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.

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

I spent two hours working on this blog post and was literally on the last sentence when Mom and Lisa got home from the doctor's office.  So I saved it and put Dragon (voice activated software) to sleep and went in the other room to talk to them.  When I came back, the microphone was on and my entire blog entry was erased, replaced by some gobbledygook that unfortunately was saved in replacement of all my work because blogger automatically saves every few seconds.  :-(

So now I have to start all over!  Needless to say I'm not too pleased right now.

Okay let's try this again.

This is a member family that fed us regularly. Sister O -- I'm deliberately using only one name on all of my mission memories to protect the innocent -- was a single mom with two boys.  A 16-year-old boy named Jeff and a younger boy whose name escapes me, who was about 11 or 12.

As missionaries, we always encouraged the members to invite their friends to hear the discussions.  Which unfortunately rarely happened.  You can imagine how pleasantly surprised we were when Jeff, the 16-year-old, told us he had a couple of friends who wanted to hear the gospel.

So, we started teaching his friend Nick.

Nick, Jeff, and ?

you've gotta love the guns and roses and Metallica T-shirts!

I can't remember the second friend's name :-(.  For some reason, it seems like we taught them separately.

Jeff was always present at the discussions.  Which was nice because you always want a member there if possible, to contribute to the discussion and fellowship the investigator.

Nick was very receptive to the Gospel and committed to baptism.  Jeff, being a priest, was able to perform the baptism.

I seem to be the only one happy about the occasion :-)

Sister Stone, Nick, Jeff, Sister Wilson

I don't remember what was wrong with Jeff's knee.

This picture looks like it's at the church so perhaps we taught a discussion that day?

Nick and Jeff waiting for the baptism

they look a little happier about the baptism here :-)

this was at Jeff's house.  Probably after a discussion.  Looks like we are just about to leave.

the lady in the chair is the mother of one of the two boys behind her.  I'm not sure if it's Nick's mom or the boy whose name fails me. I'm thinking it was the latter.  This was probably another discussion.  I can't remember if the mother sat in on the discussion or not.

It seems like this might have been after Nick's baptism.  I can't remember what happened with the boy in the Metallica shirt. I know that we taught him, but I don't know if we finished the discussions or if he was baptized.  I don't think he was baptized.

my 22nd birthday!  It looks like I got a wallet, a VHS tape from home, and of course the Stone & Wilson license plate from Sister Wilson.

Wasn't that sweet of Sister Wilson to decorate our apartment for my birthday?

notice the picture of Duke and Panda on the door?  :-)

As I mentioned before, the numbers on the wall were our baptism goals.

Notice the certificate sitting on the couch?  That was probably one of our awards for memorizing scriptures.  In the Florida Tampa Mission we were given groups of 40 scriptures to memorize.  And when we completed those, we were given a certificate.

There were four groups of 40 scriptures each.  The first is called lamplighter.  I think pretty much every missionary got that one.

The second group of 40 scriptures was called fisher of men.  The third was called harvester of souls.  And the fourth was called son/daughter of Helaman.

As you progressed from lamplighter to daughter of Helaman the Scriptures got progressively longer and harder to memorize. For instance, just one of the 40 Scriptures that we had to memorize for daughter of Helaman was all 13 articles of faith.

I don't think very many missionaries completed the son/daughter of Helaman.  Although, you will be pleased to know that I did become a daughter of Helaman!  :-) I think I received my certificate at the mission home the night before I flew back home at the end of my mission.

Often, when we went tracting -- when we weren't talking about the Elders :-) -- we were memorizing scriptures.  We would take a few pages from the packet with us to memorize in between doors.

this must have been after a DA at Sister O's house.  I don't know why we were helping them to put the Christmas tree up.  We should have been out working!  But it looks like we were having a good time.

I'm not sure if this was before or after my birthday -- but I'm guessing before.

we must have had a DA at Sister O's house on my birthday.  This is me with a cake that she got me.

Notice Nick in the background.  I think that button I'm wearing played happy birthday.  If I remember correctly.

Sister O. giving me my cake to blow out the candles.  Notice the APG on my lap :-) That thing was never far from me.

in full birthday attire complete with party hat and noisemaker thing -- I forget what those are called.

same picture as above?

looks like we're having fun :-)

okay, now that you've seen all the pictures, let me tell you the rest of the story.

I think it was for my birthday, I'm not exactly sure, but one day as we were leaving Sister O's house, Jeff presented me with a wrapped gift.  I was surprised and caught off guard and somewhat uneasy.  I didn't really want to accept the gift but also didn't want to offend him. So I just thanked him and we left.

Receiving a gift from a 16-year-old boy was awkward enough. After opening the gift, which was a gold necklace, it was obvious that Jeff had a crush on me.

I'm sure looking back, there were plenty of signs but, at the time, I was very naïve.  I had no idea that this 16-year-old boy had a crush on me. Although you can't really blame the poor kid :-) I was actually quite flattered.  But it did cause me a lot of undue stress.

Anyway -- I was in a conundrum, what should I do?  Thankfully I had Sister Wilson, to help me.

She was much older :-), and more experienced when it came to dealing with men/boys.

I hate being in predicaments -- so after discussing the situation with Sister Wilson we decided the best thing to do would be to tell him I can't accept it and give it back.

 Which is what I did.  Unfortunately, the poor boy didn't take it well, and ended up throwing the necklace back at me through my open driver's side window as I drove away.

Let me just say that by the end of my mission I became quite proficient at rejecting men :-)

I have a couple more stories on that subject that I will tell in subsequent posts. So stay tuned!

I was hoping to get two posts done today but since I had to do this one twice, it took me all day!  :-(

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

Mail is a big part of a missionary's life.  Every p-day (preparation day)-- once a week, every Tuesday for us (Wednesday for the Elders) we would spend time writing letters to our families back home, the mission president of course-- a letter home and a letter to the mission president were required by mission rule.  So we had to write at least two letters every week.

Of course there were usually other people to write such as extended family, friends -- including boyfriends for people like Sister Wilson, people we met in the MTC, sometimes ward members back home would write, etc.

One of my biggest memories concerning mail on my mission was when the Elvis stamp came out.  :-).  It must've been August 16th because that would've been the anniversary of Elvis's death.

I remember being so excited to go buy the new Elvis stamp at the post office.  Sister Wilson was also an Elvis fan.  I remember her telling me that she used to like to watch all of the old cheesy Elvis movies :-)

In fact, when we went to buy our illegal, cassette tapes -- she almost chose an Elvis tape :-) that's what I remember.

I think we actually went to the post office the day that the Elvis stamp came out to buy them and have them postmarked on that day.  :-)

You can see why Sister Wilson, and I got along so well :-).

For those of you who don't know me that well, my Dad is a huge Elvis fan and Elvis music was a big part of my upbringing.  I remember Saturday mornings Dad would put the vinyl Elvis records on the record player and blast Elvis music all day.

My siblings and I always said that Elvis was like an uncle to us.  :-)  

Sister Wilson showing off the letters she's about to mail.

I think I caught Sister Wilson off guard in this picture :-) getting her letters ready to mail.

I think I might be holding the aforementioned Elvis stamps :-)

The Port Charlotte Post Office is one of the nicer post office's I've ever been in :-)

I bought a lot of Elvis stamps there :-)

picking grapefruit at the church.

This was a big grapefruit tree on the grounds of the Port Charlotte Ward building.

We were told that we could pick all of the grapefruit that we could eat.  So we took advantage of that offer.

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but the church was next door to our apartment complex in Port Charlotte.  So it made call ins every night convenient.  Much better than using a pay phone every night.

It also is very convenient to go pick grapefruit.  I remember eating a grapefruit every morning while reading my scriptures during my personal study.  My scriptures still have the evidence.  There are brown acid spots all over the pages of my scriptures from the grapefruit splattering onto my scriptures as I read while eating my grapefruit every morning.  :-)

Those were the scriptures I still used after my mission and every time I saw those brown acid stained spots.  It would bring a smile to my face.

me, tippy toeing, trying to reach the grapefruit.  :-)

Sister Wilson picking grapefruit

again, me picking grapefruit at the church

I think this was an orange tree in a member's backyard.  Apparently we ate a lot of citrus :-)

check out the awesome mission pager clipped to my pocket.  :-)

picking the oranges/grapefruit, whatever citrus fruit it was, using a tool to reach the top of the tree.

showing off my success :-)

Sister Wilson doing the same.

she got one!  :-)

one of the perks of serving in the Florida Tampa Mission with all the free citrus fruit that we got to eat.

That's the first time I ever tried a kumquat.  And other fruits that I had never heard of before.  One interesting fruit, which wasn't citrus, but is common in Florida is called starfruit.  Those are kind of cool.  If I remember correctly a kumquat is small like a big grape and you pretty much eat it like a grape.

Okay, this will conclude today's mission memories.  Plenty more to come :-)