We had a great Saturday morning. First we slept in – well Mary slept in and I kind of slept in before getting up and going to the gym. I am working on leaving in Florida the extra weight I managed to pick up in the first year of our mission here. Too much sitting down – especially with food in front of me – and not enough exercising. Of course it all starts at the MTC where it all you can eat for every meal – especially on ice cream Wednesdays.

We picked up E/S Singleton and headed for the temple construction site. We were very lucky to get there just as they were putting the trim around the windows up in the steeple. If you look back a few months you can see the glass was put in but left untrimmed until today. I love to look at the window detail and the the small detail in the cast stone. It is a beautiful building on the outside and I am sure it will be even more so on the inside.

   

Front – that is the East – view of the temple. We are hoping that at least some of the landscaping will be in before we leave but we are not holding our breath. We need to go by at night to see if they are leaving any light on in the tower or on Moroni so we can get some night shots. Holiness to the Lord – House of the Lord – it could not be said any better if you used 100 words.

  

They have poured most of the concrete for the parking lot. It does not add much to the beauty but it does mean that the grading is pretty much done and so the grounds can be prepared for landscaping. This was E/S Singleton’s first visit to the temple site. We are rather jealous because they will be here to help with the open house and the dedication. Of course if we are not already on our next mission we are planing to come back and help out with the open house and stay for the dedication. Wonder if anyone has a room they would let us camp out in for a few weeks.

  

We dropped the Singletons off at their apartment and headed for Fort Lauderdale chapel for a baptism. When we got there we found that the Riverside Park Spanish branch was having an Easter party for their children. It looked like a good percentage of the branch was there for the activity and lunch. Of course the center of attraction was the Easter bunny…since it was already in the 80s I imagine the bunny lost a few pounds in a couple of hours of sweating in that suit.

  

Sister Merrill and Stegelmeier surprised us by showing up at the baptism. One of their investigators who they hope will be baptized tomorrow was supposed to come to watch how it was done. She did not show up but it gave them a chance to have their picture taken with bunny and for sister Stegelmeier to play the prelude music. She wanted to make sure I took a picture of her at the piano so her mother would see that she is keeping up her skills. Most of the missionaries who serve in the ward came for the baptism plus sister Bean and Fletcher from the Spanish branch. Elders Burt, Thorne, Andelin and Brimley talked with the sisters before the meeting started. The picture catches sister Fletcher practicing her leading.

  

Sister Teddie Parker is the newest member of the ward. There is a great story behind her baptism. The first day that sister Gordon – the one in red – was in the mission, sister Dougal and her were out giving harvesting blessings They knocked on sister Parker’s door and was gladly let in. After the blessing she wanted to know more. Since the sisters are assigned to the YSA ward, they turned the teaching over to elders Shipley and Gust. The rest is now history. When sister Parker came out to have this picture taken she saw the sister missionaries and went up to them and with tears in her eyes thanked her two angels who came to her door and blessed her. The Lord really does prepare people for the missionaries to find and teach – sister Parker is one of those. The baptism talk was given by sister Brady and elder Gust performed a perfect baptism ordinance. For the closing song sister Stegelmeier told brother Beale – he was conducting the meeting because many from the ward were at the Orlando temple today – that she wanted to teach him to lead the music. I am afraid that brother Beale is going to need a lot more lessons but his enthusiasm could not be denied.

As we were leaving the chapel, Riverside Park was having their lunch and the bunny was still there. Sisters Gordon and Dougal started over to see him but then changed their minds. At about the same time I thought that I should have a picture of them with him. When I caught up with them and asked them to come back they confessed that they really wanted a picture but did not want to intrude on the ward activity. Of course they were welcomed by the members and were even offered lunch. Sister Gordon had the right up – it was certainly a thumbs up morning.

***p.s. for sisters Stegelmeier and Merrill’s parents. Your daughters are getting a great farmer’s tan while riding their bikes. Actually today they looked more than a little sunburn – kind of glow in the dark pink – and wind blown but that will never slow them or any other Florida Fort Lauderdale missionaries down.

The days/weeks seem to be flashing by. It feels like there must be less than 6 days between Sundays.

  

The Singletons continue to learn all the things they need to know for their office callings. They are excellent learners – much better than I was – and so we are know that by the time we leave they will be able to handle 90% of what needs to be done. The other 10% they will just have to learn by themselves. As I see them start from basically scratch, I am very glad that we had a three months just to get to know how the mission and the office ran before we started learning about our specific office jobs. It is very helpful to know how different parts of the mission operates. Sister Singleton found the Zones With Picture board and realized that she could see the whole mission in the one place. The Assistants, elders Gust and Shipley helped her understand the board a little better.

  

Sisters Stegelmeier and Merrill came in to see elder Bare and I kidded her that she could not talk without moving her arms and hands. She said I was rude…but we always say this to each other and laugh. When I looked at the pictures I took while they were here, I found proof of my statement. In the first picture she is talking to the APs and her arms are a blur. In the second she is listening and of course her hands are quiet! Sister Merrill’s hands are still if she is listening or speaking…

Elders Turek and Gray came through the office this afternoon and got to meet elder Singleton. Of course they had to stop at the departure board to see where they or their friends were.  They serve together in the Palm Beach North area.

Usually I just post experiences that President Anderson shares in his weekly letter but this one is so good I just had to post it. It shows why the Florida Fort Lauderdale mission is having such great success finding and baptizing sons and daughters of God. The missionaries have such great faith and testimonies of the power of prayer. They go to the Lord in faith, ask for blessings, work hard and the Lord blesses them by answering their prayers. We hear experiences such as this from many missionaries and every time they say how it was the Lord who led them to those he had prepared.

“Last night as we set out to harvest we poured our hearts out to Heavenly Father to guide us to a family who was ready to be baptized and praying for us. We then set out to find them. Before we knocked on Michelle’s door I turned to Sister Merrill and said “We are going to testify and teach the doctrine of baptism till this person convinces us otherwise.” As we left the blessing on her home the Spirit was super strong – there were tears in her eyes. We invited her to be baptized and she told us that she had actually been baptized as a Mormon when she was 11. (Heavenly Father has a great sense of humor.) We invited her to come to service and she is coming on Sunday! We also left her a Book of Mormon and she can’t wait to read it, then we asked her who she knew that needed a blessing. She sent us to her friend Kurt and his family. When we knocked on their door and testified they let us right in. They told us how the Lord had sent us there and that this was an answer to their prayers. We left the blessing on their home and after the blessing the Spirit was so strong. Kurt was crying. Cristen asked us if we could stay a little and help her son understand and choose Christ. We testified and taught them about the power of baptism in their lives – they are so amazing! They are coming to church and preparing to be baptized! Wow. Immediately after we left their house could do nothing but express gratitude for the MANY miracles that are happening. I LOVE this work!!!

 You will have to pardon a proud grandfather for putting in a picture that is not from the Fort Lauderdale mission but from the Spain Malaga mission. Our grandson Elder Webb had his first baptism on the last Sunday. The picture includes his companion and trainer elder Keller and the new member Fausto. Elder Webb also got the news that after just 6 weeks in the mission field he is going to become a trainer! It seems that they have so many missionaries coming in that almost all the elders are going to get a chance to train.

 It was a perfect winter day in Fort Lauderdale – warm, not humid, and no rain. We are going to miss this. But it was also perfect in other ways. We got to see a number of missionaries as they passed through the office and later at the Fort Lauderdale ward’s missionary correlation meeting. We spent much of the day training the Singletons. I must confess that I am not a very good trainer. I tend to show elder Singleton something once and then sit back and let him work it out for himself while helping when he gets stuck.  That is probably not the best way to train but it is how I like to learn. They are both doing a great job for only being here for three days.

  

Elder Shipley was on an exchange with one of the Coral Springs ZLs elder Hunt. I really like elder Hunt who served as ZL in the Fort Lauderdale zone with elder Smoot for a transfer. He is a hard worker and always has a ready smile. While they were here the Collins came in to do some paperwork before heading out to try and find some housing for the many new areas that will be created for the next massive group of missionaries coming in April. Sister Singleton dressed perfectly for Ft Lauderdale’s Blue Wednesday but Mary chose pink.

  

Elders Jones, Van Wagenen and Hafen stopped by and talked to sister Bare. Elder Singleton got a chance to meet the dynamic duo of elders Rondo and Pond. I asked elder Pond if they were going to have some baptisms this weekend and he said of course we will. The two red carts are strictly and in joke for Mary and myself. I will let you try to imagine why we find them interesting.

  

At the Ft Lauderdale correlation meeting I embarrassed elder Burt by starting the group singing happy birthday. He turned a lovely shade of red. Elders Burt, Andelin and Thorne wait their turn to discuss their investigators. Brother Acevedo always is the last one in because he has to work until 6:00 when the meeting starts. Since the rule is that the last one to the meeting says the closing prayer he gets lots of opportunities to bless the missionary work in the ward.

  

Notice the pink thing sitting in front of bishop brown. I talked about how he got it in an earlier post. When before the meeting the bishop stepped out to take care of something elders Gust and Shipley plotted to pick up the pink thing. Unfortunately I missed the money shot and for some reason got a very fuzzy picture of the two culprits. As I took the picture bishop brown came in and caught the two in the act! There is never a dull moment when you are in Fort Lauderdale ward.

 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.

 On Saturday afternoon we got to meet the couple who will be serving in our current callings for the next 18 months. The Singletons are a wonderful couple from Idaho Falls. We were at the office straightening up our desks so they would not realize how unorganized we are – or at least I am – when they arrived. We gave them a quick tour of the office and then we headed off for some lunch. After lunch we took them to their new apartment and helped them unload their car. They then did some unpacking and a quick nap before we showed them where to do their shopping.

 

On Sunday they went to the Fort Lauderdale Ward. They made it there with no problem. They are not going to have any trouble with getting around once they figure out Florida driving. Maybe it would be better to say if they survive figuring out Florida driving habits. On Monday they came into the office and we spent a couple hour before staff meeting teaching them about their new calling. Basically I just turned things over to elder Singleton and he quickly learned how to pay bills – one of the things he will do almost everyday. They both have great attitudes and seem to have good computer skills. They are eager to learn. We are thinking in two or three weeks they should be able to do almost everything so we can spend some time traveling around the mission and of course start packing…not an easy task when we brought so much from home and accumulated more once we were here.

  

On Sunday we picked up this beautiful young family for Church. Their 15 month old daughter, Summer, just was not willing to smile for a picture. At the end of today’s staff meeting I saw the Anderson’s holding hands as we sang the closing song and had to take a picture. I am going to have to check pictures from when we first got here but I think President Anderson’s hair is getting a little grayer. Sisters and Herrera and Judkins came in so sister Judkins could finish up the things she needed to get her driving privileges. I had to take a picture of sister Herrera’s very pretty tunic.  It was a strange p-day as they were the only missionaries to drop in. Usually three or four companionships come by. Even the APs did not show up to use the computers for their e-mail.

With the same attitude as Ammon that all glory goes to God for preparing people to accept the gospel, the mission had 42 baptisms for the week and are on track to reach 200 for the month. But no matter what the number the important thing is that these sons and daughters of God have started down the straight and narrow path that can lead to Eternal Life. Our prayers go with them that will continue to keep the commandments so they can enjoy all the blessings that the Lord has for them.

President Anderson’s letter taught about how missionaries are the happiest and most successful when they plan and work with diligence under the influence of the spirit. Here are the experiences he shared this week as once again the mission had 42 baptisms for a total of 121 in the first three weeks of March.

““When Ammon was his happiest, he was busy, engaged, and working his hardest to bring souls to Christ.

I love how you are teaching our new missionaries our culture of obedience and the importance of working hard:

 

“On my first night here, the assistants challenged us to invite everyone to be baptized. I was determined to do just that. It was around 8:00 pm and we had just finished praying before we went out harvesting. As soon as the prayer was finished, we turned around and there was a man walking his dog. We contacted him and left a blessing with him right there. He was the first person I invited to be baptized, and he accepted! It was exciting, but I didn’t think too much more about it since we had to pass him to another area. However, at the stake wide baptism on Sunday, this man was baptized! God really does put us in the path of those who are prepared and willing to follow His example and enter the waters of baptism.”

 

I love how hard you are working in planning with faith for your investigators to be baptized:

 

“This week, my companion and I have really sought to plan with the Lord and to really tune into the Spirit as we plan. Weekly planning, nightly planning, and comp studies have changed so much and are so much fun as we really strive to be innovative with the Spirit. Katrina was very nervous about religion and was not sure about being baptized again. Each day as we planned her lessons we prayerfully selected the commitments that we would extend to her and the doctrine she needed to understand in order to keep those commitments. As we did she started keeping the little commitments! She loved the Mormon Messages and we found that as she understood true doctrine that she would invite herself to keep the commitments. It is the best! She invited herself to be baptized! I love helping people seek learning by faith. Teaching by the Spirit is the ONLY way to go.” 

 

When you work hard, you get what you pray for:

 

“We had been praying all week to meet a family and we finally did!  When they first answered the door, we asked if we could come inside and leave the blessing with them, and they let us in to say the prayer.  We got on our knees and the whole family was together and my companion offered a simple but powerful prayer.  After the prayer the spirit was so undeniably strong.  We testified of what they were feeling and that God had sent us there and invited them to be baptized.  The dad then chimed in and said that he had been praying for his family to get closer to God and that he had been asking God to send him messengers.  He bore testimony to his whole family that we were sent to them by God.  It was incredible!  They came to church on Sunday and are preparing for baptism!”

I have been doing this blog for over 6 years with breaks between missions. At first in Indonesia I wrote a lot and only put in a few pictures. In South Africa I wrote a little less and put in more pictures. Since we started this mission it has mainly pictures with the writing talking about the pictures and the people in them. I like this best…but I do like going back and reading what was going on in detail back in Indonesia. It will be interesting to see what happens with the next one.

  

This is the picture of the lizard that sister Stegelmeier was unhappy about. I love the colors on it’s back. I do not remember seeing one of these when we were in South Africa. The scene with lots of different animals is also a typical but we did see things like this. We never got tired of seeing elephants. Especially herds with younger animals.

  

Sisters Gordon and Dougal came in to get their new phone up and working. This young lady was born about Christmas time and had this head of hair even as she came into the world. Elders Burt and Andelin came in to pick up some supplies for the companionship of sisters in the new Riverside Park area. While they were here they also picked up some necessary supplies for themselves…missionaries are always hungry.

  

We went to the Fort Lauderdale ward’s missionary correlation meeting and elder Bowen came in on an exchange with elder Gust. Bishop brown was a little less formal than usual – normally he has on his scout shirt. He explained that they are having their bedroom remodeled and he can not find any of his clothes. I told him it seemed like a good reason to me. I mentioned that the Fort Lauderdale district had Brown Thursday. As I was editing these pictures I noticed that elders Thorne, Brimley, Jones and Van Wagenen all had on Bruin blue ties and wondered if they also have Blue Thursdays!

If a missionary arrives at the MTC and has good skills in the language they are going to be using in their mission, they are usually sent to the field after just 2 weeks of basic teaching skills training. We were happy to have three new above average Hermanas come in yesterday. All of them were already proficient in Spanish so they will have four extra weeks in the field to bring their brothers and sisters unto Christ.

Hermana Chiou will trained by sister Bagley in the Coconut Creek North area of the Coral Springs zone.

Hermana Smith will be serving with sisters Escobores and Chavous in the new Riverside Park North area of the Fort Lauderdale Zone.

Hermana Espinoza will be trained by sister Pickup in the Hollywood Hills West area also in the Fort Lauderdale Zone.