Pull It One More Mile

The President has this in his office.

I researched it to see what the history of it really was.

The original picture, not as nice as this, was taken about 1917 in and underground mineshaft.

The horse was totally blind, as were all such horses due to the lifetime in total darkness.

Ross Taylor, who did this picture said:

"It is the most impressive image I have ever seen.

It depicts the American way of life and the effort it took our forefathers to build this great country.

Often, when I have been discouraged and despondent beyond words, I have looked at this picture and said to myself,

'I will pull it one more mile.' 

With that attitude in mind and with an average amount of intelligence, any person can certainly make a success of their life in this land of free enterprise."

President Hall keeps it on his desk to remind him of what He Can Do.

MONDAY MORNING...

Elder Doxey stormed the office...

with a Nerf gun...

shot sister James in the chest and scared her out of her whits....

Sister Homer was good at holding her own.

I took it and shot Elder Doxey...

actually I emptied the gun on him.

Stan got Sister Higgenson a new bike seat..

and you would have thought she won the Lottery.

She and Sister Schow had their lunch in their little red lunch box..

They sat down and ate their lunch with us.

The storms cleared off the coast and allowed the clouds back in and we had a chance to get our own rain cycle back. 

But no chance...

Little Paula as she was called...

Turned and took our moisture with her.

It is beautiful weather - low 80's...

low humidity...

The air conditioning went off Saturday and we opened the door.

Beautiful weather...

But there is a red flag up today because things are so dry.

How fast things change.

Thursday...

Elder Doxey and Dyer ( Elder Hyer on splits)

riding on the van steps to the shed so they could help put the back seat in the van sooo...

We could take them and the East and West Elders to dinner.

(We have to have the Zone Leader's permission to take more then one companionship to dinner at the same time and they gave permission if they could go too.)

Steak and Shake is a good place to eat.

They actually have a great selection of salads.

They all had mountain size 'steak' burgers and a shake.

Friday night the Assistants Doxey and Hyer coned us into dinner at Panera bread.

Don't know how they do it but they do it well.

I also dry cleaned Elder Wilks suit (dryall)

Washed two white shirts that were going to find the trash.

I promised I could get them clean. 

I did.  

I do a lot of that.

Then Elder Doxey needed a hair cut but didn't have time to come to the appartment so he conned me into going back to the apartment for my clippers to cut his hair in the office.

That was just before they conned us into dinner.

They are great. 

Their schedule is crazy..

They don't have time to take care of shopping for food and eating.

The least we can do is feed them once in awhile.

Stan is learning his computer programs and getting a system with the office Elders to help him.

The car that didn't sell last Friday...

Sold this Friday.

Poor Elder Schmeil and Machado Lopez and Montgomery...

Full Bike.

Of course Stan drives missionaries...

loads the bikes and unloads bikes,

and keeps track of all the Missionaries cars and Bikes.

Drives them to the outer limits of their area so they don't have to use their car miles.

Yikes!! 

After Steak and Shake...

 The East Elders had a meeting at the church but needed their bikes.

So we loaded three bikes and three Elders and a Senior couple into the Mission Van

Not an easy task, they could almost have biked to the church in the time we loaded them up.

In the back

Elder Lewis (Green)

Elder Schow (Office Geek)

Elder Wilks up front (District Leader and Trainer)

Another sign of fall.

At the close of a perfect day....

"The discipline contained in daily obedience and clean living and wholesome lives builds an armor around you of protection that beset you as you proceed through mortality."

-Elder L. Tom Perry-

Cars... Missionaries... Florida.... and an amazing daughter

The skies cleared...

Tropical Depression 16 went out to sea...

with it went all the moisture.

We have had wonderful fall weather and pleasant clear skies.

The normal AM temperature most of the week.

Sprinklers were back on Tuesday morning...

This is where all that water was last week.

With that water came the flowers...

bushes that were barren burst into bloom.

It is beautiful here right now.

The dew is heavy every morning.

Elder Rice sent Stan his mileage and fuel records.

 

 He is a cute missionary.

It is quiet on the home front and two very green missionaries are...

napping...

 Trainers are looking on. :-)

(Elder Wilks on the left is Elder Lewis' trainer

Elder Engemann's on the right is Elder Fullmer's trainer.)

 Elder Schow is using the skill of sewing buttons with a shank on his suit. 

I taught him that between Missionary correlation meeting and Sacrament meeting a few weeks back.

He is very excited about it.....

This kid is out stopping traffic every night on their walk around the lake.

Tonight he has a coin he is showing me....

AFTER he stopped me.

(They are of Indian decent, a beautiful family)

An unlikely trio

The 'ol duck the mutant duck and our lone wood stork.

They hang together...

Pretty good friends.

A beautiful clear twilight...

  Elder Bingham (Right)...

decedent of Erastis Bingham, don't know which wife,

and Elder Nelson (left)...

who's grandfather Keith Nelson used to work in Juniper years ago.

They were hit by a car, hit and run.  

They guy hit them and a couple other cars and  was finally caught a week or so later.

Anyway their car has been at the hospital for a couple of weeks and they have been on bikes...

they were glad it has been cool.

Stan and I took their van to them and they were very happy.

Kelly Joe and little Sam Parson's

They were going to purchase a mission car.

But after driving a couple of hours to the mission office...

and looking at it and thinking about it...

he didn't feel right about it.

Me...I'm getting my baby fix.

Now a little bit of a story.

When we got here (on our mission)...

there were 14 cars parked in the parking lot that 'Salt Lake' wanted sold.

Most of them had been sitting there for about a year.

'Salt Lake' was able to find a buyer to take nine cars.

Stan sold a couple and purchased one himself. 

That left two...

The tires were rotting and batteries eroding and other deterioration was happening while they sat in the Florida sun.

Stan and the Assistance decided that those cars would be better off being used while they were waiting to be sold.

So far each time someone wants to purchase them something happens and the cars don't sell.

After Stan took the car from

Elders Machado Schmeil Lopez and Montgomery, to sell to the Parsons, they started

  praying they would get a car because their area is to big for bikes.

Thus this beautiful little couple had the funds and wanted the car but didn't feel good about it.

So after the temple Saturday morning we took the car back to...

Elders Montgomery Lopez  Machado Schmeil.

They were so happy...

They live in the guest house of some members main home.

The yard is beautiful.

 The guest house.

 

h

The main house and  yard

 These flowers are amazing.  They line the highways.

They bloomed last spring and then died out...

But after the Tropical Depression they just burst into bloom once again.

This is a giant bird cage.

It has bird baths and trees and all kinds of things for birds..

it is all enclosed.

There all canaries and other exotic and very colorful birds all singing on this beautiful morning.

(Ben could you do this for your pigeons?)

After delivering their car we picked up

Elder Rydalch and Brown 

for a late breakfast or early lunch at Perkins.

They are the Zone leaders for the Spanish Zone.

Good guys and hard workers.

This last week the police found our stolen car...

long story.

We got it cleaned up and sold it to a guy east of here near Tampa.

So after eating with the Elders we took our little 'gray' Corella to be sold.

The man who owns the used car dealer is of Indian decent.

He has a family business.

He also owns an Orphanage in India with thirty children.

All his proceeds go to the orphanage.

During our trip we saw some new country.

A large transmission sub station here for Disney World.

They built this and if...

you look closely you can see the lines going out from it

It is part of the sub station.

This was actually in the yard of the home with the guest house...

But we saw a lot of orchards with oranges that are ripening.

Our daughter Esther on the right her friend on the left...

Ran a marathon Saturday morning.

Esther came in third for her age group.

 PLOUTS

 A plouts is a cross between a plum and an appricot

YUM

Our daughter Esther

 Ran a marathon Saturday October 9 2019

She won third place in her age category.

34 four and four children.

 Sunday 10-10-10 (October 10, 2010)

The promised moisture for this week is moving back in.

 This is a picture I found on the Internet.

I copied it and put in on the bulletin board.

FINDING YOUR SWEET SPOT

If you stay the course,

reach out to others for help,

and share your gifts,

you too can find a sweet spot.

My lesson in SS today was about the Savior's life.

His life was a life of service.

He showed us the way...

all he asks of us is to...

Follow Him.

Times and Seasons

The headline news this week is Tropical Depression 16

For us it was just a spectator sport but for many many others it was a

harrowing experience.

With water knee deep...

and much higher in other places of Florida we were  impressed with what a 'tropical depression' could do. 
We are not anxious to witness a Tropical Storm or worse yet Hurricane or Tornado.

Our trusty Assistance and Spanish Zone leaders were out moving tables and getting them some dinner at Taco Bell when the deluge hit.

Being service minded they thought they would help a guy to get his dead and drowning car car out of the way of traffic.
  Hopping out of the car they began to push. 
(Elder Doxey hates wet shoes so he took his off before he got out)
After rescuing many cars the service soon turned to play.
(20-21 year old guys... come on they couldn't resist!!!)
It is not blurry it is raining hard

When they got back to the office they were drown missionary rats to say the least.

 Elders Hyer Rydalch Brown and Doxey clutching their cold wet soggy dinner.

Trying to eat their cold taco bell dinner--
wet and very cold in this air conditioned office.

Pockets full of mud and grime all over them.

This is the storm from our office door..
No that isn't blur... That is rain and torrents of it.

On our trip home about five or so that evening things had settled a lot.  We took the toll road home and back way in. 
We knew from what the Elders had experienced the in between roads were not so fun to travel on.

Temperatures 'plunged'.  
It hasn't been 74 since we got here.

Once again the Florida skies --- even at the end of a 'tropical depression'.

The morning after.
I don't know where all that water went but this is the area that was flooded just 12 hours before...
Now they are perfectly dry.

All six foot plus Zone leaders after a round of basketball on Preparation Day.
As you can see one of them has a suit coat on his very stinky body.
He is trying it on, one from the supply closet.  
We have so many things left behind by missionaries, we have our own little store back there.
(Elder Dyer Jones Ellis and Grimm)

WE ARE ALWAYS EATING

Elder York Schow Doxey Hyer Lewis and Wilks 
Doing a 'Juniper salute' for all of you.
(Elder Campbell is being shy)

This is Sister Worwood and Fernandez
We ate at Perkins.
Stan and I took Sister Fernandez and Clanton home from the Leadership Training meeting and they met their companions.  
Sister Fernandez and Worwood were to late for their dinner appointment so we took they to dinner.

Firehouse Subs is always a favorite of the the Elders.
We have Elder Doxey and Hyer with us.


It is funny how this all happens.  
The assistants will say something like...
'we are so hungry...
where should we eat?'
Then they say "you guys want to go eat with us?"
That means their funds are low and they need some assistance filling the void.
(I am ordering our sandwich and trying to smile at the same time...oh well)



I helped two days with feeding the troops at Leadership Training.
60 plus missionaries need fed.
I organized two Relief Society's from two wards to feed them.. 
Then I went to make sure everything went as planned by  President Hall and his wife.
This is such a wonderful experience.
I get out of the office YAY!!!
I get to be with the missionaries  YAY!!!
Plus I get to meet these sweet sisters who so lovingly feed the missionaries without hesitation.
Such service and devotion can we forget?

My pet frog. 
He is about the size of a quarter.  




Signs of the seasons...

Okay there really aren't seasons around here but...
Last blog I showed a picture of a tree that was turning yellow.

 School buses are on the move...

There are pumpkins and Halloween paraphernalia everywhere. 

 The sun comes up later and goes down earlier and...
the shadows are growing longer.

 We are seeing cooler temperatures.
This morning was actually chilly.

General Conference is also a sign of Fall


Saturday morning we went to help Sisters Keung and Allred with their dryer.
As it turns out the pig tail was melted meaning more serious problems then a worn out pig tail.  


We stopped at the Windermere chapel (across from the temple) on the way home to watch conference. 
The chapel was half full of missionaries.  What a treat.


We watched afternoon conference on the Internet--nice but not as nice as at the chapel.


Sunday morning we watched conference on the Internet but in the afternoon we went to our chapel.

The evening of Tropical Depression 16

This really is the most colorful vibrant rainbow ever. 

FAITH IS A CHOICE


LET US CHOOSE FAITH


FOLLOW THE SAVIOR