July 24th, 2017 (Rain)

Hey everyone!

     This has been a good week! For some reason I am having a hard
time remembering what we have done this week so this might be short.
So Jessie didn't end up getting baptized on Saturday because she had
to go out of town for work. She travels a lot. So she will be baptized
either this Saturday or next. She will be baptized no matter what, she
is committed. We have met a few good people this week. We met a guy
named Roger while we were knocking doors. He was just super open and
willing to listen. He was the only one in that neighborhood who
listened to us too. I'm grateful for those little tender mercies from
the Lord.
     We were able to go to the temple on Saturday! One of Elder
Pruszynski's recent converts was getting sealed so we got to go for
that. It was great! They have a 2 year old girl that was sealed to
them too. The spirit was so strong in the sealing room. It was a neat
experience. We were on bikes this week and we got rained on like three
times haha. Fun stuff. One day we got 14 inches of rain, it was a
pretty bad storm. That's Florida! Sorry this is so short, but I love
and miss you all!
I hope y'all have a great week.

July 17, 2017 (New week, new experiences)

Hey everyone!

     How's everybody doing? I've had a pretty good week. We have been
doing a lot of contacting and tracting. We have really been focusing
on building our teaching pool this week. One of the ways we have been
finding people to teach is by going through our former investigators
and contacting them to see if they want to continue learning more. We
have had some good success from it! We are meeting with a few of them
this next week. We have also been meeting up with our recent converts
quite a bit and helping them to stay strong in the church. Our recent
convert Amel really wants to go to the temple, and it opens this week!
Hopefully his work schedule allows him to go.
      I have a lot more responsibilities now that I am a district
leader, and they just changed the way we do our reports and what not
so it has taken some getting used to. I like it though, it has helped
me to get to know the missionaries in my district better. My MTC
companion Elder Krebs actually just got transferred out to my zone to
be a zone leader too. So I get to go on exchanges with them in a week
or so, I'm pretty pumped for it! Elder Pruszynski and I are still
doing good together. His is he longest I have ever served with a
companion and in an area. It's a good thing we get along!
      Well I'm not sure what else to say, I am having a hard time
remembering what we did this week haha. Anyways I would love to hear
from you all. I hope everything is going well for everybody. Love
y'all!

Pics- 1. Huge palm trees we found
2. A hawk that we saw
3. Elder Pruszynski holding a lizard

July 10, 2017 (Transfer Week)

Hey everyone!

     This has been one crazy week! We have been meeting with the
Oropeza's every day to get hem ready or their baptism. We have had to
work through a lot of things with them. They called us the morning of
their interview and said they wanted to cancel the baptism because
they didn't feel like they were good enough. We met with them that day
and talked to them, we had a super good discussion, the spirit was
very strong when we were in their home. They eventually decided to go
through with the baptism. We had such a good baptism, I'm so happy
they got baptized. They have been meeting with missionaries for many
years now. So that was the highlight of the week.
      We went on 2 exchanges this week, both with our district leader
Elder Harden. He is going home tomorrow. So that leaves a spot open
for a new district leader, and guess who is filling his seat? Yep it's
me. I'm excited for it, but I'm also nervous because I've never been a
district leader before. We'll see how it goes! Also talking about
transfers, me and Elder Pruszynski are staying in Lakeland. We're both
super excited! Great things are happening here. We met with Jessie
this week too. She is doing so good! I'm excited for her baptism. I
don't have much time so I'm gonna make this one short. I hope you all
have a great week! Love y'all!

Pics- baptism of the Oropeza's
Throwing pizza dough in the air with Jessie and Brother Lucas, the
pizza turned out great by the way
Turtle we found!

July 4, 2017 (Lightning Capitol of the World)

What's good everyone?!
      I hope you all didn't freak out too much because I didn't email yesterday. President Cooper decided to move P-day to today for some unknown reason, oh well! Happy 4th everyone! I hope you're all having
a great day. We went to a pancake breakfast this morning that our ward put on. It was pretty good, a lot of people showed up. Now we are going fishing with the Highlands Elders and a member from their ward.
It's gonna be fun!
      We have had a good week! The highlight of the week was Amel's baptism. There wasn't a whole lot of people there, but the spirit was so strong. He was so excited! I had the privilege of baptizing him, it
was pretty neat. I'll send a picture. He did scare us a little bit his week, he called us and said that he had a doubt. So we went over for our lesson that day and we asked him what he had a doubt about and he
asked us what he needs to wear for the baptism haha. He is from India and his English isn't exactly perfect so he meant to say they he had a question not a doubt. It was pretty funny and we all laughed about it.
      It has been raining a bunch this week. Florida is said to be the lightning capitol of the world, hence my subject line. I got a couple of pictures, but it doesn't do it justice. The lightning here is crazy. We also found a gator this week, and a HUGE tree. The things you see while finding haha. We met with Jessie this week too, she is awesome! She's always really nice. We taught her the word of wisdom this week and she likes to drink sweet tea. When we taught her she was completely willing to give it all up. So she's doing really good. The
Oropeza's are doing good. They got offended at church this last week. Not to be negative or anything, but I'm not very surprised. A lot of these members in this ward are old and cranky haha. They got over it
though. Still on track for this weekend.
      Not much else has happened. Things are going good here. Transfers are coming up next week. It should be interesting this time around. I'll let y'all know what happens. I'm doing great, doing my best to make the most of the rest of my mission. Thank you all for your support and prayers! Have a good week everyone. Light off some fireworks for me!