Mary has finished decorating our Christmas tree and we have one present under it. There are three pictures because if I use the flash you can not see the lights and if I do not use the flash you can not see the actual color of the tree and some of the ornaments…any way Happy Christmas Everyone.

  

Rather early this morning I received a call from the zone leaders asking if I could go out with Elder Clark this afternoon because Elder Beard was going with the APs to Miami. I said I would love to go and so I spent three hours teaching the gospel. We first went to an older sister – she is exactly 12 days younger than me – and talked about the plan of salvation and what happens when we die and are resurrected. It was a very good experience because she loved the bible and kept a good study journal. On the way out we got a contact with the family in front and an invitation to come back during the week.

We then went to keep a teaching appointment but no one was home so we went harvesting in the same area. We only got into one home but there we were able to bless the house, teach a short lesson on Joseph Smith, give a blessing to Delores who was not feeling well, and get a return appointment. We had a good conversation with another man but he would not let us in to bless his house. We did pray together and made an appointment to come back and teach. On our way back to the car I suggested we try the house where we were originally going and found the woman home and made a new appointment for later in the week.

Our final appointment was with a young woman who spoke little English so Elder Clark taught her in Haitian Creole. We had to teach outside because she was alone. She sat on a 5 gallon bucket and we sat on the step. I was able to bear my testimony of the Book of Mormon and of the first vision in English with Elder Clark translating but I think she understood by the spirit. In the picture you will notice the clothes on the fence behind her. Teaching outdoors with clothes drying on the fence brought back wonderful memories of both Indonesia and South Africa.

It was wonderful to feel the power of the spirit and the blessings of the Spirit that led us to know what to teach and ask. I am looking forward to the next time I can go out with the missionaries.

 

Each missionary in the Fort Lauderdale mission must have a bike. This means that each vehicle needs a bike rack and that there are lots of bikes that need repairing. Today we exchanged cars for two sister missionaries and this required installing a rack on their new car. To make a long story shorter I got to install the rack in a parking lot with it raining. This is not something that they give classes for at the MTC but I am getting fairly good at it.

The pictures above were taken at the storage space where bikes, parts of bikes, and bike racks are stored. The first picture is of the mobile bike repair man that comes out and puts bikes back in serviceable condition. Elder Collins – who handles housing and bikes – and Elder Beagsley were also at the storage shed. I am sure I will learn much more about bikes and bike racks before this mission is over.

  

We had the opportunity tonight to go to the Weston/Pembroke Pines Christmas party and after dinner the YM and YW of the wards beautifully and reverently portrayed the nativity story. After each scene was read by the narrator and acted out by the youth, the audience joined in a carol that fit the scene. It was a real spiritual experience to share this with the wards.

We were happy to see that there were at least 2 non-LDS in attendance that we were introduced to and the missionaries got an appointment with one of them. BTW the food was very good also.

  

These are just pictures from our daily life. The Publix grocery store is on our way home so we stop there a couple of times a week. We found that it has both A&W diet root beer and delicious rice pudding. For those two reasons alone it is a must stop for us.

The other picture is just across a driveway from Publix and I have no idea what the building holds but the scenery was too beautiful to not share. Water, water everywhere today.