Week 52 - Ocoee

ALRIGHT FRIENDS. LETS DIVE IN.

So this week was transfers. Elder Jennings is out and Elder Leishman is in. And he is DOPE. We get along so well. He's a marine. And just a cool guy all around so I'm really looking forward to this upcoming transfer. To be completely honest I'm a little scared. Why would they send a marine to the ghetto with me. Hopefully nothing goes down. Hahaha.

Soooooo. . . This week has been great. To kick it all off I burnt a shirt with some TRUE HOMIES. It was great. I hit my year mark this week which is crazy! It's already been a year. Wow. I'm not gonna say that is been a fast 12 months. But I am excited and happy that I've made it this far. It's been great serving here in Orlando Florida and I've really enjoyed my experiences here. 

Speaking of experiences. This past weekend we must of biked 20+ miles in 101 degree heat. With the humidity cranked up on high. Like. It was horrible. I feel bad for making fun on Utah in the winter because I'm really paying for it now. It's hot. And I cannot pound down enough water down. I'm buying a camelback soon. Yeah. Because staying hydrated is kinda important. I feel sooooo bad for my companion. He has a bad back and we've been going to all types of doctors this past week but they can't figure out what's wrong sooo. . For now he's slaving away on his bike in hot/ humid weather. 

One of the doctors we've seen is a chiropractor. I love chiropractors. I want to be one now. I asked him if he would give me an adjustment and now I feel like a new man. I'm so glad we're going back on Tuesday. 

I went to this AWESOME burger place. And they had fry sauce. It's the first time in a year I've had fry sauce! Definitely picture worthy. It's down below! 

OHH! Missionary work . . . Ohhh yeah. That's been good too! 

Mary's progressing to her date on the ninth. And is doing ok. . ish. She recently had a death in the family and she's gonna be out of town for a few days. So pray for her so she can be back for her baptismal interview on Wednesday. 

We picked up another new investigator this week and he's suuuuuuper solid. I'm sooooo excited for him! Here listen to this Miracle! So we're biking on Saturday in the crazy heat and we pass a trailer park that is usually gated up. I glance over to see if the gate is open, and it is. So I slam on my brakes and start to go inside. I look to see if there is any less actives in this place and there is one. We knock on this door and out comes this former investigator that I've never heard of. He said that he was taking the discussions with the missionaries for over a year and came to church pretty consistently. We asked him why he wasn't baptized and he said that he loves wine. But he was now serious about giving up alcohol in order to follow Christ. His name is Kenson. So pray for him as well. It's amazing how Heavenly Father leads us to those who are prepared. 

Anyways! It's been great! I hope everything going good for you guys back home. I'm so greatful for all of your prayers and for the support you always give me. I truly! Truly! Appreciate it! Thank you guys. I love you! Have a great week! 

🐲🐉🐲🐉🐲🐉🐲🐉🐲🐉🐲🐉🐲Lizard counter: 625🐲🐉🐲🐉🐲🐉🐲🐉🐲🐉🐲

🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸 Frog counter: 10🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸

🌲🐑🌾🏔🌋CATAN standings 7-8⬅️ I'm still not happy about this 

🚲🚲🚲 833 +miles 🚲🚲🚲

Service Work

Burning a shirt for the 1 year mark

Fry Sauce found

Payson Utah Temple

New companion Elder Leishman

Week 51 - Ocoee

HELLO. HELLO. HELLO.

Happy Father's Day! 

This week was Fun! We had temple service and it was pretty dope! It was a lot of fun and we took some sweeeeet pics. It was great. I never thought I'd have so much fun tearing up weeds and spreading mulch. #LivinTheHighLife You'll have to look at them there pretty sweet. Also below, a missionary that is dying soon, (going home tomorrow) we made him a meme. I love it so much. 

Some Elders in our district had a baptism this past week and we were able to get an investigator to go to it. So that was pretty sweet. I hadn't seen a convert baptism since October. So it was great to see success for those Elders. 

I love kids. They are the best thing ever. I'm totally convinced that I'm just gonna be a primary teacher/ scoutmaster til I die. I'm hangin out with my lil homie "Mr. T" he's down below. We took some sick selfies. 

  TRANSFERS. So it's transfer week. I'm stayin in Ocoee. And my companion Elder Jennings is headin out. Sooo yep. . I'm excited for the new opportunities and all dat good stuff. 

FATHERS DAY. . was weird. Haha. Because a year ago on fathers day I gave my farewell talk with Jacob West. I still remember balling my eyes out while the primary kids were singing the Army of Helaman, I remember glancing at Jacob and seeing that he was tearing up to and we just started to laugh. Such great memories! Also yesterday we sang Families can be together forever. When it came to the part "I always want to be with my own family" I kinda chuckled and said to my self, "ha, yeah that's me. I wish I could be with my family."but that phrase made me take a step back and ponder the true reason why I'm out here. To leave my family for two years in order to invite others family's to be sealed together for eternity. It really gave me a new perspective of why I'm here. Although I do miss my family... But, mostly Kevin. 

Spiritual moment of da week: 

We met with Mary a few times this week. It was awesome. I love teaching her. It's a wonderful experience. The spirit truly guides our lessons. It's the neatest experience going into a lesson knowing what points you want to touch on but you just kinda dive into it with faith knowing that this is Gods work and that everything is gonna turn out just fine. And if it doesn't then that person isn't prepared for the restored gospel yet. That luckily isn't the case with Mary. She's awesome she came to church yesterday and she's been reading the Book of Mormon. She has a solid testimony that she can build her conversion off of. Seeing her get excited gets me excited. Keep praying for her. Both her and I appreciate the prayers for her. Her baptismal date is July 9. 

Sooooo. . Yep! I love you guys and I truely do appreciate everything you do for me. The emails. The letters everything. You guys are the best! 

—Elder Coley

Alma 29:8

🐲🐉🐲🐉🐲🐉🐲🐉🐲🐉🐲🐉🐲Lizard counter: 621🐲🐉🐲🐉🐲🐉🐲🐉🐲🐉🐲

🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸 Frog counter: 10🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸

🌲🐑🌾🏔🌋CATAN standings 7-8⬅️ I'm still not happy about this 

🚲🚲🚲 833 +miles 🚲🚲

Week 50 - Ocoee

Hello! 

Soooooooooo. . . This week. . This weeks been. Idk. .  Kinda a roller coaster. A rollercoaster that I don't like! It's been a VERY. Slow week then Fast. Then slow. Yeah. . It's been weird!

We were biking this week and all of the lil bugs decided to come out and say hello! Yeah. . I hate these little fruit flies. They are almost as bad as our cockroaches at home. It makes me cringe. Pics below.

Ummmmm. . . I really donno what I want to talk about this week. . My bike hates me. . But that's no surprise. My rear differential was givin me issues so a member helped us out and drove us to a bike shop and they slapped on a new rear cog-sprocket column. And I bought REAL. all metal pedals. That would be my BIGGEST. missionary prep tip. Buy All Metal Pedals! He gave me a rockin price for replacing both. . Soooo I'm happy and I can actually bike in peace! And my bike chain isn't screamin at me all day long! 

Mary, our most solid gator, fell off the face of the earth for a week! We found out that she went to the hospital and she didn't ask for our approval! Sad. . . Hahahaha jk. But he were able to visit her twice in the hospital! I love hospitals! They remind me of home and e pink shoppe! Only a few people understand that comment. . . But whatever we're movin on! In the hospital we were able to talk to Mary and explain to her that there is opposition in all things. And that sometimes we have to experience the bad before we can appreciate the good. We also said that these experiences are four our good and that they will strengthen her. We had to set bake her baptismal date til July 9 but I'm not complain. It just gives us more time to completely cover each gospel topic. Soooo. . Pray for Mary!

Also pray for Orlando. The shooting that went down on Sunday hasn't affected me I'm perfectly fine. But the night club that it happened in was 10 miles away from my house. . So. . .  Freaky. But it has affected a lot of families here. So if you could please pray for them that would be most appreciated. I don't really care what their sexual attraction was, but what matters is that they are loved children of our Heavenly Father and they need our prayers. 

Anyways. I've been all over the place. . . But thank you soooooooooo much for the emails, letters and all that pizazz, (Ohh. That's a new one) and I'll talk to ya next week!

—Elder Coley

Alma 29:8

🐲🐉🐲🐉🐲🐉🐲🐉🐲🐉🐲🐉🐲Lizard counter: 602🐲🐉🐲🐉🐲🐉🐲🐉🐲🐉🐲

🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸 Frog counter: 10🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸

🌲🐑🌾🏔🌋CATAN standings 7-8⬅️ I'm still not happy about this 

🚲🚲🚲 833 +miles 🚲🚲🚲

Week 49 - Ocoee

HEY HEY HEY. Sorry for the long email.

This week has been long. . . but I have a good story or two!! 

Sooooooo lets kick things off by talking about a beautiful cultural tradition that black people do. . Here's what they do. . . Soooooo. . . In the lil. Neighborhoods here in Pine Hills they have these things called flips. A flip is frozen kool-aid with little fruit pieces mingled In a lil plastic cup. Sooooooo. . . What you do is you ask the lil kids in the neighborhood where the flip lady lives. Then you go to the flip lady's house. . . Give her 50 cents and she gives you a flip. Then you flip the frozen juice over and and you eat it like a big Popsicle. There's pictures below. . . Let's just say! It was DELICIOUS ! Sure it was one of the more shadier things I've ever done. . . But it was sooooooo good! 

I ran into a mythical beast! That was dope! We clicked soooo instantly. And now we're like best friends. She had a Rhett and link bobble head and was making them a lava lamp. It made my day! 

My companion almost got arrested this week!! Hahahahaha it was hilarious. I mean it's no shocker we're in "crime hills" its bound to happen sometime. Soooo. . We get a knock on the door later at night and we just think it's the Spanish elders dropping off the car for the night. so my companion opens the door and is greeted by four cops that ask. "Are you Alex?" ( my comps. name happens to be Alex) he says, "yes." "Step outside please..." The officer then peeks in and sees me sitting behind a desk, he asks "Is that your girlfriend?" I stand up and look at him. And say ". . . No!" They then start to question my companion about, where his sister is, And where is he's from. By this time my companion is freaking out and just flustered as can be. My companion says that his sister is in Colorado and he didn't know what she did. The cops then started to question how solid there information was. . They double checked there info and said. . "Oh sorry dude we've got the wrong house, you can go back inside." It was soooooooo funny. I was dying in my chair laughing and my companion was soooooooo peeved. It was funny.  Soooo. . . I almost got transferred cuz my companion almost got booked up. Hahaha

Alright. . . Something uplifting . . . Let's see here. 

I used a garbage bailer for the first Time in my life. That was fun. . . Crushing cardboard and stuff. 

Ummmm. . . This week. On Memorial Day, We had an awesome BBQ with a member and her friends. We really bonded well and they enjoyed speaking to us. We shared the restoration and we had such a spirit filled lesson with the parents. The members were stellar and shared powerful testimony and helped us teach. The wife committed to read the Book of Mormon and was quite interested in the church. It was such a neat atmosphere to be so involved in the gospel during a simple BBQ. I had to take a step back and have a small reality check and say WOW. I'm on a mission I'm teaching these people about the gospel that I love. About a book that has been tested and rejected, but a book that I cherish and hold dear to my heart. I'm sharing a message that I want the world to hear although they may reject it. I truly love this church, it's built me into the stocky, tall guy that I am today. Haha. I love my savior and the opportunity I have to wear his name on my chest. 

I love you guys. Your emails have helped me more than you will ever know. They've picked me up when I'm at my lowest of lows. Thank you for the support! 

—Elder Coley

Alma 29:8

🐲🐉🐲🐉🐲🐉🐲🐉🐲🐉🐲🐉🐲Lizard counter: 589🐲🐉🐲🐉🐲🐉🐲🐉🐲🐉🐲

🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸 Frog counter: 10🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸

🌲🐑🌾🏔🌋CATAN standings 7-8⬅️ I'm still not happy about this 

🚲🚲🚲 833+ miles 🚲🚲🚲

 Some members had sugar babies, I want one.