Mission Memories -- Port Charlotte -- Sister Vega: Part One

 Sister Vega and I were transferred from Brooksville to Port Charlotte.  Port Charlotte/Punta Gorda is on the Gulf Coast.  This was on the southern part of the Florida Tampa Mission in the Fort Myers zone.  Which made hurricane Andrew interesting.  That will probably be in the next post.  Port Charlotte was more the typical Florida, that you would think of.  Whereas Brooksville and Zephyrhills were more like what you would think of in terms of rural Southern states, like Georgia.  Although we did still have alligators :-)

We replaced the Elders once again. After getting to know a few of the members-- talking about their daughters marrying the previous Elders -- and seeing some of the scenery -- i.e., bikini hot dog stands -- I can see why.

Port Charlotte was actually my favorite area.  And it's good that it was because I spent nine months there!  Half of my mission.  During my nine months in Port Charlotte I had two companions -- who both became my two favorite companions -- Sister Vega and Sister Wilson.

Even though we had a lot of fun together, we always worked hard and tried to obey the rules :-).

This is a fun story.  One day I was doing my usual nightly call-in with the zone leader.  And he mentioned to me that the upcoming ZDM was going to be all about baptism.  He wanted us to dress in all white.  And he also asked if Sister Vega and I would do a short presentation in front of the zone.

Okay first of all, as sisters, we don't baptize so we did not have white dresses.  So, of course, we had to go shopping :-) it was quite a chore because as you probably all know, I hated to go shopping, especially for clothes :-)

I was actually surprised that we were able to find white dresses.  So that was fun.

I don't remember what we were supposed to do the presentation on.  I think he kind of left it up to us.  So, Sister Vega and I, not being your stereotypical sister missionaries, decided to do something a little unconventional.  Of course this was 1992, and Vanilla Ice was all the rage.  :-) So, we asked a teenage girl in the ward if we could borrow her cassette tape of "Ice Ice Baby"and we changed the words to fit the mission and did a little rap/dance in front of all the Elders in our zone.

I actually remember tracting while we were thinking up the new lyrics and writing them down.  We actually worked really hard on this presentation, believe it or not.

I can't remember the entire lyrics, but I remember the first part.  It went something like this:

Cruisin' in our Ford Tempo,

with the pedal to the metal,

and still goin' slow,

Lookin' for some people to teach,

the Gospel to,

but not on the beach.

Chorus:

Tract, tract, baby

(repeats)

Needless to say, the Elders were not expecting that kind of presentation out of Sister Vega and I.  I'm sure coming from sister missionaries they were expecting a very spiritually uplifting presentation.  I don't think any of them were disappointed. Everybody loved it! :-) 

Stone/Vega became a legend in the FTM that day.  At least for a couple of weeks :-)

Even towards the end of my mission I still had Elders that weren't there, who heard about it, asking me about it.  It was a classic!

The Fort Myers Zone.  The fortunate few who got to witness such a remarkable presentation.  :-)

Sister Vega and me posing with our zone leaders.

once again the fortunate Elders of the Fort Myers zone, who got to witness our marvelous presentation.  :-)

looking cool in our shades :-) notice the cassette tape player behind me :-)

definitely, the two coolest sisters in the FTM!

with our zone leaders again.

I don't know who the guy in the middle is :-(

That was definitely one of my fondest memories from my mission.  Even though I'm sure I was scared to death.  I still can't believe I actually did that.  :-) See what a mission will do for you!

okay these two pictures were taken inside our first apartment in Port Charlotte.  This was an upstairs apartment with a balcony and was the nicest apartment that I had on my mission.  The mission president made us move from this apartment to a smaller one in the same apartment complex on ground level.  Which we weren't too thrilled about, but it was still the nicest apartment I had on my mission.

notice the plant -- it was a plant I bought and I named him "Pete".  I don't know why-- other than the fact that it started with P, and it was a plant.  :-)

When we first moved into this area, there was a water bed and a regular boxspring bed in the bedroom. (even though this was a two-bedroom apartment, it was a mission rule that companions sleep in the same bedroom -- in separate beds, of course -- so there were always two beds in each bedroom, and they weren't always of equal quality.) I remember Sister Vega and I debating on which bed we wanted.  As I recall, neither of us wanted the water bed.  For those of you unfamiliar with waterbeds, they were common in the 80s.  I don't even know if they make them anymore.  But it was basically what it sounds like, a box with a plastic liner that was filled with water.

By the looks of these pictures -- it looks like I got the short end of the stick.  That is the waterbed I'm laying on. I don't remember taking these pictures-- I'm glad I have them because I didn't remember about my plant, Pete, until I saw these pictures, then it all came back to me :-).

This was Sister Vega with Bo.  He was one of our investigators who was baptized.  We tracted him out.  Check out the awesome cordless phone from 1992 :-). 

Bo was a musician and would sometimes play his guitar and sing for us when we taught him.  I remember him playing, "Tears from Heaven" I think that's the name of it.  And for me, he played, by special request, "The Chair" which was one of my favorite songs at the time.  And still is.  :-)

By day he worked as a landscaper -- well, actually, I think he just mowed people's lawns.  He didn't have a car and would ride his bike to church.  I remember going to one band rehearsal at his house one night.  That was actually kind of weird.  :-( He gave Sister Vega and I a tape of his music.  Which I probably still have somewhere.  Songs he wrote and sang. I seem to be missing all of my baptism pictures -- or a lot of them anyway.  So I don't have one of Bo's baptism.  :-( 

Bo was another one of our single male investigators.  Which we seemed to have a disproportionate amount of.  :-) 

Sister Vega taught me the phrase, "Flirt to Convert".  And it apparently worked for her :-).  At that point in my life, I don't think I even knew how to flirt.  

Actually, we were always very good missionaries when it came to dealing with investigators and members for that matter. We liked to joke around a lot, but when it came time to do the Lord's work, we were serious, hard-working, obedient missionaries.

We couldn't help it if men were drawn to us.  :-) 

yet another self portrait.  :-)

by the looks of our hair, it looks like we got caught in a rainstorm.  Which was not unusual. I don't know what we were doing here, maybe Street finding on this footbridge.  One thing I do want to mention about rain -- after it rained in Florida there would be tons of frogs that would come out onto the streets, sidewalks, grass, pretty much everywhere.  There's no way to avoid them if you were driving they would be splattered all over the road.  But walking, you could avoid them if you were careful.  And when it dried up, a lot of those frogs would be stuck to the asphalt/concrete and die a slow horrible death.

So, Sister Vega used to bend down and unstick each frog individually with her fingers to save them. I told her there was no way we can save all of these frogs -- but she always saved a few.  :-)

The Ford Tempo mentioned in our Vanilla Ice baptism presentation :-)

our balcony in our first Port Charlotte apartment

another view of the awesome Ford Tempo mission car.

looks like I'm a little close to the water :-) this would be the Gulf of Mexico.

Punta Gorda, was just south of Port Charlotte, as I recall.  It was more of a typical Florida retirement area.  Nice middle to upper class homes.  And lots of retired people :-) what they affectionately call snowbirds.

silhouette of Stone/Vega most likely in Punta Gorda

Sister Vega "GQing "a gentleman in Punta Gorda.  GQ stands for golden question --once again for those of you unfamiliar with missionary lingo.

apparently we did more picture taking than street finding that day :-) I'm sure we still got our numbers in though :-).

Sister Vega also getting a little too close to the water :-)

one thing I remember, about this day was there was some sort of algae bloom, which killed a bunch of horseshoe crabs. I remember the water looking red in a certain area and a bunch of dead horseshoe crabs were washed up on shore.  Actually I'm not sure if that was the day these pictures were taken or not.  But that is one of my memories.  I don't know why I don't have pictures of it.  It was quite remarkable.

I think this was the bridge over Tampa Bay when we were being driven down to Port Charlotte from Brooksville.  That was the longest bridge I've ever been on.  It seemed to go on forever.

A lot of the houses in Port Charlotte/Punta Gorda have canals behind their homes.  With boat docks and it seemed like everybody had a boat.  Usually, when we were tracting we couldn't see the canals because they were always in people's backyards.  But once in a while we got to go back there.  I remember seeing a manatee once.  That was really cool.

this was our apartment complex.  This is the driveway, I would run every morning.  It was a very big apartment complex and I think this was my turnaround, around this palm tree. 

Sister Vega, posing by the water in Punta Gorda.

me doing the same.  Looks like I'm reading a letter :-) probably from dad!

Sister Vega

I think I'm a pretty good photographer here :-)

check out the way I composed this picture.  :-) I'm quite talented :-) doesn't Sister Vega look great!?

Out tracting again, notice all the standing water.  No wonder I was always muddy at the end of the day :-)

standing by a street sign with Juliet's name on it!  I took that just for you Juliet.

Okay, I think this will conclude, part one of Sister Vega in Port Charlotte.  This took longer than I thought because I had to write so much :-) hopefully I will be able to get part two done tomorrow.  Stay tuned!  :-)