Like A Fire Is Burning

My large calzone.
Very yummy, one of my new favorite meals in Immokalee

Hello everyone! So this week ended up being kinda crazy, not really what we were expecting haha.

We did a lot of service this week, mostly for a family from the Spanish branch. On Monday we spent the evening helping the Brown family, with some members of the Spanish branch, cut down trees and move logs left over from the hurricane. Who would've guessed that I'd still be doing hurricane cleanup. 

Saturday we went back, just the four of us, and raked leaves into piles and burned them then went to his fishing shop and helped load metal sheets onto a trailer. It ended up taking most of the day, but we made good friends with the dad. He's like your classic country dad, his wife is a member from Columbia and their daughter I believe was baptized as well but he is not a member.... It was good that we've been able to start breaking down the barrier, like Ammon, through genuine service. Even if we did smell like campfire afterwards haha. 

Speaking of smelling like campfire, yesterday we were surprised to come back from church to a very smokey Immokalee. Apparently there was a pretty decent fire burning in the everglades, and we were getting smoked by it all night. So I bet there's gonna be a lingering campfire smell for a little bit still. Coincidentally we also had the first real storm in a while yesterday evening, it only lasted a few minutes but I think it did the job. Things are nice and clear today.

On Wednesday we did an exchange and I left the area to go with Elder Latu in Lehigh acres, and coincidentally they also had a service project set up that day. It was a youth service project for one of their investigators. We were trimming back some hedges away from their house. It was a nice little project with good participation, and the investigator had chips and things and made everyone sandwiches.

Thursday we were surprised to get a call from Elder Latu with a "code red". Apparently there had been a mixup with the ZLs, and interviews with President were supposed to be that day, right then, and he was there waiting. This was after we'd already had our district training on Tuesday. So we quickly changed into our suits and went. Not every week do you get two DTs haha. Our interview was good, just checking up on things.

On Friday we tried a restaurant in town we'd never been to before named Roma in Havana. It turned out to be a nice little sit-down Italian restaurant. I ordered a large meat lovers calzone, and boy it was large haha. I ended up taking half of it home. It was very tasty, but a little expensive to be a regular thing.

Missionary work is still moving along. Yesterday our branch president was coming to pick people up, but somehow while he was getting ready he broke his hip or something. Apparently he was bending down to dry himself after a shower and couldn't get back up. But after laying down a little bit and putting a heating pad on it and doing some stretches he still came. It was a bit of a last minute scramble. He didn't pick up Saintanna because she wasn't all the way ready, but he did pick up our new friend Marie. She's been taught by missionaries in the past but is progressing pretty well right now... She came yesterday and liked it. It was a bit long, especially because she had to be picked up at 10 because of ward council and church doesn't start till 12, then there was another meeting after so she didn't leave until 4, getting home at almost 5. We got some calls from her family at home asking where she was, including the husband, and we had to assure them that she was fine and on her way. Definitely wasn't ideal, but that's what it takes.

Saintanna's still on track, we'll probably be having to do her baptism the first week of May though because there are 2 other people being baptized that day and she wants her baby to be blessed, so might as well use the fast and testimony sacrament meeting to do all of that. Should be a big day for the branch.

Overall the mission is doing great, everyone's pumped up, we've been finding 400+ NI [not sure what this stands for] for the past 3 weeks or so and this week we had the most dates in a while, 76. President Garns has been awesome at making sure that we're converted first and teaching the whys and hows of missionary work. Good stuff!

Hard to believe that transfers are next week, kinda bittersweet. This is probably my last week here and my last week with Elder Charles. We'll make it a good one. I've been a missionary for 19 MONTHS now! Crazy stuff! Things are picking up.

I think that's pretty much everything, kind-of a longer letter. Hope you all have a great week!

Lanmou,
Eldè Stevenson