It was a long transfer day and I took lots of pictures…I did not have time to put comments into the post but I thought there might be some parents and friends out there who would like to see their missionaries and their new companion…
Since our incoming missionaries could not get out of Salt Lake until 2:30 pm our time they did not arrive here until after 8:30 pm. That meant that President Anderson had to wait until this morning to interview the 14 missionaries so he could determine who would train them where. This meant that the usual 9:00 am transfer meeting was moved to 12:30. It also meant that the companions of the missionaries who are leaving had to get them to the Plantation chapel by 5:00 am so the departing missionaries could take a 3 1/2 ride to the Orlando temple.
This left a group of missionaries sitting around the chapel with nothing to do but wait, so we called and had 4 of them come over to the office to help us with some chores. Answering the call was elders Smoot, Torres, Gutierrez, and Call.
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Elder Torres and Smoot got to find out how much work goes into the chapel cards they hand out every day. Elder Torres mentioned that he now had a greater respect for the cards and would make sure he took better care of them when he was in his area.
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Elder Gutierrez and Call helped me with getting the mail ready to be transferred over to the chapel to be handed out when all the missionaries came to transfer meeting. Then they shifted over to cutting chapel cards while elders Call and Smoot helped me with getting the binders that each new missionary gets ready. It is filled with information the missionary will need when they arrive as well as their MSF – think debit card – and Medical card.
While we busy doing this we got a call from the APs asking if we could come to the mission home and help transport the new missionaries to the chapel after they had lunch. Before we could do that we had to empty our van of the mail that the elders helped load.
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When we got to the chapel we used some of the other missionaries who were waiting there to help us unload and distribute the mail. We have done this enough that we have it down to a science. Elder Shepard was one of those who helped as well as did elder Doria and others. The pay off was that they got to look for their own mail and packages. Elder Doria got a couple of new and interesting watches. One which he showed off on camera.
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This is what the RS room looks like when all the mail is set out.
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We went over the mission home and helped prepare lunch for the new missionaries. This gave me a chance to meet some of them and take their pictures. Sisters Ellett and Price are facing the camera in the first one. Sister Sablan gets got the window seat. Sister Houghton was on the other side. We kind of knew sister Houghton because we talked to her mother when they were notified she would be coming one transfer early because she was already fluent in Spanish.
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I managed to catch sister Ellett by herself as well as elder Page. You can only see the back of elder Brown and Page in the next picture but I wanted to show the spread of food and managed to get elder Shipley as a bonus.
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Here are six of the elders that came in on Tuesday. Elders Langford and Harris will serve together in Miami Beach area. Sisters Bagley and Chavous are now companions in Coral Springs.
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It is fun to be out in the parking lot after the meeting because missionaries are everywhere swapping cars, moving bike and luggage, hugging each other and just plain hanging out. Elder Burgon – elder Harral’s old companion is now serving with elder Taylor who is in the back ground. The Collins are talking to Elder Edwards who is one of the zone leaders in Stuart Zone – his companion elder Bjorling was one of those who went home so now he will be serving with Elder Osborn up there at the top of the mission. Sister Collins can be seen behind Elder Winslow who is getting a great trainer in our dear friend elder Rellaford who we have served with for 6 months.
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Elders Curtis and Maki will serve together in Blue Lagoon East. Elder Doman who was born here in the Fort Lauderdale Zone – that means he started his mission here – will now serve with elder Owens  way up in Vero Beach. Sister Dougal will serve with sister Holyan in Nova YSA.
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Elder Dowdle – who is my phone expert – will serve as one of the Zone Leaders in the Miami Beach Zone with elder Stewart. Elder Elliott will be trained by elder Loucks, a district leader, up in the Boynton Beach Creole area. Sister Houghton is being will be trained by sister Clayton in the West Palm North area.
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Elder Hoole will train elder Harper in the Miami Shores Creole area. Elder Madson will be trained by one of our favorite missionary Elder Hall in Boca Raton East. Elder Rockwood – who is always smiling – will be the district leader trainer for elder Comstock in Hialeah West.
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Elder Hunt will team up with our special friend elder Smoot to be the Zone Leaders in the Fort Lauderdale zone while serving in Hollywood South. The only three some in the mission will be elders Marcussen, Fisher and King will all serve the Coral Reef North area. Elders Osborn and Edwards are now the zone leaders in the Stuart Zone where they serve in the Stuart South area – they drive a nice new truck and are envied by all the other companionships.
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I caught for lovely sisters together. Sisters Jackson and Sheffield are up in Stuart North. Our close friend sister Johnson – she has lived near the office so we got to see her very often – will train sister Ellett in the new Palm Beach Central area.
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Elder Jones will serve as a zone leader in Coral Springs Zone with our office helper elder Torres while in the Lauderhill North area. Elder Richardson is now the companion of our other helper elder Call the DL while they serve in West Palm Central.
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Sister Sablan will be trained by always smiling sister Beck in Boynton Beach South. Elder Shaffer is now teamed up with elder Aul and will in Jupiter North. I managed to catch elder Shipley with his new companion and fellow AP elder Gust when they were not swamped. They are going to make a great team. We are told elder Gust speaks Cuban Spanish so fast that even some native Cubans can not keep up.
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Sisters Hymas and Smith will serve together for the next 6 weeks in the Killian East area. Elder Taylor and Burgon will serve up in Fort Pierce. Elder Toeava will be the district leader in Miami Gardens and will serve with elder Lee.
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Elders Welch and Faniaka will invite others to come unto Christ in the Doral area. Elder Bare – the car and soon also the bike czar – spent much of the transfer day making sure the right cars got switched to the right missionaries and solving other vehicle problems. It is not an easy day for the czar. Elder Wood is our friend elder Bloom’s new companion. Elder Bloom will be district leader and the two will serve in Cypress Creek.
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Elders Martineau will serve with elder Chinchilla the DL way down in Homestead East. Elders Nielsen and Dean will open the new Hollywood Central area. Elder Larsen will be with our close friend elder Harrall up in the newer Royal Palm Beach area.
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Elder Brough will serve with our special friend elder Plowman in the Hialeah zone where they will be Zone Leaders. Elder Mackley is now serving with elder Patino in the El Portal North area. It does not seem possible that elder Patino (I tended to call him Patrino but he forgave me) has been away from the Fort Lauderdale zone for 6 weeks. The time is really flying by. We only have two more transfers before we are in the departing group.
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Another picture of elder Madson with his trainer elder Hall. Of course when there are missionaries in the office they are often gathered around the big board. I do not know if elder Bare is signaling that he needs help, look at me or is trying to order something. Sister Price will be trained by sister Tuai in the Hollywood North area.
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Elders Silva and Webb will be down in the Sunset North area. Since the missionaries were at the chapel during lunch time and most did not have a chance to eat anything before coming to the office for supplies to take back to their areas, sister Bare was kept busy trying to put out snacks for the hungry elders and sisters until the cupboard was literally bare! We will miss elder Taylor who is headed up North to for Pierce.
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Elder Wilson will be training elder Brakey and also serve as district leader up in Boca Raton West. We had to get one last picture with elder Rellaford before he heads up to Boynton Beach to train elder Winslow. My last picture of the day was taken just before we chased elder Doria and his new trainee elder Levy off the couch so we could turn off the lights and shut the door on a very busy but spiritual transfer day. We then went home and collapsed.