Farewell South Florida

We cannot believe that our mission is just about over. The attached picture shows members of the Snapper Creek branch who gave Elder and Sister Black a send off with a cake, a nice picture and messages from them written in a journal. Sister Black was not feeling well today, so she was not able to be there. We have really enjoyed our assignment to the Snapper Creek branch. In our last posting on the blog, we mentioned the two waiters at Olive Garden who President and Sister Hale invited to have the missionaries over. One of them has been taught and has accepted a baptism date in early May. President Hale is going to baptize him. We have had a busy week teaching Daily Dose on Wednesday where there were 13 students (a record) and then training a sister from the Ft. Lauderdale ward and 4 missionaries assigned to the Ft. Lauderdale ward on Daily Dose English. We have had a long list of things to do (36). We ended up getting new tires, shocks, alignment and balancing as well as nitrogen in our tires. The Jeep has never run smoother. We did not want to take a chance coming across the country. All of our furniture was moved out on Saturday except our bed, a card table and two folding chairs. It echo's in our apartment. Tomorrow morning we will be meeting with our landlord, shipping off our bed, finishing packing, doing the Data Base Reporting, taking our keys, phone, etc. to the Mission Office, saying our goodbyes, packing up the Jeep and doing a few more things before heading to Orlando.

Amazingly Wonderful Week

We have had an amazingly wonderful week. We had a group of 8 missionaries to lunch on Thursday and then trained them in Daily Dose. Brother and Sister Nelson came for the training. We are trying to revitalize the Daily Dose English program. The Nelson's changed Daily Dose lessons to Wednesday evenings and they had 7 students last week. We also did apartment inspections to the Hollywood and Miami Beach zones. On Saturday evening, we got together for a farewell party with the other couple missionaries including the Hogges, Holdstocks, Welchs, Collins and Blacks. We are departing the Mission on Monday, April 19th and the Holdstocks will be departing May 1st. We had a wonderful meal, the departing missionaries expressed their feelings, we visited and played a fun game of Pictionary. On Sunday, Sister Black and I spoke at the Snapper Creek Branch Sacrament meeting. Sister Black spoke on Sacrifice and Elder Black spoke on the Resurrection. After Sacrament meeting, we went to a missionary apartment to pick up some things to deliver to another apartment. It was raining very hard. When the missionary ran to our car with the things, we just tossed them in the back set and headed for the other apartment. When we got to the apartment, Elder Black grabbed the things and put them by the front door and we drove home. When we got home we discovered a bike helmet in the back seat also soon found out that Elder Black had also grabbed his missionary back pack and had left it at the missionary apartment. So, guess what, we ended up driving back to the apartment and then back home. It was a long day.

On Monday night we had a wonderful meal at Brother and Sister Nelsons. Today, we had our final interview with President Hale. It was quite special and he was very gracious and complimentary towards us and our efforts in the mission. He then gave us each a priesthood blessing which we will never forget. We also went to dinner with President and Sister Hale. Two of the waiters saw our name tags and started to talk to us and before the evening was over they gave President Hale their phone numbers and they agreed to have the missionaries contact them. We love President and Sister Hale so much and they are experiencing a flood of emotions now as their son prepares for his mission and their daughter prepares for her marriage. We have been so blessed and appreciate all the wonderful experiences we have had on our mission.

Address Correction for Homecoming Address

The correct address for our mission homecoming talks is 6300 So. 700 W, May 16th, at 12:50. All are welcome to attend.

An Exciting Week for President and Sister Hales and Conference Week

We have had a busy and exciting week. Our Mission President's daughter Heather got engaged while her boyfriend and his family were in Key West on a little vacation and then their son, Tanner, received his Mission Call to El Salvador. Check out the Florida Ft. Lauderdale Mission Blog at: http://floridaftlauderdalemissionnews.blogspot.com/ . They will both leave for Salt Lake City on May 4th. This has been a life changing week for President Hale as we clearly remember as these wonderful events occurred in our lives.

We also were amazed at the wonderful General Conference and the messages which were so pertinent to our time. As President Monson was giving his masterful talk on the Resurrection, in the back of Elder Black's mind was the fact that he will be giving a talk at the Snapper Creek branch this coming Sunday on the Resurrection. Sister Black will be talking about Sacrifice. Elder Black spent one day securing an apartment in Ft. Lauderdale for the upcoming Transfer. Two days were spent with apartment inspection. After the morning session of conference on Sunday, we picked up a missionary at his apartment and drove him to his new area. The list of things to do before we leave is growing each day as we prepare to finish our mission.

For your information, we will be speaking in our home ward, the Murray 29th ward at 6300 So. 700 W on Sunday, May 16th at 12:50 pm.