You have something coming in the mail, but it's going to be late...so
in the mean time, gonna send a video to you!
Wednesday we helped K by cleaning her trailer that she used to live
in 5 years ago. She moved out because holes were developing in the
floor, so animals were coming in and out. She left when her bathtub
fell through. We helped her take everything in the living room and
kitchen areas out by the side of the road to be dumped, and scavenging
through books to find her family history research so she can scan it.
I can see why it would occupy her kind a lot. She doesn't own the land
and the owners want to demolish the trailer. She seemed really
relieved! I'm so glad we could help her.
Thursday we had our first Zone Meeting of the transfer. It was all
about teaching more with the Book of Mormon, and centering our
teaching around the Atonement. Knowing the Bible is good and
everything, but the Book of Mormon is the great converter. Elder
Shelton, the new District Leader for the "Normaquana House District"
(Normandy, Timuquana, and Whitehouse Wards put together), has assigned
me to train on PMG sections "The Book of Mormon and the Bible Support
Each other" and "Use the Book of Mormon to Respond to Objections." I
was doing pretty good of flying under the radar till now. I've given
two sacrament meeting talks so far out here, but I've only given one
training. I'm a lot more nervous about this than I was for the
sacrament meeting talks. Elder Shelton asked that I specifically touch
on how to respond when people have the question about this scripture
in the Bible:
"18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the
prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God
shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
"19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this
prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and
out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this
book."
(Revelation 22:18-19)
A lot of people ask us about this. I have several answers and things
I've told people, some that have worked and some that haven't like: 1.
The Book of Revelations is what this scripture is referring to, not
the whole Bible. Revelations wasn't stuck at the end of the Bible till
hundreds of years after it was written. John didn't want anyone to
change his letter. 2. There's a scripture just like that in
Deuteronomy, yet people kept adding to the Old Testament despite it.
But we want to reap olive this conflict using the Bible and the BoM
together (mainly using the BoM). I have an idea of what I'm going to
say, but do y'all have any thoughts on this? I'm giving the training
this coming Thursday morning. Email me up to Wednesday night at 9pm
and I should get it. Thanks!
Back to this past Thursday. I think I've told y'all that Sister McCann
and I were cutting out unhealthy stuff in our diets, mainly sugar,
dairy (since I'm not supposed to have that anyway) and gluten. I've
been eating a lot of stuff I never would have eaten otherwise...like,
rice milk, rice patty's, oatmeal, lots more vegetables :p, these
interesting banana oat pancake things we use as bread a lot. Sister
McCann is really creative with this stuff and her mom has got some
good recipes. After Zone Meeting though, the other Sisters wanted us
to stop by Arbies cause they wanted something from there. I was having
some really big mood swings that day (we had just started, and my
theory is that I was going through withdraw or something) cause on the
ride home one second I wanted to punch them out of the car for eating
that deliciousness in front of me, and the next second is was about to
burst into tears. I think I've stabilized now, but those first couple
of days were rough. My poor companion. She's awesome.
After lunch on Thursday we went to go help a returning member clean
her apartment. Mostly we helped with the big things, and when the task
of cleaning wasn't so daunting anymore, she joined in. We dumped a lot
of stuff. Sister McCann and Sister Carr rolled the many bags to the
dumpster using a stroller. Sister McCann thought it was pretty funny.
"Do course this is what strollers where made for!"I wiped off the fan
in the front room. It was a dark brown color when I started, but when
I finished, it was brand new white! Awesome analogy of the Atonement
of Christ. I love cleaning. Everybody should go on a mission just for
that fact - to learn how to clean. We get reamed by the Senior couple
in JAX West (the Van Blankenstiens) if our apartments aren't up to
par.
We found a lot of new gators in the last little while. There's this
almost 90 year old lady we've seen a few times named Irene. She says
the most interesting things. Don't know if I told you last week, but
she let us put in her hearing aids to see what it was like. She just
says the most darnedest things. Love her. She has read from where we
asked her to read from the BoM so that's good. We might drop her
though, she seems to want to stick by her Lutheran roots.
Friday was great. We had a super solid member present lesson with
Kati, and solid lesson with a new gator named C. We were biking
home from C place when Sister McCann and I decided we wanted a
sugar free reward. We stopped at the Hess Gas Station next to our
complex when she hesitated. She wanted to get the treat Saturday night
instead so she could drink it over Sunday. I told her to not
procrastinate the day of her repentance. She laughed and we got our
drinks. As we were leaving, she insisted that we wait a moment so I
could taste it (it's her favorite drink and I haven't had it before).
While I was sipping (it's actually pretty good) she screamed out,
"Girl!?" In her best accent. J, one of our gators
who is really hard to get ahold of, had just pulled up to get gas! We
invited her to General Conference, and she came!!!!! We're calling
this our "Diet Dr. Pepper Miracle."
General Conference was great!! We had four gators watching. E saw
the first two sessions, Sister Alvarez saw the Sunday Sessions, J
saw the last session, and K watched all four. From what I saw, we
were the only companionship besides one of the Timuquana Sisters who
had gators there. :( The Sunday sessions were perfect for gators!!! I
was cheering in my head for the one guy who sounded Russian who said,
"one mustn't roam through garbage." I loved Elder Holland's talk, as
usual. Kind of disappointed they put him first. Then I couldn't look
foreword to him the rest of the conference! Are y'all gonna start
sending me stuff that you've learned from Preach My Gospel?
Love all of y'all's faces!!!
-Sister Carlson
