I have mentioned before that working with and getting to know other senior couples are a couple of the many blessing we have had on our missions.  Senior couples love to get together and since there are 4 couples who live minutes from each other and 2 who live 30-45 minutes away. We often find reasons to eat some food, exchange lots of talk and play 5 Crowns. Tonight we had everyone over to our house for soft tacos and other goodies as a last chance to get together for a kind of informal farewell party for the Evans and the Sommerfeldts who will be heading back to their homes over the next few weeks.

  

The Sommerfeldts brought the Bares this bear that they said they found hitch-hiking along the road. It seemed only fair that it got it’s own missionary name tag. I think Sister Bare looks good along the new Elder Bare. Elder Bare arrived in his casual evening dress…it seems that the other Elder Bear could not make it.

  

I have no idea who was talking to elders Collins and Evans. I also do not know why sister Sommerfeldt seems to be putting on a blindfold as she talks to sister Evans. Elder Evans and I like to take pictures of each other taking pictures of the other.

  

Sisters Collins and Bare prepare the food. Elder Sommerfeldt seems to be enjoying his plate full of food.

  

In fact everyone seems to be enjoying the food and the fellowship around the tables.  We were really happy to have E/S McCormick come up from Marathon Key for the evening. It was perfect timing as they were coming up anyway to meet with some family who will be coming in from a cruise and they will get together tomorrow.

  

After dinner we played a intense game of 5 Crowns. One table was mainly sisters and the other was mainly the elders. We do not have couples play at the same table so they can ride home together in peace. Sister Bare and I were the winners at our table.

After the game we had some great dessert and then the couples one by one left to head to their home.

 I do not understand why I have not thought of this earlier for other transfers but at least they will be here for the last three transfers while we are here. These are pictures of the transfer sheets that are projected at transfer meeting. Everyone at the meeting knows that they are going to be transferred and will have a new companion but they have no idea who. These sheets are revealed line by line and the missionaries learn for the first time who they will be with and where they will serve the next six weeks.

As you sit in the meeting you can hear the intake of breath and the soft comments as the companionships are shown. After each zone has been fully revealed the missionaries are told to make the changes. There is a lot of excited noise as old companions give big hugs and say goodbye and then hug their new companion and join them for the first time. It is one of great experiences of being a senior missionary.

  

For those who have not served here, I will explain what you are seeing as you look at the Stuart Zone sheet. The names in black are missionaries who have not moved and the ones in red are those who have moved. For example Elder Edwards was already serving as a Zone leader serving in the Stuart South area. Elder Osborn is now his companion.  ZL stands for Zone Leader and DL stands for District Leader. The only companionships in this zone that did not change are elders Bowen and Duncan up in Okeechobee and elders Maddox and Pearce serving in Wellington.

I need to explain a couple of more things and colors on the sheet. Looking at the Palm Beach  Zone you will see that the Palm Beach Central area is in red…this means it is a brand new area that was opened or perhaps re-opened this transfer. The other thing that you will find on this sheet is names in blue. Blue means that the missionary on the left is training the missionary on the right. Usually the trainer will be serving in the same area as they were the previous 6 weeks but that is not always true.

  

 

 As I mentioned before, the 14 above average missionaries that arrived on the 15th had a very long day in airports and planes. Instead of arriving at 2:30 and having a nice dinner at the mission home, then an interview by President Anderson, and being trained by the APs. They arrived after 8:30 and was wisked to the hotel where they were fed a delicious box dinner that was put together at the mission home by the Evans and sister Anderson. They then got to take their weary bodies up to their rooms for a well deserved night’s sleep.

Elder and Sister Evans brought the food to the hotel and Elder Evans sent me these pictures. Since they will be leaving before the next transfer they were also invited to the departing missionaries dinner on Wednesday night where they took a couple of pictures of the missionaries arriving at the mission home from their trip to the Orlando temple.

  

Elders Shipley and Rippstein with some of the missionaries. Note the TV picture in the back – they certainly are not talking about the Florida Fort Lauderdale Mission! In the middle I believe are elders Madson, Page and Van Wagenen. The right side picture shows the first picture of the old and new APs – elders Gust, Avila, Rippstein and Shipley.

  

The Evans with elders Avila, Shipley and Rippstein. The departing missionaries arrive at the mission home after a 3 1/2 hour drive from the Orlando Temple. In the last picture elder and sister Sommerfeldt can be seen. They escorted the missionaries to the temple and then stayed for the departing dinner and testimony meeting. They will also be leaving before the next transfer. I asked sister Sommerfeldt if the missionaries slept all the way home but she said they spent the whole time talking! These 9 elders have been together for 2 years and they have shared so many wonderful experiences, lived with each other for 24/7 and have learned to truly love each other as only those who have been on missions can understand.

I came for lunch today and finally had time to read Elder Pond’s blog page that includes his letters home. They always give me a lift but the one this week – written on Tuesday when he knew he was going to be transferred but not where – was even more spiritually powerful than ever.

Dear Family and Friends!!

Well transfer time is here once again and I will be leaving Cypress Creek and my district unfortunately… But I know the Lord has amazing things in store for me and I am extremely excited to witness what the Lord has in store for our amazing mission now! I am eternally grateful for the call to serve as a representative of Christ in this amazing mission. Serving as a missionary has changed my life completely!

To read the whole letter with two amazing experiences you just need to go to his site  http://eldercoltonpond.blogspot.com

 I took this picture yesterday when Elders Wardell and Pond came in to pick up some supplies before heading to the Plantation chapel for District Meeting where Elder Pond will conduct his first DM here in Fort Lauderdale.

The secret of the success of the Fort Lauderdale Mission is that there are 140 plus above average missionaries like Elder Pond who are fully dedicated to fulfilling their purpose as a missionary by inviting others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. As they do this the Lord blesses them by leading them to those He has prepared to hear and accept the Gospel.

 Transfers are always exciting and this one was a little more than usual. But  at the same time we are welcoming new missionaries, there is a group of wonderful young men and women who are experiencing their last full day in the mission field. While we are having transfer day they are heading up to the Orlando Temple to have one last amazing experience before their final dinner with President and Sister Anderson, a final testimony meeting, and of course a departing picture.

This transfer 9 valiant Elders who helped the Florida Fort Lauderdale Mission to new records said their goodbyes. Also two amazing couples are also coming to the end of their missions – Elder and Sister Sommerfeldt – on the right in the picture below and Elder and Sister Evans who are on the left.

The back row is Elders Taylor, Badillo, Rippstein, Avila, and Hatch.  Middle row has Elders Evans, Semons, Smith, Bjorling, Bishop and Sommerfeldt. In front are Sisters Evans, Anderson and Sommerfeldt with President Anderson.

 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.

  

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.

  

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.

  

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.

 

This is what the RS room looks like when all the mail is set out.

  

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.

  

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.

 

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.

  

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.

 

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.

  

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.

   

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.

  

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.

  

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.

  

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.

  

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.

  

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.

  

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.

  

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.

 

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.

  

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.

  

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.

  

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.

 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.