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

After yesterday's post, I'm going to try to paint myself in a better light today.  :-)

I grabbed a bunch of random pictures to put on here.  Unfortunately, blogger didn't put them in the order  I had them.  So this might be a little disjointed.  But I'm not about to try to do it over :-)

 so hopefully this will make sense. hopefully some of these pictures will trigger some fun stories.

I'm not sure whose house this is.  I don't remember this at all.  I guess this is as good a time as any to tell the story:

The reason I remember this so well is because it is the best compliment I ever received on my mission.  And maybe ever :-)

We were out tracting one day, as per usual, and I was doing the door approach.  I'm not even sure who my companion was, or which area I was in.  It very well could have been Sister Wilson in Port Charlotte.

Anyway, a lady came to the door, and I gave her my spiel.  She said she wasn't interested, but she told me that I looked wholesome.  Or that she could tell I was wholesome, or something to that effect.  I just remember she used the word wholesome.

Well, I interpreted that as meaning that she could see the Lord's image in my countenance, and the light of Christ in my eyes -- as stated in Alma 5:14

 14 And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?

She could feel that I had the spirit with me.  But she wasn't able to recognize that that's what it was.  So she just said that I was wholesome.  I knew what she meant.  And I took it as the highest compliment I could receive. The funny thing is that she directed her comment to me -- and never mentioned my companion.

I'm assuming that was because I did the door approach and was the one talking to her.  :-)

Sister Wilson, getting back into the car after a discussion perhaps.  Ready to do more missionary work!

I think this was supposed to go before the other picture.  It looks like we are just arriving to teach a discussion.  Or maybe a DA?  In fact, I think this might be Sister O's house.  Maybe we were going to teach Nick a discussion.

Which reminds me, after the incident with Jeff and the necklace, Sister Wilson would always tease me about Jeff being my boyfriend. crazy old Sister Wilson.  :-) 

these are two of our investigators.  The woman on the left, whose name escapes me.  :-(, Actually was baptized, if my memory serves me correct.  The girl in the middle is her daughter and we taught her also, but I don't think she was ever baptized.  I'm not sure she sat in on all the discussions.  She always seemed to be gone or busy doing something that teenagers do.  But I'm pretty sure we baptized her mother.

I'm not sure who the girl on the right is.  Maybe just a friend.

Sister Wilson by street sign with her name on it :-)

I think this was from our photo shoot on the footbridge.  I think this picture is in the wrong place.  But it is a lovely composition :-)

more pictures by orange trees

another picture by the Stone sign.

I guess we thought this was a nice photo op :-) 

Notice the clipboard in my hand?  As part of our door approach we often used a survey as a way to introduce our message.  It was kind of an icebreaker.  I guess.  It seemed like a lot of people would be willing to answer a survey that would normally not want anything to do with us.  So by the time we finished the survey, which was only three or four questions,they were more comfortable with us and often accepted a copy of The Book of Mormon.  And sometimes let us teach a first discussion or at least set up an appointment to come back and teach the first discussion.  Anyway, it seemed to be pretty effective for us.

okay, I know I have a picture of myself holding this paper, like Sister Wilson.  But I can't find it.  :-(, So this'll have to do.

Yes, Sister Wilson and I are famous.  :-) We made the local newspaper, while we were in Port Charlotte.

I don't remember the circumstances, but somehow, we were asked if we would do an interview with a newspaper reporter and pose for a picture :-)

Funny thing is, I remember posing for the picture.  I even remember who's house it was.  -- It was a member's house and I think we were staging a door approach.

But I have no recollection of the actual interview with the reporter.  Weird huh?

I'll bet if we dug deep enough we could find a copy of that paper somewhere in my mission stuff.  It would be funny to read again.

this is getting old.

so is this.

I think the gentleman on the right is Brother White, it is something like that.  He was a member of the Port Charlotte Ward and is the one who did all the grounds maintenance at the church.  Interestingly, it seemed like he was always working at the church.  Like a full-time job.  I remember joking around with him, he was a pretty funny guy.

The woman on the right, whose name escapes me, was the lady who did the cleaning of the church inside.  It also seemed like she was always at the church working full-time.  Which seems really odd to me. 

I do remember that she was the mother of the Bishop's wife.  And that is another interesting story.  Which I probably should not share here, but if you're really interested, you can ask me in person.  And I will share it with you.

looks like I'm standing on one of the beautiful Florida golf courses.

another angle.

I'm not sure what this is.  Maybe some sort of zone meeting.  The guy on the right was our zone leader.

I don't know what Sister Wilson and the Elder are doing with their hand signals.

two Elders from our zone.

unfortunately, this picture is too dark to see much.  :-(.  Must've been ZDM.  Apparently I never took pictures at zone conference because I never see any pictures with President Brimhall in them.

I think these people worked in the mission office.  The guy on the left was the mission car fleet guy.  He is the one who gave us our new Ford Escort!  In fact this may have been when we made the exchange.

our district.  :-) We never had district meeting.  I don't know if this was at a zone meeting -- it probably was.

I can't remember their names.  I think it starts with a D, but I do remember that Sister D. was a real spitfire.  I liked her.

getting our new Ford escort!  This was the only brand-new car I had on my mission.  I loved that car!

Looking at the back of the car reminds me of something else I was going to tell you.  Whenever we went tracting we would always bring a big Gatorade bottle, I should say two bottles -- one for each of us, that we had filled up with water the night before and put in the freezer.  By the next morning it was frozen solid.  We would put the frozen Gatorade bottles in the trunk.  When we left in the morning.  By the time we did a few hours of tracting and returned to her car, it would be partially melted and we would have nice ice water to drink.

And if we happened to get paged and had to go to a seven eleven to make a call at a payphone, we would always buy a slurpee.  Those really hit the spot!  It could get really hot in Florida, especially being outside walking around in dresses and nylons for several hours at a time.

Which prompts another story.

Often times, while tracting, people would feel sorry for us and offer us water or a drink.  I was always grateful to those people.  A lot of them even invited us into their house to cool down for a few minutes while we drank our water.

Anyway, I'm not sure which area this was in -- I'm thinking probably Brooksville -- anyway it was in an area that was more rural.  So we were far away from our car and water.  And there were lots of dirt roads and long spaces in between houses.  It was really hot and I was getting pretty thirsty.  I kept hoping that someone would offer us some water each time we did a door approach.  But no one did.  So I said a little silent prayer that the next door we approached would be home and offer us some water. 

let me just back up a little bit, depending on the time of day and area --there were often times that no one would answer the door.  We might get one in 10 that would answer.  So it wasn't a given that we would even get an answer at the door.

But, sure enough, the next-door we knocked on was answered and the people gave us each a can of 7-Up!  So, my little, seemingly insignificant prayer, was answered!  

That little experience with prayer reminded me that our Heavenly Father is always aware of us and hears and answers our prayers.

I don't know why we took this picture in the store.  But don't I look cute?  :-)

Let me just point out that this would have been P-day because we are out shopping.  And notice how obedient we are to the mission rules which state that when we are out in public, even on P-day, that we are to be wearing our whites (dresses for sisters) and name tags.

See, we tried to be obedient, most of the time :-)

this is the outside of our apartment.  I believe that was our bedroom window with the Christmas lights around it.  Hey, at least we tried to decorate for Christmas :-)

I don't know what I'm thinking here.  :-) It looks like we're getting ready to go shopping.  I must've been really tired or just zoning out :-) not the most attractive picture ever taken of me.:-(

hopefully with this post I redeemed myself a little bit, from the last post.  :-)

Stay tuned, much more to come :-)