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.