From Mom 10/12
Dear Family,
I'll send the letter to Cindy this week and have here forward it to everyone. Our district leader who has been trying to get the internet set up in our apartment told us this week that he talked to President Rakow about getting permission for us to have the internet and President Rakow told him that we wouldn't be staying here a lot longer so he didn't want to go to the expense of installing the interent for us. Where we will be going no one knows yet. Elder Clyde said the president has an idea but wants to pray about it some more. It won't be until the end of November anyway so we'll have access to the Outreach Center and there are internet cafe's all around us. Also, we go into the mission office every Monday morning for district meeting and the sisters there always tell us to check for e-mails on their computers before we leave. We so appreciate your letters and hearing about what's going on with everyone. You are very close to our hearts even if the miles between us are many. I don't even know how many miles it is but I know it's a lot! Last weekend was a hard weekend with the news of Uncle Eldon's passing. It has taken a toll on my already struggling emotions but each day gets a little bit easier. Even though we know what we know about what happens at the time of death and that it can be a lot of comfort knowing it, when it's someone close to you it still hurts a lot. I'll always be thankful for that Friday night before we spoke in church when the brothers and sisters went out to eat and then over to Eldon and Velma's to just talk and then to have prayer together before we left to come home. That will always be a special memory, especially now. Thank you who could go to the funeral for going and supporting their family. That was another hard day----knowing that everyone was together and we couldn't be there, but we made it through. I feel so badly that Uncle Dee was gone. I'm sure it was probably even harder on him than on us. I'm going to close this for now and send it and start on another one. After you type for 20 minutes, this thing just shuts down and I don't remember when I started. So here's page 1 with more coming. Mom Hello again, This time I looked at the clock so I'll know when I need to stop. We received another "service project" assignment from our mission president on Monday. But I'm not complaining. In fact I'm very happy to have something definite to do. He is so busy and the assistants and mission secretaries are busy too and he needs the apartments inspected so he asked Dad and I if we would go to all of the aprtments of the Elders and Sisters in the German part of our mission. That's 45 apartments. We will be traveling quite a bit. Stuttgart is about as far away from Munich as Salt Lake is from Idaho Falls and some of the other cities we will be going to are a couple hours drive from here. Dad has it all organized for us to have it done by the second week in November. It really is kind of fun. I imagine most of our visits will be on Friday and Saturday as Thursday ia P-day in the mission. Sister Rakow gave us some definite things to look for and to tell the missionaries. Like clean the oven, clean up after every meal, don't polish your shows on the carpet, watch for mold, fix things when they break or let someone know they need fixing. She said the last time they went, there were some pretty terrible looking apartments. We went to a set of sisters apartments this week and the apartment was just plain dirty. Their excuse was they don't have time to clean. Sister Rakow's answer was, "Take the time to clean, even if you have to take a couple extra hours somewhere." They are emphasizing the importance of being able to have the spirit with you at all times and if your apartment is dirty and messy, the spirit cannot be there with you. I'm not sure we're going to be very popular but we'll do what we've been asked to do. Should be a lot of fun. We had a meeting with our bishop on Sunday, just Dad and I and he gave us the "lowdown" on 5 families he wants us to work with. These are part member families and there are some major problems. We visited one last night. She is from Equador and has been a member since she was 10 years old. Her husband is from here. She and her husbands brother don't get along very well and he did something that was really offensive to her and she just can't forgive him. Because her husband loves his brother, this has kind of put a wall between them and he tries to find things wrong with the church instead of listening to the truth. He wasn't home when we went there last night and Dad did a beautiful job of expaining the importance of forgiving others and by doing so, the love we need to be able to share the gospel will come. She had a hard time swallowing all of that but promised she would pray about it and try to get past this issue. She is such a sweet person. They have two beautiful little girls, ages 4 and 2. She has been through the temple and she goes whenever she can. She's just "stuck" on this one issue which has caused some problems in their marriage. Out of time again. Dad keeps talking to me and I can't talk and type too! Part 3 coming up. Hello again, I'll be so glad when we get our own internet service and can use our own computer! Another family that we've been assigned to is living together but aren't married! He is from the US and is married but his wife won't give him a divorce until he comes back. He has a crimanal charge against him so he know if he goes back, he will end up in jail so they are just living together. He has been excommunicated from the church because of the nature of the crime and the bishop has tried to explain to her that what they are doing in wrong and if she doesn't stop the relationship, her membership is at risk. Whew! We have an appointment with her next week. I can hardly wait! Dad is so good and so patient with these kinds of things. I don't know what will come if it but we'll see what happens. The last one was a woman whose husband cheated on her and was excommunicated. She has a testimony of the gospel but just needs lots of support right now. When we called to set up a time to come visit her, Dad asked if there was something special she needed help with and she said, "Help me to know how to handle a 3 year old." Our work is cut out for us. In addition to this, we are to visit 12 members of the ward and show the new video "By Small and Simple Things" which is about the Book of Mormon. It shows a lot of people bearing their testimony who came into the church through reading the Book of Mormon. It is really a neat video. Most people work and it's hard to get them during the day so we'll check apartments during the day and visit members in the evening. We have plenty to keep us busy and I'm much better off when I'm busy and don't have time to think how far away from home we are and worry that the people here don't know how to talk right! The language is still an issue with me. It's like I have a mind block against learning it. I guess my problem is that I just don't want to take all the time I know it's going to take to learn it. Maybe while we're doing all this traveling around would be a good time to practice. There is so much to learn and to study and to know. My poor old brain is on overload most of the time. Dad is a great missionary. His knowledge and grasp of the scriptures is amazing. He has been so patient with me while I'm trying to adjust to all this new stuff. I'm always amazed at hos lost we can be and how calm he is figuring out where we are and where we need to go and pretty soon we are on the right road again. Know that we love you. We thank you for your faith and confidence in us and for the support we feel from you. You are what makes our lives complete. Much love always, Mom
I'll send the letter to Cindy this week and have here forward it to everyone. Our district leader who has been trying to get the internet set up in our apartment told us this week that he talked to President Rakow about getting permission for us to have the internet and President Rakow told him that we wouldn't be staying here a lot longer so he didn't want to go to the expense of installing the interent for us. Where we will be going no one knows yet. Elder Clyde said the president has an idea but wants to pray about it some more. It won't be until the end of November anyway so we'll have access to the Outreach Center and there are internet cafe's all around us. Also, we go into the mission office every Monday morning for district meeting and the sisters there always tell us to check for e-mails on their computers before we leave. We so appreciate your letters and hearing about what's going on with everyone. You are very close to our hearts even if the miles between us are many. I don't even know how many miles it is but I know it's a lot! Last weekend was a hard weekend with the news of Uncle Eldon's passing. It has taken a toll on my already struggling emotions but each day gets a little bit easier. Even though we know what we know about what happens at the time of death and that it can be a lot of comfort knowing it, when it's someone close to you it still hurts a lot. I'll always be thankful for that Friday night before we spoke in church when the brothers and sisters went out to eat and then over to Eldon and Velma's to just talk and then to have prayer together before we left to come home. That will always be a special memory, especially now. Thank you who could go to the funeral for going and supporting their family. That was another hard day----knowing that everyone was together and we couldn't be there, but we made it through. I feel so badly that Uncle Dee was gone. I'm sure it was probably even harder on him than on us. I'm going to close this for now and send it and start on another one. After you type for 20 minutes, this thing just shuts down and I don't remember when I started. So here's page 1 with more coming. Mom Hello again, This time I looked at the clock so I'll know when I need to stop. We received another "service project" assignment from our mission president on Monday. But I'm not complaining. In fact I'm very happy to have something definite to do. He is so busy and the assistants and mission secretaries are busy too and he needs the apartments inspected so he asked Dad and I if we would go to all of the aprtments of the Elders and Sisters in the German part of our mission. That's 45 apartments. We will be traveling quite a bit. Stuttgart is about as far away from Munich as Salt Lake is from Idaho Falls and some of the other cities we will be going to are a couple hours drive from here. Dad has it all organized for us to have it done by the second week in November. It really is kind of fun. I imagine most of our visits will be on Friday and Saturday as Thursday ia P-day in the mission. Sister Rakow gave us some definite things to look for and to tell the missionaries. Like clean the oven, clean up after every meal, don't polish your shows on the carpet, watch for mold, fix things when they break or let someone know they need fixing. She said the last time they went, there were some pretty terrible looking apartments. We went to a set of sisters apartments this week and the apartment was just plain dirty. Their excuse was they don't have time to clean. Sister Rakow's answer was, "Take the time to clean, even if you have to take a couple extra hours somewhere." They are emphasizing the importance of being able to have the spirit with you at all times and if your apartment is dirty and messy, the spirit cannot be there with you. I'm not sure we're going to be very popular but we'll do what we've been asked to do. Should be a lot of fun. We had a meeting with our bishop on Sunday, just Dad and I and he gave us the "lowdown" on 5 families he wants us to work with. These are part member families and there are some major problems. We visited one last night. She is from Equador and has been a member since she was 10 years old. Her husband is from here. She and her husbands brother don't get along very well and he did something that was really offensive to her and she just can't forgive him. Because her husband loves his brother, this has kind of put a wall between them and he tries to find things wrong with the church instead of listening to the truth. He wasn't home when we went there last night and Dad did a beautiful job of expaining the importance of forgiving others and by doing so, the love we need to be able to share the gospel will come. She had a hard time swallowing all of that but promised she would pray about it and try to get past this issue. She is such a sweet person. They have two beautiful little girls, ages 4 and 2. She has been through the temple and she goes whenever she can. She's just "stuck" on this one issue which has caused some problems in their marriage. Out of time again. Dad keeps talking to me and I can't talk and type too! Part 3 coming up. Hello again, I'll be so glad when we get our own internet service and can use our own computer! Another family that we've been assigned to is living together but aren't married! He is from the US and is married but his wife won't give him a divorce until he comes back. He has a crimanal charge against him so he know if he goes back, he will end up in jail so they are just living together. He has been excommunicated from the church because of the nature of the crime and the bishop has tried to explain to her that what they are doing in wrong and if she doesn't stop the relationship, her membership is at risk. Whew! We have an appointment with her next week. I can hardly wait! Dad is so good and so patient with these kinds of things. I don't know what will come if it but we'll see what happens. The last one was a woman whose husband cheated on her and was excommunicated. She has a testimony of the gospel but just needs lots of support right now. When we called to set up a time to come visit her, Dad asked if there was something special she needed help with and she said, "Help me to know how to handle a 3 year old." Our work is cut out for us. In addition to this, we are to visit 12 members of the ward and show the new video "By Small and Simple Things" which is about the Book of Mormon. It shows a lot of people bearing their testimony who came into the church through reading the Book of Mormon. It is really a neat video. Most people work and it's hard to get them during the day so we'll check apartments during the day and visit members in the evening. We have plenty to keep us busy and I'm much better off when I'm busy and don't have time to think how far away from home we are and worry that the people here don't know how to talk right! The language is still an issue with me. It's like I have a mind block against learning it. I guess my problem is that I just don't want to take all the time I know it's going to take to learn it. Maybe while we're doing all this traveling around would be a good time to practice. There is so much to learn and to study and to know. My poor old brain is on overload most of the time. Dad is a great missionary. His knowledge and grasp of the scriptures is amazing. He has been so patient with me while I'm trying to adjust to all this new stuff. I'm always amazed at hos lost we can be and how calm he is figuring out where we are and where we need to go and pretty soon we are on the right road again. Know that we love you. We thank you for your faith and confidence in us and for the support we feel from you. You are what makes our lives complete. Much love always, Mom
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