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.

Family in Florida

We were so happy to see Steve, Traci and their family this weekend. Their flight was delayed so they arrived at the Miami airport at 2 am and stayed at a hotel near the airport. They arrived here at 10 am Sunday and we had a wonderful reunion. We got to go to church together and then after dinner Steve, Ammon, Emma and Elder Black went down to the Reflections of Christ exhibit and on the way home drove through the middle of Miami. Steve said it reminded him a lot of his mission in Oakland. Today, the kids really enjoyed swimming and seeing all the creatures (gekos, turtles, squirrels, ducks and finding coconuts). After lunch, they headed for Orlando and Disney World. We are looking forward to their longer visit next week.

We have had a busy week hosting at the Reflections of Christ exhibit each day and visiting the missionaries. One of our wonderful couple missionaries took a wrong turn on their way to host at the Reflection of Christ exhibit and ended up in the middle of the Miami sky scrappers. They called Elder Black and he was able to get on Google Earth and help them navigate their was out of there. We also worked on the Chapel Pass-Along Cards and to keep the cost low have decided to print them ourselves. We found a good paper supplier and then had Kinkos cut the box of paper into 10,000 3" x 5" cards. We will be delivering the first batch of cards to the Elders in the Biscami Zone tomorrow.

On Wednesday, we are having the kickoff meeting for Daily Dose English at the Lauderhill Spanish ward and we are excited to finally get it officially started. We are enjoying our mission so much and appreciate all the prayers said in our behalf. We love you all very much and appreciate your love and support.

A Wonderful Week in Florida

We had a very spiritual treat this week in our Zone Conference with Elder and Sister Zwick (Elder Zwick is a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy). They really helped energize the missionaries, including ourselves. To begin the conference, Elder and Sister Zwick greeted each missionary personally and briefly visited with them. The Friday before they left to come here, Elder Zwick stepped into an elevator at the Church Administration building and when it stopped at a floor, President Monson stepped in and asked him where he would be this week. When he told him he would be visiting the Florida Ft. Lauderdale mission, President Monson asked him to extend his personal greetings and love to each of the missionaries, which Elder Zwick did. He also shared some very personal and inspiring experiences he has had with both President Monson and President Hinckley. Elder and Sister Zwick have a handicapped son and they talked about how loves to go to the temple and is always happy. The couple missionaries also got to have lunch with them at the Mission Home. We got to visit with them about David and Cathy Erichsen. David worked for Zwick construction and Cathy's father also was a business partner with Elder Zwick.

On Saturday we trained two Elders in Homestead, FL on how to use the Daily Dose English program. Elder Black also met with the Lauderhill ward leaders (a Spanish ward) and gave a brief overview of the Daily Dose English program. He even gave an introduction in Spanish and they got a good chuckle over that. We hosted at the Reflections of Christ exhibit at the Fountainebleau meeting house on Sunday evening for 4 hours and this morning for 2 hours. On Sunday, about 350 people viewed a video and went through the art exhibit of the portrayal of the life of Christ. There was beautiful vocal and instrumental music playing in the exhibit room and the spirit was very strong. We got to greet the people just before they left the exhibit and many of them were shedding tears and very emotional as they exited. The 27 minute DVD was on the background of how the photograph and music exhibit was produced. This whole week we will be hosting 2 hours a day.

Logging Miles in Florida

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We have had another busy week with meetings with the missionaries in the Hialeah Zone (west of Miami) and also traveled to every chapel in the mission (about 20) to take pictures for our Chapel Pass-Along Card project. On the front of a 3" x 5" index card is a picture of the chapel and on the back the name of the ward or branch, the address, a map and a Sunday meeting schedule. The missionaries will use these to invite their investigators to attend church. With the help of some missionaries, some of the cards will be in Spanish and we will eventually have some in Creole. Elder Black spent so many hours doing the maps, etc. he developed a lot of pain in his wrist. We hope to get some proof copies to the missionaries in Zone Conferences tomorrow and Wednesday. Elder Black called Roger on his birthday and Roger has also been helping out trying to get the church logo superimposed onto the chapel photos.

In our Zone Conference, Elder Zwick (one of the Seventy) and his wife will be meeting with the missionaries and will be touring the mission including visiting missionary apartments, etc. The couple missionaries will have a lunch with them on Thursday. These should be great Zone Conferences (one in the north and one in the south part of the mission). Next week, we have been asked by the Mission President to be hosts at a special Art Display portraying Christ at the Fountainebleau chapel in Hialeah and will be greeting people who come to see it and answering their questions. We will be involved every day from Saturday to Saturday (except on Sunday) from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. We will be holding companion studies in Biscami (north of Miami) each morning and then travel to the Art Display in Hialeah.

We also had a meeting with our Stake President and a Brother Nelson who he and his wife will be helping out in the Daily Dose English effort. We have a meeting with the Lauderhill Spanish ward council next Sunday to introduce Daily Dose to them. We are excited to finally start making some progress towards starting up the Daily Dose English effort. Our work in the Coral Springs ward has taken a back seat the past two weeks, but on Sunday in High Priest Group meeting their leader mentioned that based on the work Elder Black had done on the ward list and identifying where people live using Google Earth, that they were able to revamp all of the Home Teaching assignments so the priesthood can visit people who live close by them and cut down a extensive travel times. You never know when your efforts help the work go forward. We also got help this week from Traci who researched a question an investigator asked one of our missionaries. We appreciate all of your notes of encouragement and love.

PS. We might mention that in one of the attached photos, the tall Elder is not standing on something. Elder Bachynski is 7' 2" tall. His companion standing just in front of him, Elder Pinard, is the shortest Elder in the mission.

Alligator Adventures

We have had a good week visiting missionaries, feeding the missionaries, making a few member visits and today we went on an air boat ride out into the Everglades and our unfortunately our camera battery was dead so we didn't take any pictures of the alligators (one big and two smaller) we saw out in the wild. We will try to get some on the other missionaries pictures. The attached are two pictures that were taken by Elder and Sister Holdstock of Sister Black on the air boat and Elder and Sister Black at the alligator show afterwards. Brother Torsok from the Hollywood ward is a convert to the church and for the past three years he have been paying 1/2 the cost for the missionaries to take an hour air boat ride and to see the alligator show. He was the person who arranged for us to speak at the Hollywood Ward the week after Christmas. There were 3 couple missionaries and about 24 Elders and Sisters who participated. It was a lot of fun. We saw a 12 to 15 foot alligator cruising around in some water lily type plants. It was very fat in the middle and they think it had just eaten something big. We also saw a large iguana sunning itself in a tree. At the alligator show the alligator wrestler put his head inside of the jaws of a medium size alligator. Because the missionaries are regular visitors, they let everyone hold the small alligator for free as pictures were taken.

We will be starting up the Daily Dose English soon. We will also be doing a project of preparing chapel pass along cards for investigators. It will have a picture of the chapel on the front and on the back the name and address of the Ward or Branch, a map and a meeting schedule. As we are traveling around the mission, we will take pictures of all the chapels and Elder Black will do the back of the card using AutoCad.

Mixed up week

This has been a rather mixed up week. For most of the days activities we had planned out, we ended up doing something else. We attended the Transfer meeting on Wednesday and it was very exciting to see a good part of the mission receive there new assignments. There were 9 new missionaries (6 Spanish and 3 English). One Elder is from Riverton, Utah and another from Rigby, Idaho. One of the new Elders is from Kenyan. He is 26 years old and will be a powerful missionary. His village pooled their money and bought him a suit before he left. His Bishop had told him he could not serve a mission because of his age, but someone else heard about his desire to serve and got things straightened out. One of our couple missionaries sat in on a lesson he helped give just two days after his arrival and they said he is an amazingly powerful teacher. Afterwards, we were able to help out by taking a group of missionaries and their luggage to the Mission Office and then drove to the Biscami area (north of Miami) to deliver luggage to some other missionaries. We also delivered some bicycle helmets to some other missionaries up in our area and later in the week we delivered a bike and later that evening a bike rake to still some more missionaries. The afternoon of the Transfer day, we picked up some dessert we had ordered and helped Sister Hale prepare for the Finishers Dinner. The dessert has a history. We ordered it from an Italian bakery on the Saturday before. A couple of days later, Elder Black was prompted to call the bakery and make sure there was no alcohol in it (it had a cherry on top) and sure enough it would have had rum in it, if the prompting had not been followed. We also enjoyed going to the Finishers fireside to listen to the 8 departing missionaries testimonies.

Another contributor to the mixed up week was the fact that several weeks ago I was asked to give a deposition for a law firm representing an insurance company in a law suit brought by TerraTek's former landlord (who also has a law suit against TerraTek). I will be giving the deposition this afternoon at 3:30 pm in Ft. Lauderdale. The landlord is claiming that TerraTek removed his fixtures (our equipment) from the building, the building was left in bad shape and he was unable to rent it. I had taken the landlord and some contractors on a tour through the building and then wrote up some notes on what was discussed on the tour and gave them to Sid. I was told that the deposition would be about one hour which sounded okay, but then last week I spent about 5-6 hours talking to and being questioned by various lawyers from both sides and TerraTek's lawyer offered to represent me at the deposition which I gladly accepted. Today, I am expecting at least two more calls. I will let you know how it goes. We used to watch a lot of Perry Mason episodes, but I'm not sure how much that will help out.