 
 
The Harmons sent us some pictures of the snow that is falling at our house in Provo! From the looks of the accumulation on the rails it is about 6-8 inches. At the same time it is about 80 degrees here in Plantation Florida…the snow looks great and we do miss it some. However being missionary snow-birds is not all that much of a sacrifice!
Florida Driving Rule #1 – Never drive through Miami during rush hour! Florida Driving Rule #2 – If you must drive through Miami during rush hour at least set your map to the correct location! Florida Driving Rule #3 – See Rule #1
In the morning we thought we were going to a District Meeting but when we got there it turned out to be the Fort Lauderdale Zone Meeting! So we had a chance to spend a couple of hours with 22 great above average missionaries and share their reports, training and testimonies. It have us a chance to get to know some of the missionaries we have not served with closely. It was a spiritual experience to hear them discuss how they were going to reach their goals by working both harder and smarter.
Part of the problem with traffic is that there is a huge expansion program on the 595 freeway. It was going on before we got here and will probably continue for well after we have left. Unfortunately it is a freeway that we use often. At Zone Meeting elder Hall was asked to lead the music – he does not know how to lead but bravely got up and gave it a try. Elders Rondo, Patino, and Maki as well as sisters Escorbores and Tuai join in singing.
One part of Zone Meeting is that the companionships give an accounting for the month. Elders Brown and Marcusen, Sisters Stegelmeier and Dye – sister Dye will shoot me when she sees this picture – Elders Wood and Shaffer all give their reports.
Elders Castillo and Maki, Sisters Escorbores and Tuai give their report. We have so many missionaries coming in that we had to move another bookcase in to hold all their New Missionary Binders. Hopefully someday there will be enough coming that both will be filled.
During the afternoon we got texts from Jim – who was in Miami for a business meeting – telling us when and where we could get together for a couple of hours. It turned out that we left our apartment just after 5:00 for what should have been a 40-45 minute drive to his hotel. Everything seemed to be going well until we got off the freeway and we found ourselves in terrible traffic that seemed to stop every block for a light. Then we could not follow the Goggle Map because they do not seem to mark cross streets very well in Miami. Of course it did not help that somehow the map Mary was trying to follow was to the wrong location. By hooking up the GPS and calling Jim we finally got to his hotel only about 40 minutes later than we should have.
 
 
All of the driving frustration was worth it as we were able to give him some big hugs, eat a nice dinner at a nearby set of shops, and catch up on lots of things for a couple of hours. While we were dropping him off at his hotel his boss was just getting out of a cab so we got to meet him. He is also a member of the Church and a convert so we had a lot in common.
We found out while talking that it seems that Jim’s family may be coming down in February to go to Disney World! If so we will ask president Anderson if it is OK if we take a couple of days off to go up to Orlando and be with them. That way we would get to see Colin and the girls!
One of the blessings we have is to be able to read the weekly letter from President Anderson that not only provides guidance and encouragement as to how we can improve as missionaries in helping others come unto Christ, but where he shares a few of the amazing stories he receives each week from missionaries.
I was very happy to read this first story because I had a feeling yesterday that the way to help members understand how powerful Harvesting truly is was to have them go out for an hour or two and share the experience. Once they had this experience they would be more willing to go harvesting again, go back when the missionaries taught the people, and become friends with the investigators before they were baptized.
“We harvested a few houses with a member… she was horrified that we do what we do, (invite people to be baptized after a short prayer in their homes). I said, ‘I have been doing this a year and a half and trust me it works, it proves its self time and time again.’ She reluctantly stood in the back ground on each blessing in awe. We met a family of 4 and invited them to be baptized and come to church. The dad, said that he would ask his wife, and they would see, we testified and invited them to church and left. We went back the next day and confirmed church, and they walked into the sacrament meeting the day after. We went up to the member who harvested with us and we said, “does that family look familiar”? She was shocked and said, ‘Sisters! It really does work!’.”
“Both my companion and I carry copies of the Book of Mormon while we harvest and at almost every blessing we give them a copy of the Book of Mormon. We harvested into Guillermo and he was very receptive to let us in. We walked in his house, his wife, who was on the phone at the time, looked at us and then yelled at him and told him to kick us out. We went outside with him and he apologized and said her father had just passed away last night. We explained that death is not the end and how families can be together forever. As we were teaching the Plan of Salvation, the door slowly opened and his wife came out. She didn’t say a word but as we testified to her that she would live with her father again, you could see her heart melt and peace envelope her. We left them with a blessing and she was smiling. We invited them to be baptized for the 11th of November and they both accepted. We left a Book of Mormon with them and committed them to read Alma 40 as a family. This really helped me remember how real the Plan of Salvation is. It’s incredible to be a representative of Jesus Christ!”
Tropical storm/hurricane Sandy that did so much damage up North, seems to have pulled all the moisture away from Southern Florida. I believe that this is the first time since we got here a year ago that it has not rained for a full week. The other unusual event was we got notice that the first 19 year old sister is coming to be a missionary here in January! Hopefully it is the first of many because we can use more above average missionaries who will invite others to come unto Christ!
 
 
This is the way the sky looked almost all week. Even when there were clouds they did not produce any rain. On Tuesday we went to the Fort Lauderdale district meeting. It is one of the high points of our week as we get to share the spirit with the young missionaries. After the meeting elder Hall entertained us with some juggling of the tangerines we bought for a treat. Elders Rellaford, HoChing and Bloom look on. With winter coming on the birds that disappeared at the start of summer are showing up again.
 
 
The APs. Elders Avila and Rippstein show off their new almost matching ties that we bought for them. We told them when they wear them they will always remember each other, the mission and us. Elder Rippstein is concentrating on getting the numbers of baptisms that are possible for this weekend. Friday was Zone Leaders Council and after it was over most of the ZLs came in. I took a number of pictures but this was the only one that was worth posting. The Sommerfeldts are talking to Elder Odar with Elders Edwards and Bjorling in the background. We have ‘awesome’ Zone Leaders serving at this time. They really are dedicated to not only their missionary work but to lifting the missionaries in their Zone to ever greater heights.
 
 
These are just fun pictures that have shown up over the last couple of weeks. Our wonderful Chicago Pier family dressed up for Halloween. The middle is four of our great returned missionaries getting together – Elders Kealamaki and Hansen with Sisters Pack and Hong. Our outside greeter has become the nesting place of a very persistent lizard. We have no idea why he likes it – t there is no food or water there. Perhaps he just like to have a roof over his/her head.