God's Plan

We got soaked in the rain.
Elder Charles and Elder Stevenson

The most interesting thing that happened was zone conference. We had a member of the seventy, Elder Klebingat, come and speak to us. It was a long conference, took the whole day, but it was worth it. He knows the scriptures so well. He started off by explaining exactly who we were in the pre-earth life, and what that means we have to do now. Super good, here's some of my favorite quotes:

• Tell yourself "I am here to fulfill a pre-mortal covenant to gather Israel"

• The pain of discipline is always better than the pain of regret

• Once we yield to temptation, we give the adversary ammunition with a memory

• You need to be better than yourself tomorrow

• Fear, typically, is not to be overcome, but to be managed and controlled

• You are choosing today where you want to be for eternity

• Everything you do today is a reflection of the depth of your conversion

• Never make the first mistake once

• You cannot teach what you don't know, and you will not teach what you are not excited about

Lots of good stuff.

God's Plan

We also had our best lesson with Astrel and Saintana this week. We taught the plan of salvation with some little toys that my family had made for me and gave me last Christmas. It really made it all click for Astrel, he really liked the part about the spirit world and how nobody burns in hell haha. He took pictures of the final setup, each one moving the people down. I reenacted it to show you what I mean. He asked us to get some Scriptures from the Bible that talk about it so he can share it, so we went back yesterday with one for each of the major parts. They also got a car now, so hopefully Astrel  can drive them all to church. Good stuff!

We also had our first member meal appointment since coming to this area haha. We got permission to go to Lehigh to have dinner with the Knoop family, and they made us a really nice meal. Grateful.

We didn't have any investigators come to church yesterday, but Saintana was there which was great. They had the baptism of the lady that wanted to get baptized after seeing Saintana's baptism, that was pretty neat.

That was pretty much it from this week, just a couple highlights but it was a good one. It's been raining off and on all week here, which is kinda nice. We've been needing some good rain, it keeps us cool while biking haha. Anyways hope you all have a great week!

Getting chases by a dog on our bikes. haha

Rain

Vulture drying out in the sun. There are tons of vultures here.

Saintana had this on her TV last night, snagged a pic haha

Lanmou,
Eldè Stevenson

What A Prophet!

Hello everybody! Wow, some amazing stuff just happened, where do I begin?

Monday was Pday, we had a fun time just chilling as a district playing sports. Then we tried to do FHE again but no one came again. This week we made sure to tell everyone that they need to let us know if they'll be coming otherwise we won't waste time waiting around to see if some comes (Haitians are notorious for being really late as it is haha). I didn't make brownies this time, maybe that's why haha.

This week we helped a Haitian teacher that was retiring move out of her house. A member of the Spanish branch volunteered to have us help her I guess. Not sure exactly was the situation was, but we spent a good couple hours helping her move boxes and pack up the big Penske truck she's taking up to Georgia. It was a good experience to be doing some good physical labor and making friends with some Haitian people.

Elder Charles got his first flat tire this week! It was on our way down to see Saintanna. We did all we could to patch it but the hole was too big, his tire had torn and the tube got pinched. We ended up locking up our bikes and walking the rest of the way to Saintanna, and we coordinated with the other elders to get the car and pick us up and drop us off again at our next appointment. Fun stuff.

Speaking of Saintanna, things are still going well. Ever since she found out more about how we take care of ourselves she's been insisting on feeding us something every time we go by haha. Lately, since her husband works in the watermelon fields, we've gotten giant slices of watermelon to eat before our lessons. We're working on having her baptism in the next couple weeks. She and Neftalie came to the Sunday morning session of conference and loved it, especially because our branch brought lots of food to share afterwards.

Now, speaking of conference. What a conference man. Not only was it my last one in the mission field, but what a way to finish it off. I'll start off by saying that President Nelson is my new favorite prophet. In the words of Elder Holland, "What a prophet!" I've really enjoyed the past couple talks he gave before becoming president of the church, and now my love and respect for him has increased 10 fold. Being able to stand in solemn assembly to sustain him as the prophet, as well as the other leaders of the church was a very unique experience that I am very grateful for. Listening to him during conference, I truly felt his love for me in a way I can't really describe, a way that felt like him channeling the love of the Savior for me specifically.

There was so much that happened during conference, it's hard to know where to start! It really all started during the Priesthood session, where President Nelson gave his first address to the church. In it, he announced that there will no longer be separate high priests and elders quorum groups, but now the Melchizedek priesthood will for one united Elder's quorum! This is a sign that the Lord is hastening His work and revealing His mind line upon line, precept upon precept. The rest of the session was focused on clearing up questions and giving details and examples. Then, during President Nelson's final address in that session, he called upon each office in the priesthood to arise (literally!) and stand with him as we sang the closing hymn, "Arise, O Men of God" It was a very spiritually moving experience for me, and I learned a lot about the blessing and privilege of holding this priesthood.

Some other interesting things that happened Saturday was that a lot more of the church leadership went through changes. We got 2 new apostles, Gerrit W Gong and Ulysses Suarez, as well as a multitude of new general and area seventies.

Sunday got very interesting too. President Nelson himself conducted the morning session, something I don't think has been done before. Then in the afternoon session, he announced that there will no longer be home/visiting teaching, but a new effort simply called "ministering". It is a more united, coordinated effort in the quorums to be more people-oriented than report-driven. No longer will we simply share a lesson once a month and check a box, but we will be building relationships and having regular interviews to discuss needs and strengths of those we minister to. AND THEN he announced 7 new temples, including one in INDIA and another in RUSSIA. Wow, talk about hastening the work! Much of his remarks during conference focused on the personal need to prepare for the 2nd coming. Mind blowing.

If you can't tell, I loved conference haha. The rest of it was great too, I didn't take a lot of notes 1) because I was so mind blown by the Spirit and 2) because I'm nearly out of pages in my notebook haha, but here are a couple highlights:

• Real success comes from not only going from failure to failure, but growing from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm. Lynn G Robbins (I saw him!)

• Casualness leads to casualty. Teniela B Wakolo (I saw him too!)

• Keep His commandments, and we'll be alright. Russell M Nelson

• Small and simple things over time bring great things, both positive and negative. Dallin H Oaks

• Good inspiration is based upon good information. Russell M Nelson

• Behold the Man! Dieter F Uchtdorf (I saw him too!)

• Are we active in the gospel, or merely busy in the church? Gérald Caussé

After returning home from conference, not 10 minutes later it started pouring rain haha, I broke out the old rain jacket and we worked the rest of the night. 

That's pretty much it, sorry this is so long, I promise I have pictures to supplement. I'll be trying a new thing and sharing them with a Google Photos album, let me know if this is a bad idea for some reason. Anyways hope you all have a great week!

Artsy, sunset pic

Israel, Israel, God is Calling

Our post-conference Haitian feast

A "cleansing and replenishing" is taking place

Welcome to my swamp

A Busy Sabbath Day

Coral Springs Zone - The Coolest
Photo from Elder Webster

Hello everyone! Here are a couple of highlights from this week.

First, we had a zone training! It's been a while since we had one, with all the holiday conference things going on. It was good, we talked about forgiving and watched the 12 step video about Larry (drug addiction recovery and forgiveness). It's a good one, led to a lot of good discussion. Kind of surprising how intense those 12 step videos are.

I also went on an exchange with the ZLs this week! It's the first time I've left my area for an exchange since I came to this zone. It was good to work with Elder Flake, even though I don't know Spanish haha. It didn't end up mattering too much though, the appointments all fell through. It was just one of those days. He gave me a good training about faith too, which I appreciated. And Elder Bullock handled the area like a champ, they found 2 new investigators!​​

Speaking of new investigators, this Saturday we had like a mini mission thing with some of the youth in the ward. We had 2 young men come with us Saturday morning to visit some potential investigators, and we were able to teach them both! Also got a little bit of knocking in with them before we all met back up for lunch. It was a fun little adventure.

Yesterday was a really productive day, even though it was a Sunday and most of our appointments fell through. We rearranged our schedule several times so that we could meet with one potential investigator that we have been struggling to meet with, and after talking with him we discover he's the non-member father of a recently returned missionary in the branch! Pretty amazing, he was mostly just curious about the church and our basic beliefs, so we talked about prophets and Jesus Christ and Joseph Smith with him and he seemed pretty interested. 

Then while we were knocking, the 2nd door we knocked let us in and we shared a little Plan of Salvation lesson with an older Haitian lady. 

​Our district leaders doing a fake rap battle at zone training

Finally, we met with a less active family that's really solid in the church but just can't get there on Sundays. We had a really good lesson where we talked about the scriptures and read Alma 32:26-43 together. The dad really felt the spirit and opened up to us, and even asked if we could eat some of his dinner with him haha! First time I've actually sat down and eaten Haitian food with a Haitian family in a long time. Classic "diri nwa" [black rice] with chicken and "griyo" [fried pork]. Have fun looking those up haha. [Haitian Recipes]

I almost forgot to mention that Yesterday Elder Bullock and I gave talks! It was only the 2nd talk I've given on my mission, and the 1st in Creole! It was good, it seemed to go over well. I talked about why we do missionary work (putting it in the context of the plan of salvation a little bit) and then told the members that we are here to work together with them and to help them do missionary work. Several people said thank you afterwards so I assume it was well received.

Also almost forgot to mention that Laurette came to church with her son Alex! We really had to scramble to find a ride for her, we ended up having one of the ward council members bring them early and they sat in the foyer while we were in our meeting. They seemed to really enjoy it, Alex looked like he was loving primary. We haven't been able to meet with her since to follow up about it, but we'll try to go by tomorrow. Brother Ca..... also came with his family for the first time in a little while, and it was nice to see him there. 

That's pretty much it from this week. We've still been pretty busy, our days are starting to get booked up which is nice. Crazy that we're starting into the last week of the transfer now, a new transfer starts on the 31st. I'm starting to realize just how old I am getting in the mission, and I don't like it haha! For example in his talk Elder Bullock said that he came out in August 2017. Then I said that I also came out in August, but August 2016! That was a weird realization. Anyways hope you all have a great week!

Lanmou,

Eldè Stevenson

Oh, This Is Why People Live Here

The banner. Hooray for cheap supplies.​

Hello everybody! So this week was another kinda slow week. Still haven't found any new investigators, but we've got a little trick up our sleeves for Halloween! But first;

IT'S ACTUALLY NICE OUTSIDE. The weather has been amazing these past couple days, staying around low 70s or below! I might actually need a sweater haha. This is what people call "the season", meaning all the snowbirds are coming in and things are gonna start kicking. It's made me reminisce about California a little bit, although I've found that my cold tolerance has definitely taken a hit (yes, Elder Lund, you were right). Utah will be something else.

This week was zone conference! It was a good one, no major announcements though (darn, no smartphones yet haha). Sister Garns had a lot to say though, one thing she talked about was doing what hasn't been done before to find new investigators. More on that later. Really zone conference is awesome because you get to hang out with old friends and companions. I talked with Elder Foster, Elder Celestin, Elder Bissereth, Elder Dick, and a bunch of other people. I'm at the point on my mission now where I actually know a lot of people. It's also the point where a lot of people I know start to go home. That'll be crazy.

​My "blueprint"​

So, our master plan for Halloween was inspired by Sister Garns' call to "do what hasn't been done." So we're setting up a table in front of our church building, which is on a major road, with the sign "THE BOOK OF MORMON: TRICK, OR TREAT?" This idea came to me the morning after zone conference during my personal study. We've already got everything pretty much made, see pictures below. We're going to do this during the "dead hours" of the day and hopefully have some success. Should be fun! Also if you didn't know, for holidays like Halloween and stuff where it get dangerous after dark, missionaries have to be home by 7pm. So it'll be nice having some free time too haha.

Another thing out of the ordinary that we did this week was help out at a local soup kitchen run by a catholic church. It's funny because they have a big mural on their wall of the Jesus from our bible videos. Anyways it seems like missionaries have been regulars there, but when we went we didn't really help with much. We were in the back trying to help the Spanish ladies put plates together and move stuff around, but we ended up just watching them most of the time. Also they had TVs in the church playing some old Halloween movie, that was weird. Overall it was a weird experience but glad we could help.

On our way to email. Chilly haha!

As for Peggy, we've had a little bit of a rocky week. We had an awesome FHE lesson with her at a member's house on Monday, but then 20 minutes later she called us because apparently the "friend" she was living with was kicking her out. So we spent all night scrambling with our bishop and relief society president to find a place for her to stay. The relief society president offered for her to stay with her a few nights, so the bishop and us went over and picked her up and brought her there. She was a little shaken but still optimistic. She stayed the night there but apparently the next day or so the "friend" asked her to come back. Not sure what the whole deal is there, but Peggy is at least trying to get out of there now. Everything was still good for her to come to church, except that she texted us right before and said that she started work that day so she couldn't come. And just now she said that since she's being trained this week we won't be able to meet this week. Still not sure where she's working, but oh well. So her baptism is going to be pushed back, which isn't a big deal, we just don't want her to get in the habit of always pushing back. So we're still working on her, it'll just take a little more time.

Anyways that's pretty much it, hope that you all have a happy Halloween! It's weird to think that last Halloween was my last day home after the surgery, which means I've been in Florida for a year straight, which means almost 14 months overall. Time is flying, especially when I think that transfers are next Wednesday. It'll be my 10th transfer, that's crazy haha. I don't feel that old! 

Lanmou,

Eldè Stevenson

Zone Conference

Back in Business Baby!

​Ray got baptized! (and I got a haircut haha)

Hey everyone! So this week was pretty normal, especially compared to the last month or so. But there were a few exciting highlights!

The first one being that Ray got baptized! Wooo! It was a bit of a scramble at the end, part of why it's been hard to baptize him is because he's so busy that it's hard to get in contact. But this being the first week where we haven't had to do service we jumped on the chance. As Sister C[......], his wife, stated: "This day has been 37 years in the making." Yeah, he's been investigating for a while haha. We're so excited for him, and the ward is already making sure that he feels welcome and won't be forgotten.

Another thing that was exciting was being able to go to church again! This was the first time in about a month that we've had a regular church service, and it was so refreshing. I actually feel like I belong here now that I've met the ward and got things established. To make it even more exciting, Peggy came to church! She loved it, and is excited to come back next week. In her own words she put it this way: "I have been praying about if I want to be baptized, because my father was a pastor and I had a dream where he told me that I was already baptized. But now I want to be baptized so that I can have the Holy Ghost, so I will keep praying." So elect! It was awesome for her to be able to watch Ray be confirmed in sacrament meeting as well and to talk about it with her afterwards. We're going to meet with her again this Thursday with a cool member and go over Acts 19 with her and give her a baptismal date. I think it should go really well!

Not a whole lot else happened this week, we had other people that we were teaching but they all kind of fizzled out so we're kinda at square 1 again. It happens. We did get to watch most of conference this week, it was really good. I've watched all of Saturday and about half of the Sunday Morning session. I've been taking notes about what stands out to me in each of the talks, but I don't have them with me right now. oh well, I'll have to include some next week and by then I should have seen the rest anyways. Anyways that's pretty much it from me, hope that you all had a good week too!

​

Lanmou,

Eldè Stevenson

Camping in the Keys

​My new district. Starting with me, then up to Elder Shoen (something like that, he's new), Elder Perez my new DL on top, Elder Hasara under him, under him Elder Loftus, under him Elder Flake, next to him Elder Bullock (also new), behind him Elder Norman (not as new but still new haha) then Elder Marshall next to him and Elder Rire under him.​

Hello everyone! So this week has been a fun one! Lots of work but still fun haha.

Transfers were this week, so now I'm in Cypress Creek with Elder Marshall. We're very similar haha, pretty much the same person. It'll be an interesting new dynamic since most of my other companions have been very different from me in some way or another! My new home address is .....Fort Lauderdale, FL 33308. We haven't done a whole lot so far, but it's going to be a transition especially since for the large part it's "business as usual" over here on the east coast since the hurricane didn't hit as hard. Back to "real" missionary work! What I can tell though and what I've heard from other missionaries is that this is a great area to be in. Even though I don't get to teach in creole, there's still plenty to talk to and even though the ward is smaller it's strong. Should be good!

We also have some cool people that we're working with right now. One is named Ray, he's been investigating the church for a while now but is set to be baptized this week! We were going to try to have the baptism last weekend, but with service and everything it just couldn't happen. But so far everything is in order for this weekend. He's passed his interview and everything, so as long as we're in town it should happen! The other person we're working with right now is Peggy, she's a woman from the Democratic Republic of Congo! She's super cool, we're still pretty early on in the teaching process with her. She's been living in America for a little while and understands English pretty well, but her native language is Lingala. So we got her a Book of Mormon in Lingala! Super cool, and she really wants to change her life and follow Christ so I think she'll be baptized.

Me and Elder Marshall
hanging out at our campsite at the museum on Marathon

So the climax of the week was the weekend when we went down to the keys to camp and do service! We drove down with our ward to Marathon Key on Saturday morning at 4:00am, then set up camp and went out to work. Most of the missionaries from the east coast were there so I got to hang out with some of my friends that I haven't talked to in a long time. It was so much fun. We did a lot of helping people tear down drywall and shoveling mud out of houses and hauling out trees and things. It's hard labor, especially with how hot and sunny it gets, but we had plenty of water and food and things so we were taken care of. We camped out Saturday night, it's been a while since I've been camping, it was fun. I got a cool self-inflating chair thing that I intended to use for an air mattress, since we were sleeping on a gravel driveway, but I guess it's not designed for that since it was deflated by the middle of the night. I ended up sleeping just fine though. Hopefully I can figure out the issue because it's a cool chair haha. Then we went and did the same thing all of Sunday until we got back home at around 9:00 pm. Lots of work but it was lots of fun and the people were so grateful for it.

Saturday evening we got to watch the Priesthood session of conference. The talks were very interesting, talking about how the priesthood is like a rocket, and about the significance of light, and of integrity and other things. I really enjoyed it, I'll have to go back and study it some more though. We'll get to watch 4 hours worth of conference during the week this week, the rest will have to be on pdays. I'm excited to watch! I did hear the news though that President Monson wasn't there, and that Elder Hales died. Very sad news, but a lot was said during the priesthood session about how the leadership of the church works and I know that there is a purpose behind these things.

That's pretty much it, but I do have lots of pictures! I'll try not to do a huge dump again haha, but they're all so good! Anyways thank you for your support!

​-With Darwins​

​​​​​​​​​​​​​-Lucy and Darwins​
-​​​​​Lingala Book of Mormon!​
-​Driving to service at 4am​
-Tearing out drywall​
​-destroyed burger king
-​This was the worst house I've seen so far. Flooded, then downed lines burned it.​
​-destroyed gas station​
-​​​National gaurd​
​-Cutting up trees​
​-This boat went over, and one of the cords on it went halfway through a tree, see next pic​
​​-​destroyed sail​
​​​​​-pirate ship​
​​​-Artsy palm tree pic​
​-The Atlantic ocean between keys​

​-A Florida rainstorm ​ 
-​random windsurfer

Lanmou,

Eldè Stevenson

The Week of Weeks!

My poor bike

Hello everyone! So this week has still been pretty not normal you could say. First things first though this week is TRANSFERS. And I will be TRANSFERRING to the area of CYPRESS CREEK ENGLISH in the CORAL SPRINGS ZONE. My new companion will be ELDER MARSHALL. All the other elders here will be staying, and Elder Blood will be training! Definitely didn't expect this one, It'll be a lot different serving as just an English missionary, but the Lord needs me there for some reason so I'll just have to figure it out I guess. I haven't heard anything about the area other than apparently the ward meets in an old baptist church so that'll be interesting.

The weirdness of the week started off last p-day when we got in a crash! We were finally on our way "home" from the chapel and Elder Anderson was driving, and because of the hurricane there are traffic lights out. Well there was this one light that wasn't really a light because it was just for a school and is never on anyways, but a Mercedes 2 cars ahead of us decides to slam on his brakes to stop at it, which caused the mini cooper behind him to slam on his brakes, which caused Elder Anderson to slam on our brakes. And since we had all our stuff along with 4 guys in the car, we couldn't stop fast enough and we hit the back of the mini cooper. Everyone was fine, but our car got bashed pretty bad. Elder Anderson didn't get faulted either so that was good haha.

Our poor car

So then we didn't have a car, and we were living up with the cypress grove elders, Elder Wride and Elder Petersen, because our house still didn't have power. So the next day we tried biking down to do stuff in our area and I got the first flat tire of my mission! A 3 inch rusty screw went straight through my tire. So then I was out of a bike and we stuck with the other elders for the rest of the day.

The next day was Zone Conference, and President showed us his portfolio of pictures he took before his mission. He's an amazing photographer, really cool stuff. He's done photo shoots for some pretty big companies too. Even Disney! We also got a new car after zone conference so that was awesome. And I ate at steak and shake for the first time, which is kinda like the in-n-out of the east coast. Pretty good, not as good as in-n-out though.

We were finally able to go back to our house on Saturday. We have power, but the AC comes in and out still. Better than camping out in a chapel and living outside our area though. This weekend we also did more Mormon Helping Hands. We got in a work crew with the L.......s, the same family that took care of us during the hurricane. That was fun, they're an awesome family. But so many trees. After all this is over I will never need to touch another stick haha. It's exhausting work and there's so much to be done, but I'm glad to be able to help out these people. They're always so grateful for our help.

​Gotta get those yellow shirts!​

​Working in the rain!​

​Working hard or hardly working?

Speaking of that, this weekend is General Conference. However, the General Authorities have asked that we forego watching conference to do more Helping Hands. Kind of a bummer since I was kinda looking forward to a break, and General Conference is like super bowl weekend for missionaries haha. But, since I'll be transferring back to the east coast there's a good chance that I'll be camping (like, ACTUAL camping with TENTS) down in the KEYS to help clean up down there. The Keys got pretty wrecked so this isn't going to be much of a vacation but it'll be an interesting experience all the same. Somehow among all this I am still going to be doing missionary work, I'm expecting a bit of a rough transition at first but we'll see how it all pans out.

So as you can tell, things are really shaking up around here. Things will probably never be the same after this, but it's been a huge growing experience for me which I can really appreciate. Heavenly Father is really putting me, and putting all of us for that matter, to the test and I'm just going to keep making myself do those things that I don't want to do because I know there's a good reason for all of it. Just know that things are working out and are going to keep working out, and I just might be an even better person because of it hahaha. I love you all, thank you for your continued prayers and support!

Lanmou,

Eldè Stevenson

​

LEMONADE!

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Group picture with our friend working the counter​

Hello everyone! So this week definitely went by much quicker than last week, and a couple cool things happened that I can talk about.

First off, TRANSFERS are TOMORROW! I will be STAYING in Naples. Elder Steed is going home, but both Elder Dick and Elder Spotts are TRANSFERRING! Meaning I'm the only one staying in the house... Elder Dick is going to the Creole ward in Boynton Beach and Elder Spotts is going DL in Alapatta. Taking their places will be my new companion ELDER BLOOD, as well as Elder Anderson and a new missionary in Naples English. Lots of changes, looks like I'll have to make sure I know everything about everything. I guess I just need to figure out how to mount a gps to a bike haha... 

This week we also had Zone Conference, which was pretty fun. It went pretty long, but we got some good training about following the Spirit in all aspects of the work. I also got to see some of my friends from past areas again which was fun. The biggest news of the conference is that we will now be able to go to the temple 2 TIMES A YEAR! That's in addition to any time we go with our recent converts for baptisms or endowments. Pretty exciting!

I also went on exchanges with the ZLs this week, I went with Elder Webster in their area. It's a Spanish area, so I didn't really talk much the whole day haha. It was fun though and I got a good comp study from Elder Webster about staying positive and keeping the Spirit. A good thought that I liked from that is that we need to be transparent so that the Spirit can shine through us, and I took that to mean being yourself and not trying to make yourself into just a "missionary" if that makes sense.

The last cool thing from this week was that some of the Sisters in our district came up with an idea to set up a free lemonade stand in a park as a finding method. To be honest I was a little skeptical, but we all went and set up this lemonade stand. There were hardly any people at the park, and no one was coming over so we sent teams out to "recruit" people to come to the stand. 

It was nearing the end of the time that we could stay when one of the teams comes back with a Haitian young man! His name is Jovensky, and he was super open to talking with us and coming to church. We set up a time to meet with him and he said he'd come to church too. When we went to his house, his cousin came out and told us that he didn't live there anymore (we thought she was lying, but turns out he gave us the wrong apartment number) so we decided to knock around his building. This was an area that had been knocked a lot, so we never went there the whole transfer. 

As we're knocking doors, we run into the Sa[.....] family, a couple straight out of Haiti that we had met with a couple times but had dropped off the face of the earth because they didn't have a house or a car to get to church to meet. Turns out they're living with some family now in the same complex! It's still a hard situation since they still don't really have transport but at least we know where they live. And after all that, Jovensky actually came to church and loved it! Our return appointment fell through again, but he should be coming to the English class on Wednesday so that'll be good. 

Moral of the story is that I can never make fun of the lemonade stand ever again hahaha. 

That's pretty much it. Today marks 11 MONTHS as a missionary and the start of my 8TH TRANSFER in the field! Time's flying by, this is the transfer where I hit my year mark! [I think he's counting his time after the MTC, because it's already been a year since he became a missionary] I definitely don't feel like I've been out for that long. I'm going to do my best to finish off my first year strong, even if it means lots more biking haha. It's worth it. Love you all! 

Thank you so much for your support! Here's lots of pictures! 

​​​​​​​​​​​

​Elder Spotts stole my camera at Uncle Louie G

​​​​​​​Clearly ice cream makes me happy...​

​​​​​​​​​​​My companion with his dream bike. haha

​Driving across all of Florida to zone conference​

​So I finally got around to using the live composite feature
 on my camera to capture some lightning. Here's the outcome.​

This one was taken over a period of 4 minutes​

​This one was over a period of 7 minutes.
All the light from these pictures come from the lightning, it's about 9:30 at night

Lanmou,

Eldè Stevenson