Week 76: July 21-27, 2019


Happy Pioneer Day everyone!  We express gratitude for those brave souls who came to Utah to exercise their faith and beliefs and build communities to benefit future generations.  They sacrificed so many things.  We believe the best way to honor them is to be true to our faith and beliefs, love our neighbors, and share the Gospel.  We are thrilled to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Orlando Florida!

We had a Pioneer Day picnic lunch on Coco Beach but only ate half of it before the rain, thunder, and lightening came and the lifeguards closed the beach.  A NOAA weather motto is get indoors when it roars.  Florida is the lightening capital of the US.

Monday we had our first office staff meeting with President and Sister Ashcraft.  Sister Ashcraft read a scripture from the Book of Mormon in 3 Nephi chapter 11.  It was about when the resurrected Christ came to the people in the Americas.  They heard a soft voice  3 times.  It wasn’t until the 3rd time they understood it was the Savior.  She asked how often do we need to hear something several times before we understand things?  That is a good questions to things about.  How may we increase our understanding and learning of Gospel truths?  What do we have to do?

The Portuguese speaking Elders came over for dinner on Tuesday. Elder Nay is from Arizona and Elder Robey is from Utah.  They are so kind and caring, and great examples of being disciples of Jesus Christ.   We love them.
Elders Nay, Faulk, and Robey:

Friday morning we met at the temple to join, support, and thank our missionaries who are preparing to return home next week.  President and Sister Ashcraft invited all the Sr. missionaries to attend too.  We closed the office to do that.  It was a wonderful experience to see everyone in white and feel the peace and love of the temple.  Later that day we drove other Sister missionaries home and stopped for a cool drink along the way.  Friday evening we met as Sr missionaries for our monthly activity. The Bairs were in charge and arranged for us to play games and became even better acquainted.   Everyone had a great time.
Sisters Taylor, Ashcraft, Burrell, Richards, Sideway, Bair, and Faulk at the Orlando temple:

Sisters Nielson and Miller:

The Sister missionaries asked us to join them to teach Rich on Saturday afternoon.  We met at the church and explained the Plan of Salvation.  The Sister missionaries asked him how he felt when he came to church and when he reads the Book of Mormon.  Elder Faulk answered many of his history questions.  Sister Faulk encouraged him to pray to know if what the missionaries are teaching him is true.  

Our lives are very busy but we are happy and can’t think of anything else we’d rather do at this time.  The Lord has blessed us as individuals and as a family.  We surely recognize His love.  Even when times are hard or things don’t go our way, He will not forsake us.  Let us all draw neared to Him to feel His divine peace and eternal love.

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