Winter brings snowbirds…human ones that makes the impossible Florida traffic even worse – something that did not seem possible. Then there are the migratory birds that come down to enjoy the Florida sun. One very interesting one showed up in the last couple of weeks – the female Hooded Merganser which I managed to get a great shot of one on our lake. Also we have had a really beautiful Wood Stork that has been around for a few weeks.

 

Four of our great sister missionaries visited us during the week so I took their picture with the APs…Elder Rippstein, Sisters Dye, Stegelmeier, Johnson, and Holyan and Elder Avila. Sister Dye will be going home on this transfer but she will be working as hard as she can up until she gets on the plane.

  

Thursday night we were invited to the Fort Lauderdale Relief Society social where we were the guest speakers. I took a couple of pictures before it really got started but once people started coming I had too much fun getting to know some of the sisters of the ward. We had a delicious light meal and then got to talk about gratitude. Mary did a great job talking about the things she had in her ‘gratitude basket.’ I suggested that we could give thanks by doing – including giving the gift of the gospel to someone this Christmas season.

  

On Friday President Anderson held exit interviews at the mission home for some of the 12 great missionaries that will be leaving us. Elders Conger and Meredith came in for their interview and to pick up one of the new Cruzes. Elder Bare – our very busy Car Czar – enlisted them in carefully giving a final check of the car before it went off to Belle Glade where elder Meredith will be able to drive it for the last five days of his mission. If you look at this blog’s post of November 22, 2011 you will find pictures of us with elder Meredith. As I looked at these early pictures of our mission I realized that 13 months later Elder Meredith and Sister Holder – who is also in this transfer group – are the last two missionaries in that original district that are going home. It has been an wonderful year. Elder Conger was our district leader up until a transfer ago when transferred up to be a zone leader with our friend Elder Plowman.

 

Later in the day Elder Conger came back with elders Furner and Reidhead, two more missions who have served excellent missions and will be leaving us soon. As the day at the office ended Mary rests on the sofa as we waited for E/S Bare so we could go and have a delicious meal together.

I almost forgot to mention that for the second time this year, our blog got a mention in the Deseret News’ “Bloggernacle. ”

“Mission temple: Bill & Mary’s Blog: Words from the mission field has been following the construction of the Fort Lauderdale Florida Temple and share some updated photos, including some close-ups of the magnificent blue stained-glass windows. Looks like it will be another gorgeous temple.”