More Driving

This morning we drove to Sam's Club to purchase a mattress for the sister whom we moved to Venice yesterday.  Last night she slept on an air mattress.  So after buying the mattress, we drove to Venice again to deliver it.  We then drove back to the mission office to return the mini-van and pick up our car.  The mini-vans that the mission has are very handy.  There is space for a lot of people or stuff.

After returning the mini-van, we picked up our car and returned to Sarasota.

I had my car washed on Monday to get rid of all of the accumulated bugs from our trip to Sebring, Lake Placid, and Wauchula last week.  Unfortunately, as they were dusting the inside of the car, they reset my trip odometer that I had been using to see how many miles we have driven since arriving on our mission.  However, I had glanced at it on the drive up to Tampa on Monday, and we were just short of 10,000 miles.

Transfer Day

Transfer Days are exciting.  At the transfer meeting, the newly arrived missionaries find out who their trainers will be.  With the shortened time in the MTC, the trainers have additional responsibilities in training the new missionaries.  A special 12 week training curriculum has been developed for the new missionaries.  The missionaries who are being trained have an additional hour of companionship study each morning as their trainer teaches them the new missionary curriculum.

Other transfers are announced at the transfer meeting as well.  Because of the departure on Tuesday of many missionaries who held leadership positions, new zone leaders and sister training leaders were assigned.  Also other missionaries were moved for various reasons.  For example, the two missionaries who had been servicing in Wauchula were both reassigned, and no new missionaries were assigned there -- the area was closed.

Following the transfer meeting, we left our car at the mission office and drove a mission mini-van to Seminole, north of St. Petersburg, to pick up a sister who was a late notice transfer.  We loaded her stuff into the van along with her bike and drove to Venice where she will be in a threesome.  We then drove back to Sarasota arriving about 10:30.  It made for a very long day.

The missionary who is not driving is expected (required) to provide backing assistance.

The missionary cars in the parking lot after arriving for the transfer meeting.

The newly arrived missionaries' luggage waiting to be picked up for their assignment.

Missionaries moving luggage and bicycles to vehicles for transport to their new assignments.

Arrival Day

We stayed overnight in Tampa to save ourselves 2+ hours of driving time.  Since we were already in Tampa, we attended two zone training meetings during the day, the Brandon Zone and the Tampa Zone.  The zone leaders for each of those zones had returned home, so the two remaining companion zone leaders worked together to develop training meetings for each of the zones.

The focus of the training meetings was on allowing your personality to come through in your teaching and contacting and creating unity with your companion.  In each meeting, the zone leaders had set up an effective role play with a missionary whom they had appeared to get into a heated disagreement.  The missionaries then discussed how that had much out the spirit from the meeting.  I continue to be impressed with how effective the missionaries are in training each other.

The new missionaries arrived and we met them at the Mission Home for dinner.  One of the missionaries who is from Mozambique and is just learning English, missed the flight from Atlanta to Tampa, so he arrived a bit later than the other 10.  The other missionaries said they didn't realize he was not on the plane until it was preparing to depart.

This seems like a strong group of missionaries, 4 Sisters and 7 Elders.  Perhaps they will be able to replace the leadership strength of those who just left.

A Different Preparation Day

Instead of our normal P-Day, we were involved with the preparations for the dinner for the missionaries who are returning home.  We picked up one of the departing missionaries, Elder Salas, from his apartment in Sarasota and drove him to the mission office for his "exit interview" with President Cusick.  This provided us an opportunity to learn more about him during the drive to Tampa.

He joined the Church while a student at Texas A&M.  He was the only member of the Church in his family, which is basically him and his mother.  After graduating with a degree in psychology, he decided to serve a mission.  Last December, his mother was baptized.  On her own, she decided to go to Church and the missionaries in Texas began teaching her.

The dinner with the departing missionaries was very somber.  This was an exceptional group of missionaries who had all had significant leadership responsibilities in the mission.  While they were looking forward to returning home, I think all would have stayed here as missionaries if given the opportunity.  They are leaving very big shoes for the incoming missionaries to fill.

Elders (l-r) Farley, Salas, and Bischoff

Renee and Elder Halford who is departing.

Sunday at Beneva Branch

Continuing our rotation through the units in the Sebring Stake, we visited the Spanish-speaking Beneva Branch today.  The Sister Missionaries who are assigned to the branch translated for us.  Even so, we missed out on much of what was said.

It is a small branch with perhaps 60 in sacrament meeting.  However, they seem to have some strong leaders in the branch.  They are enthusiastic about missionary work.  The branch president is hosting three non-members at his home on Monday for a missionary lesson.

The Sisters are following on a plan that was presented about finding families.  They prayed and felt they should look for a family from either Mexico or Guatemala with three daughters.  They presented this to the branch council and asked for their help in finding the family.  The second counselor in the bishopric (who speaks excellent English) said he knows a family from Guatemala and thinks they have three daughters.  They will be following up on this.

Since we didn't have to drive far, only 30 minutes, we had time during the afternoon and evening to catch up on submitting the apartment inspection reports.  We are all up-to-date now.

More Driving and Apartment Checking

We had one more apartment in the group that we had planned to check on this week, Venice.  However, then we learned that we needed to take some air mattresses to the Sister Training Leaders in Port Charlotte which is about 45 minutes southeast of Venice.  So first we drove to Port Charlotte and delivered the air mattresses.  The Sisters there were very excited because they had just returned from a baptism.

One of sisters, Sister Wilson, is originally from Maple Grove, MN.  They moved from the ward shortly before David and his family moved in.  Small world.

We then drove back to Venice to check on the apartment there.  The Sisters in Venice have taken good care of their apartment.  That is always nice to find.

Since Costco was on our way back from Venice, we stopped there.  We had a shopping list of items that we needed to help prepare meals for various events next week.

Another Day of Apartment Checking

We drove to the Sebring area to check on the 4 apartments in that district.  Interestingly, we found the missionaries in the first three apartments at home when we expected they would be out.  One companionship was having a late lunch, another an early dinner, and I don't know what was happening with the third.  Since Sebring and the adjacent towns do not have large populations, the apartment complexes are smaller and older than what we have seen in Bradenton and Sarasota.  Or there are no complexes at all.

The last apartment we visited was the worst living facility that we have encountered so far.  It is half of a very small duplex.  The apartment is small and old.  Because there is little room, it is cluttered with the missionaries' "stuff."  Renee thought the environment was depressing.  And yet, the missionaries who live there are two of the happiest and most cheerful.  Perhaps they are following the sign they have on their refrigerator -- Today: I am in charge of how I feel and I am choosing happiness!

When we drive to the central part of the state, we pass miles of orange groves.  I stopped for a minute to take pictures of two orange groves on the way to Lake Placid, the first town we visited today.  I was surprised there were some undulations in the area around Lake Placid.  This is a change from the normal flatness we have seen everywhere else.  Notice in the pictures how sandy the soil is.

This is a typical orange grove after the oranges have been picked.

This is an orange grove to be.

Apartment Checking

We checked two missionary apartments today.  We try to go when the missionaries won't be there, but we missed that objective in both apartments.  The sisters in the first apartment were taking an early lunch.  Their apartment was clean but cluttered and messy.

While driving to the second apartment, the skies opened up and it really rained.  Renee was feeling sorry for the missionaries who were riding their bikes.  When we got to the second apartment, the missionaries were there waiting out the rainstorm.  Smart missionaries!!  Their apartment was in great shape, clean and orderly.

We have more apartments to check, so we will be at it for the next couple of days.

Metro Training

We drove to the Mission Office to participate in what is termed Metro.  This is a training program for missionaries after they have been serving for awhile.  The program started last evening with a session on personal hygiene.  I guess they didn't think that we needed that.  Nor did they think that we needed to stay overnight with either the Elders or sisters in apartments with several bunk beds to accommodate the sixteen or so missionaries participating.

So we drove up to the Mission Office this morning to participate.  The missionaries who were conducting the training hadn't been told that we were coming though I don't think that our presence bothered them.  The morning was spent talking about working with members and role playing.  All of the missionary training involves role playing.  Although I am not wild about it, I see the value in helping them practice.  In the afternoon, there was more teaching on how to personal contact and present oneself.

During one of the exercises, we were taught how to "carry ourselves" as we are introducing ourselves.  Stand straight, hands to sides, smile, not fidget, etc.  We each had to walk to the front of the class and introduce ourselves.  When it was Renee's turn, I overheard one of the Elders whisper to his companion, this is "Sister Sunshine."

The day concluded by walking to the student center on the Univ. of South Florida campus for dinner and doing personal contacting along the way.  We excused ourselves from that part (including the concluding testimony meeting) and drove back to Sarasota.
 

District Meetings

We attended the district meetings in the St. Petersburg Zone.  The presentations focused on how to improve our missionary efforts to become the version 4.0 missionaries that President Cusick has challenged us to be.  One of the presentations was on avoiding time traps, so we can devote more time to missionary work.  The other presentation was on utilizing our spiritual gifts to make us more effective.  In one district, the district leader had asked the missionaries to read their patriarchal blessings before coming, and we talked about those.

In the other district, each missionary anonymously wrote the characteristic or gift that he/she admired in other missionaries.  They circulated one page for each missionary, and we wrote what we admired about each on their sheet.  The district leader then read the characteristics on a sheet, and we were to guess which missionary that was.  The group was able to identify most of us.

Following the district meetings, we drove to Hudson Ward again for a baptismal interview.  I was curious, so I looked on a map, and I believe that Hudson is the northernmost ward in our mission.  So it made for a long day by the time we returned to Sarasota.

Here is the list of characteristics/gifts that the missionaries ascribed to me.  Since Renee was sitting next to me, I know who wrote "no guile."  :-)

And here are Renee's attributes:

A Real P-Day

We spent the entire day trying to catch up on various personal items.  Renee didn't leave the apartment for the whole day.  I left to drop off some things for the Elders who live in the complex and to check with the leasing office to see if there are any apartments available.  We may move two additional Elders into our complex.

In addition to our weekly chores of laundry, vacuuming, and dusting, we also tried to organize and file some paperwork that has accumulated.  Even though we are serving as missionaries, our secular lives continue.

Lake Placid Branch

We visited the Lake Placid Branch today.  The branch meets in the building in Sebring.  The members were part of the Sebring Ward until last fall when the branch was created.  They are still a small, struggling branch, but they have a good branch president.  He was serving in the Sebring Ward bishopric when the branch was created.

They only have 4 children in Primary.  In ward council, it was reported that the 2 young women who were going to go to girls camp have now cancelled because of a conflict with a drivers' education course they need to take.  They had two young men in attendance.

The two Elders assigned to the branch are Spanish speaking, one is from Mexico.  They provided simultaneous translation during Sacrament Meeting.  During priesthood meeting, they divided the eight or so brethren who were there into companionships and sent them on "rescue visits" to inactives and recently moved in families.  Renee said there were 7 sisters in Relief Society, and she guessed that she was the second youngest.

Projects

Today we didn't have any assignments, so I spent the day working on revising the guidelines for the missionaries for the upcoming hurricane season.  The hurricane season begins on June 1st and runs through November.  The basic guidelines are unless the projected hurricane is severe, the missionaries will be instructed to stay in their apartments.  In the case of a severe hurricane, the missionaries will be evacuated to church buildings, one in each stake.  I have to contact stake members to see if they will be willing to serve as chaperones in those buildings to keep the sisters sleeping on one side and the elders on the other.  Hopefully, we won't need any of this.

Easy Day

We didn't have any assignments for today.  Knowing that, we picked up a key yesterday to one of the missionary apartments in Bradenton.  We drove there following lunch to check on the apartment.  The missionaries were still there.  There are now three missionaries at the apartment following an emergency transfer yesterday.  The three of them were trying to fix a bicycle tire before they started a long ride (maybe 8 miles) to look for an inactive member on Anna Marie Island.  Their apartment was in great shape, probably the best that we have seen.  I think that is probably a result of a missionary who was transferred there a few weeks ago.  It is interesting to see the impact that one missionary can have, either for good or bad, on a companionship.

Temple Trip

We started our day by meeting Pres. and Sister Healey and 14 Elders at the mission office at 5:40 am.  We then departed for the Orlando Temple.  Because of the number of missionaries going, two vans were needed, and we drove one of the vans.  It was fun to see how excited the Elders were about being able to go to the temple.  Most of them have not been to the temple for almost two years.

The plan is for each missionary to be allowed to attend the temple once during their missionary service.  Sis. Healey keeps track of who has been to the temple.  Then as they approach the end of their missionary time, the missionary and his/her companion are included in a temple trip.

I'm sure that the temple welcomes our visits.  We were there for the first session of the day which is at 8 am.   There were only three other patrons in the session besides our mission group.

We have quite a few missionaries who will be leaving this month and next, so just the Elders went to the temple today.  The sisters are scheduled to go next week.  We will not be needed for that trip because Sis. Tollerton, our mission secretary, will go and drive the other van.  She has not been to the temple with the missionaries and is looking forward to going.

Our group of Elders and President Healey at the Orlando Temple

The Elders, Sister Healey, and Renee following lunch.

Zone Training Meeting #2

Today was a repeat of the training from yesterday for the St. Petersburg and Tampa zones.  Basically the presentations were the same, except I took even longer.  I apologized to President Cusick for taking more time than he asked me to do.

Following the zone training meeting, we had lunch with the Cusick's and Healey's to celebrate President Healey's birthday which is today.  Then rather than drive back to Sarasota, we stayed in Tampa.  This is because we have a very early morning tomorrow.

Zone Training Meeting

Today was a zone training meeting for three of the zones, Sarasota, Brandon, and Lakeland.  Sister Cusick and I spoke on diligence and not needing to be commanded in all things.  I was supposed to present for 7-10 minutes but I took longer than that.  I was intentionally trying to go long, I just had too much to present.

President Cusick spoke about how successful the missionaries have been, but there is more that can be done.  For almost two years, our missionaries have been told to primarily work with members and not to tract.  However, the members are not providing enough referrals to keep the missionaries busy.  As a result, President Cusick would like the missionaries to start tracting, or personal contacting.  That is part of the effort to get the missionaries out of their cars and either walking or on bicycles.  Hopefully as the missionaries interact with more potential investigators they will be able to find more actual investigators.

One of my projects was to find a series of pictures from the internet of people in various situations.  The idea was that the image would be projected and a missionary would say how he/she would attempt to engage the people in a conversation in 7 seconds.  President Cusick had fun with the missionaries with this, and I think that the missionaries learned from the process.  Hopefully they will be able to learn how to meet people and engage with them.

Just A Regular P-Day

Today is probably what a P-Day should be.  We cleaned our apartment and ran a few errands, including mailing our tax returns.  I worked on my presentation that I am to give in our zone training meetings tomorrow and Wednesday.

Visit to Wauchula Branch

In our continuing effort to visit all of the units in the Sarasota Stake, we attend the Wauchula Branch today.  Not surprisingly, it is about an hour drive from our apartment.  This is a small, struggling branch.  The branch president lives in Sebring, although I believe he may have lived in Wauchula some time ago.  He seems to know all of the members including those who are not active.  He currently has only one counselor whose wife is the R.S. president.  They have been long-time members of the Church but have only recently returned to activity.  Today was the first time that the counselor had conducted a Sacrament Meeting.

The two missionaries assigned to the branch both have callings, one with the young men and the other with the Elders Quorum.  The branch president really depends on them, and they have many assignments in the branch.  They are going on splits and taking brethren home teaching with them.  The branch president told us that no one was home teaching or visiting teaching until two months ago.  They do work with some investigators but more of their time is spent working with members.  In this situation, perhaps that is for the best.

Working on Projects

We didn't have any meetings to attend today, so we spent the day working on projects that President Cusick assigned us.  I had two projects to prepare for zone training meetings next week.  One is to prepare a presentation on Diligence.  The other is to collect a series of pictures from the internet of people in various situations that would allow for an introduction.  The idea is to project the picture and then have a missionary introduce him/herself given the situation.  I was surprised at how many inappropriate pictures came up with a search on an innocuous phrase such as people gardening.

It took more time than I had anticipated, but I was able to find a number of usual pictures.  Now I just need to work on my presentation.

Apartment Inspections

One of our assignments is to make unannounced visits to missionaries' apartments to see if they are being properly maintained.  Today was our first day to do that.  We drove to Port Charlotte (1 hour drive) and looked at the two apartments used by missionaries there.

One of the apartments is actually a small, two bedroom house.  It is in a neighborhood of similar houses and is located close to the Port Charlotte building.  Elders live there, and it was in better condition than I had expected.  Our assignment is to take lots of pictures of the apartment, and check for cleanliness, problems with paint on walls (or holes), condition of the oven, etc.  I find it a bit creepy to be going into someone apartment.  (We got keys from the spares maintained in the mission office.)  But I guess it is good that the missionaries know that someone is checking on them.

We then visited the sisters apartment which is located about 5 miles from the chapel but in a very nice complex.  It was also in good shape.  As we were leaving, the sisters arrived back to fix dinner.  We literally were opening the door to leave as they arrived.  I think we scared them a bit.  They were on their bikes and were hot and sweaty.  I felt sorry for them, but they were in good spirits.

Another Road Trip

Today we drove to the Hudson Ward to interview an investigator who wants to be baptized.  This was a special circumstances interview that I was assigned to conduct by President Cusick.  The interview went well, and after checking with President Cusick, the investigator was approved for baptism.

However, that is not the noteworthy part of the day.  The interesting challenge was getting to the Hudson Ward.  That ward is the northernmost ward in the St. Petersburg Stake.  On Google Maps, it said it would take us 90 minutes to drive there.  Since we were driving in the afternoon during a busy traffic time, I thought I should allow an extra 30 minutes for traffic.  That was a major underestimation.  It took us well over two hours to drive through the traffic.  Instead of arriving 30 minutes early as I had planned, we were 10 minutes late.

I am slowing learning that driving through St. Petersburg during rush hours is very slow.  The interstate, I275, cuts across the southeast corner of the city.  The rest of the driving is on surface streets.  Although some are 6 lanes, the lanes are packed.  The obvious solution is to avoid rush hour if possible.

Mission Presidency Meeting

We had a mission presidency meeting scheduled in the mission office in Tampa today, so it was back in the car again.  It was a good meeting.  Sister Cusick was able to attend for part of the meeting.  She has been spending much of her time taking care of their daughter, Kate, how had hip surgery.  Kate is recovering but still can't drive.

It was a good meeting.  As usual when we meet with Pres. Cusick we are given some assignments.  But that is why we are here.

Following the meeting, we went to dinner with the Healey's.

We have now put over 8000 miles on our car since we arrived in Florida three months ago!!

District Meetings

As is usual, today was district meetings day.  Since we had visited the district meetings in our three assigned zones in the last two weeks, I volunteered us to visit another zone, Lakeland.  Of course, we have the three zones closest to us assigned to us.  So it necessitated a 90 minute drive to get to the first district meeting in Lakeland.  I think the missionaries were surprised to see us although the Zone Leaders knew we were coming.  The Lakeland Zone hasn't had anyone from the mission presidency visit them in several months, so I think they appreciated the attention.

After the meeting in Lakeland, we drove for about 40 minutes to Haines City to meet in the Lake Hamilton Ward building.  Again, the missionaries hadn't expected us.  After that meeting, we had an almost 2 hour drive back home.

The training in both meetings was about the same.  They always start the meetings with a discussion of investigators with baptismal dates and what the missionaries can do to help them.  Both of these districts had quite a few investigators with dates.  The sister training leaders then conducted training on how to introduce themselves to ward members.  Rather than just saying where they are from, the missionaries are encouraged to state their name, who they are, why they are here, and bear a short testimony.  The missionaries were given a few minutes to prepare, and then each missionary, including us, introduced ourselves.  Below are pictures of us doing our introductions.

The zone leaders then conducted training on using the planner app on the iPads and to work more on weekly planning.  For some time, the missionaries have not engaged in tracting, but they will now be expected to do that.  The reason being that the missionaries have "empty time" when they do not have teaching appointments.  The ZLs led a discussion about tracting and how to do it more efficiently.

P(reparing taxes)-Day

We received a bunch of forwarded mail on Friday, so now I have the information I need to complete our 2014 taxes.  It seems a bit unfair that as senior missionaries we need to worry about taxes, but we must render unto Caesar...  I think I was able to get everything ready to submit, and of course, I have to submit a tax payment.

We took a break from taxes and drove to a hearing aid center to have Renee's hearing aids checked.  One was not working, but fortunately it was easily repaired.

Conference Day 2

In addition to being able to watch the General Conference sessions, the other good think about today was no driving.  I believe it was the first day since we arrived that we didn't drive anywhere.  There have been days with only short drives, such as yesterday when we drove to the grocery store.  But this is the first day that our car was parked for the whole day.

We had two missionaries join us to watch the afternoon session, Elders Barnett and Elsworth.  They live in our same apartment complex, in fact in a close building.  So it was easy for them to get to our apartment.  Elder Elsworth arrived about 2 months ago, and Elder Barnett, who is a district leader, will be returning home in about 2 months.

Elders Barnett and Elsworth

Conference Day 1

Today was General Conference.  We had a choice of driving to a church building to watch the conference sessions (about 30 minutes) or watch in our apartment via the internet.  We opted to stay at home.  However, I wasn't excited about watching conference on a little laptop screen.  Anticipating this, a week ago I purchased a Google Chromecast device.  This plugs into the TV via an HDMI port and is connected to the wireless network.  We can then "cast" over the network to the TV whatever is being displayed on the laptop screen.

I discovered that the Church streams conference sessions live over YouTube.  The YouTube app for the iPad works well with the Chromecast, so we were able to watch on our TV.

For the afternoon session, two Elders who live near us came over to watch (we had invited them).  Their alternative was to bicycle to the church building, so we were a good choice for them.  In addition, Renee fixed sandwiches for them.  Notice their short haircuts.  They decided to cut their hair because it was too hot with their bike helmets.

Elders Huber and Marsden in our apartment following conference.

Another District Meeting and Missionary Transit

We visited the third district in the Sarasota Zone today.  They meet in Sebring.  Because two of the Elders had a funeral to attend at 11, the district meeting started at 9.  So we had to leave at 7:15 am to get there on time.  The training was the same as at the meetings yesterday.  The district leader joined the Church only a year or so before being called as a missionary.  He does not have the same background in conducting meetings as the other missionaries, so his meetings aren't as smooth.  But he is learning.

There was an unscheduled transfer, or emergency transfer in missionary terms, that occurred today.  Both of the Elders who had been serving in Sebring were transferred.  One was being transferred to Sarasota, so we brought him and all of his luggage (two suitcases and a box of bedding) back to Sarasota with us.  The zone leaders took the other Elder to Riverview Ward.  I'm not sure why they were transferred, and I really don't need to know.  I am glad that I don't have President Cusick's responsibilities for managing the missionaries, especially who will be companion to whom and where they should be.

One of the Sister Training Leaders is Sister Wilson.  The two Sister Wilson's thought they should have a picture of them.

The two Sister Wilson's in the mission.

Another Day of District Meetings

The Sarasota Zone had their quarterly interviews with President Cusick on Tuesday, so they held their district meetings today.  We drove to Venice for a meeting in the morning and then to Bradenton for a meeting in the afternoon.  The training was done by the zone leaders and sister training leaders, so it was basically the same for both meetings.

The zone leaders taught on using the four questions from Elder Zwick's training in ward councils.  (Who is coming to church, who has baptismal dates, who is working with the investigators, and who will be taught in your home this week).  They did a role play where the missionaries were the ward council, and they demonstrated what they did in the Palmetto Ward last Sunday.

The sister training leaders, who are newly called, taught on being confident and bold in requesting referrals from members.

Both meetings went well.  It will be interesting to hear how the 4 questions are responded to in ward councils.  I warned the missionaries that they will need to continue to push on the fourth question regarding who will be taught in the homes of the ward council members.  It will be convenient for them to forget that question.

Some of these Elders have become Renee's favorites, even though we shouldn't have favorites.

Elders (l-r) McEwen, Franklin, Nelson, Spach

Not Much Today

We didn't have any assignments today, so we spent the day running errands.  I got a haircut, we had the car washed, and mostly importantly, we went to Costco.  It is about a 30 minute drive to get to Costco, so we have to plan our trips there.  I wish Costco were closer because their gas is usually 6 cents a gallon less that the cheapest alternative.  And we go through a lot of gas.  I probably fill up twice a week.