Florida Bound: 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…