December 14, 2015

Whew, I don't even know where to begin. This week has been wonderful. First of all, our zone leaders challenged us to set a baptismal date every day this week. It seemed kind of crazy. It is crazy actually. But we worked really hard and I feel like we accomplished a lot. We set a lot of dates. We're teaching more lessons than I ever have before on my mission. It's great, gotta go out with a bang ;)

"Our District"

We followed promptings to do some things that didn't make any sense to us. We went to visit P's cousin, M, and said a prayer with her. She is not interested at all and was a little weirded out. It was super awkward, but we're all really glad that we did it because we felt like we should do it, and we did. I still have no idea why, but thankfully God does :)

Photo from Thanksgiving.
The burnt fried turkey.

J and D W are getting baptized on Saturday!! We're super excited. It's a little bittersweet because we want the whole family to get baptized together, but as I've said, their situation is very complicated. Maybe I'll tell you all about it someday :) But the mom, P, was telling the boys what a big responsibility this is how they better never EVER turn back. She was teaching them all this stuff that we didn't even know she understood, it was awesome :)  She was getting pretty intense about it, to the point where D said "It should be a commandment to honor your children." I love that family :)

"We were going to go on a run with the young women
but we got rained out.  Because, Florida.
The girl in the middle is our investigator, H."

We had our ward Christmas party, so that was fun and yummy. It was Polar Express themed and very beautifully decorated. I am so excited for Christmas next week! We're having a mission Christmas party at the beach tomorrow, so that should be fun. Ahh Christmas is almost here!! It doesn't feel super Christmasy because it's still in the 70s and 80s. Warmest December of my life, I love it :) Although I hear NC has been pretty warm lately too!

"A lot of missionaries here go running, not just for fun,
but like at a 5K or something.  They give out pass-along cards.
I've only done one, it was just a small one for a member's school." 

We also saw an alligator! It's the first one I've really seen in the wild. All the other ones I've seen have been at nature preserves where you go specifically to see stuff like that. But this one we just saw when we were out tracting, just chilling by a pond. It was awesome. Sister Foderaro was pretty happy because she's never seen one before, she thought they were a myth :) She couldn't stop smiling the rest of the day :)

"This one is really old.
It's from when I first got to Riverview."

Weirdest moment of this week: We knocked on a door and dogs answered. Yup. Two HUGE Great Danes. Apparently they're smart enough to open the door on their own. They just stared at us. Then one of them ran away and the owner had to go get him. Super awkward. Only animals want to talk to us.

Have an amazingly Christmasy week everybody!

"It snowed!  In our fridge. . . "

Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men,and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven. -D&C 121:45