It was a most unusual day for the mission. About 8:30 I got a call from President Anderson saying that the flight our new missionaries were supposed to leave on from Salt Lake had been cancelled and they would not be leaving until after the time they usually arrive here in Fort Lauderdale.  It seems that the Dallas-Fort Worth airport was closed down because of ice and sleet.

To make a longer story really short, they arrived at 8:30 at night and were immediately taken to the hotel where they were given a box lunch, put in their rooms and after being up since probably 6:00 am Eastern time got to bed. They will definitely remember their first short day in the Fort Lauderdale mission. It will give them something to write about next Monday.

While they were waiting in the Salt Lake airport, we hosted another of our Last Lunches for the missionaries in the Fort Lauderdale district. It gives us a chance to show our appreciation for the joy we get from being with these wonderful missionaries most weeks at district meetings and of course at Church.

  

It is also time to take official pictures of those who are at their first LL or who somehow we missed getting before. Sisters Bean and Lake were a great addition to the district this transfer and have been doing a wonderful work together in the Riverside Park Spanish speaking area.

  

Elder Burt is one of the happiest missionaries we have met, and has been elder Bloom – the district leader – companion. They only had one transfer together because elder Bloom is being transferred to a new area. The Zone Leaders – elders Bishop and Smoot have been here before but not together. Elder Smoot came to our first LL back in November of 2011 soon after the three of us came into the mission and just came back this transfer to serve with elder Bishop.

  

Elder Taylor will be leaving for a new area as they are white washing the Creole area. While elder Bishop chows down, elder Rellaford – elder Taylors companion – posed with elder Burt. Elders Thorne and Rondo will continue to serve in the Fort Lauderdale area for another 6 weeks.

  

The missionaries seem to enjoy eating Mary’s green chile enchiladas. The sisters and a couple of the elders had some of the green salad but for the most part the elders passed on that. They did manage to find room for the home made brownies.

  

Elders Rellaford, Thorne and Smoot found a comfortable spot on the sofa while sister Lake and elders Bishop and Bloom did the same on the floor. What is interesting is that if you look carefully you will see sister Bean reflected in the TV screen – completely an accident on my part. Missionaries take lots of pictures – thank goodness for digital cameras or they would spend all their money on film and developing. Elder Bishop runs through some of those on his or someone else’s camera.

  

Elder Bloom was the first one to sit on the floor. Elder Burt writes in elder Bishop’s journal to wish him luck as he heads home. We get a last picture with him – we will miss him much like we would miss a grandson who was leaving.

  

The missionaries wanted a district picture with fountain in the back. So I sat up my brand new Christmas tripod and using the self-timer we got a couple of good shots. The picture in the middle I took earlier today while on a walk around the complex.

  

After the LL elder Smoot shared with me his Dear Kyle letter from the girl he left behind. It did not come as a surprise as he had not heard from her for a while. I caught Elder Shipley sitting alone at the computer – this will be his first solo transfer with a new companion to train. Not only that it is going to be an unusual one because of the plane delay. I told him it was his baptism by fire as an AP. We took a last picture of us with the APs…we will truly miss Elders Rippstein and Avila.

 

The last two pictures of elder Rippstein as he says goodbye to Mary.

As I read these missionary experiences that the president put in his weekly letter this morning I was touched by the spirit. Sometimes I get so caught up in the details of the office I forget that it is all being done so the missionaries can go out and help people change their lives and come unto Christ.

“New Investigators are praying for us to find them, we must talk to everyone to find them:

 

“We had just left a difficult blessing … After leaving , we turned the corner to a new apartment complex and saw a couple sitting on a table outside. They had a large dog and were drinking a beer and smoking. I was feeling a little timid, but decided that we needed to contact them and was smiling and walking towards them as we introduced ourselves as Representatives of Christ. The husband accepted the blessing while the wife just couldn’t stop saying, “I can’t believe it. I can’t believe it”. After our previous experience we were afraid she was thinking that she couldn’t believe that the Mormons had come to bother her too, but after we talked to them she told us how they had followed Christ, but they had wondered astray. That they were on the verge of homelessness and had just been praying for help when we turned the corner and walked straight to them. We blessed them and testified that God was aware of them and sent us there to bless them. They accepted baptism and were confident that it was the path God had given them to bless them. I love to be an instrument in God’s hands and to testify of his power and love.”

 

New Investigators are being found as you “Pray, Plan, Practice, and Do” and create a better way to approach and link the blessing to teaching:

 

“We started approaching our Harvest blessings this week- with the night before we went out. We started picking a place to harvest during nightly planning instead of just blocking out a time- then the next day, before we would leave the apartment, we’d pray for guidance for a place to harvest, study our map, pick a place, then close with a prayer again. And man- we saw a dramatic shift in the blessings we left. The people we were led to were so prepared and waiting for our blessing each time!! We’d gone from leaving a ton of blessings with mediocre responses to the spirit the previous weeks, to so many of our brothers and sisters absolutely not being able to deny that we were sent to them. And each blessing was exactly what they needed right at that time. We were led to Danielle, who immediately sensed there was something special about us right when she opened the door. She stopped everything she was doing- put out her cigarette, got off the phone, and made time for us, as representatives of Christ, to leave her with his blessing for her. She said right away, she desperately needed his strength- she felt so lost and confused- and as we finished the blessing, she was so filled with relief and love and hope! She accepted to be baptized on the 13th of January- she is so ready to be healed and forgiven- and ready to move forward!”

 

New Investigators understand the language of the Spirit:

 

“One night we were having a really hard night, and all of our plans fell through. We went to see this lady who was a referral and that didn’t work out either. As we were walking back to our car my companion said lets go talk to that guy. And I said… ‘Sister, He doesn’t speak Spanish.’ I know we are supposed to talk to everyone, but I was selfish and wanted to find an investigator for us. She ignored me and went to go talk to him. I’m so grateful she is in tune with the Spirit! We found out that he was deaf. So we passed notes back and forth. We blessed him and invited him to be baptized. He accepted and said he would come to church. We weren’t really sure what would come out of it. We tried to see him Sunday morning and weren’t able to, so we just left a note on his door reminding him to come to church. During church this member came up to me and said …there was a deaf man looking for me and my companion. We were so happy that he came! He is amazing. He is excited to be baptized for the ‘first time’.”

 

 Well we are back to Monday – the Monday before transfers. I thought I had pretty much got everything thing done that I could with transfers before we went home on Friday. It turned out I was wrong. Since there will be three new areas created this transfer I needed to have 3 phones available for the companionships. We have one extra phone available so I only needed to activate two more. I activated one early in the day and it took about 10 minutes. I should have activated the other one at the same time but something came up and so I decided to do it later. Big mistake as the second one took 40 minutes and it took the technical staff to get it running.

What came up was a need to make a quick trip up to Boynton Beach to deliver a special birthday present to sister Smith. The original plan to get it up to her early today fell through and since I had promised that she would get it for her birthday we jumped in a car and took it up to her. We also took a package for another missionary, three cards for sister Smith and even a letter for her companion.

It was a nice drive and it is always a joy to visit and talk to the missionaries. Sister Packard and sister Smith are having great success. They hope to have two baptisms soon. We found out that they recently got a couple of investigators married and we decided that right after baptisms and confirmations on the weekly report there should be a spot for reporting marriages.

  

As we were going to the van to go to the office I caught Mary coming around the corner – I wanted to show her and the blue sky but for some reason it turned out gray looking. Oh well the important thing is there. The assistants came in and I took what will probably be the last one of the three of them together that I will take. I think this is the first time I have seen elder Rippstein make a face when I was taking a picture. These three have been great assistants and have seen the mission and the missionaries grow. We will miss elders Rippstein and Avila but look forward to working with elder Shipley and his new companion.The last picture shows sister Smith with her birthday package from home.

The afternoon seemed to have me running from one project to the next. None of them really on my schedule but all important to get done right away. The good thing about being busy is that the afternoon went by quickly and other than a piles of bills that I need to pay tomorrow, my desk is clear – or as clear as my desk ever is.

 Friday was the first day we got to work on next week’s transfer. This was possible because the assistants left us a transfer schedule so we spent the afternoon working on the things we need to do. I moved the missionaries around on the transfer board in the Church system while Mary got busy working on updating their mission assignment cards. Of course nothing can be completed until President Anderson interviews all the new missionaries and assigns them to their trainers. Those who will train have already been selected as well as where they will be serving but the spirit tells the president who should train who. Getting the correct trainer is probably one of the most important part of a mission. 

I had a number of interesting calls today. The first was a sister from Hawaii who planned to move to Florida and wanted to know about Weston and Pembroke Pines as places to live. We had a nice conversation about Florida, the areas she was interested, etc. I assured her that while it was not Hawaii, she was going to love living here.

The second call came from a mother of one of our missionaries. She was checking to see if a package she sent for her missionary’s birthday would get delivered in time. We talked for quite a while about the mission, birthdays, etc. I checked and found that the package had arrived and then arranged for it to be delivered as a birthday surprise early on Monday.

 

On Friday I took this picture of Mary looking at this blog to see what I had written. If I make small mistakes she just lets them slide but if I really blow something she will tell me.

Saturday is our P-day and after doing some of the house tasks, we drove down to the used bookstore in Davies to restock our reading material. On the way from there to one of the missionary apartments, we stopped at this little sub shop on Davie boulevard. I talked to the man who was working there and found out the shop had been there for 35 years! It is very small, the food was only OK and rather expensive for the area. As much as I like to help small businesses, I doubt if we will stop there again.

After lunch we went to the Grove East apartments to drop off a package for one of the missionaries who really wanted it Saturday instead of Sunday. We try hard to do what we can for the missionaries and it not much out of our way so we were happy to help.

  

Sunday morning we are called on by the missionaries to pick up some of their investigators. While waiting at one home for our passengers to get ready – 8:00 am comes early for some folks – we noticed that a number of large birds were circling over head so I snapped this picture. We drove two young men to church who get up at 4:00 am each school morning so they can be ready for the bus to pick them up and take then down to the Hollywood area for school! They go to bed at 8:00 on school nights. I could understand why they wanted to sleep in on Sunday.

The other family we helped bring to church was one that we had picked up before. Jean is really excited about the gospel and attended last week. He also attended the first Bible study class on last Wednesday night and loved it. I caught him here with his 3 month old nephew. Brother Beille – the one in the back with the big smile – is the assistant ward mission leader and is very committed to missionary work. He was baptized 2 years ago and often seems to date his life from his baptism date.

  

Thursday was rather quiet – other than the regular activities that go on around the mission office almost everyday nothing exciting happened. We like it that way! Mary had her normal activities with referrals and writing letters to families and missionaries who are either coming into the mission, arrived at the MTC, or are leaving. This amounts to about 200 letters a month which can keep her busy for a few days. Referrals come in each day – from the MTC, from missionaries, and from members. They must be sent to the correct area for contact and then followed up on to see that the contact was made.

Mail comes in to the office every day and must be re-routed to the correct address for the missionary. Since this is the week before transfers we start holding the packages on Tuesday and the letters on Thursday because we can not be sure that they will be delivered before the missionary is moved to a new area. We will take them to transfer meeting next week and the majority of them will be picked up by either the missionary if they were transferred or have a new companion or by the zone leaders for those who did not get moved. We have pretty much perfected the system thanks to E/S Collins and E/S Evans. They take care of the mail most days and if they can not get in we see that it domes.

In the afternoon we went to Weston so Mary could give a piano lesson. It is the time of the year when the bougainvillea is in full bloom and I keep taking pictures of this beautiful plant. We had them in Indonesia – where trees could reach 30 feet or more and South Africa where they were plentiful if not as big as those in Indonesia. I have tried to grow them in Provo but while they are OK, they are nothing like the ones we found on our missions.

 Because of Zone training on Tuesday, Fort Lauderdale’s regular district training was moved to today. We greatly enjoy going to DM and just being with the missionaries.  Usually they run 90 minutes but today it was only an hour because of the zone training.

  

It was the last DM in Fort Lauderdale for elder Bishop who will be leaving the mission a week from tomorrow. Other than getting a little choked up when we sang ‘God be with You til We Meet Again,’ there was no indication that he was even thinking about leaving. All he wanted to do was to help the missionaries in the district improve their teaching. Elders Thorne, Rondo, Smoot and Bishop are in the first picture. The dark haired man at the end was introduced as Josh and he was with the ZLs. Mary, sister Lake, elders Smoot, Taylor, Rellaford, Thorne and Rondo are next. Elder Bloom led the music while sister Bean – who was hidden away behind the piano – played. Elder Bloom keeps good time and knows what he is doing.

  

Another table shot as we sang – the quality of singing varies depending on the song. We sang some of the verses of ‘A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief’ as the opening song and there was a lively discussion of just which to sing. I think we ended up with 1, 3, 6 & 7. Later the ZLs came in to pick up a package for elder Bishop. A farewell gift of cookies which he gladly shared. After that sisters Herrera and Stegelmeier came in to take of some business and I got this great picture of sister Herrera’s smile.

  

Even when they are in the office, they keep busy with their investigators. Here sister Stegelmeier makes an important call. I even caught the companionship together. In the evening we went back to the Fort Lauderdale chapel for the Ward Missionary Correlation meeting. Bishop Brown says that he wears his Scout uniform so he does not have to wear a white shirt and tie. It is a lively meeting but there are not many potential baptisms this week.

By the time we got home we were happy to just relax and eat some dinner.

Every 6 weeks new missionaries come into the mission…the week before that Mary and I prepare the departure packets for those missionaries who will be leaving. Actually Mary does most of the preparing but I have a couple of things to do. They will be given to the missionaries when they have their departure interview with President Anderson.

  

These are the departing folders that we prepare. Then there are the board pictures of the 9 great, above average missionaries who will be departing. We are very close to some of them including Elders Avila, Rippstein, Bishop, and Taylor. My part of the packet is the finisher DVD that includes all of President Anderson’s letters and lots of pictures from their time in the mission.

 

Another of my tasks is to shift the big board that shows all the missionaries and their departure dates. The top row is of course affectionately known as ‘Death Row’ and everyone dreads getting there. We made it this transfer. Elders Burt, Bloom, Free and Wardell came in to get some supplies and had to look and make comments about the board.

 

In the afternoon we went by the temple site to look at the new banners that we had printed. I think they came out great and we hope that they will help in missionary work. There was little done since we were there the last time so I did not take many pictures. However I thought the crows in the bare tree with the temple spire in the background made an interesting picture.

 Most Mondays after our staff meeting the couples get together at the mission home for a FHE. Lots of good talk, good food and of course some spiritual teaching by President and Sister Anderson. It is a wonderful experience to be with our mission family. Senior couples who the Lord through a prophet have sent here to this part of the vineyard to

 

Mary with sisters DeGraffenreid and Boice are talking to elder Boice. The Sommerfeldts in the foreground with sisters Boice and DeGraffenreid and elder Bare way in the back. Elders Boice and Sommerfeld catching up while elder Evans looks at a picture he just took of me…it did not seem to break the camera.

  

Eating is always a big part of our FHE. Enchiladas, salad, rice, and some delicious desserts. Although mostly sisters are in these pictures, I can assure you the elders got their share or more.

  

There were two tables filled with hungry missionaries…this is the big one. After the food comes the spiritual part – or maybe the more spiritual part would be better – sister Collins and the Bares are watching a video about the Book of Mormon and the gathering of Israel. The Andersons are not only great missionaries and leaders but they are also gracious hosts for the couples and many times a month for gatherings of missionaries. I have told sister Anderson that after their mission she should open a family diner!

 Some Mondays are busier than others and today was a busy one. It started with a mission staff meeting where all the senior couples meet with President and Sister Anderson and discuss the coming events, report on our different duties and usually get some words of wisdom from the President.

 

After the staff meeting we took the APs out for their traditional lunch before transfer week. They are always too busy to come to one of our Last Lunches at our apartment so this is our way of making up for it. We use to go to Flanigans but since we discovered Scruffy’s Monday lunch special of a full rack of baby back ribs, potato, coleslaw and baked beans we have started to go there. It is amazing how fast the elders can pack away all that food. We find it enough for at least two meals and sometime three! But they are growing young men who really keep busy.

  

After lunch we were sitting in the office when the four local sisters came by. Now it is their P-day but we thought sister Stegelmeier was going a little far with this great looking whatever that is she is wearing. I told her that looking at that outfit made it obvious who her trainer was – sister Dye. So after taking a picture of her and sister Herrera, I asked all the sisters who were in the office to gather for a picture. Of course there are always two – one looking ever so lady like – well except for wearing the animal in the back. Sisters Bare, Colins, Stegelmeier, Holyan, Herrea and Mary are in the back line with sister Johnson in front.  What a beautiful bunch of sister missionaries. Then it was time for the funny one – it looks like sister Johnson was trying to knock out sister Herrera. It is good to see Mary got in the spirit!

This week’s letter contained some wonderful missionary experiences that I would like to share with those who read this blog…

“You are bold and confident in declaring your purpose. You have the power and authority to invoke the Spirit:

 

“An experience harvesting was when we were walking on the streets once again and this lady was walking towards us. So we contacted her and she took us inside her home to bless her entire family. The Spirit was undeniably strong after the blessing and they all accepted baptism. Then we invited them to church and the mom explained how they have their own church. Then we said,

‘We know this is an invitation from Christ himself to come to Church with us. You must come and listen to the Saviors voice!’ After much testifying we left and they were still set on going to their own church on Sunday. But that Spirit from our testimony stayed with them and they all came to church on Sunday! This is God’s work, I know it!!”

 

We become resolved to utilize all of our tools and “set the table” completely:

 

“At the door, before we said the blessing, he flat out asked us in humble sincerity, ‘What is different about your church then say, the catholic church?’ My first thought as I looked down at the Book of Mormon in my hands, was to teach and testify of it really quickly. He asked what he could learn about Christ in The Book of Mormon that’s not in the Bible, so I told him of the Savior’s visit to the America’s and we asked him to  read 2 Nephi 31:9 where Nephi talks about what it means that the Savior fulfilled all righteousness by being baptized. I got good chills as I watched him hold and read the Book of Mormon for the first time in his life, knowing that this was really important and seeing that he could feel it too even though he didn’t know with a sure knowledge at that point. Edwin told us he really wants to read the Book of Mormon, and when we invited him to be baptized (even before the harvest blessing was said, and even though he’s Catholic) the Spirit was so strong that he said, ‘Yes, that seems like what I would need to do.’ And THEN we added to the Spirit by leaving the blessing. He told us that we had no idea about his life, but that he’d been thinking about all the things we prayed for and talked about before we came over. He knew God had sent us. He said he was ‘so happy’ and he couldn’t stop smiling. It was one of the best harvesting experiences of my mission. Incredible!!”

 

We take advantage of all opportunities to bless the lives of all:

 

“We had stopped by a members home to drop off some things and then we decided to knock her street. We go and meet her neighbor, Carola, who just moved here 3 days earlier. She had a sick baby and wanted to know where a hospital is, we told her a member of our church lived next door and we asked after the blessing. So when we returned, Carola opens up and tells us that she was incredibly sick on Christmas, and she was worried, so she prayed and told God if He would heal her so she could take care of her kids, she would receive whoever He would send to her and go to church. She said she almost couldn’t believe it when we showed up at her door, she knows God sent us. I love finding prepared people.”