Week Thirteen

Monday Sister Nielson's office got painted to hide the former multi-colors where it was painted around the shelves when it was a storage closet. Looks great ... it was painted by a member of our Windy Ridge ward who works for the LDS FM group. Will post a picture next time if we remember. 

We think there has been a down-tick in the number of medical calls coming in to Sis Nielson, at least from the Orlando Mission. We've also seen some miracles of inspiration this week in how she was guided to help worried parents understand in-field versus at-home treatment policies & constraints for cases of continued health problems. 

Pres & Sis Berry & Sis Nielson continue to refine the training of our new missionaries, trainers, district & zone leaders, and assistants to protect missionary health, avoid accidents and common illness problems, do difficult things with less stress, etc., and it appears to be making some difference, for which we're all grateful. The medical information packets placed in each apartment appear to be getting used in many cases now, and some supporting hand-outs were distributed this week at the training meetings.

Elder Nielson continues to do computer & mapping support and help move missionary apartment furnishings to help the generally-increasing but ever-changing numbers of Elders & Sisters in our mission. He also helped Sis Nielson prepare & adjust training materials and take call-back messages during some of her busy phone times in off-hours. The mission office staff does most of her call support during daytime hours.

Elder Gallo & Elder Delgado
(holding his temporary license)

Thursday Elder Nielson took the Portuguese elders to the DMV for Elder Delgado to take his written tests for a Florida drivers license and show all his visa & residence documents. He passed the exams, but has to wait a few more weeks for the next available appointment for his driving test. 

Jan, Andrea, and Mike on the restaurant veranda.

Lake Eola, in Orlando

Thursday evening we had a wonderful dinner with Andrea and Mike, two of Sis Nielson's old friends from her running group in Salt Lake. Andrea was here from Salt Lake on business, and Mike is a Delta flight attendant who spends most of his time here in Orlando. We hope to see Andrea come on a mission as soon as she's ready to retire (ideally here in Orlando!). Mike's horizon is further off. He found a great restaurant (Spice Steakhouse) on the edge of Lake Eola, which is the lake on the Jan's facebook header. We took a few pictures of the nice scenery. 



On Friday we had a training meeting for our new missionaries who arrived a few weeks ago, and their trainer companions (6 Sister pairs and 7 Elder pairs). The picture below shows them at the training meeting with Pres & Sis Berry. 

Missionaries and their trainer companions with Pres & Sis Berry

Sis Good & Sis Eagar

Pres Berry announced the "Good and Eager" award for two Sisters, shown here, who participated in the training meetings. They're companions, and their ward & people they contact find their name combination fun to talk about. Some investigators have asked them if they choose names related to missionary work when they come on missions. They reassure us all that no, those are just their family names.  

Bald Eagle(?) on Moroni's Trumpet at Orlando LDS Temple

Elder Nielson went to the store at noon to pick up some sub sandwiches for the training missionaries' lunch, and saw a bird sitting on the Angel Moroni's trumpet atop the Orlando LDS Temple, which is just across the street from the Orlando South Stake Center where we were meeting. Having just taken the above picture, he had the camera in the car, and took a picture of the temple spire from the car window while at the corner of Windy Ridge Rd and Apopka-Vineland Rd, waiting for the traffic light to change. On zooming in afterward, he thinks it's a bald eagle sitting there. These pictures show the raw picture and a zoomed-in higher-contrast one (it was a gray, rainy day). Given his thing about bird pictures, this one made his day. He also got the sandwiches on time. The spike on Moroni's head is probably a lightening rod (?) since we have so many lightning storms here in Florida. The Bald eagle with Moroni's trumpet calls to mind some scriptures, such as Chapter 29 of Isaiah and Chapter 10 and others in 2nd Nephi.

Today (saturday) we did a 10-k (6.2 mile) walk in our area. We didn't plan it that way, but after trying a new route and finding that the streets didn't go through, we kept going until we made a loop to get back home. It felt good to have a bit cooler weather now, though we were very sweaty by the time we returned home. 

Briana , Michael, and their little sister with dad Donnie Ramsey,
Sis Winslow & Sis Sampson, and two ward members who
baptized Briana & Michael  

This afternoon we went to another baptism down at the Ellsworth Ward by the Deseret Citrus and Cattle Ranch. The baptism was for Briana and Michael Ramsey, the oldest children of Donnie Ramsey, whose baptism we attended about 4 weeks ago. Their little sister isn't 8 yet, so will be baptized when she's old enough.

Pictures from the Ellsworth Ward Baptism

For those of you who want to see and learn more about the Florida Orlando Mission, we recommend Pres & Sis Berry's blog at www.floridaorlandomission.com, where you can see a much more complete view of all the FOM missionaries in pictures they take at their meetings throughout the mission. Our senior missionary friends in the office, the Busaths, also post an excellent blog laced with great words of wisdom as well as excellent photos at steveandkathi.blogspot.com.  There are probably a number of our FOM missionaries who post blogs themselves or by their parents. We were recently delighted to read Sis Kirkham's blog at sisterkatiekirkham.blogspot.com, which captures the dedication, enthusiasm, excitement, and fun of discovery of our youthful missionaries! They are truly an inspiration to us all, and their dedication to advancing the Lord's work is an admirable and essential part of the Lord's plan for promulgating His gospel throughout the world. What a wonderful time to live here, and what peace and joy we derive from coming unto Christ and following His gospel!