With our meeting not starting until 1:00 I must confess that at times it is easy for me to just find a book – not the scriptures – and curl up and read for a couple of hours. A few weeks ago I read a talk about the Sabbath Day that changed my attitude about the way I spend the morning or at least how I am trying to spend the Sunday mornings.

I have found it a good time to read the Ensign and listen again to conference talks, and ponder what I read. This morning besides reading and listening to a couple of talks by Elder Neal Maxwell – there are 53 of his conference talks available at LDS.org – I read an article about President George Albert Smith in the January 2012 Ensign (http://preview.tinyurl.com/8hn722e). The article ended with this comment about President Smith:

“As one observer said of President Smith: “His religion is not doctrine in cold storage. It is not theory. It means more to him than a beautiful plan to be admired. It is more than a philosophy of life. To one of his practical turn of mind, religion is the spirit in which a man lives, in which he does things, if it be only to say a kind word or give a cup of cold water. His religion must find expression in deeds. It must carry over into the details of daily life.”

It really got me thinking if the same or at least most of it could be said about me and the way I live what I know is true. As I once read somewhere “If you were accused of being a Latter-day Saint, could they find enough evidence to convict you?”

So as not to create a false impression that I spent the whole morning at LDS.org reading uplifting articles, here are some pictures that I accumulated from visiting other blogs and taking screen shots.

   

I guess we have never really left Africa because one of our favorite websites is the Tembe Elephant Park webcam. Almost every morning – it is afternoon in South Africa – we check in to see what is going on there. Elephants actually standing in the water is unusual but this big old bull was having a great time. He probably left the water hole and threw dirt all over him – it is an elephant thing. The middle picture caught impalas in the front, an elephant and way in the back some waterbucks. I am pretty sure we never saw this combination live while we served there. I can remember the first time we saw an impala and how excited we were. After three months we had seen so many we didn’t even say anything when we saw a herd.

  

Our dear friends Elder and Sister Bell who are serving as PEF missionaries, sent this picture of them being Helping Hands in the Philippines which has been hit by one terrible flood after another. Another blog I visit shows scenes from the DRC. I thought we had seen some very interesting loads on motorcycles, bikes and carts but I think this one of a van being transported on a cart beats them all. The writer mentioned that the men, cart and van actually passed them while they were sitting in traffic. We had that happen in Jakarta when a man pulling a huge cart full of grasses kept passing us as we tried to get through a stuffed traffic area.

   

We had Zone Conference for the Fort Lauderdale Zone on Thursday the 16th  and I managed to take a few pictures. Sister Carnes with her new missionary sister Holyan. All the zone eating a delicious taco salad lunch. The young lady in pink is Cordy who is the Anderson’s granddaughter. She had a great time taking pieces of cake and other gifts to the missionaries. Elders Brown and Shepherd are companions who we only get to see at conferences and transfers. They are serving in the Hollywood Hills East area – elder Brown is district leader.

      

Elders Hall and Pond serve in Fort Lauderdale South area. Elders Doman, Marsh, Conger, Rellaford, Brown and Shepard shared a table. On Monday the 13th the couples got together at the Mission home for a FHE.

    

The ducklings continue to grow and will come to be fed when they hear my voice. The other day an intruder tried to join the group to get some of the bread but mama duck soon chased him away…the picture is blurry because he was making a quick exit. I think the ducklings would eat from my hand but I am afraid they would not stop with the bread.

    

I saw this license plate picture in the mall parking lot and thought it was worth taking. The Westfield Brower Mall has a nice fountain and sign outside the main entrance. Mary is talking to our neighbor. The little boy in the picture was born just one week before our youngest grandson Colin.

A misty morning shot. We get some great morning views from our deck.

    

On Thursday before we went to Weston so Mary could give a piano lesson we took a detour past the Fort Lauderdale temple site. These pictures were taken from the North bound lanes of the 75 freeway – the only way you can take pictures of the West side of the temple without climbing over a very tall fence that tells you it is not legal to climb over. So Mary took a number of shots and these are the best.

You can see how amazing it is going to look to all those many thousand who drive on this freeway each day. Imagine what it is going to be like when it has it’s tower and Moroni and it is brightly lighted up at night!

This morning instead of reading from the Book of Mormon as I ate breakfast, I picked  up the January issue of the Ensign and read Elder Carl B Cook’s article that was on the same theme as his October 2011 conference talk. As I read the opening story I felt a need to share it on this blog. Early in PMG the missionary is told not to compare their progress, baptisms, etc with anyone but themselves. If they can write in their journal that served with all the heart, mind, might and strength they did all that the Lord asked of them.

As Elder Cook points out the same is true for each member of the Kingdom. We only need to report our stewardship – that is how well we did what He wanted us to do that day -  to the Lord. Here is Elder Cook’s opening story…

“As a young man I was called to serve a mission in Hamburg, Germany. At the Language Training Mission—the predecessor to today’s missionary training center—I struggled to learn the language. As the first and then the second week passed, I noticed that the others in my district were progressing much faster than I was. While they were advancing to complex concepts, my dies, ders, and dases were a disaster.

I started to become concerned—and discouraged. How could I serve a successful mission if I couldn’t communicate with the people I was called to teach?

I prayed for help and sought a priesthood blessing, which provided some reassurance. But I continued to search and struggle, and one day I felt more uptight and worried than ever. As my companion and I walked down the hallway, I stopped at a small janitor’s closet. I asked my companion to wait for me for a moment. I slipped into that tiny room and knelt down on a mop. I began to plead with Heavenly Father for some relief.

The Lord answered that prayer. I felt this thought come into my mind: “I never called you to master the German language. I just called you to serve with all of your heart, mind, and strength.”

I immediately thought, “I can do that. I can serve with all of my heart, mind, and strength. If that’s what the Lord has called me to do, I can do that.” I stood up feeling tremendously relieved.

From that point on, my measuring stick changed. I no longer gauged my progress and success against that of my companion or other members of my district. Instead, I focused on how the Lord felt I was doing. Instead of looking to the side to compare myself to others, I began to look up, so to speak, to know what He thought of my efforts.

I don’t know that I learned the language much faster or much better from that point on, but I no longer felt the concerns I once had. I knew what the Lord wanted me to do, and it was in my power to do it.

I began counseling with Heavenly Father in the morning, telling Him that I didn’t know what the day would bring but that I would do my very best. “Whatever I can learn, allow me to learn it,” I prayed, “but no matter what, I’m going to give Thee my very best today.”

At night I would pray again to report on what I had studied and what I had done. I shared with my Father in Heaven my struggles and my successes alike. I had begun to turn to Him—not to others or even myself—to validate my progress.

That lesson that I learned in a tiny broom closet more than 35 years ago has stayed with me all my life, through a number of callings and assignments. Whenever I have been asked to do something where the expectations seem greater than what I have the capacity to do, I remember that experience and say to myself, “Wait. Who called you? Who are you serving? Who are you trying to please?”

The world we live in today has all kinds of measurements—most of them external to us. I think such measurements can be especially harsh to young adults. You go to school and earn a grade, but that doesn’t necessarily take into account what else you experience in your other classes or your family or your life situation. Sometimes we’re judged by the way we look or by the car we drive. We might base our sense of self-worth on how many friends are writing on our wall on social networking sites. We worry about what others think about the person we’re dating or what people will think if we marry before finishing school. It’s easy to get caught up in trying to please others, but we can’t trust such external measurements; the world can be too quick both to praise and to criticize.

I think the challenge for all of us—but perhaps particularly for young adults—is to try not to look sideways to see how others are viewing our lives but to look up to see how Heavenly Father sees us. He doesn’t look on the outward appearance but on the heart (see 1 Samuel 16:7). And He knows, better than anyone else, what each one of us needs.”

 Transfer day finally arrives and there are a lot of changes in many of the zones. The 13 missionaries who will leave for home tomorrow went to the temple and the 12 arriving missionaries were introduced to their trainers. For once I managed to take quite a few pictures of new companionships at the meeting and later when they flowed into the office.

     

Elder and Sister Boice are the new employment couple and they arrived on Saturday. They were introduced to the transfer meeting. I took this picture of elders Hall and Taylor because they had their jackets on. Elder Taylor was transferred. Elder Dowdle is training elder Harris.

    

Elder Beer joined elder Bishop as the new Ft Lauderdale zone leaders. Elders H. Owens and Lee got a lot of points by helping sister Pier in the office as they waited for their car to get a bike rack installed. Elders Lewis and Rondo passed through the office on their way back to their area.

    

After the meeting luggage, bikes and missionaries must be moved around to the right cars so they can join their new companions and areas. Elder Beagley is always busy at transfers. Cars need to be assigned, re-assigned, swapped, and of course repaired. It does not end with the end of the meeting because he then has to get all the paperwork in order so he knows which car is where. I am happy to just move pictures around on the transfer board and solve small phone problems. I do try to help him when needed but luckily – for me – this transfer was basically a one man show as far as vehicles were concerned.

   

Elder Hoole is now the companion of our dear friend elder Rasmussen. Elder Hoole has a blog where his family posts his weekly letters. Elders Edwards and J. Owens are now companions. Elder Nielsen will be trained by our friend elder Fitts who has been one of our zone leaders for a number of transfers. He is going to be district leader in a new area where his Portuguese may be put to use. We are going to miss elder Fitts alway positive attitude but we know he is going to serve his last 3 months building up a strong district and train a powerful missionary.

     

Sister Lake is now with sister Tuai. Sister Beck in turquoise will be training sister Bagley. I am sure I will be calling sister Bagley, sister Beagley and visa versa. Elder Meredith is moving over to Belle Glade and will serve with elder Wood.

   

Sister Aloi on the left will be trained by sister Holder. Sister Holder was one of the first missionaries we met here. Sister Clayton will be trained by sister Keyworth. Sister Sheffield will be training sister Chavous.

  

The two tallest sister missionaries will be serving together. Sister Steglemeier on the left will be trained by sister Dye. Sister Dye will make sure they have a lot of two mite days. After I took a close up, sister Dye complained that it did not show how tall they were so they got a second shot that shows all of them!

    

On the first Friday of each month the President and the assistants hold a training session for all of the Zone leaders at the mission home. After the meeting many of the missionaries come by the office to pick up supplies for themselves and the other missionaries in their zone. Elder Beard – who was our zone leader for much of our mission and elder Shipley – who is here from Redondo III ward where I was bishop for 8 years. However we left California before elder Shipley was born.  In the middle are elders Gust and Fullmer. The last picture show elders Skousen and Hanna.

    

Elder Olson and Hatch has their hands full of supplies. Sister Beagley is always busy with baptism records and chapel cards. Her job happily increases every month as the mission continues to have great success in bringing people unto Christ. Elders Avila and Rippstein will soon be the only Assistants to the President as elders Kealamakia and Giorgino leave next week. They have had 6 weeks to learn their callings…they will continue to learn as the weeks go by.

    

Our grandson Colin shows his temper and his smile. Our granddaughter Kelli is growing up way too fast. We miss all of our children and grandchildren but we know we are about our Father’s business.

    

Going through some of posts from our mission to Indonesia I found this picture from 2007 – it does not seem that over 5 years have passed. I notice I was thinner. When watching some videos from LDS.org I was happily surprised to see Elder Subandriyo who we served with in Indonesia being interviewed. He not only has a strong testimony but a wonderful can-do spirit that helped make our mission even more enjoyable. In the mornings we often look in at the Tembe Elephant Park webcam. This screen shot shows an older elephant at the watering hole. Notice that his tusks – which continue to grow through out an elephant’s life – is as long as his trunk! So I managed to get something from each of our missions and a quick glimpse of a couple of our grandchildren in one post!

    

This morning I thought the sky looked very interesting so I went out and took some pictures. The first one looks hazy because stepping from a cool interior to a warm, moist exterior caused the lens to fog up and I did not realize the problem until I actually took the picture. When the assistants came in today most of them had on their suit coats so I took their pictures. Elder Kealamakia and Georgino were going to take part in their last Zone Leaders council and looked really sharp. They have been a great companionship and their last month hear was a recorded breaking one. They are going home to Hawaii and Italy with their heads held high!

    

As you can see Elder Rippstein was not wearing his coat! I can relate to this as I wear my suit coat only when it is necessary and not a minute longer. He was looking through an old mission training manual and came across a quote from President Hunter about the role of members in missionary work that all the assistants agreed should be shared throughout the mission. I thought elder Kealamakia looked every bit a leader as he sat at the President’s desk. What great leaders in the Kingdom these faithful, well trained, obedient and above  average young men and women we are privileged to serve with will be in the years to come.

 The week before transfers is busy around the office. Besides all the regular things they do, such as training, splits, reports and of course proselytizing, they are deeply involved in the process of moving missionaries around. Missionaries going home, missionaries coming in, who will train, and who will be moved where all must be worked out, prayed about and then presented to the President who of course approves everything as he is guided by the spirit. For me it is a humbling experience to see this all occur.

After surviving our missions to Indonesia, South Africa, and half of this mission, I finally managed to drop our trusty Casio camera on a hard surface one time too many. The result was the picture on the left…it still clicks like it is taking a picture but there is no way to know what I am taking. I went to Costco and bought a new Canon SX260HS which is probably more camera than I needed but if I only get one every 6 years we can afford one. My first picture was of Mary…a great way to break in a new camera

Another thing that happens the week before transfers is that the missionaries who are going to be released have their exit interview with President Anderson. Since there are 13 missionaries leaving, President Anderson had a lot of interviews and spread them over a couple of days. On Wednesday we had a number of the sisters and their companions here. So I got  to take a number of photos. Sister Dye is on the left is staying and it is her companion sister Geest who along with sister Mata’u who will be leaving. We have had the opportunity to serve in the same district with both of these fine sisters.

  

Elder Giorgino loves to have his picture taken so he is shown with sisters Johnson and Geest with sister Dye doing her impression of a jumping-jack in the background. Sister Edwards joined the other three for a picture. The last one is of sisters Andrus and Johnson who are both staying and the back of elder Avila.

It is amazing what 140 dedicated, hard working, faithful, and obedient missionaries can do in 31 days of service. They had 141 sons and daughters of God accept the invitation to come unto Christ, repent and be baptized so they could receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost and prepare themselves to receive all the ordinances and covenants so they can endure to the end. Here is some of the letter that President Anderson sent to the missionaries after a fruitful week to end a very fruitful month.

“Dear Above Average Great Missionaries,

How amazing it is to feel the incredible Spirit that has immersed this great Mission. All of you are astonishing in your dedication to bring Souls to Christ. We had 39 baptisms (a new weekly record) this week and 141 for the month. We not only beat our goal, we shattered it. You truly have “done what has not been done before”. Last year, July 2011, we baptized 50; we have almost tripled what was done before.

All of you have astonished the Angels in Heaven with your devotion to God and your perseverance to this great work with the power and authority you have been given the privilege to invoke. We have been called to serve God and to represent His Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. In fact you are those Angels, those Ministering Spirits that Paul speaks of:

 And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him. And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire. Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? (Hebrews 1:6-7,14)

 â€œWe had been out for the day and had already harvested for about an hour and a half and we still needed to have 1 more blessing. One of our appointments had fallen through and we decided that we would harvest some more. We decided to knock an apartment building that we were parked at. The first door we knocked on was answered by Chuck. We introduced ourselves and offered to share the blessing. He looked at us funny and then asked, “Who sent you?” We told him that Jesus Christ had sent us to his door. He then told us about how he was going through a really rough time and that as he was just eating dinner he was thinking and praying that God would send someone to his door. There we were.”

And of course your faith and boldness as representatives of Jesus Christ, to invite everyone to come to Him:

“We have an investigator… that gave us a compliment that will stay with me forever this week, he told us that he sees our love and passion for the gospel because we aren’t afraid to talk to anyone. He said that he knows that we are truly Christ’s representatives because we don’t judge, but instead love and invite everyone we see to follow him. He asked us if we have ever seen a person that we didn’t invite to be baptized. I know that what he sees in us is true, we are representatives of Christ and we have to talk to and invite everyone because they need what we have. I am so grateful for this work!” 

I have seen so many miracles from you missionaries that I am overwhelmed and astounded. I performed two weding ceremonies this week with wonderful people that had tremendous desires of what you are teaching them. After the ceremonies, both occasions, the husband was baptized. I love how this Gospel is bringing families together and to Christ.

 The strength of our unity is moving mountains and we are receiving “an endowment from heaven” of great blessings. I am so proud of all of you!!!

We can do 100 again. We’ve never had 2 months in a row with 100 plus.

     

Sister Tuai is being trained by sister Hong while they serve in West Palm Beach North. Sister Hong served here in the Fort Lauderdale zone for about the first 6 months of our mission and we were happy to see her in the office before she leaves for home at the next transfer in early August. Sisters Dye and Geest are serving together in the Davies area and they always have big smiles on their faces. This is sister Geest’s last transfer before heading home and we will miss her. That handsome elder in the background is their District Leader elder Larsen.

    

The flash did not work so you may have to look hard to see Elders Avila, Georgino and Rippstein struggling to get their burgers from Flanigans into their mouths. I can assure you that they over came the problems and ate them all gone. We took the assistants to lunch to say thanks for the service they gave in taking apart and putting back together all the electronics before the office was got new carpet. Elders Hunt and HoChing are the zone leaders in Hialeah. The zone is so on fire that Elder Doria, a new missionary who came in late June, thinks that it is normal to baptize each week and when they do not he suggests that they work harder.  On the right are Elder J Owens and Beer who serve together as Zone Leaders in the Miami Beach zone. It is a great experience to see and talk to the missionaries about the work when they drop into the mission office.

   

I looked over at Elder Collins and saw that he had the biggest tie tack I had ever seen. It was his cell phone! He put it there so he could get to it easily when he was driving. When he told me this we both broke out laughing. Elder Evans came in to do some clean up in the supply room and help sister Evans with the mail. You can see the big stack of milk cartons that he is taking out. When they move or clean out a house, they use them for smaller items that need packing. I am amazed at the amount of moving and cleaning the Evans, Sommerfeldts and Collins no to keep the missionaries in suitable housing with proper furnishings.

  

A couple of time this week we ran into the flock of little ducks on the road as we were driving out of the complex. I told Mary that in Swaziland cows on the road were called ‘Swazi Stop Signs.’ Here in Southern Florida little ducks seem to take the place of cows. When I went to get the mail on Tuesday, the flock was on the grass near the boxes. I stepped over to take a picture and instead of running away they actually came towards me and then settled down just a couple of feet away. All 25 all still alive and the single mother duck is taking care of them. Hopefully they will continue to be safe and grow.