Patricia goes to the temple!

Patricia will receive her endowments this Saturday, 13 December. She is so excited about every aspect of the temple. After our bishop interviewed her today, he came and said, "good job". When I said thanks (not knowing why), he said "No really good job helping her get prepared. She is the most prepared new member I have ever seen." I must say that I was happy to hear that, but she is the only one who receives the credit for preparation.

Viscaya Museum

On Saturday we went and visited a house built in 1914 by James Deering who was the owner of International Harvester, the largest company of agricultural machinery at the time. The estate took 2 years to build at a whopping price of $20 million. 1000 workers worked on the house daily, which was 10% of the entire Miami population. Once the house was finished, he had a crew of 130 people to take care of the house, estate, and the farm where he produced his food.

The house was massive with 75 rooms that were decorated with furniture purchased from European castles and in some instances the entire room including walls and ceiling were brought over from European castles. He never married but had 10 bedrooms for his constant stream of guests. He lived on the bay, so people could arrive at his house either by ship, train or by car. Just imagine his lifestyle required the employment of 130 people!

Just for those interested in agriculture. the company that James Deering owned was International Harvester, which merged with McCormick. Later in the 1980s the company split into Navistar (trucks and buses) and Case International (tractors and farm machinery).