Nothing Special

This week was a good one, but nothing really special happened...

On Monday we went to the bank to cash a check for Renslow, and I looked down and saw an engagement ring in the parking lot, so I picked it up, but I couldn't tell if it was real or not, nontheless I turned it in to the front office.  On the way out of the bank 2 girls were looking frantically for something, and one was crying.  We asked them if they were looking for a ring, they were, so we told them we just turned it in.  They were so happy and told us they had prayed and asked for angels to help them find it.  Man that was so awesome!!  It made me feel so good, like I actually did something that put an impact on their lives too!

On Wednesday we ran out of things to do, cause no one was home, so we went to try Sis. Beatie, but when we got to her house and a car was there that wasn't hers, so we were scared (her parents hate us and will yell at us so we have to meet with out them there), but we just said "whatever we don't care, lets go!"  So we knocked on the door, and it turns out it was her friend who was actually interested!  He went to church with her last week (in first ward) and had an appointment with the 1st ward elders an hour before we got there, but he didn't go.  It was so crazy that he was there!!  We taught him the restoration and he thought it was interesting and was intrigued.  He said he wanted to be part of God's church, so he is going to read and pray to see if it is true!!

(he showed up with Rebecca Beatie on Sunday!!!!!)

On Thursday we found out that Tyler (had a baptismal date of May 14) was in jail... so there goes that!!  But he still wants us to go over and teach him, so we are going to go to the jail and teach him the lessons there, its gonna be so sick!!!  Hopefully this will be a humbling experience for him and he will want to change!  We also had dinner at a part members home (the Farris family) and got to know them quite a bit.  She and her kids are active members, but he isn't.  No one really knows why he isn't a member, he has taken all the lessons and goes to church quite often (when he is home from deployment), so we are going to try and work with him a lot more!

On Sunday, we went out to Laurel Hill again and tried to contact some people, but they just looked through the blinds and didn't answer the door, lol so funny!!  But we had a great time!  We got to go down some sweet dirt roads and picked some leaves that were 2 times the size of my head, it was awesome!!  When we got back we went to President Roberts house for dinner, I love going over there!!  Their family is perfect!  He is the stake president and his wife played the violin for MOTAB and all their kids play sports and like 4 instruments and know the gospel so well, it's absolutely amazing!!  I hope that is how my own family will be when I get married!

The people here are becoming so close with me, I love it!!  We are making such good relationships, and stories!! I already can't wait to come back and visit these people, they are awesome!!!

I hope y'all have a great week, MAKE it a good one!

Love Elder Skippy

Miracles

This week was absolutely amazing!!  We saw so many miracles, it was unreal!!

Isaiah, a recent convert of about 9 months, has been going through really hard time in his life and has been super depressed and hasn't been to church in forever, so we have been working pretty closely with him.  We got a call from him on Monday, saying he wanted to talk with us, so we met up and he told us that through all of his trials, his faith keeps growing more and more, and he loves being around us, and he got a spiritual witness that he needs to go on the mission!!  It was so crazy!!  We talked with him about how awesome it is and how much it is going to bless his life and how much he is going to grow, as well as how much it is going to bless his family's life; he loved it and wanted to go even more!  He came out on splits with us for a full day and absolutely loved it and he showed up to church as well!!!  It is so awesome to see him moving forward and loving the Gospel!

On Tuesday, we went over to the Andersons with Brother Baltimore to have a lesson with Tyler, and some new girl named Amber was there, so she asked some questions and joined in on the lesson.  We taught the restoration, and Bro Baltimore bore a powerful testimony of how it had blessed his life tremendously, it brought her to tears!!  We invited Tyler and Amber to be baptized, and they both accepted!!  Amber is rock solid!!  We met with her 2 more times, and talked about how she is a daughter of God and he wants her to come back to her just as she wants her kids to come back to her, she cried again, it was awesome!!  She ended up coming to church as well and absolutely loved it!! We later found out that after church she went to smoke a cigarette and had one puff and said she couldn't smoke it, because she felt sick to her stomach!!

On Friday we had nothing to do because all of our plans had fallen through, so we decided to go knock on this door of a super less active members home (he is a retired tattoo artist who is never home), and he answered the door!!  We got talking with him and he told us that he and his wife had discussed just 3 days earlier that they need to come back to church, and then a member of the Bishopric called them 2 days after that, and then we showed up, so they knew that they really did need to come back to church, and they ended up coming on Sunday, it was so awesome!!  The Lord uses us in the most amazing way, and has a perfect plan for everyone, I love it!!!

Now the last story is amazing.  Yesterday, we went over to the Andersons house again, trying to teach Amber but we ended talking with Sister Anderson for quite sometime (with Amber there as well), and she told us that she met with the Bishop and that she is going to the temple in 6 months to be sealed to her husband who had passed away.  When she said this, I couldn't help but start to cry! Never in my life did I ever think that I would hear those words come out of her mouth!  She has been through so much its amazing!  It proves that no one is too far lost to get back on the strait and narrow path!  She still has a lot to learn, but she is now on the right track and is making the right decisions to get to the temple!  My heart was filled with joy!!  I am so thankful that Elder Peck and I were able to go knock on their door, even though everyone told us not to!  We have seen so many blessing come from it, its remarkable!!

 I truly do love the Gospel and being on the mission, because of experiences like these!  Sure it's hard, but these make it all sooo worth it!!
 

I love you guys and hope you have an awesome week!!

Add caption

Diva glasses.

In the middle of teaching a lesson.

We went exploring in the back woods.  Super sick!!

Movie night.  The Testament.

Sunset from the highway.

Zone Training 6 weeks ago with Tenny.

Solid Week

Last Monday, Renslow and I got to go fishing with some less active members and a nonmember, it was super awesome, but weird!  All we did was put some bread on a hook and drop it in the pond and fish would just flock to it, so crazy!  We caught a bunch of fish though!! The non member, Tim Lucero, is such a crazy dude!  He's is retired army (part of 7th group) and a total red neck!  He loves to talk and has really grown to love us!  haha  He loves to be around us, and showed us a bunch of pics of his family, so we gained his trust, so we are going to start teaching him pretty soon!

 After fishing, we had a big cook out the next day with a bunch of deep fried fish, hush puppies, cheese grits, home made fries, and these amazing brownies!  It was soooo dang good, I love red neck cookin!!

We also went out to Laurel Hill this week and met some more less active members that we are going to start working with, they enjoyed us being there, but they need a lot of help.  We met this less active (Destiny, 16) that we didn't even know she was in our ward, her neighbor told us about her, so we went to visit her and had a really great meeting with her!  She got baptized 2 years ago and really loves the church and missionaries, but doesnt have a ride to church because her family aren't members and dont take her...): but we are going to start working with her and her 11 year old brother, Adam, who showed a lot of interest in baptism, so we will see what happens!

We also met with Ashley (Jenkins) and found out her real last name is Beck.  We had a really really good meeting with her.  She is going through a rough time right now and is getting humbled.  She is in a bad situation and just wants happiness, and knows it comes through the gospel, but she wont act on it.  We shared a scripture with her out of Moroni 10:8 that talks about not denying the gifts of God, because they are all for our benefit. she started bawling and knew it was true.  She is so amazing, but wont act, it kills me!!  She is sooo close!  But maybe its just not her time... we dont know.

We went on splits with Isaiah, he is doing so good right now!  He is going through a rough patch too, but loves hanging out with us and told us his faith has grown so much because of the trials he is facing.  So he came and visited Genoa with us and bore a powerful testimony of how if you first seek the kingdom of God you will be able to overcome all things.  Genoa loved it.  She is making a LOT of right steps in the right direction and is doing her best to quit smoking, it's amazing!  Sometimes I look at her and don't even recognize her, because of how far she has come, it is night and day!!  I love seeing that in people and hope we can see it more!!

I love you guys and hope you have a great one!!
Elder Skippy 

Wild Peacock

Said goodbye to Elder Judd.  Gonna miss that guy!!

Had a cookout with Isaiah, he mad some bomb burgers!!
 

 

This car belongs to the first councilor in the bishopric...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well That Sucked!

This week was a rather rough one... first things first, this is NOT an April fools joke, all this stuff actually happened.  We were out of miles on our car for the month, so we had to resort to members giving us a ride, but they were ALL busy, so we had to ride our bikes EVERYWHERE!!  I have never biked so much in my life!!  Then, at our dinner appointment, we parked our bikes on the grass, and the wife had to leave early, and she backed over my bike!!!!!  At first we thought it just bent the tire, so they went to get me a new tire, but it turns out that the whole frame was bent!!  So then Bro Tew (his wife ran it over) called us and the first thing he said was "When do y'all want to go bike shopping?" hahaha  Thankfully he took it to another bike shop and they said they can fix it, but until then we are on foot!  We walked to all of our appointments, which were in dadgum West Egypt; I am so glad to be in the states where we have bikes and cars!!!

*don't read next paragraph if you have a weak stomach*
**be warned this is really gross**

***seriously***

So on Thursday, we were at a less active members home with a ward missionary, and I thought I was going to throw up, but I just thought it was because I was so hungry, so I went into the bathroom to eat a quick snack, and I was good for 20 minutes.  But after the lesson, I had to have Bro Steele pull off to the side of the road so I could throw up... man I felt so much better, but then we arrived at our next appointment and I had to do the same thing!  So we had him take us home.  When we got home, I went straight to the toilet and threw up some more!!  I tried to get some rest, but every hour on the dot I would wake up and have to go throw up some more!!  It got to the point where I had nothing left in me to throw up, so I thought I was good, but no!!  It then started coming out the other end.... I have never had diarrhea so bad before!  So there was a mix of me throwing up nothing and pooping out black water all night!!  Also while this was all happening I could hear Elder Renslow in the other bathroom doing the exact same thing!  So that was a great night (:

The next day we stayed in bed all day and then on Friday, we only got out of bed for conference.  I slept like 36 hours straight, it was gnarly!! hahaha I have been sick like all of the mission so far!!

The week wasn't a total wreck because conference was AMAZING!!!  There were so many incredible talks that were given!!  I never really understood and appreciated how amazing and inspiring the General Authorities were until now, and I love them!!  The whole conference I kept thinking "whether it be mine own voice or the voice of my servants it is the same."  How amazing is that scripture!?  We literally just had the Lord's servants speak to us and give us guidance!!  I urge each one of you to go and watch at least one talk from conference; my favorite was Elder Holland's, Elder Oaks or President Uchtdorf's on Sunday!  I know that the prophets and apostles really are men of God!!  I am so thankful for them and their dedicated service and love they have for the Lord!

Love you all and hope you have an amazing week!!

Elder Schipaanboord

800 Spring Creek BLVD
APT# 9206
Crestview, FL 32536

6 months down!

We became super thankful for sidewalks while we were walking, the south hardly has any, so we love when we find some! *during our walk to West Egypt*

Walking with some of the youth to Tom Thum after mutual to get a drink and snacks.

Kakela frying up some spam over the fire.  Hawaiians know how to make food!!

 

Blessings

This week was really cool!  We haven't really been teaching a whole lot of people, so we have been trying to find more people, and we found a lot this week!!  We went out to a town like 25 miles away, Laurel Hill, this is super country, to teach a less active family (the Triplett's) and it turns out that they are really wanting to come back to church and even make it to the temple!!  On our way home we decided to go and see another less active, but ended up talking with his neighbor (Ted), who is a complete red neck, for like an hour!  The first thing this guy told us was that he smokes pot!  It was so funny!  He ended up really liking us and wants us to come back over!  We are really excited to start working in Laurel Hill, there is so much potential out there!!

Another day we knocked on a few doors that we had planned and non of them were answering, we knew they were home, but didn't answer, so we knew we weren't supposed to be there, so we went over to the Anderson's.  When we knocked on the door, this guy that we had never met answered the door.  Turns out he is living there now and has been through the ringer!!  Just before we got there he was asking Sister Anderson if people from her church ever visit!!  So crazy!!!  We taught him the Restoration, and he totally accepted it!  When we told him about The Book of Mormon, he said that it just makes sense that God would talk to people everywhere, not just Jerusalem; why can't everyone be like that??!!

It's amazing how many times we have been in the "right place at the right time"
while on the mission, I have really gained a testimony that God is very aware of all of his children and has a perfect plan for them.  He may put us through some trials but he isn't going to put us through something we cant handle.  It's really hard to see sometimes but everything that happens to us in this life really is for our own progression and benefit.

We went over to Jim Brown's house again and had a lesson with him out on his porch, like we normally do, and a CRAZY rain storm hit!!  So bad that we could hardly hear one another speak!! Thankfully Elder Renslow is the man, he taught a great lesson and Jim told us he had been prompted multiple times to read The Book of Mormon but didn't, so he gave us his word that we would this week!

Some sad news.... we got a text from Ashley that her and Jeremiah Jenkins are "estranged right now"... she told us that she really misses us, but we have been over to their house many times and she isn't there and he doesn't really want us there, so we don't really know what to do....

BUT all in all, this week was a great one!!!  I hope all of y'all had a really good Easter and that y'all have a great week this week!

Love
Elder Schipaanboord