Goals, sickness and amazing blessings 5/19/2014

Thanks for the update! It is sooooo good to hear about the kiddies! I miss them all so much and cant believe how grown up they are!! It will be so nice to babysit and snuggle them in what, a week? :P

Well, Sister J. actually has one week left! Can you believe it? She can't either! haha, but we are pushing through strong! She is so determined to work hard until the bitter end, it is awesome!

This week we resolved to have the best week of our missions.22 lessons, 10 new investigators, 4 baptismal date sets, game night, a better tan, movie marathons, and priesthood miracles. I'd say we just about got there!!!!!!!! :)

Monday night we had an awesome FHE with a few less-actives. One is our neighbor and she is so sweet, she has committed to us teaching her the lessons and when we brought her a mothers day treat she invited us over for Monday night.  We ate delicious chicken and I dyed her hair (Sister L. would be so proud).  We played a game called story cubes. It has 9 dice with random pictures on them and you have to roll them and tell a story using every picture. It was fun! We asked if we could teach a lesson with them, so Sister J. rolled the dice and we were both praying sooooo hard! haha.  AMAZING Dice came up, and we got to teach the plan of salvation!! It was sooooo meant to be and really cool. I rolled later and taught the gospel of Jesus Christ, with some help from another less active that was there! It was really cool! :)

Tuesday we had a GREAT lesson with Quinton! He hadn't been reading or praying :( and everything had gotten a lot harder for him. [I have a testimony that everything is harder without Jesus Christ, not because it gets easier with Him, but because we get stronger with Him.]  We were able to testify of that to him, and Christian came which was awesome.  He could really feel the spirit and that is what made the difference and made him excited to feel the same joy he felt with us, when he was struggling. That lasting and true joy only comes through Jesus Christ, prayer and scripture study- which Quinton committed to! :)
Wednesday Sister Jenkins and I gave a training in District Meeting on Baptism Invites. We have a district goal for baptisms this month which means we are all gonna have to work a lot harder and pray to find those ready for the blessings God has in store.  I now (this will sound silly because it is something I wish I would have done for the last 9+ months..) testify of the specific blessings I have because I was baptized and have the gift of the Holy Ghost and testify that those blessings are something I WANT for them to have and then we invite!
It is soooooo amazing! sometimes a first lesson with a baptism invite tacked on the end seems so insincere.. BUT when you know something and share it- the Spirit is able to rush in and touch hearts already prepared.  It is basically my favorite thing ever to talk about why I am eternally grateful that I was baptized, by my big brother who holds God's authority, the same power that Christ was baptized with.  And with that power my faithful father laid his hands on my head and gave me the gift of the Spirit as a constant companion.  Because of these precious covenants I have made, I KNOW what it is to be joyful. Not just happy, but full of my Heavenly Father's perfect love and pure joy.

Thursday night we taught another lesson to Brother R and his family and it was kind of a tough day, but I was praying for the spirit and the courage to invite boldy. I was able to testify very boldly of the sacrament and why it is so important to come to church, again relating the blessings I have because of the cleansing power of the sacrament that I need every week!
Friday another super lesson with Quinton- he committed to living the word of wisdom, and is looking forward to his baptism on May 25th!
Saturday I was feeling a little sick so I rested for a bit in the afternoon, but after a nap I felt well enough to visit some people! We had a great lesson with another less-active Delia. She is so sweet and she was able to open up to us about her concerns with coming to church. There is such a power from testifying- when the Spirit is what testifies! She came to church!!!

Here is the sad news! but don't let it get you down, it has a happy ending.
I was throwing up all Saturday night! Everything hurt and I couldn't really sleep, but my sweet nurse J. looked after me. We moved the couch and laid on there with blankets and watched 'The Testaments' in ASL(the only language available.. lucky she could translate) at 2 in the morning. When it finished, it began to play in English... classic. After round two, we watched 'Finding Faith in Christ' and basically broke everything up with more throwing up and erratic naps.
Sunday morning broke and I still was in pretty bad shape. I was pretty bummed because Sunday Christian was going to ordain Phillip into the priesthood and they were going to bless the sacrament together! Best thing ever, right?!?!
Well, turns out I could barely make it to the kitchen, wasn't gonna make it to church. Sister J. was ever patient and kind. Serving me so sweetly! She organized so much for our expected investigators at church. The Elders Quorum President asked if I would like a blessing, and when they came- so did Phillip!  Three men came, and gave us the sacrament!  Phillip even blessed it!  It was sooooo amazing!!!!!  I felt so blessed, then another brother gave me a beautiful blessing.  After that I was able to rest a lot! oh, and we watched 'Legacy' haha
Long story short, Sister J. was able to go on splits with our sister training leaders so we could teach some more lessons and I finished the movie marathon off with Hermana R. as we watched 'Mountain of the Lord'. 
I got a bad fever last night, but slept most of the night through! I was very dehydrated, so I have just been taking it easy.
SO MANY BLESSINGS :)
I love you all soooooo much!See you in a week,
Sister Ormsby

Story Cubes - plan of salvation edition

Dying hair adventures

  

Squirrel.....

Teagan being incredibly adorable

 

Florida rain storms

Has this every happened to you when you try to peel a banana?

We wanna be friends with this guy!

We went to a member's soccer game Saturday morning

Fancy stuffed scallops

Nurse J's sneaky picture of her patient

A few awesome bites! 5/12/2014

Yes, It's true. This week I had my 9 month mark! 

I am officially half-way, but we don't need to talk about it
 because I might freak out..

MOTHER! I LOVE YOU!

It is sooo good to hear that your Mothers Day was lovely! I am glad Nate and Jenn took care of you! :)HOLY COW! Carter is the cutest thing of MA LYF! I can't handle how huge he is! But it made me INCREDIBLY happy that he wanted to keep chatting with me!! :) :)The skype time seriously disappeared though! I feel like we didn't even talk about anything! hahaha

This week has been quite wondrous and has flown by!!!!!!!!Here are some of the few awesome bites!Georgine! We stopped by to see her this week and we came at the perfect time! She kept asking us how we knew when she needed us/the Spirit! We keep answering her prayers and it seems like every time her faith is fading, we show up! How cool is that?! 

I LOVE being the answer to someones prayer! I was able to testify of the Holy Ghost and so many other things. It was really great, she wants to be baptized and she knows that we are representing Jesus Christ! 

Other miracle!We had a super-spiritually high and powerful lesson with Brother R this week! [He is Tara's father.. I think I might have told you about her?  She is a super awesome RM that comes out with us and I love her dearly!]  ANYWAYS, he hasn't been active for a long time, and we had planned out this awesome lesson, but then the Spirit had an even MORE AWESOME lesson planned!  We talked a lot about how the gospel has blessed our families, and how we can strengthen our faith in Jesus Christ to gain even greater blessings. Whats even better... He came to Nina's Baptism! And to Church!! It was kind of a miracle and really amazing!!!!!!!!!

Victor! He is 17 and hasn't seemed really interested EXCEPT we taught him The Restoration! And when he read about the first vision he got a strong confirmation through the spirit which was sooo cool to see! He started getting more excited and listened more intently to our lesson. We took him a Book of Mormon the next day and it was so easy to feel his excitement! He wants to be baptized and he has gotten sooooo happy from the first time we met him!

I LOVE the way the spirit can change and touch lives! It is such a blessing in my life! I love this work!I love you all so much!See you in a week,Sister Ormsby

This was Saturday at Nina's baptism

Nina's family at the baptism

This was from last our zone p-day, i just forgot my camera last time. 

But! we got sweeeet Apollo Beach t-shirts! 

Pukana!

Sometimes I get scary..... 

with Elder and Sister Keyes at our combined district meeting this week

Ralph the Raccoon right next to our apartment door, the adventures never cease!

we are fancy cooks! this was bbq chicken with plantains!

5K Saturday morning with the Zone.

We volunteered because we had to back in Apollo Beach before the Baptism.

with Victoria

with Lynn

Short Email, but lots of Pictures! 5/5/2014

Our favorite corn in a cup from our favorite churro truck in Ruskin. This stuff is a staple!

This week has flown by like many before it! Here are some highlights!-We KEEP meeting people that are prepared for the gospel! I don't even do anything!! These people keep dropping from heaven and, yep, I love it.We met, prayed with, taught, and now have a baptismal date with Quinton! He is so awesomely prepared! He has been out of church for a while, but has a desire to follow the Lord. He is willing to make a change and he has really loved our messages! Keep him in your prayers! His date is set for May 24th(Sister J's last Saturday as a missionary.) -ALSO! We had an awesome lesson with Mary. She was a Seventh-day Adventist and she didn't quite understand the restoration while we taught. She says it is so confusing with all of the different religions and she doesn't know where the truth is. She wanted to know why it is important for her to know that Joseph Smith was a prophet. BUT THEN she gave a wonderfully pure and mind blowingly beautiful prayer asking for direction and to know that he was a prophet and that it is true! It was pretty fantastic! We are so excited! She has such a desire to follow the Lord too!!

My email time is like gone and that is messed up! I am so sorry! 

LOVE YOU!I WILL SEE YOU NEXT WEEK!Sister Ormsby

Look Mum! Look Dad! I WENT TO THE TEMPLE!!!!

We went to Sun City Center to play shuffleboard today because its awesome and random, and why not! Well... turns out you have to be a resident of Sun City to use any of the facilities!! You can't live in this town unless you are 55 or older... the lovely lady told us we couldn't use anything, but we were welcome to 'sit on the benches outside' and 'come back anytime!'

Last P.day we had a 'zone development day'.It was basically a big party and a lot of fun. We each had to do a talent.. Sister J. and I did a song in sign language and then the Haka.. it was pretty much awesome.

The Most Amazing Week... 3 baptisms! 4/28/2014

Most amazing week of MA LYF!!

We had a miracle this week because of obedience! Saturday was our biking day and we usually have to leave our area around 7:30 to get home by 9pm. Well, we got to talk to so many people that it was already past 7:30 when we realized we needed to head up to our apartment. But thank goodness for Sister J. If we pass someone without talking to them, she is racked with eternal torment. Even though we were running late, we stopped and talked to 2 men, we were able to answer some of their questions and give them pamphlets, it took a while but then we started for home. And we passed 3 Spanish men outside the laundry mat. We turned around and in our broken and simple Spanish, testified of Jesus Christ and invited them to church. They were really interested and will be in contact with the Spanish Missionaries. When we finally left to go, it was 8:30. We called the district leader to let him know we would be home late and finally left. And holy cow!! We got home at 9:15. A bike ride that always takes us 90 minutes took 45. And from my own personal strength I know that would not have been possible! Heavenly Father warped time and angels were pushing on my pedals to get us home on time. We really wanted to be obedient and get home on time.. and we really wanted to be obedient and talk to everyone. He blessed us for those desires and gave us a miracle!

EVERYONE IS PREPARED! We prayed so hard for our investigator Phillip's daughter, Heavenly, to be baptized the same time as her dad.. on Sunday. And her heart was touched by the Spirit! The Lord helped us do everything in time and it was a beautiful day! It is the most fulfilling joy I have ever felt to see families follow Christ together! I am thankful everyday that I get to share the importance and the sweet happiness that comes from baptism!! I have such a strong testimony of the redeeming power of baptism. Because of Christ, we don't need to stew in our sins, we can start new. Yesterday I was able to witness 3 of God's beloved children start new. I was able to start new with the sacrament. I LOVE THIS GOSPEL!

I can't stop thanking my Father in Heaven for this miracle and for the blessing it is to see! Phillip and Heavenly got baptized on Sunday!!  So, we were already planning on Phillip getting baptized on Sunday, but his 10 yr old daughter hadn't committed yet.  We knew that she needed to and had in a couple of weeks.  She decided the day before!
We had a lesson planned where we were going to get Phillip a baptismal suit, walk through the baptismal service, and then share about the why of baptism and the simple qualifications.  We started sizing Phillip for his suit and then all of a sudden Christian just casually mentioned that Heavenly was getting baptized the next day as well.  I was basically like, "WHAT?!!" :D
So we sized her up as well, walked through the service, and taught her A LOT in about an hour.  Our District Leader was able to make it down for an interview.  It was such an amazing miracle.
We knew they both needed to be baptized together on Sunday.  We had the faith that Heavenly Father would make it happen, we just weren't sure how.  They were baptized together and they were so happy!  Phillip said he felt "fantastic!"  Heavenly was beaming. They love each other so much and are so excited to work towards an eternal family.

Alexa was our third baptism!! Thursday night we got a call from Yolanda (her mum), she is a recent convert and hasnt been to church in a while.. but she wanted her daughter baptized on Sunday! We went over the next day and taught her all the lessons! It was crazy!! people are just handing it to us now! :)

See you in a week,

I love this work!

Sister Ormsby

Golfing Fun!

There was a squirrel on our bike rack!  I was so excited!

This picture is a little blurry... but there was this GIANT Bird of Paradise!

We had an ironing competition at district meeting and 
I beat Elder H(our zone leader)..it was awesome

Got your Easter package! THANK YOU!!

This bunny is the best!

This is Victoria and Lynn's father's birthday party.  Walter turned 98!!!!!!!

 Christian with Phillip and Heavenly

 Phillip and Heavenly, they were so happy!

 Sister J. and I with Phillip and Heavenly

Alexa and us!

Giant Brownie!  :)

Easter Joy & 7 baptisms! 4/21/2014

This week has been phenomenal! We have been soooooo blessed and I have again and again learnt that their is such a spiritual strength and power that comes from faith-filled prayer!!!

We set FOUR baptismal dates!  So now we have an incredible grand total of 7!  What?!?! 3 of them are going to be on Mothers Day!!! (that's May 11th, right?)

One of them was a former investigator! Bonita! I think I told you a bit about her before.. but if I didn't, she is awesome and she has been praying about what we have taught her. 

Another is Linda's daughter Brianna! She has such a bright spirit and she has a strong desire to change her life and be better!

And a part member family that we have been teaching! Sister I. hasn't been to church in a while, and she has 3 teenage girls. the youngest, Nina (10), hasn't been baptized and she wants too!!  She will be baptized on Mothers Day!  And she is sooooo sweet!  They are an awesome family and they came to church on Sunday!!!! :D

Chuck's step-son Dylan wants to be baptized too!  So that is the other one! Heavenly Father is preparing EVERYONE!  I feel like I just get to watch it happen!  It is pretty crazy!

Phillip is still super duper fantastic!  He is getting baptized next Sunday!!!!  His daughter Heavenly is really great!  We love them both soooo much!  They are so close to the spirit and the definition of prepared(GOLDEN)!  Phillip is reading the Book of Mormon faster than us!  He is already passed Mosiah! and he quit smoking without us telling him about the word of wisdom!   I think I told you that last week.. but maybe not.. anyways, he is on FIRE!  I can't wait for his baptism because he already has such an awesome light, once he gets the Holy Ghost he will be GLOWING! :D

Amazing things have happened this week!  And you will love this, I have been writing it down!!  I have been writing a sentence a day in my journal since dad asked me to.. haven't missed a day!  And there is the odd oober special day that has like 12 miracles that day that Sis. J and I will take turns writing out.

One thing I keep wishing, overwhelmingly... that I could speak Spanish!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ohh, the possibilities! :)

For now, I am satisfied with my basic 3 minute conversation I can hold and my Spanish-English missionary guide book Elder S. gave me before he left. 

OH! PS!  We have new Spanish sisters in the ward now!!!  So it is ALL SISTERS in Apollo Beach! :D

First off.. PRAYER IS POWERFUL.  We take it for granted.  It is a gift and a blessing to communicate with God.  If we ask, He will give.  A simple principle that stands firm through all tests and circumstances.

Sister J. and I went to a taco truck on Friday night for dinner.  We each had about 3 Finding Faith in Christ pass-along cards in Spanish and before we got out of the car we wrote the Spanish sisters phone number and the church address on each.  When we were ordering a Hispanic man and his little daughter were in line.  Her name is Ally, she was so sweet and she complemented out pretty dresses.  We told her we like her dress and she couldn't stop smiling.  When we got our food she hollered at us to come sit by her.  We sat across the table from them and her dad didn't know hardly any English.  We had some small chat and Roberto(the dad) eventually got up to leave.. Ally told us her house was a big blue one and he told us to come over tomorrow.  We asked him for an address but he couldn't tell us a number, we just made out the street name and that there would be a green truck. 

Not much to go off.. but I love the Spirit. We prayed hard that night to know which house to find them at. 

Saturday comes around and we are in the neighborhood so we drive around that street and count 16 blue houses.  Not a single one with a green truck.  Or even the red Honda we saw them driving to the taco truck.  We circled the street about 3 times.  I was praying the whole time, and nothing.  We were pretty close to knocking on each door! hahaha

But we had another appointment so we resigned to come back.  Later that night we were driving and Sis. J. missed the turn so we were going the long way to our lesson, on the street Ally and Roberto live, when a little girl on her bike darts out in front of us and we realize its Ally!!!  She was so happy to see us and she immediately pointed out her house to us and told us to go see her family!  MIRACLE! Right?!  We were on our way to a lesson so we promised to stop by later. 

Skip to later, because when we got there... It was Roberto's birthday party!  His whole family was there and they fed us some delicious rice and beans and chicken and corn!  Turns out Roberto's older daughter was taught by the missionaries before she moved to Fort Myers and she didn't know there was a chapel so close to where she was!  We gave her the information she wanted and we are going back there with the Spanish sisters next week!  I WISH I SPOKE SPANISH! hahahhahah, but holy cow, did the Lord answer our prayers!! :)

I love you soooo much! 

See you in a week!

Sister Ormsby

Abe needs the gospel too.

Sometimes we are children and get happy meals..

Sister J. and I realized this week that we are OJ!!!! :)

We had an Easter feast on Friday! 
(Gyros, hummus, grape leaves, dates, falafels and grape juice)

UNICORN TREE! 

We drove by and saw this tree so we had to stop for a quick pic!!

I FOUND IT. THIS. IS. AUSTRALIAN. CHESSE. It tasted like home!

Sister J. made AMAZING baklava for Easter! It was ohhhh sooooo tasty!

 Easter Basket from the Briones Family

Little Easter treat baggies we gave to our investigators with Candies that we related to Christ!

Easter treats!!