Tender Mercies

This week was a pretty hectic one for sure! So much diversity to fill our time, it was pretty sweet! We got to go set up a table at Gulf Coast State College for people to start to talk to us about the church.  The table was set up in the cafe area so there was a ton of people but we weren't allowed to initiate any conversations (some rule of the college), so we just sat there for 3 hours with signs and stuff to give away, and only 3 people came and talked to us; all they wanted to talk about was the play "The Book of Mormon".... so it wasn't really effective but we are coming up with new ideas of how to draw people in, any ideas?

This week also consisted of my first exchange as the leader, it was pretty cool. I got to go with Elder Larson (one of the elders who was in the 4 pad with us). We had a lot of fun but also put in some serious work! We hit the pavement the whole day and just knocked doors.... BUT it was rewarding! So as we were starting to tract, we decided to go to a street name New Jersey, so we put it in the GPS but it took us a street over, so we just decided to tract that street instead. Right away there was this house that looked abandoned and that no one was home (no cars or lights), so I was thinking to skip it but decided not to; thank goodness we didn't skip it! Right as we walked up the pathway to the door this man, with a big smile on his face, opened the door and came out to talk with us. as we got talking with him, he told us that HE WAS JUST PRAYING FOR SOMEONE TO HELP HIM TO BE A BETTER EXAMPLE TO HIS FRIENDS AND FAMILY! He said "Yeah I just finished my prayer and looked up and saw y'all walking up to the door."  So flippin cool! It wasn't his house, so he couldn't invite us in but we gave him a Book of Mormon and he said he would read it. The Lord truly does have a perfect plan for each of us! We are going to try him this week and hopefully great things will come! It's moments like these that make all the hard times worth it!

MLC AND HALF MISSION CONFERENCE!! We got to go to Tallahassee for MLC (missionary leadership counsel) and a half mission conference with Elder Sitati, a member of the 1st quorum of the 70! It was so cool! MLC was so cool, it was just 20 missionaries in a small room having a discussion about missionary work with a general authority! He started the meeting by saying "I bring the love of President Monson and the First Presidency." It was really neat to hear that and feel the Spirit behind it! As he taught he focused a lot on love/charity and humility and how you cant really have the Spirit with you unless you have those attributes.  Listening to him was really cool, he has such a great understanding of the Gospel and such a strong testimony!  The half mission conference was great! I loved seeing a bunch of friends that I have served around! For some reason being around missionaries just brings happiness, I love it!

on Sunday, we got to go back up to Chipley for Jonita's baptism! We went with the Chipley Elders and helped them set up and get everything ready for it. When she got there, she said that she wanted another person in the water with her to make sure that she doesn't fall, so she asked if i would be willing to! I didnt bring my white clothes or an extra pair of under clothes, but I wasnt going to turn it down, so we found some white clothes in the church, and I got all dressed up! Jonita has a bad back and is kinda scared of water, so we got a chair for her and put it in the font so she could sit down and then have Bro Aukema and I just lean it back, which was a great idea until we realized that when the back goes down, knees come up.... so we had to do it again because she didn't go all the was under. The second time we just sat her down on the bottom of the font and then lowered her down from there. It was a really neat experience being able to go back up to Chipley and help out with her baptism! I am so thankful that she came up to us that day in Walmart! It's amazing how there really are prepared people out there! She accepted everything so quickly and without hesitation, it was exactly what she was looking for, the truth. I am thankful that I had the opportunity to teach her and get to know her, she truly is an amazing woman! 

This has been a great week! The only thing that would have made it better is if the hurricane would've hit the west coast of Florida rather than the east, #missionstories, but all is well! I am happy and loving the work! I love y'all and hope y'all have a great week!

Elder Schipaanboord