Week 72 (Jan 2nd-8th) & Week 73 (Jan 9th-15th 2018)
Deltona’s misfortune is Bostons immense luck because we’re losing Innocent to the red sox. Sister Russell and my hearts are actually in pieces, so we don’t think about it for more than 30 seconds at a time otherwise we’ll weep endlessly.
Innocent is currently living/working at an assisted living group home and it’s a rough situation. The woman he is working for was an acquaintance from where he’s from in Uganda, but she’s really been exploiting him and his work since he doesn’t have a work visa yet. He works literally 21/7 (minus the three hours he gets off for church each week which he has to fight tooth and nail for) and is the only employee over 8 patients. She refuses to hire anyone else so she can save money, but she’s barely paying Innocent anyway. We calculated it out, and she’s only paying him roughly $1.50 an hour. It’s the definition of messed up.
Originally Innocents goal was to work there long enough to get his own apartment and continue working there while obtaining necessary visas; but he’s been working so hard non-stop he hasn’t had any time to work on his papers and his employer is resisting his leaving to go to church on Sundays- which is non negotiable to him. So Innocent has been fasting and praying about other options.
He has a colleague up in Boston who is willing to let Innocent stay with him while he works his legalities out, so he is leaving on Thursday. We’re saddened by this turn of events for selfish reasons, but we genuinely want what is best for him and right now that is getting out of dodge. Innocent didn’t want to leave his new home Ward either, feeling he was just planting his roots, so he is planning to come back to the area after he’s done in Boston in a month or two. Pray- really pray- that this works out because Sister Russell and I are about to be very lost with a lot more free time.
We already have his records set in his new ward and have contacted his new missionaries (that we are fighting to not break the 10th commandment over) and so he will be able to continue his new member lessons and prepare for the temple there. He was ordained a Priest in the Aaronic Priesthood, so now he will be preparing to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood! He is so on fire and has the strongest testimony, we are so blessed to know him and we will be keeping in contact with him while he’s gone and hopefully having an occasional Skype lesson.
To console us, Heavenly Father has blessed us with bounteous tender mercies and super cool experiences. Throughout my mission, I have raved about Florida’s wildlife and wondrous variety of all creatures great and small, but these last two weeks were something else. Are you ready for one of the great creatures? Get this: Manatees. MANATEES.
We live approximately 7 miles away from Blue Springs State Park: Winter Home of the Manatee. So this last P-day guess what we did? WE SAW THE MANATEES. It was an absolutely beautiful park! This crystal clear river spring, with amazing trees everywhere, very peaceful and super quiet! This river was filled with all different kinds of fish, like hundreds of different fishies. There were an astounding variety of birds as well, and of course... the manatees. I have never seen anything like it. Fat blobs swimming in the water, chilling at the bottom, and occasionally surfacing for a second to take a big breath. It was enchanting.
Apparently Manatees have zero tolerance for cold, so they always have to be in water that is at least 70 degrees. Well according to a post card I bought at the gift shop, “Blue Spring pumps out 100 million gallons of 72 degree water each day.” So when it gets “cold” here in Florida (I’m from Utah so Florida’s definition of cold doesn’t phase me) literally hundreds of manatee flock to the blue spring for warmth and to socialize. The manatee count for the springs that day was 384. That’s right. 384.
And now for a small creature: baby goats. Also known as a kid, of which I got to hold one. We have a member couple that live in the middle of this forest and then when you finally reach their home you find a gate beyond which cattle, goats, geese and ducks roam freely around a quaint little pond adjacent to a huge gorgeous house. It was so whimsical we could barely stand it. When we drove in we basically had to nudge the cows with our car to get them to move, they were so zen hahaha. But when we saw their baby goats, we begged to hold one. And that we did. I truly felt like a representative of the Savior, who is our shepherd, and we are his sheep (or in this case, baby goats).
As if the wildlife in and of itself wasn’t enough of a selling point of the Florida Orlando Mission, we also have within our bounds NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. And even though it’s about 50 miles away from Deltona, that doesn’t mean that you can’t see the occasional shuttle launch in the skyline. The only problem is that since missionaries are so disconnected with the world, we never know when the launches are unless someone tells us. I’ve never been given a heads up to tilt my head up, so we were blessed by chance last week.
Sister Russell and I were driving home after a lesson in the evening when a bright burning light in the sky caught our attention. Perplexed, we stared at it unable to tell what it was. It appeared to be a ball of fire ascending? Was this the Second Coming? We just kept staring until Sister Russell finally said, “Wait aren’t their shuttle launches around he-“ then the light went out instantaneously; leaving us speechless.
We looked around the sky searching for the F.O. (flying object that we had identified), when a burst of purple lights illuminated the heavens and manifested in the likeness of the Milky Way. This galactic display had us in ecstatics and desperately calling our Elders and screaming at them to look at the sky. “Look at the sky? Why? What do you- HOLY CRAP!” and we all marveled together. It was cosmic in every sense.
As for the miracles of this week, we have 3 new investigators! All compliments to the Elders we share the ward with because they are bomb at giving us referrals. One of the new investigators, Lanie, is very interested in our message of peace. She has had some very hard things in her life and is seeking comfort. We felt the spirit so strong as we got to know her and listened to her testimony of faith and sense her desire for the clarity that the restored gospel can bring to her and her family. That lesson was a pass off with the Elders and afterward they were so sweet and said things like, “Dang, that was just a lesson for us on charity.” because they were so impressed by how much Lanie opened up to us.
Finally, a few words about our beloved Prophet, President Thomas S. Monson. How dear he is to the Lord and to the saints that he stewarded over. I am and always will be grateful for him and his sweet and tender spirit and unfailing optimism. His influence on my testimony today is monumental and his teachings unforgettable.
We had the opportunity to be at the chapel to watch the funeral broadcast with several other missionaries. Unfortunately, WiFi in church buildings is infamously terrible and so we were only able to get bits and pieces between the crashing of several devices and buffering. At one point it ended up being quite humorous because instead of pausing to buffer, the stream would loop back a few seconds and replay about 3 times before proceeding. So we listened to the choir sing Dear to the Heart of the Shepherd for about 9 minutes and can tell you each of the Pallbearers and who dedicated the grave. By the time it got to the closing prayer, we decided to turn off the broadcast and kneel and pray on our own.
It was a tender experience as we all knelt while an Elder offered the prayer of thanks for our dear Prophet, I realized that each and every one of the mission calls and ministerial certificates of each missionary in that room had the signature of President Thomas S. Monson. It was by his divinely appointed authority that we were called to be ambassadors of Jesus Christ and His Gospel. To close, a quote from President Monson that has touched me in my life:
“As you serve, you will build rich eternal memories and friendships. I know of no field which produces a more bounteous harvest of happiness than the mission field.”
Count your blessings,
-Sister Olivia Petty🚀
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