It's Bike week in Daytona...it's bike week in Tuscawilla

That's right I got transferred out right in time for Bike Week in Daytona Beach but good thing our car got put in car share so I don't get to miss out on biking.... wooooo..... It's ok... God's just wanting me to get in shape so I'm a babe when I go home... I'm going to have thighs of steel. Plus my bike is broken so it feels like I'm biking up hill ALL the time. yay.

This week had a lot of ups and downs for sure but nothing I can't handle. Just some fun growth for me. I'll cover the good stuff.

~ We met up with N- M- again, who I taught in college park, her and her mom live in our area so we decided to stop by. We knock on the door and Natalie comes out and gives me a huge hug. She's so amazing. She told us about her life and all the stresses of it and she wants to be taught again!! So we're going to meet up with her and her mom. I'm so excited.

~We got to go to both ZTM's which was awesome! I always feel so uplifted by the spirit and we got a double dose!! I love all the missionaries. It was so interesting to see the differences between the trainings and thoughts. Everyone did so amazing. In the O-zone meeting we did a training on setting missionary goals with members at dinner and in the Lake Mary ZTM we did a training on patriarchal blessings and divine potential. So it went great. I also accompanied both of the musical numbers because no one can play the piano!!! but I enjoy playing.

~We got to do a ton of service for old ladies on Saturday. in the morning we went over to Louise's who we picked up earlier that week. We helped her clean her porch and we told her about the temple and proxy baptisms. She wants to do a temple tour. We also got to teach her a bit about the restoration and clear up some misconceptions about Joseph Smith. We also showed her the first vision video and she liked it. She bought us lunch which was super sweet. Then we went to clean for our next door neighbor "grandma." She's a less active member who loves and spoils the missionaries. She's super sweet. She's always there when we need her.

~We taught Gammy about repentance and read the Bible and the Book of Mormon with him which seems to be a good tactic. The Littles challenged him to come to church and he was super set on coming. He called his workers and said he wasn't coming to work on Sunday. The Littles offered to give him a ride. Then the next day one of his workers got injured and he couldn't come...... ugh... satan....

~Ok less of a highlight but still quite amusing. We had a Bible request and decided to stop by and the guy just happens to be sitting out on the lawn. He was super confused because he didn't request a Bible but thought maybe his girlfriend might've. He identified as agnostic but said that just means "someone who doesn't know yet." So we sat down and just started teaching him the Plan of Salvation. I know God wanted us to contact him. But then his girlfriend comes out and starts yelling at us.  Like I've never been yelled at so much... Like she said some really nasty things about how we weren't Christian and didn't believe in God and she was going to call the cops on us.. .and how I should be a prostitute... ahhhhh.... yeah some pretty nasty stuff. But hey it just reminded me that God really wanted us to talk to that guy and how satan really didn't want me to. So I know there's something really special about that guy. He was really shocked she was acting that way and told her to calm down. But I felt shoulder to shoulder with the Savior and knew that I was doing exactly what he wanted me to do at that time. 

~We got to have a Stake missionary meeting with the stake president and his counselors. It was super cool to be on the inside of the stake missionary stuff. And I felt like I actually got to participate and give ideas. It was awesome. 

~Again we got like 0 time to do missionary work... so I'm still adjusting to that hahaha but it will be good. It's a good life! I'm figuring it out!!

We need to get our ducks in a row...I don't know where my ducks are!

That was Sister Richards response to me last night when I told her how I felt stressed and we hadn't weekly planned.... I also agree, I have no idea where my ducks are lol. So there will be no nice, clean row of ducks for a little bit while I'm figuring this STL thing out...CAN i JUST SAY I GOT TO TALK TO MY FAMILY TODAY?!?!? It was the best morning of my life and an answer to sooooo many prayers... God is so good and he is so merciful! This change will help me get through my last 4 months strong! I'm so excited!!!

Tuskawilla is a good place so far! It's in the College Park area so everything is super familiar!! And the members are so kind!! All of the fmailies are super strong in the gospel and there are kids!! So that's a blessing for sure. Sister Richards is also amazing!! She's been out one transfer less than me but she's a great missionary. And she's being super patient with me while I'm figuring this out. The teaching pool it's self is.... smallish... but nothing I haven't dealt with before hahaha. We'll get it there. ;) 

We're teaching this hispanic guy named Gammy. He kinda had some concerns about prophets but we took a lesson and really focused on the priesthood authority from the Bible and the Book of Mormon. At first we weren't sure if he was getting it and then when we read the last scripture he was like "Ok, I think it's trying to make sense now" So it was cool to see him make a connection. Plus he wants to meet with us like every night. So that's nice because he was the only one in our teaching pool at the beginning of the week...

We go to soooooooo many meetings!!!! We are over 2 zones so we have to go to both of their meetings. So on Thursday we went to the Mission Leadership Council then Friday we went to a meeting with the Zone Leaders and the District Leaders, then we had to plan for both ZTM's.... Then this week we have to go to both ZTM's.... it's a ton of meetings! which I love meetings... but also we have no time to do actual missionary work... So I'm trying to figure that one out....

But with the short amount of finding time we did have we found 2 new people! We had 20 minutes on Valentines day and we went and handed out Valentines to people at the mall and we talked to this guy in a sock shop and he wants to learn more!! So I've never taught anyone at a mall before.. So that will be cool!

We also met this guy who was a former member and he wants to change his life around and come back to the church!! So we're going to start meeting with him weekly! There's so much potential here so we're going to work on it.

We have this crazy neighbor we call grandma. She's super sweet and she was a member but she's kinda apostate now.... But she gives us toilet paper in times of need. There's also this crazy guy named Steve across the street. he told us the other day that he thinks Joseph Smith saw aliens instead of God and Jesus Christ. So that was an interesting conversation...

Oh also Tyra was baptized!!! I found her on UCF campus at tables. And if you know me and you know how I hate

d tabling you'll know that is a miracle for me. It proves to me that my time was worth it and for the thousands of people that passed by and the hundreds of "no"s I heard that there was one that I needed to find at tables. It was also cool because the dress she wore to her baptism was the same one I complimented her on the first day I met her. And it was so good to see my College Park homies!! ugh I missed them all so much!!! I wanna go back. Send me back.

So all in all, it was a good week. I'm excited to see what the future will bring!

35 on the freeway...MERGE, Alice, MERGE!

Yesterday we had probably one of the craziest experiences trying to get an investigator to church... Oh man I have to give the back story though so stay tuned. Well I'm sad to say that I'm heading out of Daytona Beach and will be assigned as a Sister Training Leader in Tuskawilla!! I'm super excited to be so close to College Park again and do service at the same place and I already know the area! So it will feel like home. And I'm excited for the new responsibilities.. a little daunted because I want to be a good example.. but I'm excited to learn and grow from the Sisters.

Highlights for the week:

~ Amanda got baptized!!! She definitely had some opposition from Satan. On Tuesday her bank account just dissapeared, and the bank isn't sure where it went.. so with that.. all her money. She ran out of gas on the way to our lesson and she only had $4 so she filled up what she could. I tried to give her $10 but she has so much faith and believed that the Lord would provide. She drives home and finds $20 in her yard! Crazy!! She also runs a day spa and does manicures and pedicures and she just got booked by this huge group of bikers for their wifes during Bike Week in Daytona. So the Lord rewarded her big time but we're so proud of the faith she displayed. I would not be chill. But she was. 

Her baptism was amazing!! We had quite a few non-members there and they loved it! A family Amanda invited said they never felt a spirit quite like that. After Amanda came out of the font she was just giggling hysterically, she said she'd never been more happy in her life. It was adorable. She's an inspiration to me! I'm so happy I got to experience this miracle right before I left the area. 

~I got to go do temple Baptisms with my convert Alex from Canoe Creek!! He was so excited and it was cool to have their whole family at the temple. They finally felt complete. He was sooo nervous about getting the Aaronic priesthood but that day he decided he wanted to baptize. Not quite sure he understood he'd be the one "baptizing" So he kinda became a deer in the headlights for a minute but they walked him through it and he did great. It was such a surreal moment having someone we helped enter the waters of baptism baptize me for those beyond the veil. It was amazing! I also got to see the lovely Sister Casey who I missed soooo much! We got to catch up on all the things.

~Sister Forbush and I had a super crazy day where we didn't get to do comp study or eat at all so we got icecream and went to a park. Just to take a little break before we got back to the grind. There were a lot of families there. This one guy came up to us and opened up about his recent divorce and raising 3 kids. He ended up wanting to learn more. I keep stickers in my bag so we went around and asked kids if they wanted stickers and they all did and then that prompted their parents to talk to us! So we got like 2 more numbers and passed out a few cards and it was really awesome. Park contacting is the way to go! 

~We went to the LDS bookstore and I saw one of my mom's books!! So I gave it a hug and pretended I was hugging her. Hahaha. I also do that when I see chiropractic stuff for my dad hahaha.

~Ok so the crazy Sunday... We have this person we're teaching named Alice and she's from the Phillipines. We taught her this Saturday and she opens the door and says "I am so drunk" so we're like ok this should be interesting. And her house looks like Mr. Miagi from the Karatee Kid (no idea how to spell that). Any ways.. she's a very animated person.. like most of the time she's yelling and she leaves us very entertaining voicemails. But she's sweet. She said she wanted to come to church and she wanted us to drive to her house so then she could follow in her car. Turns out on Sunday they had a MARATHON on the busiest street of Daytona, and Alice lives one street south of that crazy road. So we made a plan to meet her at McDonalds. So we show up and we can't find her. So we wait for 10 minutes and get a voicemail from her saying she's stuck in traffic. So we knew we were going to be late for church so we start driving towards the highway. Then she calls us and tells us she's at McDonald's so we turn around and go back. Then she's following us but she drives SO SLOW. We're trying to merge on the highway and she gets lost behind me so I slow down as much as I can so she can catch up and I'm going 35 on the highway y'all. This is ridiculous. All the while me and Sister Forbush are screaming directions in our car for her to go faster and to merge. It was quite the picture. I had my stressball out and everything. We finally make it to church 10 minutes late and guess what??? They're already confirming Amanda!! ugh... we texted people and told them to wait but they didn't so we missed half of it... But we got Alice to church. It was insane.

~Also due to the commotion, we forgot we were teaching Primary Sharing time until halfway through relief society. so we dash out and had to make an impromptu lesson about Satan tempting Jesus. But thankfully "Come Follow Me" had amazing ideas so we read over it quick, picked 3 and the kids loved it! They were actually so involved and focused it was amazing! I thoroughly enjoyed teaching them. 

I'm so sad to leave Daytona Beach because I've thoroughly enjoyed my time here. It's been the least stressful of my mission. And I'm really going to miss Sister Forbush too. We get a long so well and work so hard and it just WORKS. But I know that whatever I needed to do here was done I guess. Even if it was just for the Lord to prove that there are golden people in the world still.  I was able to participate in one of the greatest miracles the Atonement offers of watching His grace change people overnight. The Atonement is so real. God is So good. I have been blessed a thousand times over in the amazing things I've seen. This area is so blessed and I will miss it and the people dearly.

"I'm going to get married in the temple!"

Quote by Amanda. No lie. We met with her this week and she is back in a relationship with one of her exes and they're back together. When they were together he was on a lot higher level than her spiritually, so they broke up but now she's found God and she's amazing and they reconnected and she said he wants to learn more about the church and get baptized. And they're going to go to the temple!! It was amazing!!

Wow! it's been a busy week! I'll talk about some highlights:

~ I had exchanges with Sister Duncan! It was quite the party. She has a very witty sense of humor and she just cracks me up. 

~ I had Sister Forbush push me around in the shopping cart today while we grocery shopped.

~We helped this guy clean out the loft of his barn and it was nasty!!! It was sooooo dusty and there were cobwebs everywhere! it was super grosss.... there were tons of spiders..

~We got yelled at by this angry Hispanic women... We were there to teach her grandkids and the parents stepped out for a bit and she was being really salty..

~Sister Forbush has never eaten Hot Pockets before!!!

~We were feeling kinda bummed about not finding any new people this week so we went to this apartment complex where we had an appointment and it was a no show... so we decided to do some contacting and we got like 4 numbers!! All because of cute children! We gave them stickers and they were super cute and we got return appointments from 2 families!

~I just found out that Tyra from College Park is getting baptized on the 16th and I'm so excited!!! 

~ We're hopefully going to the temple with Alex from Canoe Creek on Friday!

~Amanda gets baptized on Saturday!! I'm so excited!!! She's amazing and I've never seen anyone change so fast! This life is so good and I'm excited to see what kinds of things she does in her life. 

I love you all! I hope to hear from you soon!!!