Sister Ormsby's Opus....: Downtown Tampa & her first Alligator! 2/24/2014

This week has been pretty crazy long!!

Our P-day got cut pretty short on Monday, so we could head up to Metro (Downtown Tampa)!

Our car was still in the shop so we were able to get a ride up with some other sisters that are serving just south of us... they just so happened to be Sister U. and Sister C! (both of our MTC companions are now companions! :D)

And we got to spend 3 days with them!!!! It was sooooo cool!!!!!!!! :)

Anyways, we arrived in the afternoon, and we were given a large stack of mormon.org cards, a few pamphlets, and a schedule/walking instructions (it was totally like the MTC..haha)

So we were sent out into the wild, and were told not to come back until 9pm! It was a lot of fun walking! Sister L. and I made a plan to take turns talking to everyone! That way we were accountable! It worked out well, and it was a lot easier than we thought to hand out the cards and talk to people! On our way downtown we met Juan! He is an awesome guy from Tampa, I was able to tell him about the website, and ask if he believed in Christ. We got to have a good discussion and I bore testimony of Christ's church, and strengthening my relationship with Him. And he told us he wanted to learn more! :D We got his information and gave it to the missionaries in his area :) It was pretty cool and basically fantastic!

We got lost, of course, in downtown- mostly because we were to stubborn to take our map out.. we didn't want to look all tourist-y! haha, so when we got to a certain road were supposed to turn left, but we went right... taking us into a part of town where there weren't people! haha, (don't worry mum, they told us not to talk to the homeless people, and they gave us pepper spray.. plus! we are protected! ;)

But we got to meet a lot of people! And basically it was super good for me!

We had a lot of great experiences and handed out about 35 cards in just 3 hours! I'm probably repeating myself, but I just want to emphasize how easy it was for me to talk to everyone! It is sooooo hard to do in our area, when I make so many excuses, but in metro I had just decided to talk to everyone I could- and it was super easy too!!!!! :)

Tuesday was the longest day of my life! but somehow the shortest too! hahaha, just like everyday out here, I suppose :)

We worked out in the fancy gym in their apartments! And then I had a good study, and wrote daddy a long email on my ipad.. he'll get it soon, I had to wait to send it until today but its on its way! We did a big companionship study with all 8 of the sisters that were staying together and it was really great! We did role plays of how to approach people and invite really quickly! It helped a lot, because Sister L. and I were assigned to be on the bus that day! We were kind of freaking out because that is suuuuppppppeeeeerrrrrrr awkward if they aren't interested and we have to sit next to each other for the rest of the trip!! you know?! But we practiced how we wanted to do it!

Anyway, we didn't know how to catch the bus... so that took a few hours of wondering from bus stop to bus stop.. lol. That's also when we got the call from the elders that Brother H. (Their ward mission leader) had a heart attack and was in a medically induced coma... We prayed a lot! I'm so glad for technology so that you could all find out too!

They are in AZ with their daughters, and the latest information we have is that they were warming the body back up, and took his breathing tubes out, he remembered who his family was but couldn't remember dates. Apparently he was having trouble breathing on his own so he was put back on the ventilator, as of Saturday night. That's all we know right now.. not super comforting! :( but keep the family all in your prayers!

Okay- so the bus ended up being a whole lot of fun!!!!! Sister L. and I would split up- one would take the front and one would take the back! We handed out cards to the entire bus 2 different times! And we had so many cool experiences! We got to teach basically the whole first lesson

to different people throughout the day!

Really quick cool thing that happened- we were getting closer to our stop at the bus terminal, and I kept looking back at a lady with her baby girl by the back exit. I kept thinking I needed to give her a card! But I made some excuse in my head, and our stop came and we hurried off the bus.. well, I looked back and the bus driver got off too, and I just knew I needed to go back! So I told Sister L., "I have to give this lady a card, I'll be right back!" I ran back on the bus and invited her to church and asked her if she would check out the website, she was really nice and seemed really grateful that I invited her! I told her to have a nice day and started to turn away, when a man at the back of the bus stood up and asked if he could have a card! I said "Sure!!" So I ran back there and started telling him about the website when the lady behind him just put out her hand to receive one! Then the people across from her wanted one and eventually I had give a card to everyone!! Because they all asked for one!!! :D It was sooooo coool!!! Sister L. followed me onto the bus, and while I was at the back- someone told her "I didn't get one!" so she shared the cards too! I stood there and told all of them about church and the website and it was pretty much amazing!! :)

Anyways, so many more wonderful things happened! and I was soo glad I learned to listen to the Spirit's promptings!

Sooooo,, our second day in metro- we handed out 154 cards!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

Wednesday came and we were exhausted! but I really loved the things I learnt! Now, it is soooooooooooo much easier to talk to someone in our area!

Wow! So that took up a lot of my time! But the rest of my week was great too!!

We taught Victoria and Lynn a great lesson on Saturday... and drum roll please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I SAW AN ALLIGATOR!! It was so awesome! That's what some of the pics are of! :)

And we had a really great fundraiser for the YW on Saturday night that our investigators came too! It was a blast!

Okay!!

I love you lots and lots!

Do you have any pics for me this week!?!??!?!

SEE YOU IN A WEEK!

Sister Ormsby

xxx

ps- got the wax pot when I came back from metro! THANKS!!! It is awesome! :D

pps- thanks for the skirt too!!! i lurve itt!!!

ppps- the beehives mailed me Book of Mormons that they wrote their testimonies in! So I can hand them out! how cute is that?!?! :)

Sister Ormsby in Tampa!