Kirk & Jan’s Warm & Wonderful Orlando Mission: Week Twenty Five

Jennifer Hewes, Sis Spreier, Mackenley Dhaiti, Sis Pierce,
and Christopher Jordan

Last Sunday we went to a baptism in the Lake Reams Ward where three new converts were baptized, all taught by Sis Pierce and Sis Sprier. What a great spirit of joy and rejoicing we felt there with an outpouring of the spirit of Christ as these three came unto Christ with dedication and commitment to follow Him.

We finished a few more area maps this week to help our missionaries identify streets in newly-developing areas that were not shown on their existing maps.

Tuesday and Wednesday we had great visits with the Johnsons, parents of the Elder Johnson who is a missionary in Ben's ward in West Haven, Utah. They're great people, and we felt the Lord's spirit in their home as we talked to them. They accepted an invitation to meet with the missionaries.

Elder and Sister Claire

Elder and Sis Clare joined us last month from Mt Pleasant. They are MLS missionaries and are assigned to the Winter Park ward and are a great addition to our senior district.

Sis Mummert, Bowman, Godfrey, and Hoffmeier

Sis Mummert joined us on this week from the MTC. She met her new companion at the mission office on wednesday.

We had a wonderful Christmas Devotional on Friday, with Christmas messages, talent sharing, pictures of all the missionaries, and a great dinner.

After the dinner Santa's helpers distributed the packages that hadn't been forwarded to missionary apartments yet. They filled the floor around a couple of classrooms, in alphabetical piles. The picture shows A thru E.

Elders Gallo, Delgado, and Costa
(our Brazilian Elders) with Jan and me

We got a chance to talk with our three Brazilian elders after the Devotional ... it was a great evening.

Elder Gallo, Xiomara, Elders Cluff, and Sherwin

Saturday morning we attended a baptism in the Hunter's Creek stake where Elder Sherwin baptized Xiomara Cabral ... a dedicated lady and diligent Elders.

Elders Despain and Vailea, and Adriana

We went to another baptism saturday afternoon in Olympia ward, where Adriana Kogate was baptized by Elder Vailea. It's so uplifting to see such great people entering the waters of baptism and to see the diligent efforts of the Elders who teach them.

Jan by mission home with poinsettias

Saturday evening we went to
Celebration, FL with Berrys. It was quite a remembrance for us Utahns to see the first day of winter with 78-degree evening weather.

Sis Berry and Jan on "snow"

"Snow" falling from overhead boxes

Celebration, FL is a town built 20 yrs ago by Disney to be more town-like than EPCOT (Experimental Prototype City of Tomorrow) that they first built. They have hourly "snow-falls", made from soapy spray that slightly resembles snow when sprayed from above in small droplets. Yes, it is slippery. They even had a "skating rink" where kids actually used walkers to navigate on it.