Dear Family,
Everyone down here has started school today (kid school, not UF). When do ya'll start? It feels weird that I'm not going back for Fall Semester. More and more University of Florida students show up by the day! Too bad that most if not all of them would fall under the YSA category and we can't teach them.
I've never heard so much Spanish in my life! Not that it's a bad thing. I can start picking out words like 'Dios' when our Ward Mission Leader is speaking. Brother Driaza is on fire! We went and had a lesson with one of his longtime friends who owns a shop off of Tower Rd last night around 8pm. Half of the lesson was in Spanish (she understood Enlish, but her boyfriend who came in about halfway through didn't), and every now and then someone would come into the store to buy something, but it was a really great first lesson. Miss P is really excited about reading the Book of Mormon! On top of that really great lesson, the Driaza's are also inviting us over to their house for dinner on Wednesday to meet a couple they've been friends with for a while. Member Missionaries!
Along with Miss P , we have another new Gator this week! We went to this neighborhood to see a less active (apparently she moved last year to High Springs, but her records are still in the Ward) and when we found she wasn't there, we started knocking on the doors around her. Sister Shelley was kind of ansy about it because it was a 'No Soliciting' neighborhood, but I was in a major tracting mood that day (which is happening more and more often lately!) and two miracles happend. #1 - I had forgotten a water bottle earlier that day and was really thirsty when BAM! This really nice guy who is Trinity Methodist who wasn't interested, gave us two sealed water bottles! Heavenly Father is so nice to me! #2 - We were about finished knocking five doors around this LA, when BAM! Mrs. M and her two year old daughter Amelia answer the door, and wouldn't you know, Mrs. M doesn't know anything about the church, wanted a copy of the BoM, and was super excited to meet with us again! She also works full time and goes to school, so we haven't seen her since then, but we've been in communication via text. (Hopefully this facebook thing starts up soon...) Haha! Just four weeks ago we didn't have any Gators, or know anyone in the Ward. Now we are teaching 5!
Yesterday Miss Brazil and Mrs. S came to Church! Miss Brazil tried everything in English this time to see if she could understand (I don't think she understood that much, but she said she had a good time). Mrs. S had a great time too! She said she couldn't wait until she got home so she could call her niece in Utah about it. :) We taught the lesson in Gospel Principles class. Along with Mrs. S and Brazil the Elders Quorum President invited a few new couples and a new RC family that just moved in to attend so that there would be some people to participate. This new couple called the Mattox's just moved in and Bro Mattox went on his mission to Malasia. He had a lot of good stories to share. The lesson was on the 12 Spiritual Gifts of the Spirit and he had a really cool story about the Gift of Healing.
Just to explain the title of this letter and the picture attached, we caught a lizard this week in our apartment. It's been living here with us for a few days, and I'm glad we caught it before it died and started to stink. It was really small. Around our apartment there are three animals that you will see without fail every single day. Lizards, squirrels, and cranes (in the river out the back). Catching the lizard was much more enjoyable than trying to catch those huge American Cockroaches.
The other half of the title comes from knocking into a guy's house who pretty much had the bible memorized. He was super nice and loved that we were spreading God's word full time, he was just concerned that we were being deceived by the Book of Mormon. Before we left his doorstep he prayed for us that we would have visions and dreams to help guide and direct us to discern deceiving doctrines. He took a copy of the BoM though and gave us a referral of some Jewish people who lived near him. He reminded me a lot of Scott, that faith healer in 2nd Ward. Same kinds of ideas with the Gift of Tongues, Healing, and Prophecy. Interesting that that was the lesson on Sunday!
Fun idea you might like, Thursday after District Meeting we did a 'Service Project' where we nuked fortune cookies till they were soft (13-20sec depending on the microwave) took out the fortunes, and replaced them with scriptures! Might be fun for Relief Society or something. You have to be really quick though, cause they harden back up really fast!
Anyway. Out of time.
Love ya!
~Sista Lizard Catcher
