I love the song, I Walked Today where Jesus Walked. I have played it many times as I have practiced at the church. I have often thought that we have been given the opportunity to walk where Jesus walked. Figuratively, we can walk where Jesus walked. When we are serving others we are walking where Jesus walked. When we attend to the sick, calm a crying child, help a neighbor by taking her shopping, or shovel the walks of those that are unable, and visit the lonely, we are walking where he walked. He set the example. "He walked the roads of Palestine, healing the sick, causing the blind to see, and raising the dead." (The living Christ) As we walked the roads of St. Petersburg, I feel that we have walked where he walked as we have gone about His work. Like the Savior we met people who listened to us, who shut doors, who called us names, and some who were indifferent. But, all in all, it was a wonderful experience and we had the opportunity to share our testimonies often. We love this work. We love our Savior. He lives, he loves us and will bless all of us as we do his work and share our testimony of the true gospel of Jesus Christ.
This is the last blog of our mission. The past week has been a very busy one with lots of goodbyes. Many teary eyed. We have grown to love the members of this ward as family. They have become lifelong friends.
Monday, July 1st, was P-day. It was raining when Paul and I left for my art class and his golf. He was hoping it would stop and so he dropped me off and went "golfing". Less than an hour later he was on the doorstep. It was pouring. I'd had time to finish my last project. We spent the rest of the day cleaning and doing laundry. We started to get organized for the move. That evening, our friend, Colette Mazey, brought dinner for us and the missionaries. She brought swiss steak and a vegetable casserole. It was delicious and Elder Sholler, as usual, finished off the left overs. He's a little kid but with a huge appetite. Thanks, Collette. We love you.
Notice the empty bowls.
Elders Sholler, Paul, Colette Mazey
He also had seconds on dessert and ice cream.
Tuesday afternoon, July 2, after my hair appointment, we went to dinner at Carrabbas. The sisters in the ward took Colette and I to say goodbye. Colette is going back to Biloxi, Mississippi for work. She was baptized in March 2012. Vickie Engerer arranged the dinner and gave both of us a pretty bracelet and earring set. It was a fun evening with those I have come to love. When we left I forgot the earrings on the table and it took quite a bit to get them back. It took three days.
Kathy Neilsen, Colette Mazey
Ann Larsen, Barbara Jameson, Sue Kennedy
Vickie Engerer, Marva Beck, Nancy King, Ann Larsen, Sue Kennedy, Barbara Jameson, Kathy Neilsen, Sheri Fiedler, Julie Bangerter
Me, Colette Mazey
Wednesday, July 3, I made pizzas for the missionaries. We had been planning on having them over to have District Meeting and it got cancelled because of a meeting to meet the new mission president, President Cusick. So we told them to come for lunch. I spent the morning making all the fixings for the pizza. One of the Elders doesn't like vegetables and I put a lot of them on pizzas. So I made a large pepperoni pizza first. We made sure he had 3 good pieces. I then made two large (16") taco pizzas. They all ate to their hearts content and, of course, our little Elder Sholler finished it off. We love having the Elders and Sisters over. It has been so much fun working with them and feeling of their spirit. The young people are such good missionaries. They have a special spirit about them and are so well versed in the scriptures and the gospel. They have been well taught. During our lunch, Paul told the Elders and Sisters how I prepared each week for our 4 minute talks and only once had the opportunity to give one so Elder Ballish, our District leader asked if I would give a 4 minute talk since we didn't have district meeting today. I hadn't planned on this, [thank you Paul] but I got my little notebook out and talked on the attribute that we had been focusing on - Obedience.
Notice the Christmas plates. Paul wanted to use up everything we could. Doesn't matter what you eat on...it still tasted good.
Notice the Christmas plates.
After the Elders left I made one more large pizza. We had invited Mel and his daughter, Christine to dinner a few weeks earlier. She is here visiting with him for the summer. Another neighbor, Dorothy, came with them but left before we got the pictures. I had some clothes that I was going to give to the sisters and was able to give her a cute outfit. She was excited. We have wanted for a long time to give Mel a Book of Mormon. We were able to give him a copy with our testimony in it. His daughter has gone to church a few times lately. She is reading the Book of Mormon. His heart has been softened since we first met him. We pray he will also read it.
Elder Russell Elder Laguna
Elder Simonson Elder Ballish (Got transferred this week)
Sister Gillett Sister Turley (Got Transferred this week)
Elder Scott (Zone leader) Elder Prigmore (going home)
Sister Bush Sister Jenkins
Thursday evening we went to the Bishop's home for dinner and then to the Becks for an evening visiting with our friends and watching the fireworks from 31 floors up. It was a beautiful site. We could see the whole valley. They had a veranda that went around two sides of their house. We could see fireworks from all over the valley.
Bishop Bangerter, Marva Beck, Warren Beck
Friday, 5th, we spent some of the day trying to get some of our things organized for packing. We are going to have a good time trying to get our car packed. I think we are going to have more to take home than we brought and our car was filled to the top then. That evening we went with some friends to Cheddars. It is a new restaurant that just opened up here. We went with the Bangerters, Kennedys, and Kings. We enjoyed being with them. The Kennedys gave us a picture of the waterway that we were on when we took our ride on the air boat at the church ranch. The Kings gave us a gift basket from Cracker Barrel with goodies for the trip. We have been so blessed to have met these wonderful friends of ours.
We noticed our husbands sitting together and one of the sisters said "hear no evil, speak no evil, and see no evil". So they all did their part.
Paul Joe King Chuck Kennedy
We are going to miss them.
Saturday, 6th. The last eventful day of our week. We spent the morning decorating the church for our ward party. We were having a party to celebrate our return to our ward building after 3 months of meeting in the Gulfport building. We asked the ward members to bring friends and family. When the party started there was a handful of people but within a few minutes the cultural hall began to fill and we were full to capacity. We ran out of food and seating. But not until all were fed. Each of the auxiliaries were to do a skit. They were all so fun. The theme was Nautical. Most of them did water themes except the bishopric and R.S. There was water synchonizing with all that we saw were the feet and legs of the kids. The funniest of the water routines was done by the Elders Quorum. The R.S. sang the song "Sisters" from White Christmas and then when they came to the 2nd verse they began with "Nelson's, Nelson's...). It was our last goodbye to so many we have come to love. Leaving a mission is bitter/sweet. It's hard to leave wonderful new found friends but we so look forward to seeing our family and friends back home.
Paul pulled pork for about an hour before the party began. His hands smelled like pork for two days afterwards.
Carli Welling and her daughter, Mallory. They are a special family to us. We taught Mallory in Seminary. She is going to BYU-I and we hope to see her later this year.
Susan Fulton made the cute watermelon boat
Julie Bangerter made this cute boat out of cardboard and paper. The kids loved it. We put a little stool in it so the kids could sit and have their picture taken.
These cupcakes were just a few of the delicious desserts we had.
Colette Mazey is also leaving the ward. She is moving to Biloxi, Mississippi. She will be missed by us and the ward.
The YM/YW did their water routine
The Bishopric did the classic "Who's on First"...but put a twist to it. It was "Who is speaking first..." It was hilarious. They were so good.
Erika Rickel, her mom, Nicole Erbel and Dan Wright
Joe and Nancy King
Lane and Revalina Nye holding Tad Weatherly
The Primary kids were so cute. The little blond boy in the blue/white shirt, Greyson Kennedy, got hold of the mic and was so funny with it. He is not shy! This is basically our Primary. About 11-12 kids.
Carol Hesse, Colette Mazey, Jan Fleck
A little basketball after the party. William and his dad, Jeff.
Sunday, July 7th, was hard. We now knew that this may be the last time that we will see many of these people. There were a few tears and lots of hugs. Being Fast Sunday, Paul and I were able to bear our testimony. After church we did our last work of our mission in the clerks office inputting names to remove from the ward and to bring into the ward. Many of our Sunday's we were at the church building from about 8:30 am to 3 or 4 pm. We often went visiting families (active and less active [we like to refer to them as "returning members"] with the Elders. Sunday's always seemed to fly by.
Monday, 8th, was spent packing all our stuff. It is amazing what you can accumulate in just a year and a half. Paul and I were up at 6 am to get organized so that when Erika and Dan came they could pack their car with all the things that we were leaving with them. We left them a freezer full of food that we didn't quite get around to eating. Then just a lot of miscellaneous things like towels, sheets, kitchen utensils, etc.
The beginning of a long day. We were so busy I only got one picture of our moving day.
Our friend Mel came to visit and helped Paul secure the suitcases on the top of the car. He was afraid that the ropes were not enough and he brought us some cords to help secure it. Another of our dear friends we will miss. At 5 pm we left our little apartment and went to the Bishop's home for dinner. Julie had prepared a delicious spaghetti dinner for us and the Elders. Afterwards we played our traditional game that we play when we go to the Bishop's home - Hold to the Rod. It is such a fun game. It's hard to quit. But we had to call it quits when the Elders time was up and had to go get back to work. They have an hour for dinner. Elder Crowley, who was new this transfer, is a wonderful, obedient, hard working missionary. We love our missionaries. We stayed at the Bangerter's for the night and had a chance to visit and reminisce. We will surely miss them.
Elders Sholler and Crowley
We were up at 5:30 am to get ready for our long drive home. I'm almost wishing we could just blink our eyes and be there. I am so anxious to see my kids and grandkids. But we now have two weeks ahead of us driving. The good part is that we get to see some family, friends and visit some of this beautiful country. Much of which we still haven't seen.
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