THANKSGIVING WEEK BLOG #32

THANKSGIVING WEEK BLOG#32

I decided that Elder Judd could write most of the blog this week. He did a fantastic job.  He might  be doing it again!

This is the last day of November, with one week left in this semester at the Institute and the daily temperatures in the 70’s, it just does not seem possible that we only have 24 days until Christmas. Only a few of the millions of trees in this part of Florida have lost their leaves and they did not turn colors but turned a dingy brown and then fell to the ground. The great majority of trees, palms, pine, and others keep their leaves all year. So the green-ness of the trees, the warmth of the weather and the overall summer like weather we are having just does not lend itself to “starting to look like Christmas.”

We feared that no one would come due to it being the day before Thanksgiving, but I had 8 YSA show up for class and we had a great lesson.  After class, several of the students continued to talk about the subject (that Satan has no power over us except what we give him - by our choices).  Five of the students were very appreciative of the lesson and expressed their gratitude for what they had learned. Several of the students stayed around and we all talked for quite a while. We did not get home until after ten pm. It was a great evening and turned out so much better that we thought it might.

Thursday, Thanksgiving Day was different when compared to the traditional way we have celebrated it in the past. We had a leisure morning with no food preparation and left for Sarasota at about 11:30 am to get in line at the Der Dutchman Restaurant where four of the five senior couples in our mission were meeting for the big dinner. When we arrived at about 12:30 pm there was a line of people out the front door just to get their name on the wait list. That line took about 20 minutes. We planned on all meeting at 2:30 and we actually did sit down about that time.  It was a great meal with all the traditional foods and trimmings plus roast beef and about nine different kinds of pie to choose from.  There was apple, pumpkin, pecan, raspberry, rhubarb, blueberry, blackberry, cherry and also coconut cream.  I had to stop at three before I popped.  I could only taste the pumpkin, blackberry, pecan and rhubarb. My last attempt was at the blackberry and I could only try about two bites.  We had a great visit with all and then bid our goodbyes and got back on the road back to Tampa. It was a good day. 

Friday started early for us because we planned to drive to the Orlando Temple for a session. It was beautiful and clear and a little on the chilly side for Florida, about 54 degrees at 8 am. We had a nice session at the temple with about 40 people in the group. The Orlando Temple is situated on a hill in a beautiful upscale area north of Orlando. The grounds look what I think the Garden of Eden looked like. It is a gorgeous setting with the white stone temple as the centerpiece, for the new winter flower arrangements around the temple they planted a lot of poinsettias. They were beautiful and so different that what we can plant at home. After the session, we sat in the car facing the temple and ate our lunch that we brought with us. 

We then drove to Clermont to find Brandon, Mandy and Rusty’s house on the Lake (Minnehaha). Brandon is a professional class wake boarder and the house they rent literally sits about thirty feet out in this large lake. The setting is beautiful and serene. Their back porch is fixed up with two hammocks, a fish-cleaning sink and two old wake boards attached to some 4x4’s to make a quaint bench for two. While we were there, Brandon invited me to try to catch some fish from the porch.  I caught three Blue Gill and two cat fish. Who would have thought that I would catch fish in Florida? I threw all that I caught back. Of course, We took some pictures for proof. We had a nice visit with Brandon and his family. They had just bought a Christmas tree, so I helped them set it up. Rusty is 9 months old and such a good natured baby and really cute. In the late afternoon, we went to the Crooked Spoon restaurant for hamburgers together, then Marsha and I started for home. In the process, we didn’t trust our GPS in the car so we had to call Brandon to get the right way back to Tampa. It is not fun being in Florida when you are lost, there are no reference points for direction. This is the hardest place to get around for me. With no mountains for reference, I just do not do well. Sister Judd gets along a lot better than I do.  After getting directions, we got on the right road and headed home. It was a nice, relaxing day, which has been quite different from the busy schedule we have had since we arrived in Florida.

On Saturday, we started our day by joining a few of the YSA at the church to take care of the cleaning for Sunday. This week there were about four more than last week, which made the effort much easier. In the afternoon we joined Jonathon and Christine Hopegood (Sister Hopegood is our Support Specialist at the Institute) in attending a free water ski show on Tower Lake about 15 miles west of Tampa. Here we were in our shirt sleeves on folding chairs next to a small lake with the temperature in the 70’s, watching about twenty professional water skiers show their stuff. They did all kinds of tricks including going off a jump and doing summersaults to forming pyramids of three high. At some point there were as many as ten or twelve skiers all behind one boat. It was a great show and it really did feel like we are in Florida. This is quite a contrast from the time we spent in Calgary, Alberta… from a winter in the deep freeze to a winter in a summer place. (One of Florida’s many license plates boasts “Endless Summer” on it.) After the show, the Hopegood’s took us out for Pizza at a nice place. We had a great time and it was good to get to know them better thru this experience. Jonathon is a non-member and from England. He has a very English accent and is interesting to talk to. I hope we can get to know them better. On the way back, we stopped and picked up a couple of movies and spent the rest of the evening finishing off this restful few days quietly in our apartment. 

I have been writing to a young Elder who moved down south after his transfer, he told us this experience of “finding” a woman to teach. This is just like all the missionaries .They are having more and more experiences with people who want to know Christ and his teachings .

Elder telling us about his experience: “My companion and I were about to go finding, before that we prayed and requested for a specific direction to go to. We were prompted to go down a service station about 5 minute walk from our apartment complex to the gas station. 

As we got there, we were just standing there trying to look for opportunity to talk to people but there were not many people out there, so we felt a bit discouraged. We were gonna go to another finding place any time sooner but we felt a strong prompting that we should be patient.2 minutes later, this lady pulled up to fill her gas and so we talked to her and we showed her the He Is The Gift video.

 As we were showing this video to her, tears started filling her eyes as she felt the spirit talking to her. She has been going through a hard time in her life and she did not even realize how she had a Loving Father who gave her a very sacred and precious gift. 

She said that Heavenly Father sent us to her at that time because she feels lost and we were there to help her find her way. 

She really enjoyed the video and she was willing to set up a schedule for us to come and see her again.”

Everyone needs to watch the video ‘He is the Gift’.  It is a great 3 minute movie that testifies of Christ.

Working with this age group is so great. Marsha and I love to be around them and work with them.  I think this work keeps us young if we can keep up with them!!!  We are spending this evening working on writing the events of this past week.