Trip to Key West....

We went to Key West today with the Kynastons. It is a 4 hour ride down and 4 hour ride back. We had told them we would like to do things where we would not have to do a lot of walking because of my back. We bought city tour train ride tickets online before we left so we could get $3 off of each one. They were $30 tickets. We had 3 deliveries to other missionaries to make on the way and spent 3 hours in Marathon, another one of the Keys with the 1st set of Elders. We found them fishing when we arrived at the apartment. This apartment is about 12 ft x 12 ft including bathroom and kitchen.
We had a little fun while having lunch at the ocean side. One side of the road is the Atlantic Ocean and the other side is the Gulf of Mexico.
Outside the chapel at Marathon.

We spent so long at Marathon that by the time we got to Key West we missed our train ride and lost our $54. We still had fun. We waited around for 2 hours to watch the sunset on the ocean and just as it was going down, the clouds covered the sun and we didn’t get a very good picture. The missionaries didn’t think we were coming so they had ordered a pizza and eaten just before we got there. Then the missionaries had an 8 pm appointment so we didn’t have time to take them to dinner after the sunset. We arrived home about 12:35 a.m.

STILL IN LOVE!!!!!

Tender Mercy moment.......

We had one of those “tender mercy” moments today at the office. On Wednesday a gentleman from the deaf phone company came by to do maintenance on one of our phones that the American Sign Language missionaries uses. The Senior Elder that he needed to see wasn’t there and we suggested he come back on Thursday. I had a very difficult time communicating with him and couldn’t understand what he was trying to say so he would have to write everything down and I would write the answer back. H came back today just as the Elder had left again. Once again, the communication was very difficult and we were both becoming a little discouraged when Elder Holdstock came to see if he could be of any help. He helped a little but about that time 2 of our Elders who had just come back from going to a doctor appointment came into the office. They were looking for the Senior sister who does medical (she is only in the office about 15 minutes every 2 weeks). As they could see our frustration, one of them started signing to the visitor. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Not only was the visitor’s delay in coming in on Friday interesting, but the one Elder who spoke ASL was not even the companion of the one who went to the dr. They had switched companions so the ASL Elder could drive as neither of the original companionship could drive. The Elder who went to the Dr only spoke English. Then to have them come into the office the exact 10 minutes that the visitor was there was amazing. It is one of those moments when you see the hand of the Lord in our lives putting people in our paths as answer to our prayers – whether silent or spoken. Before he left, the elders gave him a deaf Book of Mormon and some of the pamphlets we have on the restoration of the gospel.
Then this morning I got a letter from Michael Himmel. It began “Dear angels in discise, thank u very much – I received the CD about our Savior. Jesus is Lord; He is the Mesiah-no man comes before Him-He is the truth, the light and the Life- Thank u again. Hope 2 here from u soon.” This was another response to all the DVDs that I sent out 2 weeks ago from as far back as May 1, 2008 that had not previously been sent. Another set of Elders said they were teaching another investigator I had sent a DVD to and she had set a baptism date and they are going tomorrow to meet two more – one of which they are sure will be baptized after talking on the phone to them. I am doing missionary in a very small way but it is very rewarding………

The spirit of missionary work.....

The lady that I talked about a couple of posts ago that I had sent a B of M to and she wondered why she had gotten it is now reading it and says "I love that book. " She is now allowing the missionaries to give her the discussions. The Elders who are teaching her said that they also picked up 2 other investigators from the old ones that I sent out. So...here I am sitting at my desk and the spirit whispers little thoughts into my head of things I can do to help bring others into the gospel......it's amazing. We, however as missionaries, can only head them in the right diretion....it will be the spirit that teaches and converts them.

Unwanted house guest.......

We came home for lunch today and found out that we had an unwanted house guest – a gecko. It was near our sliding glass door where our large fake plant is. I saw it crawl into the plant so I quickly moved it out onto the screened-in patio and thought I would deal with it when we got home. Then tonight I realized that we always have geckos on the patio and I would probably have 20 in the plant by now. So we had to take the plant out on the grass and take it all apart, tear the moss apart and look for it because I saw it crawl into the pot again on the patio. It was about 20 minutes after I saw it go into it that we looked for it but did not find it. Just as we started to take the plant apart, yep, you guessed it. The sprinklers turned on and we had to drag everything to another spot as it was getting wet. Hopefully it is REALLY gone because we brought the plant back into the house. As I came in the front door, there was one right up against the door waiting to run inside but I was smarter than it this time

Fun and games along with the work......

This was a very stressful week with transfers. Tim and I are responsible for getting the information switched around for all of the missionaries being moved to another area and companion. The meeting ends about noon on Wednesday and everyone wants the new list within an hour. Tim has to enter everything into the computer like the new companion and new apartment. That then creates a new address for me to use with the mail. I also do a telephone card showing each zone, companionships tied to their proselyting area, and telephone numbers. I have to call each companionship (about 61) to make sure they still have the right phone number.

We hold the mail for 3 days prior to transfers and then send it out as soon as Tim gets the info into the computer with the right new address. Because it was Easter this week, there was scads and scads of packages. They took up about 1/4 of our office space. I believe there were about 125 pieces of mail in all. It filled our entire trunk and all of the back seat of our car to get them to the post office.

We had a fun Easter get-to-gether with the other senior couples. Lots of visiting and eating.

The looks on the faces of the husbands in these pictures are unique - don't you love Tim's excitement?
This is our office building (Tim's office is on the bottom floor, the first window on the left.

It looks like fall over here. The leaves are dropping their leaves like they think it is October.

These funny looking trees are all over Florida.
These are pictures of our ward building - Fort Lauderdale Ward.

Parking lot in back of the church. We just park on the lawn or wherever.The house across the street from the church.