We continued our tradition of having a last lunch for the Fort Lauderdale district on the Tuesday before transfers. By then they know who is going to be transferred but not where. We had six elders arrive – we still have not had Elder Fitts and Rippstein to one – and they got to eat a fair share of the pizza before the eight sisters came. Now actually there are not any sisters in the FL district this transfer but we have always invited the sisters who live across the street from the Waves to come and this time they asked if they could bring some of the other sisters in the zone and so we had a nice group of sisters – including sister Pack who was heading home on Thursday.

They seemed to greatly enjoy the garlic bread – elder Plowman seemed to always have a piece in his hand and sister Dye commented on how good it was a couple of times – and they even cleaned out the green salad which does not always happen. We fed them home made brownies – I think brownies are the dessert of choice for most mission meals – and then shooed them out so we could get back to the office and get more done for transfers.

  

The elders gathered around the table until the sisters came. In the middle is elder Wilson and sister Smith. Sister Carnes, Perry and Smith with elder Wilson – he was not going to give up his place at the table.

  

Notice that sister Pack is busy on the phone even as she eats. Elder Rasmussen  – closest to the camera in the middle picture was transferred to Miami Beach Zone – Sister Pack and Elder Marsh. We will miss his always cheerful attitude and great smile. He will be serving in the Miami Shores area.

All eight sisters in the Zone – back Lavoie, Carnes, Dye, Geest, Smith,  – front Perry, Pack, Andrus – one last picture before some are transferred or go home. But most of them will be serving in the area for another 6 weeks.

5 of the days were very busy, 2 were pretty busy, and the other three were not so much. Transfer week is always a busy one for us – especially Mary. We get the “final” transfer report from the assistants on Monday – it is usually sitting on our desks when we get in – and then we can get things moving. Mary actually gets a heads up on Thursday or Friday about those who will have the opportunity to serve for the first time as District Leaders, Zone Leaders or Assistants so she can start getting letters out to the missionaries parents and PH leaders. There are also a series of letters for the missionaries going home and those coming in. All in all she gets to write and post a lot of letters. I started to write all the other things that she does for a transfer but I got tired and will leave it at that.

My task is much easier. All I need to do is make up a transfer scenario that shows the new organization of the mission, get ever missionary with the right companion, in the right area, district, zone and with the correct calling. It sounds harder than it really is but I still manage to make mistakes. However this time I only had two corrections with my first attempt. I have the assistants look over the board and make sure everything as they should be.

Once the transfer is finalized – this means that Salt Lake has it firmly in their servers – I can sync it with a wonderful program called ‘Establishing Zion’ that was developed by Elder Parry, an IT whiz  who served here before we came, for the Fort Lauderdale Mission that provides us with some wonderful tools and reports that are not available through the Church’s software.

Last transfer – the first one without Elder Steimle guiding me – it took me four days and a number of attempts to get things almost correct. This time I managed to do it is one day and I think everything is correct. YES!

The other person besides Mary who really does not look forward to transfers is Elder Beagley who is affectionately called the Car Czar. This one was especially difficult because not only were there the usual cars to be swapped around as areas were dissolved and created, but there were 5 new cars to get to the right areas, TIWI’s to be installed and get operating, and of course new drivers to instructed. He got to run around in the warm weather for 3 hours getting everything straight but he got it done and could still smile.

Mary and I took care of getting the mail ready to be picked up by those who were being transferred. We have this pretty much down to a science and it goes off with few if any hitches. The missionaries are always eager to get mail and it is too bad that family and members can not see the big smiles as the missionaries find something for them. After this mission I am going to try to do better in writing real letters to missionaries from our ward.

We did have one unusual experience this transfer. Since the missionaries who were going home went to the temple last Friday instead of on Transfer day. We had them in the office for about 5 hours with the instructions from President Anderson to try and keep them busy. Mary loved it because a group of them laminated and trimmed 280 plus cards that she normally has to do each transfer. They did it in about 3 hours where it takes us a couple of days.

What I did not do is take any pictures of the missionaries at work. This was probably because I was trying to get the transfer board completed so it could be finalized. In any case there is no permanent reminder of an unusual transfer day.

  

However I did manage to take three pictures at the chapel. Elder Plowman has been with us in the Fort Lauderdale Zone for all but one transfer but was moved Palm Beach Zone where he will be serving with Elder Free in the Palm Beach North area. Elder Wilson was also transferred. He will be serving with Elder Koleber in the Fort Pierce area of the Stuart Zone – that is as far North as you can get in the mission. He asked for a picture with me – notice I almost as tall as his chin! Hopefully we will get to see these two fine missionaries at some future conferences or during another transfer.