Crazy Lessons

This week has been super awesome!  We went down to Panama City for zone conference and had a sleep over at the zone leaders apartment with all the elders in the zone, it was so sick!  There are a ton of new missionaries in the zone, and like half of the elders played baseball in high school, so we got along right away!  We ended up staying awake until like 2:00 playing games and just talking, it was super dope!  But I definitely paid for it... the next day I was fighting to keep my eyes open during zone training and the lessons we had planned the rest of the day, but somehow I did!  In zone conference we learned about the Wemick Punchinello and how we need to not worry about what others think, but rather what the Lord thinks of us.  We are literally children of God, so why worry about what those around you think when your Father in Heaven thinks so highly of you and knows your potential?  There are some really good books with Punchinello, and I would highly suggest looking them up, they are short children's books, but soo good!

So we were able to meet with Jonita two times this week and both of them were pretty crazy!  The first one, she had a lot of questions about 1st Nephi chapter 13, so we sat down and read it with her.  Thankfully the Aukemas were there to help us out because we didn't understand it all!!  It is Nephi prophesying of what is going to happen to the Americas!  He see's Christopher Columbus, the founding fathers, the killing of the Native Americans, and the coming forth of The Book of Mormon.  She had a lot of questions, but when we explained it, she got so excited!  So we shared with her in Galations where it talks about how one of the fruits of the spirit is joy, and she said "That's what I'm feeling."  It was so cool!!  We went over again and had planned to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ but she kept talking about how she has a question deep in her heart, but doesn't know what it is.  So we decided to talk about ways to get an answer from The Book of Mormon and how the Spirit testifies of truth.  She also had a question about what happened after Joseph Smith, so we explained how the Lord continued to call a prophet from the 12 apostles all the way up until now, and we told her that General Conference is coming up really soon and she got super excited and wants to go and watch it! Jonita is honestly amazing!!  She always tells us that she thinks that she is a hard person to teach and that we probably hate going over there, but it is the opposite!  She is so prepared!!!  The Lord has been working with her for a long time, I am so thankful for the opportunity to teach Jonita and help her come closer to Christ!

We also met with the Kelly family a few times this week and had great lessons with them too!  They were pretty crazy too though... they have a bird that starts squawking at the most inconvenient times, they have dogs and cats that interrupt, and they have crazy kids too.  One of the kids ran into the room we were teaching them in and said "Nancy, Alycia stood up on your bed and peed all over it on purpose."  Honestly it was really funny and I couldn't help but laugh, and thankfully they did too, but it was at such an inconvenient time!!!  Gosh, the Devil is so dumb!!  Even though the lessons are crazy, they are beginning to understand everything that we are teaching them, and Westly even said "We really appreciate you guys in coming over to visit with us and help us."  It was honestly so cool; its' nice to know that people really do appreciate us and what we do for them. 

Last thing, there is the 19 year old kid, named Ty, with autism that is obsessed with missionaries.  He isn't a member, but loves to hang around the missionaries.  He has been taught for so many years but will never progress because he gets wayyyy sidetracked in lessons and honestly every time we talk with him. he will call us anywhere from 4-8 times a day and just say "What up cuz, just wanted to check to see how my brothers are doing."  It's really funny, but gets aggravating sometimes.  Anyways, he took us to Pizza Hut with him for lunch, it was so funny!!!  He is so crazy, like yelling all the time and laying down and doing a bunch of random stuff.  It's really stressful sometimes to be with him but I know he loves us, so I don't mind being with him, it makes his day!  The mission is teaching me a lot about accepting people for who they are and sacrificing your wants and needs for others.  I have a lot to learn still but I am so thankful that the Lord is allowing me to learn and grow, cause it is making me a better person and so much happier.  The mission is hard, shoot life is hard, but if it weren't for the hard times, we wouldn't grow at all.  So I am thankful for the hard times, cause I know the Lord has a plan and wants me to be better!

I love y'all so much and hope you have an amazing week!

Elder Schipaanboord

Calm before the storm.

Calm before the storm.

The storm coming our way.

Pizza Hut with Ty.

Pizza Hut with Ty.

We teach this Native American lady who is super into Native American stuff and has her own museum, so I asked her if she had any gator stuff that I could cover my scriptures with, and she said "No, but I have rattlesnake skins" and proceeded to give me two rattlesnake skins!!!

Matching purple ties.

A member bought two pairs of Nikes online for super cheap, and one of them didn't fit, so he gave them to me!