Hello
to everybody,
To
answer your questions about Tropical Storm Emily that came through here last
week, the storm wasn't too bad here but it was really wet. The storms to
watch out for are the ones where trees are flying everywhere and that didn't
happen.
Things
got much more exciting recently with the Uprichards. They had their
baptismal interviews last Satuday and they passed them! They now will be
baptized this Saturday, which will be their year mark for being
investigators. It's been a long road for them. The original
missionaries who found them are Elder Hudson and Elder Drumright. They
found Tiffany, the mom, while tracting and they taught her and Tony, the dad,
on August 12th, 2016. James will be getting baptized with them which is
cool. They do have a daughter that should be interested soon. A
bunch of people are getting baptized in the Brandon Zone too so that is
good. This Saturday should be emotional though as they are super ready
for it.
We
met President Addison on Saturday, President Cooper's first counselor of the
mission. He is really cool and enjoyed meeting with the
Upritchards. He was baptized something like twenty years ago. Besides
the Uprichards, we are working with the Ferrells. We went over last night
and they made us eat a cake that did not feel good. The more sugar I eat
the harder it is for me with my running. Hopefully next week I can get
back on track by buying more healthy food.
We
went to the temple this week with one of Elder Hawkes recent converts. It
was a really good day. Louis was his name and he was so happy through all
of it. The Orlando temple is beautiful. We got a ride with Brother
Powell and he basically told us how dark matter is spirit and tons of
confusing, unexplainable physics stuff. The most concerning thing about
the whole trip is how he was missing one of the lenses to his glasses and was
the driver. Louis was super excited afterwards and there was a bunch of
members from Davenport area there to support him. It's always good to go
to the temple and help those on the other side.
Jerry
is getting really weird lately. We went by and he started talking about
someone in the ward and he cannot talk that well so we didn't know what was
going on. What we got is that he saw a cop and a lady somewhere. We
thought that was the end of it but on Sunday in Elder's Quorum he suddenly
waves us to follow him and we go all over the whole church looking for a member
in the ward that he apparently saw. He was looking through the doors,
glancing through the windows and eventually he saw one of their kids and we
went back to Elders Quorum for the last few minutes. It's weird because
he only does stuff like this around us. We did give Jerry the priesthood
yesterday but I'm not sure that was the best idea given recent
circumstances. They are planning on having him open the door when they
are taking the sacrament out to those in the chairs.
The
Brandon Ward is doing much better than our ward at getting missionary
minded. It is frustrating seeing our ward and their general lack of
missionary spirit. Just hearing stories from other missionaries is
interesting because the whole mission is having struggles working with the
members. There is this one member who was in the Carrollwood Ward and he
had an altercation between him and the Bishop that got pretty intense. This same member moved down to our ward and apparently tries to take keys so he
can live in the church building. The Brandon Elders say that he was at
the church library on Monday and had tons of pictures of William Shatner up.
The
whole Tampa Bay area seems to be struggling but hopefully we can start turning
things around. We have lots of stuff to get over but it is possible. I do hope that everything goes well and I will keep going onward even
with the cockroach menace that infests our church sometimes.
Have
a great week,
Elder
Fabricius
1
- Elder Hawkes and Louis at the temple
2
- The cake in all its gluttonous glory
3
- Elder Fabricius with some shades on
