Tornado and Frogs

So this week was pretty crazy!  On Monday, after we had finished all of our p-day festivities, we went out to visit some less actives and non members but no one was home, and I mean no one!!  We tried so many people but we had no success, so we went to a parking lot, just sitting there having no clue what to do, so we decided to say a prayer.  After we said the prayer, we still had no idea what to do, until I saw this guy keep walking around his car like five times, so I said that if he didn't get in his car and drive away we were to talk to him, and guess what, he didn't!  So we went over there to talk to him and realized that it was the guy that we gave food to at the BK lounge!  We taught the Plan of Salvation with him right there in the Waffle House parking lot and got a return appointment!  It's so crazy how even little and simple prayers can be answered if you have the courage to act.

On Thursday we went to help the other elders move this lady into her new home, it was so bad...  The place was nasty.  There were like 5 dogs and it smelled like a zoo.  Not to mention that nothing was boxed up and ready to go.  We did everything for her!  It ended up taking over 6 hours to do everything but it was worth it because of one thing she said. as we were hauling everything out of the uhaul (at her new home) she said "I feel like I'm not doing anything."  At first I thought to myself "Well pick up a box!"  Then I thought "You know what service is all about."  It made me tear up a little to know how thankfull she was!  Even though it was nasty and took forever, that one simple line made it all worth while!

On Wednesday, after I got back from another trade off (it is awesome being a district leader's companion) we were stuck in our apartment almost all day.  Our phone kept blowing up with tornado warnings and then the Zone Leaders told us to stay inside until the weather calmed down, because they already had 2 tornados hit them in Destine.  So while stuck inside, I just jammed out to all the church music that we had, studied a little and wrote some letters.  It was super nice to relax for a day!

After the warnings were gone, we went out and helped with the Young Women in Excellence for the ward.  I had never been to one, but it was awesome!  It was all about temples, and how important the temples are in our lives.  One of the young women talked about how lucky they were to have a temple FOUR HOURS away, because people can save up their entire lives to go to the temple and still not have the opportunity to go.

The people here are thankful for a temple 4 hours away and they go every month and yet people in Utah have temple all around them that are no longer than 20 minutes away and say they don't have enough time.  Yes you do.  It's the temple, it is the house of God, if you don't have 2 or 3 hours to go to the house of God, then you need to get your priorities straight.  Go to the temple as much as you can!  It provides spiritual protection and peace from all the things that are going on in your life.

Love you all so much!

Elder Schipaanboord

PS: On the trade off, Elder Lindow and I caught a toad!

DESTIN!!!

This week was another one of those ones with mixed feelings. To start off the week, I went to my first Zone Training!  It was pretty rad, the Zone Leaders are super cool and taught us a lot about how to become better missionaries.  There were two quotes that I really enjoyed, "You have been drafted into Gods Army, don't take it lightly and fight with all your might" and "No one asks a soldier how many people they have killed, they just thank them for their service.  The same goes with missionaries, no one cares how many people you baptize.  Give it your all and people will thank you for your service"

After Zone Training, I went on my first trade off and of course it was with the Zone Leaders.... but it was awesome!!  I got to go down to Destin with Elder Jones!  We had such a good time and I learned a lot from him!  Destin is absolutely beautiful!  We didn't get to see a lot of stuff, but while we were driving, I couldn't help but take pictures!  Elder Jones is awesome!  He is always so happy and loves everyone, I don't know how he does it, but he does!  We were walking to an appointment and we saw a big group of people smoking and he says "this is going to be fun" and proceeds to walk right up to them and talk with them!  I was boggled at his courage!!  They didn't want to talk to us, but he was still super happy and said "at least we tried."  I hope that one day I can have his outlook and attitude towards things like that.

Coming home from trade offs was were things got pretty rough.  I got a phone call from an 801 area code and thought it was just the Senior Missionaries in our area, so I answered without thinking, come to find out it was my parents!!  I couldn't believe they were calling me!!  But then they told me that my Grandpa had passed away... hearing that was really sad, but peaceful as well.  I am so thankful for the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation and that I can see him again!  It was so good to hear my parents voices telling me that they are proud of me, it gave me an extra boost!

Now I have never had a testimony of life after death until this past week.  I was totally fine with hearing that my grandpa had passed away, until I got back home and looked at my wall, to see a picture of him smiling at me, and I lost it!  I couldn't believe that he was gone and that he wasn't going to be at my homecoming.  So I got down on my knees and prayed.  As I prayed to know if I would see him again, I heard something familiar, the clock from my grandparents house started to chime and I knew that he was okay and watching over me.  The next morning as I was reading out of The Book of Mormon, it was talking about life after death and how those who know the gospel are teaching those who never had the chance to learn more and I thought "GRANDPA IS SERVING A MISSION, JUST LIKE ME!" 

I am so thankful for the power of prayer, the scriptures, and the knowledge of the plan of salvation. God answers your prayers.  I know it!  If you have any questions or doubts, get down on your knees and pray!

I love you all so much and miss you lots!

Elder Schipaanboord

 

Elder Peck wouldn't stop telling me about his dumbbell that he left in his last area and he finally got it!

The road to Destin.

 

Sweet view from an investigators home in Destin.

The road to Crestview.

Found a license plate from Utah and talked to the guy while driving.  We gave him the U sign and he thought we were from Miami, but told him that we were from Utah!  He then told us that he was from Florida... lol we still saw a Utah plate!

Mormon Central at a BBQ that we went to in Crestview.

One of many awesome roads that we get to bike down.

This is what my desk looks like right now.

We were driving down the road at night and almost drove off this... turns out a flood about 3 months ago destroyed this road and they still haven't fixed it!

Bro Daniel Chance.  He is a RM of about a month that would come with us and help teach.  He is leaving for Utah today, so we went to say goodbye before he leaves.

Tender Mercy

"Look who had dinner at our house tonight Kim - your sweet son is currently serving in Crestview (about an hour away) but is on splits with our Elder Jones here in Destin. Of course I remembered your last name!"  - Stacey Rodgers

  Stacey Rodgers contacted me after I posted a photo of Dallin and his mission call, in June, to the Florida, Tallahassee Mission group on Facebook.  She told me that she would watch for him if he ever came to her area.  This mission covers areas of three states, and I figured that the odds of them ever meeting were not very good.  After an emotional day and coming home quite late last night, I turned on my computer and this is the first thing that popped up in my news feed.  I know that it was no coincidence and a tender mercy that our Elder was in a loving environment and being fed as his dear grandpa passed away.  We were given permission to call him in the morning to share the sad news.  He knew that this time was coming but seemed to be at peace knowing that his grandpa was free from pain.  We had just shipped a package this week that includes a thumb drive with a personal recording from Grandpa Wayne to Dallin.  He should receive it on Friday...before the funeral.  I know that the Lord knows us each personally and is in the smallest details of our lives! 

The day Dallin entered the MTC, he said goodbye to Grandpa Wayne, knowing it would be the last.

POW WOW

So this week was awesome!!!  First things first, we actually have some investigators now!!  The sisters in our area felt prompted to give them to us, because we would be better fit for them; we didn't even find them ourselves hahahaha!!  But that's okay, we are teaching 4 less active families and have a thing going where we go over at least once a week!  They are super cool and really want to get back into church, but life is hard for them right now.

We have been working a lot with the Bishop and Ward Mission Leader on going to meet with more less active and the ones that they think would benefit the most from us.  They have come with us a few times and said that it was super impactful for them!  Its so weird being a missionary, because everyone looks up to you, it feels awkward having a 72 year old look to me (18) for advise and comfort.  The ward members are so awesome and have a love for everyone here and want to see them come back to the church, its inspiring and shows me how I should feel towards everyone!

On Saturday we went to Niceville for a Native American pow wow to volunteer and help with a family history booth.  There was native music being played all day and people dressed up in their native clothing dancing, it was sooooo sweet!! Elder Peck and I got assigned to work the Pepsi truck all day, it was awesome!!!  It reminded me of working for Franks at Cornbellys (lol a little bit trunky?)!  This pow wow was so sick though!!  Even though we weren't allowed to proselyte, a lot of people came up to us and asked us who we were and what we believed, it was really neat to see the curiosity that people have and that they were willing to talk and learn more.  There were a lot of really sweet booths that we were able to go around to and buy a few souvenirs from real natives!!  Elder Peck and I got these super sweet zip up hoodies that were made from llama wool and some necklaces with a bear claw!!

Today has been one of the happiest days of my life.  As I was reading some emails, I learned that 2 of my best friends had received their mission calls and another one of my best friends has is papers ready to turn in!  This has honestly been the best part of the week!  I'm so proud of them for making the choice to serve the Lord!  I now understand what it means in Alma, when the sons of Mosiah and Alma came across eachother for the first time in 17 years and says "What added more to his joy, they were still his brethren in the Lord"

 

 

Send letters!  Pictures!  Cookies!  Anything with CHOCOLATE!

Elder Schipaanboord

800 Spring Creek BLVD APT# 9206

Crestview, FL 32536

We got a pull up bar.

1 Month Down, 23 To Go

This week was a pretty solid one!  We met with this guy, who has recently been baptized, 3 times!  He suffers from depression and feels like he is worthless in life, so we taught him about how God loves each and everyone of us and will never set us up for failure.  We committed him to keep a gratitude journal so he can recognize the Lord's hand in everything he does; he really enjoyed the lessons and felt the spirit super strongly.  We are meeting with him more this week and will hopefully be able to bring the Spirit back, because he learns a lot and loves the feeling.

On Halloween, we had a booth set up for the town festival that was going on, and we handed out about 1000 family history pass along cards and talked to a ton of people about it!  That has been our focus lately is family history work, finding people so that we can do their ordinances for them.  People here love to hear that they can baptize their ancestors who didn't have the chance to come to Christ, so it works really well.  On our way back from the festival, this guy asked us if we had any food, so we stopped and gave him all the granola bars we had and then offered to buy him something from the BK lounge (Burger King), because the government didn't send his food stamps this month.  While I was getting him food, Elder Peck talked with him a lot and he wants to learn more about our church.  While Elder Peck was talking with Marty, a worker came up and started asking me questions, and she totally wants to learn more as well!  While Alexis was talking with me ANOTHER guy came up and started asking questions and wants to learn more about family history work!  Not gonna lie, it was super scary, because I was talking to them by myself, because Elder Peck was talking with Marty, so I had to do it on my own.  But it was super easy once I started to talk!!  Gosh, things like this make the hard times so worth it!  The Lord has definitely been preparing them to receive the Restored Gospel, I am so thankfull for their courage to talk with us and ask questions.  I am so excited to talk more to these people and hopefully bring them closer to Christ and feel of His love for them!

Oh yeah, one day when we were biking around, we found this guy who was reading his Bible while selling pecans out of his car, so we stopped and talked with him for an hour or so, well he talked for an hour hahaha.  But he was a super nice guy and wants to talk more with us (probably to convert us to his religion, 7th day Adventist).  But the reason I say this is because he was wearing a super awesome hat that said FBI Jesus.  Under the FBI it said "firm believer in".  We told him he had an awesome hat, and he gave us each one!!!  On the back and brim of the hat it says "I love Jesus" its sooo sick!!!  Its now our study hats!

Anyways,

I love y'all so much!

Elder Schipaanboord

Send letters!  Pictures!  Cookies!

Elder Schipaanboord

800 Spring Creek BLVD APT# 9206

Crestview, FL 32536