Rainy month

September has been a very rainy month so far. Every day we have had a few hours of heavy rain. It actually has cooled things off a bit and we have enjoyed that. While we were at dinner Friday evening with the Senior Couples is rained extremely hard and there was some minor flooding in that area. We are keeping our fingers crossed concerning the hurricane season and have about 1 1/2 months left in the season.

We have gotten a couple of assignments from the Coconut Creek ward to teach new member lessons to a couple of the recent converts. We went to the home of Dalton Rhoden and visited with him and arranged to teach him each Thursday. We also learned that his mother needed a large print Bible and we were able to get her one through the Mission Office. She was very appreciative. On Sunday, Elder Black was able to help Dalton get an interview with the Bishop to receive the priesthood. He is quite excited and should be ordained next week. The sister we have been helping and fellowshipping got a job interview in the field she is trained in and we are praying that she will get the job. We had a number of good visits with the missionaries this week and were able to take five sisters out to lunch on Thursday.

We heard a neat story that happened last Wednesday evening. In the Hollywood area, the Sisters had a family of four committed to baptism, but the mother had a few concerns and so the family decided not to be baptized on Wednesday, but they attended the baptism to see what it was like. Just before the service started, a 10 year old boy from the family came up to the Sisters and told them that he could be baptized and that he wanted to be a missionary just like them. They got the Elders to come interview him and then the Bishop mentioned that when the father of the family saw how much his son wanted to be baptized, the father started to cry and said he wanted to be baptized also. So the Elders interviewed him and the father and son were baptized on Wednesday evening. I also attended the baptism of a 12 year old girl on Sunday who had been introduced to the church by her friend. Her friend gave the talk on baptism and afterward it was very sweet when they hugged each other. There have been three young women join the church in the past 3 or 4 months.

A change in assignment

We have received an assignment change. Starting in October, we will be assisting a new Senior Couple, Elder and Sister Welch from Springville, Utah with Monthly Apartment Inspections. Each month we will visit one half of the Mission Apartments and they will visit the other half. This will include a trip to Key West every other month. They will be in charge of the apartments and medical. It was a real blessing that they have been assigned to our mission, otherwise, we may have been assigned both the apartments and the medical. We had a wonderful Zone Conference on Tuesday and attended a baptism of a 42 year old man on "Sunday who has read the Book of Mormon three times. He said the first time he read it, he knew it was true. The second time he knew he needed to contact the missionaries and while they were teaching him he read it again. His parents and a sister attended his baptism. We taught Daily Dose English at the church twice this week and last week while the Nelson's were on vacation. We are teaching English to an elderly women and her daughter. They had not missed until Friday and the daughter brought her mother to the lesson while she waited in the car because she was sick. Also, on Tuesday, a women walked for an hour (in the heat) to get to the class and we drove her home. This Friday and Saturday, the missionaries, working with the local members, found 400 new investigators to teach. Investigators attending Sacrament meeting has gone from 400 to 600 a month in the past 4 months. Starting next month, the Mission Office will be printing the Chapel Pass-Along Cards which Elder Black has been doing. The missionaries really have loved them and it looks like they will become a permanent part of our mission. We are keeping a close eye on the hurricane reports and still have two months left in the hurricane season.

Party in Florida

One of our Senior Couples, the Kynaston's, will be going home later in the month so we took them to dinner on Friday night. We drove across town in a driving rain storm to a fish place they recommended only to find that their power was out from the storm, so we drove back and ate close to where we live. On Labor Day, we had a Thanksgiving Dinner in honor of the Kynaston's at the Elder and Sister Dalling's place and spent about 5 hours together. It was great food and a lot of fun. Then on the 19th of September we will be having one more party for the Kynaston's at Elder and Sister Hogge's place. I told Sister Black that when we are ready to leave that they will give us a "don't let the door hit you in the back side" party to celebrate our departure.

We have had an interesting week and was able to cheer up one of our English students and fix several problems with her computer. We also had some wonderful visits with the missionaries in the Hialeah Zone. We will be teaching the New Member Lessons to a recent convert and will be teaching a Temple Preparation class. We are enjoying our mission and the wonderful people we are working with.

Interesting Creatures in Florida

We have had a busy week. The Nelson's are in Utah on vacation so we have been teaching their Daily Dose English class this week as well as our own. The lesson was on interviewing for a job and on Thursday Elder and Sister Hogge, the Employment Missionaries, came and talked to the students, gave them interviewing tips and took some names of those they could help in seeking employment. It was really kind of them to come to the class. We took them out to get ice cream afterwards and a young man came over to us and asked what religion we represented. He had a lot of misconceptions about the church that we tried to straighten out. We talked and teased about loosing our horns, etc. and we think he went away with a different feeling about the church.

We also had some wonderful meetings with the Elders and Sisters in a Zone meeting and three companionship studies in the Hialeah Zone. This area has a very high concentration of Latin's. Two months ago, a man from Cuba came to the Employment Center and told the Hogge's he felt he was guided there. Shortly after his visit with them, his wife and family who were in Cuba were granted permission to come to Florida permanently. He and his family are now attending the Hialeah ward (who's Bishop is also from Cuba) and listening to the missionary lessons. We met with those missionaries who are teaching them and they said that the Lord had really prepared them to listen to the message of the restored gospel. The Mission President This week we have Zone Conference on Tuesday and are looking forward to being with the missionaries from the Palm Beach and Coral Springs Zones. On Saturday, we went to lunch with the Hogge's and on the way out of their street we spotted the Iguana (see picture) who was sunning himself on the banks of a canal. We had also taken a picture of a curly tailed lizard at the Japanese gardens last week (see picture).

Remembering Darrin

This week was Darrin's birthday and we were so grateful for Kevin and Heather for taking flowers to the grave. We love our family so much and look forward to the time when we can be with Darrin and get to know him. We know that because of Christ's Atonement and Resurrection and the restored gospel and ordinances and blessings of the temple that we can all be together again. We appreciate so much the hope the gospel brings into our lives.

We went to a baptism in our newly assigned ward on Saturday afternoon and then attended a Brazilian barbeque at the ward later that evening. It was a great success with about 200 people attending and 40 or so who were not members of the church. It was a great way to get to know people. We sat next to a beautiful Haitian sister who was a returned missionary and who had married a man about a year ago just after he was baptized. Her husband is a faithful priesthood holder and he really appreciates his membership in the church. The Coconut Creek ward has a large group of Haitians and many other ethnic groups. We received a warm welcome into the ward and were invited to attend Ward Council meeting Sunday morning, we gave the prayers in Sacrament meeting and were asked to speak next Sunday in Sacrament meeting. Tonight we are meeting with the Bishopric to find out what they would like us to do to serve the ward. Elder Black found out this week that he will no longer be serving in the Mission Presidency since members of the Mission Presidency are suppose to be local members. He will continue to carry on with his assignments, but not as part of the Mission Presidency.

Tomorrow is Transfer Day and 16 new missionaries will be arriving tonight and 14 will go to the Orlando temple tomorrow and then depart for home on Thursday. We have been asked to help with lunch after the Transfer Meeting and at the Finishers dinner tomorrow night. We have gotten to know a number of the departing missionaries and wish them great success. It is amazing the pace kept by the young missionaries and the level of energy they maintain day in a day out. Their discipline and hard work will bless their lives in many, many ways into the future.

Hot, Hot, Hot

We are experiencing first hand what heat and humidity can feel like. The last few weeks have been very hot and very humid. We are also keeping an eye on the hurricane situation. You can see what is happening on www.nhc.noaa.gov. It was quiet for the first 2 1/2 months, but all of a sudden things are starting to happen. We have had a busy week starting with the Transfer Meeting and Finishers Dinner last Wednesday. Sixteen new missionaries arrived and 14 departed. We were quite close to some of the departing missionaries and it was sad to see them go. Elder Ipson worked with me on the 2008 baptism record project and we really hit it off. At the Finishers testimony meeting he told us that 4 years ago he was dying and his mother came down to his room and held his hand for several hours. She read him his patriarchal blessing and asked him if he felt it had been fulfilled and he told her he did not know. She told him that she felt that it had not been and that the Lord had things for him to do. Several days later, he was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery which he survived and gradually became better. It was quite touching. We love him so much because he always has a smile on his face. We also used to go out of our way to take him jelly beans which he loved. We also said goodbye to Elder Bradley who we worked with on the Daily Dose program.

We spoke in church on Sunday. Sister Black spoke about the peace that the gospel brings and Elder Black spoke on all things that point to Christ. We also taught a number of English lessons and was invited to dinner at Sister Terron's home the night before her mother returned to Mexico. During an English lesson at the church taught by Brother Nelson, a young Haitian man came by and asked if he could talk to someone. Elder Black went with him into another room and listened to the man tell about his marital problems and that he had just left his wife. He was sure it was over and that he could never go back to her. Elder Black taught him a few things about the gospel and the church, gave him some advise and helped him calm down. After about 45 minutes, we came out into the hallway and the class had ended. He told Brother Nelson that he had never talked to someone like Elder Black who was so calm. He asked Brother Nelson if there was a shelter near by. Brother Nelson asked him if he had a cell phone and when he said no, he handed him his cell phone and told him to call his wife and tell her he was sorry. He protested and said there was nothing to be sorry for, but Brother Nelson said that doesn't matter, just say you are sorry. So he made the call and said he was sorry and Brother Nelson drove him back to where his wife was. In the whole experience, we could see the hand of the Lord at work.

The two attached pictures were taken at a Japanese garden that we visited with the Kynastons. When we first started walking around the gardens the wind was blowing and then it started to pour down rain and we all got soaked.

Changes for Elder and Sister Black

We found out on Saturday evening that we have been re-assigned to serve in the Coconut Creek ward. This ward has had Senior Missionaries serving in it before and we expect they will get us involved more directly in their missionary effort and will expect more from us. We are looking forward to the change and the opportunities that are ahead. This past week was our hump week where we are at the 1/2 way point of our mission. It is amazing how quickly the time passes. This week was full of great meetings with the missionaries and also the Daily Dose effort is starting to grow again. We added 5 new students in our area last week and in the new area, West Palm Beach, they added another 6 new students. The attached photo is of Sister Terron and her mother Paulina who is visiting from Mexico. We have been teaching English to them and a number of their neighbors and ward members English. It amazes us how quickly their English has improved after several lesson. Sister Terron's mother is a school teacher and she has been teaching us Spanish. After one of our English lessons this week, the husband of this sister hosting the class asked for a priesthood blessing and Elder Black was able to give him a priesthood blessing with little preparation. It was an amazing experience and confirmed our faith that Heavenly Father knows all His children and their needs and that the blessing was from the Lord. We also have provided comfort to the sister we have been helping when on Friday her 31 year old son was stabbed multiple times by his girlfriends brother. The person who did the stabbing was drunk. Living the gospel principles such as the Word of Wisdom will bless our lives as well as keep us out of trouble.