The One with The Corner

Week 28 (Feb 28th- Mar 6th)


This Friday I went through the temple and it was wonderful! I loved the Spirit that I felt there in the House of the Lord with so many fellow missionaries. What a blessing to have a temple in our mission and to get to go semi annually. Our brand new Sister Missionary in the North area, Sister Jamison got to go to the temple her very first week! We're all jealous. I remember asking my first or second day when we'd go to the temple, and Sister Phelps said, "Oh we just went last week!". This trip was long awaited.

The population of where I serve is mainly concentrated in two general areas, however the exception is a small handful of a few streets at the bottom of our boundary; we call this the corner. The corner is in the farthest reach of our area, and therefore the farthest from us. I have a map that illustrates my point:

I had never been there. Even Sister Stevenson hadn't taken the venture. This is due to the fact that we have a set allotment of miles per month, and so no one could possibly afford to go down to the corner just because. We didn't even know what we would find. And so there the corner sat, untouched by missionary hands; forever to remain mysterious. Until Tuesday, February 28th.

Thanks to several days of not driving due to sickness, February only having 28 days, and a string of unusual circumstances we found ourselves with a surplus of miles that would not roll over into the next month. So what are a couple of Sister Missionaries to do? Go and discover what was in the corner.

It was absolutely splendid! It was so much more than we expected and more! An adorable little lakeside community with small canals that give the place a bayou vibe and all the wild bird life Florida has to offer. The houses and houseboats were adorable, and there were even cute old people riding golf carts! Oh how I missed that sight.

Unfortunately we didn't have a lot of time to find before it got dark, so we didn't get to meet a lot of people. And the people we did meet were snowbirds that were packing up and getting ready to go back north for the summer. Even if we did pick up a new investigators down there it would be somewhat problematic, seeing that we would never be able to drive down there and we'd be extremely unlikely to find someone willing to give us a ride. Not to mention that if someone down there were to actively investigate it would take them a whopping hour and a half to drive to church.
They'd probably just abandon us and go to the Lake Hamilton Ward approximately 20 minutes away... and in a completely different mission.
Either way, we had a magical time and it definitely lifted our spirits and got us super excited about finding and missionary work in general. And if nothing else, now we know what is there in the corner.

As far as investigators go we've been having problems with appointments following through, people not coming to church, etc. All the fun things. One of the hardest things about this week was when Kerryann told us that her partner was not particularly jazzed about her meeting with us, and didn't want us coming to the house. This was a tough blow that both confirmed our fear that she and the father of her (adorable) little children are unmarried, and that he isn't interested in learning more at all. It's so hard without that familial support, especially since our message is so focused on the importance of families being together. Kerryann still wants to come to church and take lessons from us there, and hopes that if he sees the positive change in her that the church will bring that it will soften his heart and warm him up to the idea. We just don't want to be sneaky and teach against the (potential priesthood holder) head of household and create tension in the family. That's the opposite of what we want! So we've been praying really really hard about it and even put their names on the temple prayer roll. If you could add them to your prayers, it definitely wouldn't hurt.

Earlier on Tuesday we got to do some service for a long time investigator that's an adult daughter of a less active that has a special place in our hearts. Susan has really been through the ringer time and time again, especially recently. She was in a serious car accident involving a semi truck at the beginning of last month, which has left her with a myriad of health problems on top of her existing lifelong mobility issues. When we offered to serve her she was so touched and asked us if we would help her sweep and mop her floors, which we were more than happy to do. She was so grateful and even wanted to pay us, which she knew she couldn't do, so she got us some pizza instead ☺️

Hold to the rod,

-Sister Olivia Petty⛵️

Myself and Sister Stevenson in the corner of our area at Lake Hatchineha 2.28.17

Myself, Sister Stevenson, Sister Lamborn and Sister Jamison at the temple on 3.3.17