We have had a very quiet and lazy P-day. We did a little shopping in the morning but other than that we have stayed around the boarding doing laundry, dishes, catching up some things on the computer and catching a nap.

I have decided that I need to find a new way to mine the gospel gold that is in the Book of Mormon. I have started reading it and writing down each time that the Spirit or the Holy Ghost is mentioned and how it is used. So far I am through chapter 8 and each chapter has at least one verse that uses one of these terms. Often it mentioned being filled with Spirit and other times the spirit instructs. In 3:20 it says that prophet receive truth by the spirit and power of God. I will need to go back and ponder what I have written. 

This was the scene from our porch this evening. About 30 minutes later the heavens opened and the rain poured down.

A couple of days before we were to leave for Florida, the catalpa tree near the house dropped 95% of it’s huge leaves in just a few hours. This happens each year after the first hard freeze of the winter. As soon as the morning sun comes over the mountains, it starts dropping the leaves and by the after noon it looks like this. I got most of them up and in the trash before we left.

 

Until we get acquainted with the ward President Anderson has asked us to serve in, we are spending most of our day in the office. Mary is sitting in the receptions area. One of the couples we will serve with are the Beagleys from Montana. They came with their 5th wheeler and spent the first part of their mission down in the Keys but are now keeping the cars, telephones and records in order.

Today on our way back from lunch I went to the mall to get some things at Radio Shack. The young man who helped me was very friendly and when I was about 50 feet away I felt the spirit tell me I should have given him a pass along card. I turned around and gave him a mormon.org card and he put it in his wallet. I will probably never know if he ever uses it but at least he had one meaningful contact with a member of the Lords Church.

As we headed East on Friday morning we were able to catch the sun just starting to come up in Utah. I did not take any pictures in New Mexico so the next picture is a waffle at LaQuinta in Abilene TX. The next day we made it to Tyler Tx where spent the night with the Weavers who are the parents of a missionary we served with in South Africa. We had only met them in Provo at their son’s Seth’s reception for a few minutes but by the time we left we felt like we had known them for years. The next day we hit the Mississippi at Vicksburg before heading South for Natchez by traveling along the Natchez Trace.

 

After  leaving Natchez we traveled to Panama City Florida where we got to meet with Elder Solo Mthalane. About 2 years ago we got to deliver Elder Mthalane’s mission call to to him at his home in Esikhawini South Africa. We also got to meet him the MTC and go with him to the temple for his endowments.

 

The next day when weleftPanama City we traveled along the gulf route and got to see a number of beautiful waterways that are all along the road. We then turned inland and stopped in a small town that included this hotel…unfortunately Elvis had already left the building.

We made it to Fort Lauderdale on Thursday the 10th and moved into our apartment where we will spend our mission. From our back porch we can see this beautiful lake and fountain. We have already had visitors including a very small lizard and a flock of egrets.

Today we went to our first Zone Conference here in Florida. The Fort Lauderdale and Hialeah zones have 32 missionaries and they include Spanish, Haitian-Creole and English speaking missionaries.

The two talks or presentations that touched me most was one by a sister – forgot to write down her name – who spoke about how her mission was changed when her brother gave her a simile that helped her with tracting – or here what they call Harvesting. He said that each time she knocked on a door she should imagine that she had a blank envelope that had a check for $1 million made out to the family. Her responsibility was to get the family to take the envelope without them knowing what was in it. They would not know that the letter would change their lives.

The other was by elder Kealamakia who told the story of how a very quiet and humble missionary listened to the spirit and went back to talk to a big, gruff, Hawaiian cowboy after his companion told him that the man would not be interested. The cowboy was his grandfather and he accepted the gospel and now elder Kealamakia is serving a mission to bring the gospel to others.

A quick note on the Harvesting program. The missionaries harvest and area but knocking on doors, introducing themselves, and asking if they could come in and leave a short blessing on the house. They are to be bold but with lots of love. It has been successful in getting them into many houses and getting appointments to come back and teach the gospel.

In the evening we went back to the Plantation chapel and met with Bishop Rampton of the Weston Ward where we will be serving. We had a good talk and he invited us for dinner on Sunday night and then to talk in sacrament on the 27th. He seemed very excited about having us serve in the ward.

So it was a good day for us and we are beginning to feel comfortable here.

Mary and I were on our way home when we decided to stop to get menus from a small sub restaurant near our apartment. While we were ordering a friendly man came in and stood next to me while I was ordering. We started talking and he saw my name tag. He asked about it and I told him what we were doing. We talked about religion for a short time…he told me he was Jewish…and then he said that he would like to buy our dinner.At first I was ready to say no thank you, but I decided that if it was something he really wanted to do, we should not say no but be grateful receivers. I thanked him for his generosity and asked if in return we come over and give his home a blessing. He said yes and gave me his phone number.

After we had eaten our subs, I again started talking to him and his son Randy. We talked about his life – a very interesting one – and a little about the Church. He asked me some questions and it was interesting that Randy could answer some of them.

So for the second time today – more about this later – I had an opportunity to briefly touch some lives and see the opportunity I asked for this morning in my prayers come to pass.

Just a short note to say that we made it to our mission field. We do not have internet at our boarding so I am writing from the mission office. I will try to catch up with the last two weeks with our travels and pictures.