Pictures to be added a little later….

14 April 2012 – Saturday

I am sitting at the computer trying to think of what to write about for the week. Since I am not keeping up my journal on a day to day basis, some of the best experiences fall through the cracks. 

Monday April 9 – turned into a busy day because things kept coming up that had to be taken care of. We are now opening the office at 8:00 or close there to and are closing it up between 4:30 and 5:00. Mary continues to learn how to be mission secretary I continue to learn the ins and outs of being financial secretary. 

Besides that I take care of the phones, help elder Beagley when I can and do odd jobs as they come up. 

Tuesday April 10 -  we went to District meeting which not only moved from the Plantation to Ft Lauderdale chapel but also it seems moved from 10:30 to 10:00 without us knowing it. So we arrived after the meeting had been going for 30 minutes. Elder Hanson was there with Elder Castillo as was the new zone leaders – elder Rippstein and Fitts. Elder Beard is the new district leader and he was his usual positive self in getting the district pumped up to be successful by setting meaningful goals for baptisms and baptismal dates for the transfer. It will be interesting to see how it works out.

Wednesday April 11 – was busy in the morning but by the afternoon things were very quiet and seemed to go on forever. At times it seems every couple in the mission except the Beutlers are in the office and then there will be no one except Mary and I.

During the day I worked with Elder Beagley to try and get his vehicle records in sync with everything. I also made new gas card and vin # lists for him to try and make it easier to find out who has what when he can not get to a computer.

Thursday April 12 – was interesting because I got a call from the father of a missionary about his son’s personal credit card. Since the father and son could not talk directly I got to be the middleman as they tried to work it out with the bank. It went on most of the day and when I went home I was not sure what if anything had been settled.

The other excitement for the day was that all the couples went to Olive Garden for lunch to say goodbye to the Steimles who will be leaving at the end of the month. Even the Collins came in despite elder Collins back still hurting. 

Friday April 13 – in the morning I called the father and found out that he had worked out the problem with the bank and then I called the elder to tell him not to worry any more. The only other excitement for the day was we got back some checks from a landlord who was getting paid by both ourselves and Orlando for an apartment. It turned out that the financial secretary in Orlando did not realize one of the Stuart apartments were still on his batch payments list and approved the payment when he should have put it as ‘do not pay.’

Friday afternoon as I was working with Elder Hansen he mentioned that he thought missionaries coming into the field today were much better prepared to teach and become successful than his group from 2 years ago. I mentioned that my neighbors was one of those involved in changing the teaching program at the MTC that made this possible.

I heard elder Kealamekia say that we led the English speaking missions in number of new investigators last week. As President Mann always said, you have to keep putting people into the top of the hopper if you wanted to keep having people to teach and baptize. 

I almost forgot to mention that on Monday we got the news that new couple will be coming to the mission in May. The President did not know they were even called but will be happy to get them. It seems that when your mission is being successful, you get blessings you do not expect. The McCormicks are coming as Member and Leadership Support missionaries. It will be interesting to find out where President Anderson is inspired to use them. If they were up in Stuart or down in Homestead, they could cut down on a lot of travel by Elders Sommerfeldt and Evans. Wherever the President puts them it will be where the Lord wants them.

Back to Saturday April 14 -  P-day and we spent it alternating between cleaning the house and just relaxing. Since Wednesday I have been reading through the conference talks on the computer and pasting important thoughts into a study journal. After I am done I hope to go through it regularly and catch the spirit that I felt as I watched and then read the talks by the Lord’s chosen servants. 

President Uchtdorf’s great bumper sticker – “Don’t judge me because I sin differently than you.”

I have been feeding the ducks and other birds that show up around the apartment pieces of bread. Today I got not only ducks but the white ibis and a smaller brown bird that I have not been able to identify. What really surprised me was how easily the ibis’s long beak could break up even the toughest bread. I do not know how it has enough strength in it’s jaws to put that much pressure on the middle of it’s beak.

The small birds arrived late to the party and would snatch pieces away from the ducks and ibis. Then when the bigger birds would try to get it back they would just fly away to eat their prizes in peace before coming back for more.

In the evening we had the Sommerfeldts and Evans over for a pizza dinner. After dinner and good conversation the Sommerfeldts had to leave to help the elders in their area so we and the Evans played a rousing game of Five Crowns. Elder Evans won easily and I managed to not be the high score by 2 points over sister Evans. A good time was had by all.