Monday, July 19, 2010

Ocala, FL Letter #22 July 19 , 2010

Hello everyone,
Well Florida is heating up, but this week was fun! We had a fun p-day as we always do, and then today we played soccer in the morning with a bunch of the young men in the ward. I scored two goals and tried to do a flip after I made them, but I ended up just landing on my back. All in all I had a good time and my back is fine (mom, I can hear you asking already). So since we played in the morning it threw the P-day schedule off so that is why I am writing you later this afternoon.

Tuesday I was getting ready to head out and work and when I looked outside and my bike was gone... the helmet was still there but the bike totally gone... so yeah I was robbed. Luckily enough, I had the bike Elder See left me. That bike needed a tune up real bad, so off we went to the bike shop. Ugh... not a good day. I ended up spending over 60 bucks on the tune up and couldn't get the bike back until Wednesday. My companion bought a lock, so I think we will be good for now cause we lock the bikes up together. If I am transferred, I can just pick up another lock in my next area. Man oh man, when I got the bike back though, I can fly on that thing. Freaking sick bike, I can eat hills like nothing else now!! Therefore, it’s kind of a win and a loss I suppose.

Then on Thursday, we had Zone Conference, which I really liked (except for those long hours,) but it was all good. During Zone Conference President Barry was telling us about some of the other missions in the world and how some of them are "test - piloting missions" where you stay at the Stake Center and chat online with people. You teach them the gospel and answer their questions and then when they want you over to their home you go and teach them in person ... Crazy huh?? Tracting is all right, but there is a better way for missionary work to be done. It needs to involve the members more than the missionaries. The missionaries should be the support to the member missionary work. And the good thing is that exact thing is what President Barry is focusing on, so I think this will be really good for the Jacksonville Mission. After all, the missionaries won’t be here forever but the members will be. The roots need to be the members and the missionaries the branches on the tree. President Barry is a really neat guy, he is very, very happy to be here in the Jacksonville mission with all of us.

But hey, I have five minutes left on this pc so I will go and get another one so I can get back on and finish this letter. Might be 10 or 15 minutes though, hopefully I can write a little more.

I’m back… hello again. Oh, update on Michael and Katlin, well their both done with smoking; but not sure about marriage now. Some of the ward members are inviting them to a family home evening tonight so they can see what a structured family can look like. Karl is doing fine. We are just trying to get him to have a testimony - that this is the true church. We will be following up with him today on what his answer was about that. We hope and pray that goes well.

There is also this less active lady that we are working with currently. Her name is Missy, she is really awesome! We go over have dinner, then a lesson. Last week she came to church, but not this week. She was not feeling so hot, but she will be there this Sunday. Elder Day and I are really excited about that!! That is pretty much my week in a nut shell. Oh great news, President Barry is letting us have two member meals a week now, so we can focus on getting the families to have their own family missionary plan! So that’s something nice too, that in and of itself will help move the member work forward in this area.

So how’s things back home? I loved Abbie’s surprise parade box! Man it was packed full of awesome stuff & treats that my companion and me really chow'd down on quickly.
I always love my care packages and wonder what will be inside? So if it’s some homemade treats I would love that, cause I love homemade stuff. I love anything and everything really…ha-ha!! So go ahead and send any care packages!

I would love to write a little more however now the work calls :P so I need to sign off for this week. But I will talk to ya in another 7 days! Yup, yup, only a week away until you hear from your all time favorite Elder …that’s me!! But I gotta get running, thanks for everything. Have a fun week! I love everyone, bye!
Love,
Elder goal scoring, (but non-back flipping) Blair

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