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.

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.