Ocala, FL Letter #2 March. 1, 2010

Well… here, we are again! Hello to everyone!

Is it just me or did that last week seem to fly by? Well this week was pretty sweet! Elder Rogers and I have been doing very well in this area! The new area is pretty nice, very green. My apartment is a typical missionary apartment, it did have a dishwasher but it broke (ha-ha) and we have a laundry mat right in the apartment complex- so that is handy. What is really cool is that in May (on the 22nd to be exact) Elder Russell M. Nelson is coming to our mission! Wow! And guess what? Elder Nelson had the choice to choose one mission in the entire world and he selected us! (Yes, sweet action, for the Jacksonville Mission) So that’s pretty sweet! We're all getting pumped for that!

We also had a super sweet miracle this week! We had an investigator that had a very abusive boyfriend. He was very controlling- to the point that he would not let her come to church or anything. And yet she wanted to be baptized. Then one day he had to go down to Miami on a court order. While there, he was put on probation, which meant that he could not leave Miami.
So Elder Rogers went on a member trade off to her house and committed her to be baptized this weekend (because she had already been to church twice). We planned the baptism for Friday. But every day leading up to it her baptism date; her boyfriend kept calling her and giving her all kinds of threats. He would tell her to come to Miami etc. So we told her to cut off all contact with him. And she has, she even went as far as to throw all of his clothes from the house into the garbage (lol) which was pretty sweet!

The day of her baptism, she was getting really nervous and was trying to back out of the whole thing. We talked to her and asked her, “Cathy who is the only person that would want to keep you from being baptized?” She said, “The Devil.” After that she went ahead and came to church for the baptism (even though some of her family was trying to talk her out of it as well) They were worried cause she was not feeling good that day. But she went through with it! One thing you should know is that she is also DEATHLY afraid of water. It just seemed like everything was going wrong that day, one thing after another.

We went at 4 pm to start the water running to fill up the font, and at 6:30pm, it was only past Elder Rogers ankles. Cathy still got in the font and got dunked (barley) and after that, she gave Elder Rogers a big hug! She had a huge smile, one of the biggest smiles I have ever seen! Her little son Donte (who was already baptized several weeks ago), stood up on the splash shield and said, “Way to go mom, you did it!! He was her personal cheering team! Then Cathy ran up the baptismal stairs saying, “I did it! Thank you Jesus, I did it!” Lol it was pretty funny.

Cathy is a pretty big black woman so it was just sweet, seeing her envelop her son in a massive hug! I tell you Cathy has such a sweet spirit about her. I just love to be around her and her son. Then Sunday came and she was confirmed! Everything is well with Cathy, the opposing forces were just pressing her hard, but she is filled with the spirit and is just so happy and thankful for the gospel. Right now, we are just going to try to move her out of her house super soon. We are also going to try to get her a new phone number so that her boyfriend can't find her and Donte once he gets off probation in Miami.

So now, Elder Rogers and I have to find more people that are ready so we can get them baptized for the miracles of March! I just know it is going to be a way sweet month! March indeed will be a lucky month full of miracles in the mission field!

Elder Rogers and I also had the chance to drive down to the Orlando Temple this last week. It is about an hour and a half away from where we live now. The day was rather rainy all day that day, but not too bad. It didn’t seem to matter much to any of us. It was a way sweet, sweet day! We went through an endowment session because Elder Rogers had a convert (that he baptized when he first came out into the mission field, way back from the start of his mission) taking out his endowments. He asked that Elder Rogers go through with him, so we had special permission to leave our Mission area and attend the temple with his convert. It was a very amazing day. Elder Rogers was all smiles, I don’t think he stopped smiling the entire day...lol! Anyway, it is a sweet experience to know that you taught them the gospel and then to know they are going through the temple. Maybe someday I will be able to go with Jason and Debbie when they get their endowments’. A super sweet miracle for sure!

On another note- I missed the entire Olympics, so if someone out there is wondering what to write their favorite Floridian Elder this week, perhaps you could update me on the scores, medals etc. I did hear the Canada hockey team beat the USA in overtime, but common it’s Canada! Those guys skate before they can walk! Other than that, I missed everything else.

I really think that is the main events of this week so yeah! But hey, I really gotta run now. I will talk to you next week! Hope you have a great week! Send my love to everyone!! Let everyone know to pray for the Miracles of March!! It is going to happen and it will be huge!

Love Elder (making his own luck) Blair