Yet Another Day of Apartment Hunting

Well, we spent another day looking for apartments.  We have now looked at 16 apartment models.  In addition, we drove through a couple of complexes but didn't stop to look at any models.  I'm sure that we haven't looked at all of the alternatives, but it feels as though we have.

We have narrowed the selection to three prime alternatives.  We will revisit those tomorrow and hopefully be able to then make a decision.  A couple of the alternatives won't have apartments available for a week or more.  If needed we will move out of our extended stay hotel in Tampa and into an apartment in Sarasota that has been used by Elders in the past.

Busy Sunday

We had a busy day today.  First we attended the Temple Terrace Ward meetings.  When we told them that we were newly arrived senior missionaries, the ward members, including the bishop, suggested that we ask the mission president to assign us to their ward.  Apparently, they like senior missionary couples.

We then drove to the mission home to meet with President Cusick.  The mission home is about a 20 minute drive north of the mission office.  The home is quite nice and was just recently purchased by the Church to use as a mission home.  The Cusicks have their youngest child, Kate, living with them.  She is a junior in high school and is attending a tennis academy.  I asked her to let us know when she would be playing in a tournament so we could watch her.

President Cusick called me to be the 1st counselor in the mission presidency.  He then gave us a 4 page listing of things that we should do.  He emphasized that with the exception of any occasional interviews that I would be conducting, the assignments are for both of us.  Although there are a couple of tasks that he asked Renee to do, such as work on public relations.

We are assigned to "supervise" the missionaries in three zones which correspond to three stakes in the mission; Sarasota, St. Petersburg, and Brandon.  Our primary focus is the Sarasota Stake, which includes Bradenton, which is why he would like us to live in that area.  We are to regularly visit each of the units in the stake to assess how the missionaries are working with the members -- and vice versa.  There are 13 units in the Sarasota Stake, so we be on a quarterly rotation to visit the units.  Two of the units are Spanish-speaking, so that might be a challenge for us.  When we visit the units, we are to attend all of the meetings, included ward council should that be held on that Sunday.  President Cusick indicated that we might be asked to speak in Sacrament Meeting, and he encouraged us, both of us, to speak.  He said that we have one topic -- missionary work.

Following our meeting with him, we joined the Cusicks and several missionaries for dinner.  One of the missionaries, Sister Upshaw, is headed home tomorrow after completing her mission.  Her father is not a member, so she still has missionary work to do.

Dinner outdoors at the mission home -- in January!

Another Day Of Apartment Hunting

Today our focus on apartment hunting was in the Sarasota area.  Several people had told us that the apartments in Sarasota are more expensive than Bradenton.  We found that to be true, but maybe we were just looking at more expensive rental units.  We discovered that one of the complexes we quite liked has two Elders already living in it.  I don't know if it would be good or bad to be living close to some Elders.  At least we would have some "muscle" to help us move furniture (if we had any).

We have found some good possibilities, so we aren't too stressed about the search. Now the question is whether we have seen enough to make an informed decision.  Needless to say, they are all beginning to blur together.  At least tomorrow we will have a full day of Church and other meetings, so no apartment hunting.

Apartment Hunting

We spent the day looking for an apartment in Bradenton and Sarasota.  Today we focused on the Bradenton area.  There are a lot of large apartment complexes with 200+ apartments.  Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of available apartments since this is the height of the "snowbird" season.  But we have found a couple of possibilities.  Tomorrow we will continue the search in Sarasota.

I'm sure that the snowbirds are disappointed right now because the high temperature today was 60.  But it is supposed to warm up next week.

We Have Arrived In Tampa

After 5 nights on the road and 2364 miles, we arrived this afternoon at the Mission Office in Tampa.  Thank goodness for our Garmin GPS navigator.  We stopped overnight in Monticello, UT; Santa Fe, NM, Wichita Falls, TX; Jackson, MS; and Lake City, FL.  The trip was generally uneventful except for the cold temperatures and an unplanned trip to an Urgent Care facility in Santa Fe.  (Renee was diagnosed with an upper respiratory tract infection and we purchased some medicine.  She is now fine.)

We met briefly with President Cusick.  He would like us to find an apartment in the Sarasota/Bradenton area.  However, first he has some projects in the mission office that he would like us to work on.  So we will be living in an extended stay hotel in Tampa for several days.  Since it may take us some time to find an apartment, he suggested that we start looking tomorrow and start on the projects on Monday.  We also have an assignment for which ward to attend this Sunday and some meetings for next week.

It is good to be here, and we are looking forward to beginning the work.

Do you think this will be sufficient for our needs?

MTC Day 5

We completed the MTC today.  I think that we both agree that it was a good experience.  Although my bias is against role playing, I can see the value as we practiced teaching.  Today we had some presentations and discussion with returned senior missionaries who shared their experiences.  That helped us understand that our work and hopefully influence will not be limited to just our formal assignments.

Our District (Peterson's, Selle'rs, Wilson's, and Tracy's) and Teachers

I greatly enjoyed the association with the other senior missionary couples.  They are just good people who will have a great impact in the various locations around the world where they are assigned.  We learned that only about half the needed senior couples are currently serving.

Tomorrow we start our 34 hour drive to Tampa.  I won't mind leaving the single digit temperatures that we have had the last few days.  I'm not sure how much posting we will do while underway.

MTC Day 4

Today we had another practice teaching opportunity.  In a way, I feel sorry for the volunteer "investigators" who have to listen to us struggle to teach a coherent lesson.  And each of them have to sit through three consecutive lessons during the morning.  I understand why the role playing and practice teaching is useful.  That doesn't make it exciting though!

Elder Tracy in our district has been feeling poorly, so he went to the doctor.  He was diagnosed with pneumonia.  (Glad that it wasn't something communicable.)  Yesterday he missed the entire day to rest.  Today apparently the medication had some effect, and he was able to participate the entire day, 8 - 4:30.

We had an "elective" class session today during part of our lunch break.  The session was on how to use the Church's Gospel Library app.  As it turned out, almost all of the senior missionary group attended.  Perhaps they should make that a regular part of the curriculum.

Our training has focused primarily on how to teach and invite.  Very little time has been spent on the content of the lessons in Preach My Gospel.  I guess they assume that the senior missionary couples already have an understanding of the gospel.