Tropical Storm

Elder Levacy-Sabin trying to convince me to touch the fish. It didn't work.




You had a football in your tummy mom? No wonder you couldn't loose that last bit of "fat" you just had a football tucked away in there. Will wonders never cease? (Mom here - I had a fibroid growing and had a total hysterectomy).

Well ya all didn't give me much to comment on so I guess I'll just tell you about my week.

Monday we went fishing out by a pier. The Elders told us to get cigar minnows - they bought hooks that were too big and we caught nothing. This fish just devoured the sides of the bait and left the hook alone. I was very bored and was repulsed by the ever present smell of fishy badness. I brought my cross stitch with me and mostly did that.

Tuesday we had District Meeting. A couple in the ward took us out to lunch it was a buffet and we ate way too much. Ugh! But we had no time to sleep it off we had lessons to teach. The rest of the day was spent running to appointments and making sure that members were going to be there too.

Wed we visited with less actives and had several lessons with investigators, we taught Laura the Word of Wisdom, then at 8 had a lesson with a less active. We went in planning to teach tithing but it felt very wrong so we did peace and hope instead. It was the first time I think he actually listened to what we had to say.

Thursday we planned then Sister Hall was sick so we stayed in. I don't remember what I did so I'm betting I slept too.

Friday we had service at the Library and spent the day going way out to the edge of our area to visit less active members. Our miles for the month are shot. But we got several good visits in.

Saturday we had 3 lessons back to back. We met with Miss Betty - her husband was there and was very hostile at first but calmed down and really started talking to us after a bit. We're meeting with him on Wed. We had Ashley (a male) come with us to Miss Laura's to give her a blessing to help her over come her addictions. Then we invited her to be baptized. She agreed! Her date is set for the 29th. The day after dad's b-day. We tracted after that.

Sunday we went to Northstar Church. It's a non-denominational church out here. We went with a part member family Jack and Andrea Beaudette. We have a great rapport with them and going with them really helped soften Jacks heart. It was a good experience. And the teachings were so close to Mormon doctrine it was almost frustrating. I was sitting there going, "Yes that's true! Let me add to that truth!" They have the basics but they could have so much more. We'll keep trucking on.

Sister Hall has been planning a fireside since we got here and it was supposed to be last night but we had a tropical storm pass through and it got canceled. It wasn't nearly as bad as people expected it to be. The one that I saw in Tallahassee last year was considerably worse. Ah well. Well you now are officially caught up on my week. I hope all is well with you and that recovery to all parties is on the horizon. I love you and pray for you often!

Kelli

Another Week Flies By

Hey family!

This is going to be a very short letter. The Libray we usually go to is closed and we only get half an hour at the place we are at today. We had a good week - we worked hard, met all but one of our goals, and had good stuff happen.

I got to go to Priesthood on Sunday. We have fun size bags of M & M's for Missonary Moments and I hucked 'em at the men who shared the gospel with someone this week. It was weird sitting in there waiting for my turn to speak and being the only female in there knowing that I really don't belong - it was odd.

Um...I'm flustered the clock is blinking 11 min at me Ugh. OK I give up - I'm good, happy, and safe. I love you and keep wondering why you insist on doing huge medical procedures without me there to help. Ya bums! Ok love you! Bye.

Kelli

Hey All

You are right - it is an absolute bummer that I can't renew my CNA because I did private care not with an agency or Nursing Home. Oh well it will work out as it's supposed to in the end. The front door looks amazing. My question is, what color is the garage door? I think I know the answer but who knows - miracles happen everyday.

Good luck getting ready for school TM and enjoy getting back to the grind stone dad. You still have 2 weeks of boredom ahead of you.

We had a fantastic week. We managed to meet all of our goals which is no small miracle. We have four progressing investigators - three of which are Golden - one I think is turning into an eternal investigator - we'll see what happens. Not much of this week stands out - we tracted lots, did service, rode our bikes and I discovered that having a car has made me lazy. We will be riding more often now 'cause I didn't like how hard that ride was.

Oh! One of the service things we did was help a member who's dad had come to visit and had felled a bunch of trees leaving the mess behind for them to clean up. Sound familiar to anyone? I just laughed the whole time - I felt like I was home again.

The investigator I told you about last week, Shiela, we had a three hour lesson with her on Wednesday - it was intense. We covered most of the hard stuff - unfortunately she will be out of town for two weeks. She is one of the most prepared people I've ever met. We are going to begin teaching a girl named Alissa - she is dating a member and is hilarious - I'm looking forward to it.

We did a 24 hour fast as a mission I got dehydrated and plummeted into a hypoglycemic low. We started at 12 on Saturday and were supposed to end at 12 on Sunday - but we didn't get out of church till 2:30. We tracked almost all day Saturday - after 5 hours I decided that water was going to be allowed in my fast so I didn't kill myself. Sunday - after all we had to do was done - it was about 6 p.m. before we were able to eat. I had enough but to keep Sis Hall from going mad with boredom we went to the church and she practiced casting with a fishing rod a member gave her I laid on the stage - it was enjoyable.

Oh and Rass was just made AP. I'm so proud of my little brother! Go him. Ok - that's it for me.

Peace and love.

Kelli

Great Week!

We had a great week - we are finally into a groove that works for us. We're working well together and seeing many miracles. None of which are particularly amazing unless you are living our day to day life with us. I don't have much to report - Saturday the Stake had a big Activity in Bristol and we went with an investigator and ended up doing Karaoke. Both songs we tried were way too low for me and I was the bad voice in the group - it was embarassingly fun.

We "Heart Attacked" the Elders and Karen - one of our investigators. As a "Thank You" the Elders then bought glow sticks and we went to the church parking lot, cut them open and danced to Prince of Egypt - good times were had by all. An investigators boyfriend left her and took all her money with him, but she is still reading her Book of Mormon and came to an activity and to church. Now we don't have to get her married before we can baptize her so our job just got a little easier.

Sunday we had a wonderful surprise, a woman walked in, she's been studying the church on her own for quite some time (there is a boy involved) and she showed up at church on Sunday ready and willing to learn. Unfortunately she is not in our area so we'll meet with her this week and then we have to pass her to the Elders. But she is a single woman and she is only a mile out of our area so maybe we can keep her - we'll see what happens.

Dad, I will definitely pray for your vision to return to normal, yours and TM's are the only one in the family with naturally good eyes. But I'm not gonna lie, I really like the way you look in glasses.

Things with Sister Hall are going really well. Anyway that's my week. I'll talk to you later.

Love you!

Kelli

Onward and Upward

Our re-model of the bathroom
After Paint Ball
Before Paint Ball


Happy Birthday Grandma and Neil! I love you both!

All is well - I might change my motto from "It's All Good" to "All Is Well." I just had a very relaxing day on the bay - one of the members from the Panama City Ward is a caterer for a living - she had a bunch of left overs from a shin-dig that she did this weekend and gave us the extras. We had a picnic and threw water balloons. I am coming to find that the sound of the waves hitting the sand in a constant motion is soothing to one's soul - plus walking barefoot in the sand is better than getting a pedicure.

Reading your description of the house and all the extension cords brightened my day considerably. We are currently having a roach problem - a huge colony of them just hatched and we always keep the Raid handy. We had a brilliant companion inventory on Thursday. We noticed that there was a not small amount of roaches hanging out near the microwave. We noticed this as Sister Hall was cooking rice in the microwave for about 10 min. It was too hot in there for the Roaches to stay and several scurried out. We found two itty bitty ones in the clock on the microwave and couldn't get to them. I concluded that there must be more in there and we stuck a huge bowl full of water in the microwave and let it go for about 20 minutes. We each stood on the ready with a bottle of Raid in our hands screaming every time we saw one and then killing it with great flare and accuracy. We got around 15 roaches in that 20 minutes. The next day we found that some had hatched and there were little creepy crawlies all over the place. We killed around 40 then and put a Raid perimeter around the kitchen before going to bed. In the morning I swept up the dead ones that had thought they survived the day of mass killing but got caught in our traps that evening. There was one that was about 3 inches long EWWW! Anyway we are working really hard to keep the apartment really clean and making sure there is always Raid ready at hand. We found out from a member that Roaches love cardboard and we had a lot of it in our apartment - we threw it all away and are on our way to a Roach free zone. We may have to bomb the place one day - we'll see what happens. I totally blame the Elders for this - I'm just saying.

We were able to work really hard this week. We are starting to get into the groove of things and we are starting to feel confident-ish in how to do things here. Our numbers were OK - not great - but OK. But honestly I think this is the best week we've had here - the only place to go now is up.

The Winterton family (members here) are adopting a 2 year old boy who has no verbal communication as of yet and is missing an ear. They asked me to teach them some signs to help communicate with him. They will be getting him in about 2 weeks. He knows some signs but they are looking to teach him more. He's not really deaf just under developed making sign language a good launch board for him till he can master his verbal skills. I'm really excited - if you can't tell. Which reminds me - Thank you, thank you, thank you for renewing my CNA Certificate. I thought I'd have to take the test over and wait 3 weeks before I could get a job. Oh that takes a huge weight off my mind - you're wonderful - and so is Greg Wynn. Huzzah!

On Saturday the PCB Elders had a baptism with a girl I had worked with while I was on "The Beach". Sister Hall and I went - I saw a lot of people from the Branch out there - it was fun to walk down memory lane with them. Most of them asked me how much longer I had 'cause "You've been out forever!" Thank you - I know. Fifty-nine days to go - not that I'm counting or anything. One of the Elder told me how many weeks that was and freaked me out - it's coming way too soon. I don't know if I'm ready or if I've done all I need to - but I have 59 days to get it all done. Ready, set, go!

Congratulations on your increased mobility dad! Independence is just around the corner. I like your glasses you look very Clark Kent in them:)

Love ya'll!

Kelli

Paint Ball = Big Welt

Hey all. I'm glad to hear that your week was better. Thank you both for your letters of love and encouragement. I did get Nancy's classes letter. It was a delightful surprise.

I don't really know how to tell you about my week. I've done a huge emotional turn around in the last few days. I know when I was writing to you on Monday I sounded real down, that would be because I was. Well let me change that not down just not up? Let's go with I wasn't myself. I didn't really pull out of it till Friday. We had Zone Conference on Thursday - President gave me a blessing - a really sweet blessing but I don't remember a word of it. That's what happens when I don't write things down. After Zone Conference we really didn't have a moment to breath - we had three lessons back to back. We were very blessed in that all the lessons had a strong spirit present and it was good.

But I was still in my funk. Friday after lot's of prayer I was inspired with what to do. You should be getting it in the mail towards the end of the week. And I'm all better now. (Kelli sent me a recordable card with her voice saying "It's All Good". I told her I was in her room talking to Taylor and looking at the sign on her wall that says "It's All Good" and I wished she could call me and just say that on the answering machine. She also sent me an angel - It's a Willow Tree "Angel of Healing" - she really was inspired - it was just what I needed!)

Amber was baptized in Tally on Saturday. We had one of our investigators here in Lynn Haven at Church on Sunday. It's been a pleasant weekend.

Today we went paint balling out in the woods with a group of people. Most of whom I've never met but had a jolly good time. I'm also covered in welts presently - they are pretty impressive.

I realize this is a short letter. Sounds like things are on an upward trend for you all as well. Keep it up and I promise that next week I'll be more interesting.

Love you.

Kelli

Chat with Mom

I just read dad's email it sounds like you have been crazy busy. Are you near a computer and have a few minutes to chat?

Hey Kelli - I just sent you an email - are you still there?

Yep I just finished the big email. Fourty people over at our house? Dang. Is the kitchen construction done?

Pretty much - one door had to be remade and it isn't here yet and two hinges aren't working right yet - then it will be done! We even cleaned the whole downstairs - their is still more dusting to do on windows and blinds

Look at you super woman! How are you really?

Don't worry about me - I'm tough! I'm a Maloney!!! To quote you - "It's all good". Tell me about you!!! That's what I want to hear about!

Oy me. Um, yeah it's all good :) I am a better woman because of this experience. And while without the Lord's patient insistence I would have never dreamed of serving a mission, I'm glad I'm here. So that's how I am. I have high highs, and low lows. But my faith is always just strong enough to get me through.

My Jewish daughter! Oy to you too! You get to experience all that we do here so I guess it doesn't matter where you are we just do our best! Taylor's faith is unwavering and she reminds me constantly that the Lord gives us only what we can handle - so I guess I just keep handling it!

Dad said to tell you he loves you!!! How is your new companion? What is going on?

My new comp is fine. We barley know each other but we get along really well. She was trained by Sister Hartman so we have that to fall back on in order to relate to each other. It's kind of comforting knowing that the Lord wants me here and as long as I do His will to the best of my ability He will help me do whatever it is He sent me here to do. Tell Dad I love him too - and I love you three.

I eat my gluten free oatmeal you sent me for breakfast everyday and feel great. I didn't read the warning till too late though. Apparently you are suppose to slowly integrate it into your diet 'cause there is so much fiber in it. It took me by surprise at first but it's all good now.

I've got to get going we have a lot left to do today. Love you! Talk to you next week.