From Mom 10/25

Dear Family, Cindy, I'll send this to you to forward to everyone this week. Thank you for the picture of Kaitlyn. What a doll! I wish we were more computer literate and could post something on the Price family fridge. We enjoy looking at that and seeing all the pictures and reading the comments. Maybe when we good "hooked up" on our own place, we will try to get something on there. We are leaving again tomorrow on another 3 day trip to finish up the apartment inspection assignment. This time we go to the Stuttgart area and outlying cities. Zone conferences start next week and President Rakow----or I should say Sister Rakow wants the information so she can talk to the Elders and Sisters about their apartments. Most of them are okay. Elders don't think much about wiping spots off the walls and it's like a novel idea to them when we encourage them to do that but they seem to appreciate the suggestion. We've met some awesome missionaries. One of them was #1 in his class at West Point and left here to serve a mission. He's a #1 missionary too. I've never met anyone so incerely interested in people as he is. I'm betting that he will be an assistant to the president before his mission is over. We haven't had a lot of time to work with people in our ward but have done some vsiting with them. It's interesting the things we take for granted that they don't think of, like praying together as a family and as a couple and reading scriptures. They do that on Sunday. The other night we met with a family who have lots of challenges. We asked the member part of the family if they pray together about these problems and she said she said her prayers and she thought h prayed but no, they hadn't prayed together about them. As we left, she said, You can be sure we will be praying together tonight. Thanks for the suggestion." I feel more all the time our job here is to encourage and to strengthen. We'll leave the baptizing up to the young Elders and Sisters and try to offer support to those who are new coming into the church. I'm going to stop for now and write more in just a minute. This computer lets you write for just a few minutes and then everything disappears so part 2 coming right up! Hello again, just wanted to tell you a neat experience we heard in the investigators class on Sunday. There is a family of 5 who are scheduled for baptism on the 3rd of December. The teacher asked the mother of this family if she would like to share her thoughts about this decision. The mother is a member and has been for a long time but has also been very inactive for a long time. They were sent here to Germay with the military. Her husband is a pilot. They live on base in military housing and one day she was out with her little girl in the play ground and heard a little girl singing, "I Am a Child of God!. The song sounded familiar to her and for the first time in a long time, she started thinking about the church. Then one day, she saw the same little girl and this time she was with her mother. This woman said she knew this mother was a member of the church because she could see a "glow" about her and a sparkle in her eye that she recognized. So she went up to her and asked if she was a Mormon. The óther mother said she was and was curious why she would ask. Anyway, to make a long story short, they struck up a friendship and the members asked if she would like to come to church. For a long time, this inactive members said she wasn't ready to start going to church but through just being kind and friendly and genuinely interested in this inactive family, they decided to come to church with them. And the rest is history. Everyone in the ward was so friendly to them. They have 2 teen age boys and the boys in this ward are just great welcoming new people. The father felt very much accepted and interested and soon the missionaries we asked to visit the family and now a date has been set for their baptism. And it all started with a 3 year old singing, "I Am a Child of God" as she was out playing. They are a wonderful family and this mother just regrets that she has stayed away for so long. She said she feels like she has "come home" again. I don't know that we will have any baptisms and that's okay. It's just a wonderful feeling sharing these experiences and being there to love and support people coming into the church. I realize that being so far away from the center of the church and being so spread out compared to our wards at home is a challenge and how important it is to have any contact with members to help keep us strong. The bishop asked us to visit any members of the ward we could for that very reason. Thank all of you for your letters and pictures and stories. It's so nice to hear about everyone and everything that is going on. I'm sure you're all looking forward to Halloween and all the fun that brings. How is the football team doing in playoffs, Michael? And Nate, any word on graduate school yet? Zach, you look like you're having way too much fun!!! Go for it! What a pretty girl you have! Congratualations Owen on the good job you're doing in soccar. Everyone is just great and very much loved. I'm so glad you're all working hard and doing well in school and with you're other activities. Know that you are in our thoughts and prayers every day. I think I'm going to be homesick for the full 18 months! Love, Mom