Mission Memories -- Port Charlotte -- Sister Wilson: Part Six

Let me just say that I was a good, hard-working, obedient missionary.  At least I thought I was.  After putting all of these pictures and stories together,  I'm not so sure.

I seem to be incriminating myself a lot!  :-(

I would consider this next story to be the most disobedient thing I did during my mission.

the missionary handbook (White Bible -- as we missionaries called it) specifically states that missionaries are not to ride in private boats. 

So how did I end up with all of the following incriminating pictures?

Let me tell you the story as I remember it.

Sister Wilson, and I tracted into this couple -- I don't even remember their names -- and began teaching them.  They lived in a more affluent area of Port Charlotte and had a boat.

We began teaching them the discussions, and probably as part of our BRT -- building relationships of trust, for those of you unfamiliar with missionary lingo -- we saw the boat docked behind their house in the canal, and probably said something about it.

I think they mentioned taking us out on the boat, and more than likely, we told them it was against mission rules for us to ride on their boat.

Well, we taught them the first three discussions.  Now this next part I'm rather vague about, but the way I remember it as we were at church one Sunday.  And I must've been busy talking to some members or something, and for some reason, Sister Wilson -- maybe we received a page from this couple, or maybe they came to church that day.  I don't know -- but she set up the appointment to teach the fourth discussion.

She informed me that she set up the appointment, which I was very pleased about, but then mentioned that we would be teaching the fourth discussion on their boat in open water.

I told her that we can't do that, it's against mission rules.  She said that she told him that, but they were insistent that the discussion be on the boat.

She made it sound like it was either teach the discussion on the boat or don't teach it.  I'm sure this couple thought that they were doing us a favor, but in actuality, we faced a very difficult decision.

Of course, who in their right mind would want to go out on a boat?  But, we were missionaries and have certain rules we wanted to abide by.

Let me give you a little background as to why we made the decision we made.  This couple we were teaching were living together, but not married.  They seemed very receptive to everything we had taught them so far in the first three discussions.

The fourth discussion happens to be about the plan of salvation, the law of chastity, and the word of wisdom. so that particular discussion, can sometimes make or break the investigator in terms of their acceptance of the Gospel.

so we really wanted to teach the fourth discussion to this couple.

We decided to go ahead and teach the discussion on the boat.  Looking back, it was the wrong decision.

First of all, to teach the plan of salvation we used cutouts to represent the various aspects of the plan of salvation from pre-Earth life to the 3° of glory.  Well, you can imagine, how windy, and noisy it is on a boat.  The cutouts kept flying away, and it was a disaster.

Not to mention, we didn't really have their full attention, because they were navigating the boat.

And so trying to teach the law of chastity to a couple who wasn't living it, didn't go over very well.

I don't even remember if we ever taught them again.  I know they didn't get baptized.

unfortunately with all the distractions and with us breaking the mission rules, the spirit was not very strong during the discussion. 

of all the discussions to not teach on a boat it would be the fourth discussion.  At least the way we taught it.  

So I guess we'll never know if that couple would have accepted the gospel or continued the discussions if we had been obedient. 

Looking back, we probably should have insisted on teaching the discussion on dry land.

And if they would have not agree to that, then it would have been their loss.

Hindsight is 2020.

another lesson learned -- the hard way.  :-(

but the boat ride was fun :-)

me on the boat, you can see Sister Wilson in the reflection taking my picture :-)

Sister Wilson in her best nautical outfit.  The body of water, we are on is, I think, Charlotte Harbor, on the Gulf of Mexico.

this is a picture of the boat in the canal in their backyard tied to the dock.

it was a really nice boat! check out the controls.

what a lovely picture :-) don't sister Wilson, and I look great?  :-) We are even color-coordinated :-)

Sister Stone, Sister Wilson, investigator/boat owner

you can see how windy it was on the boat by my collar, blowing around.

another lovely photograph of two good-looking sister missionaries.  :-)

another picture of the boat, I'm not sure if it's the same one or not :-)

here is a good picture of the couple who owned the boat who we were teaching.

This might be a good time to relate another story regarding this couple.

In fact it might have been that very day, I'm not sure.  But here's what happened:

As I mentioned before, we would plan our day around teaching appointments and dinner appointments etc.  So it was a day we were going to be teaching this couple and we had planned on going tracting in the area for a few hours before our appointment.  Anyway, we were either driving down the road were parked alongside the road, getting ready to go tracting.  And our investigator -- who later told us this story -- drove by and saw us.  We didn't actually ever see him drive by.  But, for whatever strange reason, we were both eating suckers/lollipops.  I say strange, because that's not something we regularly, or ever, did.

So, after our tracting session, we went to teach the above investigators in their home.  (Or maybe boat :-)).  And of course it was before, we had actually taught them the word of wisdom.

So, our investigator, after we arrived at their home, tells us that he saw us smoking!  We were horrified.  Or least I was :-).

I quickly explained that we were not smoking, but the white thing sticking out of our mouths was not a cigarette but, in fact a sucker/lollipop.

can you imagine if the incident had occurred after we had taught them the word of wisdom?  He probably would not have said anything and would have just assumed that we were smoking.  And that we were hypocrites.

That lesson has always stuck with me.  Two lessons, really.  Avoid even the appearance of evil.  And don't judge.  Because what you think you see or hear might not be accurate.  

Needless to say, I don't think we ever ate a lollipop again -- at least as missionaries.

  

this might be the same picture as before.  I seem to have a lot of similar or duplicate pictures.

Dolphins!  Yes, we had Dolphins following along side of the boat.  It was pretty cool.

can you spot the dolphin?

I'm not sure what this is, maybe a dolphin under water?

another dolphin :-)

yes, yet another dolphin :-)

our investigator driving the boat.  Evidence that we actually did teach a discussion on the boat.  Notice the Scriptures?  Those are Sister Wilson's scriptures.  Mine were black, with an awesome early 1990s teal carrying case.  :-)

I'm not sure if this is the same picture as above, but again me inside the boat with the reflection of Sister Wilson taking my picture.

Sister Wilson -- same pose

seeing this dress I'm wearing reminded me that I actually made it before my mission.  Yes, I actually sewed it together from a pattern.  I enjoyed sewing.  I think I did a pretty good job on this dress considering I had to sew the lace around the collar.

Yeah, I'm pretty much good at everything I do :-)

Okay, this will conclude this incriminating blog post.

Stay tuned for more less incriminating blog posts about my mission.