Christmas Florida Style

We had a quiet Christmas, but were also able to do some service when our friend ran out of gas. We have been quite subdued since we learned about the passing of Sister Black's mother, Alice and appreciate our family who attended the funeral and gave support to the family. We have been greatly blessed to have such a wonderful posterity. We enjoyed reading all the wonderful Christmas cards and newsletter and appreciated all the packages from our family and friends back home.

On Sunday, we got to sit by a new investigator who attended the Snapper Creek branch. She started learning about the church 3 weeks ago and was taught all the missionary lessons by missionaries at the MTC (Missionary Training Center) in Provo. She first started chatting with them and was then taught over the phone. She has several months of schooling left and she will be a registered nurse. Elder Black also taught the Elder's quorum lesson on Sunday from the Ensign. It was quite interesting that Elder Black chose a lesson on "The Love of God" by President Uchtdorf from General Conference to teach the Elder's quorum and the person who taught the Relief Society also chose to teach the same lesson. Earlier in the week, we did some training at the Miami Zone and then delivered a bunch of Christmas packages not only there by also to missionaries in the Hialeah, Miami Beach and Hollywood Zones. We felt a little like Santa making his rounds.

We will be having a New Year's eve party at Elder and Sister Welch's apartment on Thursday. We are going to see who can stay awake past 10 pm.

Spiritual Week

This past week was full of spiritual experiences. On Wednesday, Elder Black drove 11 departing missionaries to the Orlando Temple. It was wonderful to see their excitement and to see many tears shed as they sought confirmation from the Lord that their offering was accepted by Him. Look at the attached photos and see what a wonderful light they are to the world. On the trip back from Orlando, they started asking a bunch of questions of Elder Black about his life's experiences and how Sister Black and he were able to work together and overcome our challenges in raising a family and balancing work, church and family. On a few questions, I just had to honestly admit that didn't remember, but that Sister Black would know. When we got back, we had a nice dinner and then was able to hear the testimonies of the departing missionaries.

On Saturday, we had our Mission Christmas Conference where the whole mission came together. The missionaries had prepared many beautiful Christmas songs, President and Sister Hale talked to us and then Brad Wilcox, a professor from BYU and noted author and speaker, talked to us about how these wonderful Elders and Sister were not only children of God who had been held back in the pre-existence until these latter days, but that they had the promised birthright through their lineage in the House of Israel and a double portion of God's blessings to be able to proclaim the gospel with power and authority and bring souls unto the Savior. He is a very dynamic and funny speaker, but also taught some wonderful things to encourage and fortify us in our efforts. He and President Hale had been missionary companions in Chile and Brad Wilcox had been a Mission President in that same mission.

On Sunday, Sister Black and I, were speakers at a Snapper Creek YSA branch fireside. It was a neat experience and very interactive. The subject was on Patriarchal Blessings and living close to the Spirit. We are looking forward for Christmas. A family who has been learning English has invited us over to their house on Christmas eve. Their celebration goes to midnight, but I don't think we will make it until then.

The Week Before Christmas

We have been busy most of the week doing apartment inspections and gospel discussions with each group of missionaries. We are so impressed with the thoughtful responses and inputs we received from the missionaries during the gospel discussions. We read the following four scriptures and discussed what it means to "Wait Upon the Lord". Isaiah 40:31 (the scripture on our missionary plaque), D & C 133:45-46, Lamentations 3:25-26 and D & C 98: 2. We also had an opportunity to spread some Christmas cheer to someone we have been working with and who is facing many challenges. She now has a glimmer of hope. It helped us get into the Christmas spirit. We went to a party with the other Senior Missionaries Saturday evening and got to share thoughts on Christmas and enjoyed laughing and listened to a touching Christmas story. Elder Black also attended a baptism of a Young Single Adult sister on Sunday. Tomorrow, Elder Black will get up at 3:30 am and meet 11 missionaries at the Plantation Building and drive them to the Orlando Temple. Sister Black will stay home and help prepare for the Finishers dinner that afternoon. We will try to arrive back to the Mission Home at 5:30 pm for the dinner and testimony meeting with the departing missionaries. This is a group of extraordinarily great missionaries, including Elder Stuart, our Assistant to the President, who has such great faith and Sister Fiala who talks to everyone she comes in contact with about the gospel. We love this wonderful missionary experience and appreciate the Lord's blessing on us.

Getting into the Christmas Spirit

We were able to watch the First Presidency Christmas Fireside last night over the internet and it was the first time we really started to feel the Christmas spirit. The music was special and the talks were wonderful. It was in the 80's here today. It is so strange seeing Christmas tree lots and no snow. Next Saturday, we will be having a Christmas party at Elder and Sister Dallings and then later in the month the couples will be going on a boat ride around the Intercoastal Waterways at night to see the Christmas lights.

We did some YSA (young single adult) training for two Zones of missionaries this week and did apartment inspections in Homestead and Key West. On our return trip, the tide was out and we got some very strong sulfur smells when the highway got close to the water. We were able to do a gospel discussion with the missionaries before the inspections which was quite special. They are amazing young men and women we are privileged to work with. At church on Sunday, a new convert bore his testimony and told how much the missionaries have blessed his life by teaching him the gospel and of the love he feels in the YSA branch. The missionaries told us that he has been going with them on missionary splits almost every day and they are starting to teach his cousin who lives in the same house with him. Later in the month, Sister Black and I will be talking at a fireside for the young singles branch.

We feel very blessed and are enjoying the opportunities we have been giving to serve here in South Florida. Next year will be the 50th year for the Florida Ft. Lauderdale mission and we hope it will be the year when the ground breaking for the temple takes place. The mission and members are gearing up to make it a very successful and historic year.

A Wonderful Reunion- Nov. 30

We were blessed with the visit of Ryan, Janalee and their wonderful family on Thanksgiving Day and we spent the next few days visiting and enjoying some of the attractions here in south Florida including checking out the alligators and birds at Shark Valley and spending a day at the beach. There were an abundance of alligators laying around the trail and in the water. We saw an alligator with two babies on her back. The kids got to see and play in the ocean for the first time and their squeals of joy and laughter were wonderful. Toward the end of the day, Makena got stung on her arm by a jelly fish and it really hurt bad until the life guard sprayed vinegar on it. In about an half hour, it did not hurt so bad. We came home and they had fun swimming in the pool and hot tube and enjoyed that also.

We have a big week coming up with two trainings for the Miami Beach and Hialeah Zones on YSA and another round of apartment inspections starting Saturday in Homestead and Key West. The following week we will have four straight days of inspections in the Miami area. On Saturday night, Elder Black attended the baptism of Harry Cruz, one of our Daily Dose English students. We also attended the Coconut Creek ward with Ryan and Janalee and family on Sunday.

Zone Conference Week- Nov. 23

We enjoyed Zone Conference this past week. President Hale used an old hand water pump to illustrate how we must first prime the pump (through personal study in the mornings) and then pump with all our might to bring the water to the surface (success in bringing others to Christ). If we find it too hard and stop pumping, we will never know how close the water got to the surface. It is a good analogy for life. In our apartment inspections this week in the North Miami area, one set of missionaries told us about a lady who was married to a member and had resisted listening to the missionaries for many years. They challenged her to pray and seek an answer about its truthfulness. She could not sleep one night and spent time on her knees in sincere prayer and received a strong witness that it was true. Her husband was shocked to hear her express her desire to be baptized but was so happy. Opening up our hearts even a little bit will let the Spirit work with us. Sister Black was sick Sunday, but I was able to attend our Snapper Creek Branch meetings and the baptism of Josue Sevilla. He was very emotional and so grateful to have found the truth. We gave him a new Spanish Bible that Richard Black had supplied us and he was so grateful. He thanked me at least 10 times and said he loves reading the Bible, but did not have one to read. We also heard some good news from Sister Dosher who we have been working with for about 8-9 months. Through answer to her and our prayers, she received a job interview for a good job and was hired. She had been unemployed for about 9 months, but started to come back to church and pay her tithing and we know it was a direct answer to prayer.

On Friday afternoon, we took Elder and Sister Welch on the inter-coastal boat ride and we got so see 6 cruise ships docked in Fort Everglades next to Ft. Lauderdale. One of the cruise ships, the Oasis, is the largest in the world and will use Ft. Lauderdale for its base location. It is huge and makes the other cruise ships look small. I attached a few photos taken on our trip. Checkout the photo of the yacht with a helicopter on the top deck. This week should be exciting. We are having a dinner at the mission home on Wednesday and then Ryan, Janalee and family will be here on Thursday for a Thanksgiving meal (compliments of Boston Market) and a fun few days.

Another Full Week- Nov 16

We had another full week with 12 apartment inspections, doing a special report for the Mission President, working on a way to make changes and track the changes for our YSA branch list, training the missionaries in Miami, teaching English and having two episodes where we were stuck in freeway traffic jams for 1 hour 20 minutes on Tuesday afternoon and 30 minutes on Wednesday evening. Sister Black was sick for a few days so she missed the Sister's Luncheon on Friday. Shawn Bradley (the 7' 6" NBA basketball player from BYU) and his wife Annette spoke at the Sister's Luncheon and also at a fireside Elder Black attended on Saturday evening. Our Mission has a blog and you might like to check it out and see just how tall Shawn Bradley is. http://floridaftlauderdalemissionnews.blogspot.com/ When he stood at the pulpit during the fireside, it came to his waist and he had to use a hand microphone. They are a wonderful, active LDS family with 6 children. She served a mission in Ft. Lauderdale in the early 1990's. You can also see all the wonderful Sister Missionaries we have and our Mission Leaders.

Amazing Week

This was a full week. We had to made two trips to West Palm Beach early in the week to arrange to get the water turned on in a new apartment by Wednesday. We attended a wonderful Transfer Meeting on Wednesday. About 80 missionaries were standing and singing "The Army of Helaman" when the 15 new missionaries (7 Elders and 8 Sisters) and their trainers walked into the chapel. The spirit was so strong. One of the trainers, Sister Magnusson, was signing to her new deaf and mute companion throughout the meeting so she could understand what was being sung and said. It was amazing to meet this new Sister and feel of her spirit. Missionary work is challenging, but to take it on with so many personal challenges is truly amazing.

President Hale asked Elder Black to train the other Senior Couples on how to work with the YSA branches so we had a meeting on Friday afternoon. The Assistants were their to give their input and the training went well. We also trained the missionaries in the Homestead branch on YSA Saturday morning. Sunday was a full day attending a missionary correlation meeting, Branch Council and the block meetings. Elder Black also taught the Gospel Principles lesson. During the lesson on the Creation, he was talking about the marvels of the human body and told them about the dissected nerves displayed at Ryan's medical school and also mention how long it took him to get through pre-med, med school and residency. One of the cute sisters raised her hand and hopefully asked, Is he still single?. She was quite disappointed when we told her he was happily married with 5 children.

We have another full week ahead of us with YSA training of the missionaries in the Miami Zone tomorrow, three days of apartment inspections and Sister Black will be attending a Sisters Conference on Friday. By the way, we finally got our car back from the body shop on Saturday and it looks great.

Halloween Week

We have been making the transition from the Coconut Creek ward to the Snapper Creek YSA Branch. We are so excited with the wonderful potential in the YSA branch and have had a flood of ideas on how we can carryout our Mission Presidents directions to us. We plan on doing a training for the full-time missionaries this week and next on how to work with the branch and our role in representing them at the leadership meetings, church meetings and activities. We had a full day on Sunday and enjoy our new assignment.

On Saturday night we had a Halloween party with the other Senior Couples and enjoyed visiting and playing games together. Elder and Sister Black are shown in their Halloween garb. Elder Black won the prize for the best look and Sister Black won or tied for first in the two games we played.

On Sunday evening, we were driving to take some food to a YSA fireside and got into an accident. Luckily, both vehicles were about stopped, but our left front bumper hit into the right front bumper of a large pickup truck. No one was hurt, but it ruined our front bumper and put a little bend in our fender so the drivers side door would not open. There was a little paint scratched off of the truck. This morning we went to a place that was able to get the door on the drivers side to open and close and we will get it fixed over the next three days and will rent a car. We are amazed that we went a whole year before our first accident. We drove to West Palm Beach today to arrange for the water to be turned on in a new apartment we rented. We had to show them our lease and they discovered that it had been signed by someone other than the property owner, so we need to gather more documents (power of attorney from the person who signed it) and make the hour drive again tomorrow. The missionaries need to be in the apartment by Wednesday. We have 15 new missionaries coming in tomorrow. Some of our Sister Missionaries are going to start riding bikes. One of our missionaries had his appendix out on Sunday. It is amazing all the things going on and what it takes to keep things running relatively smoothly.

Productive Week

We seem to get more and more going on each day. We have been surprised how involved the apartment inspections have been and how exhausted we felt the three days we did them this week. We started our work in the Snapper Creek Branch Saturday and Sunday. We enjoyed getting to know the Branch leadership and a few of the young adults. We are looking forward to helping them as much as we can in their missionary effort. We gave the last new member lesson to Dalton Rhoden and took him out for ice cream afterwards. He is a neat man and we have really grown close to him. We will teach the last new member lesson to Brother Ladden on Wednesday and then we are taking him out to dinner afterwards. That will wrap up our involvement in the Coconut Creek ward. Elder Black also took a Gospel Principles manual to Gary Francois Sunday morning and got to say goodbye to him.

The Pompano Beach Stake temple day was a great success with over 1100 endowments and a total of 1700 ordinances performed for the dead. The missionary work continues to go forward with great success. The week after next is Transfer Week and 15 new missionaries will be arriving and 6 departing. This arriving group includes 8 Sisters and 5 ASL (American Sign Language) missionaries. One of them is both deaf and cannot speak. I cannot imaging the faith and determination she must have.
We got to see some large Florida spiders today down by the beach. They are about 2 or 3" long and they make huge webs (see attached photos).

More changes

This week brought more changes for Elder and Sister Black. We have been assigned by our Mission President to work in a young single adult (YSA) branch (18 - 30 years old) in the Miami area. The branch was newly formed a few months ago and is called the Snapper Creek branch in the Miami South Stake. Three of the four Stakes in South Florida have YSA branches and the Snapper Creek is the largest. We will travel about 1 hour down and 1 hour back to the meeting house. We will be coordinating the missionary effort in the branch with all the missionaries in the Miami South Stake which comprise the Miami and Homestead Zones. We will also try to get to know those who are investigating the church and encourage greater missionary efforts among the Young Adults. They also have Family Home Evenings, Sunday and weekday socials and firesides we will be involved with. We hope we can keep up with their pace. In South Florida, there are literally hundreds of schools of various types and the potential for doing missionary work among this age group is great. We are excited, but a little sad to leave the Coconut Creek ward where we have been working with a number of new converts and others. It is a very diverse ward and very friendly and accepting of everyone. We are not sure how this change will affect our English classes, etc.

We also did three apartment inspections this week in the Miami area and have another twelve scheduled for next week. It is always good to be with the wonderful missionaries and to try to help them focus on better CARE of their apartments. Elder Black was able to fix a stove and a dishwasher during the inspections. Changing filters on the air conditioning units needs a lot of attention and training. Elder Black also worked on a lease for a new apartment in the West Palm Beach area. We taught a lot of lessons this week, both English and new member lessons. Elder Black had the privilege of confirming Gary Francois a member of the Church on Sunday which was a very spiritual experience. The Pompano Beach Stake have 350 people signed up to attend the Orlando temple on Friday and they and another ward from the Orlando area have a goal of participating in 1000 endowments for their kindred dead. It is an outpouring of the faith and dedication of the Church members here. Finally, we got a break in the hot, hot weather that was in the 90-92 degree range on Sunday morning it was 57 degrees. It feels so good to have lower temperatures and lower humidity.

Surprise

This was a full week with Zone Conference, new member lessons, training the Mission Office staff on printing of the Chapel Cards, completing a special report for the Mission President and a trip to Homestead and Key West on Saturday to start the apartment inspections. We introduced an initiative called CARE for the apartments with C-Clean, A-Arrange, R-Repair and E-Eliminate in an effort to get the missionaries to better CARE for their apartments and make them a place where the Spirit can be maintained. Elder and Sister Welch came with us to Homestead and Key West and then they will inspect the apartments in the north part of the mission and we will inspect them in the south this month and next month we will switch.

On Sunday Elder Black had a surprise. After Sunday School class, he went to congratulate a Haitian man who was going to be baptized after church. He told Elder Black, "I would like you to baptize me." Earlier he had told the missionaries that he wanted the Bishop to baptize him and they had gone to Bishop Graham and asked him, but he could not do it because of a meeting he needed to be in. Actually, the man thought that Elder Black was the Bishop. Elder Black had gotten to know him a week earlier when he picked him up twice to go to General Conference sessions at the church. Anyway, Elder Black drove home and got his white clothes and was privileged to baptize Gary Francois after church. It was a very special experience. There was another Haitian sister who was also baptized before Gary.

A Temple in South Florida

We are thrilled and humbled beyond measure at Saturdays announcement by President Monson that a temple will be built in South Florida (Ft. Lauderdale). A lot of prayers of thanksgiving and tears have been shed by us and many of the Latter-day Saints in this area. As we had mentioned earlier, the members and leaders have been very faithful in attending the Orlando temple, fasting and praying for a temple and doing Family History work to do the temple work for their ancestors, but I think the announcement took almost everyone by surprise. The prayer offered by one of our humble and spiritually in tune missionaries who prayed not only for a temple but that it would be announced in this General Conference gave a spark of faith and hope to everyone in the mission. In a meeting with our Mission President two days before the announcement was made, he said that he fasted for a temple last Sunday and that a momentary doubt came to him but left quickly and that he was confident that the Lord would answer the prayers of the members, leaders and missionaries. This will be an amazing blessing to this area and we believe it will hasten the work of bringing souls to a knowledge of the truthfulness of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and the opening of the doors of nations in this area to the preaching of the gospel. It is not hard to tell that we are excited.

Sister Black turned over the medical to Sister Welch and Elder Black turned over the housing to Elder Welch this past week. That was a big relief. We will continue to help Elder and Sister Welch with the apartment inspections and other things they ask us to do. We also taught Daily Dose several times this week and taught two new member lessons. We enjoyed General Conference and on Saturday and Sunday shuttled several recent converts and an investigated back and forth to the conference sessions. We have our Zone Conference tomorrow and are looking forward to that in light of the temple announcement.

A Challenging Week

We have had a challenging week to put it mildly. The Kynastons finished their mission and headed home on Thursday and Sister Black took over the Mission Medical and Elder Black took over Mission Housing. The first two days were crazy as we tried to take care of these challenges as well as our normal work. Sister Black got 7 calls the first day and 5 the next, but she did a good job listening, getting permission for treatment and Elder Black looked up health care providers on the internet. There was a new apartment rental that fell through so we have 6 Elders in an apartment with one shower. We are hoping to have this resolved by the end of the week. We are praying that Elder and Sister Welch (who will be taking these duties over when they get here) arrive safely later this week.

Along with the craziness, we also had a very spiritual experience. Elder Black was asked to give a priesthood blessing to a man (the husband of Sister Terron who hosts an English class in their home) who was facing a deportation hearing the next day. Elder Black blessed him that the Lord would open the way for him to remain with and continue to support his family. We learned later in the week that at about 10:30 pm on the night of the blessing, his attorney called and said that his hearing had been put off for a year or so. It was truly an answer to many prayers and we were so humbled and grateful to see the hand of the Lord bless these good people. We have also been teaching new member lessons and visiting the missionaries.
Sister Black's brother Richard was kind enough to send us 10 new Spanish Bibles and we were able to give six of them to some of our Daily Dose English students. They were very appreciative and we hope Richard will be able to send us more.
On Wednesday morning, as we walked out of our apartment, we were greeted by the spectacular clouds and sky out to the east (see attached). We then went to the Transfer meeting where 8 new missionaries were introduced. At the end of the meeting, about 80 or so missionaries knelt in Mighty Prayer to pray for the Lord to bless the missionary effort here and to bless the South Florida area with a temple. It was a powerful experience and many tears were shed.

A Fun Week

We had a fun week. It was Elder and Sister Kynston's last full week in the mission and we took them to a place we knew of to purchase some presents for their family and also visited a Miccosukee Indian Village where we went on an air boat ride to an island with an Indian Village and also got do see a lot of alligators and even hold one who's mouth was not taped. He really squirmed around and wanted to take a bite out of us. On Saturday, we had a party at Elder and Sister Hogge's for the Kynastons and after dinner we played a Florida type Jeopardy game and found out how little we know about Florida.

We also had a rewarding week in teaching Daily Dose English and helping out. One of the families told us that they felt we were here to help out their family at a difficult time when the husband is facing possible deportation and other challenges exist. Elder Black gave the husband a priesthood blessing last night and his immigration hearing is today. We have been praying for that family for many weeks and hae faith that the Lord will help them. Tomorrow is the Transfer Meeting and it is allows exciting when the missionaries get their new area and companionship assignments. We delivered the Chapel Card printer and files to the Mission Office for them to take over the printing. Elder Black printed about 3000 cards for nearly all of the companionships last week so that it will be an easy transition for the Mission Office to take over there new assignment. Over the next 10 days, Sister Black will be over the missionary medical and Elder Black will be over the apartments until the new couple, Elder and Sister Welch, arrive in early October. It should be a busy week or so.

Rainy month

September has been a very rainy month so far. Every day we have had a few hours of heavy rain. It actually has cooled things off a bit and we have enjoyed that. While we were at dinner Friday evening with the Senior Couples is rained extremely hard and there was some minor flooding in that area. We are keeping our fingers crossed concerning the hurricane season and have about 1 1/2 months left in the season.

We have gotten a couple of assignments from the Coconut Creek ward to teach new member lessons to a couple of the recent converts. We went to the home of Dalton Rhoden and visited with him and arranged to teach him each Thursday. We also learned that his mother needed a large print Bible and we were able to get her one through the Mission Office. She was very appreciative. On Sunday, Elder Black was able to help Dalton get an interview with the Bishop to receive the priesthood. He is quite excited and should be ordained next week. The sister we have been helping and fellowshipping got a job interview in the field she is trained in and we are praying that she will get the job. We had a number of good visits with the missionaries this week and were able to take five sisters out to lunch on Thursday.

We heard a neat story that happened last Wednesday evening. In the Hollywood area, the Sisters had a family of four committed to baptism, but the mother had a few concerns and so the family decided not to be baptized on Wednesday, but they attended the baptism to see what it was like. Just before the service started, a 10 year old boy from the family came up to the Sisters and told them that he could be baptized and that he wanted to be a missionary just like them. They got the Elders to come interview him and then the Bishop mentioned that when the father of the family saw how much his son wanted to be baptized, the father started to cry and said he wanted to be baptized also. So the Elders interviewed him and the father and son were baptized on Wednesday evening. I also attended the baptism of a 12 year old girl on Sunday who had been introduced to the church by her friend. Her friend gave the talk on baptism and afterward it was very sweet when they hugged each other. There have been three young women join the church in the past 3 or 4 months.

A change in assignment

We have received an assignment change. Starting in October, we will be assisting a new Senior Couple, Elder and Sister Welch from Springville, Utah with Monthly Apartment Inspections. Each month we will visit one half of the Mission Apartments and they will visit the other half. This will include a trip to Key West every other month. They will be in charge of the apartments and medical. It was a real blessing that they have been assigned to our mission, otherwise, we may have been assigned both the apartments and the medical. We had a wonderful Zone Conference on Tuesday and attended a baptism of a 42 year old man on "Sunday who has read the Book of Mormon three times. He said the first time he read it, he knew it was true. The second time he knew he needed to contact the missionaries and while they were teaching him he read it again. His parents and a sister attended his baptism. We taught Daily Dose English at the church twice this week and last week while the Nelson's were on vacation. We are teaching English to an elderly women and her daughter. They had not missed until Friday and the daughter brought her mother to the lesson while she waited in the car because she was sick. Also, on Tuesday, a women walked for an hour (in the heat) to get to the class and we drove her home. This Friday and Saturday, the missionaries, working with the local members, found 400 new investigators to teach. Investigators attending Sacrament meeting has gone from 400 to 600 a month in the past 4 months. Starting next month, the Mission Office will be printing the Chapel Pass-Along Cards which Elder Black has been doing. The missionaries really have loved them and it looks like they will become a permanent part of our mission. We are keeping a close eye on the hurricane reports and still have two months left in the hurricane season.

Party in Florida

One of our Senior Couples, the Kynaston's, will be going home later in the month so we took them to dinner on Friday night. We drove across town in a driving rain storm to a fish place they recommended only to find that their power was out from the storm, so we drove back and ate close to where we live. On Labor Day, we had a Thanksgiving Dinner in honor of the Kynaston's at the Elder and Sister Dalling's place and spent about 5 hours together. It was great food and a lot of fun. Then on the 19th of September we will be having one more party for the Kynaston's at Elder and Sister Hogge's place. I told Sister Black that when we are ready to leave that they will give us a "don't let the door hit you in the back side" party to celebrate our departure.

We have had an interesting week and was able to cheer up one of our English students and fix several problems with her computer. We also had some wonderful visits with the missionaries in the Hialeah Zone. We will be teaching the New Member Lessons to a recent convert and will be teaching a Temple Preparation class. We are enjoying our mission and the wonderful people we are working with.

Interesting Creatures in Florida

We have had a busy week. The Nelson's are in Utah on vacation so we have been teaching their Daily Dose English class this week as well as our own. The lesson was on interviewing for a job and on Thursday Elder and Sister Hogge, the Employment Missionaries, came and talked to the students, gave them interviewing tips and took some names of those they could help in seeking employment. It was really kind of them to come to the class. We took them out to get ice cream afterwards and a young man came over to us and asked what religion we represented. He had a lot of misconceptions about the church that we tried to straighten out. We talked and teased about loosing our horns, etc. and we think he went away with a different feeling about the church.

We also had some wonderful meetings with the Elders and Sisters in a Zone meeting and three companionship studies in the Hialeah Zone. This area has a very high concentration of Latin's. Two months ago, a man from Cuba came to the Employment Center and told the Hogge's he felt he was guided there. Shortly after his visit with them, his wife and family who were in Cuba were granted permission to come to Florida permanently. He and his family are now attending the Hialeah ward (who's Bishop is also from Cuba) and listening to the missionary lessons. We met with those missionaries who are teaching them and they said that the Lord had really prepared them to listen to the message of the restored gospel. The Mission President This week we have Zone Conference on Tuesday and are looking forward to being with the missionaries from the Palm Beach and Coral Springs Zones. On Saturday, we went to lunch with the Hogge's and on the way out of their street we spotted the Iguana (see picture) who was sunning himself on the banks of a canal. We had also taken a picture of a curly tailed lizard at the Japanese gardens last week (see picture).

Remembering Darrin

This week was Darrin's birthday and we were so grateful for Kevin and Heather for taking flowers to the grave. We love our family so much and look forward to the time when we can be with Darrin and get to know him. We know that because of Christ's Atonement and Resurrection and the restored gospel and ordinances and blessings of the temple that we can all be together again. We appreciate so much the hope the gospel brings into our lives.

We went to a baptism in our newly assigned ward on Saturday afternoon and then attended a Brazilian barbeque at the ward later that evening. It was a great success with about 200 people attending and 40 or so who were not members of the church. It was a great way to get to know people. We sat next to a beautiful Haitian sister who was a returned missionary and who had married a man about a year ago just after he was baptized. Her husband is a faithful priesthood holder and he really appreciates his membership in the church. The Coconut Creek ward has a large group of Haitians and many other ethnic groups. We received a warm welcome into the ward and were invited to attend Ward Council meeting Sunday morning, we gave the prayers in Sacrament meeting and were asked to speak next Sunday in Sacrament meeting. Tonight we are meeting with the Bishopric to find out what they would like us to do to serve the ward. Elder Black found out this week that he will no longer be serving in the Mission Presidency since members of the Mission Presidency are suppose to be local members. He will continue to carry on with his assignments, but not as part of the Mission Presidency.

Tomorrow is Transfer Day and 16 new missionaries will be arriving tonight and 14 will go to the Orlando temple tomorrow and then depart for home on Thursday. We have been asked to help with lunch after the Transfer Meeting and at the Finishers dinner tomorrow night. We have gotten to know a number of the departing missionaries and wish them great success. It is amazing the pace kept by the young missionaries and the level of energy they maintain day in a day out. Their discipline and hard work will bless their lives in many, many ways into the future.

Hot, Hot, Hot

We are experiencing first hand what heat and humidity can feel like. The last few weeks have been very hot and very humid. We are also keeping an eye on the hurricane situation. You can see what is happening on www.nhc.noaa.gov. It was quiet for the first 2 1/2 months, but all of a sudden things are starting to happen. We have had a busy week starting with the Transfer Meeting and Finishers Dinner last Wednesday. Sixteen new missionaries arrived and 14 departed. We were quite close to some of the departing missionaries and it was sad to see them go. Elder Ipson worked with me on the 2008 baptism record project and we really hit it off. At the Finishers testimony meeting he told us that 4 years ago he was dying and his mother came down to his room and held his hand for several hours. She read him his patriarchal blessing and asked him if he felt it had been fulfilled and he told her he did not know. She told him that she felt that it had not been and that the Lord had things for him to do. Several days later, he was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery which he survived and gradually became better. It was quite touching. We love him so much because he always has a smile on his face. We also used to go out of our way to take him jelly beans which he loved. We also said goodbye to Elder Bradley who we worked with on the Daily Dose program.

We spoke in church on Sunday. Sister Black spoke about the peace that the gospel brings and Elder Black spoke on all things that point to Christ. We also taught a number of English lessons and was invited to dinner at Sister Terron's home the night before her mother returned to Mexico. During an English lesson at the church taught by Brother Nelson, a young Haitian man came by and asked if he could talk to someone. Elder Black went with him into another room and listened to the man tell about his marital problems and that he had just left his wife. He was sure it was over and that he could never go back to her. Elder Black taught him a few things about the gospel and the church, gave him some advise and helped him calm down. After about 45 minutes, we came out into the hallway and the class had ended. He told Brother Nelson that he had never talked to someone like Elder Black who was so calm. He asked Brother Nelson if there was a shelter near by. Brother Nelson asked him if he had a cell phone and when he said no, he handed him his cell phone and told him to call his wife and tell her he was sorry. He protested and said there was nothing to be sorry for, but Brother Nelson said that doesn't matter, just say you are sorry. So he made the call and said he was sorry and Brother Nelson drove him back to where his wife was. In the whole experience, we could see the hand of the Lord at work.

The two attached pictures were taken at a Japanese garden that we visited with the Kynastons. When we first started walking around the gardens the wind was blowing and then it started to pour down rain and we all got soaked.

Changes for Elder and Sister Black

We found out on Saturday evening that we have been re-assigned to serve in the Coconut Creek ward. This ward has had Senior Missionaries serving in it before and we expect they will get us involved more directly in their missionary effort and will expect more from us. We are looking forward to the change and the opportunities that are ahead. This past week was our hump week where we are at the 1/2 way point of our mission. It is amazing how quickly the time passes. This week was full of great meetings with the missionaries and also the Daily Dose effort is starting to grow again. We added 5 new students in our area last week and in the new area, West Palm Beach, they added another 6 new students. The attached photo is of Sister Terron and her mother Paulina who is visiting from Mexico. We have been teaching English to them and a number of their neighbors and ward members English. It amazes us how quickly their English has improved after several lesson. Sister Terron's mother is a school teacher and she has been teaching us Spanish. After one of our English lessons this week, the husband of this sister hosting the class asked for a priesthood blessing and Elder Black was able to give him a priesthood blessing with little preparation. It was an amazing experience and confirmed our faith that Heavenly Father knows all His children and their needs and that the blessing was from the Lord. We also have provided comfort to the sister we have been helping when on Friday her 31 year old son was stabbed multiple times by his girlfriends brother. The person who did the stabbing was drunk. Living the gospel principles such as the Word of Wisdom will bless our lives as well as keep us out of trouble.

Prayers are answered

We are doing well and feel so blessed to be in the service of the Lord. He has been so kind to us and this week we have felt His love and tender mercies in answering our sincere prayers. Elder Black has been struggling with a problem related to the printing of the Chapel Pass Along Cards. The new laser jet printer used toner at an amazingly fast rate making it uneconomic to use. A firmware update and cutting way back on the color quality was done to help, but about $300 worth of toner had been used up. After several weeks of trying to find a solution and many dead ends, Elder Black sought the Lord's help and earnestly prayed for an answer. On Friday, he called the printer manufacture again and the second person he talked to seemed to understand the difficult situation and offered to replace all four toner cartridges for free and also gave other tips to conserve on toner. It was an answer to prayer and a great weight was lifted. We are so grateful. In our Presidency Meeting this morning, Elder Black was able to inform the Mission President of the problem for the first time and the solution.

We traveled to West Palm Beach early on Sunday morning to present the Daily Dose English program to the ward leadership. The meeting went very well and they were enthusiastic to get it started in their area. The missionaries have already taught some lessons and are excited about it also. On the way up there, there were some large towering pillars of clouds out in the Atlantic Ocean and for a few minutes the sky was yellow, with a robin egg blue streak jutting up from the ocean and high into the sky. This blue streak had straight, parallel sides and looked surreal with all of the surrounding yellow and the beautiful clouds. Unfortunately, we did not have a camera. Sister Black did a good job teaching the Gospel Principles lesson on Sacrifice on Sunday.

Beautiful Clouds in Florida

One of the impressive things about Florida are the beautiful clouds and sky. In the afternoon, huge thunderheads form and billow up high in the sky. Attached are two photos. We need to take more pictures of the clouds. We also went to an area today on our P-day where the cruise ships sail out of Ft. Lauderdale harbour and took a few pictures. The cruise ships are escorted out of the harbour by the Coast Guard in two rubber boats equipped with machine guns on the front. They sounded their sirens and the cruise ships sounded their horn and the people on the ship started to cheer. Also, a Coast Guard helicopter came and circled the cruise ship at one point. We believe it was heading for the Bahamas. It was quite impressive. Down by the water, we also saw a big bright green Iguana sunning himself.

We had a wonderful Zone Conference on Tuesday. As we mentioned, the mission is doing so well and the missionaries were treated to a steak fry after the Zone Conference meetings and then played volleyball afterward. We sat at a table with several Sister Missionaries. One of the Sisters said she wished she had her camera so she could photograph her steak to help her remember it. We baked the potatoes which were huge Idaho potatoes. We cooked two batches early that morning (starting at 4 am) and our oven heats up much more than it is set at. When we opened the oven door, all the smoke alarms in the apartment went off. I'm sure our neighbors got woken up. Surprising enough, the potatoes were excellent. We helped with the dinner and clean up and then Elder Black played a little volleyball. The rest of the week we were involved with Daily Dose and other projects and helped clean the church on Saturday. We will make two more visits to West Palm Beach this week and then will head for Miami the next three weeks. We had a good laugh this week. The Sister we have been helping out had worked one day for a man and when she asked for her pay, he refused to pay her. Her son heard about it through his wife and went down to visit the man. Her son is big, has a shaven head and is covered in tattoos. The next morning the man called her and said her check was ready and that her son was not welcome in their premises any more. We all laughed so hard.

What a week!

We have had some good visits with the missionaries this week. One group of missionaries missed our first companion study and begged us to have another companion study and talk about patriarchal blessings. There were 6 Elders who participated since they were on exchanges. Steve helped Elder Black figure out how to analyze a very large set of data (65,000 entries) for a report Elder Black was asked to do for the Mission President. We also helped a Sister in our ward who is out of work and her car is broken. We took her to the church's employment center in Boynton Beach and took her out to dinner the next night. We also prepared talks for Sacrament meeting. Sister Black got mixed up and thought we had more time and did a great job of stretching out her talk and left 5 minutes for Elder Black to talk. She gave a wonderful talk on family unity and I talked (briefly) on strengthening others families through home teaching and visiting teaching. Our Daily Dose effort has slowed down a lot the past few weeks. This is transfer week and 8 wonderful missionaries will be going to the Orlando temple tomorrow prior to their departure and eleven new missionaries will be here tonight. It is always exciting on transfer week (every 6 weeks).

Welcome to Andrew Dean Black

We were so pleased to hear from Kevin this morning about the birth of Andrew Dean Black. Ethan's "New Baby Our House" has arrived and we congratulate Heather and Kevin and welcome him into our family. What a wonderful blessing. We look forward to seeing his pictures and getting to know him the best we can. We have been in the clouds all day.

We attended a Zone meeting and three companion studies this week, but had a relatively slow week with Daily Dose English. We traveled to Miami for one of the companion studies and the Elders took a picture of us with the Miami skyline in the background. On Friday night, we had a fun get together with the other 4 Senior Couples to celebrate Father's Day. Sister Black taught the Gospel Principles class on Sunday about the Gift of the Holy Ghost and did a good job. We have been invited to a 4th of July barbeque at the Mission Home with the Hale family and all the Senior Couples. This week has been quite hot, with occasional thunderstorms and intense rain. We cannot believe how wet things have been at home.

Things Are Heating Up in Florida

We decided not to complain anymore about the rain, because it stopped raining for a few days and got very hot (mid-90's) with high humidity. The cooling rain storms started up again the past few days. This has been a busy week visiting and studying with the missionaries, teaching Daily Dose English and purchasing a new printer which will be dedicated to printing the Chapel Pass-Along Cards. Even figuring the cost of a new color laser jet printer, we will be able to cut the cost per card in half versus using our inkjet printer. It has meant modifying all the existing files to maintain front and back alignment. Elder Black also attended a Hurricane Expo sponsored by the City of Coral Springs and the Pompano Beach Stake. It was very informative. The peak season for hurricanes is usually between mid-August and mid-October. A man named Max Mayfield was the Keynote Speaker. He was the former head of the Hurricane Center and is now the hurricane specialist for a local TV station. He showed 4 slides that a friend had sent him. Slide 1 showed a satellite picture of a large hurricane directly over Florida and there were scattered locations marked for his home, garage, car and dog. Slide 2 showed the whole state covered in plywood and a sign reading "Welcome to the Sunshine State (crossed out) Plywood State (inserted)". Slide 3 showed Florida bend up toward the Carolina's with arms reaching out to hold onto those states to keep Florida from blowing away. Slide 4 showed a map of the United Stakes with the outline of Florida in between Montana and North and South Dakota with the caption "Enough is Enough". He said that Coral Springs was far enough in-land to avoid any storm surge and so we would likely not be asked to evacuate.

The Florida Ft. Lauderdale Mission is really starting to have much success due to the dedication of the wonderful Elder and Sister missionaries and blessings from the Lord. We are so blessed to be a part of the Lord's work here and hopefully are contribute in some ways.

Send Plans for An Ark

We are doing well and are getting use to the continual rain and thunderstorms. If you would get on the internet and see if there are any good plans available for an ark, we could use them. On Saturday night, there was a huge thunderstorm come through while Elder Black was at the Saturday sessions of Stake Conference. On Sunday morning, the sound system in the Stake Center was not working and the organ stopped working before the closing hymn. They tried to use a wireless system, but the sound would not reach the back of the cultural hall, so they brought people up closer, in the choir seats, etc. The theme of the conference was "A Temple in South Florida". On Friday, about 325 people from the Stake spent the day at the Orlando Temple. On Saturday, evening several people bore their testimonies about their experience going through the temple for the first time and being married and sealed to their families. It was very inspiring and a spiritual meeting.

We had the Spanish missionaries over for lunch and training in Daily Dose this week. They ate so much that one of the Elders had to lay down on the couch for a few minutes before he could move. We really enjoy them and appreciate all they are doing. In our Presidency Meeting today, President Hale said that he can see the positive results from the missionaries using the Chapel Pass-Along Cards and wants to continue there use. We will be looking at ways to lower the cost, including possibly purchasing a color, laser printer. The Stake President of the Pompano Beach Stake also has asked President Hale to expand the Daily Dose English effort to another area of his Stake, West Palm. We will be meeting with the missionaries from the Ft. Lauderdale Zone this next few weeks.

Exhausting Week

This past week has been exhausting as we have traveled to the Homestead Zone numerous times including Key West and Key Marathon on Saturday. Elder and Sister Hogge came with us and we really enjoyed their company and contributions to our meetings. We have had some great meetings with the missionaries, trainings, companion studies and also trained two sets of Elders on the Daily Dose effort. We also taught four Daily Dose lessons and printed and delivered a bunch of Chapel cards as we returned from our trips to Homestead. We had a good visit with a less-active sister who is now coming to church. Elder Black taught the Gospel Principles class on Repentance and then after church, we both had long naps and are starting to feel better.

The work here in South Florida continues to move forward with much success during the past few weeks. The number of convert baptism in May almost doubled any previous month. We can really see the Lord's hand in the work. The mission has been praying for a temple in South Florida and the opening of the nations to the preaching of the gospel. Next week, we are looking forward to attending the Zone Conference in our area. The weather continues to be very rainy. The locals say that the rainy season started about 2 weeks early and has been much heavier than what is usual for this time of year. In Key West, it was sunny and hot and then it rained most of the way home.

These are photos of some of the notable places we went on our journeys.

Soggy Florida

We have been experiencing a wet, wet time here in Florida. We think we have seen more rain in the past week or so than we have ever seen before. The rain storms here are impressive. Yesterday, President Hale gave the Senior Couples a day off and we organized an outing to Shark Valley to see the alligators and exotic birds (see photos). We were able to use the mission van so we could all visit on the way there and back. On the way there, we ran into a deluge, but at Shark Valley it was beautiful and sunny. We took the Tram and saw many alligators and birds along the way and at an observation tower at the south end of the loop. We got to see the large, black alligator that was of the side path when Steve and Traci and their family was here. The guide called it "Snaggle Tooth". On the way home, we ran into another huge rain storm and at one time the wind got quite intense. We were on the Freeway and the traffic was slowed to a crawl and many just pulled over to the side of the freeway and waited the storm out. Today, it is at it again.

We attended the baptism of Williams Castellano on Sunday. He was so happy and his wife and son were too. The Stake President, William Current, attended the baptism and said we excited about Daily Dose English and wants to expand it into other parts of the Stake like West Palm. He will be discussing it with President Hale. At the baptism, Oscar, who was baptized several weeks ago was there and we introduced him to President Current. He was so excited because he had passed the sacrament that day and also had a friend their who is investigating the church. We also delivered some things to the Lauderhill Elders on Saturday evening. We pulled in and Elder Black got out of the car and a lady was pulling her car into a garage. She stopped and ask if we were Mormons. She had met with the missionaries in Texas and was interested in learning more. Elder Bradley and Elder Sepulveda joined the conversation and gave her a Book of Mormon, taught her briefly about it and she gave them her contact information. We were amazed how things work out sometimes when the timing is just right.

We got to participate in the Transfer Meeting and the dinner and testimony meeting for the departing missionaries (see photos) this past week. We are also starting a new round of companionship studies and visits to the Zone and District training meetings. We started in the Homestead zone on Friday and Saturday and will make another five more visits this week, including a trip to visit the missionaries in Key West and Key Marathon on Saturday. The new couple missionaries, the Hogges will be going with us on Saturday. They are over employment. It will be a lot of traveling and we hope the weather will cooperate. We are enjoying our mission and the joy that comes when we see people accept the gospel and receive so much joy.

Rainy Florida

We have seen a big change in the weather this week. It started to get humid, then hot and humid and the last few days it rained off and on. Everything was dry, so the rain is welcome. We had a number of nice experiences this week. Sister Black got to attend a Sisters Conference at the mission home. Each of the Senior Sisters talked about "what they wished they had known earlier" and then answered questions from the Younger Sister. Attached is the picture taken during the conference. The two in front of President and Sister Hale are Heather and Katherine Hale. A new Senior Couple arrived the evening before the conference and Sister Hogge, just left of President Hale, got to attend the conference. They had driven from Anchorage Alaska to the MTC in Provo, stayed two weeks at the MTC and then drove straight to south Florida. We thought they were very tired, but yet they came to dinner with the Senior Couples the same evening of the conference. This morning we helped out Elder and Sister Call and Elder and Sister Hogge (the Calls replacement in Employment) with a breakfast for a group of missionaries at the Miami Lakes meeting house.

We attended a baptism this week which was conducted mainly in Spanish for an 11 year old boy, Nicholas Fernandez. After the baptism, the 4 Spanish Elders and the 5 English Elders in our area sang "I Believe In Christ" with the first two versus in English and the second two verses in Spanish. It was quite impressive. A lady sitting close to us cried through the whole song and was deeply touched by the baptismal service. After the service, she and her boy friend (who is a member) asked the Spanish missionaries if they could teach her about the gospel and they gave her the first lesson that night and another lesson before Sunday services. We taught Daily Dose four times during the week. The husband of one of the Daily Dose students is scheduled to be baptized tomorrow evening. They were the family that invited us to their home where the Elders taught him a lesson and they put on a feast for us.

We had the English missionaries to our apartment this week for lunch. One of these wonderful Elders, Elder Duncan, had to fly home today to get his knee operated on. He did not want to leave, and wants to return as soon as possible. We really saw a lot of growth in Elder Duncan and will miss him a lot. Our mission has been really blessed. Last week, there were 22 baptisms throughout the mission where there is normally 6-10. The missionaries are working so hard and are trying to talk to everyone they come in contact with. They have amazing energy and are special servants of the Lord. We will be starting a new round of visits to their training meetings and companion studies this week. On Saturday, Elder Black got to train all of the Zone leaders during a conference call. It was really nice to start and end the conference call with prayer. We have felt the Spirit many times and in many ways on our mission.

Daily Dose Continues

We have had a wonderful week with several Daily Dose lessons and attended the baptism and confirmation of one of the English students, Oscar Hernandez, a 60 year old man who was referred to the missionaries by his daughter who had joined the church a while ago. The missionaries invited him to learn English and after the first English lesson on the family, Elder Black handed him The Family Proclamation and he asked who the Apostles were. The missionaries taught him a short lesson and for the next 4 weeks taught him after each English lesson. After his baptism, he gave each of us a big hug and said that he felt so content and happy. He said he and his family thought his daughter was crazy when she joined the church, but now knows she was on the right path. Elder Black got to participate in the confirmation on Sunday morning. Sister Black is enjoying Daily Dose. Thursday night, she gave one of the ladies a hug and a young man who was a new student from Ecuador came up to shake her hand and ended up giving Sister Black a big kiss on the cheek. She was quite shocked. The Elders have a name for that and told Sister Black how to keep her arm stiff, to keep them from pulling her to close.

On Friday night, we went to dinner with the Senior Couples and our Mission President and his wife. All the Senior Sisters wore pink in remembrance of breast cancer awareness. The attached picture was taken (Sister Hale is in black). The picture with the Sisters in pink was sent to one of our young Sister Missionaries to give to her mother who is battling breast cancer as a sign of their support. After dinner, we went over to the Mission Home to visit (see our picture in front of the Mission Home). We also had 6 missionaries over from lunch last week and really enjoyed them. In the attached picture, from the near left, clockwise, is Elder Bradley, Elder Isom, Elder Hansen, Elder Wilcox, Elder Nutt and Elder Dawson. Our camera has a smile feature and they were testing it out when the picture was taken. Elder Isom and Elder Nutt are our Zone Leaders and the other Elders are the Spanish speaking Elders we work with on Daily Dose. Elder Dawson will be returning home in 10 days. They had 4 baptisms this weekend and have another 3 scheduled for next week. We also had 4 companion studies and ended up delivering 2 packages in the central and south part of the mission. It is always a treat to be with the missionaries.

Daily Dose Progress

We continue to be encouraged with the progress being made on the Daily Dose English effort. The students are so exited and appreciative and some of them have also asked to be taught about the gospel which is wonderful. Those being taught English have a desire to improve their lives and help their families. The Nelson's observed our class on Thursday, will start teaching next week and then Sister Nelson started to tutor one of the students. The missionaries also taught two of the students about the gospel that same evening. We felt quite blessed as we left the building with all that was still going on. Next week, we will start teaching a group of students in a home in North Lauderhill. We have been with them twice now to get acquainted. They are nervous to have Sister Black and I take over the teaching, because of our inability to speak Spanish, but we hope it will make them struggle to learn English without any reliance on Spanish.

We finished the Chapel Pass-Along Project and the electronic files have been distributed to each Ward and Branch so they can print them for their own use. In the past few weeks since the missionaries have been using them, Sacrament meeting attendance among those investigating the church has steadily climbed which is very encouraging. We also participated in a fast this week end. The members of the Pompano Beach Stake were asked to fast and pray for a temple to be built in south Florida. On Sunday, the fast and testimony meeting was very special with many pure testimonies being born and a wonderful feeling of unity among the people. Early in June there will be a temple trip just before Stake Conference and they hope to have very good participation to demonstrate to the Lord their love for the temple and willingness to sacrifice to attend the temple.

We had some wonderful visits with the missionaries this week. We have recently been asked by the Mission President to do a walk through inspection of the missionary apartments. In Boca Raton, the sister missionaries showed us a spare bedroom they had turned into what they called their "war room". It has pictures of several Book of Mormon generals and a large map of their area. They use the "war room" to make their battle plans for the day. They are remarkably faithful and hard working Sisters. On Saturday, we took some time off and went with Elder and Sister Kynaston to the Miami Seaquarium on Key Biscayne Island. This area of the Lord's vineyard is incredibly beautiful.

Short and sweet

We had 4 birthdays in our family this past week and we hope everyone had a wonderful time.
Last Monday evening, we went to the home of one of our Daily Dose families who are learning English and the father is taking the missionary lessons. After Elder Dawson and Elder Hansen gave him a lesson on the restoration in Spanish, the family brought out many food dishes and we had a real feast. The mother had cooked for 2 days and the family is not well off, but they love the missionaries who have shared the gospel with their family. There son was baptized earlier in April and we hope the father will be baptized soon. We are loving the Daily Dose teaching and association with the people who really appreciate it and have thanked us many times.
Elder Black spent a good part of the week working on preparing the Chapel Pass-Along Cards for printing on 8.5" x 11" paper and converting it to PDF. There were challenges in every step and CD's with the PDF files needs to be in President Hale's hands tomorrow evening when he gives them out to the four Stakes. Tomorrow will be a busy day.
Elder Black also participated in a day of service on Saturday painting at a women's shelter. We went to a farewell dinner for Elder and Sister Bean and Elder and Sister Call. It was fun. We will miss them both.

Turning 65 in Florida

This has been an eventful week for us. Elder Black turned 65 years old today. On Friday, we went to the Sawgrass Mall and he was able to find three new ties, Sister Black baked a cake and later on this evening we are going to a members home in the Oakland Park area for Family Home Evening. Elder Dawson and Elder Hansen, two Spanish speaking Elders, will be going with us. They recently taught and baptized their son and the mother, father and son are all students in the Daily Dose English classes. We are taking them a picture of Christ that we got and mounted from the Reflections of Christ program a few weeks ago. We now have about 20 students and 4 more from Brazil will be coming tomorrow evening. We had some wonderful experiences being with the missionaries this week. When we visited the Sister Missionaries in the Hollywood Zone, there were three Spanish speaking sisters and two American Sign Language (ASL) sisters. We got to see one of the ASL missionaries, Sister Moore, offer Mighty Prayer in sign language. It was a remarkably spiritual experience and the sincerity and outpouring of the Spirit was very strong and brought tears to our eyes. It was an experience we will never forget. We have some special missionaries who are very spiritually mature. We have the Coral Spring Elders over on Thursday for lunch and enjoyed visiting and laughing with them.

We were not sure what the fate of our Chapel Pass-Along Cards would be because of the tight budget in the mission. The missionaries love them and a few wards asked if they could use them. Today, in Presidency Meeting, we got the go ahead to expand it by providing all the wards and branches in the mission with the computer files so they can print out their own cards for use in their missionary and reactivation efforts. Elder Black taught the Gospel Principles class Sunday and there was a new investigator, Dean, who was quite interested and very well read on the Bible who contributed to the discussion. We are happy and doing well and appreciate all the love and support we receive from you. We acknowledge the Lord's hand and His tender mercies to us. Have a wonderful week.

Senior Fun

We had a wonderful get together of the Senior Couples the day before Easter and colored Easter eggs and had a candy hunt and other fun activities along with a great meal. You can see the couples in the attached photo. From left to right there are the Kynastons from Meridian, Idaho (near Boise), the Calls from North Ogden, Utah. the Holdstocks from Centerville, Utah, the Blacks from Murray, Utah, the Beans from Kaysville, Utah and the Dallings from Rexburg, Idaho. The pictures were taken by President Benzion, the Stake President of the Miami Lakes Stake, who lives next door to the Calls and is their landlord. At the end of the month, the Beans will be going home after one year service and then at the end of May the Calls will be going home after one year service. A new couple, the Hogges, from Anchorage, Alaska, will be replacing the Calls as Employment Specialists and will work with the Miami Beach Young Singles Adult ward. We have really enjoyed getting together with these wonderful servants of the Lord.

We were excited this week to officially start the Daily Dose English teaching effort by teaching a number of students at the meeting house. Elder Black taught 3 students on Tuesday night and on Thursday night he taught the same 3 and 1 more and Elder Bradley taught another 4 students. The Lauderhill Elders also taught several lessons in peoples homes during the week. We hope to have more students this coming Tuesday and Thursday. The students seemed to enjoy the way the lessons were taught and had fun and laughed a lot. It is really a fun, interactive way to learn.

We enjoyed Easter Sunday. Our Stake President's son, Andrew Current, who served a mission in Geneva Switzerland and France talked about his experiences teaching people about the Atonement and how it helped him on his mission. Our Bishop, Randy Godard, also spoke about the Atonement and then President Hale and President Current bore their testimonies of the Savior. We also had a wonderful lesson on the Atonement in our Gospel Principles class and everyone seemed to be very moved as we contemplated the great sacrifice Jesus made in our behalf and the great love He had to suffer and die for all of mankind. We hope you all had a wonderful Easter Sunday.

Family Fun in Florida

We had a wonderful week working on our Chapel Pass-Along Card project, English and Spanish prayer cards, visiting missionaries, meeting with the Lauderhill ward leadership on Daily Dose, watching General Conference and having fun with Steve, Traci and their wonderful family. We printed 3050 3" x 5" cards front and back using our printer. It went well some times and other times things would jam up or not feed through the printer. Elder Black spent so much time hunched over the printer that his shoulder bothered him for days. They really turned out nice and we will get them to the missionaries this week. We have finally got the Daily Dose English teaching effort going and there is a lot of interest. Tonight, we will be teaching our first Daily Dose lesson which will last about 30 minutes. We really enjoyed watching General Conference through the internet and at the Stake Center. Steve, Ammon and Elder Black went to the Stake Center Saturday evening to see the Priesthood Session. It was good to be together for the Priesthood Session as we tried to do when were at home. On the way home, we turned into the left turn lane to turn onto our street, Atlantic Blvd. Just as we were about to stop to wait for the green arrow, someone just in front of us and in the main traffic lane for some reason stopped at the green light. One car behind that stopped car swerved right, but the second car (a van) swerved left into our lane and somehow ended up in front of us. It amazed us that it could happen without side swiping our car. We felt quite blessed that we were not hit. In Florida, defensive driving is the only way to survive. Yesterday, we spend several hours at the Everglades National Park called Shark Valley and got an upfront and personal encounter with a bunch of alligators in the wild. It was so interesting and exciting to see not only the alligators, but also many beautiful birds along the path. We saw groups of baby alligators crawling over each other. The attached photos will give you an idea of what it was like. It was a hot day (over 90 deg F) so many of the alligators were in the water, but a few were out on the banks and even near the path. There was a side path with a large alligator sunning himself right in the middle of the path. After this adventure, Steve, Traci and their family went to the Discovery Center in Ft. Lauderdale and then went to Pompano Beach to play in the ocean until it got dark. They said it was warm and the waves were just right. We had breakfast together this morning and they headed for the Miami airport. We appreciate all you do for us and love you all very much.