Firehouse wins again! The elders and I are celebrating teaching a new convert. He is the grandson of one of Castro's hit men. What a story he has to tell! Some of the stories these people share with us make us nervous to go outside at night! But AR has found the church and is getting his family names ready to take them to the temple. We will keep feeding these young people as long as they keep opening doors for us.

Today is my mother's birthday. She sent me a beautiful Jacaranda tree to enjoy! This one is purple and so lovely. We have really enjoyed the blooming trees here in South Florida. It still seems strange that both my parents and sister are gone. I don't want to be the oldest. There is too much responsibility that goes with that. We have been asked to speak in another sacrament meeting. I don't know if that is a compliment or that they are just desperate. But it seems that the topic of family is on every one's mind. So it really isn't hard to take ten minutes on doing genealogy.

Elder Graff and the truck tribute. Just before leaving the cemetery the truckers gave Dave a final tribute of truck horns blasting 21 times. It is hard to even write about it. Dave's influence goes much farther than we ever imagined. The new part of the cemetery is very nice, but we had hoped that Dave could have been buried next to his parents. But there are so many unmarked graves, it was even hard to find a clear spot in the new part. They had to dig three times before they found a unoccupied place.

There were a lot of people that followed the hearse to the Santa Clara Cemetery. One of the speakers told us that Dave had spent the last few months paying off his bill that Dave had with him. So Dave was making an effort to redeem his debts. One of the songs at the funeral was "He's not heavy, he's my brother". What a good choice. Dave was a teacher of patience and compassion. Did we all pass the test? I think we fell short of the mark. He was a challenge and very frustrating at times. Spud says the hymn "Because I have been given much" was written about him and Dave. It is nice to know that Dave had so many friends and they thought so much of him.

McMullan's did a find job with the funeral. As a parting gesture, Loren and Brant laid a bottle of Pepsi in the coffin with Dave. There are many in the Graff family that have to have their Pepsi. Bill told about a time when Dave was in the hospital and he brought him an IV with Pepsi in it. That shows what a serious drinker he was. Uncle Jack was always taking cases of Pepsi back to California, after visiting in St George. He said the St George bottling plant made the best. Cedar claims to make the best Coke. Well, I'm not sure about that.

Elder Graff and his mother's family. Cheryl and Barbara, Rayola and Melba. Uncle Cliff was sitting in the shade. It was so nice to see them and have a short visit. We keep saying we need to get together at a happier time. So in October, we will do just that. I told Jeremy, Bill's youngest, that he needed to find a big enough place to hold everyone. Bring on the food and the easy chairs! We will make it a visit that will make many memories.

What a fitting tribute to Dave. Spud and I thought we had it all together until we saw the trucks arrive and take their place in the line up. There were so many people that came to pay their respects. We are still overwhelmed with the thoughts that were expressed. Dave had a special mission here on earth and he fulfilled it as best he could. He and Debbie were sealed in the temple with their children, so after all is said and done, they are a forever family. Brant and Loren did an beautiful job of arranging the service. It was held in the Santa Clara Chapel where Dave and the family had attended church. The Relief Society provided a very nice dinner after the dedicatory prayer at the cemetery.

In spite of the bad news, Elder Graff was able to baptise Patrick this afternoon. I was asked to give a short talk on Family History. We both did our assignments and then the ward fed everyone that came to the baptism. Fried chicken, rice and black beans, brownies and chocolate chip cookies with ice cream. Spud had put on a small roast with parsnips and carrots, onions and fresh mushrooms. It cooked seven hours in the crock pot and was way good. It is definitely a repeat recipe. We just heard from Lou and he reports that Nancy's party was a success as usual.
We will probably be home for the next one. If we go home now, we will only stay for a few days.
Some of the rain came yesterday afternoon. When it rains here, you had better stay inside. It really pours down. I think it would fold up an umbrella. The phone is ringing again. NO, it's not Karen. So I will post a little later and maybe we will have more news.

We got word in the night that Algene's youngest brother, David, passed away early this morning. He has been suffering since his heart attack last year. He finally got his disability and now he is gone. We are waiting to hear from Karen when the service will be held. We saw President Hale at the Hollywood Ward this morning and he said we could do what ever has to be done. He had a rough life since his dad left us. We are scheduled to go to Orlando next Saturday on the Temple Bus; so we will need to make a decision about that. Brant and Loren were to go with Karen to the mortuary to make the arrangements. This is a hard decision to make. Algene had a rough night and today was not much better. He missed the off ramp to Hollywood going to church and then he missed the off ramp coming home this afternoon.

We took Sister Briggs and Sister Tyson to Subway for lunch today. Firehouse is tomorrow with Elder Allen and Elder Cornwall. Then we taught Sharon. What a fun visit. She was the most prepared of all the people we have taught so far. We started a family file for her in Roots Magic and showed her how to find things in Ancestry.com. She was busy entering family records when we left. We will meet with her again when her membership number comes back from Salt Lake. Tomorrow we meet with our first Ward Mission Leader. If all the new converts could be handed a pedigree chart and three family group record sheets after they are baptised, they would all be better prepared to start a file in Roots Magic and New Family Search. The Pompano Stake is already doing this and they are having great success. We hope to get this activity going in the other three stakes.

The staff meeting was another session of being called on the carpet. This is getting a little tiring. Elder Spud and I are really trying to help here and now some mother is afraid her "little Johnnie" shouldn't have to clean his own apartment! The powers that make these decisions think that the "apartment inspections' should be called "home devotionals". I would appreciate your thoughts on that! My thoughts are not printable. So, this may be the last time Elder Spud and I will be going out on inspections. Elder Graff will now refer to them as "Apartment Visits" when he makes the call and makes the appointments. Remeber now, these are tall children that have not been taught to hang up their clothes. These inspections have opened a lot of doors for us and I am sad that they have turned into a power struggle. So I will repent (maybe tomorrow) and put my feelings aside and not be offended. Yes, right! I will get over it, really! Just not this minute. On the bright side, the young missionaries continnue to call and make appointments for us with the new converts.

The storm front missed us again. Hope our luck holds out. There is a big fire out in the everglades and the sky is full of smoke. There is another rain predicted for Friday, so maybe it will happen and put out the fire. One of the Elders is afraid the fire will drive the snakes into the suburbs and bother the residents. More stuff to worry about! Just hope they don't decide to come our way and eat the baby ducks. There are still seven of the oldest group and now they are too big for the birds to get them. They kove the puddles that the sprinkler system create. They huddle in the puddle and it quite cute.

This afternoon we took Sister May and Sister Hawkes to lunch at Firehouse. Anyone surprised? Then we went on a teaching appointment. They are getting Patrick ready to be baptised Sunday, April 15. Then we hope to have him on the Temple Bus the following Saturday. He is Clovis' grandson. That was very enjoyable. Elder Graff has been asked to baptise him and I have been asked to speak on Family History and the importance of taking names to the temple. This might be a first! We'll see how it goes. We are getting replies from the bishops about how many people have actually been to the temple after we have taught them. So that means that by Monday, I should be able to give a more accurate report to President Hale at out next senior staff meeting. I will be getting that ready tomorrow morning and then we have another meeting with a non-members at the Hollywood Chapel. They are having a Preparedness Fair at the same time and Elder Spud will visit that we see what else we need to store while we are here in South Florida. As I write this, he is watching the weather channel and a big storm front has just pasted Lake Okeechobee and headed our way. We'll let you know what happens.

Back to work; answering the phone and making appointments. We attended our first meeting with President Hale after his return from Salt Lake and his Back Surgery. He is better; the tests all came back normal. The tumor on his spine was benign. That is good news, but this is his second tumor and that makes everyone nervous. This was a transfer meeting that started at 8:30 am and it was evident that he was dealing with the pain. It made a long day for him. The finishers dinner ran until 10:00 PM. Sister Hale spoke on divine meetings and friendships. The people we are working with on this mission are people we knew in the preexistence. A lot to think about. President Hale asked for all of us to try harder to live by the spirit and be worthy of the Holy Ghost living with us. It is still hard to see our new friends return home to the big wide world. When we sing "We'll bring the world his truth", I can't get through it without crying. The room is filled with young strong voices. What a grand spirit to experience.

Today we are still reeling from the news that Bin Laden has been killed. Brings back all the memories of 911 and where we were and what had happened to America. Not a time I would like to go back to. But we saw how wonderful the American people can be. We saw them rally and unite in a effort to work together to keep America safe. We wonder if this new event will stop the danger of terrorists. Probably not. This country needs to make some big changes at the top of the government.

We took Nathan on the canal sightseeing tour in Ft Lauderdale. The poinsianna trees are starting to bloom. They are beautiful trees. The yellow jacaranda trees are through blooming. Some of the purple jacarnada are still blooming. Makes beautiful landscapes to enjoy. The tide is out this afternoon. You can see how much of the pillings are showing. This is the tour of the rich and famous homes along the water way. It is mind boggling how much money these people must have to spend that much on their homes. Not considering how much they have to spend on the upkeep and utilities.

The baby duck survivors all huddled in the middle of the drive way. It must be warmer there than at a safe distance away from the cars. Today they were all nested in a water puddle, again in the middle of the road. They won't survive if they keep this behavior up. But they are getting bigger. If they survive the drive way I think they are big enough to fight off the birds.

We are on our way to the air boat ride. The water was so low in places, there were mud flats that the boat had to avoid. The gators are on the move and making lots of noise. The clouds keep coming each afternoon, but the big rains have not happened yet. There are ads on the TV about getting ready for an emergency. So we bought a 5 gallon pickle pail for a porta potty. Made sense to us at the time. Nathan has been fun to have around for a few days.

There was a lot of gator activity in the park this morning. One of the board walks was under repair and really I was glad not to have to walk out on it. These large critters give me the shivers! The water level is so low. We could see how badly the everglades need a big rain storm. The fish are still there but they seem to give the alligators a wider berth. The fishing birds are still active. It is fun to watch them dry their wings after a dive in the murky water.

Here the bulls are lined up along the bank at the marsh at the end of Turkey Buzzard walk. The water has receded about 18 inches from when we first came here in January. These bulls are making their mating calls and it sounds like a bunch of evenrude outboard motors starting up. Their long throats bulge out with the noise. It is weird to watch. There were several large ones just to the left of this photo that were fighting over a female. Lots of noise and lots of splashing.

We took Nathan out to the Everglades National Park the morning he got here. Our Golden Eagle has really come in handy since we got to South Florida. This little guy is actually seven feet long! The aligators were very active at 8:30 in the morning. We kept hearing a large cat cry. We think it was one of the swamp panthers or pumas. We even heard kittens crying. Sounds that mixed with the noise from the Bull Aligators made us very nervous.

Our Nathan came to pay us a visit before he heads to Iraq. After the shocking news last night, we are nervous for him. We have had a fun visit. Even though the water level is so low at the everglades, we saw a lot of gators and the air boat ride was fun. He lost his cell phone at the Salt Lake Airport coming out here, so we stopped at a Verizon Office to get him another one. This one has GPS, Internet, world phone service and a lot more than I can understand. But it will give him Internet on his laptop if he plugs it into the laptop.

The chart ended up being eight feet wide and 32 inches deep. Not a practical size! But a learning experience. I think I will try another one with our family on it and have them print it in portrait fashion. Should be interesting. The Heil line goes back to 1590. Much father than I thought. If I download from New Family Search on the Andrews line, it might go father than that.