Time flies on wings of lightning, we cannot call it back...

Time is becoming more and more valuable to us now.  It amazes me how much time seems to be so much more valuable the older we are and the closer the end of our mission gets.  We have less than 6 months left and there is so much that we still need to accomplish before we go home.  "Time marches swiftly forward to the tick of the clock." (Ardern)  I feel that my clock is ticking extra fast these days.
I love what Elder Ian S Ardern of the seventy said in this quote: "Time is never for sale; time is a commodity that cannot, try as you may, be bought at any store for any price. Yet when time is wisely used, its value is immeasurable. On any given day we are all allocated, without cost, the same number of minutes and hours to use, and we soon learn, as the familiar hymn so carefully teaches, “Time flies on wings of lightning; we cannot call it back” (“Improve the Shining Moments,” Hymns, no. 226). What time we have we must use wisely. President Brigham Young said, “We are all indebted to God for the ability to use time to advantage, and he will require of us a strict account of [its] disposition” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young [1997], 286).

Some days I feel that driving all over town, knocking on doors with no answer and having others slammed in our face is a waste of time.  I guess you might say I get a little discouraged. :(   But then I realize I am on an errand for the Lord and every effort is accounted to our good.  We have often met a neighbor, given a pass-a-long card to someone, visited with a non-member or less active family member and hopefully planted some seeds that day.  :) 

This week we have met people that were very nice and will talk to us, say that they will welcome some home teachers or visiting teachers but they don't want to come to church.  One sister was very upset today that we found her.  How on earth did we find her!  Well, the Lord sent us...but she wasn't interested.  She had had some issues with members in the ward.  We told her that the church was true but that people aren't always perfect.  One man shut the door before we could say a word.  We must look scary!  But the work is not all discouraging.  We had a meeting with Don on Friday and gave him a lesson that will help him stop smoking.  He was very excited to try it because every other attempt has failed and he really wants to stop.  We gave him some tools that should keep helping him when his bells or triggers go off.   We had our meeting at the home of the Kennedy's who recently returned from a mission to the church ranch.  They will be his mentor during this time and beyond we hope.  He came to church today smoke free.  We also had a nice meeting with the Leonards (the artist). He doesn't want to change his episcopalian ways but I know that he has felt the spirit in our sacrament meetings and our lessons.   He talks about how he loves coming to our meetings and the people are so nice.  It will be just a matter of Time.

Two weeks ago we taught seminary and had a great time.  The lesson was on the love of the Savior and his last days on earth.  We held court in the Bishop's office.  The Bishop representing the Lord, Paul the defendant, Elder McKenna the defense attorney/Savior and Elder Farnsworth, prosecutor/Satan.  Paul was accused of many things that he supposedly did.  He plead for mercy.  The prosecutor wanted justice.  I think the kids had a good time and got the message that the Savior loves us all, that he will be there for us to save us if we will repent and do all that we can.  Then on Friday we had an "I love you because..." with the kids.  I started the class with some recap of the week and then told each of the students why I loved them.  Then Paul did the same.  We then handed each of the students a piece of paper with a name on it and they had to tell one of their classmates why they loved them.  It was very powerful.  The spirit was felt.  I love those experiences.  We get to teach again next week.

Don has been wanting to take us to lunch on the beach and so we planned a day and went.  It was a rather hot day but beautiful on the beach.  We went to Clearwater Beach.  We ate at a restaurant  called Frenchy's Rockaway Grille.  There were more senior citizens there than I would have expected.  It was a nice relaxing afternoon.

  

We had a great view of the ocean

This bird kept waiting for just a little crumb of food to hit the ground. 

Last weekend we, as a mission, fasted in gratitude to the Lord for the blessing of having 180 new investigators in a week and 61 baptisms during the month of December.  On Saturday, at 5 pm we all gathered together on a conference call and President Summerhays talked for a minute and then offered a prayer.  On Sunday at 5pm we all gathered together again and had another prayer of gratitude.  It was a good weekend.  I love it when we have these mission wide fasts.  I really feel the spirit strongly on those days.

We don't get bored because we always have something to do:  District meetings, Zone meetings, interviews with the President, cooking and baking to feed the missionaries and take to members in need, studying for lessons, practicing the piano, meeting with new converts, talking with those we meet and visiting members.   I even have a visiting teaching route which I am excited to do.  (I had to do the short version to keep this blog shorter)

This past week we gave a Book of Mormon to a lady, Grace, at Weight Watchers.   We have become good friends the past few months and a couple of weeks ago we were talking to her and she started to talk about her faith and beliefs in the hereafter.  She was referring to the death of her husband.  She is Southern Baptist and was so easy to talk to and was excited to get a Book of Mormon to read.  She said that she would read it.  So we are going in this week to talk to her and see if she has followed through.  She is so sweet and accepting of us.  I can only pray that she will desire to listen to our message.  

We took a morning walk in Sawgrass Park a day last week.   It is beautiful in the mornings with the sun shining through the trees, the birds singing and the squirrels scampering all over.  It is so peaceful there.  I think of the song, For the Beauty of the Earth.  It truly is a beautiful world.   I took a lot of pictures.  One of the boardwalks ended rather abruptly.  A fire had burned out the walk and it was in repair so it shortened our walk a little.  The only thing we didn't see this time was an alligator.  We always see them but they were not around that morning.

 I love the reflection of this bird in the water.

I usually don't get this close to the squirrels

 Looking over Sawgrass from the tower  (Pictures don't always do justice.  The colors were more vibrant.)

 There are lots of spider webs throughout the park.  This was a big one.

 The lake has been under renovation but they are now filling it again.  This should bring more alligators.

 Not sure if it was caused by man or lightning.  Glad it didn't do more damage

Last week as I was going up the stairs to our apartment I passed by a big, big snake.  I didn't see it until I was at the top and Paul calmly pointed it out to me.  I'm glad that I didn't see it before because I would have probably shrieked.   I hate snakes, they scare me.  It was a black racer, not poisonous but when he saw us he slithered away very quickly.

 This is what he looked liked.  Would you want to share the stairs with him?

Well the next time that I write we will be moved.  We are moving just around the corner in our complex.  We have some rather noisy neighbors upstairs (tile floors, spiked heels, yelling while watching ballgames, friday night fights, etc) and we need to be in an apartment that is not so vulnerable.  We still worry about being broken into in this area and hide our stuff every time we leave.  We didn't feel that we could leave another couple with these problems and worries.  Brother Satchel told us to find a place and move so that we can have a place for the next couple that comes in if we are lucky to get one.  This ward needs another couple.  President Summerhays said it would be ideal to have a couple in every ward.  In Florida it would be very beneficial.

We hope that you all have had a wonderful beginning of a new year.  We hope this blog finds you all well and happy.  We really love this work.  The Church is true.  We send you our love.

 

Christmas has come and gone and we are already into a new year.  I always love the Christmas season.  It is such a special time to reflect upon our Savior and all that he has done for us and continues to do for us.  We are so blessed to have the gospel of Jesus Christ and to know of the great Plan of Happiness.  I am so grateful for our Savior, his example for us, his love for us, and his infinite Atonement.  I am also grateful to be engaged in His work.  It has been a blessing in our lives this past year. 

On December 8th we had our ward Christmas Party.  I played the piano for the singing and Paul did the spotlight for the program.  We had a dinner with lots of very good food brought by the members.  We had several investigators and people that we hadn't seen in a while.  It was good to be able to get to know them.  Everyone had a very good time.  The Primary was in charge of the nativity story and scene.  We listened to Walter Cronkite tell the World War II story of how the enemies came together on Christmas Eve.  While we listened we had some of the members act the parts.  Sister Bangerter told the story of the three trees.  It was a very enjoyable evening.

 Young Woman - Smith girls on left/Mallory

Jennifer Karbowski

Bishop Todd and Julie Bangerter

Elder McKenna/Farnsworth  -  Colette Mazey

William Morris - our adopted grandson

Elder McKenna on violin

I finished my colored pencil drawing last month.  We got it framed and hung it on the wall.  I am so enjoying my art lessons on P-Day.   Right now I am trying my hand at oils.  We'll see how that goes.

On Friday, 21st, we had the District Meeting at our humble, little apartment.  We are grateful it will fit at least 10 extra missionaries and 2 neighbors.  It was a little tight at times when they were up and walking around the room. We extended our dining table and brought in a table from the church.  With our neighbors we were short 2 chairs but that was ok because Paul and I were up and down throughout the meal and just sat on the couch.

Elder Farnsworth conducted the meeting for about an hour and a half while Paul and I put the finishing touches on the meal.  We took the pies to our neighbor to put in his oven.  I think I read the instructions wrong because in the short time that they were baking they got a little overdone...(burned actually).  But the meal turned out to be a hit with all the kids.  They pretty much ate everything, including the burned pie with lots of cream.  Before we ate I had prepared some word games for them to play while we got the food on.  I also had done a Symbols of Christmas card for them and gave them each one.  We talked about the symbols before they left.  It was a very enjoyable day and fun with all the elders and sisters.  Our neighbor's daughter, Christina, is dating an LDS boy, which we didn't know about til then.  She told the sisters that she feels that she should be a member of the church.  Paul and I are very excited about that because we think this might open the door for her father, Mel.  He has been a little stand off-ish.  But a very good friend.

Elder Larrabe, Perry,Durrant, Fitzner, McKenna, Farnsworth, Smith, Walker, Sister Turley, Rood and Christina, our neighbors daughter.   l to r

 

We spent Christmas Eve at the Bishop's home.  I made some French bread rolls and Julie made some French Onion and Potato corn soups and a salad.  We both baked some goodies to take with us when we went caroling.  The meal was delicious.  After we had our fill we put together some bags of goodies and went out and to sing to some of the members of our ward.  We directed our path to some people in the ward that the Bishop didn't yet know.  One was a little sister in a care center.  She has no family nearby or anyone that pays attention to her for that matter except the missionaries.  We and the Elders try to visit her on a regular basis.  She was so sweet and appreciative of our visit that night.  

Christmas day started with a walk.  We wanted to go to the park to walk but when we arrived the gate was closed and we couldn't get in.  So we came back and walked around some of the apartment complexes nearby.  It was a beautiful morning.  Paul and I opened our gifts around noon.  Thanks to our children for their thoughtfulness.  At 4 pm we went to dinner at the Hesses' home.  They have a traditional Italian dinner every year.  And I think they always have the missionaries present.  (They joined the church over 40 years ago in this ward and have been here ever since.  They are strong and a wonderful family.  He has never missed Home Teaching his 12 families in all that time.)  We were invited 6 months ago.  It was quite a feast.  They began with a huge Antipasto salad full of meats, cheeses, vegies, olives, etc.  It was piled high.  Topped with anchovies ( I got 2).  I had to push them aside.  I'm not fond of them.

Vicki Engerer

Antipasto Salad

Cute Charlie Brown Tree-They seem to be very popular around here

Elder Farnsworth - Elder McKenna

Host and Hostesses - Brother & Sister Hesse and their Daughter Maureen

New Years Eve was spent at home.  We welcomed the time here and not having to go out somewhere.  We spent some time reading, playing Rook and Uno and listening to all the fireworks.  Fireworks are big here in Florida on New Years. They started early in the evening with a few here and there.  But at midnight it sounded like a war zone.  The fireworks went off for more than 30 minutes continually and there was a roar in the air the whole time.

This time we had a German meal.  Pork, sauerkraut, spiced applesauce, garlic potatoes, yummy garlic green beans (they were my favorite).

We have a man in our ward who paints very nice boat and water scenes.  He has wanted us to buy one since we met him.  Paul and I have been a bit undecided.  Paul had liked one boat picture that has quite a story behind it and is the reason that Treasure Island here was named.  The boat carried a huge amount of treasure and was sunk somewhere near the coast here.  Hence the name Treasure Island.  We visited with him last week and were looking at all his pictures and there was one that I liked very much.  I love the colors in it.  A very nice shade of peach and he is very good at detail.   After we debated a while, Paul offered him a price for both of them and he accepted.   Some day I hope to be able to paint that well.

Well, it's already a New Year.  Can you believe it is already 2013?  Paul and were talking about all the things that have occurred in the past 13 years since the calendar rolled over.  We became empty nesters; our seven children have blessed us with 28 grandchildren; we've been able to serve our Heavenly Father on two missions (one being a service mission); Paul can still golf; I've been able to get back to my art; we've had opportunities to travel; my parents and Paul's dad have passed away; we have made and continue to make many new friends, to name just a few of the blessings and trials in our life. There are too many to list them all.   But life goes on and we are grateful for all the wonderful blessings and the trials that we are met with.  They humble us and help us grow.  We are looking forward to our continued work here in the mission field, 100th birthday party for Paul's mom in March, and a reunion with our children when we get home this summer.

Thanks to all of you for your love and support.  To our children we are grateful to hear from you on the internet, phone and through the mail.  How blessed we've been this past year.  Keep the notes and pictures coming.  It helps me when I get a little melancholy.

Wishing you all a very prosperous and Happy New Year.  

Elder and Sister Nelson