Week Nineteen

Last Sunday we went to the Windermere ward for Fábio's confirmation as a member of the LDS church. Afterwards, we enjoyed a wonderful Brazilian Barbeque at Clay Beck's house ... grilled beef and pork tenderloin, bacon-wrapped chicken, cheese bread, grilled pineapple, grilled veggies, etc. Clay cooked on his custom barbeque, which fine-tunes the art of barbeque. Clay and Adam Anthony are former Brazilian missionaries, but at least a generation younger than me.  

Seated: Fábio Dias, Adam Anthony, and his wife; Standing: Clay Beck,
Elders Gallo and Willard, Kevin Galbasini, Sis Conger and Sis Thomas, Kirk

Elder Gallo told the bishop and mission president in São Paulo about Fábio's baptism and his planned move back to Brazil. Fábio's place in São Paulo is on the same street as the LDS church for his ward there and only a few blocks away. As a youth, Fábio once even took a class at the church there.  

Fábio Dias, doing fine

 Clay Beck slicing cinnamon-coated
pineapple hot off the grill - yum!

Green stake (zone) and purple ward boundaries in FOM

I finished digitizing the ward and stake boundaries and printed maps for the 50 wards in the mission to start identifying the ~100 area boundaries. Most of the missionaries know their boundaries clearly, but the assistants will help clarify some fuzzy ones. Here's a picture of the ward and stake boundaries in the main part of our mission (the extreme north and south wards got cut off). The area boundaries we are working toward are subdivisions of the purple ward areas.

Sis Allred at the ward party

Sister Allred is a spanish-speaking missionary who moved into our Windy Ridge ward on a week when our regular organist wasn't there. She walked up to the front and started playing a prelude for sacrament meeting. Sis Jan noticed she was using the english hymn book, which has different numbers than the spanish one, and took her a spanish one. Sis Allred continued to accompany throughout the opening song without any hesitation. She later introduced herself as being new in the ward and bore her testimony in flawless spanish. 



Thursday while Jan was at trainer's follow-up meeting, I took Elder Jackson to the FL DMV for his written test to get a Florida drivers license. We called ahead but couldn't get specifics. Elder Jackson lost his wallet recently, including his Canadian drivers license. We brought both passports (dual US/Canadian citizenship), proof of residency, and his US SSN. The DMV seemed unsure how to handle his situation, but said he had to start as if he had never driven a car before, since he couldn't prove otherwise. They gave him a list of 16 driver training courses and told him to take a class, and then come back for the written and driving tests.  

Elder Jackson and Elder Monson, showing
Elder Jackson's new Florida Drivers License

After a lot of back-and-forth and checks with supervisors, they finally agreed to accept a fax from the Canadian agency who issued his old license. Elder Jackson called his dad, who went to the Canadian DMV and got the fax sent to certify that he was actually once licensed. After an hour, they reviewed his case again, and said they needed his original US Social Security card (they couldn't verify his SSN). He again called his dad, who went home from work, got the card, and faxed a copy to the FL DMV while we waited there. The DMV was now getting ready to close for the day, but they were finally inspired to give him the full license (for 7 years) if he agreed to bring in his original SS card for verification within 60 days. He was SO relieved to get the license without taking any tests. He was well prepared, having made and studied some flash cards based on the FL drivers manual, but he really dislikes taking tests or the risk of paying extra for re-takes in case he didn't pass. We felt it was a blessing from heaven that he could get his license all completed on Thursday. 

Sunset over the Orlando LDS Temple

After picking up Jan after the training meetings at the Orlando South Stake Center, we got this picture of a nice sunset over the Orlando Temple as we headed for home.  

We helped Elders Gallo and Willard prepare a portuguese article about Brazilians serving LDS missions in Orlando for Nossa Gente, a Brazilian magazine. The editor liked it but was surprised that we have Brazilians come here for missions. He thought we used only US missionaries, at least here. Anyway, he wanted some more pictures of them, on bikes, to go with the article and the picture of them by the temple. Friday morning we took a few more pictures of them and sent them off. Here's a test shot of Jan in her walking clothes to see if we had enough light, and one of the elders that we sent. 

Sis Nielson in her exercise outfit

Portuguese Elders Willard and Gallo with bikes

Elder Delgado, Alex Wright, and Elder Agor

Saturday morning we went to a baptism for Alex Wright in the Poinciana ward where Elder Delgado is now serving. It was a great service and so good to see him again, still with thumbs up. 

Sister Ward, Sister Heiner, Cherry Cooper, and Keith Hill

Saturday night we went to another baptism in the Olympia ward for Cherry Cooper, an enthusiastic lady who was delighted to find the restored Church of Jesus Christ after a life-long search for this missing part of her life. She was taught by Sister Ward and Sister Heiner, and baptized by Keith Hill. 

Saturday nite fuss over a worker on the Orlando Temple Steeple

On leaving the baptism saturday night we saw someone across the street on the spire of the Orlando Temple. We thought it was a base jumper or something, and apparently others did too, because soon there were police cars all around the temple and also an ambulance. After a while the emergency people left, and the guy on the spire stayed there, apparently just cleaning or working on it.