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.