I continue to be enthralled by the beautiful sunrises we can see from our apartment. The beauty of the sky and clouds are reflected in the stillness of the water to make an amazing landscape. The Fort Lauderdale Temple continues to grow. These are two pictures of the entrance to the temple. They took down the fabric that made it difficult to see into the site so now all can see how it is progressing.

    

The North side of the temple is behind us. While we were out on our P-day we stopped at a very large nursery – farmer’s market and this very large pink chair was out in front. It reminded us of how on the rural roads in South Africa people put painted tires and chairs on power poles to mark where to turn into their property. The couples got together on Monday night for FHE and since it was the last one before the Beagley’s go home we took a picture. Unfortunately sister Collins was sick so they were not able to be there for the picture.

  

This bird showed up at the complex and I have not yet identified it but liked the way this picture caught the reflection so well. I was looking at pictures of the Burning Man gathering in California and when I saw this picture I immediately thought of the ‘Great and Spacious Building’ in the Book of Mormon.

best quote of the day…it used to be the Holy Sabbath, then it became the Sabbath, then it became Sunday and now it is the weekend!

 I was fed by a number of things that I read or heard today – ideas that need pondering!

First from a 1984 conference talk by Vaughn J Featherstone I read a number of stories of how YM and YW programs touched the lives of young LDS and in this case even non-LDS…

“A year ago at Flagstaff, Arizona, a special banquet for Eagle Scouts was held. There were 1,150 Eagle Scouts. John Warnick, the director of Mormon Relationships, invited all those who would commit to go on a mission to stand. All 1,150 stood. Later, one of the young men, a Catholic boy, went to the bishop and said, “I am not a Mormon, and I committed to go on a mission. What do I need to do?” The bishop said, “Let’s talk to your parents.” During the visit with the family, it was decided that the family should hear the discussions. The family, including the Eagle Scout, are all members of the Church now. 

Then there was this quote from C.S. Lewis used in a sacrament talk : â€œThere are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously – no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.”

Brother Ellis gave us this thought in Priesthood as we discussed keeping the Sabbath Day Holy…He said that long ago it was called the Holy Sabbath, then it was shortened to the Sabbath, then it became Sunday, and now it is the weekend.

And finally this evening from President Anderson’s letter for the week…

“we found ourselves very low on blessings Sunday night after services at the branch.  We had a few more alluring things we could have done but the need was clear to harvest so we could be blessed in the coming week. We began relatively early in the evening and the results were coming slowly.  We pressed forward knowing we’d be blessed for the sacrifice and immersed ourselves in the harvest.  Finally we were able to leave some great blessings and were able to find a great amount of prepared people that we could actually keep for our own area. At long last we were at the last blessing to hit standard in the last minutes of the night at the last apartment door of the floor. We knocked and found a young woman who seemed surprised.  As we invited her to receive the blessing she responded with ‘….this is weird…’  She explained that she had just returned from Costa Rica where she witnessed a change in her family.  She said that after being baptized they had transformed completely from what they’d been and gave her a Book of Mormon to read with the command to find the missionary boys. We testified that we had been sent from God to her, that we’d love to explain more about the book… She accepted baptism for the 16th and after our return appointment she knows exactly how to prepare. “

It has truly been a Holy Sabbath Day….

 Well I finally got around to writing some text to go with these pictures. On the first Friday of each month there is a Zone Leaders’ conference at the mission home and after it is over many of the companionships come in to pick up supplies for their zone. I try to take a couple of pictures of those I do not have captured before

    

Elders Olson & Hatch  serve in the Stewart Zone and drive more miles than any other pair of elders except perhaps the Assistants. Elder Gust and Badillo are ZLs in the Miami Zone. The last picture is a clear sky morning from our patio.

   

The ducklings continue to grow in size and decrease in number. I took these pictures to show some of the different markings that show up in this one flock. The mother duck is almost pure black but as you can see her offspring come in a variety of colors. There is also an almost pure white one that was not around when I took these pictures.

    

On Saturday we went down to try what we were told was one of the best seafood restaurants in the area. The food was excellent as advertised, but it was made even better by the beautiful weather and view.

    

On Sunday Elders Thorne and Larsen had a baptism. I happened to be walking through the building just as they were passing by so I stopped them for a quick picture. Today – Wednesday – many of the new missionaries and their trainers dropped in after they had been to a training meeting that is held about a month after they come into the mission. In the middle Elder Fisher is being trained by Elder Rockwood. On the right Elder Harris is being trained by Elder Dowdle.

   

Elder Kata is training ElderBay. Elder Samuelian who is quite tall himself, is training even bigger Elder Fanaika. Seven sisters happen to come in close together so I got them to gather for a picture. Starting from the right in the picture is Sisters Syme, Lira. Sister Beck who is training Sister Bagley who has the big purse. Sister Aloi is being trained by Sister Holder. On the far left of the picture is sister Hancock who is training Sister Syme. I hope I got those right…if not I apologize.

   

Sister Chavous is being trained by Sister Sheffield. Their serious picture did not come out all that well so I included one showing off their new DVD player which I think shows their smiles much better.

It is a great joy to have all these great missionaries come in to the office and feel of their spirit. They are truly above average missionaries. We are blessed to serve here at a time when the work is exploding.

President Anderson’s letter to the missionaries this week was full of inspired teaching about obedience and also shared just a few missionary experiences that are sent to him each week – 140 letters are sent to him each week. As I read this story about a less active family that the missionaries visited I was impressed by the way the ward reacted but wondered about the home teacher who lived next door and did not know there was a problem…

““We decided to see if there were any less actives that lived nearby. We got the map out and found the one. Didn’t know anything about them and with less actives you never know if they are going to be mean or nice. So we knocked on the door and the 14 year old daughter let us right in. Come to find out they got baptized about 3 years ago. But the mom is deathly sick. On bed rest with an auto-immune disease and has 6 months to live kind of thing; so heartbreaking. So we visited them for a while and when we left we called their neighbor (who we had just eaten with) and turns out he’s their home teacher and had NO idea she was sick. He said he’d get someone and they’d go give her a blessing. Then a few days later we called him again to see how the family is and he told us that he called Bishop and RS pres to let them know about the family’s situation and that meals are now being brought to the family and people are doing what they can to visit her or to take the kids out for the day or whatever. It was a very tender experience for me because if we hadn’t gone to visit them, no one in the ward would know they were in need… It was a testimony to me that the Lord uses us even when we don’t know he is. And the dad and son even came to church on Sunday. It was a powerful experience for me!”

The power of ‘opening your mouth’ continue to bring people into the gospel light as this missionary found out.

“We decided to see if there were any less actives that lived nearby. We got the map out and found the one. Didn’t know anything about them and with less actives you never know if they are going to be mean or nice. So we knocked on the door and the 14 year old daughter let us right in. Come to find out they got baptized about 3 years ago. But the mom is deathly sick. On bed rest with an auto-immune disease and has 6 months to live kind of thing; so heartbreaking. So we visited them for a while and when we left we called their neighbor (who we had just eaten with) and turns out he’s their home teacher and had NO idea she was sick. He said he’d get someone and they’d go give her a blessing. Then a few days later we called him again to see how the family is and he told us that he called Bishop and RS pres to let them know about the family’s situation and that meals are now being brought to the family and people are doing what they can to visit her or to take the kids out for the day or whatever. It was a very tender experience for me because if we hadn’t gone to visit them, no one in the ward would know they were in need… It was a testimony to me that the Lord uses us even when we don’t know he is. And the dad and son even came to church on Sunday. It was a powerful experience for me.”

It is a wonderful experience to serve in a mission with such obedient and hard working missionaries.

    

A couple of days after Isaac passed way to the West – sorry about that Louisiana and others – this was the scene outside our apartment in the morning. I don’t think I will ever get tired of looking out over the lake in the morning. Each day is a new and interesting experience. However I must admit that rainy mornings are not all that interesting.

  

Mary went on Google and found where we lived in Inglewood and Redondo Beach. We laughed at how large those little trees we planted out in front of our new home in Inglewood have grown. A new garage door, a different colored paint job and a new fence were noticed at the Redondo location. The big white bird was just dropped in because there was room…we did had big birds outside our home in South Africa from time to time.

  

Some pictures from the office this week. Mary was making up a couple of dozen binders that are given to new missionaries when the arrive. We already have the names of some of the missionaries who will come in February 2013. The Beagleys are busy with vehicles and baptisms…it is important that sister Beagley is kept busy because that means there were lots of baptisms the week before. Elder Avila was on a split with Elder Beer who is one of the Zone Leaders for the Fort Lauderdale Zone.

    

Sister Dye with Elders Harral and Shaffer at this week’s District Meeting. She promised me that she would have a two mite day! Today – Saturday – Elder and Sister Bare are moving out of their stinky apartment and into sanitized one close by. Elders Rellaford, Conger, Doman, Marsh, Rippstein and Avila volunteered to come and move them. Besides being blessed for their efforts of service, they will get to have all the Papa John’s pizza they can eat.