okay this will be the last post with Sister Erickson, and thus my mission. :-( Although I do have a few random pictures that we found after I already posted that section. So I will do one last post after this.
One thing I failed to mention about Sister Erickson is that she would wake up with me at 5:30 AM -- one hour before we were supposed to wake up -- to come outside with me while I ran. She wouldn't run but she sat on the curb and read her scriptures while I ran.
That was nice of her.
okay here are some more silly pictures.
Sister Erickson posing on her bed.
me doing the same pose as Sister Erickson above. :-) crazy sisters!
I think I put a couple of these pictures in a previous post -- but this is where they belong. It was not with Sister Collett, they were taken by Sister Erickson.
me posing again on my awesome missionary bed :-)
Sister Erickson doing a lovely pose sitting on her chair :-)
me posing in the doorway -- notice how crooked my tag is-- I always had trouble keeping my name tag straight on this dress for some reason.
okay this is my last P-day.
I don't know why we didn't dress in our whites and name tags -- except maybe because of the place we went. :-)
Keep in mind that I had already been to Disney World, Epcot Center, and Disney MGM Studios.
So for my last P- day I chose Busch Gardens in Tampa. Tampa was a lot closer to Seminole/Largo than Orlando/Kissimmee was.
And of course I got permission from President Brimhall to go to a theme park on my last P- day. I'm not sure whether he told us we didn't have to wear whites or not.
The above picture is me standing by one of the Budweiser Clydesdales.
me standing by a replica of a Clydesdale.
I'm not sure this was the best choice of theme parks to attend on my last P- day. Notice I'm still carrying the mission pager. I sure didn't miss carrying that thing around after I went home.
I know this picture is hard to see, but this is a picture of the Budweiser bottling plant at Busch Gardens.
another picture of the bottling plant. Can you see the bottles on the conveyor?
I know that wasn't the best environment for missionaries to be in :-(
It was interesting though.
apparently Amanda came up from Port Charlotte to go with us to Busch Gardens.
I think I'm standing by, some chimpanzees. -- Replica of course. :-)
me with my favorite animal.
For those of you who don't know, the gorilla is my favorite animal :-)
Sister Erickson looks a lot happier than I do in this picture.
It looks like I got wet by the looks of my hair.
This will be the last picture of Sister Erickson and I together. So I wanted to add one more story.
I need to add a spiritual story to all of these heathenic pictures :-)
I'm not sure why I don't have a picture of this baptism, but let me tell you about one investigator that we baptized.
We were out tracting in a retirement neighborhood. And usually when an older retired person would open the door they were generally cordial, but said they had their own religion and weren't interested.
So this older 80 something-year-old woman answered the door, and I expected her to tell us she was not interested, but instead she said that she wanted to hear the discussions.
So then I immediately thought that she's just lonely and wants to have some visitors. But, since we were missionaries and that was our job to teach people about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we made the appointment to teach her.
Surprisingly, she was very receptive to the Gospel and wanted to be baptized.
One thing I remember about Mary, is that she drove a Chevy Nova. Very similar to your 1969 Chevy Nova, Michael. It was even the same color -- pale yellow. Except Mary's car was in mint condition. She probably bought it new off the showroom floor and kept it garaged. I think I might have a picture of it sitting in the church parking lot, I don't know where it is. :-(
Mary was definitely the oldest investigator that I had that was baptized. I'm not even sure if it was Sister Collett or Sister Erickson who was my companion when we taught Mary.
One interesting thing about Mary that came out during her baptismal interview -- which I had no idea about -- is that she had an abortion when she was younger and had to talk to President Brimhall, the mission president, to get approved for baptism.
Mary was baptized and I left my mission shortly thereafter. But I did keep in contact with her for a little while after my mission.
Apparently this is in a restaurant. Amanda and me :-)
One last story that I would like to share from my mission:
This story also took place in my last area, Seminole. I'm not sure which companion I was with but it was probably Sister Erickson. Because I know it was at the tail end of my mission.
Anyway, we were out tracting, again :-). It was in a mobile home park. We actually did tract quite a few mobile home parks during my mission. Anyway, not surprisingly, after we knocked on the door, an older retired lady opened the door. We did our door approach and she was surprisingly very friendly and invited us in.
As we were BRTing with her, we came to find out that she was actually a member. We were a bit taken aback by this because we knew all the members in the ward. Even a lot of the inactive members or I should say less active members. So we were surprised that a member was living in our area that we didn't know about. She mentioned that she and her husband had retired a few years ago and moved to Florida from somewhere up north, I'm thinking Michigan or something like that. Anyway, she told us that she had served as Relief Society President, amongst a myriad of other callings and I believe she said that her husband had served in the bishopric back in Michigan or whatever they were from. Needless to say, they had served well in the church for many years.
I asked why their membership records had not been transferred to the Seminole ward. Or why we had not seen them at church before.
She casually told me that when they retired, and moved to Florida, that she and her husband had decided to retire from the church also!
I was flabbergasted! I didn't understand how anyone who had served so faithfully in the church for so many years could just leave it and walk away.
That story has stuck with me my entire life. There is no retirement from the church. Does the phrase "Endure to the End" sound familiar?
Anyway, I'm not sure whatever happened to that couple. I left my mission shortly thereafter, but I hope that the missionaries continued to visit them and hopefully helped to reactivate them back into full fellowship in the church.
Although it does seem to me like she mentioned that they did not want people from the church to contact them. :-( I hope they finally came to their senses eventually.
I hate to end this post on a bad note. I should have put that story in one of the earlier posts.
Let me just mention that I left my mission on July 23, 1993. That is the day that I flew home from Tampa.
I served 18 months and one week :-).
I was happy to be going home after serving an honorable mission.
I'm so happy that I had the opportunity to serve a full-time mission. As you can see, I created many wonderful memories during my time as a full-time missionary. And I had many experiences that help to shape me into the person I am today. I would not trade that experience for anything. I know that I learned more about life and the Gospel during that short time than I could have learned during four years of college or any amount of time, really.
Serving a mission is a unique learning and growing experience and there is nothing comparable to it. It truly is a precious gift and privilege to be called on and serve a full-time mission. I'm so thankful that I took the opportunity to serve a full-time mission. I know that I benefited much more from that experience than any of the people that we taught or baptized.
Sister Erickson, and I kept in contact, and I went to her wedding in the Las Vegas Temple.
I've got pictures of attending Sister Wilson's and Sister Erickson's weddings. So I will post those after the random mission pictures I'll post tomorrow.
And that will conclude my Mission Memories.
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