March 2014

Pres and Sis Berry with 14 new missionaries and assistants

The last week of February we received 13 new missionaries. This picture shows them by the pond behind the mission home. New missionaries often like to look around to catch a glimpse of "Gator Joe", who lives in the pond.  He didn't come out of the water this time, but a few days later we happened to have a camera and caught this picture of him sunning himself on the banks of the pond.

Gator Joe

Gator Joe is actually very shy and runs back into the water when approached by humans. 

We learned at the Transfer Luncheon that the Florida Orlando Mission reached a new all-time high in the number of convert baptisms during the month of February 2014. Our members are stepping up and doing a great job of working with the missionaries in Hastening the Work!

Paxton & parents - first meeting

On February 28, 2014 we received notice that our daughter in law, Joi Nielson, was severely pre-eclampsic. She had an emergency C-section at University Medical Center in Tucson, AZ, where they delivered a baby boy that weighed 1-lb 3-oz. Their baby is kept intubated in the NICU at the U of A Med Center while Joi remained intubated in the regular intensive care for the next couple of days. Joi has since returned home and is recovering. We have prayed much for them both, along with many of our missionaries and hundreds of friends and extended family. Since that time we have been grateful for Joi's gradual recovery. Paxton is still struggling with big ups and downs, hopefully getting a little more stable. We love them so much and we hope to post a little more about about Paxton shortly. For best updates, Joi is posting a "Pulling for Paxton" page on facebook and updates it frequently. He's 4-weeks old now, minus about 3-1/2 months from his premature delivery date, and still on the HF respirator.

Elder and Sister Gordon

On March 1, Elder and Sister Gordon were sealed in the Orlando Temple. It's very unusual for missionaries to get married while on their missions, because they're usually either young single missionaries or they are older, married couples. However, Elder Gordon and Sister Gordon just got married 6 months before starting their mission here, and after their 1-year anniversary were sealed in the Orlando Temple. Elder Gordon supervises all the car and bicycle business of the mission and Sister Gordon is the telephone, referral, and travel secretary. They add a great deal to our entire mission, but especially to those of us who work in the mission office.

Gordons with family, Berrys, Sr Missionaries, and Extended Family

Our Portuguese and Spanish missionaries in HC

We had dinner at our apartment with our Brazilian Elder who used to live by us in Windy Ridge and his companion, who's a spanish speaking missionary with him here in Hunters Creek. They're great friends and missionaries.

Rob and Allyson's visit to Orlando

Our youngest son Rob and his wife Allyson visited us here on March 7 and spent a few days seeing Orlando. Allyson had an ultrasound just before they traveled here to learn whether their baby was a boy or girl. They said they'd dress in pink if it was a girl and blue if it was a boy. We met them at the airport and they were in pink, as shown in their pictures here. She's due to be born on about July 28 and we hope it takes that long after Joi's experience with Paxton.

Office staff on St Patrick's day

Thanks to the Busath's, especially Sister Busath, who is Irish, we celebrated St. Patricks day with wearing of the green, including shamrock ties that they gave to us, and went to lunch at Shannon's for corned beef and cabbage. It was a very fun day.

Many of our pictures are not directly mission-related because we don't tend to carry the camera most of the time. That's why the blog looks a little more party-ish than the mission actually is. It's very enjoyable, however, in every way and we're enjoying wonderful friendships here that will last long after the mission is over.



We were called to be family-history consultants in the Bumby Ward where we attend church. We're asked to focus on helping the newly-baptized members of the church get involved in family history work so they can go to the Orlando temple as soon as possible. We've already had some great times with this. We're helping a sister who was baptized last December to get her deceased parents and a deceased brother's identifying information submitted to allow her to be baptized vicariously for her mother and to have others be baptized for her father and brother in the coming weeks before the Elder who baptized her gets transferred. Such baptisms for the dead, performed in the Orlando Temple and other LDS temples, are part of the vicarious ordinance work that was performed in the ancient Church of Jesus Christ (e.g., see 1 Corinthians 15:29) and are performed in LDS temples throughout the world.

Elder Costa answering a question at the temple tour

On March 19 we went to an Orlando Temple Tour conducted by Pres Wood of the Orlando Mission presidency. These tours are only around the outdoor grounds, but talk about the temple and what goes on inside. We went with our two Portuguese elders and a Brazilian lady whom they are teaching. We stayed after the tour with them to attend a missionary lesson that they taught her that evening. She's a wonderful person who seems to grasp all the principles and knows how to pray and recognize heavenly promptings.

Jan's english-speaking friend and missionaries

Jan also met another recently-baptized lady at the temple tour who was there with two other Elders who had taught her. Jan enjoyed her and had a lot of great conversation (in english) just before the Portuguese lesson.

Near the end of March we attended the annual rodeo at the church ranch in the southern part of our mission with the other senior couples and a few of the missionaries who work in that area, along with some of their investigators. 

Annual Rodeo at the Deseret Cattle and Citrus Ranch

The picture at the bottom is when the up-to-8-yr-olds went onto the field to catch the 3 little pigs.

February 2014

Visit with the Johnsons

I need to explain that the blog has not had much attention since all of our missionaries got i-pads.  Kirk's IT job at the mission just got to be MUCH BIGGER and the blog was on of the things that ended up not being cut out.  I can't stand to see that happen because it has been so great to save all of our great experiences this way and to share them.  So scary as it is I am going to try to do the blog. The quality will suffer but at least it will be here.
Ben and Jeana came with their friends Jackie and Don to go on a cruise. They were here for about a day on either end of the cruise.  The first day we went to see the Johnson's. Their son is on a mission in their ward in West Haven, Ut. It was such a fun visit as they had brought a video of their son telling them lots of great things about his mission and the church.

Moving to our new apartment

We are getting more new Sr Couples and more missionaries so the time had come to move the rest of our things out of the Lake Debra apartment and move from the apartment we had been in in Colonial Manor to our own apartment.  It would have been overwhelming except that the whole Sr. district turned out to make it all go so smooth.  They are all WONDERFUL!!!

Zone Conferences

It was Zone Conference time again on Feb. 18 & 19. This time Pres. Berry asked the office staff to do rotations to train the missionaries on apartments, cars and referrals.  They divided by Zones and the teachers rotated to each zone to do the training.  Elder Nielson and I were back up support. Sis Berry and Sis Claire are always food support but this time all they had to do was to help out the Relief Society that was feeding us for the day. Elder Nielson and I also did an additional medical helps book for each apartment and a presentation about that when they were all together.

Sis Peck by mission banner with
'best' thumbprints

Sisters Jackson & Gruber
with inked thumbs

As missionaries finish initial training they leave their mark on our banner by putting a thumb print on it and signing their names to commit to doing their personal best. Two of our new ones who just placed their thumbprints are shown here.

Setting up Liahona display

Liahona rack

In early February we set up a rack to distribute free Portuguese copies of the Liahona. Elder Gallo arranged with an LDS member to donate them, and we got a rack placed in a shopping area by Int'l Drive that is frequented by Brazilians. Within 2 weeks all the January and February ones were taken, and the March ones are now placed.

Community Fair display

On Feb 22 there was a Pioneer commemoration time at Cypress Park in Orlando. The missionaries got a booth to focus on Utah Pioneers. They needed banners to show things about the church and they choose ones about the world wide membership and about temples. Then they got Elder Nielson to get the banners made. The missionaries had a poster on the trek west and a handcart there also.  It was really impressive and they were able to contact a lot of people.

Mission car after hitting wild boar

Here's what can happen when driving in the dark in the remote parts of the Leesburg district ... you may be charged by a wild boar. The car was repairable, but the boar was not.

Departing missionaries at the
mission home

Departing missionaries with

Sis Gordon, Nielson, and Busath

Elder Polito with us

Bro & Sis Viveiros, our Brazilian friends whom we first met in

Salt Lake at the Church History Library, where he interviewed

Kirk about his Brazilian mission experiences

Week Thirty One

Last week the Busaths brought us a hibiscus plant for our new apartment, and it has bloomed nicely and has a lot of new buds. It lives outside on our deck patio. It was cold here a few days this past week, but was back into the 80's today and 60's at night again. We had a pleasant walk Saturday morning in the cooler weather on a new route that Jan found. 

Iinitial setup of the tablet computers in Deland

We helped with distribution, setup, and initial training for missionary tablet computers (or 'mobile devices', as they are affectionately called by some) this past week, with two zone training meetings on each of three days. We did the Deland zone Tuesday morning, the Leesburg zone Tuesday afternoon, the Orlando Zone Wednesday morning, the Orlando South Zone Wednesday afternoon, the Cocoa Zone Thursday morning, and the Hunter's Creek Zone Thursday afternoon.

Projected instructions

Pres Berry introduced the purposes, scope, methods, and guidelines for using the mobile devices, and then we handed them out and I talked about installing screen protectors and guided them through the setup and configuration process (domain and server definitions, and account usernames, passwords, and log-in information).  It's pretty well-done -- When transferred, missionaries keep their same devices, but the devices then display their new area information (member lists, investigator lists, maps, etc.) by linking their identity (from log-in) to the new area information using their newly-assigned area designation as identified by the IMOS server linkage. 

Leesburg Zone training pictures

After the setup and configuration work done by each missionary, Elders Burton and Palmer taught use of the on-line planner application, followed by Sisters Conant and Collins teaching use of the Gospel Library and other device apps, and then Elders Costa and Jeppson talking everyone thru the setup of the two e-mail systems for communication with families and for local missionary communicatons. 

Zone Leaders after
their Planner App Presentation

Sister Berry prepared and distributed water-proof bags to protect the devices from rain and high humidity. Sisters Low and Ward, and Elders Quarnberg and Patten helped answer questions during all of the instructions, along with the others when they were not conducting their own presentations.

Sisters Trainer Leaders training the Orlando Zone on Apps

Training the Orlando South Zone

Training the Cocoa Zone

Training the Hunter's Creek Zone

On Friday Jan helped with the 3-week follow-up training for the new missionaries and their companions. It was a long but enjoyable week, and we came to appreciate ever more the insights and abilities of Pres and Sis Berry, their Assistants, the Zone Leaders, the Sister-Trainer Leaders, and the hard work and determination of our 216 young missionaries and the 14 senior ones.

Bro JJ with his teaching missionaries

Saturday evening we were privileged to attend a missionary lesson with our friends the Johnsons and Elders Despain and Hilton who taught them. This evening after church we attended the baptism of JJ in the Buena Vista ward and saw Sisters Pierce and Salvesen who have been teaching him. He was baptized by the bishop of the ward. It was a wonderful finish to a wonderful day of serving some of our missionaries, attending meetings in our Bumby ward, meeting several new visitors there, and seeing old friends we've enjoyed in past months. What a blessing for us to be here in the Florida Orlando Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!

Week Thirty

Gates: security, control, isolation

Orlando, like many cities, has thousands of apartment buildings and complexes protected from public access by gated walls with security guards and electronic access. The two apartments where we have lived here are typical of most missionary apartments here and are among these gated communities. While reducing crime, intrusion, and non-requested visits, the gates isolate people from the neighborly contacts of earlier times. Even in non-gated housing, streets are vacant as people leave via car to work and do business, and return to their isolated homes with minimal neighborly contact. 

To reach this growing population, our mission is expanding internet proselyting to invite those who have casual interests or curiosity about religion, coming unto Christ, and why it's so important. In the anonymity of the internet, many are searching on mormon.org, lds.org, mormon channel, mormonmessages, and mormonnewsroom for further understanding and they are invited to come unto Christ and find for themselves the joy and peace of improving their lives by coming to know and trust their Savior. Our mission is also beginning to use Facebook for on-line chats and teaching of those who are not otherwise available for conventional teaching. This week we are beginning to train our missionaries to use tablet computers as teaching aids (for videos), planners, and communication tools. The Lord is indeed fulfilling His promise, "Behold, I will hasten my work in its time." I'm on a steep learning curve to help our 200+ missionaries learn to use their "mobile devices".

Missile launch pictures from Jetty Park

Last Thursday night some of the senior missionary couples took a few hours to watch the launch of a communication satellite on an Atlas rocket at 9:30 pm at the Kennedy Space Center on the eastern coast of our mission. It was a fun chance to enjoy some time together in lieu of our usual Saturday prep day this week. 

We received another new missionary Friday, making 23 incoming compared to 2 outgoing in January. He is shown here with his new companions. I was happy to learn that he speaks Portuguese! We're blessed to have a great core of Brazilians and US Portuguese speakers to help in work with the Brazilian population here, as well as similarly talented missionaries for our Haitians and the much larger Hispanic populations here in Central Florida, not to mention the scores of wonderful English-speaking missionaries! 

Saturday morning we helped set up the Orlando South Stake Center for a mission conference with Elder Russell M Nelson, one of the 12 apostles of Jesus Christ, Elder Munns, our area authority, and Pres and Sis Berry. The senior missionaries helped prepare lunch and served it to about 260 people in under 30 minutes for the tight schedule. 

After the morning meetings and missionary lunch, there were Stake leadership meetings and Stake Conference sessions held at the same building, where I helped with parking and security for the evening meeting. This morning there was a Sunday Regional Conference held via video links in all of our LDS church buildings in Florida, southern Georgia, and several other states to our north. We enjoyed hearing a member of the Quorum of Seventy speak, and a counselor in the General Young Womens presidency, but had to leave before hearing the other general authorities and Elder Nelson speak. 

Jan was called out part way through today's meeting to help a missionary who was having a severe allergic reaction. We ended up going to an emergency center to assure that appropriate care was given and precautions taken to treat the present condition and minimize potential re-exposure or relapse. 

It's a joy to serve here, no matter what the task we're doing. We're surrounded by some of the finest and most dedicated people we've known, both young and older missionaries as well as great local leaders, new and long-term members of the church, and the faithful new pioneers who are just now coming unto Christ via their baptismal covenants. 

Week Twenty Nine

Sis's Jacklin and Lowry
at the mission office

Sis's Jacklin and Lowry live close to the mission office and dropped in for a short visit last Monday morning on their way to missionary visits. 

3 Mission vans and the truck and trailer waiting in the phone lot at the airport

We spent last Monday morning at the mission office and went to the airport in the afternoon to help pick up some of our 22 new missionaries who arrived from the MTCs in Utah and Mexico City. We watched the airport birds while waiting in the call lot. Took them to the W church for dinner and then to the Mission Home for the night. Tuesday morning picked them up for orientation, admin processing, and then the Transfer Meeting. 

Birds at the Orlando airport

Sis Dunford speaks before departing

At the transfer meeting Tuesday our two departing missionaries spoke and Pres Berry introduced each of the new missionaries and announced their assignments and companions, as well as the transfers of many other missionaries who came to the meeting to make their transfers to new areas with new companions.

Pres Berry speaking

Getting lunch after the transfer meeting

Sis Berry had lunch for more than 200 after the transfer meeting, including all the companions of those getting transferred and local members who brought some of them to the transfer meeting. 

Sis Bevans taking pictures of missionaries

Sis Bevans takes pictures of the new missionaries with their companions for the board in the mission office. She took them in the hallway this time because it was too crowded everywhere else. 

Sis's Day and Allred

Elders Hilton and Despain

Sis's Fisi and Halverson

We took a few pictures too ... Sis Allred formerly in Windy Ridge got a new companion, Elder Despain in our Olympia ward got a new companion, and Sis Fisi got a new companion, Sis Halverson, from tri-cities, WA where we used to live! It's fun to meet the new missionaries, learn about them, and see their enthusiasm to figure out how the work happens and plunge into it.

Missionaries departing after the transfer meeting

Elder Harman and an ibuprofen

Elders Socarras, "Handy",
and Albin at the hospital

I took a couple of "medical" pic's for Sis Nielson. We're hoping and praying that Elder Albin can recover quickly and return to us soon! He's a devoted missionary whom we've become quite attached to. He and his comp created "Elder Handy" from a medical glove, but couldn't apply a name tag without popping him (same problem with giving him a missionary haircut).  

deLeon Springs Park

On Saturday, our senior-missionary Preparation Day, we went to deLeon Springs for breakfast. This is where the Mayacas lived in 1566 when discovered by Pedro Menendez, who founded St Augustine a year earlier. It is the site of Ponce deLeon's legendary fountain of youth, which doesn't appear to work any more, judging from some of the people we saw there and from the way we still looked when we left. 

Blue Spring Park in Orange City

We then went to Blue Spring Park to see the Manatee Refuge, where West Indian Manatees migrate from the St John's waterway to the year-round 72-degree warm springs to bear their young. The waterways are closed from mid-November to mid-March to protect the manatees, which were quite numerous and easy to see while we were there.

Yesterday we went to our new assignment in the Bumby Ward, where they were having their annual ward conference. It was nice to meet a lot of new people! We also saw some of our friends from the Windy Ridge ward, which met there earlier in the same building.