A view of the Visitors Center where I conduct the tours, from the Hammock (forest) behind. Our house sits just across the lawns to the right.Richard at the Pennywa (Penny Wash). AS we walk through the Hammock we come to this little dock.  It really is a jungle and you fully expect to see Tarzan come swinging through the trees.

Here is the Orlando Temple. It is such a magnificent building!  Truely fit for a house of the Lord.  We attend weekly and hopw to start serving there soon.  It takes us 1 1/2 hrs to get there

A red shouldered hawk that seemed to enjoy getting his picture taken.  Rich was only 6 ft away for this shot.                                               

 A beautiful sunset here on the ranch.  The missionaries feed these deer behind their house. A snad hill crane.  His name is Bert.

This is a tilapia fish at blue springs.  It's about 2 feet long and loves the clear, sunlit, shallow waters of Blue Springs, where we visited. 

The missionary work is going well. We are very busy and hopefully making a difference. WE did something fun last Saturday for P-day. We traveled most of the day with another missionary couple, the Smiths. We had such a day of adventure! Tell Glen we finally got to see the giant Manatees. They are rather amazing. So big, like giant seals or porpoises, but fatter, and they don't come out of the water, but they go through the water slowly propelling their huge bodies with small paddle-like fins. They come up to the surface every 3-4 minutes for a breath of air, since they are mammals. You used to could swim with them because they are very gentle, but they are endangered now and so no swimming is allowed. They like the warm water of the fresh water springs (75 degrees) until the rivers and ocean get a little warmer. It was a place called Blue Springs and was very beautiful. I sure wanted to jump in and swim in that lovely water. They rented kayaks also, so you can paddle along beside the manatees, and see them up close, which we wanted to do, but couldn't justify the cost that day. Maybe when we have someone visiting. Katie and all the kids would love it!

Then we traveled to a ward about 3 hrs away to attend and exciting ward event called the "Beast Feast" started 20 yrs ago by the dad of a gal in our ward. They serve barbequed chicken, ribs and anything thing else that moves, literally! Rich was so excited, and I was very brave and told myself that as a missionary, I should be willing to try all sorts of things people cook. There were about 30 dishes and each was numbered. They had worked so hard decorating. It was fabulous. Using palms and People's trophy heads of dear, wild boar, a huge alligator skin with the jaws open wide, all mounted on the walls, camouflage tablecloths, With a sign announcing the name, "Chiefland's World Famous Road Kill Café". AS we waited in the very long line around the halls, we were entertained by the most hilarious menus that had nothing to do with what we ate, but made us laugh and lose any appetite we might have had previously. Such as: '"No Fear" Dear - "I ain't afraid of no truck" was this buck's last words! Now it's your treat!', "The Chicken- that didn't cross the road", "Road Toad a la Mode", "Chunk of Skunk", "Radiator Gator--Tenderized and steamed to perfection", "Rigor Mortis Tortoise", "Coyote Casserole", "Awesome Possum", "Shake N' Bake Snake"

AS you went through the line you could serve up whatever appealed to you and peel off a number from the sheet provided and attach it to your plate near the helping to keep track. I was very daring and had about 10 numbers of things to try. After we finished eating, they announced what each of the dishes were.

Sister Smith and I were horrified to find out that the little yummy tender pieces of breaded, fried pieces of meat that were our favorite, were--of all things--Rocky Mountain Oysters!!! WE definitely had our testosterone levels raised that night! WE also found we had tried Fried Squirrel, (too many little bones & too little meat--not worth the trouble!) Chicken feet Rice, Barbequed goat (yummy), armadillo, Alligator stew, Fried Venison(safe meat)and turtle soup,

I sat by the dad of our friend who started all this and had a great time listening as he shared his stories. He said he grew up in the poorest part of Florida and they ate whatever they could catch. He said a chicken was a luxury and they could get 16 pieces from one chicken! The only part discarded was the front of the head, eyes and beak. The neck was cut into three pieces and they used the feet too. Then the chicken was rationed. The entire family ate only three pieces a day in whatever dish Mom concocted for dinner. So it could last a whole week at that rate. Wow! Pretty skimpy! We are so blessed with abundance.

Love ya'all! (Hear my accent that I'm acquiring here?) Elder and Sister Randall

The end of a beautiful Florida day.