Week Six in the Mission Field

         Well this week had its ups and downs, but we also had some really cool experiences that I will remember for the remainder of my mission.

          Tuesday and Wednesday are days that I don't really remember and I don't know if that's because nothing happened or because I still think yesterday was Tuesday?!

           Thursday was our last District Council with Elder Smart and we had to send him out on a high note, so we coffin danced him out of the building. We had a good time joking with him about going home.

            Friday was the day that I almost lost my patience and wanted to yell at this older man (Mr. Taylor). We were asked if we could help an older lady move some things out of a storage unit she had, so that she could give it to a man that was about to go under surgery. After moving out all of her things, she went through all of her things and decided what she wanted to give. Well the man showed up a little later with his daughter who was 42 and we started to load things into his truck. As me and the man looked at each other wondering how we are going to fit this table in the back of his truck, (he had a cover for his truck bed). I decided that we could take the top off and slide it in. I looked to Mr. Taylor and asked for a Phillips head screwdriver. "Speak up I can't hear you." "I need a Phillips head Screwdriver." "I Said Speak Up?" "I NEED A PHILLIPS HEAD SCREWDRIVER!" "Okay next time say it louder." After about 15 minutes of me working on taking this table apart and then putting it in the back of his truck, I walked over to Mr. Taylor and handed him his tool and said thank you. He says "took you long enough." A little bit later after I calmed myself down, we got ready to eat lunch and Mr. Taylor and the older lady start yelling at each other about where to eat (he had a small umbrella for shade and wanted to use it instead of the larder shaded area). After a few F-bombs were dropped at each other they decided on the larger area. Now the only good experience from this whole show was that the older man wanted to receive the blessing of the sick. I was just standing in so I didn't have to say anything, but I wish I did. Afterwards Mr. Taylor was still nice and wished us good luck on serving and to have a good day.

            Saturday we received our mission transfer schedule and Elder Kelly and I are staying in Sebring, but Elder Rice is going up to West Orlando, so best of luck to him.

           Sunday we had two new families move into the area that we want to meet with and see how they are doing here in Sebring. They also have members in their family that aren't members and we look forward to meeting them.

           Monday was fun and we got to be with the District and play ultimate frisbee and do some fishing, but no one caught anything.

      I have now been out for one and a half months, but it feels like I just got here and it's going super fast! I hope that everyone back home is doing good and that you have a good week.

Elder Waite

Week Five in the Mission Field

            This was one of the most busy weeks I have had so far on the mission. Going into it I knew it was going to be long because we put as much stuff in it as possible.

            Tuesday was the one day we didn't have much going on so we got haircuts. I had a good conversation with the lady cutting my hair. She was a nice older lady that was impressed with all four of us.

              Wednesday started off with us doing some service for some members. We helped them pack to move to Georgia. As we were moving the beds I went upstairs to take down the brackets the bed sits on, and as I took them apart, it brushed across my thumb and then it started to bleed a lot. As small drops of blood started to gather on the other hand. I made my way to a sink to wash it out. It all worked out in the end though. They got all of their things in the U-Haul and we left for home.

              Tuesday was district council and we had both the zone leaders and the AP's (assistants to the President) there so it was fun and we got taught a good lesson. The lesson was you were supposed to sell a can of beans to someone and symbolize finding the person's needs. I sold the heck out of that can and did the best. Then we celebrated Hermana Fernandez's 1 year mark. We later had an experience that was really cool! We went to an ice cream place for lunch that sold Mexican style ice cream. Inside this little gas station kind of place were two Mexicans that didn't speak English, but we had a couple of Spanish speakers so we were fine. After getting some really cool ice cream, one of them looks at me and speaks Spanish to me. I looked at him not knowing what he said, he then repeated himself and one word I understood was, "Mormon". When I followed his finger I saw he was pointing at Hermana Jones's Book of Mormon. I then looked at our Spanish speaking missionary and told him to talk to him. After a long conversation that I didn't understand, the two sisters walked out to their car and grabbed two Spanish Book of Mormon's. They wrote their phone number in it and handed it to them both.

              Friday we had meetings with our Mission President where he asked questions about how we are doing and what we expect going forward. It was a good experience, and I learned as much about him as he did about me. We then went out to eat at Five Guys with our whole District. We did this on the down-low because we were hiding from the President.

              Saturday was cool because we had exchanges with Lake Placid. First we had them drive up here to get me, and the district leader stayed up here. When I got there it was almost time for lunch so we went to Wendy's. We had a lesson planned with someone in person which I was very excited for. When we got there she wasn't feeling good so we just said a prayer and gave a quick message and left. 

              Sunday we had to drive Elder Kent up to Orlando to catch a flight to Paraguay. It was sad to see him go, but I am happy for him to finish his mission in his original mission area. We had to zoom back to make it in time for Stake Conference.

              Monday we woke up early to drive to the beach so we could hang out there for the day. We had fun looking for shells and taking pictures. We then went back to a Sister’s home and played spike ball for a while. After having fun all day we went back home to Sebring and rested by playing Catan.

              This week was busy but fun and very gratifying. Next week is transferring week so it will be interesting to see if I stay here. Best of wishes to everyone back home.

                                                 

Elder Waite

Week Four in the Mission Field

         This week was not as crazy as the first couple of weeks, but it had its ups and downs. We are still trying to find people to teach, and are having some success with cold calling which led to two new appointments with people.

        Tuesday started with us not doing much but we made work with what we had and spent most of the day calling and studying. Starting Tuesday, I also started getting serious about benching training and working out.

        Wednesday we started the same with studying and watching Safety Zone. If you don't know what that is, it's lessons on how to stay safe with examples, but to the extreme. Then we spent some time working out. We had a lesson with a lady which fell through again. Lastly, we finished the day with more cold calling that led to some serious success. My companion’s first 3 calls all led to lessons that we put on the schedule. My calls were not that successful and most went to voicemail, but I did have one that answered and I asked if she needed any service, or would like to hear a message about Jesus Christ. She wasn't interested in the message because she was a missionary from another church, but the service did get her attention. She asked "what type of service do you do?" I responded with "well we do yard work, helping move stuff, and other small jobs." To start it is very hard to understand her because of her strong accent, and after talking to her and finding out where she lives we ask, "so what kind of service would you like us to do? Well I would like you to come over and take care of my father, help him get dressed and put him to bed! “I’m sorry, but we can't do that kind of service." After this whole conversation she gets mad at us and hangs up the phone. That was an interesting experience.

        Thursday we had District Council, which is always fun. We had two guests who are the Tech Admins. It is only two sister missionaries that are in charge of our zone Facebook page. They talked about how we can better use Facebook to find people. That was pretty much it for the day after studying.

         Friday we had another lesson which also fell through, which kind of sucks because I have yet to teach a lesson. All 6 lessons we've scheduled have not happened, but I have hope for next week with 2 new people we are calling. Not much happened this day but we did have service for Sister Jordan that went really quick. I also decided to make a massive 1 pound of beef burger with toast, so ya.

        Sunday we met with our Bishop to discuss our Mission President who is coming to do interviews with our District, but nothing really to report back.

         Monday we had to drive to Palm Bay to get our new car, which is exactly the same type of car we have but newer. After getting the car we went to Wawa. It is a gas station with a full restaurant in it but the milkshakes are really good, then we headed back to Lake Okeechobee to meet up with our District. We went over to the Sisters house but we couldn't go inside so we all sat outside and played spike ball and spoons. It was awesome.

         This week didn't go by that fast but that is good because I thought it went by super fast. I am having a great time down in Sebring and am grateful for the chance to serve next to some pretty amazing individuals.                                

Elder Waite

Week Three in the Mission Field

        This week was very interesting because of New Year's. I couldn't light any fireworks because of rules, but I got to watch some of the neighbors light theirs, so I was happy.

        We started this week with exchanges. We had Elder Kent go to Lake Placid and we got Elder Smart from Lake Placid. We went over to Sister Knapp's house and did service for her. We were there for a majority of the day. Later Elder Kent came back and they took Smart back.

         New Year's Eve was fun because we went and got Little Caesars late at night. We had to be back before 10 pm, which is really the same time as we need to be back on any day. We went to Little Caesars because the people that were supposed to feed us that night forgot and decided to feed us the next day. At 12 pm my time I got to call my parents and wish them a happy New Year. and I also got to watch people light some fireworks.

  

         New Year's day was pretty much like another P-day, we aren't really supposed to do anything or call anyone, but we did go to dinner with a nice family. At dinner we drove to a little gas station with a small taco shop built into the side. It had a list of tacos you could get for $2.50 each. They had 5 different kinds of meat but my favorites were asada, spiced pork, and cow tongue. They also had some mild hot sauce that looked like avocado. It was all really good and we also got to share a message with the Mexican family. Later I had one of the most interesting phone calls. As I'm sitting on the couch I hear a phone start to ring. As I go to see who it is, my companion answers it with a "Hello, this is the missionaries," then "Hello, this is President Ashcraft, is Elder Waite available?" At this point everyone here is looking at me. I take the phone and answer "Yes this is Elder Waite, how can I help you President?" After talking with him for 15 minutes he ended the call just wanting to get to know me because I was new. That was kind of an interesting experience because I got a straight shot of adrenaline.

           The day after New Year's was a Saturday and every Saturday we have service for Sister Knapp, but before we had that we had service for a family in Lake Okeechobee. We were feed blueberry pancakes with orange juice. After breakfast we were given a small anchor with rope attached to the end. We needed to throw it out into the water and drag it back to collect all of the dead reeds in the water. This was all really fun to do. After filling 4 large trash bags we took off back home. We went over to Sister Knapp's house and did more service. The plan was to trim up and burn a lot of branches that her son had cut down. We had built a lot of small burn piles. After burning about ½ of all the branches we started roasting hot dogs. I turned mine into a chili dog. After eating two I moved onto making smores. They were golden brown and absolutely delicious.

           Sunday was a very interesting day because it was the first fast and testimony meeting I have been to since covid, it was also their first time so it was interesting to watch them clean after someone finished. Me and my companion both decided that we should go up and say our testimonies. I went first and started by expressing my appreciation for the members and them feeding us. I then talked about the truths of missionary work and the temple. Afterwards, I went back to my seat and waited until Elder Kelly finished. After the meeting we helped clean, but as I was cleaning people would walk up to me and thank me for bearing my testimony.

    

            P-day is always fun and this one was no different. We went to Walmart and got some groceries but we also met with all the other missionaries in the district to buy coats of different colors so we can play, in real life Among Us. We started at the Lake Placid elders house, where we would draw a piece of paper from a hat and then go. It was all super fun and we would kill each other with plastic spoons. After playing for a while we decided to call it and head home.

             I had a lot of fun and have two appointments for next week and look forward to next week.

                                              

 Elder Waite