BLOG #50 APRIL 6-12

                      BLOG#50 GOOD WEEK  APRIL 6-12

MONDAY  We had to go to Staples  and pick up a banner that will be used for the Bull Market(promotion for clubs on campus) on Wednesday .The banner identifies the institute as a on campus club  It is important that we are recognized so that missionary work can be there.  In the process, we met a young couple that had a flat tire that needed some extra help in taking of the tire. Joel was ready to help them and had the tools to do so. We ended up going to 2 different places to try and fix the tire, but they ended up having to purchase a used tire to fix it. While we were driving around doing this the young man asked us a lot of questions about what we were doing   here and what we believed. After the tire was put on Joel bore his testimony to them. They thanked us for the help and told us that they would accept the call from the missionaries to learn more about Christ. We felt that we had done a little missionary work  here in Tampa.

Tara Hartman came back. She is the young lady that last summer was going to be baptized but would lose her families love and support if she joined the church. It really put her into a tail spin when this happened. She loves her family deeply so she backed off for a while keeping her testimony but not being baptized. Almost a  year later, The situation is still the same and she feels the same about being baptized, but I do not think that she will be able to go through it yet. One day on the Lord’s time table she will be baptized and she will be all the stronger. We will just keep praying for her.

Tuesday we worked all day -- Joel did a test proctor in the afternoon and I did reports. We were hoping to finish earlier in the afternoon, but did not finish until 5:30pm.  We were hoping that we could leave the office about 4:30pm to pick up the Hopegoods for a dinner appointment. Well we made it later than earlier and  all was ok.  One of the students told us about a great restaurant  in Ruskin-near Gulf Port called the Sunset Grill.  It was a great dinner with us eating and sitting and watching the sunset with such great company.  The food was really good by the way. I had a Blackened Chicken pasta with parmesan cream sauce, Joel had a half a chicken with a special rub of spices on it called Jerk Rub , then we had Key Lime Pie. It was so good. We went outside to take some pictures of the sunset and beach with the Hopegoods and us. They are such great people we will miss them greatly.

ELDER JUDD: We wanted to spend an evening with Jean’s one more time and rejoice over the blessings that we have been given to associate with those I baptized them fifty years ago this month in New Hampshire. We had nice visit with Bob and Jan Jeans, their son Rob and his wife Leni, and their granddaughter, Gillyn, and husband , Chris,  and their children: Pheobe, Liddia and Anchor. The children were the fourth generation of members of the Church since Bob and Jan were baptized fifty years ago on April 4, 1965. Visiting with all the family that night was a great experience and we rejoiced in the blessings that we all have enjoyed because of the Gospel in our lives. Literally hundreds of souls have been blessed by Bob and Jan joining the Church. Many missions have been served, many temple marriages, many converts made and many children born to this choice family. I reminded Bob that our association would go on forever and never end because of the blessings we enjoy. We enjoyed their company and ate a rotisserie chicken dinner with baked potatoes and salad that we had brought with us to treat them. It was a great evening. On the way home, Marsha and I stopped at Culver’s for a late night ice cream sundae.

Saturday was spent relaxing a little and gathering up some of the things in the apartment in readiness for packing. Then we were off to the Brandon Stake center to watch the YSA play a challenge game of Ultimate Frisbee with the YSA of  Sarasota. It was a very warm day but with the refreshments and the association of these great young people, we had a good time. On the way home I decided that Marsha had had enough cooking for the week so we stopped for a burger at a local Steak & Shake (not Steak, Shake and Bake as Marsha demands that it is named). In the evening we watched a couple of movies

Sunday, April 12, 2015, we headed off to Church for the baptism of Ami Dunn. Ami is another YSA convert in our ward. Her conversion came thru the efforts of Kenneth Prettyman and Shauna Bowman.