Sister Nelson's Groundhog Day (Week 21)

"Okay, campers, rise and shine, and don't forget your booties 'cause it's cooooold out there today.  It's coooold out there every day. What is this, Miami Beach?"  Close, but it's actually Port Orange Beach.

Happy Groundhog Day!

I know a lot of you are probably ready for winter to be over, but it hasn't even begun here.  A few weeks ago some one here said that they were wanting winter to be over.  I thought, "what winter?  It is more like early fall."

At transfers, I was assigned my new companion, Sister Nelson

I am in New Smyrna Beach North, which doesn't cover New Smyrna Beach at all.  We cover Port Orange, but we go to the New Smyrna Beach Ward.  Sister Nelson is my new companion.  I am going to kill her.  She is really awesome and I am happy in get to serve with her.  She played the piano when I did the musical number for the Christmas devotional, so I already knew her a little bit.

You're all probably thinking, why would I kill am amazing companion.  Here in the mission when a missionary completes her mission, her companion is said to kill her, since her life as a missionary is now over.  The ward members are really friendly, but I miss Winter Garden.  Last night I had an extreme desire to be back there.  However, I know, with time, I will love my new area as well.  I am also Sister Nelson's first companion who is taller than she is.

Meeting Becky Roberts

I met Becky Roberts at an YSA event.  It was fun to see someone that I knew from home, even if it was years ago.  We were at the YSA event with a less-active, Hayden.  Hayden is really cool and awesome.  She drove us to district meeting, since we had almost reach our mileage limit, and it is pretty far.  She is fun to be around.  However, she doesn't have her own testimony.  I really want to help her develop one before I leave this area.

I saw the beach for the first time on my mission.  We had a lesson with a less-active named Aaron, who lives near the beach.  We walked with him to the beach and talked with him there.  I picked up some shells while we were there.

At the beach with Aaron and Sister Nelson

One of my first days here we taught someone in Chick-fil-A.  At the end I found out he is a member!  He likes to pretend to be a non-member to every new missionary.  Weirdo.   It was okay, because it was good practice.

Our district leader is training someone who has been in some Mormon Messages, which pretty much means he is a celebrity to us missionaries, since one of our few forms of entertainment is Mormon Messages.

One of the missionaries in my ward is from Guatemala.  He is super cool, and he also goes home at the end of this transfer, but he wants to to come back to the USA as a diplomat.  Mom, he is from Guatemala City, so you wouldn't have served in his home area.  Also, what is really weird is that, even though we are in the same ward, we aren't in the same district.

I really liked Elder Holland's Facebook post this week.  Here is a picture of it so you can enjoy it too: Elder Holland visits Aurora

Anyway you can probably tell why I like it so much.  And, by the way, it is now on my bucket list to go to Aurora, Utah.

This week I studied the law of the fast.  I really love the conference talk from the priesthood session about it.  You should all read it for the first time or again if you haven't.  I also really liked Isaiah 58:11.  You should read that too.  I really saw a lot of meaning in it.

We met a naturalpath this week.  It was really interesting to talk to her.  She is the sister of someone who lives in the congregation.  She said that Joseph Smith had started to write a herbal medicine book before he died.  She said it is published under a different name, but that, if you google Joseph Smith's herbal medicine book, it will come up, and you can buy it.  I thought it was super cool.  It was awesome talking with her.

Miracle: It is a small one this week.  While we were tracting, we got a lot of people who said we can come back, which is awesome.

~Sister Aurora Pack