More experiences that President Anderson shared in his weekly letter…

“As we prayed before we got out of the car, I prayed in my heart that we might find a way to fulfill our goal of 3 blessings that night. So we got out of the car and walked over to our first lesson. They weren’t home! So we quickly took advantage of the opportunity and talked to this man on his driveway. We asked him if we could bless his home, and he said no thank you, but that another time would be better… We testified to him that it would bless his life a ton, and he ended up letting us in. We prayed with his whole family, and they all felt the Spirit, and all of them committed to baptism on the 25th of November! But that isn’t the end. We went to the appointments we had after that, and both of them weren’t home! A sign from the Lord telling us to harvest more. So we knocked 5 more doors, got 5 more blessings, and got 5 more families committed to baptism!”

As you show appreciation to God and show him through your hard work your gratitude, he will always pour his blessings on you:

“God noticed our hard work and it was right at the breaking point where he helped us out. On both Friday night and Saturday night we found someone prepared to hear the gospel at 8:30 at night. It was at times where we both felt like giving up but for some reason we kept going and just put our shoulder to the wheel and did the very best we could. The man we found on Saturday night was one of the most prepared people I have met. After the blessing he said “Other than my son being born, this is the best gift that anyone has ever given me.’ He came to church on Sunday and he is preparing to be baptized on this coming Sunday.”

 

God will inspire you again and again after you show thankfulness and gratitude:

 

“… we saw a complex and we both felt good about it. We knocked one door and got thoroughly rejected. We heard voices on the 2nd level, so we walked up and found a man on his phone. Normally when I contact people on the phone they shoo me away, but Caesar gently pulled the phone away from his ear and listened intently as I identified us as representatives of  Christ, there to pray for him. As soon as I said it, he told us that he was in dire need of blessings- that he had just found out he might have cancer, and was praying for help. When he saw us walk out of our car and to the complex, he knew that we were there for him. We had a super spiritual experience praying for him (and his wife on the speaker phone) and after, he accepted the invitation to be baptized on the 25th! It truly was a miracle and such a testimony building experience that Heavenly Father knows where we need to be, and if we listen to the Spirit, he’ll guide us there.”

 All Sundays are a wonderful opportunity to partake of the sacrament, learn about the gospel, meet people and serve. But this was a especially beautiful because we were able to stay for the baptism of sister Shamekia W and her daughter Ma’Kaylah. We also saw the baptism of sister Elizabeth N that fulfilled the made a family complete and brought joy to her daughter who had been praying for this to happen before she went on her mission.

  

On Saturday I bought our first poinsettia of the season at Costco…so much beauty for a reasonable price. This is the little used front entrance to the Fort Lauderdale chapel. It is the first chapel built in the area and is surrounded by huge trees. It is a lovely setting for a peaceful chapel. While Shamekia and Ma’Kaylah got ready to be baptized, Mary became the grandmother to watch the other three children. As I looked at this picture it reminded me of our mission to South Africa.

  

Sister Elizabeth – in white in the middle – is enclosed by her family who was so happy to have come unto Christ. The middle picture is of Shamekia, her children and Elders Bloom and Hall (in white). As the day ended I caught this beautiful picture of the sky outside our apartment. What a wonderful Sabbath.

   

The Coral Springs and Fort Lauderdale Zones…

   

Homestead and Miami Zones – Hialeah and Miami Beach Zones – Stuart and Palm Beach Zones.

  

      “Love is a condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.” Robert Heinlein

The two pictures on the ends were created when Mary tried to print a couple of photos on some old photo copy paper. When she saw the results she thought they were ruined. When I saw them I thought they were very interesting art. The negative space gives only outlines but the basic picture is still there and it makes the part that printed and the colors more vivid. The one on the right is a picture of me holding our granddaughter McKay many years ago. The one on the left was taken in South Africa and showed how children are not prejudice.  After I had taken these pictures, I noticed the wording of saying on the magnet I used to hold them. It seems perfect for the subject matter. I plan to get these pictures framed and hang in our house when we return from this mission.

The wonderful thing about pictures is that they capture moments in our lives that we can recall each time we see them.  Often they bring back different memories and thoughts depending on how we see them and what is going on in our lives.

President Anderson has been holding Zone Conferences this week. Today it was Fort Lauderdale and Coral Springs Zones turn. Since the assistants asked Mary to play the piano we got to the Fort Lauderdale chapel at 8:30 to find that a number of companionships had already arrived. It was the start of a excellent 6 hour training meeting interrupted by a delicious lunch.

  

Four of our favorite missionaries were greeting at the door. Elders Rippstein, HoChing, Avila and Bishop. Everyone was happy to sister Bare come in…she types up all the baptisms and ends up calling many of them. The Bares also serve in the Riverside Park Spanish Branch. The Relief Society room was pretty well packed with missionaries. Elder HoChing is holding down one end of the row. We found out that he is not a big fan of needles and was happy to hear that he was not expected to get a flu shot because we is going home in early December.

  

One of the fun events at Zone Conferences is recognizing birthdays since the last one. Sister Anderson has treats for the birthday missionary and their companion and everyone sings a happy birthday song. A ward in the zones are asked to provide a lunch for the 40-50 missionaries. These four sisters went above and beyond in not only serving delicious food but setting beautiful tables fit for a banquet.

  

Lots of pictures of missionaries eating. Mary, Sisters Johnson, Dye and Holder share a table. The middle is a long view down the tables. First elders find a table – Patino, Rondo, Rippstein and

  

Too many missionaries to list but all seem to be enjoying the food. There were even seconds for those who were still hungry.

 

Wanting to work off some of his lunch, Elder Avila swings while sisters Dye and Stegelmeier looks on – they are easily entertained. After lunch the emphasis was on repentance, how it is only complete after baptism which also give access to the atonement. Then there was role playing on how to teach repentance. Elders Odar and Torres teach Elder Wood ( I think that is correct.)

  

Monday afternoon I took a break from my financial duties and drove to the feed store in Davies to get some corn for feeding the ducks I have adopted. The store is on Orange Road which I believe at one time was the main East to West road in Davies. After Griffith was built it turned into a quiet, tree lined drive along a canal. It runs for many miles and all along the way there is a bike/walking path, picnic areas, and bridges. These pictures show just one small section of the path and the beauty. It is almost possible to ignore the sounds and sights of the heavy traffic rushing by just across the canal.

  

Tuesday’s breakfast. I seldom eat cereal for breakfast but I did on Tuesday. As I sat the bowl of brightly artificially colored cereal down next to my morning reading of Jesus the Christ, I thought it made an interesting picture. I can assure you that my spirit was much better fed than my body this morning. As mentioned before all white, wild ducks are seldom seen here. The flock I feed has two. One is almost pure white – Whitey and then there is Spot. Two anhinga chicks were born a few months ago and it has been fun to see them grow and learn to dive for food. They can stay under the water for many minutes as they look for and scoop up their food.

  

Wednesday night we went to Fort Lauderdale ward’s missionary correlation meeting. It is one of those meetings where you have to have been there to understand. Bishop Brown is on top of what is going on with missionary work in the ward. Brother Acevedo the ward mission leader and brother Beale his assistant are also fully committed to the work. The 8 missionaries who are assigned to the ward are hard working and seldom does a week go by with out at least one baptism. But all of this is done with a lot of smiles and not a little laughter. This combination has led to the ward having 75 convert baptisms so far this year and bishop Brown is aware of everyone of them and the ward is working hard to make sure they stay active.

As I regularly mention, one of the highlights of the week is reading the weekly letter to the missionaries from President Anderson. His letters encourage, train and shares spirit lifting missionary experiences.

I love how you as missionaries are obedient, and how you follow promptings by the Spirit to those who are praying for you:

 â€œWe knocked a couple doors then went to the second level. A lady answered the door with a lot of happiness and excitement. After the prayer she looked at us with tears in her eyes and said she was going to a lot of different churches but knew none of them were right. She didn’t feel good about any of them and knew there was only one truth. She was praying to God to know where the truth was. She finally told God that He was going to have to send the truth to her. She was praying that night and she told us, ‘God sent me his truth and even on my birthday!’ I can’t put into words how amazing this experience was. The spirit was giving me constant goose bumps. She is preparing to be baptized on the 11th. She came the next day to church and brought her friend.”

 “Being obedient when we don’t know why at the moment will quickly manifest the miracle:

 â€œLast week as we were on our way to go see one of our investigators, we saw a guy walking down the street ahead of us. We stopped him and testified that we were sent there to find him. He paused for a moment and then said, ‘Now it makes sense. Just now I was watching TV and something was telling me to leave the house to go wait for my daughter’s bus on the street. I thought to myself that this will be the first time I’ll ever wait for my daughter to get back from school… so I did. And now I know why I was prompted to come here so I could meet the both of you.’ We testified to him that we were sent by Jesus Christ to find him so we could leave His peace and blessing on his home. He told us that he wanted his daughter to be part of that prayer. So we waited for his daughter. After she arrived we followed them to their home and left a blessing with them. Jason wept throughout the entire blessing. Right after the blessing he got up and hugged me and my companion. We could feel the spirit super strong in Jason’s home and the first thing we said was, ‘Jason will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and to be baptized?’ He accepted it with tears on his face. He and his Daughter came to church yesterday and they loved it. They are preparing to be baptized this week!”

 Your example of obedience and hard work will affect those who are watching you:

 â€œWe are really working super hard here and seeing a lot of success! We had 6 people come to church this week, which got the Branch more excited to work with us, and they gave us 8 referrals during church!! They have heard us say that we are going to work hard, but when they actually saw that we were is where they got excited!”

  

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!’.”

 And the Book of Mormon is a tool of Ministers of Christ:

“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!”