It was an interesting and spiritual Tuesday for us. We spent much of the day training E/S Singleton but we took time off to take them to the Fort Lauderdale district meeting which is always a great experience.

   

Before we left for Fort Lauderdale the sisters from the Plantation district dropped by after their meeting. I could not pass up the opportunity to take a picture of the four of them and the three senior sisters who were in the office. I think sister Singleton was a little stunned by all the activity. She really did not know what to do when we did our silly picture…I am sure she will soon learn to join in the fun. Next to her are sisters Dougal, Stegelmeier, Merrill, Gordon, Pier and Bare – all above average missionaries. I finally got a picture of the three sister serving in the Riverside Park North area. Sisters Escorbore, Smith and Chavous are serving together. Sister Smith has two great missionaries helping her train.

   

It was decided that this district meeting was the largest one any of the missionaries had ever been to. There were the 11 assigned to the area, the 2 zone leaders and 4 senior missionaries for a total of 17. If the assistants who are actually assigned to the area had been there we would have had to find places for 2 more. As usual the early birds were elders Andelin, Burt and Thorne – elder Thorne’s companion elder Brimley was there but not in the picture – as well as sisters Fletcher and Bean. In the middle picture I am not sure if elder Edwards is scratching his head or patting himself on the head while his companion elder Smoot is talking and elder Jones is texting. Elder Jones had a wonderful lesson plan where he asked all the missionaries to share what they felt were the most effective skill they used in the work. There was a lot of great discussion and sharing of experiences that produced a long list. He then asked each of us to concentrate on in proving one of these skills. The last picture shows elders Smoot, Jones and Van Wagenen during the lesson with the first skills on the board.

  

Elder Burt’s 21st birthday is on Wednesday the 20th. Sister Bean baked him a beautiful cake and even brought candles and matches. We had to tell her that we are not supposed to light candles in the building so we had to go outside. Since the wind was blowing it was a challenge to get all the candles lite but we were successful. However soon after I snapped the middle picture while we were singing happy birthday  a breeze came out and beat elder Burt in blowing out the candles.

  

Elders Rellaford and Winslow came down from Boynton Beach with the Collins for a medical reason and so we got to take their picture. They have good reason for smiling as they had a baptism on Sunday. Elder Bare spent the afternoon at the bike shed straightening up things. I must confess that it was a little hard to stand downwind to him before he headed home to take a well deserved shower.