Good morning…

 

We had the opportunity today of delivering a almost new Ford Fusion to Sisters Bloomfield and Escorbores to replace their much olderToyota Corolla . From their enthusiasm you would think we had delivered a huge Christmas present instead of a car. The picture on the left are the sisters and Mary with their new car…but then they wanted one with their old faithful Toyota. I asked the sisters for their e-mail addresses so I could send them the photos. At first Sister Escorbores – she is from the Dominican Republic and has only been a member about 18 months – said to just send it to Sister Bloomfield and she would get it from her. But after we talked for a while she said we were cool and that she wanted to give us her address as well. It is nice to be thought as cool by the missionaries.

  

After we got back from Miami…about an hour drive each way…we were asked to go to West Palm Beach and pick up some paper work from Elders Osborn and Palacios. We had been to their boarding about a month ago to exchange cars…theirs had been sideswiped and needed repairing…and I had taken a picture of them in their P-day clothes as they were about to go into the gym. So today I wanted to take a picture of them as missionaries. They clean up well I think.

On the way back from West Palm Beach a SUV passed us that had a Christmas tree tied to their roof. At first it took me a couple of seconds to realize this was a once living tree and then I wondered what in the world they were going to do with it. I decided that they had been after Christmas shopping and they found a real bargain. They were going really fast so I guess they needed to get it into water before it dried out. I should know not to be surprised with anything I see on the road in Florida.

At district meeting this morning Elder George, the district leader, asked me to lead the music. Since I have never led music in my life I told him he was crazy but tried anyways. The first song was in 4/4 and I did pretty good there, but the closing song was in 3/4 and I found myself off beat way too often. However I am thankful that Elder George asked because it reminds me that these young elders and sisters have the authority to act in God’s name as missionaries.

The Zone Leaders, Elder Beard and Elder Clark, demoed the use of a calendar to help investigators prepare for baptism. We then were asked to be the investigators for Sisters Hong and Holder to practice. They did a great job and even overcame a small objection that I threw in. After their turn they invited us to try. I did not feel that we were ready to do this but they persuaded us to try. Once we got started I felt the spirit helping us and I think we did pretty good. Of course the missionaries said we did but I think they were being kind. I did forget to give the calendar to the ‘investigator’ but otherwise it felt good. I can see how using the calendar will help the investigator be prepared for a set baptism date.

Christmas may be over but Christmas mail is not…we received 20 or more packages and about 100 pieces of mail. When I loaded up the van to take all of this and the left over baskets back to the post office, the van looked like a US mail truck. It is great that the missionaries get so much mail but it will be nice when it gets back to normal.