Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve

For Christmas Eve we had a get-together that was "put-together" by Elder Mott. He planned it and Sister Mott was in charge of the feast. There were twenty people there ... ourselves, Ryan and Brandi Mott, Elder and Sister Mott, Chambers, Drapers, Leavitts, the APs, the office Elders, and 4 other Elders that Elder Mott had asked to perform. We started at 6 pm with a delicious meal of Clam Chowder,Chicken Noodle soup, Shrimp Cocktail, and lots and lots of other wonderful dishes. Everyone seemed to really enjoy that. After dinner we had a program (again, put together by Elder Mott).

Sister Draper played three gorgeous musical selections (she is a concert pianist)

Elder Fangupo played the piano and sang "Oh Lord, My Redeemer"

Elder Abbot sang, "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" (but the really cool thing was he wrote some of his own words about dreaming of a special Christ-filled Christmas... it was very touching)

The office couples (Motts and Chambers) sang the Mott tradition "Star Bright" (and at the last second 3 Elders joined us without any practice)

Elder Mott showed the "Grandpa Jones- The Christmas Guest" video that his Grandpa Mott showed every year

and last, but not least, President Summerhays asked many of the missionaries to bear their testimonies.

It was a really special night!

More Christmas eve

more Christmas Eve

The party ended with Elder Mott giving "gag" presents to President and Sister Summerhays. There were a lot of laughs and a wonderful spirit. Joy permeated the evening.

Christmas Eve

The Dog Box

Elder Mott in the "bog dox" for all his pranks :

Mail day at the office.

This is even less mail than the 2 days before received. We are supposed to be moaning that there were none for us.

President Teaching at the Live Nativity Do you think he is getting thru?

more caroling Elder Parkinson in had on left photo

Sister Montes

This is a free hand chalk drawing during a lesson on Lehi's dream by Sister Montes. This is Sister Montes with us.

Baptism

Elder Moffet, ward member, Mary, and Elder Schwanavelt. (his first baptism) When the man went into the font to baptize Mary, he fell and was baptized himself.

ON to Caroling with the Language missionaries

The Spanish Sisters and Elders and the Haitionary Elders caroling
Elder Seaver proudly displays his ripped pants. He is a Haitian Creole speaking Elder who often has us laughing

sisters Conference

WE are all gathered here as the close of our Sisters Training.

Naming the missionaries

Elders Prescott, Elmer, Meserve, Sisters O'Neal and Grover, Elders Johnson, Reist, Maughn ,Gates Larson and Zea are in the picture below

Car Trouble

Sister O'Neal and Sister Grover left something on in their car and the Elders will not let them forget it. . I can't see everyone so I will publish this and get a good look and then tell you who everyone is.

These Shoes are made for tracting

This is Elder Mott. He is wearing out his shoes just like the young Elders. We love our office couples so much. He is a dyed in the wool BYU fan so you can imagine our little spars. Well, last night I left a message on his phone which he played back for everyone today. I called him "Melder Dot" and I told him he was out of the
Bog Dox" That won't surprise any of you, but the office got a huge laugh out of it. The funny thing is that he talks the same way. He and Sister Mott keep our office running smoothly.

more of what I am missing

We went to the Brandon Stake tonight for their festival of the Nativity. It made me miss my nativities and the fact that I didn't bring any. Then I received this picture of my faraway live nativity.

Tender Mercy

For all of his life, President has found solace in nature. Some of our children will remember being in a car with him and seeing an Eagle on a tree. We stopped and he had us all get out of the car and salute. There have been times when he has been a wee bit down and he has been nourished by seeing a sunrise or an animal or something. He has always had a gift for seeing the beauty of the earth. I need to have it pointed out to me. One morning, early in our mission, he was feeling so inadequate and like there was no way he could ever do this. Suddenly 3 huge sand hill crane flew right over us-so close we could almost touch. He felt it was a personal blessing for him and again the spirit bore witness to him that Heavenly Father knew him and called him to this calling and that He would help him do it. It renewed President with an internal witness that was very personal to him. Today as we walked we came upon 2 more Sand Hill crane. They were very close to us. I tried to take a picture with my phone. They have become his favorite bird. Hopefully you can see the majesty of them. They are also very noisy. We love Florida and the beautiful wildlife that we enjoy. As we got home there were several Ibis on our lawn. We love our mission. The church is true!

Elder Hughes (UNLV golfer) and Elder Andreason both Spanish Elders

Now there is the grapefruit- straight off of the tree-delicious

Elder Wight and Elder Savage. Elder Savage has 2 connections with us. One of his best friends is Isaiah and then his last name of course

grapefruit and missionaries

This is some of our pickings while in Haines City
Oops Elder Litchfield and Elder Johnson-not graperfruit LOL

From Hawaii

more Haines City

The Drapers, a new senior couple from Canada and the Kings the members who are renting their cottage to the Drapers in front of one of the myriad of Citrus trees. They grow 70 varieties. We came home with bags of different kinds.

Haines City

The Mexican restaurant we ended up eating at after much searching
Top Left where we did not eat because it was a barbeque place next inbetween the livestock place and an exterminator. Didn't want to eat exterminated livestock

once more our YSA Elders

Elder Salmon and Elder Alber They are the missionaries for USF

More misc. missionary pictures

Elder Salmon and Elder Alber USF YSA Elders Elder Meiners President Elder Nielson singing at Barbara's baptism. Anne's baptism
Sister Thomas Diane (baptismal day) Sister Lane

Companion study at the mission home after breakfast and stretching class. Notice my quart jar but I am missing taking the picture

Going home missionaries

Sister Lane in the purple is going home :( Sister Thomas is her last companion. In the mission they say the last companion kills the home going mission off. So thus the knife. Sister Thomas will now train Sister Salinas. These girls have been so much fun. Hard working and low maintenance :)

more arrival and departure pictures posted after our thanksgiving pictures oh well

Elder Palmer
Elder Berry Spanish
Elder Parkinson and our AP Elder DeHoyas


























Sister Salinas Engish speaking and Sister Phelps Spanish speaking
Those are our 5 incoming Missionaries.

more thanksgiving

Some pictures of our Thanksgiving dinner with our Office couples and our new couple who will be serving in Haines City.Me and President Elder Mott, Elder Draper. Top row Sister Mott, Sister Draper, Sister Chambers and Elder Chambers. I did the 10 second thing with the camera so I was pretty proud of myself

Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving surprise from our Hawaii family. It brought back such fun memories of doing that same thing for our missionaries. What a fun surprise

Transfers

At the Mission Presidents seminar the Presidents were given a gift of a limited edition replica of the original 1830 version of the Book of Mormon. It is beautiful leather and written in the style in which it was originally written.... without verse, etc. President had a magnificent experience when he he first held it in his hands and envisioned the Prophet Joseph Smith as he handled the book when it was completed and his joy! He said his eyes were opened and it was if he saw it as it happened and he felt the same joy.

The book actually has features that replicate how the first edition of the Book of Mormon was crafted:

Genuine vegetable tanned sheepskin

High quality jute paper

Smythe sewn signatures

Original style and placement of text

Text block edges sprinkled with blue dye

Includes rare list of references

It is remarkably beautiful!

Monday night we welcomed our new missionaries and began our training of the incoming missionaries. This transfer had just 5- 3 Elders and 2 Sisters (three Spanish speaking and two English).

. This is Carol and Bill. Carol has worked at the Mission Home for several Mission Presidents. She helps with all the meals at transfers. Bill just joined the church last month.For transfers this month, they offered to
plan the whole menu and to purchase and prepare the food. It was such a blessing for us as we were so tired from Orlando and so time pressed He and Carol got engaged just last week. They were actually high school sweethearts and were even engaged, but it hadn't worked out. Now, years later, they met and seem so happy together. Bill now helps with all the meals too. They are really nice people.

One of Elder Mott's responsibilities is to take pictures of the new missionaries. He takes their individual picture for our mission board in the President's office and our home. He also takes a picture to send to their parents. This is Elder Parkinson who won the Utah State Amatuer Golf tournament in August and deferred a golf scholarship to BYU in order to serve his mission. The Lord works in mysterious ways....sending him our way. Tuesday we started early with training at the Carrollwood Chapel at 7:30 am with our new missionaries and Tuesday night we had the "Farewell Dinner" at the Mission Home for those returning home.It was really hard to say goodbye. Elder Bagley is the missionary who trained us and we feel he is the closest thing to perfect that there is and We love him for all he taught us. After a wonderful meal we enjoyed a testimony meeting and then had a song. The Spanish missionaries sang "As I Have Loved You" then the English Missionaries sang it, then it was sung in both languages simultaneously. It was wonderful. After kneeling in prayer there were lots of tears and goodbyes shared. These are the moments that we truly cherish.

President and Elder Bagley

Our Spanish Missionaries