I promise there will be an end to Sister Wilson in Port Charlotte. This is already part 10 and there will probably be two or three more after this :-)
Apparently, we took a lot of pictures :-)
I don't remember the inside joke here, but it has something to do with the Indian head, air freshener in our car. I wish I could remember what it was about.
for those of you who are too young to remember actually putting film and cameras -- this is what happens when the film is exposed to light. :-(
Somebody must've cracked the back of the camera open.
same thing here. It's a shame too because I look great in this picture :-)
yeah, we were pretty proud of our license plate. This is parked at our apartment building.
another crazy picture of me taking a picture of Sister Wilson. Hey, at least I'm not in the white dress! :-)
sorry, I don't remember the lady on the left in the pink. maybe she worked in the mission office.
The lady in the lovely teal outfit is our district leader's wife. She was cool.
I don't know where this picture was taken, but I figure now is a good time to tell another story. :-)
if you recall I mentioned one of the new members in the Port Charlotte Ward frequently fed us. His name was Joe, and he was a member for about a year when we met him. Of course it started with Sister Vega. I don't remember how often he fed us but, it was probably at least once or twice a month. Maybe more often, I can't remember. We usually met at restaurants, because he was a single male and we were not allowed, by mission rule, to be inside his house without another woman present.
So one day, we were at a restaurant, with Joe, and the conversation turned to Elvis. :-) I don't know why except, maybe because of the new stamps that had come out. So. Of course, I mentioned that Elvis was a big part of my upbringing. And that my dad was a huge fan. I probably mentioned my dad's huge Elvis record collection -- yes, vinyl. :-) -- and how Elvis was like an uncle to me, etc.
Sister Wilson mentioned that she also liked Elvis. She mentioned watching Elvis movies.
So anyway, the next time -- well, I'm not sure if it was the next time, but sometime later -- we met Joe at a restaurant again for another DA. He told me he had something for my dad. And he presented me with a big binder full of Elvis trading cards.
The funny thing is, he didn't do the same for Sister Wilson. :-( Even though she had said that she also liked Elvis.
Dead giveaway! :-)
Well, technically, the gift was for my dad. But because of the obvious favoritism, it should have been apparent that Joe had developed feelings for me. But I blew it off and told Sister Wilson that he just wanted to do something nice for my dad.
Once again, as Waylon would say -- Wrong!
but you'll have to wait until the last Sister Wilson post to hear the rest of the story.
I will just say that things continued as normal with Joe. I did send the binder full of cards home to Dad.
Do you remember that, Dad? Do you still have it?
I know that Sister Wilson was a little hurt that he didn't do the same for her. :-(
I'm not sure if this was before or after the Jeff incident, but Sister Wilson always teased me about my two boyfriends, the J's.
You haven't even heard the best part of the story -- but it happens at the end of my time in Port Charlotte. So, you will just have to wait for a few more posts to hear the end of the story. :-) I will keep you in suspense.
this is probably somewhere in Punta Gorda. I don't remember taking these pictures.
Since today is Fast Sunday (when I'm writing this), it brought to memory a story about Sister Wilson and fasting.
As I mentioned before, Sister Wilson came to me, straight from the MTC. So I was her first companion in the mission field. Well, her first Fast Sunday with me, we went to church as usual in the morning -- fasting, of course -- and afterwards I started driving to an area, near our DA that evening, to go tracting.
Sister Wilson asked me what I was doing. So I told her we were going tracting. She inquired about why we weren't going home to eat lunch. I told her it was Fast Sunday and we wouldn't be eating until our dinner appointment that night.
So apparently she wasn't used to fasting for a complete 24 hours. But despite the sackcloth and ashes, she made it to the DA fasting for 24 hours!
The funny thing is, when we got to the DA. Dinner was not even close to being ready. :-) I think we had to wait another hour or so after we arrived before we could eat. Poor Sister Wilson. :-)
blurville :-)
this picture reminds me of the beautiful sunsets in Florida. They really were the most spectacular sunsets I've ever seen.
I guess we were bored waiting for the Elders to meet us. So we thought we would take some pictures.
I think we were meeting the Elders to get some supplies from the mission office -- probably a box of books of Mormon.
there they are! I can't tell from this picture, but that was probably our zone leader. I don't even remember this. But I think we did meet the Elders once in a while if we needed books of Mormon. We usually picked up all of our supplies during zone meetings.
this pictures chronologically out of order, but the mug she is drinking from is a Florida Tampa Mission mug that we all received at the mission Christmas conference. Those pictures are upcoming.
The drawings behind Sister Wilson are most likely, what she received from her niece. She often talked about her niece, Chloe.
Sister Wilson's first name, that she didn't go by. :-)
here's a better shot of me by the awesome Ford Escort and our license plate that we adored :-)
this is a part member family. She was the member, and he the nonmember. I do remember eating at their house once. She had a little boy from a previous marriage and had recently married this guy. If my memory serves me correct, we did teach him the discussions.
I don't remember if I was transferred before we finished teaching him all the discussions -- that seems to be what might have happened --I don't remember baptizing him. I hope Sister Wilson was able to baptize him after I left.
these were some more of our investigators. Check out the awesome egret painting! A lovely choice for a Florida home :-). I like how she's color-coordinated with her painting :-)
it seems like we may have taught them all the discussions. Or a least a few of them. I don't think they ended up being baptized, though. :-(
Sister Wilson would probably not be pleased knowing that I put this picture on my blog :-)
Looks like she's still trying to wake up.
this was another one of our investigators. He was kind of interesting. I don't even remember how we found him -- probably tracting. But we always taught him at the church. Yes, another single male investigator. :-)
I do believe that he was married , but his wife never joined the discussions. And we never taught him in his home. I think this was another case where I was transferred before we completed the discussions. I'm not sure if he was baptized or not. I'm sure Sister Wilson told me, but I can't even remember the people that I taught that were baptized -- let alone those that were baptized after I left. :-(
I think this picture was supposed to go in the previous post with the rebel shirts.
You can see better view of the lava lava that Sister Wilson gave me. Apparently, I use it as a tablecloth for my study area. :-)
this is the same investigator as above. I think his name was Mark. He seemed really interested in learning the Gospel, and always showed up at the church for our appointments. So I hope that he was baptized!
another self-portrait :-) check out my bangs!
That takes some serious hairspray to keep those bangs in place in that Florida humidity!
this, I remember well. the lady I'm standing next to is a member who invited us to her home for a DA.
I think this is the house where the orange tree was in the backyard and she let us pick a bunch of oranges.
anyway as I recall, she was a single lady, so it was just the three of us for dinner. The reason I remember it so well is because I had an "oh, no panic" moment at this DA.
Those of you who know me very well know that I do not drink caffeinated beverages. Even going back to my childhood when Mom was drinking Tab all of the time-- weren't the 80s great!? -- And Dad had to have his Coca-Cola, which unfortunately he still does. :-(.
Anyway, I have always tried to avoid caffeinated beverages. I could never understand why anyone would want to put a drug inside their body for no good reason.
And after studying the human body, for many years, that just reinforced my conviction.
anyway, I'm not going to go off on why you shouldn't ingest drugs into your body that you don't need. I've already done that on this blog before. But come on, common sense people!
Anyway back to my story -- I tend to go off on tangents sometimes :-) -- we were sitting down to eat dinner and I noticed that the only beverage being offered was a 2 L bottle of Coca-Cola sitting on the table.
"Oh no, panic!" I certainly didn't want to drink it. But I also didn't want to offend our host, who so graciously invited us into her home and made us a nice meal. I don't know why I couldn't have just asked for some water instead -- I probably didn't want to be a bother. Maybe the glasses were already poured -- which is a distinct possibility. Or maybe I was just too panic stricken to think straight. :-). Whatever the reason, I think I did end up drinking a little bit of the cursed caffeinated beverage. :-(
The member will never know, the turmoil I faced inside :-)
Thankfully, that is the only time I remember facing that particular dilemma on my mission. Although I faced plenty of other dilemmas. :-).
well this will conclude this segment of my mission memories. More to come!
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