A Week ago Wednesday we were coming home from the Fort Lauderdale Ward mission correlation meeting and saw this beautiful sunset before us. The problem was finding some where to take a picture without having too many wires, buildings and other things in the way. This was the best I could do. The middle picture is a sunrise from our apartment. We get lots of beautiful sunrises and sometimes we even take the time to enjoy them. I like the end picture because of the reflection in the lake and the serenity of the scene in general.

  

District meeting is on Tuesday and we always enjoy it. The picture on the right shows elders Rellaford, Doman, Patino, and Pond studying. Elders HoChing, Bishop and Conger are in the middle. Can you pick out who did not know they were having their picture taken? In September this district had more baptisms than some zones. They understand Faith + Obedience + Hard Work = Miracles. On our way back to the office after the meeting we stopped at Subway and I noticed how the sky was reflected in the large back window of this SUV. The cloud formations in Southern Florida are always changing.

 

On Sunday we picked up an investigator at this building. The sign was on the door of the apartment next to them. There are too many of these kind of notices in Southern Florida.

  

Rainbow at the lake – The Ducklings are starting to fly – A lizard took up residence in our garden art.

  

Yesterday – Wednesday – was the Train the Trainers  meeting at the mission home and afterwards all the new missionaries and their trainers come into the office to pick up supplies, find some snacks and turn in baptism reports. I caught Sister Dougal coming out of the supply room. All missionaries when they visit the office have to spend some time checking out the departure board that shows all the missionaries and when they are going home. Among those shown are the two elder Browns, sisters Lake, Daines, Spujt and Dougal and others are finding where they are on the board and where friends are. Sister Sommerfeldt is the mission nurse and is kept very busy trying to make sure that any of the missionaries who are ill or injured are on the road to recovery.

  

Elder Olson is smiling at elder Rockwood, elder Langford – who is really tall – is loading up some of the supplies they need  behind sister Sommerfeldt – while elder Bare is trying to figure out his calling as the new car czar – I mean vehicle coordinator. I can never get a good picture of sister Bare working because she is always in the corner trying to figure out what the missionaries were trying to write on the baptism and confirmation form. With the mission being on fires she is happy to get 25-45 new baptisms to record each week.

 We look forward each Sunday or Monday for President Anderson’s weekly letter to the missionaries. He gives encouragement, shares insights from the scriptures and talks, and always includes two or three spiritual experiences from the letters he receives each week from the missionaries.

“We did it!!! We again did what has not been done before!!! We broke our weekly baptismal record and got 41 last week!!! How proud I am to be serving with you, the greatest missionaries in the world in the greatest mission in the world. I know the rest of you will be participating this week and this month in our goal for October.”

“We were going to visit one of our baptismal dates and while walking over there we saw a family walking up the steps in a complex next door and I felt the Spirit whisper to me to go knock on their door. I set it aside and our baptismal date ended up not being home. As we were about to get back in the car I felt the Spirit whisper it to me once again. So I couldn’t deny what the Spirit was telling me and we went to go harvest that complex. The fourth door we knocked on was that family that we saw and they immediately let us in. They accepted baptism almost before we could even invite them! Then the next day when we went to go follow up she exclaimed, ‘Ya’ll were definitely sent from Jesus Christ. I’ve been searching for a job for months now and yesterday a half an hour after you left that blessing I got a call for an interview.’  It was a miracle and then she exclaimed how she desires so badly to change her life and be baptized. The Spirit led us to her home and because we headed to the promptings of the Spirit and put off the natural man her entire family will now have the gospel of Jesus Christ!”

 Your testimony that Christ has sent you to represent Him becomes obvious in the service you perform and the example of Jesus Christ you emulate:

 “We saw a man pushing his car all alone and we jumped out and started to push with him. He told us that we didn’t need to do that and ‘he was fine alone’.  I said ‘Jesus Christ sent us to help you, so that is what we are doing.’ I asked him if he believed in Jesus Christ, he said he wasn’t sure. It started pouring rain (Of course) on all of us as we continued to push, and he was taken back at our willingness to help him.  When we finished we were soaking wet! Dripping we asked him if we could pray with him and he said that would probably be good and he took us into his family. We prayed and testified to them that Jesus sent us in this moment to change your family’s life and his wife started to cry.  We then invited them to be baptized and they accepted. The next night we came and they told us that the day that we met them, they had decided to get divorced, and their car broke down, and everything else in the world was falling apart. She said she was so mad before the prayer but after, she said she felt some room in her heart to think about the situation and give their marriage another chance for her and the kids. The husband said this was one of the best experiences of his life and his faith in Jesus Christ has grown so much. They came to conference, and are getting baptized on Sunday.”

On the second Monday of most months, the senior couples meet together with President and Sister Anderson for a staff meeting. The calendar for the month – mainly transfer time – is gone through and then each senior missionary or couple report on their particular assignments in the mission. In this way we all know what the others have been doing or will be doing.  This is especially interesting because some of the couples are not in the office during the month or at least not very often so this is about our only personal contact with them. Elder and Sister Boice are the Employment couple and spend much of their time in the Employment Office at the Miami Lakes chapel. Elder and Sister McCormick serve down on Marathon Key and work with the small branch – more like a twig to tell the truth. They have a good three hour drive to the office which adds lots of miles to their personal truck.

In the evening we all meet again at the Mission Home where we spend a couple of hours eating, talking and then sharing some spiritual lesson or discussion. Last night most of the talking at our table was about favorite foods and how to make them. Mainly it was the sisters talking but the men chimed in from time to time.

After dinner the President asked each of us to say something about one thing from a conference talk that touched us. Mary mentioned the new program for YM and YW and how it was based on asking questions and not lecturing. I talked about Elder Christensen’s talk about the Holy Ghost and how often our investigators are like his young son – that is they have never really felt the HG before and need to be taught what it is and why it is important. It was a great experience and a number of the points brought up by others brought the talk they came from to my mind.

Last nights FHE tied perfectly in to one of my experiences this morning. Because I went out to pick up some investigators for the Assistants, I was not home for the first hour of the Sunday morning session. So this morning I watched President Eyring’s wonderful talk on how we often hide ourselves from God but he never hides Himself from us. As he talked I thought of how true this is and thought of a number of times that I did jus that. I will go back to this talk often in the hopes of reminding myself to be careful and make sure I am doing what the Lord wants and not what I want, when I want it.

What a wonderful opportunity we have to not only watch conference to almost immediately go back and listen to our favorite talks again. And maybe listen again to those talks that we did not feel spoke to us and our needs. I know that when I do that I often find a hidden message that is there just for me or so it seems.

Each week I look forward to reading President Anderson’s letter to the missionaries because he shares a few of the great stories that he receives from the missionaries as they send in their weekly letters to the president. I told him that after their mission he should publish a book of these great stories.

“We spent most of the week on our bike so we didn’t run out of miles in our car. But because of it we met so many people and saw so many miracles from it. One of them was we had just got done with one of our lessons with a new investigator, at a members home, Martin. We were biking out of the trailer park and there were three guys sitting outside. We didn’t really want to talk to them, but we decided that we needed to. We asked if we could give them the blessing and they said yes. While we were praying Martin (the member) pulled up! After we got done praying we invited them to be baptized and they said they wanted to learn more. Martin told them to listen to us because we have the truth. In our next lesson they told us that in Mexico they had seen missionaries before, but they had never talked to them. They were waiting to see if we would contact them, and we did. We found three new investigators that we wouldn’t have found if we weren’t on our bikes! I wish we could have every member be like Martin. Members are such a huge help in the work!”

And another that shows the Lord does prepare people to hear the Gospel..

“We were just finishing up harvesting in a new apartment complex we found this week and as we were leaving we came across this awesome lady. We started talking to her and asked if we could pray with her. She was happy to let us pray with her and her boyfriend and after the blessing we invited them to be baptized and they accepted. The next day we went over and they were so excited to see us again. We asked how their day was going and they both said that because of our prayer they both got jobs. Both of them! By the end of us talking with them two of their friends came by and joined in on the conversation. We were praying, scripture reading, testifying, everything! After that we invited their friends to be baptized and they accepted too. I must say that it was the best night of my mission thus far.”

It has not been a great week because my companion has been sick! On Saturday the 30th Mary came down with a cold. I knew she was really sick because she did not feel well enough to go to Flamingo Gardens as we have been planning for 3 weeks. I do not think she felt well enough to even go out to eat which is the ultimate test. So we basically spent the whole day at home.

However she was a trooper and went as my navigator on Sunday as we picked up some investigators that the APs needed rides for. Fred is a great guy who the elders contacted through a small miracle. He works night and never answers the door when some one interrupts his sleep. But it just so happened that when the elders knocked he was up getting a glass of water and he invited them in to give his home a blessing.

Yesterday the elders invited me to go with them to see Fred so they could fill out the baptism record and give a short lesson on baptism. We held our meeting outside and I was able to bear my testimony of how wonderful he will feel when he comes out of the water. Then I got a great surprise when the APs suggested I do the baptism. Since I am already giving the talk on baptism at the service it will be an interesting service for me.

Also yesterday we had the opportunity to go down to the port and pick up our old friends Karl and Wendy Kaneen when they arrived from a two week cruise. After what seemed like forever driving around and around the pick-up area – security will not let you park where you can see the passengers get off – we finally saw them.

We then found a place to have breakfast and talk. It was a great time catching up on family and friends – Karl was one of my counselors when I was bishop in Redondo and was later a bishop and branch president there himself. The only problem was that I managed to leave my camera at home! Bummer

  

Not a lot of pictures this week. Some of our great missionaries came in to drop off baptismal records so Sister Bare could enter them in the computer before the Thursday deadline so I took a picture of 6 of them. Elders HoChing, Beer, Badillo, Bishop, Rasmussen, and Hoole. A beautiful sunrise from our apartment. Mary pointed out that in South Africa we took pictures of elephants, rhinos, monkeys, giraffes, and hippos. In Florida we take pictures of ducks, lizards, birds and squirrels – this little fellow comes and cleans up anything the ducks leave behind.

As the day ended we said goodbye to our friends and fellow missionaries Elder and Sister Beagley who faithfully served their 18 months in the Florida Fort Lauderdale Mission. Elder Beagley just could not stop finding things to do and left with a sweat stained shirt to prove he put in his all. Sister Beagley gave her all but managed to stay cool.

    

Mary with Sister Bare and Sister Beagley – Sister Bare now takes over the many things that sister Beagley did so well. I tried to get a good picture of them leaving the office for the last time but for some reason it is out of focus…sorry about that. But I did manage to catch a good picture of them driving out of the parking lot as they headed over to the mission home to see President and Sister Anderson. Tomorrow morning they will hitch up the trailer and head for home. We will see them again when we return home next year!

In the 9 days we have had four lunches with missionaries. Twice with the senior couples and twice with the young missionaries. Today we picked up and delivered the food for the lunch at the Hollywood chapel where some of the missionaries from three zones were receiving specialized training from president and sister Anderson and the APs. Since the Fort Lauderdale zone was being trained we knew many of missionaries who were there. Among the others it was good to see elder Rasmussen again – I told him we missed his smiling face.

  

We ate at a table with elders Kata, HoChing, Bishop and Larsen. Among the things that were talked about was how the introduction of harvesting changed mission and also how harvesting has changed as teaching methods have changed as the program has developed.

We were invited to sit in on the weekly ward missionary correlation meeting at the Fort Lauderdale ward. There were 6 elders, Bishop Brown, brothers Acevedo and Beale the ward mission leaders and ourselves. It was great to hear how the bishop wanted to concentrate on the recent converts as well as those who have baptism dates. It was one of the best correlation meetings I have been in – including those I was in charge of as ward mission leader.

   

Bishop Brown is a scouter as well as a strong supporter of missionary work. Elders Hall and Patrino are smiling for the camera – elder Pond is serious. The young man often works with the missionaries. Elders Doman and Conger, brothers Beale and Acevedo, elder Rellaford and bishop Brown discuss investigators and new converts.

  

Elder and Sister Beagley are heading home early Friday morning so Elder Beagley decided to take one last short nap on this very comfortable sofa – he is an inspiration to us all. This can be seen in this picture of me taking a nap in the mission president’s office. It is not nearly as comfortable as elder Beagley’s choice. As we were driving out of the complex this morning we passed this wild painted car…I could not resist taking a picture.

With our new assignment to the Fort Lauderdale ward we needed to change the District meeting we attended. So it was back to Fort Lauderdale district with 6 elders and 2 sisters. We know many of the missionaries, especially Elder Conger who is the DL.
  

Elders Rellaford, Conger, Doman and Patino with Sister Tuai are on the left. The group of elders in the middle include HoChing – one of the zone leaders,  brother White – a young man who has his papers in for a mission – elder Bishop – the other zone leader, Rellaford, Conger, Doman and Patino. Some how the only picture I took with Sisters Tuai and Escorbores (I seem to always leave out the first ‘r’ in her name) is of their backs as they talk with elder Bishop.

 

Another shots of some of the elders. Elders Pond and Hall are ‘teaching’ bishop brown with elder HoChing looking on – also included is another good picture of the back of Mary’s head. And then there is one more picture of elders.

We enjoy being ‘investigators’ for the role playing part of the District meeting. Sisters Escorbores and Tuai helped me with the problem of not feeling that God answers my prayers. One of the rules of today’s role play was that they could not use or quote any scriptures. They had to use their knowledge of the gospel and their personal stories and testimony.