12/3/2017 - 12/18/2017 Part II and to 12/22/2017

12/25/2017 - Good Christmas - we were able to Facetime with all children/grandchildren.  Grateful for technology. 

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So, on with the story..  First, some fun facts on Gainesville:

Basically our week is at the Institute from 10-4, except Tuesday and Wednesday when there is a night class and then we are there until about 9 because we fix a light meal before class for the Institute students.  We have a Tuesday-Thursday day class - 45 minutes each, and a Wednesday night class that is an hour and a half.  President Janson teaches the Monday-Wednesday day and Tuesday night class.  Also we prepare a light meal for the Institute students before the Tuesday and Wednesday evening classes.  Mike does most of the teaching and Lynnette does most of the cooking.  We also attend and, when needed, help with the YSA activities.  We do enjoy the young people that are here.

Aaron sent us a Nevada cutting board and we got a wooden Florida.  Mike has set up this bulletin board in our office with Nevada/Family pictures and Florida/Missionaries we serve with pictures. It can change - and did with this last transfer. 

One of the things we were able to do before the last transfer was go with the district to get the rolled ice cream they are always talking about.  

You order base, mix-ins and toppings.  They pour the base on what has to be a very, very cold metal plate and then chop in the mix-ins. 

When it is frozen, and it doesn't take very long, they scrape it up in sections which roll up 

and then serve it with the toppings. 

  It is definitely a college hangout. The wall is covered with sticky notes that people have left notes on.  Sister Armstrong left a missionary note.

Because we don't have students over the Christmas break, we volunteered at the Ronald McDonald House.  They put us over the toy room.  Stores, organizations and individuals contribute good toys and gifts for all ages.  We helped organize them and then were there a couple of hours each day to help the families staying there choose gifts.  The parents usually come in and are able to choose three gifts for each patient, usually in the hospital,  and two for each sibling staying at the house with the family.  Then the parents or grandparents don't have to go out shopping - which they usually don't have time to do anyway.  It was a fun experience.  We will probably do it again next year.  

They even have a Santa come in -- and his suit is blue and orange - the University of Florida colors.

One afternoon a family came in that was at the RMcHouse last year .. they called them the quad squad.  Quadruplets born a couple months early, 3 girls and a boy, from a natural pregnancy.  The father was from Tanzania, Africa and the mother from Florida.  They were living in Africa but came here to have the babies because of the hospital.  The mother's father still lives here.  They live in Africa.  Cute, cute kids.

Just pictures of some buildings across from the RonMcD House - interesting architecture.

Sunday, the 17th, the YSA branch was assigned to help with a Christmas program at Tacachale,   (pronounced Talk-a-chal-e), an adult development disability facility.  On the way back we saw people in medieval armor, looked like they were practicing for something.  They were just finishing up so we stopped.  Apparently there are groups throughout all the states that do this.  

  The mail/armor is made out of titanium so it is lighter, although the full suit he said was still about 40 pounds.  The helmet is 10 pounds, but he said most of that weight is on your shoulders, not on your head.  It was fairly cool outside, but the thick cloth coverings on his arms were soaked through with sweat.  Probably a pretty good workout.  (I tried to intersperse this exciting dialog throughout the pictures, but it didn't work - so you get to read this all and then look at the pictures.)  He designed the crest on the back of his suit.   We did get to explain that we were missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  As a fun sidenote - he looked and talked a bit like our Jonathan Leavitt, although not as handsome.  

They posed this for us - normally they would both be in the armor.

My Christmas gift from Mike for quite a few years has been a shopping trip for a new outfit.  He doesn't take a book or stay in the car and nap.  We can go into as many stores as I want and try on as many things as I want even if we end up coming back to what we looked at first.  It is always fun, even for him, at least he says it is and says that like he means it.  He most always made good choices when he did it by himself, but this is more fun and the sizes are always right.

We will close this blog with one of our "tender mercies."  Taken from Mike's writing:    Lynnette and I took the Christmas boxes to Emmanuels (he is one of our Institute students).  He lives with his family, grandfather, uncle, cousins in a mobile home park quite a ways out of town - just beyond the airport.  We talked of taking it tomorrow, knowing that he worked at Walmart until 11:00 and thinking he would be home in the morning.  But we thought, even if we leave it with his mom, we would take a chance and go tonight.  We found the place about dusk.  Standing in front of the single wide home was a strong looking black man, who responded as soon as we asked about Emmanuel. They call him "Manny." 

As it turned out, today was a day off.  He works the rest of the week.  It was his grandfather who brought him out so we got to meet the very kind grandfather who now has twenty grandchildren that live close or with them.  Some of them were playing baseball on a tennis court across the street that was set up for every sport.  We also met Emmanuel's uncle, who said the kids played all the sports from young.  "Keeps them out of trouble," he added.  (So the grandfather and uncle and I talked about children and grandchildren while Mike talked with Emmanuel.  They had Christmas lights strung around a small spot at the front of the mobile home and turned them on for us .. just warm tender feelings being there.)

Emmanuel came out and gratefully took the two boxes of food.  I wondered how he got to the institute, living as far away as he did.  Ben, the Elder's Quorum President takes him, but he said he would be getting a bike so he would be able to ride.  He had a bike but someone stole it when he was at work.  He said he saw it today and recognized it, but thought that the boy probably needed it more than he did, which tells you what kind of a young man he is, because they don't have much.  Today was a blessed meeting and a tender mercy.