I was making a comment on Facebook to one of the great missionaries who we served with in South Africa. Due to my failing memory I went back to check something on this blog from when we were serving in Swaziland in early 2009. While I was looking I came across a post I made a few days before we moved from Swaziland to Richards Bay. As I read it I thought that it would be good to repeat it here. It reflects the way we feel about serving missions.

March 2009 – Ezulwini Valley, Swaziland..

So ends another week in paradise. It is hard to think of our mission as any kind of sacrifice. The blessings that we receive each day, the wonderful elders and couples we serve with, the chance to help in service projects, going to meetings and sharing the spirit, and all the other things that come with serving a mission far outweighs being away from home and family. We probably think about our family more when we are on missions than we do when we are at home. We include them individually each day in our prayers. We include things that they tell us in their letters that are important in their lives. We know that the Lord will bless them and us as we serve here in South Africa. Missions are truly one of God’s tender mercies that he makes available to all who desire to serve.

BTW we just 15 minutes before had talked to two of our children and some grandchildren via FaceTime. Home can be just a click away.

Normally Zone Leaders’ Council is held on the first Friday of each month but this month it was moved to the first Saturday! Since we know that the ZLs like to come in after the meeting and pick up supplies for themselves and their zones, we decided to come in for a couple of hours and open the office. This gave us a chance to do a few things while helping the missionaries get what they needed to be more successful. Besides we love to see and talk to the missionaries and this is one of those times when we get to see some that are in zones some distance to the office so we do not see much of them.

  

Elder Bishop looks over the books that are prepared for incoming missionaries to try and guess which one will be his replacement. He will be leaving the mission on the 17th but I know that he will be doing his best to invite others to come unto Christ right to the end. Elders Beer and Smoot look at the board. Elder Bjorling has a pile of supplies to take to the Stuart zone.

  

Elder Gust is trying to explain to Mary why some of the information is missing from a baptismal record that came from the Miami Beach zone. Elder Skousen is wearing his much admired pink tie while gathering things for Missionaries in the Homestead zone and then found his way in to talk to Mary.

 

Elders Torres of Coral Springs zone and Edwards from Stuart are hard at work- zone leaders keep very busy. Elder Bjorling is looking on. The most popular room in the office today was the supply room. The only one that I can see clearly is elder Plowman who is a Palm Beach zone leader. I managed to catch just a glimpse of elder Brown from Miami. Elders Bishop and Smoot play for the camera…they are very use to me taking their pictures because they are the Fort Lauderdale ZLs and we see each other just about every week.

  

Elders Badillo, Williams and Beer gather for a picture…unfortunately elders William and Beer could not keep their eyes open. Elders Badillo and Williams do better together. Elder Williams seems to have been in a number of my pictures. In the final picture he is with elder Bjorling.

  

As I looked at this picture of elder Smoot I realized that he came into the mission on the transfer after we arrive and he was trained by elder George in the district we were privileged to go to. He will also be here when we are released. I dug back in the blog and came up with a picture of this great district. In front is sisters Mill, Hong, Holder, and us. In the back are elders George, Smoot, Clark, Beard, Meredith, Stohlton. All of those missionaries except for elder Smoot have now returned home. To fill in the row I put in a picture of four of those missionaries who invited us to have lunch with them at Flanigans.

The last two to leave were elders Edwards and Bjorling – who also had the longest drive back to their zone. We finished up what we were working on and left for the day. I can not think of a better way to spend a couple of hours than doing the Lord’s work and meeting with some great missionaries.

 Elder and Sister Evans shared some pictures that they took over the last couple of weeks. They will be leaving us in February  and I wish I had asked for them to share pictures earlier so I could include them on this blog. I have found a number of mothers and fathers of missionaries serving here look in regularly to read what is going on and maybe catch a glimpse of their sons and daughters.

The missionaries serving up in Vero Beach, Elders Dean and Owens got to move into a new house that is actually owned by the Church. Elders Collins, Sommerfeldt and Evans went up to help them move. This trio spend much of their time either moving missionaries, changing out furniture, or inspecting the missionary apartments. This means a lot of traveling and often hard work in the heat and humidity of Southern Florida. They are often accompanied by their wives who pitch right in and help in many ways.

Talk about temptation. A swimming pool right outside their apartment door and they can not use it. Well I guess they could ask permission to use it for a baptism. That is probably the only way they can get in it and stay completely obedient.

Elder Evans took the best picture of the Christmas lunch enjoyed by four couples – Us, Boices, Sommerfeldt and Evans as well as the Assistants – Elders Avila with his signature  thumbs up, Rippstein who seems to have almost cleaned his plate, and Shipley who is not going to let anything distract him from enjoying the great meal the sisters prepared.

We made a quick trip by the temple site to drop off some banners that are going to be put on the fence so people who want to know more can go to some websites or call the mission. It was late in the afternoon so the sun was full on the West side. Mary took pictures while we were driving by on the freeway. These three came out pretty good.

    

The East and North side of the temple are pretty easy to capture in pictures but the South and West sides are harder. So I drive by the temple on the 75 freeway as slowly as safe and Mary takes as many pictures as she can. When we get home I use a lot of cropping and adjusting to try and get good shots to put on this blog and the construction website. I love the blue tint of the windows and how they capture the blue that is so often seen here in South Florida.

 Each month the new missionaries and their trainers come to the mission home and are taught by President Anderson and the Assistants. When the meeting is done many of them – especially those who are further away come into the office to get supplies. Boxes of Books of Mormon, video, Bibles, and other teaching aids and reports are loaded up on.

  

The first ones in were elders Rasmussen, Claude, Bowen and Duncan. Elders Bowen and Duncan left Lake Okeechobee at 4:30 – I mentioned that was kind of like when they had to leave the MTC to come to Fort Lauderdale. Elder Hanna and Sister Andrus are not companions…elder Tesch and sister Dunford are just around the corner of the supply room. Everyone has to spend time in front of the big board that shows when missionaries go home. They dread being up on the top or what is affectionately known as death row. They also look to see where all their friends are on the board.

  

Sisters Schneider and Lira brought in their broken DVD player. Unfortunately they are going to have to wait for a new one because they are on order. About 2 hours after I took this picture, sister Schneider’s mother called to try and track down a package that seems to be stuck somewhere in the system. Since our sister Schneider had asked the same question I already knew the answers.  Elders Duncan, Rasmussen and Bowen at the big board. Sister Brown is looking at some pictures that are posted.

  

Lots of the missionaries want chapel cards to hand out. Sister Bare printed the cards almost to order and then the missionaries got to cut them out. I caught a sliver of sister Schneider, sisters Carnes, Brown and of course Mary who was slaving away over a hot computer. Elder Allen and Kata are serving in Blue Lagoon when not striking poses for the camera. Later I caught elder Kata eating a bag of SunChips to build up his energy so he could carry out the big load of supplies next to him.

  

Sister Bare tried to keep the chips trays filled. Here she is sharing with sisters Carnes, Judkins and Andrus. Elders Tesch and Hanna are cutting out their chapel cards for the Sunset. It appears that as the trainer, elder Hanna is training elder Tesch how to do this. Another hall shot – Sister Andrus is trying to figure how to get her picture off of death row!

  

I could not pass up taking a picture of all the lovely and dedicated sisters who were in the office at one time. Sisters Judkins, Dunford, Carnes, Andrus, Quiocho and Brown were happy to pose. I do not usually post all the ‘crazy’ pictures but the sisters thought it was a great idea. You are welcome to vote for who you think did the best job of looking ‘crazy’? Earlier elders Rasmussen, Claude and Duncan could not resist acting up…I did not even have to suggest it to them.

After a while the last companionships left for their areas so they could invite others to come unto Christ and of course get their 8 blessing in before Wednesday was over. We could go to lunch and then get some work done.

  

Soccer is big in Southern Florida and right next to the mission office building is a very large field/park where they can play 8 games at once. On the Friday after Christmas the field was packed with girls playing soccer in what appeared to be a tournament. From early morning to into the evening there were games going on. A big, bright, full moon in a cloudless sky was just too tempting not to capture…this one through the tree was my favorite. Our new next door neighbors are the proud parents this beautiful daughter that was born the Thursday after Christmas…she certainly has a full head of hair!

  

On Monday Elder Sommerfeldt had some things to share with elder Rippstein. A New Year’s Eve party was quickly organized by 5 of the couples and we met at the Bare’s apartment for food and fun. Sisters Evans and Sommerfeldt arrive with elder Bare looking on.

 

Sister Bare is explaining something to the Evans and Mary. The line quickly formed for the food…Subway sandwiches and other goodies.

 

Two tables of serious games of ‘Five Crowns’ were played. You can see how serious by the way elders Sommerfeldt  and Evans were laughing. Elder Evans had a good reason to be happy – he was winning. At the other table sister Evans seems to be the only one enjoying themselves…and she was not even winning.

  

On New Years day we went to the Fort Lauderdale District meeting. As I have mentioned before we find the chance to be with the missionaries and learn about how to be better missionaries one of the many blessings of a senior mission. Elder Taylor and Sisters Bean and Lake are studying a ‘Question of the Soul’ and how the Book of Mormon can answer it. Sister Bean – one of our newest missionaries – said that before she came on her mission she mined this blog to learn about what to expect when she got here. We are glad that others find the blog useful in learning about the mission or about how their children are doing while serving here. From time to time we get nice notes or comments from our visitors. Elders Taylor and Rellaford are getting some instruction from the Elder Smoot. Mary and elders Bloom and Burt are busy studying…well I think Mary is studying!

  

Part of almost all district meetings is role playing…here Mary is a non-member being taught by the sisters. In the back elder Bishop is being taught by the elders. Obviously elders Bishop, Rondo and Thorne noticed I was taking their picture. Sister Bean and sister Lake get some pointers from Elder Smoot…I just noticed that all I ever really got was the back of elder Smoot’s head! I will try to do better the next time we see him.