I guess his charges were dropped (whatever they were) so he's on house arrest until Valentine's Day then he's all clean (according to the law, we'll see about spiritually...) but we're going to see him tomorrow. I have a feeling I may stay and Elder Shaffer leave. Who knows. Transfers are Feb 22nd. Coming up quick! Time is flying by. We were talking to one of our investigators' neighbors who we occasionally just talk to and he asked me where I was from and he said I look like one of his friends who he served in the army with. Arthur Larcarti  is the friend. PFC Norman Cook- Battersfield, Germany. He told me to look him up and that's what he told me to tell him. Norman (he told us his name was Mike) is the one I talked to. So if you happen to come across him, tell me. So I think I keep losing my socks. I'm running out of grey and brown socks. You can include that in my next package :) I'll probably send my iPod home soon for new music. Some new songs I'd like: I'm trying to be like Jesus, A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief (with words), and any more you'd like to include. Mom, there's a lady here who is from San Salvador. We ate dinner with her last Sunday. So.. That was cool. She's going to make me Papusa's. Well... Nothing else too exciting. It's pouring rain outside if you're wondering. Hopefully this week will be more exciting. I miss you all like crazy! LOVE YOU!