1/14/2018 Bookcases, manatees and campfires

One of our responsibilities is apartment inspections - this building project of water-filled gatorade bottles and boards is amazingly sturdy - as well as inventive.   Guess it has been there a while because our elders don't know any history on it.  So the question is, if they built it all at once, who drank all the gatorade?

The elders had just been corrected by our CES secretary - you do not use metal spoons in teflon pans.

Because there is so much water there are often these small bodies of water - this one just by the side of a big mall in Orlando, and people are fishing - and catching fish.  We may have mentioned before that the first week we were here, we got as much rain as we do in Bunkerville in a year.

We want you to meet the people we serve with.  This is our branch president, President Davis, his wife Teresa - fun, kind and generous Southern folk - and two of their children.  They are a very musical family.  The girls were home for break, so attended the branch.

Couldn't resist posting this picture of John-Evan and Evan.

The bird feeder by the Ronald McDonald House.  Both of our mothers would have loved this.

And now to our Manatee trip.  When it is cold, the manatees come in from the gulf to the springs which stay around 74 degrees.  The Haddocks had been before and they said this was the most they had ever seen - probably because of the unusually cold weather.

And it was a very cold day - it ranged from high 30's to low 40's during the day.  We did not bring warm clothes with us, but we went with the Haddocks and they outfitted us so it wasn't bad.  He is a counselor in the Mission Presidency, lives in Gainesville.  

We started at the wildlife center in Crystal River, about 1 1/2 hrs from Gainesville, then a trolley car takes you down to the springs, no overhead electric cables, but it once "belonged" to a trolley.

People pay to snorkel and swim with the manatees. You are not supposed to touch the manatee unless it touches you, but the manatees often swim up close, and you can let them touch you.  Then you can make a one hand/flat-handed touch.  It is actually illegal to touch them with two hands.   

Our Heather, Taylor-Lorum's wife, her parents, Rick & Carol Denos, would love this.  We really liked the looking part and will leave the swimming and snorkeling to them.

You can also take a canoe or larger boat, which, as much as I like to swim, would be my choice.  Here you can see the swimmers, a canoe and the pontoon like boat.

The manatee is a large marine mammal with an egg-shaped head, flippers and flat tail.  The average Florida adult manatee is about 10 feet long and weighs between 800 and 1200 pounds.

 They are also known as sea cows due to their large stature and slow, lolling nature; but they are more closely related to elephants.

 The springs are amazingly clear and a beautiful color 

It is interesting that although the springs are green and lush, the grounds away from the spring are more dry - but that isn't bad, it means no ponds and alligators. 

We received this interesting text one evening from one one set of our Elders:  

Do you know a simple way to get the campfire smell off your clothes?

We had to smile - then called.  It was a trench coat and jacket - both not washable items .. so we told them it would have to be dry-cleaned, but if it wasn't very bad, just hang in an open area and let them air out.  This was the scene when we walked into the institute the next morning.  It worked, wasn't as bad as they thought.  They had finished off an activity with some members by roasting marshmallows and having smores. 

This is kind of fun - we have it in our office at the Institute.  We don't know how to post this so you can see it move - but you can get the idea.  The magnetic field is between the top of the world and the C and you have to get it just right, and it will hang and slightly turn around.  What an amazing world we live in, we can't even fathom all the things that we have here.  What is the scripture - All things denote there is a God.  Alma 30:44

Closing with this great promise from President Hinckley:

and a story:

   A couple of weeks ago a tall, clean-cut, blond and tanned young man walked into church at the Institute.  The Elders welcomed him - as did the YSA.  After sacrament meeting, he told the Elders the story.  His parents were members of the church, lived in SLC, but after a divorce when he was 3 he moved with his mother to Florida where he has grown up.  He has been to church off and on, both with his mother, and when he would visit his dad in Utah but nothing steady.  He has not been blessed or baptized.  This has been a discouraging time for him, things haven't gone as planned and it was a dismal and rainy day.  He was trying to get a picture for his class (he wants to teach some kind of art & photography that they use for therapy or something like that)  Anyway, he was having a hard time getting the picture exactly as he wanted so crouched down, and then saw by his foot a Light The World card that had been dropped.  He brushed off the dirt and mud - read the contact information and decided to come to the Institute for church.  He wants to be taught and baptized.  We pray that will come for him.

Our thoughts and prayers are with ya'all.