From my journal:
I worked my last Saturday at the Family History Center
Saturday morning. (April 26th) I had forgotten the
kids were there to practice for the cultural celebration. OH MY!
What a sea of kids! We heard
some of the music inside the FHC, but everything was so loud, we had to shut
the door. The music sounds really
fun. I can’t wait to see it. I got there just as Elder Burns was talking
to the kids. They got a tremendous
surprise: Elder Holland, who was there
at the temple training the mission presidents, was coming that afternoon to
talk to the kids and watch a couple of numbers.
I heard later that it was an amazing experience for the
kids. He told them how beautiful he
thought the temple was and he expressed his appreciation to them for all they
were doing to prepare for the cultural celebration. He left them with a blessing.
What I understand, all the kids were in tears. There is such a powerful Spirit that attends our apostles. I’ve had that wonderful experience of being
in a meeting where Elder Holland has been.
I remember just weeping because of the Spirit that was there. I think it gives us a glimpse of what it
will be like to be in the presence of the Savior.
Sunday, Jenna Workman talked about the experience. There were over 1200 kids there from all six
stakes. They were to be there ALL day,
eating lunch and dinner there. It was
stuffy in the gym and it was crowded.
Naturally there were some tensions—cell phones, not listening and
talking, etc. She said there had been
some yelling and some contention before Elder Holland came. Afterwards, there was more of a feeling of
peace and love and kindness. It reminds
me so much of the influence Jesus Christ brings.
The cultural celebration is going to be GREAT!
Sunday was our last day of being in the Plantation
ward. It was my last day of directing
the choir and the last day of directing the music in Sacrament Meeting.
We both turned in our calling stuff: Mark his scouting supplies and records, and
me my choir books.
We had several people give us hugs and say they are going to
miss us. I was kind of hoping to be
able to bear my testimony one last time, but it wasn’t to be. And that’s okay. I’m just really grateful I was able to do it last Fast Sunday.
Sunday, evening we invited the missionaries over for dinner and our lovely landlords, Henry and Dina. They had agreed to meet with the missionaries. They weren't able to come for dinner, but they did come for dessert. The lesson with the missionaries was awesome. I really felt the Spirit.
They seemed to enjoy it. I really hope they continue with the lessons.
Monday, we went to dinner with Mark Robbins. We had a light dinner, then ended up at Jaxon's ice cream parlor. OH MY GOODNESS!! The servings are ginormous!! Delicious, but ginormous!
I sure do like Mark. What a great guy. We really enjoyed his company.
May 1, 2014-Thursday
We had a nice dinner with Cory and Brent this evening at Red
Lobster. I brought the majority of my
dinner home after having two rolls, a stuffed mushroom and Clam Chowder and
salad. I’ll have a nice lunch tomorrow
as well as dessert.
May 3, 2014-Saturday
I read this morning from the Old Testament how the children
of Israel lost the privilege of having the fullness of the gospel because they
were a “stiffnecked people” and because they sinned so greatly by worshipping
the golden calf while Moses was up in the mountain communicating with the
Lord.
They lacked the faith to be fully obedient, thus they lost
the privileges they might have had—the Melchizedek Priesthood and temple
blessings.
It gave me some things to think about. How often do I live below my privileges
because I am openly disobedient or put off what I know to be right for my life? How might my life be different if I would
only completely obey?
I found these quotes:
“We live beneath our privileges when we fail to partake of
the feast of happiness, peace and joy that God grants so bountifully. We can be satisfied with a diminished
experience and settle for experiences far below our privileges, or we can
partake of an abundant feast of spiritual opportunity and universal blessings.
“As you read the scriptures and listen to the words of the
prophets with all your heart and mind, the Lord will tell you how to live up to
your privileges. And we will be able to
do all things through Christ who strengthens us.” President Dieter F. Uchtdorf
“I have been quoted as saying, ‘Do the best you can.’ But I want to emphasize that it be the very
best. We are too prone to be satisfied
with mediocre performances. We are
capable of doing much better.”
President Gordon B. Hinckley, Worldwide Leadership Training, Jan.
10, 2004, 2.
I feel sad that the children of Israel denied themselves of
the privileges they might have enjoyed, but I’m deeply grateful that we now
have the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ on the earth today and I can be
a part of it.
When I live beneath my privileges, I do so when I fail to
overcome my weaknesses that keep me from enjoying more from my life, including
greater privileges. How much happier
more joyful would my life be…?
Mark was busy with some things at the temple, Bill and his wife Kathy just wanted to chill at the motel and Cory and his wife were doing some things together. I was able to get a lot more done on the temple history.
When it was time to meet everyone at the Cultural
Celebration, we went to Panara for soup, salad and dessert. A simpler meal than we’ve had the last few
days and very delicious. We had
forgotten our umbrellas and it decided to pour while we were having
dinner.
Ashley had called us early that morning around 3am to tell
us her water had broken and she was at the hospital. Wow! I had intended to be
around to help out, but you know what?
Other people stepped in to help.
There is absolutely nothing I can do, but they’ll work it out. Kathy, Joe’s mom came over to stay with Eva.
She called us while we were at dinner to let us know he had
arrived. Remington Joseph Carbine! I’m so happy for her. She was trying to let me hear him, but the
restaurant was too noisy, so I said I’d talk to her later.
Mark was a gentleman and went for the car while I waited
under some shelter before jumping in.
The Church had reserved parking for the Cultural Event at a
parking structure near the venue. It
was a short walk to the arena and the rain had stopped. We waited inside for our party because we
had their tickets.
The energy was really high from the kids waiting for
President Uchtdorf. Each stake had its own cheers. They were all so excited!
When President Uchtdorf and his wife Harriet arrived they cheered and
clapped for him like he was the biggest rock star on the planet! It was awesome and brought me to tears.
The kids did a great job on their cultural celebration. At one point, one boy had a gold shirt put
on him and he was lifted up in the air holding a trumpet. Angel Moroni! Mark and I laughed with delight!
There were numbers representing sea life in the ocean,
playing on the beach with friends, mosquito stomp, a hurricane and rebuilding
and, of course an alligator. The climax
came from pictures members had sent in of themselves in front of temples. While
the pictures were shown, the kids and Fort Lauderdale Missionaries sang. A beautiful picture of the Savior was
created from the temple pictures. Then
as the picture was raised, am amazing replica of the lighted temple was
revealed. Wow! That was awesome! Of course we gave the kids a standing ovation. All their hard work paid off. I don’t think anyone who participated in
this event will ever forget how they felt seeing and hearing a prophet of the
Lord and then singing and dancing for this cultural event. It truly was a once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity for these youths.
Cory and his wife Susan were able to find and meet up with
their missionary daughter. He’d been
talking about it all the time we were together, so I’m glad they were able to
find her. They had brought a care
package for her and were spending some time with her, so we took Bill and Kathy
back to their motel.
We were actually the last to leave the arena. The cleaners were patient with us, but we
were taking pictures and meeting and hugging people. I thanked them as we left.
I appreciated them allowing us to enjoy those last few moments taking
pictures and talking to people.
The Gay family met us as they were leaving. Mark has been instrumental with their son
Bryce in scouts and on Sundays during Priesthood. His dad, Mike, pulled me aside and told me that they had been
talking about the Three Nephites one day and Bryce said: “I think Brother Berry is one of the Three
Nephites.” That touched me and I could
tell it touched Mike as well when he told me.
I think they have been so grateful for how Mark has worked and
encouraged Bryce.
May 4th, 2014-Sunday
May 4th, 2014-Sunday
Today started early.
We were at the temple for preparation for the cornerstone ceremony by
7:40. Mark was concerned that things go
all right and got a bit snappish, but I’ve learned to just let it go. Everything went just fine. He had everything ready and it was great!
There was a very nice choir who sang when President Uchtdorf and everyone came
out. I was so proud of Mark up there
with President and Sister Uchtdorf and all the dignitaries. I can’t name them all, but I know Elder
Christofferson from the Quorum of the Twelve was there with his wife and Elder
Rasband from the 1st Quorum of the Seventy and his wife, and the new
Presiding Bishop and his wife, President Richards from the Temple Department
and his wife and Darrin Zwick. There
were others. They all got to put mortar
in the cornerstone. Then President
Uchtdorf called up several children to put mortar in the cornerstone. The choir sang as President Uchtdorf left to
go back to the dedication meeting. They
had started the meeting, then left to do the cornerstone ceremony.
After they all left, Bill and Kathy, Cory and Susan, me, Ben
Schreiter and Jennifer, Dave Fletcher and his wife (Nexus) got to put mortar in
the cornerstone and get our pictures taken.
Then Mark let those who wanted to come up and put mortar in the
cornerstone. Quite a few got to do it
and get their pictures taken. This will
make great memories for many.
What will be fun will be seeing this on the Church News,
then in the World Report next General Conference. I was so proud of Mark.
He has done such a great job.
This has really given him an opportunity to fly. Cory and Bill are seriously considering
getting us on their team. At dinner the
other night they talked about New Zealand, Hong Kong and the Philippines. Those won’t require another language. Wouldn’t that be exciting?
We stayed at the temple instead of going home. Our session for the dedication was
noon. This happened to be the session
for our stake. Our stake choir sang
with Suzana Garrett directing and Audrey Frahm playing the organ. They did a beautiful job. There were only 20 of them—10 women and ten
men. They sat in the pass-through and
came out to stand behind those who were seated in front. They sang:
“On This Day of Joy and Gladness,” “Oh My Father,” and one other. We did the Hosanna Shout and then the choir
sang the Hosanna song with the congregations singing “The Spirit of God.”
I had really felt the Spirit, but there were times I
struggled to stay awake. I think it was
just a culmination of everything that has happened over the past few weeks,
plus not getting a lot of sleep last night and we fasted today for Joe and
Ashley as they are trying to decide on a job change.
We stayed in our seats until almost the end. I could tell Mark was feeling quite
emotional about this all ending. One of
the ladies who had helped with the chandeliers mouthed “Thank you” to me as she
was leaving. Ben came up and talked to
Mark and we got up to leave.
He still had so much to do to make sure everything was set
for the next session. Elder Burns had
something for us in his car so we walked out.
Mark gave him the trowel and point used for the cornerstone ceremony
along with a thank you card he had written for Elder Burns and his wife.
We were there for a while longer while Mark did this and
that. I waited in the foyer and finally
headed out to the car when he told me he had “one more thing” he had to do.
Later when we opened the gift Elder and Sister Burns had
given us, it was a beautiful blue crystal butterfly to help us remember Florida
and their love and friendship. Mark
will miss him.
When we finally got home I tried to sleep, while Mark had
things to do. I never did, but at least
rested. Mark had already broken his
fast when I got up, so I broke mine too and made dinner. We were going to go over to help put all the
furniture away, but I started having digestive problems every few minutes, so
in the end, I stayed home and Mark went to help. That was around 6:00. It
is 9:43 and he is still gone. I feel
badly that I didn’t go, but I found out that the missionaries all helped and it went very well.
May 6th, 2014-Tuesday
It’s been a busy day today, going through things, throwing
things away or giving some things away—just going through everything. I took all of the pictures down today and
Mark filled in the holes. I noticed
tonight that I missed the clock and a couple of things over windows. We got those too.
I threw all of my pasta and all my beans away, except some
black beans. For one thing I wasn’t
sure how old they all were, and with the pasta, I was finding quite a few
weevils in my cupboard, so just thought it would be better to get rid of
everything and get fresh when we get home.
I wasn’t excited to take any bugs home with me.
I got rid of a lot of old spices I’ve had for several years
too. I got rid of the last two jars of
pickles. They were pretty soft and
yucky. I threw out some pudding mix
I’ve had for several years—just a lot of old food.
I finally found my scarf I was missing. It had fallen back behind my drawer with
some socks and shoulder pads. I was
able to pull out a bigger drawer and get stuff from both sides.
Mark and I returned our Comcast equipment so we are without
our internet, home phone and TV. That’s
okay. Maybe we’ll actually go to bed
earlier.
I still need to clean out my fridge.
The movers are coming at 8:00am and they said they hope to
be done by 1:00. That will be nice, but
we’ll see. We want to get the bathrooms
and kitchen cupboards cleaned tomorrow, so that when the movers load us up, all
we’ll need to do is vacuum the floors and mop.
We’re hoping to get away as soon as possible. Mike wants us to stop in Orlando. I think we should, at least for a few minutes to say goodbye.
I was talking to Ashley today. She was telling me about how Eva won’t look at her and is mad
probably because of the new baby and because they left her for a couple of
days. It reminded me of how Jonathan
cried when I fed Rebecca and how they both acted when I had Chris. She’ll get over it and love her little
brother in time.
We ate out tonight, nothing special, just Taco Bell.
Knowing I would not have internet until we got to a motel
Thursday night, I posted on Facebook:
“Goodbye Florida, I’ll never forget you.”
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