An Email from Holly
(From Orlando, Florida on March 7, 2005)
Hi Dad,
Wow, I just spent the last while looking at all your pictures. They were amazing! :) I had heard of Mister Hearst in journalism of course but I really never knew that he had a place to have parties quite like that. I think the pool was my favorite feature too. ;)
Can you print off the few emails I have unread in my in-box that I receive this week and send them to me? I still would like to see what they say (can you can stick them in a $.37 envelope) so I know how things are.
Time is passing so fast. When we had a weekly planning session last Friday I thought sister Caldwell was going to have a heart attack or cry or something because we were already planning the last week of this transfer. I am so glad that I got to be here with her, but at the same time it seems like when you are happy the time flies even faster. Is that possible? This will be my last email time here and that seems really sad to me. We will not be taking preparation time next week on our email most likely (although if Sister Staten is slow we might steal a minute). That's the day we are going to Disney and so it just depends when Sister Staten gets here from Cocoa.
We are in a bit of a bind though. The Saturday before last (not two days ago but nine) we had our trunky papers. These papers tell us all about the time schedule of our last 48 hours in the mission. I think I told you last week that we sent them "refused: return to sender" back to the mission office as a joke. Well, apparently the joke is now on us. It is 7 postal days later and they still haven't turned up!!!! Sister Sappenfield thinks it is pretty funny. Now instead of being a joke between us and her it's gotten more complicated. I didn't know this but apparently there are some papers that President has to sign and such. So now she is reprinting them and will have to have President sign us new ones. Being the smart man he is, she says he will ask why he is resigning them and then we will have to confess our folly. It's really been funny but sort of stupid of us. I guess that sometimes those sporadic jokes can really backfire!!!
Yesterday we had the baptism of an 8 year old girl. She technically does not fall under the category of a mission baptism because she is 8 but we love her anyway. :) But, her mother has been very less actives for years and her dad is not a member. So, when a member here met them (right after they moved from UT) they said we could come visit them. We were "teaching" Ashlee and her dad let us know that he really was not interested in being baptized but we could teach her. But right from the beginning he has been asking questions. We go to teach her and really I think she gets bored because her mom and dad have all kinds of questions. She just wanted to get baptized!!! At her baptism yesterday the Spirit was there so strong. Afterwards her dad pulled aside the Ward Mission Leader and asked if Brother Stanley would baptize him when he got baptized!! Then, Brother Kurys pulled aside Sister Caldwell and asked her what he would need to do to be baptized next week!!! There are still some hurdles but it was amazing. So it looks like we might be having a baptism next Sunday too!!!
There are three other people we are teaching who asked us how soon they could be baptized, too. There are moments where I wish that I had just a few more days to keep going. Sister Caldwell asked for six more weeks. But that's sort of mission life. You keep wishing for more time, but at some point the clock is going to run out. Is that how people feel when they know they have a definite time to live left on their clock? I really don't know, but I would imagine so.
I am so excited to see you all and yet I am going to do all I can to keep living in denial this week. We have so much work planned with the Sizemore/Pabon family, the Kurys and so many others. I love this work. I am so thankful for the time I have to do it. Have a wonderful week. I love you sooooooooooooo much. Keep smiling and remember that I love you and that Heavenly Father is watching over you, too.
Loves and Hugs,
Sister Holly Boo