Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Christmas Baptisms


Well, I talked to you yesterday.

I went to the bait&tackle shop this morning and got some stuff to fish with for an actual birthday present (not little ceasar's).  And I went fishing in the lake by our house.  we didn't have a whole lot of time though so I didn't catch anything...Here's some christmas pictures!

Love,

Elder Fine







Birthday Celebrations (Brandon's, Mom's and Jesus')

Hello!

I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do for my birthday.  It should be fun.  We have mission conference on the 22nd and then we might be doing a massive service project combined with the Miami Rescue Mission on the 23rd.  We have Church at the same time :) yours is at 9, mine is at 11, you're two hours earlier...I think that's what you meant...oh well.  we'll be staying after for a baptism so we'll probably be back around 1:30 :) We're going to the Mundell's for Christmas and we'll be skyping there.  I guess I'll call you before I sign on just to make sure you're signed on.  Sister Mundell is the primary president and brother mundell is on the high council.  They're great.  We went over yesterday and had corned beef and key lime pie.

I sent Ethan's present this morning...hopefully it gets there by the end of this week.  If not, then blame the United States Postal Service because I think a week is plenty of time.  I got permission from President Anderson to use BYU's website but it's not very helpful.  You can go ahead and do any necessary research and we'll talk about it on Sunday...I've only got 35 minutes though so efficiency will be key.  If it's too much hassel, just get me a spot in wyview for Fall Semester.  It's cheap and acceptable for a returned missionary to live there, and I promise I won't date 18-year-olds.  Oh, and para que sepan (FYI), I'm coming home on the 9th of August...I'm not sure if I ever told you that, but I checked the board again and that's the group they put me in, meaning I'll have very little time before school starts.

I'm playing the accompaniament to "Santa La Noche" (O Holy Night) in mission conference while the Homestead Zone sings it.  It's not too difficult but time and pianos are scarce so I don't get to practice much.  I frequently substitute play in sacrament meeting as well when sister brown is sick/out of town.

Story time!  We were riding our bicycles and a man waved us over and we went over to talk to him.  "Hello" he said "my name is Terry Cox." Terry Cox explained that he had been taught in Atlanta a year ago and attended church and had a baptismal date and everything.  He further astonished us by his incredible knowledge of the gospel and immediate desire to attend the church here and be baptized.  He explained that he had not been baptized a year ago because he had word of wisdom issues that he was dealing with and he was not ready.  So, in a nutshell we found a man who had been taught all the lessons, was living the required commandments, and had attended church several times, and wanted to be baptized......yeah.

When I was in the MTC, Brother Hunt told the class that we would find people on our missions who would in fact, though on rare occasion, say "Hello, I'm ready, please baptize me now" and I inwardly chuckled thinking how nice it would be if that were true.  Well, I guess it's true.  And it's kind of nice since one of our investigators that really wants to be baptized is moving to Georgia soon and can't be baptized before she leaves because she is still living with her boyfriend.

Merry Christmas!  Happy Birthday Mom! and have a wonderful, wonderful week.

Elder Fine

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Christmas Critters

Hey everybody!

Mom, if you could make a note on that letter to Santa, I looked on lds.org and my 2 choices for Mormon Tabernacle Choir CD's would be either "This is the Christ" or "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing."  Both are great.

Picture Time!!! I've seen tons of iguanas but I never got a picture of one so here you go.  This week I saw two alligators.  This one was in a canal.  He's pretty big.  And this is a moth with a 5 inch wingspan.  Yeah.

Apart from tons of animals, we've also been able to see tons of people and invite them to come unto their Savior, which is just generally fun.

We're looking to have some baptisms next week and they could range anywhere from 2 to 8.  It depends.  I'll try for 8, but I'll be happy with 5 ;) jk I'll be happy no matter what, but baptisms are always fun.

I didn't know there were firehouse subs in Arizona...why didn't anyone tell me?  going to applebees during karaoke night can be annoying, but it does have the advantage of half-priced appetizers and the strawberry lemonade is absolutely delicious.  Karaoke night is only once a week though and if they're still doing this I think half priced appetizers is any weeknight (monday-thursday) after 9.  Sadly missionaries can't take advantage of that.

Have a good week and a good thanksgiving!!! I'm getting a flu shot on Friday at Zone Conference!  Yay Flu Shot!

Love you,

Elder Fine






Monday, November 7, 2011

7: Much More than a Lucky Number


oh hey, I'm writing you right now :) I liked Dad's mormon.org story.  I shared it with the mission president. btw we had 7 investigators in church on sunday.  Best Sunday so far in my mission.


Hi family!

This week was great!  Want to know why?  I'll tell you.  Gayle and Rhiana and Semia and Lashay and Samori and Nicole and Alexandra and Michael and Kristi all came to church!  and in the cases of Nicole, Alexandra, Michael, and Kristi, all of them came with their less active parents!  And that's pretty great.

I don't have a lot of time to write this week, but I promise I'll have a christmas list for you next week, mom.  Idea for a great missionary stocking stuffer: stamps, photos, a nice pen or two, and mormon tabernacle choir cd's.  just a few ideas for now.  I'll let you know if anything else comes to mind.  Also Staples has this great "arc" customizable notebook that I got.  Maybe some pocket dividers or project planner pages for that would be cool. mbystaples.com/arc 

I'm not kidding it's probably my favorite setup for a notebook that I've ever seen.  I have the big one.  Not the little one.

Thanksgiving will be a good day for us.  We'll probably have someone invite Gayle's family over for dinner and eat with them.  sorry I'm short on time this week.  Love you!
Elder Fine










Monday, October 31, 2011

Oh The Service You'll Do...


Dear Family,

This is a baby bullfrog.  And the pumpkin I carved of the Florida Fort Lauderdale Temple.  And a tree that fell over in a ridiculous rainstorm last night.  In the storm's defense though, the tree has little or no roots.  I honestly did not believe that the sky could hold that much water and dump it all down at the same time.  The entire parking lot was covered in 4 inches of water, which we parked in.

Lots of interesting things happened this week.  As a missionary, it is instinctive to offer to help people in any way you can.  Well, I never expected that I would get "can you break into my house? I'm locked out and if I could reach the balcony I could get in but I'm too short.  The office won't give me the key because I'm only 12.  I called my mom but she won't be home for another 2 hours and I've already been out here for 3."  I looked at the balcony...yeah, I can get up there.  And I did and then got out of there as soon as I could.  Just felt kind of weird breaking into a house.  We got a return appointment though.  And we also got to visit her downstairs neighbors, who watched us break in from their window.

We also had the fall festival/trunk or treat which was really fun.  We had several investigators and less active families show up.  It was really fun because it was the Killian, Sunset, and Coral Reef Wards combined.  So apart from the stake leadership, I think I knew more people there than anyone.  I do feel bad for the institute class that was going on at the same time.

We destroyed some moldy cabinets and walls,  put a giant tarp over an RV,  threw away a lot of garbage, and were generally serviceful people.  I also conducted a baptismal interview in arabic this week.  I don't speak arabic, so we had to have the interview questions sent to the office from salt lake city and then scanned and sent to my lds email.

Also Elder Hatch found a cockroach in his suit pocket as he went to put it on.  He screamed like a little girl.

I thought of a great halloween costume for next year when I can actually dress up.  Yukon Cornelius!  That's right, the prospector from Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

I gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting this week.  Yeah, that's the second one in the last 3 weeks.  This one was great because I had a day's notice.  Luckily, I've been on the spot for a long time now and it's hard to be put on the spot when that's your most comfortable position, so I think it went pretty well.  It was on forgiveness.

Well, that's about it.  Also the ward mission leader, Brother Plummer, is Jamaican.  I just think that's cool.  All my other mission leaders have been Mexican or in the case of Brother Flores, Ecuadorian.

Okay, have a great week,

Love,

Elder Fine