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| Sister Murray at the beach. The mission ends where the sand starts. |
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| Jacksonville Beach. |
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| A Sail Boat |
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| Florida Kisses-I know what happens when you kiss a frog...but what about a gator? |
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| The Easter Bunny Comes to Missionaries too!! |
Last Monday we picked up the Ft. Caroline Sisters (Houtz and
Williams) and headed to the beach! We planned to meet the Jax Beach
Sisters (Joseph and Liao) at a little Italian Ice shop called Rita's. As
we are looking at the ice cream flavors we hear the door open. Guess who
walks in? President and Sister Craig!!! Straight from the
beach! Haha, their hair was all wind blown and they had definitely been
in the sun. Their daughter and son-in-law came to visit for a week before
she ran the Boston Marathon. It was so fun to see them, and we got a good
laugh when President Craig talked about how nice it was to not be wearing a
suit. After ice cream we drove to the beach and walked on the sidewalk that is
as close to the beach as you can get without being on it. We found a fun
little gift shop with shells, alligator heads, postcards, t-shirts... all the
fun stuff! Do you want to guess who was there? The Atlantic Beach
Elders! We were running into all sorts of people we knew!
Tuesday morning we took our car into the shop for a
repair. Last transfer we had a slight adventure with the front right
fender but we were all safe and the car wasn't damaged much either. It
was a tender mercy in a way though because we got to spend the entire day with
the Ft. Caroline Sisters on Sister Houtz's birthday! We went to Sweet
Tomatoes for lunch and they went to pick up something from a member and it
turned into a whole surprise birthday party! So that kind of took up the
day and then we went to the Mandarin building to skype the twins for a lesson
before institute.
Still no car Wednesday. We did some tracking with the
Ft. Caroline Sisters before we got kicked out of the apartment complex.
The manager came right in the middle of a great lesson with this amazing YSA
aged man! He was a professional fighter and he just started meditating
and looking into religions. He was the first door Sister Hale and I
knocked at so it was a blessing we started with his door before the manager
came and got mad at as. People don't understand the difference in
soliciting and proselyting. That apartment complex must be super elect
for us to get kicked out that fast. Satan doesn't want us there!
Haha, that won't keep persistent missionaries away for too long! We have
to go back and see the man we left a Book of Mormon with AND the Ft. Caroline
sisters met a YSA aged girl we will go see too!
Wednesday night our ward mission leader, William, took us
and the YSA Elders to dinner at Bono's BBQ. He has so many funny stories
from his mission in Paraguay! We were laughing the whole time! Our
Elders are so funny too!!! They always have good stories.
We finally got the car back Thursday evening! We are
so blessed to have a car, and now we really appreciate it! Just a few
hours after getting our car repaired we got our hearts crushed. Kristen
messaged us on Facebook and told us she couldn't get baptized on Sunday.
She's not ready and she wants to learn more about Catholicism because she's not
sure she gave it a fair chance.
Friday night we had a lesson with Caitlin and Kristen about
the Book of Mormon and it was so powerful! Kristen reassured us she is not
done learning, she just wants more time to be sure this is right for her.
After the lesson Sister Hale and I agreed that we felt a great peace that she
needed this time to gain her testimony. We will need to be patient.
The hardest part is that both of them are going home for the summer this
Friday. We are planning on contacting the ward, and missionaries
there. We are going to miss these girls!
After the lesson Sister Hale and I went on a trade-off with
the Sister Training Leaders. Sister McCleary stayed in our area with
Sister Hale and I went to Hendricks with Sister Heckel. We visited a
woman who is less active. She is YSA age and has a son. I was
excited she might want to know more about the YSA activities. Then she
pretty much started bashing YSA's and the programs. I am really not one
that gets mad, but it took so much control not to get frustrated with
her. You do not mess with my YSA's! I was able to tell her how much
I love the YSA's and I told her about the upcoming CES broadcast, institute,
and all of the other great activities.
Saturday morning Hendricks Ave. ward had an Easter
Breakfast. It ended up being fruit and donuts. It was weird being
in a family ward, but it was so fun to watch the kids do the egg hunt.
After that we went to help a member moving into their ward. Of course,
she was moving into an apartment on the third floor and she had a ton of heavy
furniture. That was a really good work out! Gratefully we have some
strong Zone Leaders and several men from the ward made it out. She was a
sweetheart! She even had fruit and donuts for us. Haha, it was a
sugary day.... Good thing donuts are not much of a temptation for
me! Now fruit on the other hand... yummy! We went home for showers
and lunch. If we had waited a few hours we could have stood outside in
the rainstorm and been clean! It was pouring!!!! I love the
rain!
That evening Sister Hale and I were happy to be together
again. We were able to go to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's performance of
Handel's Messiah for about an hour. It was beautiful! I am not sure
if I could listen to hours of opera, but an hour was perfect! (It looked
like we enjoyed it more than the Elders, haha!!) The musicians are all so
talented!
Sunday was a wonderful day to reflect on our Savior's life
and sacrifice. It wasn't much different than other days work-wise, but
there were two beautiful musical numbers in sacrament meeting and two wonderful
speakers. I am truly grateful for all that my Savior does for me. I love
him and am grateful to know that with His help I can continue to repent and
improve each day. I've loved all of the BecauseofHim posts on
Facebook. If you haven't seen the video yet check it out Here: http://easter.mormon.org/
Watch it and think about all of the things you can and will do/become because
of Christ!
I Love ya'll!!!
Sister Murray
