Mission Memories -- Brooksville -- Sisters Shorthill and Vega

After Sister Beck completed her mission, I remained in Brooksville and received two new companions.  Sister Shorthill who was out a few months longer than me, and Sister Vega, who was fresh from the MTC.

This was the second time I was put in a threesome.  The first was in the MTC.  The thing about having three people working together is that two always seem to get along better and one in sort of the oddball out. of course I am such a likable person that I was never the oddball out. :-)

Sister Vega and I seemed to click and get along with very well, Whereas Sister Shorthill was a little different.  

Thankfully this situation only lasted one month and then Sister Vega and I were transferred out of Brooksville to Port Charlotte!   

Me with Sister Shorthill in front of a lovely Brooksville home :-)

Sister Shorthill was from Payson Utah.  Two things I remember about her -- she loved the Grateful Dead, and she wanted a tattoo of Angel Moroni on her ankle.  Granted this was before the prophet revealed the commandment that we should not tattoo their bodies.  But even back then, I thought that was really strange for a Sister missionary.  Even without the commandment, we know that our bodies are temples and we should not deface them.

I love dogs!  :-)

even though I consider Sister Shorthill my most challenging companion, she was still a hard-working missionary and I'm grateful for the opportunity to have been able to work with her.

Sister Vega!  She was quite the personality.  We really had a lot of fun together.  Her favorite phrase was "hated it."  And she would say it with a certain vocal inflection and facial expression.  It makes me smile just thinking about it.  She also likes to use the word "bewildered" a lot.

Sister Vega was from Apple Valley California.  Look for some fun stories with her coming up :-)

Sister Vega was my first companion, who had a boyfriend that she was writing. unfortunately -- or maybe fortunately he quit writing her during my time with her in Port Charlotte.

this was in our kitchen in Brooksville.

  

Sister Vega, spraying bug spray before tracting.  This was a daily ritual before tracting.  The mosquitoes in Florida are more like small birds.  :-) And very prevalent.  The problem with spraying bug spray on our legs was that the bug spray was so toxic that it disintegrated our nylons.  And it was a mission rule for sisters to where nylons/pantyhose in the FTM.  So, I spent a lot of my mission money purchasing nylons every p-day.  :-)

I'm not sure what this is but it might be doing service.  Picking up trash on the side of the road.

apparently, we went to the zoo one day.  I don't really remember this, but I do remember posing for my picture in front of the shark.  To follow.

Florida sunset

tracting.

Vega and Shorthill looking at monkeys I guess :-)

I don't even know what I'm standing in front of.  I think this was the heaviest I got on my mission.  :-( Thanks to all of the DA's where everybody fed us like Elders with bottomless stomachs.

It was around this time that Sister Vega and I decided to start exercising.  Well, in addition to all the walking we did, while tracting.

Sister Vega and I began getting up an hour early at 5:30 AM and running.  I'm not sure if she ran with me or walked but I think we went to the track, which was near our apartment. Ironically, coming from a family of runners, this was the first time I actually started a running program.  I guess it was in my blood :-) I really enjoyed it.  I'm sure we were breaking mission rules by leaving Sister Shorthill alone in the apartment, but she didn't want to come with us.  So she just stayed home and slept while we exercised. :-(

 We would be home by 6:30 AM to start our regular missionary routine.  Which is: wake up by 630 -- one hour to get ready, eat breakfast etc., 7:30 AM was personal study time -- 30 minutes scripture reading and 30 minutes.  Topical study from the gray book -- I forget what it's called.  :-) And then at 8:30 AM was companionship study -- out of the mauve missionary guide.  9:30 AM out the door, doing missionary work until 9:30 PM.  9:30 PM-10:30 PM was getting ready for bed and doing call ins to the zone leaders.

In Brooksville call ins were kind of scary.  We always stopped at the convenience store, before we got to our apartment.  It wasn't the best part of town, and there were always hoodlems hanging around.  Lots of cockroaches all over the place also.

typical sister Vega.  :-)

I almost didn't put these pictures on here because I look horrible, but I figured if I'm going to document my mission I better document the whole thing.  So you will get to see the good, the bad, and the ugly!

pretending to be scared of the shark.  :-)

I'm not much of an actress :-)

grocery shopping.  :-)

Speaking of grocery shopping -- I don't remember which area it was or who my companion was at the time, but the first time I got hit on or asked out on a date, was in the produce section while grocery shopping.  :-)

we were shopping for apples or something, and this guy came up to me and didn't beat around the bush or anything -- he just asked me if I would go out with him. It caught me off guard, but luckily I had a really good excuse.  :-) I explained to him that I was a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints.  And that while serving my mission I didn't date.  He probably thought I was some weird nun type person or something.  I'm pretty sure I invited him to church and offered him a book of Mormon.  :-) Although he never showed up at church.  :-( 

self-portrait :-)

undoubtedly, waiting at the church during call ins to the zone leaders.

same as above -- at the grocery store

this must've been before, we did our hair :-)

call-ins at the church.  Sister Shorthill acting animated.

beautiful Brooksville.

tracting in the rain.  When it rains in Florida it is comparable to what they call a flash flood in Utah.  When it rains it pours!  And the lightning is crazy.  It goes horizontal in the sky instead of vertical.  And there's usually a lot of it.  It's very pretty though.

Shorthill and Vega -- preparing for tracting again by spraying bug spray. we went through a lot of bug spray too :-).

This picture reminds me of a story -- we were teaching an investigator on his front porch in the evening.  We did a lot of teaching outdoors because we weren't allowed to teach men inside their houses without either another sister around or his wife or family, etc..  Which actually proved to be a very difficult rule to keep.

anyway, this particular investigator had a wife who worked as a nurse, and always seemed to be gone.  So we were teaching him on his front porch.  And it was evening, so the mosquitoes were much worse.  We kept getting bitten by mosquitoes as we were trying to teach.  One particular mosquito was huge and was biting my leg.  So I didn't miss a beat and slapped it and splattered the mosquito all over my white nylons.  :-) I had blood and guts the size of a quarter all over my leg.  All the while teaching a principle of one of the discussions.  :-) 

Oh the joys and memories of missionary work!

That investigator actually ended up being baptized.  So I guess it was worth it :-)

Shorthill

me with Sister Vega -- I'm not sure where this is.  But isn't it a cute picture :-)

I don't even remember this :-) just goofing off, I guess :-) pretending like I have an monocle. Sister Vega seemed to bring out the goofiness in me.

why didn't she have the monocle on?

I find this picture to be completely hilarious!  This is a picture of Sister Vega's eye.  It cracks me up!  :-)

the two sisters in the middle are two sisters from the mission, who came to do splits with us.  This is the only time we ever did such a thing with any other sisters from our mission.  And as I recall it was not a very pleasant experience.  Luckily it was only for one day :-)

Sister Vega looks thrilled.  :-)

Shorthill/Vega/Stone

apparently I didn't have many pictures from this month.  As I said before, Sister Vega, and I were transferred out of Brooksville together to go replace the Elders in Port Charlotte.  Let the fun begin!  :-)