We are products of our decisions!
It all started with a simple phone call with an offer to donate some surplus furniture from home located in Port St. John Florida.
What we received far exceeded our expectations.
A couch, a love seat, a dining room table and six chairs, a twin bed with dresser and matching head board, a study chair, two lamps and an organ! Our minds were working overtime on the number of apartments this generous gift would benefit.
Our benefactor, Patty Lagle, her Sister in Law and Elder Oaks and Elder Bailey,
currently assigned to the Cocoa area.
After an offer was made to many of our Senior Missionaries regarding the availability of the beautiful Port St. John furniture and sadly there were no takers, it was then decided that our own kitchen table and chairs would make a perfect addition to some well deserving young missionary apartments.
So we switched out our old table and made ready for our new kitchen table!
Their lease was up and it was time to move the Oviedo East Elders to a new home.
So they said good bye to their old and very worn desks...
Packed up their things and moved across the street to a brand new apartment complex
Before the move
After the move
Elders Anderson and Elder King very happy in their new home.
Elder Dalmas and Elder Herrin, currently assigned to the University Park West area, are two of our "Wall of Fame" Inspection Heroes!
They live in a very tired, very old apartment that many before them had thrown up their hands in surrender at the thought of every cleaning it and making it a nice place to live. Well these two Elders took on the challenge and transformed their sad, worn apartment into something to be proud of! I almost hate to tell them that they will be moving into a new apartment soon after transfers if they happen to still be here.
The hard part following quarterly housing inspections is not how clean we hope they keep them, but rather how are we going to improve on their current living conditions.
We feel a little like Robin Hood, taking from some to give to others, sometimes.
When furniture is determined to be too worn to reassign and too bad for Good Will to accept we resort to a little martial arts to help it fit in the dumpster to be hauled away.
One of our recent donations (From Port St. John) was a beautiful couch with recliners at both ends. Not exactly a good fit for our young missionaries. Since we knew that none of our Senior Missionaries would ever complain about what they currently had we were required once again to make the tough decisions. Because we had actually set up most of the Senior Missionary apartments we knew exactly what each one had and did not have. So the decision was easy. Elder and Sister Johnson, in the Lake Mary area, had a couch that could be put to better use elsewhere, so we would be switching their old couch for a much better one.
The Lake Ream's Sisters had a wobbly love seat that needed replacing.
Lake Reams Sisters Wells, Harthun and Eagar enjoying their new couch thanks to Elder and Sister Spencer who agreed to switch to another more accommodating couch.
Elder Gooch and Oglesby, assigned to the Metro West Portuguese area, helping us load up their surplus bookcase as we prepare to deliver it to the Windy Ridge Sisters who desperately needed it.
The ocean water was 74 degrees, who could resist?
We took the opportunity to watch an incredible sunrise
Friday, October 17, 2014 at 7:30 am on Cocoa Beach
Friday was moving day for Elder and Sister Hansen
After we were all packed up and ready to hit the road the Hansen's said a final farewell to their great apartment manager, "Beau" and gave him back the keys to their home away from home for the past 12 months.
Good bye Titusville, hello Palm Bay!
Sister Hansen supervising the move into her new apartment
How many cooks are too many in the kitchen?
Just the beginning...
Many hands make light work!
Sister and Elder Hansen in their new home
On our way home from Palm Bay we delivered a new dresser (the Hansen's old dresser)
to ecstatic Sisters Stratman and Ransom in Melbourne.
Long story short, we also switched out beds during the Hansen's move. As a result Hunter's Creeks Zone Elders Stewart, Martinez, Bagshaw and Crismon volunteered to help us deliver the Hansen's old queen sized bed to the Nielson's apartment on the third floor.
Look familiar?
On Saturday a small group of our Senior Missionary District decided to take (yes another)trip on the Winter Park Boat tour. All work and no play makes Senior Missionaries (us) tired and cranky. The scenic boat tour is located on Lake Osceola, less than 10 minutes from downtown Orlando and a rocks throw from the fabulous Winter Park Farmer's Market. The boat tour was established in 1938 and offers an hour-long guided cruise through three of seven lakes in the area and two narrow man made canals. The tour takes you behind the scenes into the opulent backyards of multi million dollar mansions, the private liberal arts Rollins College, and of course there are plenty of towering cypress covered in Spanish moss,(not really a moss and not really Spanish or so we were told) lush ferns and beautiful hyacinths. So if the houses didn't amaze you the trees and foliage will.
In closing we can't say it often enough,
we absolutely love serving the Lord and hastening His work
as missionaries in the Florida Orlando Mission!
Yet sadly we continue to be told that there are over 400 Senior Missionary positions still yet to be filled, and that we will probably not receive replacements for our positions. Can you imagine how heart breaking that is? We are working so hard to make a difference only to discover that there will be no one to pass the ball to when we leave. If you happen to be reading this and are actually on the fence about whether to serve a mission or not-please come! We recently prepared a document with pictures and personal experiences of many of our own senior missionaries that will answer many of the questions you might have. Just Facebook us and we will send it to you!
Don't forget-"Decisions Determine Destiny!"
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