Week Six

Ducks fleeing the rainy parking lot.

We kept the camera in the car this week and caught a few pictures of the Florida scenery during the course of our work. These ducks were crossing the parking lot in the rain when we went to a bookstore to find a Portuguese Bible. 

Wildlife in front of the Mission Home

The wild turkeys were wandering the street in front of the mission home when we went back there to look for Jan's lost keys to the car and the mission office. They went missing about 10 days ago during transfers. We're told that a neighbor feeds these turkeys to keep them coming back. 

Our new Brazil flag at the MO

Our Portuguese missionaries brought us a tray of 'Brigadeiros' (creamy chocolate balls rolled in chocolate sprinkles) and a new Brazilian flag. Everyone in the office enjoyed the chocolates, and we hung the flag on the wall by the copier at the mission office for a few days. We now have it hung in our apartment.

Our Portuguese Elders & illustrations

The missionaries came by the next night for dinner and to teach us a lesson on the Plan of Salvation (in Portuguese). They're great teachers, and are working hard to find the Brazilians, who seem to diffuse into the English-speaking wards rather than staying together in groups. The picture here shows them after the lesson with the figures they used to illustrate the Lord's plan of happiness.  

Sister Nielson taking a call in her 'office'

Sister Nielson has been busy in her role as mission nurse, responding to medical needs and concerns among our ~210 missionaries plus those from a similar number of missionaries in the Jacksonville mission, which was added to her assignment last week. The space in the mission office is a bit cramped, since her calling didn't exist years ago when the office was laid out. She often works from the Assistant's desk by the copier, but frequently goes outside the front doors of the mission office for better cell phone reception and for privacy to discuss confidential matters. Yes, it's actually quite private outside because in 90-100 degree weather and a similar high range of humidity (heat index in the 100's), nobody lingers outdoors here. This happens so much that she started setting a chair outside, and on this occasion, the mission accountant brought a little table, complete with cover and a bottle of cold water for this photo-op. 

Sis Nielson's calls stack up, oftentimes 3-deep, with missionaries on her land-line, her Florida cell, and her Utah cell phones, mostly between 7 am and 11 pm. She spends much of her daytime arranging appointments with doctors and specialists, taking missionaries to medical appointments and physical therapy, and helping missionaries figure out whether they have an emergency or just need some over-the-counter medication or to get busy and work it out. Fortunately, the Lord has blessed her to perceive the underlying needs and circumstances and to find doctors and resources to meet the continually-arising needs. She does all the medical charting on the LDS medical web site, and her companion helps upload the digital x-rays & MRI files to the church servers and sometimes accompanies her in transporting missionaries to/from appointments. 

Sis. Nielson showing her 'found' keys

Pres & Sis B are very involved with her in contacts with missionaries, parents, and others and they have to make the hard decisions about treatment at home vs in-the-field. 



Sis Nielson worried a lot about losing her keys during the transfers, and retraced her steps almost everywhere looking for them. Then on Friday this week, she found them in the bottom of the first aid kit that we keep in the trunk of the car. Sis B called it the miracle of the keys, after even moving out her fridge to look for them.

Friday evening Temple Tour

Friday we went to a 'Temple tour' where the tour guide explained the purposes of LDS Temples, our beliefs about families, our pre-earth life, where we go after this life, and the importance of vicarious ordinances for those who died without having a chance to hear and accept the gospel and the atonement of Christ. The tour group walked around all 4 sides of the temple while covering the important doctrines of the gospel. There were about 50 people there, half of which were investigators of the church.   

The Orlando Florida Temple on Friday Evening

The temple was beautiful after the tour, with its lights making it stand out as a beacon of the light of the gospel to the world. We're glad to be serving here in beautiful Florida to help the missionaries and support the Lord's work in every way we can. Sis Nielson fielded about 6 calls during the tour, getting a Jacksonville missionary into an emergency room, but kept coming back in her dedication to participating in the tour. 

Flowers outside our bedroom window in Orlando

English class announcement we made for the Portuguese
Elders on some Brazilian group Facebook sites.  

We live in a beautiful area of Orlando: Metrowest















Our Portuguese Elders identified some Facebook sites used by Brazilians in Orlando, and asked for help to post a notice about their English classes for Brazilians.