From Mom 10/5
Dear Family,
We're taking another turn at the Outreach Center today. Ususaly on Thursday the only paople who come in are the Elders and Sisters who work in this area. They come to use the internet to write their letters. So far, none have come so I'll go ahead and start a letter. If they come, I'll stop and do more later. They
have priority on Thursday We still don't have internet service. It is so frustrating! But I know where every internet cafe is within 3 blocks of our apartment so I will keep in touch that way. Every Monday morning we have district meeting at the mission office and the sisters who work their are good about letting us use their computers to check our e-mail after the meeting.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR LETTERS!! I can't even begin to tell you how much they mean to us. Camille, everytime I try to send this to more than one of you something weird happens and I lose the letter so will you please forward this to everyone else until we get our computer set up in our apartment? Also, will you call Aunt Velma and Uncle Jay and get their addresses for me. I have sent them two letters and they were returned saying there was no such address. It sounds like you only have a million things going right now so what is a couple of more things to think about? Thank you so much.
Well, we have the first month of our mission behind us. It's still a huge
adjustment. Everyone says it just takes time. I'm not the patient kind of
person I need to be. The language still just puts my stomach in knots. I need
to be patient with that too. Last Monday we had a zone conference. I could
tell by what he was saying that the zone leader was introducing us---he was
speaking German. We sang and opening song in German, the prayer was said in German and he was saying everything in German. I put my head down and the tears just ran down my face. "What am I doing here?" was the thought going through my head. This dear zone leader could tell I was very uncomfortable and announced that the rest of the meeting would be in English. I was grateful but also somewhat embarrassed. I seem to just have a mental block when it comes to learning more. I have a hard time understanding what is being said because they talk so fast and then it sounds like they have mush in their mouth when they speak, so I'm struggling with that. President Rakow keeps saying, "Sister Price, don't worry about it." But I do and I will but I'll also keep trying. I've got to sign off for now but will write in a few more minutes.
Hello again,
All the church computers have a timer on them and after that time is up, the message disappers so I have to watch the time. When we stop and talk to someone, the timer just keeps going.
This week has been a different week. After we made it though the zoneconference, we had an interview with our mission president. He encouraged us towork closely with the bishop of the International Ward and to get acquaintedwith everyone in the ward and visit as many as we could. That has been a goodexperience. We had our first math lesson with our 12 year old Elly. It'samazing how she has warmed up to us. Her mother invited us our to meet thenon-member father on Saturday and said he was going to fix lunch for us. We areanxious to meet him. He adores his two daughters and is a wonderful familz man.We will be praying to have the spirit with us to know what to say and how toapproach talking about the church.There are several political refugees from Gahna and Nigeria here in the ward. Most of them are just men who have had to leave their families behind. Theylive in refugee camps which are very humble indeed. But their spirit is sostrong and their testimonies of the gospel help make this time away from theirfamilies bearable for them. One of them has his family with him. He wasbaptized while he still lived in Gahna and was married there too but Germanydoes not recognize their marriage. His wife is not a member and he has beenquite inactive but the Elders here were given the name of his 12 year old sonand they taught him and baptized him. They have been coming to church and hiswife is now taking the lessons from the Elders. When we went to visit them, thewife was not at home. The son had a friend there and he want to start coming tochurch and learn more about it. We didn't go there to take over what the Eldersare doing but only to give support. He (the father) told us that he loved thecouple missionaries to come to his home because they were a good example to himand inspired him to continue to do what was right. He said, "Please come often"as we left. He lives on the 6th. floor of an apartment building and we firstwent up to the 6th floor of the wrong building then down again then up to hisapartment. The next day we both could hardly walk because the calves of ourlegs hurt so badly! But it was a good experience. If all we do here is helpstrengthen members and encourage them to stay active, we will have done somegood.
President Rakow asked Dad and I to go to Nurnberg on Tuesday and to Stuttgart onWednesday to inspect the bikes the Elders were using. So now I have labeled Dad"The bicycle czar"! Those bikes are in pretty sad condition. Most of theElders don't even use them. They would rather walk or spend their money on busor train fare. But it was a good experience. We met a lot of Elders and theride was beautiful. Germany is beautiful with lots of rolling hills and lots oftrees. The farms go right up to the trees. There aren't homes on every farmlike we have it. You see miles and miles of nothing but farm and then there isa little village of white houses with red roofs. They all live their togetherand drive out to their farms. It is like a picture post card to drive throughthe country It took us about 2 hours to drive to Nurnberg and 3 to drive toStuttgart. We did great finding the church the first day but in Stuttgart wegot lost bit time and were 2 hours late getting to the church. President Rakowwas there interviewing missionaries and we were to inspect the bikes while hewas interviewing. He ended up having to inspect the first batch of bikes but wedid make it for the second session. I was so upset and frustrated and ready tocome home, but we did what we could do and that day in another day in history sowe'll move on.Gotta quit again. More coming.
We were to happy to be able to watch 3 sessions of General Conference plus theRelief Society broadcast and Dad got to watch the Priesthood session. It didn'tseem like we were quite so far away from home. When Elder Bowen talked andshowed pictures of Idaho Falls, especially when he showed the temple, I couldn'thold the tears back. (Notice how often I talk about the tears. I have plentyof them!) Conference was so good and so practical. We just need to get back tothe basics and firm up our testimonies and help others with theirs. One thingI'm grateful for is the time we have to study our lessons and the scriptures. We should be so grateful for what we have and know. It's wonderful to knowwe're on the Lord's team but it's also a reality that a battle is going on. Satan is trying so hard to keep people from knowing the truth and creating somany things that keep the spirit away from people. I know he has been workingon me. Discouragment and feeling depressed are certainly not from the Lord. Ihave to work every single day to convince myself that I'm supposed to be here. Monday in our interview with President Rakow, I told him I wasn't sure why I washere because I couldn't do a lot of good when I can't even talk to people. Hisreply was, 'You were called by the Lord to be here and you will come to know whyat some time." Who can argue with that?
We enjoy hearing about all the activities going on at home. We will be there inspirit on Saturday for Meg's baptism. I talked to another couple missionarysister who said she has had two daughter get married while she has been here. They are both second marriages but just the same, she had to miss them. Butthey said they will be home to go to the temple when these marriages are sealed. I guess that's part of the sacrifice of a mission.There are Elders here to use the internet so I'll sign off for now. Know thatwe love you and pray for all of you many times every day.
Much love always,
Mom
We're taking another turn at the Outreach Center today. Ususaly on Thursday the only paople who come in are the Elders and Sisters who work in this area. They come to use the internet to write their letters. So far, none have come so I'll go ahead and start a letter. If they come, I'll stop and do more later. They
have priority on Thursday We still don't have internet service. It is so frustrating! But I know where every internet cafe is within 3 blocks of our apartment so I will keep in touch that way. Every Monday morning we have district meeting at the mission office and the sisters who work their are good about letting us use their computers to check our e-mail after the meeting.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR LETTERS!! I can't even begin to tell you how much they mean to us. Camille, everytime I try to send this to more than one of you something weird happens and I lose the letter so will you please forward this to everyone else until we get our computer set up in our apartment? Also, will you call Aunt Velma and Uncle Jay and get their addresses for me. I have sent them two letters and they were returned saying there was no such address. It sounds like you only have a million things going right now so what is a couple of more things to think about? Thank you so much.
Well, we have the first month of our mission behind us. It's still a huge
adjustment. Everyone says it just takes time. I'm not the patient kind of
person I need to be. The language still just puts my stomach in knots. I need
to be patient with that too. Last Monday we had a zone conference. I could
tell by what he was saying that the zone leader was introducing us---he was
speaking German. We sang and opening song in German, the prayer was said in German and he was saying everything in German. I put my head down and the tears just ran down my face. "What am I doing here?" was the thought going through my head. This dear zone leader could tell I was very uncomfortable and announced that the rest of the meeting would be in English. I was grateful but also somewhat embarrassed. I seem to just have a mental block when it comes to learning more. I have a hard time understanding what is being said because they talk so fast and then it sounds like they have mush in their mouth when they speak, so I'm struggling with that. President Rakow keeps saying, "Sister Price, don't worry about it." But I do and I will but I'll also keep trying. I've got to sign off for now but will write in a few more minutes.
Hello again,
All the church computers have a timer on them and after that time is up, the message disappers so I have to watch the time. When we stop and talk to someone, the timer just keeps going.
This week has been a different week. After we made it though the zoneconference, we had an interview with our mission president. He encouraged us towork closely with the bishop of the International Ward and to get acquaintedwith everyone in the ward and visit as many as we could. That has been a goodexperience. We had our first math lesson with our 12 year old Elly. It'samazing how she has warmed up to us. Her mother invited us our to meet thenon-member father on Saturday and said he was going to fix lunch for us. We areanxious to meet him. He adores his two daughters and is a wonderful familz man.We will be praying to have the spirit with us to know what to say and how toapproach talking about the church.There are several political refugees from Gahna and Nigeria here in the ward. Most of them are just men who have had to leave their families behind. Theylive in refugee camps which are very humble indeed. But their spirit is sostrong and their testimonies of the gospel help make this time away from theirfamilies bearable for them. One of them has his family with him. He wasbaptized while he still lived in Gahna and was married there too but Germanydoes not recognize their marriage. His wife is not a member and he has beenquite inactive but the Elders here were given the name of his 12 year old sonand they taught him and baptized him. They have been coming to church and hiswife is now taking the lessons from the Elders. When we went to visit them, thewife was not at home. The son had a friend there and he want to start coming tochurch and learn more about it. We didn't go there to take over what the Eldersare doing but only to give support. He (the father) told us that he loved thecouple missionaries to come to his home because they were a good example to himand inspired him to continue to do what was right. He said, "Please come often"as we left. He lives on the 6th. floor of an apartment building and we firstwent up to the 6th floor of the wrong building then down again then up to hisapartment. The next day we both could hardly walk because the calves of ourlegs hurt so badly! But it was a good experience. If all we do here is helpstrengthen members and encourage them to stay active, we will have done somegood.
President Rakow asked Dad and I to go to Nurnberg on Tuesday and to Stuttgart onWednesday to inspect the bikes the Elders were using. So now I have labeled Dad"The bicycle czar"! Those bikes are in pretty sad condition. Most of theElders don't even use them. They would rather walk or spend their money on busor train fare. But it was a good experience. We met a lot of Elders and theride was beautiful. Germany is beautiful with lots of rolling hills and lots oftrees. The farms go right up to the trees. There aren't homes on every farmlike we have it. You see miles and miles of nothing but farm and then there isa little village of white houses with red roofs. They all live their togetherand drive out to their farms. It is like a picture post card to drive throughthe country It took us about 2 hours to drive to Nurnberg and 3 to drive toStuttgart. We did great finding the church the first day but in Stuttgart wegot lost bit time and were 2 hours late getting to the church. President Rakowwas there interviewing missionaries and we were to inspect the bikes while hewas interviewing. He ended up having to inspect the first batch of bikes but wedid make it for the second session. I was so upset and frustrated and ready tocome home, but we did what we could do and that day in another day in history sowe'll move on.Gotta quit again. More coming.
We were to happy to be able to watch 3 sessions of General Conference plus theRelief Society broadcast and Dad got to watch the Priesthood session. It didn'tseem like we were quite so far away from home. When Elder Bowen talked andshowed pictures of Idaho Falls, especially when he showed the temple, I couldn'thold the tears back. (Notice how often I talk about the tears. I have plentyof them!) Conference was so good and so practical. We just need to get back tothe basics and firm up our testimonies and help others with theirs. One thingI'm grateful for is the time we have to study our lessons and the scriptures. We should be so grateful for what we have and know. It's wonderful to knowwe're on the Lord's team but it's also a reality that a battle is going on. Satan is trying so hard to keep people from knowing the truth and creating somany things that keep the spirit away from people. I know he has been workingon me. Discouragment and feeling depressed are certainly not from the Lord. Ihave to work every single day to convince myself that I'm supposed to be here. Monday in our interview with President Rakow, I told him I wasn't sure why I washere because I couldn't do a lot of good when I can't even talk to people. Hisreply was, 'You were called by the Lord to be here and you will come to know whyat some time." Who can argue with that?
We enjoy hearing about all the activities going on at home. We will be there inspirit on Saturday for Meg's baptism. I talked to another couple missionarysister who said she has had two daughter get married while she has been here. They are both second marriages but just the same, she had to miss them. Butthey said they will be home to go to the temple when these marriages are sealed. I guess that's part of the sacrifice of a mission.There are Elders here to use the internet so I'll sign off for now. Know thatwe love you and pray for all of you many times every day.
Much love always,
Mom
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