Sunday, August 29, 2010


We were able to attend the Baptism of a mother and her two daughters. I was so impressed because the sister missionaries told me that the mother and little girls took notes every time they taught them. This was in Titusville, Florida.

Friday, August 27, 2010



Mister Incredible and Elder Incredible

Thursday, August 26, 2010




We finished off Zone Conferences today. It was a good week and we learned so much. Here are some shots of our last Zone Conference. Here is a picture of Elder Incredible (that's what the children in the ward call him).

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

I just thought I would tell you our schedule for the last week. We started out with Stake Conference in the Leesburg Stake on Saturday and Sunday. We had a wonderful dinner at President and Sister Carter's in Eustice, Florida on Saturday night and then to the adult meeting. They were so gracious to have us in their home. Sunday President and I both gave some remarks and then we stayed for a new member meeting with the Stake Presidency. It was an incredible meeting! We met with new members, and investigators and part member families. About sixty people, some shared their testimonies and a few others shared their conversion stories and their feelings about the church. It was a great meeting with some wonderful families. These new members will be a great asset to their wards. On Monday we had 2 new Haitian Elders arrive and had dinner and a testimony meeting. Tuesday we had Zone Conference from 6:45 am to 6:15 pm (meeting and travel time) then Wednesday we had Zone Conference at Lake Mary from 7:30 to 5:00 pm (meeting and travel time) Thursday we have another Zone Conference in Orlando and Friday is catch up day at the Mission Office. In Zone Conference the President teaches and I have to talk also. Saturday we might get in half a P Day and Sunday we speak in Sumterville in Sacrament Meeting and the 3rd Hour. I'm still not use to this speaking thing but I don't worry as much. The President has emails to answer every Monday from our 178 missionaries and I have phone calls from the missionaries about health issues from headaches, stomach problems, spider bites, sprained ankles, trouble sleeping, urinary tract infections, colds, home sickness, scrapes, and lots of other issues. It keeps me very busy as I have to call Missionary Medical to approve a lot of these medical issues. But I do have Dr. Hoffman, a retired doctor from BYU-Provo, that I can call any time. He is a very big help. But needless to say, the missionaries are well taken care of and I can get them into a doctor any time and very quickly. We're just trying to run the mission, but it keeps us very, very busy. The Orlando Stakes have great members who support us.





This is Zone Conference on Wednesday at Lake Mary with the Deland, Orlando, and Leesburg Zones.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010


We just finished our first day of Zone Conferences. Things went well. We met in Palm Bay with the Cocoa and Stuart Zones.



Here's the wild turkeys we see around our neighborhood. Also, the tree that blossom in the front entrance to the mission home. We have been having rain showers everyday, but it is cooler!




Our two new Haitian Missionaries arrived yesterday afternoon! Elder Smith and Elder Major, so glad to have them. We celebrated their arrival by having the Haitian Elders cook Haitian food and talk to them about the work. It was great, we all learned a lot.!

Thursday, August 19, 2010


I forgot to post one of our new arrivals last month. From time to time we get one or two new missionaries out of the regular transfer cycle. Sister Lovejoy was a new American Sign Language sister. We first met her when we were in the MTC.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010






On August 11, 2010 our first batch of missionaries, 9 Elders and 1 sister went home. It was a very emotional time to see these Elders and Sister leave the mission. They are such great missionaries with strong testimonies and we will miss them. We went to the the temple and then had dinner after at the mission home.

August 9, 2010, also brought our friend the alligator, seems he shows up for the new arrivals. We hadn't seen him since the last transfer week. This time he showed himself, saw him come out of the pond like a dolphin.

Arrival of new Elders on August 9, 2010


Well, we survived another transfer week! We had 9 new arrivals! and 10 departures! First, the arrivals. Elder Bohn, Elder Kupfer, Elder Snyder, Elder Packard, Elder Fullmer, Elder Mortensen, Elder Bingham, Elder Valgardson, and Elder Greggson.




Sunday, August 8, 2010


The two assistants, Elder Steinman (on the left) will be leaving this transfer.

We experienced our first downpour in Orlando! WOW! And you all know that Orlando is the lightning capital, well I have never heard lightning so loud. President and I had just been shopping at Costco for the Missionary Arrival and Departure meals when it hit, needless to say we didn't venture out in it.


















The Florida Orlando Mission has seven zones. Deland, Leesburg, Orlando, Orlando South, Hunters Creek, Cocoa, and Stuart. Our mission goes from Palm Coast on the Atlantic Ocean side to Inverness, down and over to Lake Buena Vista and down to Okeechobee and over to Palm Beach and all the way up the Atlantic coast back up to Palm Coast. Here's a map of the FOM.

We have been to all our missionaries' apartments in all the areas. Okeechobee is cowboy country, Cocoa is a vacation spot on the beach and there is all sorts of areas in between.