One of the things that we spend a lot of time doing each week is visiting some of the many widows in our ward. On one of my visits to my Granny when she was in her late 80s she told me about all of the "little old people" who she checked in on and took goodies to on a regular basis. My parents were also very good to visit the Elderly, so loving this part of our duties comes naturally to me. In addition to listening to their amazing histories, we are always impressed with those who are still spending their time serving and/or learning. One of the angels we visit is Sister Marrone. She has had such sad things happen to her in her life (starting with her uncle killing her father on their property when she was 6...) but is so pleasant as she nears the end of her life with cancer. When we visited this week she showed us an afghan she was making for her newest great grandchild. What an example!
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Each of her dozens of great-grandchildren have
something made by her! |
This week we were visiting a fellow in our ward who was in the hospital. He was in a wing that we were unfamiliar with in the largest hospital in the area. As we got to a cross roads in the hallways after our visit we had a little discussion about which way to go - the way we had gotten to that wing and floor, or the way that one of us thought would be faster. During our conversation an elevator came and went, but we still decided to go on the elevator and took the next one headed down. As we got off the elevator we smiled at a person waiting to get on who hesitated and then literally ran after us down the hall. She said, "I saw your name tags. I am a member of the Church but haven't been active for years. My family is all in Ohio, but my 2-week old son is being operated on next Monday and I really want him to have a blessing before the operation." We exchanged information (since this isn't like Utah where many male hospital personnel can assist in the blessing!!!) and walked away amazed. What seemed like a random decision to go a different way was perfectly timed to run into this sweet, scared mother. We were able to go back today with a member from the ward and he and Craig gave the tiny 5-lb baby, who will have heart surgery tomorrow, a blessing. I wish I could have gotten a picture of the baby and mother, but didn't want to make her uncomfortable by asking.
I am sure none of you checked the Weather Channel half as much as we did this week, but up until Friday it looked like we were going to get Hurricane Erika going through Orlando. She has broken up, and will just result in 2-3 inches of rain tomorrow - which we get every day (so sorry we can't share with you dry-Western states!!!) But it was nice to see the infrastructure that the mission has in place not only to keep the missionaries safe, but to have them prepared for an emergency, and trained and primed to help quickly afterward.
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There were MANY people at Costco on Friday filling many
gas cans like these, in anticipation of the storm! |
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We get SO much rain here that EVERY store
or public place has these bags as you enter! |
While transfers don't affect us nearly as traumatically here as they did in Brazil, we were sad to see one of these dear sisters from the Spanish Ward get transferred. They have let us be included in their efforts by asking us to take people to the temple, give them blessings, take them to meetings, check out their apartment when things were amiss, etc. To show their appreciation they had us over for dinner - how cute is that? Only the third time in Orlando to be invited to dinner!!!
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Sweet, sweet girls - they serve in a HARD area - have
seen dead bodies and lots of other crimes!!! |
We are so happy to be missionaries. The Gospel is True! We love you!
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