Palatka - Homeward Bound

  

April 14, 2015 

Love you mom, thank you for everything. I can't wait to see you in a couple days. This past week has been great, went to the temple, biked in the rain, got a flat tire on the bike, got a flat tire on the car, just been having an awesome week. See you soon

The Palatka District

 The Gourleys are a family that was in a wars that I was in over a year
ago, when I came to palatka. They just had moved here, they would have
us over for dinner twice a week.

 

 

Homeward Bound

 

 

 

 

Betty and Heather, Betty is a recent convert and Heather we have been teaching

 

The Taylor's are a family I served around over a year ago, yesterday
they cam down and took us out to eat for one last goodbye

 

 

 

A Story to Share  

 

Marks of a Man   (unknown author)

As I jumped on board my flight from Miami to Salt Lake City, I paused for a moment to catch my breath. Seated near the front of the plane was an excited young man, probably 19, sitting with his parents. His hair was short, his clothes new and sharp. His suit was fitted perfectly; his black shoes still retained that store bought shine. His body was in good shape, his face and hands were clean. In his eyes, I could see a nervous look; his movements were that of an actor on opening night.

He was obviously flying to Utah to become a missionary for the LDS church. I smiled as I walked by, and took pride in belonging to the same church where these young men and women voluntarily serve the Savior for two years. With this special feeling, I continued back to where my seat was located.

As I sat down in my seat, I looked to the right and to my surprise saw another missionary, sleeping in the window seat. His hair was also short, but that was the only similarity between the two. This one was obviously returning home, and I could tell at a glance what type of missionary he had been.

The fact that he was already asleep told me a lot. His entire body seemed to let out a big sigh. It looked as if this was the first time in two years that he had even slept, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was.

As I looked at his face I could see the heavy bags under his eyes, the chapped lips, the scarred and sunburned face caused by the fierce Florida sun.

His suit was tattered and worn. A few of the seams were coming apart, and I noticed that there were a couple of tears that had been hand sewn with a very sloppy stitch. I saw the nametag, crooked, scratched, and bearing the name of the church he represented, the engraving of which was almost all worn away.

I saw the knee of his pants, worn, and white, the result of many hours of humble prayer. A tear came to my eye as I saw the things that really told me what kind of missionary he had been. I saw the marks that made this boy a man.

His feet, the two that had carried him from house to house now lay there swollen and tired. They were covered by a pair of worn out shoes. Many of the large scrapes and gouges had been filled in by countless polishing.

His books—laying across his lap—were his scriptures-the word of God. Once new these books which testify of Jesus Christ and his mission were now torn, bent, and ragged from use.

His hands, those big, strong hands which had been used to bless and teach, were now scarred and cut from knocking on doors.

Those were indeed the marks of a man. And, as I looked at him, I saw the marks of another man, the Savior, as he was hanging on the cross for the sins of the world.

His feet, those that had once carried him throughout the land during his ministry, were now nailed to the cross.

His side, now pierced with a spear, sealing his testimony with his life.

His hands, the hands that had been used to ordain his servants and to bless the sick were also scarred with the nails that were pounded to hang him on the cross.

Those were the marks of a great man.

As my mind returned to the missionary, my whole body seemed to swell with pride and joy because I knew, by looking at him, that he had served his Master well.

My joy was so great that I felt like running to the front of the plane, grabbing the new missionary, and bringing him back to see what he could become, what he could do.

But, would he see the things I saw? Could anyone? Or, would he see just the outward appearance of that mighty elder, tired and worn out, almost dead?

As we landed, I reached over and tapped the returning missionary to wake him up. As he awoke, it seemed like new life poured into his body. His whole frame seemed to fill as he stood up, tall and proud. As he turned his face toward mine, I saw a light that I had never seen before. I looked into his eyes. Those eyes. I will never forget those eyes. They were the eyes of a prophet, a leader, a follower, a servant. They were the eyes of the Savior. No words were spoken. No words were needed.

As we unloaded, I stepped aside to let him go first. I watched as he walked, slow but steady, tired but strong. I followed him, and found myself walking the way he did.

When I came through the doors, I saw the returning missionary in the arms of his parents, and I couldn’t hold it any longer. With tears streaming down my face, I watched these loving parents greet their son, who had been away for such a long time, and I wondered if our parents in heaven would greet us in the same manner. Will they wrap their arms around us and welcome us home from our journey on earth? I believe they will. I just hope that I will be worthy enough to receive such praise, as I’m sure this missionary will. I said a silent prayer, thanking the Lord for missionaries like this young man. I don’t think I will ever forget the joy and happiness he brought to me that day.

 

Conversion Story

 Last week Jeremy sent me a beautiful email, a story, a conversion story, his conversion story.  I asked him if it was alright to share it on his mission blog, his reply was, it was up to me.  I had Dad read it and he agreed that it would be nice to share it with others.  Thank You Jeremy for sharing your Conversion Story, your Testimony, it is powerful and beautiful.  What a wonderful gift you have given your mother.  I love you.

March 30, 2015

So about five months ago we had a zone conference, now I don't remember much from it but during it it I felt an impression to write down somewhat of a conversion story, it took me about a month to finally to do it and once done I wasn't sure who to send it to so I sent it to Sister Craig, the mission presidents wife, I at first didn't want to send it to you since there was some things in there that I never shared with y'all, but I suppose now you might like to read it, so here it is. I love you more than you love me!!!!!

Conversion story

I once thought that a conversions story had to be something big, powerful, awesome, exciting. I doubted if I even had a conversion, but I believed everything I was taught, I knew it to be true, there was no doubt in my mind that the gospel was true, that Jesus is the Christ, that Joseph Smith was called to be a prophet, it just all made since to me. So why didn't I have some miraculous story to tell? I pondered on that one for a long time, years and years, until it finally dawned on me, I didn't need some one time experience to make me believe, I was blessed at a young age to have the understanding needed. And all throughout my life I had these little experience that strengthened my faith. It didn't really start until my high school years when my parents sent me to a catholic high school for better educations, for most of the time I was the only Mormon there. and yes my faith was tried on multiple occasions, but I was proud to be a Mormon and others could see it, soon they respected that and strong friendships were built. 

As the years went by my desire to serve a mission started to decrease. I still knew the gospel was true I was just not wanting to serve a mission. I kept this a secret, knowing that if I told people they would start to harass me about it. My plan was to graduate high school, work for a year saving up money and then take off for college. But a road block came to those plans, while I was working saving money, I decided that it was finally time to receive my patriarchal blessing. So in mid November I went to the patriarch and received my blessing, which became a major turning event in my plans, things were said and such a strong spirit surged through me, saying go on a mission. I knew better than to ignore those feeling, so still not wanting to go on a mission I decided to anyways cause I now knew that, that is what Heavenly Father wanted me to do. Paper work was put in and a call was received to leave in a month for the Florida Jacksonville Mission. Excitement and fear ran through my body, uncertain what to expect I enter the MTC, and that is where I started to grow like no other.

Before I left home my father had encourage me to search out Jesus Christ and make him my best friend, which became my biggest goal for my mission. He also challenged me to truly have heart felt prayers, staying on your knees praying until you finally feel his presence there with you. So my first night in the MTC I decided to try it, I had never prayed like this before, but low and behold I did feel something, I knew he was there and was listening to every word, a testimony of prayer was strengthened that night. Now as the days flew by in the MTC my prayers became stronger and stronger but I soon learned that I knew nothing about the gospel, which was a real humbling experience, seeing as how before I came out I thought I knew it all and now realizing that I was far from prepared to be a missionary let alone a representative of Jesus Christ. But I continued to press forward relying more and more upon the lord for strength.

Now here is where the story gets interesting, I finally enter the Florida Jacksonville Mission and get put with my trainer, whom I'm sure got frustrated with me so fast, being this new missionary that literally knew nothing about teaching the gospel. But as time went by things started to improve until one day I just broke down crying in front of my trainer. I was about ready to give up, I was saddened for I thought that I wasn't feeling the Holy Ghost, and as a missionary you kinda need that companion, but as I talked with my trainer my eyes were opened to how the Holy Ghost gives you guidance and I soon began to recognize it and fall in love with it, gaining a testimony of how the Holy Ghost touches our lives.

These were the first of many experience that tied into my conversion, soon I gained a testimony of repentance after having to clear some thing up with my mission presidents and went on to receive a greater understanding and love for the sacrament. All of this which took place in the first couple months of my mission, was shaping me into the missionary that I have become today. I have seen the Lords hand in my life as he's put me through the refiners fire, molding me Into what and who he needs me to be. My testimony of this gospel and all that it includes is now stronger than ever before. I know that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of the world, he suffer something that only a perfect man could suffer. He took upon himself the sins of the entire world, he has become a light in my life, an example to me, he has become my best friend. I know that this church, the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is his kingdom once again established on the earth and that the fullness of the gospel is found within it. I know it, I live it, I love it. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Wow!!!!!

One Full Week Left
Wow, to think this is my last full week as a missionary, my last week of doing missionary work too. Crazy...

Well, you want to hear how my week went, hmm probably not but you get to anyway. Not much to exciting happened. We did find quite a few new people to teach this week, we've been going through all the former investigators that were taught over a year ago and we've started teaching some of them as well as others we've been finding along the way. Lots of seeds being planted. One lady who was a former investigator we went by to go see, as we walked up to the door she came out and said she was crazy, in a joking manner. She was loading some things into her car so we volunteered to help which she greatly accepted, she wasn't to interested in being taughtn though, but the best part was when she gave us a call a couple days latter and wanted to come by and drop off a cake to us for helping, she's a pretty awesome lady, just for doing that. Then this week we did more service, these past 6 weeks we've seemed to be doing a lot of it, this week we helped a couple in the ward move furniture around in their house, then for another couple we painter their shed out back. Then this weekend was just wonderful. Conference was amazing. My favorite was probably the priesthood session, there was some really good talks in there, but when the Sunday afternoon session came around I was so spiritually drained that I just couldn't keep focus anymore, but I did enjoy it. Then for the rest of Easter our ward mission leader had us over for a nice turkey dinner, and boy was it good. Hmm I don't know what else there is. Well I do love you all and hope you have a fantastic week.

(Jeremy's Birthday is the day after he gets home, April 18th, I had asked him what he wanted or needed.)

Birthday Dinner(you shouldn't even had to ask 😃)

Main Dish - chicken wings of course!!!

Salad - Caesar salad 

Side Dish - funeral potatoes

Other - some kind of veggie, corn or carrots

Drink - Hawaiian fruit drink

Dessert - normal birthday cake, white frosting

If you choose ice-cream, what flavor? Tin roof, or moose tracks

Gifts, hmm the only birthday gift that really matters to me is being with my family!!! But there is a couple of things that I do need

GARMENTS(I need all new ones): large mesh tops, cotton/polyester bottoms(size 36)

Drivers license- mine expires on my birthday

Deodorant( old spice-wolfthorn)

Lufa(shower sponge)

T-shirts(large)

Oh and here is a pic of my companion, don't think I ever sent one

Mommy, 

I love getting you letters, each one is different and unique. Tell everyone that I am so thankful and grateful for all y'all working so hard with my new room. As for the color I really can't say, it's hard to imagine it, I trust your decision. As for my birthday I really am just looking forward to spending time with y'all, hope you know we will be playing lots of "settlers of catan". 

                                Love You

Time is Flying By

March 30, 2015
Wow time sure is flying by, it crazy, most of my mission finding and teaching has always been so easy but for some reason these past few weeks, everything seems to just fall through, and no one seems to want to talk with us. But we are still working hard and getting out there. hopefully things will pick up for us these last two weeks. And it seems everyone in the ward here is starting to find out. I haven't really told anyone but yesterday at church people started making comments, and boy with everyone talking to you about how you only have 2 weeks left it hard not to think about it. So anyway as for this past week, well there are three part member families that we are working with and all are coming along really well, for one of them the mom doesn't want to come to church, but her 9 year old son does, another is a 14 year old girl where her mom was baptized almost a year ago but she is still uneasy about it, but she loves the missionaries now. I feel that she will be baptized soon, she has a testimony and loves everything about the church, she just made a promise to her dad that she would wait. then the last family is a less active member who i told you about last week. We had a tri-stake devotional yesterday called "why i believe" with conversion stories and music, and two of the three part member families came, it was really a powerful meeting and the spirit was strong. Also this week it rained a lot and we were stuck on bikes the whole time, one day we were waking for about 5 hours in the rain, wasn't to bad, just shoes filled with water. well I'm not sure what else to say, time is running short and soon i will see y'all again.

love ya

25 Days - My Bike Died

The End is Near  -  25 Days

March 23, 2015

So ummm. I hear that I have 3 more weeks left. Kind of a crazy
thought, it sure doesn't feel like it. But for some reason everyone
out here keeps reminding me, it seems like they think it's pretty
close. Well I glade to hear that all is well for everyone back home.
It feels like this week was so much longer than the rest, I think back
to Tuesday and it feels like that was weeks ago. But we have had some
great things happen. On Tuesday I went on a trade off with elder
Williams the district leader here, and we had a great time, got lots
of work done. Then Wednesday, that was probably the most interesting
one of it all. We had interviews with president Craig that day, mine
was probably the shortest of them all, he just told me we would talk
more when I have my final interview with him. But after the interviews
is where the real story comes into play. We did a major service
project for some recent converts.  By the time

we left there was still a lot left to be done, but the was a huge
difference in how it looked. Then on Thursday we did some more service
in setting up a family history booth for the fair here in town, family
history seems to be getting bigger and bigger lately. Then Thursday
night we visited a less active in the ward, about a month ago he had
blown out both his knees and had gotten surgery, Wednesday night we
texted him seeing if we could come over, and he sent a massive text
back to us saying that he has had a reawakening experience and was
asking for us to give him some scriptures to read which we did, and
when we went by the next day, he would t stop talking about how good
he was been feeling these past couple days as he's dove back into the
scriptures and feeling the Holy Ghost again. Even his girlfriend has
started asking questions. It's amazing to see how the God will bring
you down to open your eyes to what you have been missing. Then on
Friday we helped someone else move, we've just been doing a lot of
service lately and have even more coming up. Life is great and I'm
loving it.

Love yall

Mar 16      "My Bike has Died"

Well where should I begin, should I start with the broken bike or the
mission conference, or the baptism date, or goals that I have set, hmm
I just don't know.

As you can see this week has been pretty scrazy, it's been a little
rough as well, pretty much all our appointments this week fell through
and we found ourselves knocking lots of doors. But there was some
excitement in the week. We did have another mission conference with
another general authority, it was more of a question and answer kind
of meeting, and it was really good, we talked about a lot of different
things, and I learned a lot as well. Also this week we did a lot of
service, we pruned a lady's bushes and cut down some trees, I used a
chainsaw for my first time, and boy did it feel good. We also moved 5
fridges from one house to another, and then we helped one member moved
furniture around in his house. Oh and I forgot to say, this past week
we were on bikes the whole time and it was hot outside, temps in the
mid 80s. We did get into a lot of members homes this week, a lot
decided to start feeding us and getting involved with missionary work.
Oh so yesterday during sacrament there was a return missionary that
served in Las Vegas that spoke and he said that his entire mission he
only knocked doors for a total of 5 hours, pretty much all their
investigators came from members, hmm. Imagine that, that would be
pretty nice, but I do love it here. So probably the best but yet most
frustrating day this entire week was yesterday, it started off good
with church, and wow, there was lots of people there, more than usual.
Then afterward we saw one of our investigators, Darrell and had a
powerful lesson with him, set a baptism date with him for April the
11th, and our ward mission leader wants to get involved with him and
have him over to their place for dinner or something. But shortly
following that, I broke my bike, I was riding into a driveway and
there was a small little dip before, nothing bad at all but this time
when I went over it, I heard a loud crack. I stopped and looked back
and my whole chain gear thing and just snapped off the frame of the
back, there is a member that might be able to weld it back together
but if not I will just borrow another missionaries bike for these last
few weeks when I have to bike. So the after that we walked for 2 hours
knocking on doors and no one was interested, had a few doors slammed
in our face but the day was still a good day. So will my mission
coming to an end soon, I have set a few goals for the rest of it, one
is to finish the New Testament for the first time, I only have 30
pages left. Another is to finish the Book of Mormon again, I have to
read about 7 pages a day to do that one. Another one is to lose 10
pounds, another is to have 1 final baptism and 2 reactivations. So
this should be a good last months. I hope all is going well with
y'all, love ya and miss ya.

Final 6 Weeks

Mar 3, 2015

Final 6 weeks

Who would have thought the time would have gone by this fast. I am now on my last transfer. I have been released as a district leader and am staying in my area here. Elder Riley is getting transfered up to Georgia and my new companion will be elder Witzel, I've served around him before, and he seems to be a pretty interesting person, says some of the randomest things, we shall see how it goes. Now for what we did this weeks, well most of it included service, service for investigators and members alike, lots of people seem to be moving lately, we seem to be getting pretty good at packing trucks. One move took all day and we had 6 elders helping it, the guy pretty much had his own antique shop, with some of the heaviest things, but we managed. Then with another move, all 6 elders got together and helped a man moved from recent city to palatial, and let's just say he is a pack rat, he had so so so much stuff. Then today we helped with another move again, they are just working us like pack mules. Also this week it was our ward mission leaders birthday and on the same day we had our missionary correlation meeting, so elder Riley and I got the bright idea to make him a cake, let's just say it didn't turn out the greatest, not bad but just not the best, we didn't have shortening for the pans, so we sprayed it with Pam like crazy, and we think that's what made the cake so rubbery, but the best part was the 69 candles that we puts on top, and boy did it burn once we lit it, left a layer of wax across the top of the cake, but everyone ate it. As for our teaching this week, it was pretty good, we have a couple ladies that we teach, one only believes in part of the bible which makes for interesting lessons. Another one of our investigators Kenny has been reading the book of Mormon and is loving it, he's been coming across elders every where he goes and talks with them each time, tell them how much he loves the book. I've personally made a goal to finish the Book of Mormon by the end of my mission, im on Alma 29, so that means I have to read like 6 pages a day to finish and I'm also trying to finish the New Testament as well, and that is only going to be like 2 pages a day. I have to say that I am learning quite a bit in the New Testament, at first I thought it would be a hard read but now I love it. Well I do have to say things are great and I am loving the work here.

Palatka, Did you know?

Palatka, Florida

 

Did You Know!!!!

**Palatka sits on a bend in the St. Johns River, Northeast Florida.  About  50 miles south of  Jacksonville. Potato, cabbage, fern and blueberry farms surround the town of 10,000, where the main industry is the Georgia-Pacific paper mill.

**During the 1850s, Palatka gained a reputation as a haven for invalids escaping northern winters.  Amusements included "sailing, fishing, rowing, walking, riding in buggy and on horseback, whist, enchre, backgammon and hunting."

 

**Has a humid subtropical climate, with mild weather during winters and hot weather during summers. High temperatures average 64 to 91 °F.  It is common for daily thunderstorms to erupt during a standard summer afternoon.  Rainfall averages around 50 inches a year.

**Festivals

-------Ravine Gardens State Park – home of the Florida Azalea Festival, in March.

-------Palatka has the Blue Crab Festival which kicks off every year during Memorial Day Weekend. 

**Rice Creek Conservation Area:  rice plantation during the 18th century. 
1780s, British loyalists Thomas Forbes and William Panton fled from the American Revolution in Georgia to Florida, then a British colony. Applying for a land grant, they received acreage west of modern-day Palatka. Using servants to ditch dikes and build drainage canals, they established fields of rice and indigo (a native plant from which dyes are extracted) and tapped pine trees for naval stores such as turpentine. Eventually, the area was abandoned and returned to forest.  The site has a variety of natural communities, including floodplain swamp, flatwoods, dome swamp, floodplain forest and upland mixed forest. 

Cypress trees grow to incredible sizes. Just off the trail is the 

7th largest cypress in Florida.

 Palatka is known as a City of Murals

"Battle of Horse Landing"

"Mug Race"  (mom loves the sailboats)

Angel's Diner

Florida's Oldest Diner, in Palatka
"Jeremy have you eaten here?"