These three pictures were taken on the 13th when all the couples got together at the Mission Home because the Graffs who served here before we came were in town to go to the temple with some members they had been close to while they were here.  When the couples get together there is always lots of good food and chatter. And there is always a picture to remember the great time we had.

  

Kristy posted these two pictures on her blog I love the one where Colin’s tiny hand is gripping Kristy’s thumb.

This was taken a couple of weeks ago…maybe 3…and I just got it from Elder Clark. I did not have one on my camera because I could not remember how to set the delay! This is an excellent district and zone leaders.

Left to right – Elders George, Smoot, Clark, Beard, Meredith, Stohlton. Front row Sisters Mills, Hong and Holder and of course us. Sister Mills went home soon after this was taken and Elder Stohlton went on last Thursday. Other than that the district stayed the same. Elders Clark and Beard are the Zone Leaders.

Today we were at Church from 11:15 to about 5:30. First we attended PEC meeting, then we had the block meetings, and after that there was a baptismal service for three children.

While we were waiting to go into the PEC meeting sister Lundrigan, the new Relief Society president, came up and we started talking. We asked about how it was to go from being Primary president directly to Relief Society president and shared some our history with her. Somehow as we talked we mentioned that we had served is South Africa and it turns out her family came from South Africa. Somehow it came up that we knew a couple named Blackburns and she got excited. It turned out that her mother knew Elder Blackburn back when he was a missionary in South Africa. Some years later when brother and sister Lundrigan needed a sponsor so they could immigrate to the US from Canada, her mother called the Blackburns and they were happy to sponsor them.

We told her about meeting the Blackburns when they first came to the Durban mission and that we kept in contact with them through Facebook and e-mails. She did not realize that they would be coming home in March and I gave her their blog address. The LDS Church is a small world indeed.

 

There is a very spiritual story about the baptism that was held today. It started when Fabriana Lima was baptized around Christmas time. Her road to baptism is very special in itself but that is another story. In her testimony at today’s baptism she told how for some reason she walked down her street and knocked on the door of a family she did not know at all. After getting to know the mother she told her about her conversion to the LDS church and asked if she would like to have the missionaries come over. The mother and her three children were taught by the assistants – Elders Neeley and Kealamakia – and the children were ready to be baptized today and hopefully the mother will join them next week.

Fabriana mentioned that going to their home and asking if she could talk to them was something she never did. But since she has been baptized she wants to share her joy with others.

I was asked to give the opening prayer and be a witness. As I stood and watched the first young woman enter into the font, I received a witness that the spirit was there and that she was ready to be baptized. This took all doubt from my mind about the wisdom of three children being baptized before their mother was ready. It is the Lord’s Church and He is in charge.

Since we have been here the Weston Ward has had more baptisms in 2 months than they have had in any 12 month period. The work is really starting to move forward in this area. We are winning…

We were up early – at least early for us – so we could tour along the coast before the traffic got terrible. The trip turned out to be one we probably will not do again anytime soon but was worth doing once. There is water everywhere in Southern Florida and any water near the ocean has lots of boats. After we got home I noticed I did not take any pictures of rows of yachts but they are there and I will capture them later.

  

Of course the first water we saw was the lake behind our apartment that stretches from swimming pool to swimming pool. When we went looking for a way down to the actual waterfront we found ourselves in a cul-de-sac that had three or four houses for sale. This obviously empty modern beauty caught our eye. The last picture shows the canal or waterway behind the building and you can just see a good size boat anchored behind some house.

  

Another attempt to get to the sea got us to another dead end. The first picture was taken from a dock that reached out into a lake. The boats here were smaller and the houses across the street seemed small and older – I am sorry I did not take a picture. As I was walking back to the van a man came out of a house and he obviously was wondering what I was doing on his dock. I told him I looked to make sure there was no sign saying stay off and we had a nice conversation. I found out that this humble home sold for close to a million dollars before the bubble broke. They now sell for closer to $500,000. As I started to leave I thanked him and gave him a pass-along card.

On our way home we took a side road called Old Griffin Road. It was obviously an old main road – (New) Griffin Road is a 6 to 8 lane modern main road – and ran along a beautiful tree lined canal with lots of places to park and take pictures. The last two gives a good idea of how peaceful the area and how modest looking most of the houses are. They probably sell for a million dollars or more.