Hi, my name is sister Upshaw and my favorite color is Neon clear.... 8-18-14

> 3 Lessons I learned real good this week: 
> -Florida roads are just as hot on the bare feet as Vegas roads 
> -Everything is better with an accent 
> -We have a loving Heavenly Father that is more aware of our needs then 
> we can ever fully understand. 
> 
> Tuesday as we were getting ready to leave a lesson with the Hill 
> family I started talking to the 10 yr old, Who always seems totally 
> unimpressed with us. I asked him what it takes to impress him. He told 
> me that I would have to be some famous wrestler, whose name I can't 
> remember... I was like, " what if I beat you in a race?" He accepted 
> my challenge. I was wearing a pencil skirt and sandals so I kicked of 
> my shoes and raced him to the end of the street and back. You know how 
> sometimes I make really brilliant decisions? Well this was not one of 
> them. -_- 1st off, I have never been very fast... Why did I challenge 
> him to a race?? Also, by the time I got back my feet were on fire. I 
> had burned the bottom of both feet!  Does anyone remember how we use 
> to stand on the hot asphalt as kids to see who could stay there the 
> longest without hopping from foot to foot and fussing about the heat? 
> I use to be able to stand out there longer than everyone else! My feet 
> were so callused that I could do just about anything barefoot. Now 
> they have gone soft and a quick sprint left them burnt and 
> blistered... Walking was horrid this week! Hence my subject line..."hi 
> my name is Sister Upshaw and my favorite color is neon clear." Bobby 
> use to say that every time we did something dumb. At least Brandon 
> thinks we are cool now. Haha 
> 
> Which brings me to my next point. Try to speak with an accent and be 
> sad at the same time. INCONCEIVABLE! It can not be done! In fact I am 
> typing this with a British accent right now! I'm probably driving 
> sister Skeem up a wall, but she hasn't tried to kill me yet so I think 
> we're good! The only downfall to always speaking in an accent is that 
> when you go to speak to random strangers you forget that you aren't 
> actually British and then it just gets awkward... 
> 
> Moving on to well learned lesson number three of the week. So 
> yesterday at church one of the speakers told a story that I just 
> loved! A man was walking down the street when he saw a little boy 
> swinging a rusty old bird cage with 3 cold and scared little birds. 
> The man stopped the boy and asked him what he had planed to do with 
> the birds. 
> The boy said," I am going to pluck their feathers out and make them fight!" 
> "What will you do when you are tired of the birds?" The man asked. 
> "I have cats. They like birds!" 
> "How much do you want for those birds?" 
> "Oh no mister, you don't want these birds! They aren't pretty, they 
> don't sing, they are worthless!" 
> "How much he repeated?" 
> The boy looked confused, but decided $10 would be a fair trade. The 
> man paid the price, took the birds to a near by tree and set them 
> free. 
> 
> Another similar story took place with a man named Satan. 
> "I got them! I set a trap for those humans and I got a whole world of them!" 
> "What are you going to do with them?" Jesus Christ asked 
> "I'm going to teach them to hate each other. To lie and steal, to kill 
> each other and to do wrong in every way. It's going to be a good ol 
> time." 
> "What will you do when you are tired of them?" 
> "Oh, I'll just kill them." 
> "How much do you want for them?" Christ asked 
> "Oh you don't want these humans. They will reject you and spit on you 
> and kill you. YOU of all people, do not want these humans." 
> "How much?" Christ repeated 
> "All your blood and tears" 
> Christ paid the price and opened the door to set us free. The speaker 
> to talk about how perfect Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ's love for 
> us is. Then he asked how is our love for them? Is Jesus Christ our 
> closest friend? I thought it was really amazing and then that night we 
> went to a lesson and one of the members played this song for us that 
> he wrote when his father passed away. I loved it so I wanted to share 
> a part of it with you. :) It was yet another reminder to me of 
> heavenly fathers love. That's why I say I received that lesson loud 
> and clear this week! I love you all so stink'n much! 
> 
> -love sister Upshaw 
> 
> P.s. I am getting transferred... I'm really bummed because there are 
> so many people I am going to miss! This has been an amazing area! I am 
> finishing training a missionary whose original trainer is headed home. 
> Which means I have two options of where I could go. Either back to 
> Gibsonia (my 1st area) or Hudson (which is really close to Jason and 
> his familia). So if I have to leave at least I have two pretty great 
> options! :) 
> 
> P.s.s CONGRATS to one of the most amazing friends ever, Randy! You and 
> Katrina looked so happy. You are one lucky guy because she looked 
> gorgeous Randall! Love you both! 
> 
> P.s.s.s I wish I had a way to send the rest of the song, but the file 
> is to big for email :/ 
> 
> P.s.s.s.s Sorry this is so long! 

                 Part of the song that a member in Sarasota wrote 

                It appears that they might have a leak in their floor

                          Pictures from Myakka State Park

         Doing what Chelsea does best, beating up the boys (just ask her nephew Kaleb and dad)

                                       Well, they didn't get their wish, she was transferred

                 Chelsea's new companion, Sis. Yellow.  I'm going to take a guess and
                 say she was transferred to Hudson.  She bought something at Sonic in
                  New Port Ritchie, so it looks like she went North.

Florida Resident! 8-11-14

Well I officially hit my 1 year mark! That makes me a legit resident
of this state now, right? Sister Skeem and I celebrated with some well
deserved frozen yogurt at Menchies! Haha this past week has been
pretty great. Last Monday a member took us to a baseball game for a
local minor league team here in Bradenton. Some Elders from a
different ward were there with some of their members, too, so that was a
party. The funniest thing happened as we were leaving the game though.
We had to leave early so we could get home on time and as we are
walking out a foul ball came into the stands and hit one of the Elders
on the inside of his right thigh (too close for comfort). The mascot
for the team happened to be right there and as soon as he sees this
happen he drops to the floor pretending to be in severe pain. It was
so funny! That poor Elder turned so red! Then Marty took a picture
with all of us and basically the whole crowd watched the entire thing.
😂😂😂

Transfers are coming up next week. We will find out on Sunday what is
happening. I have been in this area since January so I would be
shocked if I stay for another transfer, but who knows? One of the
members keeps threatening to lock me in their spare bedroom so I can't
ever leave! Haha I definitely love the people here and it will be
sooooooooo hard to leave! Maybe even harder then it was to leave
Lakeland... Is that even possible?

This weeks miracle was brought to us by media referrals! (That's when
someone goes online and requests to meet with missionaries) Over the
last 7 months that I have been in this area we have probably received
10 media referrals. 5 out of those 10 happened in just this last week.
The first 3 we received last week were all bad addresses or wrong
numbers and finally the third one told us that his friends had been
"messing with the Mormons" and he wasn't interested. By the time we
got the 4th referral the name seemed strange, there was no phone
number and we thought it was probably not a good referral either. I
was so tempted to not even contact it, but Sister Skeem and I decided
we didn't want to get to Heaven and be like, "sorry we totally ignored
your request to meet with us. We thought it was fake!" So we decided
to go and the daughter of the referral was the one who opened the
door. By the end of our conversation she was crying telling us how we
were sent there for her. It was amazing! They came to church and
Lauretta was shocked at how calm her boys were (both of her boys are
severely autistic and she was afraid they would act out). She
recognized that the boys felt the spirit and that is why they were
able to stay so calm. I know Satan put those bogus referrals in our
way so we would have a bad attitude about them. He would have given
anything to have kept us from meeting Lauretta and her family!

He would give ANYTHING to keep people from the peace and joy that this
Gospel brings. I may have said this before, but man he is a total
jerk!

Everything is splendiferous! (woah that is actually a word!?) Except
we both caught this nasty stomach bug that has been going around.
Sister Skeem didn't believe me when I told her I was sick until she
caught it 2 days later! Haha she is such a punk! Basically it comes in
two forms. Either you vomit profusely for two days and then you're
fine by day three or you just feel nauseous and clammy with a killer
headache for seven days. I think I would have preferred the two day
illness. Oh well. Alas it seems to be just about over now.

I love you all so much and I hope you have a LEGEN, wait for it, DARY week!

Love,

Sista Upchuck <---suddenly that childhood nickname seems so appropriate!

Spoiled in the USA 8-4-14

Wednesday we had a big meeting with all the missionaries in the 
surrounding zones. President came and right as we are about to start 
he gets up and is like, "since the air conditioning in this building 
isn't working we are going to move our meeting to the Cortez 
building." (20 miles away) I thought Kelsey and Dylan might get a 
laugh at that. We drove 20 miles just so we could have AC! Dylan, did 
you ever step in an air conditioned building the whole two years you 
were in Ghana? Then Friday night another set of sisters called and 
asked if they could come stay with us because their water was 
contaminated. Basically they had to boil it before they could do 
anything with it. That has to be a daily occurrence for Kelcken. Man, 
we American missionaries are pampered! Haha 
 
Anyway once we finally got to zone conference Sister Cusick told this 
story about a man on a fence. A man is sitting on top of the fence and 
on one side of the fence is all these worldly things and what not that 
seem like a lot of fun, but don't bring any real happiness. On the 
other side is a good wholesome, happy life. This man sat on the fence 
and two men appeared. One was the Savior and the other, Satan. Christ 
told the man that he was there to present him with this gift of a 
truly happy life, but he could only make the invitation. The man would 
have to accept or reject it, then he left. Satan then tries to compel 
the man to join his side. After a short time Satan asks, "well what 
side are you going to join??" The man hesitated and said he would have 
to think about it some more and in the meantime he was just going to 
sit on top of the fence. Satan says, "oh good! Because I own the 
fence." 
 
Satan won't always try to tempt us with some big thing. If he can just 
keep us in one spot, not doing good or bad, then he is happy. So don't 
be a fence sitter! If you feel prompted to do something, then do it! 
Heavenly Father has a plan for each of us, but it requires action on 
our part. :) 
 
In other news, tropical storm Bertha is forming out in the gulf right 
now. That's fun right? Secretly I kind of want it to come close enough 
that we get evacuated, because....well because it would make for a fun 
story. However, I have no desire for it to actually touch the coast 
because that would be sad. -_- (I guess for any of that to happen it 
would have to turn into something worse than a tropical storm, but you 
get the point) 
 
I loaf you, wait no, I DOUBLE LOAF YOU! 
*now picture being hit by a loaf of bread  (Curtesy of Papa Crouch) 
 
P.s. Remember, Satan owns the fence y'all! 

Creepy statue at the Ringling Museum

Angela went with them the th Museum

Ann and Chelsea

Zone Conference

Items Sis. Skeem broke this last month.  They thought it was funny.

                      They visit a nursing home in their area

Am I crazy? 7-28-14

Am I crazy? 
 
Who am I kidding? I know I'm crazy and the last 12 months as a 
missionary has just solidified that knowledge. I mean seriously, in 
what world can someone work 16 hours a day, bike in the middle of the 
hot/humid Florida summer (wearing a SKIRT), talk to 100 people in 
hopes that maybe one will care enough to listen and still manage to be 
happy about it all? Everything that could have gone wrong this week 
did, yet I still feel like we had a great week and am happy as can be! 
Don't get me wrong I'm not claiming I didn't have a few solid break 
downs, but at the end of the day I wouldn't want to be anywhere else! 
Man missionary life is the life for me! (sung to the tune of the Rap 
"gangster life") 
 
How is everything in the motherland? Oh man this week I have gotten SO 
MUCH grief about being from Vegas! President Cusick made a comment 
about how we shouldn't be handing out Mormon.org cards like we are 
"Vegas card pushers" so my whole district is like, "well Sister Upshaw 
is one." -_- not funny. On top of that everyone thinks that because I 
worked at Ceasars Palace that I was a scandalous individual... Keep in 
mind I don't volunteer any of this information, but my comp finds it 
fascinating so she proudly tells everyone! Lol it is actually pretty 
funny to watch them mentally picture a Mormon in Vegas. Then I remind 
them that we have a temple there so clearly we aren't that scarce. 
 
So we had a meeting with our Bishop on Tuesday and in his office he 
has a picture of Christ (I attached it to this email) with a quote 
that says, "In the end, if you haven't chosen Jesus Christ, it doesn't 
matter what you chose." I love that! It made me think how Heavenly 
Father and Jesus Christ love us so much and there is no way they would 
ask us to do something that, in the end, wouldn't make us the happiest 
and best we have ever been. If we chose Christ we really are choosing 
ourselves! It is kind of a no brainer! I love you all so much! I hope 
you have an amazing week! 
 
Love always and forever, 
Sister Upshaw 
 
 
"In the end, if you haven't chosen Jesus Christ, it doesn't matter 
what you chose." 

 


She loves the rain (good thing because it rains a lot)!!!


They had a Pioneer Day activity, but forgot

                to take pictures before the event These are

                from when they were cleaning up. 













Some random statue
The sidewalks just end randomly for some reason 







These hedges make her feel like she is in the

                  Tri-Wizard Tournament and the hedges are closing

                  in on her









Dinner, yum.  I guess that is one way to stretch 

                 your monthly budget, road kill!!  jk 

Slurp, ponder and Pray

This week was kind of a strange one. It started out on Tuesday when we 
 got a call that we needed to have the keys to our old apartment turned 
 in by the end of the week.  We were told we had till the 31st so we 
 hadn't really made it a priority to scrub it all down yet. For such a 
 small apartment it sure took us a long time! Then Thursday we were 
 home for dinner and I hear the phone ring. I looked at the number and 
 it was a 435 area code (southern Utah) I knew it was sister Skeem's 
 family! I don't know why, but I just knew it! I answered and it was 
 sister Skeem's mom! The first thing my companion says when I go to 
 hand her the phone is, "DOES SHE HAVE PERMISSION!?" Haha I figured she 
 did...otherwise she is really lucky and just happened to pocket dial 
 our number. She was calling to tell sister Skeem that her grandmother 
 passed away. It has been really hard on her, but she has borne a 
 powerful testimony of the plan of salvation this week and it has given 
 me an opportunity to serve her which has strengthened our 
 companionship a lot. It has really helped me appreciate my testimony. 
 How even when hard things happen we can still have hope and peace. 
 
 Wednesday was a day of miracles! We went on exchanges and the sister I 
 went with is stellar! Her name is Sister Snow and she is the one that 
 looks freakishly like Danae. Seriously it tripped me out the entire 
 day... Anyway so the entire day we were crazy busy and then it was 
 8:45 and I was so stink'n tired. We were coming out of a lesson and I 
 figured we were going to head home. Negative. Sister Snow was like, we 
 have 10 minutes left in the night. Whose life are we going to change? 
 I thought she was kind of crazy seeing as it would take 5 minutes to 
 get home. I mean I am all about working hard to the very end of the 
 day, but what are you going to do with 5 minutes? We went to this CVS 
 and the first person we see was someone Sister Snow and her companion 
 had met about a month ago. We talked to Him for 20 minutes about 
 baptism and prophets and the savior. It was amazing and he gave us his 
 information and came to a baptism on Saturday to see what it is like. 
 Crazy right? Man, I will never look at 10 short minutes the same 
 again. 
 
 Thursday I woke up at 3am feeling like my legs were on fire. Turns out 
 I had 87 fresh new mosquito bites... Apparently that means I have 
 healthy blood that is rich in vitamins. (That's what a nurse in our 
 ward told me) haha when she saw my legs she was like, "cover those 
 things up! You are single handedly providing all Sarasota skeeters 
 with an endless food supply." Oh also remember how I am allergic to 
 fancy face wash like proactive? Well I ran out of my face wash so I 
 used another missionaries proactive face wash and spent the rest of 
 the day with an adorable swollen, red face! I didn't think about it 
 all until I was getting in bed and my face started itching like crazy. 
 Between my face and my legs I looked diseased! 
 
 Then to finish off the week.... Saturday we went over to our Bishops 
 house so Sister Skeem could receive a blessing. The elders were there 
 too and as we were talking with Bishop he gets a text that one of the 
 people speaking in Sacrament meeting was sick and wouldn't make it the 
 following day. So he turns and asks Elder Leavitt to speak. The poor 
 Elder already was teaching a class on Sunday so I suggested maybe the 
 four of us do a musical number to fill some time. Then Bishop goes, 
 "to take some of the pressure off you Elder Leavitt, Sister Upshaw 
 will speak too." That's what I get for speaking up -__- haha just 
 kidding! It was actually really awesome! I spoke on how missionary 
 work is about love. It doesn't matter if it is someone who isn't a 
 member or someone who has just forgotten their way, we reach out and 
 share those things we hold so dear because we love them. As I was 
 sitting up on the stand I realized that it was exactly one year ago 
 today that I gave my farewell talk! Crazy right!? It was really cool 
 for me to look back on the growth I have made. A year ago I prepared 
 for over a month for that talk! This time around I had less then 24 
 hours and it was probably better... Not because I know more or I am 
 more confident in public speaking, but because I have realized that I 
 don't really have to say that much. If I bare sincere witness of 
 simple truths, then the spirit will do the rest. 
 
 
 All in all it was a really great week. This transfer is going by 
 really fast! Everyone keeps telling me how I probably will leave this 
 transfer... I don't want to leave!! Like EVER!  I love you all so  so 
 so so so so MUCH!! 
 
 Love always, 
 
 Sista Upshaw<3 
 
 Here is a pic of that sister that looks like Nae! (Only from the side 
 so that's why it's a profile shot) 
 #SlushtialKingdom 
 #WeLoveSlurpees 
 Oh and one of the men in our ward is on the wheelchair basketball USA 
 team. He just got back from the world championships and USA took 
 silver! So that's his metal and the Man wearing it is one of the 
 senior missionaries in our ward. We thought it was pretty cool… 

Needed a shower curtain in their new apartment and they only had Superman

Dinner with the Perkos family

Didn't want to get dressed for the day after exercising

Her bug bites a couple of days later

Sis. Hurdman

Sis Hurdman now

Sis & Bro. Hurdman they were married 65 yrs before Bro. Hurdman passed away

7-11 free Slurpee's

Missionary in Chelsea's area that looks like Danae

Reminder from Zone Leaders of free slurpees