Hello... Again!

Hello Friends! It has been a while. I apologize for the lack of updates and posts. We have been busy with some great things. First- the Circuit Assembly. I am sure you all enjoyed it as much as we did. The information was amazing and so enjoyable to sit and listen to :). Also, we have been enjoying the bible studies we have received. So far we have enjoyed getting great calls with people out in the field service. Riley's study has progressed so much, and is trying her best to get to her first meeting! Isn't that awesome. We are exciting for her to hopefully get to her first meeting soon. We also study with a family who is also enjoying their study and are progressing very well. This family has four kids and they a such a lovely family! I will hopefully be getting to capture some more photos to post. As of right now, I don't have any :( But, when I do I will be sure to share them with you as soon as I can.

One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach; one can collect only a few, and they are more beautiful if they are few. Anne Morrow Lindbergh

We went to the ocean today! Alligator Point (the beach closest to us) was BEAUTIFUL! The water was so clear! It was amazing. All the shells had gotten pushed up to the shore and we found some really pretty shells. But the most amazing thing we found was what was in the water....

Are you wondering what these are?..  They are sand dollars! Believe it or not.. these sand dollars are alive! We all walked out into the ocean pretty far out there. I picked up some sand, and I thought I felt something like a shell in my hand. It was a sand dollar! Ends up we were standing on a bed of sand dollars. We picked up a total of 33 sand dollars (that was just grabbing a few considering how many we really saw) It was the most amazing experience! We set all the shells out on the wet sand and  came  back to them later and they had partially buried themselves, trying to get back to the water. 

This picture is a little blurry! This is the back side of the sand dollar. Those are its little legs! So amazing:)

 

No.. we didn't keep all of them:( we just picked out a few that we liked, then let the others go back to the ocean! I have never seen anything like that before. It was so awesome! 

Tell us what you think!

Exploring the Springs

 This weekend we had tons of fun! We had some guests come down and visit us from Kentucky & we got to take them to the Spring in our county. We had a blast. First we started our journey with a boat ride, where we spotted lots of wild birds, alligators, turtles, and even manatees!

Manatees are most closely related to a elephant. They are such an interesting animal. Can you spot the manatee? :-)

This was such a cute little family of turtles. Your going to have to look really close at all these pictures!

Don't forget the 'gators! See him in the picture above?


After having a fun experience on the boat ride. We hit the water. It is super cold. It average around 66-71 degrees year round.. Brrrrr. Right? Didn't scare us off!

We had such a blast with our company. We can't wait to do it again!

Interesting Experiences...

We wanted to share some of our experiences in the new territory to everyone. We have had a good response to far. We are slowly trying to rebuild our call books, which might take a while! But that's okay, we are so ready!
I will start by telling you are early morning witnessing experience. It was pretty interesting. We have a small group that meets in the morning at 7:30 to hit the gas stations and local grocery stores. We were at a gas stop & one of the younger brother gets out of the car & head towards a man that is getting gas, he caught him right before he went into the store. He placed one Awake with him. As he talked to him for a minute he said that his ex-wife & mother-in-law were both a witness.
Meanwhile, my dad catches a man leaning against his car. He brought 3 or so magazines with him & said whichever one he finds interesting he can take. He took all three of them! We were sitting in the car & the man that the younger brother came up to our car door, my dad rolled down his window. The man says "Hey, you gave that man three magazines and a Watchtower! How come I didn't get one?" My dad asked him if he would like a copy of the Watchtower & he said he would love one. While we talked to him, he said that he studied with a brother once in the Crawfordville Kingdom Hall. We left him an invitation to the meeting &  said that if he would like to resume his study we would love to help him!
It was such an encouraging experience. We definitely saw how Jehovah's holy spirit was in our car group!

Here is our second experience. This will be interesting. When we first got here, we went into a neighborhood by the ocean. As you enter you will read a sign that says 'Aircraft Have Right Of Way'.

Neighborhood Entrance

At first I thought they were joking. Nope! As you go in you see that almost all the houses have hangers for their planes & there is a take off lane for the planes. It was my turn to go to the door, I snagged Riley to go with me. The woman was outside and immediately approached us. She was very friendly. I got through half of my presentation, then she said "I am so sorry, Just one second could I interrupt? My husband is about to land his plane!" I said "Of course!" Then her husband comes in with his plane and lands it right in their back yard! I thought- how cool is that! So I continued with my presentation. Then for a second time she said "Could I interrupt again?" Next thing we know her husband is flying his plane from out of their backyard! We got to watch him  up close. I got to share a scripture or two with her and offered the magazines on Religion and Politics, she seemed to be interested! I can't wait to go back to here and offer her the new magazines!

Trying new things.....

This Thursday we enjoyed some time at the beach. It was a beautiful day! The sun was shinning & the water was pretty warm, but refreshing. Since the water was warm we decided we would try something new...... PADDLE BOARDING! One of the brothers in our hall told us about a place that rented out paddle boards. So Thursday morning we packed up the truck and headed to St. George Island- One of the beaches we hadn't yet been to.

If you don't know what paddle boarding is, here is a simple explanation: A paddle board is just like a beginners surfboard, it is 11 feet tall, you rent that board with a paddle. So when you get out to deep enough water you stand up on the board and paddle you way around the ocean.

It was such a blast. We loved it- accept for when the waves took you down (although I have to say it was entertaining to watch them go down.)

Dad on the paddle board standing up!

We had to swim out a little ways. Which got kind of un-nerving when you had nothing to float on. Sometimes you could get back in to shore a little quicker by catching a wave.

Riley

Jaira

All of us got to get up on the board. It was so amazing to see Jehovah's creations.... So glad we got to share some pictures of our adventure with you. 

The Beginning!....

Here we are one day from moving to Florida. It seemed like it would never take place with all the things we have had to do in this last month. But before we got were we are today, we had many things that happened before this day here is our story.

 It all started when we wrote the branch to ask if there were any congregations in need in the panhandle of Florida. To our surprise 6 congregations needed help. After we got our letter we decided if we wanted to move there we would have to spend some time in those congregations to see what one needed our help. So we went down there for a month to see what these congregations were like and which one would fit our family the best. So we spend a whole month visiting many congregations. So one of the third congregations we looked at is Crawfordville Florida. That is right next to Tallahassee, about 15 minutes. We felt that this congregation needed us because there is only one pioneer and the elder body is older so we felt that this congregation really needs our support and many other people too! And this would fit us the best for work being that we would live next to Tallahassee.

We are so excited to start exploring the new area & seeing what is around and getting to know new friends! So there is the story! Check up on our blog to see what going on in Florida.