ANOTHER RAINY DAY IN HAINES CITY APRIL 22,2013

Hey everyone, lots going on lately. so I'm in Loma Verde now, or Haines city. I'm with Elder E. now and he's really awesome. We have a lot in common. We both love all the same things pretty much, except music, but that's no problem haha. So far I've had companions that i love and really get along with, so I've been blessed a lot already.  This place has been dead from what I've heard, and what little I've experienced. Here's the rundown: no baptisms in like a year, the whole area has been knocked by missionaries at least twice, our branch is super small and the members don't give referrals, we only have 2 people that can come with us for member-present lessons and they are almost always busy. we had to change our schedule from 6:30am-10:30pm to 7:30am-11:30pm because all the Hispanics don't get home until late. So the work here is pretty slow.. oh, and its called Loma Verde for a reason: this whole area is hills pretty much, and we cant use the car, so biking is terrible haha. also, our apartment is pretty much empty and has very little in it haha its pretty funny. But we have beds and study desks. the small things that we take for granted.. its been super fun though. I haven't gotten any good pictures of this area or anything, so next week I can probably send some.

We have had some success though, within these past few days of being here. We found 4 new investigators, 1 of which is actually pretty solid. hahah we were super happy afterwards! even the smallest things make our days worth it.

---Story of the week--- Last night we were biking around late at night. it was another rainy night, and it got raining pretty hard so we looked for some place to go. we found a church called "the church of god" and went inside and sat in the back. the pastor (or whatever you want to call him) was up in the front and preaching while a lady played the piano. then he would start singing and they would all join him. there was about 20 or so people there. then the pastor ended and was like "i want all you guys to pray for me" and stuff. then.. some lady said "um can we pray for my friend right now because they need help" so then the pastor asked people to come up to where he was and start praying with him. the prayer was nice and all, but then he started "speaking in tongues" and saying weird things like "ohhh bab ohba tonbabaaohh" and kinda convulsing. i really cant explain what he was saying but it sounded like a child making noises but a bit more intelligently. I couldn't help but laugh a little, as was a lady in the congregation who was a member of their church. then they would just walk away when they were done.. and sing and stuff. after they ended a lot of them came up to us as they were leaving and welcomed us and invited us back. they were really nice. even the pastor caught us while we were leaving and invited us to stay and chat a little bit and wait for the rain to stop. so we did. and we discussed a few things, namely our religions. He found the way we do missionary work to be very intriguing and odd. he said a few things incorrect about our church and we corrected the statements; though in a loving way. it was a nice discussion, to openly talk about beliefs and why they believe in that way. anyways, we exchanged phone numbers and information and went on our way. Very interesting though.

Picture 1) Elder N., me, and J with her mom and dad. She got baptized last Saturday but we couldn't go because we got transferred.. We were all pretty bummed about it, but she will be an awesome member!

Picture 2) the sister live 3 doors down. So Elder E. and I took all the junk from our house and organized it as such in their front yard.