Florida: Where the weather changes more times than a teenage girl before the first day of school. 11-24-14

She sent pictures of her mishap in the sand, but they weren't very clear.

In this weeks weather we had Arctic winds, torrential rains, 1
 beautiful day of sunshine and perfect 75 degree weather, and then the
 week ended with weather that makes me feel like I am a little
 vegetable being steamed until I am nice and soggy ready to be devoured
 by the onslaught of mosquitoes. Just another week in paradise! Lol
 really though it was a pretty crazy week by means of weather. At the
 beginning of the week I thought I was going to need to buy a a parka
 to keep warm and now I am thanking Heavenly Father for the blessed air
 conditioning in our car and apartment. :)

 Speaking of our car... I have a fun story to share. Monday night we
 were headed to an appointment, but we had never been to the house
 before. We were following the GPS and it took us down this sketchy one
 lane dirt road. It had rained pretty hard that day so we kept coming
 across puddles of water that we had to drive through. We almost
 decided to turn around, but since it was such a small road we chose to
 drive just a little farther to find a place we would be able to turn
 the car. All of a sudden the car started to fishtail because the sand
 was getting really soft. Sister Yellow kept telling me not to stop and
 to keep the wheel straight. I did that, but the car kept fishtailing and
 finally stopped when we hit a particularly soft patch of sand. We were
 literally in the middle of nowhere without a light in sight. We tried
 to dig the tires out and put the floor mats down for traction, but
 nothing helped. We ended up calling a member and they came and pulled
 us out. Turns out... We weren't the first people he ever had to pull
 out of that dirt road. They really should have a sign or something!
 Lol

 With Thanksgiving coming up this week I have decided to be totally
 cliché and dedicate this email to the things that I am grateful for.

 This year I am especially grateful that for the entire year of 2014 I
 have been able to dedicate 100% of my time and energy to serving
 others. It's funny though... For some reason I have always looked
 forward to 2014 (probably because 14 is my favorite number). Two years
 ago I thought that 2014 would be the year I received my degree and
 would start teaching. I even imagined this would be the year I would
 be getting married to a certain boy I have grown pretty fond of. 😳
 None of that took place this year, but yet I feel like this year has
 been the most meaningful year of and for my life. I am beyond grateful
 for the things I have learned and am continuing to learn every day. I
 am so grateful for the people here who have become more like family
 and for the opportunities I have to watch people change as they
 Embrace the Savior and feel His love for them. I am grateful to my own
 family for the love that I feel from them every day. Honestly, I can
 feel your prayers. I am grateful to Mom for her sweet example and to
 Dad for his loving support even when it about killed him to let one of
 his daughters leave. Most of all I am grateful for my testimony. I
 know we have a loving Heavenly Father who wants to bless us. He has
 blessed me and my family so much in the past 16 months. I know Jesus
 Christ is the Savior of the world, but also He is my personal Savior.
 I know I'm not perfect, but I'm grateful he doesn't ask me to be. He
 only asks that we strive to become better and I know that I am doing
 all I can to do just that.

 I wish I could list all the things I am grateful for, but just naming
 all of my family members alone would take an eternity! #mormonproblems
 I hope you all have an incredible Thanksgiving! Oh and pray that I
 don't die from being fed way too much this Thursday. President told us
 to accept any invitation we received for Thanksgiving day and now we
 have 3 dinners planned... I am probably going to gain 20 lbs...

 Love always,
 Sister Upshaw

WE DEFEATED THE SPIDER! 11/17/14

 WE DEFEATED THE SPIDER!

 Do you remember that missionary-eating spider that was hanging out
 right outside the bedroom window in our apartment? (Refer to last
 weeks email) Well sometime last week a little white sac appeared under
 its belly and we were told that meant it was about to have baby
 spiders! We were not about to have that because we were positive those
 suckers would find a way into our apartment. So we took pictures and
 showed them to management. After a few good screams from various
 people in the office they all collectively decided that the best
 decision would be for us to open the window just enough to push the
 screen off. They said they would then come and replace the screen. So
 naturally I grabbed the broom ready to go Spartacus on that window
 screen/spider and Sister Yellow opened the window. We have a video
 depicting our very hilarious reactions. I am surprised no one called
 the police because we screamed as if someone was killing us. It was
 pretty epic, but alas the spider was defeated and now we have a new
 screen. :)

 Holy cow this was a glorious week! When I first came to this area my
 companion asked me what my goal was for my last 5 months. I prayed
 about it and decided I wanted to have the opportunity to bring one
 family into the gospel. I wanted to find them, teach them and be there
 for their baptism. About a month ago we found the Welch family. They
 have 5 kids and Mike and Kimmy are the parents. They are the best! We
 hadn't really been in contact with them for a while, until this week.
 We met with them this week and as we taught about the savior's baptism
 the spirit was so strong so we stopped and invited them to be
 baptized. They all said yes! The youngest one turns 8 on January 1st
 so they want to wait and all be baptized together so we set the date
 for January 3rd. 9 days before I go home! They will probably be the
 last baptism I am able to attend on my mission. Isn't that
 incredible!? Heavenly Father really does bless us with the desires of
 our heart! Ahhhh I love it!

 Oh man this week Heavenly Father chastised me a little bit. Actually
 he chastised me rather severely, but that is besides the point. I just
 had this overwhelming feeling that he felt I was being extremely
 prideful. He reminded me this is his work and not mine. For a second I
 felt a little overwhelmed and discouraged, but then I read this
 scripture, "Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you whom I love, and whom
 I love I also chasten that their sins may be forgiven, for with the
 chastisement I prepare a way for their deliverance in all things out
 of temptation, and I have loved you-"
 D&C 95:1
 After reading that I truly felt an increase of God's love for me. He
 corrects us because he loves us. And I truly feel humbled. In all
 honesty I feel like I have felt the spirit 10X more powerfully in the
 last 24 hours than I have in the last 4 months. The Spirit changes us
 if we allow Him to.

 Have a great week! I love you!

 -Sister Upshaw


   "Stop, Hudson Sisters!" #CoolestStreetSignEver

 Pics: we were helping the elder's investigator find baptismal clothes
 and I couldn't help myself when I saw this beauty!

 Everyone here has really cool mailboxes... For example...

Their Missionary eating spider

But why is gas only $2.67??? #HudsonHappy 11-10-14

Every few days our district leader or Zone leaders call to see how we are
 doing and Sister Yellow and I have come up with a response that explains
 our feelings perfectly. We are Hudson Happy! We have been seeing a steady
 increase in people to teach and people with a desire to be baptized. The
 members are catching the missionary spirit and are actually anxious to talk
 to us about their missionary efforts. Oh and our area is absolutely
 gorgeous! It is the perfect mix between city and country. So you see, this
 is why we are #HudsonHappy. It's a type of happiness that only serving in
 Hudson can provide. Haha on the real though... I love my area! Oh also, our
 gas prices here are sooooooo low! It has dropped an entire dollar in one
 month! Is it like that everywhere? Why are they so low? This is awesome!

 In other news... Last week we were asked to come in and teach the primary
 kids about faith. Of course we decided to tweak the lesson a bit and teach
 everyone in the room how to be missionaries. It was great! I was explaining
 something to the class when a little 4yr old boy covers his ears and kept
 repeating, "I didn't do it!" I didn't understand what he was doing until
 almost the end of class. Apparently my "Purdy family" voice came out and I
 was speaking quite loudly. The little boy thought I was yelling because he
 was in trouble! Whoops!

 This week we had Stake Conference and the Stake President was talking about
 an experience his daughter had a few weeks ago while serving her mission in
 the Philippines. She said she was sitting in a small home teaching an
 elderly woman when suddenly she thought to herself, "how the heck did I get
 here?" I laughed audibly as I had a flashback to my first area when I was
 biking to an appointment in a Florida rainstorm that soaked me through and
 through and then the pedal on my bike fell off. I had that same thought of,
 "how the heck did I end up in Florida biking in a rainstorm, in a skirt!?"
 Haha the answer that the Stake President's daughter had come to her is the
 same answer that came to me. She said that as she stared at this woman and
 asked herself how she ended up in that small home in a foreign place she
 heard these words, "because I love her." She knew that Heavenly Father was
 expressing his love for this elderly woman to that missionary. I have had
 that same confirmation come to me so many different times as I stand and
 bare testimony to perfect strangers. I truly have felt Gods love for the
 people here. I am so grateful for that.

 There is a quote from president Uchtdorf that Sister Yellow and I love!

  "For what we love determines what we seek. What we seek determines what we
 think and do. What we think and do determines who we are—and who we will
 become."

 Whatever aspect of life we want to improve in it all begins with where our
 heart is. In the context of being a missionary, it starts with loving the
 people and loving God. Really in life in general. If we turn our focus to
 loving God everything else will fall into place. President Uchtdorf talked
 about why God made the first and greatest commandment to love Him. It is
 not because he needs our love, but he knows that by loving Him and putting
 Him first, we will seek more wholesome things and become happier!

 We can all try this week to be just a little more loving in all that we do
 and say. I truly do love you all so much! Have an incredible week and stay
 safe!

 -Sister Upshaw

 Also, birthday shout out to Nannon, Billy, and Abby! I love you all and
 sorry I am a week late Bill and Rhi!

 Pictures: missionary night with the activity day girls. (Pin the tie on the
 missionary)

 










 My MTC comp, sis Ormsby was in this months Ensign! Basically I know a
 famous person now.
 
 Oh and we now have a ridiculously large spider camping right outside our
 window... That thing is the size of my hand!
 

Jalapeño juice in the eye 11-3-14

This week was MUCH less crazy than last week! In fact it was rather
 calm here in the good ole FTM! Tuesday we had a meeting down in Gulf
 Port for all of the sisters in the mission. I think president realized
 that the stress level surrounding the sisters in the mission was
 substantially higher than that of the elders. Mostly because there
 have been a lot of changes implemented recently and the sisters freak
 out if they don't execute every new idea flawlessly. President
 basically told us to relax and be more like elders. Sister Yellow and
 I thought that was hilarious because this transfer every time we
 started getting down on ourselves or stressing out we just stopped and
 asked, "what would an elder do?" So far it has proved rather
 effective!

 So sister Yellow and I have to give trainings to other missionaries
 every week at district meeting. This week we decided to do a little
 object lesson regarding the Spirit. We had a jalapeño and a grape. The
 grape represented the spirit and the jalapeño represented negative
 feelings that may block us from feeling the spirit. So for the object
 lesson we picked three volunteers and had them close their eyes (so
 they didn't know what we were giving them) and put both the jalapeño
 and the grape in their mouth at the same time. It was rather hilarious
 to see the reactions. We then asked which flavor was more prominent.
 Obviously it was the jalapeño. When we allow things like pride,
 frustration, anger, or whatever else into our hearts and mind, it
 becomes extremely difficult for the spirit to speak to us.

 This object lesson went perfectly in the first district, but in the
 second district we had a slight mishap… one of the sisters must have
 gotten a really hot part of the jalapeño and her eyes started
 watering. She then wiped her tears and got the juice from the pepper
 in her eye! Whoops! Without thinking I was like, "she will be fine."
 All the elders gasped and then burst out laughing because I sounded
 totally heartless. In an effort to redeem myself I said proudly,"I
 have faith. She will be fine." That didn't help my case much, but
 sister Klien totally had the best attitude about it and she was in
 deed okay! :)

 Transfers were this week and we are both staying! We are so excited! I
 love it her and we are pretty sure I will finish my mission here in
 Hudson with Sister Yellow. At least that is what we hope happens! All
 in all it was another incredible week here in the sunshine state. It
 was a little chilly for my FLORIDA blood, but it is warming back up so
 I think I will live.

 Love you!

It was cold enough to wear a scarf

Curry family

                                                Sawgrass Park in St. Petersburg

Of course she's in the tree

Trying to have a serious conversation on the phone

Josiah

                                          Achievement Days activity that they helped in
                                          

A mission is a lot like living a reality T.V show. 10-27-14

 This week has been absolutely nuts!! Seriously, Sister Yellow and I 
 decided Mormon missions would make a great reality t.v. Show! It 
 started on Tuesday when we met the sweetest old man. He invited us to 
 come back the following day, but he wasn't home when we came for our 
 appointment. Instead we met a large portion of his family that lives 
 next door. We taught them instead and they invited us to come back the 
 following night and said they would make sure J was there too. We 
 get there and the house was full! There was 15 people for us to teach! 
 We were having so much fun laughing and joking with this family, it 
 totally felt like a Purdy family party, but we also were able to 
 testify to this incredible family. Then out of nowhere J flipped out 
 on is! He yelled and cursed at us and kept yelling how Mormons are a 
 cult. I have never had someone speak so hateful to me before in my 
 life. I guess he had been drinking and his whole family defended us 
 and asked us to ignore him and to please stay, but at that point it 
 would have been impossible to bring the spirit back. Instead we set up 
 a time to meet with them another day. 
 
 The following day we were teaching another family that has twin 4yr 
 old boys. During our visit it had come up that this family didn't have 
 much to eat or drink and so after the lesson Sister Yellow and I 
 decided to go home and get all the canned food and noodles and what 
 not that we had been given by other people. We loaded it in our car 
 and drove back to their house. We had been gone for maybe 20 minutes, 
 but by the time we got there the whole street was filled with 
 firetrucks, ambulances, cop cars, and nosey neighbors. Apparently one 
 of the twin boys had set a mattress on fire and the entire house was 
 destroyed by the fire. We were able to talk to the mom a little, but 
 she was clearly preoccupied. I am still shocked all that could have 
 happened in just 20 minutes! 
 
 Crazy event number 3... I am going to summarize this one by saying 
 that there is this lady the elders were teaching who now is convinced 
 all the missionaries are hit men who have been hired by one of her old 
 roommates to kill her. She also thinks various ward members are in on 
 this scheme. There is more to that story, but I don't even know where 
 to begin... 
 
 Oh and our neighbors had a party and they woke us up in the middle of 
 the night and Sister Yellow discovered, I am not pleasant when I am 
 awoken suddenly because my first thought was should we yell at them or 
 call the police. She quickly rebutted, "well, definitely don't yell at 
 them." They didn't take too long to quiet down though... 
 
 So all in all this week has been absolutely nuts! We were cussed out 
 (worse than I ever have been on my mission) twice, one of our 
 investigator's house caught fire just after we left, and someone else 
 swears up and down that the missionaries are undercover hit men and we 
 are trying to attack her (she yelled this at us while running down the 
 street). And that is just what happened in the last three days! I wish 
 I could even remember the first half of the week. Being a missionary 
 is hard! However, I am grateful for every crazy hard and outright 
 insane thing that has happened to me through my mission. Sister Yellow 
 and I were talking about how incredible it is that we can have weeks 
 like this one and yet still be happy. We still love what we do and 
 wouldn't want to be anywhere else. When we stepped back and asked why 
 that is, it was easy to see. It's because this gospel is true. I know 
 it is. That is something that no bad day, or week, can ever take away 
 from me. I am so grateful that every single day I get to step outside 
 and talk to everyone about this happiness and peace that comes from 
 living the gospel of Jesus Christ. 
 
 
 I love you all so so so much and I hope you have an incredible week! 
 
 -Sister Upshaw 
 
 Here are some pictures for your enjoyment: 
 
 
 

We decided we want these for Christmas. I will return! (I don't 
 even like cats, but I couldn't resist)  

The first two are from P-day. Sister Blaine is serving in Shell's 
 ward. 

Sister Yellow and I were so exhausted this week! Let's be real... 

We are tired every week, but she wouldn't let me go to bed... I can't 
 remember why, but I remember being done with planning and wanting to 
 go to sleep... Lol 

(obviously she was really tired, she couldn't even spell it correctly haha)

What goes "ha-ha-ha-ha-plop"? 10-20-14

 A monster laughing his head off!!! Bwahahahahaha get it? 
 
 Oh man, thanks for the Halloween card papa! I love all the riddles! 
 
 This week was very busy! Sister Yellow and I went on two exchanges and 
 we are exhausted! The first exchange we went on was Tuesday and I was 
 with Sister Reed, she is one of the sisters in Shell's Ward. We walked 
 A LOT on that exchange and my little feetsies felt like they were 
 going to fall off, but Sister Reed is stellar and we had a lot of fun 
 so it was worth it. We also saw a dolphin, up close! We were eating 
 our lunch on a bench near this little channel that comes in from the 
 ocean and the dolphin just came out of nowhere! We also saw a rainbow 
 that day. It was rather magical. :) 
 
 Sometime on Tuesday Sister Yellow got a call from the ZLs asking if we 
 would give a training in district meeting the next morning. So we met 
 about an hour before the meeting started and planned what to train on. 
 It actually turned out pretty good, but was way stressful trying to 
 plan for a training when we weren't even with each other. Immediately 
 after the district meeting we normally attend, which is 45 minutes 
 south of us, we had to travel about another hour south to attend the 
 second district meeting in our zone. After that meeting we did 
 exchanges with a set of sisters in St. Pete. Sister Packer came back 
 with me. Love love love that sister! She has only been here for about 
 3 weeks, but she is a rockstar. Basically we have the best zone in the 
 mission! 
 
 Once Sister Yellow and I exchanged back on Thursday we were so happy 
 because sometimes you just miss your companion and we had gone 48 hrs 
 without seeing each other. One thing that we both learned from 
 exchanges is that first, and foremost, we have to love the people we 
 teach. Some sisters are so worried about taking in every suggestion 
 given on how missionary work should be done that they get lost in all 
 the technicalities. If we just love with all we have and include 
 Heavenly Father in every decision, then everything will work out and 
 we will be so much happier! 
 
 I accomplished something this week that I think we can all be proud 
 of... I survived without a microwave! Friday around 9 am our power 
 went out. We didn't really think much of it because our water shuts 
 off every so often and it normally comes on after a few hours so we 
 figured it would be the same with our electricity. When we came back 
 around 1 for lunch we still had no power! Turns out something happened 
 with our bill and they shut it off! Everything got sorted out, but our 
 electricity didn't come back on until just after we came home for the 
 night! So we couldn't use the microwave to make any of our frozen 
 food! It was a real tragedy... Then this morning we woke up and again 
 we had NO POWER! We fumbled around in the dark trying to get ready to 
 go exercise and as we walked outside, we realized everyone's power was 
 out for as far as we could see. Every scary movie I have ever watched 
 told me not to step in to the pitch black obis so we worked out inside 
 the apt. Then we heard the helicopters and I had flashbacks to the 
 movie Red Dawn!  Luckily North Korea didn't take over and the power 
 came back on around 7:30. We aren't sure what caused the black out, 
 but someone told us it was a car accident. 
 
 The other really cool thing I accomplished was a new bike trick! I can 
 now stand on my bike seat...in a skirt! When you are on a bike all day 
 every day you learn that these tricks really aren't that hard. Haha 
 (see Dovers, I've come a long way in my bike riding abilities)  I may 
 look scared in the picture, but that's just because I wasn't sure how 
 to get back down....so I was scared! 
 
 Quote of the week/ quote of my mission that I found this week: 
 Obedience is the price, Faith is the power, LOVE is the motive, the 
 spirit is the key, Christ is the reason, and eternal life is the 
 reward. 
 
 I love you! 
 
 Sista Upshaw 

Yes, she is crazy

I am really lame at taking pictures... 10-13-14

 Is it seriously already Monday again? This week has been insane for 
 Sister Yellow and I. I feel like we were barely in our area. Thursday 
 we had a meeting in Tampa, where we had some awesome trainings and we 
 were able to watch the movie, "Meet the Mormons". IT was awesome! If 
 you haven't seen it, you should go watch it! Out here it is hard to 
 find a theater that will play it, but I'm going to guess that most 
 theaters back home will have it. It is a movie about six very 
 different LDS families. You will love it! The last one is a missionary 
 mom so be prepared to ball your eyes out because all of the 
 missionaries here did... (Tell no one!) oh the other super awesome 
 thing about Thursday was.... I FINALLY GOT TO SEE SISTER KUNZ AGAIN! I 
 kind of sorta helped train her for a transfer while she, Sister 
 Peterson, and I were in a trio together. I hadn't seen her since I 
 left Lakeland 9 months ago. It was awesome to see her, but sadly I did 
 not get a picture. -_- 
 
 Then Friday we had MLC down in Gulfport all day. Basically MLC is 
 super exhausting because we spent the first five hours inside a room 
 talking about different administrative things and received a lot of 
 training on how we can better help the missionaries we have 
 responsibility for. It was really awesome though and I learned a lot! 
 Then we went down to one of the beaches and had dinner and received a 
 little more training and then president told us to go have fun. They 
 brought this giant excessive ball so we all got together and played 
 kickball on the beach. It was so much fun! Also I face planted in the 
 sand because... Well I don't really remember how it happened, but all 
 I could think of was that time we were out at the lake and I was 
 racing Shay and Nae down a steep sandy hill and I totally face 
 planted then too....   Awka awkward. I redeemed myself though because 
 kickball is kind of my favorite game and I am not too shabby at it. We 
 ended that night singing hymns on the beach while watching the sunset. 
 It honestly was incredible and I am so grateful for the opportunity to 
 unwind a bit and to receive such wonderful training. Again, I didn't 
 get any pictures... SORRY MOM! 
 
 Something really sad happened last night though! One of our 
 appointments fell through so we decided we would go by a nearby 
 members house and share with them some of our goals for the transfer 
 and see how we can help them to do missionary work. While I was 
 bearing testimony of missionary work to them I heard myself say, "I 
 came here because I know this gospel changes lives and I want to bring 
 people even more peace and happiness in their lives through the gospel 
 of Jesus Christ. I only have three months left to do it and I want to 
 work." I was fighting tears. Until that second I really had only 
 considered what it would be like to step off the plane in Vegas not 
 really what it will be like to step on that plane in Tampa. I just 
 thought of everything I will be leaving and just how much I have loved 
 my time here. I really am grateful for the opportunity to serve the 
 incredible people here. I am also grateful I still have three months 
 to serve them with all my heart. 
 
 I love you all! Have an incredible week! 
 
 -Sister Chelsea Upshaw <3 

                     Mowing a lawn (a new life skill for her) 

                                                            Zone meeting 10-9-14

Sis. Kunz is in the back with Chelsea