Building the Kingdom , One Apartment at a Time

Sunday October 6, 2013 183rd Semi Annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

April 6, 1830 6 members of the Church

Today 15 million

There are currently 80,000+ Elder Busath and I serving as full time missionaries all over the world

It's an exciting time to help hasten the work

The Church hymn "Called to Serve" had our Senior Missionary District up and out of their seats singing along with the audience :0

 We had some technical difficulties, but not to worry.  The President grabbed his laptop, plugged in a few cords and with the help of Elder Nielson and Elder Bevans the conference broadcast was restored, full screen, with volume and even with closed captioning.

The second session of Sunday, October General Conference was spent at the Mission Home with our Mission President,  his wife, and our Senior Missionary District.

My favorite statement at conference, although there were many:

"What is said is not as important as what I hear and what I feel." Elder Hales

Our blog just wouldn't be the same if we failed to include a few of our furry friends here in Florida.

 The Mission Office was recently notified that all 6 of our "VISA Waiters" originally called to serve in Argentina needed to have their fingerprints taken ASAP to update their FBI backgrounds prior to issuing VISAs. Long story short few of the smaller law enforcement agencies (Belleview) no longer carry "fingerprint cards" so we had to drive 90 minutes to hand deliver the approved card for Elder Child and to obtain his finished prints so that we could send them off the Salt Lake City as advised.

 I guess Elder Packard and Elder Busath got the memo to wear their orange and blue striped ties today.

Elders Childs, Packard and Busath in front of their home in Belleview,

which is actually located in a retirement community.

 Just passing by the Mission Office entry on his way to dinner. In Florida we don't have lions, and tigers and bears, oh my, we have lizards and gators and snakes.

Getting ready to say good bye to another early departing sister. I wish I could report that we have finally been able to retain all that have been called to serve, but as we all know there needs to be opposition in all things :(

 I see the moon,
The moon sees me.
The moon sees the ones that I want to see.
So God bless the moon and God bless me, and God bless the ones that I want to see.

Someone once told me that the crescent on the moon is different here in the East coast than on the West coast. I don't know if that is really true, but if you happen to be an astrology nut please let me know.

Oooh, ahhh.  I just love brand new apartments, don't you?

The apartment in Titusville for our new senior couple Elder and Sister Hansen from Utah. 

Sister Pike, assigned to the Cocoa Ward,  

making the finishing touches in preparation of the Hansen's arrival.

Elder Nielson and Elder Busath moving furniture-they say practice makes perfect!

Elder Busath giving detailed instructions to Sister Brown (and Elder Nielson) about the correct way to assemble the table.

 The infamous kitchen table and chairs we discovered on a trip to Celebration, Florida

All done!

 Sister Pike and Sister Brown, our happy helpers :)

 Yours truly, Sister Nielson, Sister Pike and Sister Brown-the move in crew

 Elder Ulisses Soares, from the Presidency of the Seventy met with our Mission Leadership Council recently.  It was an amazing meeting and we were privileged to have been invited to attend.
(Any advise on how to take a picture of a General Authority discreetly?)

 Some of our Mission Zone Leaders, Thomas, da Costa...at the recent Mission Leadership Council Meeting.

 Welcome Elder and Sister Hansen!

Elders Collins, Ellis, Busath, Clark, and Moli.  Fortunately for us, the Elders "in the green T shirts" arrived just in time!  We were attempting to load up the trailer (yes again) with all the furnishings for another apartment we were to set up next week for the Semoran Elders and we were struggling to dig through everything, just the two of us, and find what we needed. The Elders had just returned home from a Orange County Service Project and were ready and willing to offer a helping hand.

 Elder Patten, all 6 feet 9 inches of him! We were also delivering a new twin extra long bed that same day because his current bed had become in sad need of replacement.

 Elders Patten, Palmer, yours truly and Adam Dahle.  The last name "Dahle" sounded familiar and so we had ask, "Do you happen to know a Mike and Donna Dahle from California?" We realize that California is a big state and we expected the standard roll of the eyes but were pleasantly surprised. "Yes, he responded, Mike Dahle is my Uncle!" Small world :)

Okay so another random picture-McDonald's in Orlando-I wish I could have gotten a better picture for you to see, but Elder Busath refused to stop in the middle of traffic and cause a traffic jam!
Sorry, but it's true, as Senior Missionaries on the run we rarely have time to cook so we do in fact live on McDonald hamburgers with an occasional salad from Wendy's.  Healthy, no, but maybe that is why they limit senior missionaries service at 23 months.

We were recently reminded of a statement once made by President Lorenzo Snow,
 "It is the business of those who profess to be engaged in God's work to move on, to go forward...So long as there remains a step forward to be taken, that step should be taken."
He went on further to say, "Well, I say to one and all, move on! move on and see the salvation of the Lord, and not stand still."

Well as advised we would love to stay and chat, but we can't stand still we have to "move on".
It's transfers next week with 19 missionaries and 5 VISA Waiters due to arrive on Monday so we have more work to do!

Thanks for stopping by...see you later alligator!

Accentuate the Positive

                       

My plea is that we stop seeking out the storms and enjoy more fully the sunlight.  I am suggesting that as we go through life, we "accentuate the positive."  I am asking that we look a little deeper for good, that we still our voices of insult and sarcasm, that we more generously compliment and endorse virtue and effort.

President Gordon B. Hinckley

Since all work and no play makes Johnny a dull boy, we decided to venture out on our "P" Day and join Elder and Sister Bevans at the Amway Center in Orlando to see Disney on Ice.



Two street musicians to set the proper atmosphere.

Disney on Ice at the Amway Center in Orlando Florida

The ice stage before the show ...goes on

Even being surrounded by all these people I still missed having Jill and Sienna here with us!

Pictures were prohibited during the course of the production so just a parting shot of the numerous Disney princesses and their significant others.  

I am not sure what I liked the most about the activity, the music, (I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream, a whole new world, part of your world, Belle, just to name a few), the beautiful pair ice skating or seeing all the little girls between the ages of 2 and 9 in the audience all decked out in costume as one of their favorite Disney princess-sometimes jewelry, shoes, make up and all!

 

If you are a regular to our blog you might remember that Elder Busath and I were recently re-assigned from the Pleasant Hill Ward (congregation) to the Poinciana Branch. The above picture is the elementary school where we meet on Sunday for services.

Our chapel (the cafeteria) where we hold Sacrament Meeting.

 

Our Relief Society Room (the school library).
It was all I could do not to plop myself right down on the floor and start pulling out books!

The Poinciana Branch welcomed us with open arms!
 We are so excited to serve here and hope to make a difference.

A few minutes after Sacrament Meeting the Branch President approached us and asked us to teach the Temple Preparation class.  No problem we responded.  "Great he said, they meet on the stage, behind the curtain and the first class starts today!" And so it begins :)

 As always searching for furniture to meet the mission's needs.  Today we are looking for two sleeper sofas and two occasional chairs for our Senior Missionaries.

Sister Bevans is supervising the work and hoping to find the perfect sofa for her apartment. 

She is expecting company this winter.

Sisters Peck and Carpenter-Lake Nona Sisters, who recently moved from the duplex, where we store our surplus furniture, to a new apartment closer to their area. We are really going to miss seeing their happy faces on a regular basis :(

From left Elder Gordon, Sister Gordon, Elder and Sister Moline and me (camera shy). From the right, Elder Bevans, Sister Bevans, Elder and Sister Nielson, Sister Danes and Sister Vaden.

 

A birthday celebration for Elder Nielson and a farewell dinner for Elder and Sister Moline at Azteca on OBT (Orange Blossom Trail). Elder Nielson is turning another year older and the Moline's are preparing to begin another mission in the Memphis, Tennessee Temple Presidency.

Same place, just two days later, we are now on the look out for four desks and six study chairs. 

We seriously can't thank Sister Todd enough for this gold mine and for her generosity! 

Carmello and Carlos deserve a great big vote of our thanks as well!

A funny side note.  When we placed the study chairs in the bed of the truck to transport them to the Lake Nona W garage we had no idea that it was going to pour-but hey it's Florida.  The other thing we didn't plan on is that as we drove down the freeway the two upside down chairs spun out of control, catapulting their five little wheels a piece to places unknown.  Fortunately when we unloaded the furniture we found five of the wheels in the bed of the truck and four of the wheels in the drawer of the big brown dresser shown above in the back of the truck.  The fifth wheel is still unaccounted for.

 

 Elders Whitaker and Christianson standing proud in the empty garage of a recently vacated house in Deland.  These Elders were given the difficult assignment of emptying this house after eight years of housing missionaries and then to clean it from top to bottom.

 

 

                       

I have to admit I was a little worried at what we might find when we arrived.  We actually brought reinforcements, Elder and Sister Bevans, just in case we needed to roll up our sleeves and show the Elders how to get the job done.  But they surprised us and it was better than I could have hoped for.

The Elders, Whitaker, Christianson, Busath and Bevans quickly emptied the garage and loaded up the truck and trailer and set off for the dump.They soon discovered that the landfill staff where they chose to discard the broken and damaged surplus items turned out to be short on humor, a little paranoid and very security minded, but that is another story all in itself.

To show our appreciation for all their hard work, we popped for dinner at Firehouse Subs, delicious!

Back to the office, where there is always more work to be done. Elders Clement and McGreggor with pressing business and Sister Thomas in the background helping out with the filing.

 In closing just let me remind you.....

"Accentuate The Positive"

You've got to accentuate the positive
eliminate the negative
Latch on to the affirmative
But don't mess with mister inbetween

You've got to spread joy up to the maximum
Bring gloom down to the minimum
have faith, a pandemonium
Libel to walk up on the scene

To illustrate my last remark
Jonah in the Whale, Noah in the ark
What did they do
just when everything looked so dark

They said we better
accentuate the positive
eliminate the negative
latch on to the affirmative
But don't mess with mister inbetween

 

See you soon!