This has been an extra busy week because not only were there new missionaries, transfers, and departing missionaries that pretty much took up Tuesday through Thursday but today was Zone Leaders Council so after the meeting most of them stopped in at the office to pick up needed supplies and to take care of other matters.

Elder Bare and I were out shifting some vehicles around when the main group came through, but we got back in time for me to take a few pictures to share.

  

Elders Skousen and Williams are serving down in the Homestead zone. Elder Williams was trying to get his driver’s license renewed via the internet. He needs it to drive and to get on the airplane to go home in the future. Elders Edwards and Bjorling serve at the other end of the mission up in Stuart. Elders Plowman and Odar serve in the Palm Beach Zone…elder Bare and Mary were busy working while I took pictures.

  

Elders Beer and Brown made plenty of points with sister Pier as they assembled a dozen of the packets that she sends to missionaries who have received their call to come to the Fort Lauderdale Mission. This beautiful picture of the temple was posted on FaceBook and I could not find out who took it. It was taken from inside a gated community that is directly East of the temple that I can not get into. It was just too special not to share here.

We were just starting to think about finishing getting ready to head to the office at 7:30 when we got a call from President Anderson saying that 7 of our departing missionaries could not get on a Frontier flight because they were 55 minutes early instead of an hour so we had to find an alternate flight for them to travel. We quickly threw everything together and headed down to the office where Mary woke the sister who is on call 24 hours a day to find a way to get them out of Fort Lauderdale and home. She did a great job and just a short time later they were on a American flight and everyone could breath again. Mary then called all the parents to inform them of the change in schedule so they did not show up at the airport and not have their missionary come off as expected.

  

Before the president called this morning I was looking at the Tembe elephant park webcam and this is the scene that greeted me. We always kind of chuckle when we see the South end of an animal going North because it always amazed us how often this is the view we got of many animals when we would go to a game park.

Yesterday the assistants were so busy that I never got a picture of them together. So this morning after they made it safely back to the office from the near disaster at the airport, I took this one of Elders Rippstein, Shipley and Avila. Elder Shipley is lucky to have the chance to be trained by the other two who are departing at the next transfer in January.

All the missionaries left at about the same time but Sister Spujt had about 5 hours to wait for her flight so she came in and went right to work helping with some of the tasks that must be done each transfer. I was more than happy to have her doing this because what she gets done, I will not need to do tomorrow. We took her to the airport about 90 minutes before her flight – we were not going to take any chances with her not getting to leave.

So all’s well that ends well…so they say.

Transfer day is always an amazing experience but it is also a lot of work. To see the great missionaries as they leave companions they have learned to love and then embrace their new companions that they will learn to love. What a joy it is to hear the testimonies of the new missionaries, the recital of our purpose, and of course to hear 80 or so dedicated missionaries sing together. A number of times today the power of the spirit brought tears to my eyes. It is certainly worth the price of admission.

  

Sisters Aloi and Bagley will be serving in Coral Springs. Sister Brown is being trained by sister Quiocho in Miami Shores. Elders Burgon and Harral are serving up in Fort Pierce.

  

Elders Burt and Bloom are in Fort Lauderdale South. Sister Carnes will be training Judkins in Hialeah East. Elders Curtis and K. Brown will serve together in Blue Lagoon East.

  

Elders J Brown and Beer are serving as Zone Leaders in Miami Zone – Killian East. Elders King and Fisher (Kingfisher?) are serving in Coral Reef North. Sisters Dougal and Sheffield are up in Stuart North.

  

Elders Free and Wardell seem very pleased to be serving together in Plantation. Elder Lee and our good friend  elder Marsh are together in Miami Gardens. Elders Marcussen and Rugg are now together in Hollywood Hills East.

  

When transfer meeting ends the parking lot looks like a game of musical cars…only hopefully there are enough cars for every missionary or we have problems. Elder Evans took the car czar post for a day while elder Bare was up with the departing missionaries at the temple. The next stop is the mission office where the missionaries fill up on supplies, snacks and it gives Sister Pier a chance to show off pictures from our other missions and our family.

 

The first time through I left off this great picture of sisters Hymas and Symes who will serve together in Killian West so they got a line completely to themselves.

 

Some of those who came to the office got their pictures taken next to the Christmas tree.  Elders O’Neill and Silva will serve in El Portal South. Elder Odar and another of our close friends elder Plowman will serve as ZLs in Palm Beach Zone. Elders Palacios and Maki are now in Belle Glade.

  

Elder Pattberg and Chamberlain are in Coconut Creek South. Elder Rasmussen will train elder Claude in Coconut Creek North. Elder Rondo is now the companion of elder Thorne who has served here in Fort Lauderdale before.

  

Sister Schneider is training with sister Lira in Miami Lakes North. The threesome of elders Shepard,  Mackley and Semons are serving in Homestead West. Elder Tesch is going to get great training with elder Hanna in Sunset South.

  

Sisters Tuai and Chavous are serving in Hollywood North. Elders Wood and Pond will serve in Cypress Creek. Elder Hall will be with elder Wilson in Boca Raton.

 When we first got to Richards Bay, South Africa, the Bartholomews and Hafens introduced us to the idea of a last supper for the zone – 2 districts – on the last Sunday before transfers. We continued the tradition all through our time there and picked it up again when we got to Fort Lauderdale. However we had to change it from a last supper to a last lunch so the missionaries could – with the permission of President Anderson – come on their last P-day. It is something we look forward to as it gives us a chance to get to know the missionaries better and it is a way to show our love for them and their amazing diligence in serving the Lord.

  

Mary with Elder Hall – he came early with his companion elder Bloom so they could do their e-mail on our computers. It is elder Hall’s 4th and last, last lunch.

  

Elder Rellaford has been training elder Taylor. They will be here for another 6 weeks.

   

Elder Patino and elder Rondo have served together for this transfer. Elder Patino is being transferred.

  

Elders Rellaford and Patino are enjoying their pizza on the couch while most of the missionaries were gathered around the table. Sisters Stegelmeier and Dye were special guests – sister Dye is heading home on Thursday.

  

The Fort Lauderdale district has been very busy this transfer and it always difficult at transfer time when good friends leave for new assignments. But it is also an inspiring experience to see how the Lord through President Anderson and the assistants develop a transfer plan that will move the mission forward in the days to come. The zone leaders – Elders HoChing and Bishop join the district for a group picture. We are sad and yet happy to bid goodbye to elder HoChing ans Sister Dye as they leave the mission and move into the next period of their lives. They are both powerful missionaries and they will be leaders in the Kingdom throughout their lives. I do not usually post weird pictures of missionaries because they do not really reflect who they are but since elder Bishop took this picture of himself, I thought it was fair to share it with everyone.

 

We came in to the office this morning and found a pair of elves decorating the Christmas tree. Elder and Sister Sommerfeldt did a wonderful job of decorating the tree and the entrance. I love this shot of the tree that was taken with the overhead lights off so the light from the tree is shown bouncing off the walls.

 

This beautiful wreath now hangs on the door and of course true joy came to the earth with the birth of the Savior of the world. It is so important to keep Christ in Christmas.

President Anderson shared this great missionary story in his weekly letter to the missionaries. To me it shows the power of the spirit in teaching and learning as described in D&C 50 – all were edified.

“A missionary departing this week shared an amazing experience of how he and his companion were able to “set the table” and become “instruments in the hands of God”:

 

“As we were harvesting on Sunday evening, we had a thought to follow up on some people …  No one else was home that we wanted to see except Marie, so we dropped in to see how they liked church.  They each explained what they liked and how they are excited to come back.  Then we dropped the bomb and said, ‘We are excited for your baptisms next week.’  The room got really quiet and we started feeling that awkward feeling that you get inside when people are uncomfortable.  One by one they all said that they were unprepared and that they needed more time.  My companion and I were a little unsure of what to do, so we testified about baptism and the blessings that they wanted/needed in their lives.  We extended the invitation again, and we got the same response, but this time the spirit was in the room.  We quickly pointed out the good feeling in the room and everyone recognized it.  We told them it meant that God wanted them to be baptized.  They were still skeptical.  A scripture popped into my mind from Acts 2, where Peter testified of Christ and everyone felt the spirit and asked Peter what they should do… one of the kids read the verse.  As soon as he finished, we explained the importance of repentance, and being baptized unto repentance.  We saw some mental cylinders fire as we testified of this principle.  By the expression on their faces, we could see that their hearts were opening.  They continued to express the same concerns about being baptized.  Then they asked, ‘Do we have to be baptized to go to heaven?’  We read John 3:5 and another wave of understand went through the room.  We testified again of Jesus Christ, of repentance and of the Holy Ghost.  All the questions and confusions left, and then they said, ‘We won’t get baptized until we see a baptismal service.  We will come next week and then get baptized in two more weeks.’  My companion and I were unsure of what to do for a moment, and then the spirit whispered to us, ‘The Preach My Gospel District 2 videos have baptisms recorded in them!’  We dashed over to the computer, pulled up the electronic missionary resources on lds.org and turned it to District 2 Episode 3 and skipped to the part with the baptisms.  Three people got baptized in the video and as each person went down in the water, Marie and her family got more and more excited.  We could feel that they all really wanted it but would not commit until someone else in the room did.  My companion and I saw this and we wanted them to say yes so badly!  As the video ended, Wisnof was in the corner of the room and he quietly said, ‘I’ll do it.’  Instantly following his commitment, Mildred said, ‘Me too.’  We were shocked, she had put up the biggest fight out of all of them.  Marie had the biggest grin on her face and she said, ‘I will be baptized.’  We all looked at Jimmy and Steve next.  The room was quiet.  They both looked deep in thought.  Jimmy said, ‘Yeah, I’ll do it.’ We testified of all the blessings that would come to them and of the happiness of Jesus Christ for them and they all smiled.  We turned to Steve finally and said, ‘You can pray about it and keep thinking on it and we will…‘  He stopped us mid-sentence and said, ‘I will do it too.’  We were both astonished.  The spirit flooded the room and everyone stood up from their chairs and shouted for joy!  We finished our visit by giving them a Book of Mormon, mormon.org cards, and testifying about everything that happened.  We all knelt down together and Wisnof offered the closing prayer.  It was a spiritual feast. As he said amen, we all laughed together and then set up appointments to come over every day.  It was the most spiritual experience I could ask for during these final weeks.  Christ lives!  He loves us and He wants us to repent!  If we repent we will be so much happier, so much greater and we will be truly prepared to meet Christ at the pleasing bar of God!  -Obedience brings power.  This experience could not have happened if we were disobedient even in the slightest degree.”

 

I loved how this companionship used all the tools we have been trying to teach to invite this family to Christ. Obedience, repentance, testimony, the Spirit, the scriptures, faith, prayer and even experiencing the ordinances were all used in a very short period of time to increase their interest, desires, and testimony to follow Christ and be baptized. The result of course was their desires were increased to follow Christ and to participate in this holy ordinance.”

We have been blessed to celebrate Christmases in California, Utah, Indonesia, South Africa and now Florida. So today we went out looking for a tree where Mary could hang her ever growing collection of Christmas ornaments. I wanted a living tree which we could plant when Christmas was over but we could not find one even at nurseries. We found some nice cut trees but they all needed a stand and that seemed like a waste of money so we ended up with a four foot artificial tree which seemed just right for our apartment this year and which we can take home to use next Christmas

  

As usual I set up the tree, put on the lights and decorate the top of the tree – and take pictures. Mary got to do everything else.