We've Moved!!

The Penningtons from NC arrived on 5/16, all of the missionary couples were interviewed by Erik Jacobsen (ranch general manager), and on 5/18 he asked us to be the "lead" couple. This doesn't mean much change for Elder Kennedy, but does give Sis. K some additional responsibilities. AND it meant moving out of the 4-plex and into the Carroll House Visitors Center!! On Memorial Day weekend, we traded a comfy apt for private quarters within the Carroll House, i.e. a large bedroom/living room, small bath, and small laundry room. The good news is we can use the full size kitchen in the Carroll House AND CK finally has a Florida "cracker" house with a beautiful screened-in porch on all four sides of the house. We really enjoy sitting on the porch watching our new "neighbors". Also, how many people do you know that have a 12 foot alligator named Gus in their living room?(See below) Our new address: 3584 Orchid Circle, St. Cloud, FL, 34773.



Our new home. Pat's family visited in May.



 The Carroll House was on 43,000 acres purchased from a Senator Carroll in 1950. I believe the original house was built about 1929 and then restored in 2000. I'm trying to get more information on Senator Carroll, who may have been a banker in Kissimmee.



One of our new neighbors. The herd is growing since CK started feeding them!

  


Elle checking out Gus. Grayson wouldn't go near him!!

 

May Update

SHHHHHH! Don't tell anyone, but we returned to St Pete on 4/22 to see our grandchildren and pick up some things we forgot or discovered we needed from home. Heather has made some (good) changes to the living room. She definitely has her mother's gift for decorating and I love everything she's done. It was fun to  dye Easter eggs with Elle and watch her hunt for them in our back yard. (while Grayson was napping!)



Grandma hid the eggs and she found them all!



The Mannings and the Yates arrived on April 29th and 30th. It was a busy weekend for SK because the Zollingers were in AZ for the birthday and baptism of a grandchild. The Welch's didn't leave until 5/3 so that helped. Also, there were no tours on Saturday (30th) or Monday (2nd) when SK was assigned to that.

We were in charge of FHE on the 2nd, so we piled into the tour bus (holds 17 people) and took the Mannings and the Yates on the visitors tour. We have invited various people working on the ranch to speak to us on FHE: Jacob Birch, a cowboy training to be foreman; James Payne, an attorney for the ranch; and Jeff Walker, comptroller for the ranch. The information they share and the knowledge they have about the workings of the ranch is always very interesting.

We've had some important visitors at the ranch since we arrived. Presiding Bishop H. David Burton (Biography)and his wife came in April, but we didn't get to meet them. CK was busy working and SK wasn't at the Visitors Center when they stopped by there. Then a little over a week ago, people from KSL-TV in Salt Lake City visited the ranch. Article and video of ranch

The Ranch

We have now been at the ranch for three weeks. It is an amazing place! Beautiful. Peaceful. A world away from the glitz of Orlando. We've been having fun exploring the ranch, taking pictures, getting to know the people here, and generally "settling in". We live in a 4-plex of 1 bedroom 1 bath apartments, comfortable with more storage space than we expected. Reminds us that we can do with a lot less than we are used to and be happy and comfortable! When we arrived, there were 5 missionary couples here: 4 couples from Utah and 1 couple from Bartow, FL, a couple of hours away. Three of the UT couples have left for home and the FL couple will leave next week. We are expecting a couple from Idaho and a couple from UT next weekend with the remaining couple of our new group arriving from NC in mid May.

We can now answer the question "What will you be doing?". "Missionaries for Farmland Reserve Inc

primarily focus on preserving and enhancing farm properties." There are 70-80 buildings on the ranch and many (most) of the 90 employees and their families live on the ranch. As you can imagine, it's a wonderful place to raise children. CK has been helping get a house ready for new occupants, i.e. replacing flooring in the kitchen, dining room, and bathroom. He was working with Elder Law, a stonemason from UT, until Elder Law left for home a couple of days ago. He's also working on a small house used for interns who come to the ranch from various universities.

SK has been busy learning about the ranch because the sister missionaries conduct tours of the ranch. Also, they work on humanitarian projects for local charities. Both of us will soon have callings in our new ward, the Ellsworth Ward, which is on the ranch, about 6 miles away. We meet with the other missionary couples at 6:45 AM on weekdays for a devotional, on Monday nights for FHE, and twice a month for Sunday dinner. We have a day during the week when we can attend the Orlando temple. Temples

Family Home Evening

Check out the ranch website: http://www.deseretranchflorida.com/

   



Welcoming Committee! Zollingers and Millers

 Our Apartment

View from our front door

Elder Kennedy and Elder Law at work

The Carroll House Visitors Center

Some of the "locals"





Setting Apart

On Thursday, March 31st, we went to the St. Petersburg Stake Center to be set apart as Agricultural Church Service Missionaries by our Stake President, Nathan Emery. Our youngest son, Patrick, and our Bishop, Dan Russell were also in attendance. Afterwards, we went to dinner with Pat and Bishop Russell. Setting Apart



L to R Elder Kennedy, Pres. Emery, Sister Kennedy,
Patrick, Bishop Russell



Trip To Salt Lake City

We left for SLC on March 24th, stopping over in Phoenix for 3 days to visit family and friends,arriving in SLC on the 28th. The weather in Phoenix was much like St. Pete (without the humidity!), but SLC was cold!

Although our hotel was across the street from the Farmland Reserve offices, our training on Tuesday (29th) was on the 10th floor of the Joseph Smith Building about 2 blocks away. There were 11 other couples there who are going to ranches in the U.S. and England. We especially appreciated getting to meet two couples who will be with us at the St. Cloud ranch. The training was interesting and informative. Topics included an introduction to the company, an overview of farms and ranches, risk management, financial matters, as well as specific missionary training presented by Elder and Sister Estes.



Elder and Sister Estes
Directors of Missionary and Volunteer Services


Florida Ranch Missionaries
Mannings, Kennedys, Yates


Dinner with granddaughter Maggie!
(a student at U. of Utah)

"We have felt that good farms, over a long period, represent a safe investment where assets of the Church may be preserved and enhanced, while at the same time they are available as an agricultural resource to feed people should there come a time of need."  Gordon B. Hinckley  Ensign, May 1991, p.54



            



Welcome

Welcome to our blog! We hope that this blog will (1) answer some of the questions we've been getting about our mission and the ranch, (2) allow our family and friends to experience this mission with us, and (3) be a journal that we can keep for future reference.

Several years ago, we visited the Deseret Cattle & Citrus Ranch in St. Cloud, Florida, along with Sue's brother Roger. It is one of the many ranches owned by Farmland Reserve, Inc., which is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. At the time, we had no plans to serve a mission; but we had heard about the church's huge ranch near Orlando, so decided to check it out! It was a very interesting tour conducted by a woman who was serving a mission there with her husband. We learned that "senior" or "mature" couples can serve church-service missions there. This link will give you more information on church-service missions: Missionary Service  SK (the city girl) knew that CK (the farm boy) would LOVE living on a ranch where he could use his many talents and abilities! SK always hoped that somehow, some way, they could serve a mission together. But when? How?

The "when" and "how" unfolded last summer. After a year in law school in Ft. Lauderdale, our youngest son Patrick decided to transfer to Stetson University law school here in St. Petersburg. So, in August, Patrick and Heather ("Pather") along with Grayson (now 15 mo) and Elle (now 3 1/2) moved in with us! Now, we love Pather and ADORE our grandchildren, but we could see a win-win situation right away. They win because we are helping with their living expenses and we win because we don't have to worry about leaving our house empty. A call to the ranch to get the contact information for ranch missions started the ball rolling!

The Director of Missionary and Volunteer Services for Farmland Reserve is Elder Phillip Estes, who is a former Stake President from the Cocoa FL Stake. His wife, Sister Victoria Estes, serves as Asst Director.

(The ranch is located in the Cocoa Stake.) Elder Estes is very knowledgable about the ranch and serving a mission there. After an interview with our Bishop and Stake President, our application was on its way to Farmland Reserve headquarters in Salt Lake City. We received our mission call in the mail on Friday, October 22, 2010. We didn't open the letter until we could gather our family on a conference call just as we had done when our  three sons rec'd their mission calls. Yes, there were some surprises! We didn't specify where we wanted to serve so we could have been sent to any one of the many ranches the church owns. Also, we asked for a one year mission. When we opened our letter, we were assigned to the Florida ranch for 18 months beginning April 1, 2011. We laughed! CK, a native Floridian, had been worried about the possibility of going somewhere with really cold weather. 18 months? The Lord asks us to stretch sometimes, but He also knew we would go anywhere for any length of time. We never expected to have so much time to get our affairs in order, but we are grateful for it. Now we are down to the wire! April 1st is almost here. We are excited!!

We are so thankful for this opportunity to serve the Lord and His children in this way. He knows the desires of our hearts and has answered our prayers. We trust He will make us equal to the task.

Here's an article that helps explain why we are choosing to serve:

Couple Missionaries: Blessings from Sacrifice and Service