From Mom 12/28

Dear Family,

This has been our P-day. Today it was truly a P day----a painting day. A young couple we have been working with since we got to Wurzburg is moving to another apartment and we offered to help them paint before they moved in. Today was the day. Saturday several men from the ward are helping them move. They are having a hard time accepting the help and feel a little uncomfortable but we told them that’s what we do in this church. She has been a member for quite awhile but he was baptized just this year and they haven’t been very active. We have been giving them the new member lessons and when we finished those, they asked if we would continue to come and teach them about the church. We have encouraged them to read the Book of Mormon together and have read a chapter with them the last two weeks we have met with them. When we were there on Sunday they talked about how much better their lives have been since they started attending church regularly again. She received a calling to work in the Relief Society and he was ordained a Priest and helped with the sacrament on Sunday. It’s amazing to see the light in their eyes as they attend church and participate. They commented that it seemed like just a little while ago no one even spoke to them when they came to church. Now they say many people talk to them. They don’t realize that it’s them who are putting forth the extra effort, not just the other members.

Things have been pretty slow this week. The day after Christmas the two Elders and us went Christmas caroling to some of the older people in the ward. A couple of them were in assisted living homes. One was out having her afternoon cake with several other older people and she was so happy to have us come. We sang several songs. She started crying. I don’t know if the singing was just really bad or if they were tears of gratitude that someone made the effort to think of her that day. I like to think it is the latter. It was interesting to see how many others gathered in the area to listen to us and clapped when we finished singing. We went to another address and rang the bell (the klingel) and the lady answered. Dad said we were the missionaries and wanted to come and sing some songs to here. She is 92 years old and when we called her when we first got here to schedule a visit, she told us she was just too old to even bother with. Tuesday she just talked over the speaker and never did invite us in. She said she felt the church was too old fashioned and too restrictive and she just had too many questions about the church to want to be involved with it anymore. We sang her a song over the speaker and wished her a Merry Christmas and she seemed very grateful that we would do that. Maybe we gave her something to think about anyway.

We had a meeting Wednesday with our new found friends who are from So. America. We found out they are from Cuba. The mother said she is really looking for a religion and feels she needs it for her family. We talked about our Heavenly Father and that the gospel was His plan for happiness. We talked about how the gospel blesses families, about the restoration and the Book of Mormon and she seemed to accept and agree with everything we told her. She is going to try to come to church on Sunday. That means a half hour train ride then a bus ride to the church so if she comes, we will know she is serious about this. She was especially interested in the Book of Mormon and where it came from and we couldn’t help but feel that she knows it is a book about her people.

We have another meeting with Petra tomorrow. We always look forward to these meetings. Last time we met with her she was talking about being baptized sometime in January and told Dad she wanted him to baptize her. She doesn’t just accept everything we tell her. She has lots of questions then she studies it out and prays about it until it becomes a part of her. She has a daughter who is in her twenties and she has been telling her about the church. She is a nurse in a private hospital and has been talking to some of the people she works with there about the church. She told us about one of the patients who asked her if she was going to church on Christmas. When she told him she was, he asked her what church she was going to. She told him, she was going to the Church of Jesus Christ or the Mormon Church. When she went to check on him later that night, he was still awake and wanted her to tell him more about the church. She is going to be a great missionary for the church!

It was so good talking to all of you on Christmas Eve or on Christmas Day. It was a hard day for me but talking to you made it a much better day.. Thank you so much for the gifts. Thanks for the good things to eat and for the pictures and letters and CD’s and video and just everything. It means a lot to us to know that you have been together for the holidays----first Thanksgiving and then Christmas. We see so many families here who just never do much with their family. The sister we had dinner with on Christmas seems so lonely. She said her parents are both dead. She is divorced and has a 4 year old son. She has one sister but she said they don’t have anything to do with each other because when they are together they just fight and talk about the horrible life they had growing up so she just doesn’t have anything to do with her. The church and the members here are her life but she is very lonely. Nothing fills the void like family and we are so thankful for ours.

I read a statement from President Hinckley just before Christmas. It was something like this: “At this time we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. But without His death is would have been just another birth.” Then he went on and talked about the atonement. I think this Christmas, more than any time in my life, the atonement has meant so much to me. Two days before Christmas I was as sick as I ever remember being. It started in the morning when I answered the phone and while talking on the phone, I got terribly dizzy. Then I got a horrible headache. I laid down and first I was so hot I could hardly stand it and then I would shiver until the blankets came off. On top of that, I was terribly homesick and thinking of all of you, wishing that I was home for Christmas. I was just plain miserable! As I lay there, a scripture came to my mind that I had read while preparing a lesson on the atonement. It is Alma 7:12 and talks about Christ taking on “their infirmities that his bowels may be filled with mercy according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.” I thought of how many times I have told people about the atonement and that the Lord knows how they feel when they are feeling sorrow or sadness or any kind of feeling. I consider those kinds of feeling infirmities. Then I thought it’s about time I practice what I have been preaching and I started praying and poured my heart out to our Heavenly Father telling him how homesick I was, how sick I was and just how miserable I felt, and asked for some comfort. Almost immediately, that comfort came. I still had another day for whatever bug I had to run it’s course, but I felt peace in my heart and knew that I was going to make it though this Christmas without my family. How thankful I am to know that we don’t have to carry our burdens alone, that the Lord is always there for us and all we have to do is ask for His help.

Know that we love you with all our hearts. We think of you everyday and miss you so much. Thanks for your prayers and your encouragement. I mission in Europe is no easy task but we have been blessed with good people to meet and work with. I’m looking forward to Monday so I can say, “next year”: we’ll be home. Then I’ll look forward to the first part of March when I can start counting down the months! I know, I shouldn’t be thinking those kinds of things but being with our family will always be top priority in my life and Dad says that’s okay.

Much love always,
Mom

From Mom 12/21

Dear Family,

We are both very full and very tired. This has been a long day. We had to go to Nurnburg, which is about an hour and a half drive, for interviews with our mission president and training from our Zone leaders. Tonight was the ward Christmas party and I was asked to bring a pan of our favorite cheesy potatoes so I got that put together before we left. We didn’t get home until nearly 5 and the party started at 5:30 so I cranked up the heat on the oven and let them cook for about 35 minutes. It was a fun, family oriented ward party, complete with a visit from Santa. There was a good turnout and several non-members attended. One was a lady we had gone to see as a referral. She wasn’t home when we went but her husband told her we had come. One of the ladies in the ward is a friend and had invited her to the party and when we got there she was so excited to see us. She said, “You’re the ones who came to see me!” She was so friendly and invited us to come back after the first of the year.

This week we went to visit a young man the bishop asked us to visit. He and a young woman have been living together and have a baby. When we called to set up an appointment he told us he was no longer living with this woman, that she had gone back to live with her mother. We had a nice visit with him. He’s a nice enough guy but a bit too “smooth” for our liking. He says what we want to hear but we didn’t pick up a lot of sincerity about him. He told us he would be in church the day before Christmas. We’ll see. I may have to eat my words! Anyway, he told us about this girl and told us where she lived and said she had been to church with him and may be interested in learning the gospel. So we drove out to her house and met her and her mother and they invited us to come back and talk about the church. They are both from somewhere in So. America but have been in Germany for 8 years. They spoke to each other in Spanish so when we went back Dad suggested we take both a Spanish and a German Book of Mormon. We went out Tuesday and we gave the girl the German book and the mother the Spanish one. When the mother saw the name of the church on the book she said, “I know this church.” Then she told us that missionaries had come to her home when she was young but her dad was not interested in any religion. She had been to church a few times and liked how she felt when she was there but because of no interest on the part of the family she didn’t continue to go. She told us that several people from other churches had called on them wanting to tell them about their church but she had no interest. When she saw the churches name on the book, she said, “This is the church I want to know about.” We have an appointment next Wednesday to start teaching them and they said they would come to church a week from Sunday. It’s amazing how things like this happen and we know the Lord’s hand is very much in this.

We have been concerned about our investigator, Petra. We hadn’t heard from her for over a week and called and left messages and wrote her a letter telling her that if she had been offended by something we had said, we wanted to make it right with her. She wasn’t to church during that time and we couldn’t get ahold of her. Then Saturday night she called and she was in tears. She said her boyfriend, who is a member, had left and had called and said some really ugly things to her and she was sure he was drinking again. But, she said she still wanted to come to church on Sunday and she was there. She was very sad but she was there and participated a lot in the Sunday School class. One thing very significant she said in that class was, “If it is in the Bible and in the Book of Mormon, it has to be true.” She was fascinated with the thought of having a living prophet today so I got hold of the November Ensign in German. I showed her pictures of President Hinckley and told her a little bit about General Conference and gave the Ensign to her and invited her to read it if she wanted to. When we went there Monday, she had been reading it. She loved it! She said it gives her things that will help her in her everyday life and she just couldn’t get enough of it. We talked a little bit about the Atonement and after I bore my testimony to her of the Atonement and expressed my love for the Savior for making this sacrifice for us she said, “Why do you love Jesus Christ more than you love Heavenly Father.” I told her I loved them equally and that Jesus Christ was doing what out Heavenly Father wanted him to do. We read John 3:16-17, the scripture about “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son----“ and she had never heard it. We talked about His suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane and she had never heard of that so we talked about that and then read some scriptures from the Book of Mormon about His mission on earth and she seemed to accept that and understand why we feel so strongly about Him. She said she still wants to go ahead and continue to learn about the church even though her boyfriend may not be in her life anymore. She loves what she is learning and it is such a great experience teaching her. She is just a really neat lady.

Our Family Home Evening Christmas party was a lot of fun. The Elders were there and talked about the prophesies of the birth of Christ from the Bible and the Book of Mormon and then read the Christmas story in Luke. Then we played the M&M game with the straws and then we went into the kitchen and made Rice Crispy treats. Some members who live on the base had offered to get us anything we needed so we asked if they could get us some Eggnog because that is what the kids had asked for. We also had them get several 12 packs of Root Beer. They don’t have Root Beer in Germany and the kids love it. We didn’t tell them about that until nearly the end of the evening then we gave each of them a pack and told them it was our Christmas present for them. You’d think we had given them a million dollars! They “hugged” their packs of Root Beer and just raved about it. Something so simple but so appreciated and that made it so much fun.

It’s interesting to us when we visit people how they “dump” on us. I’m not complaining but it’s interesting how they think because we are Senior Missionaries we must have an answer for all their problems. We get into some pretty messy stuff sometimes and come home just exhausted. There are a lot of people who live together but aren’t married because they feel like they can’t afford to get married for fear of losing some of their government pension money. People have issues with church doctrine or church policy and expect us to tell them what they want to hear. The list goes on and on. I guess its good they have a sounding board and trust us enough to share their concerns with us but it sure makes us realize how fortunate we have been to have had the gospel a part of our lives all our life and to have learned along the way what the right is.

We want to call sometime on Christmas. We were wondering about calling some of you Christmas Eve and some on Christmas. You kids in Idaho, are you all going to be together sometime on Christmas Day? What time would be a good time to call? And you in Tennessee, Oklahoma and Lemhi, when would it be best for you? Please let us know. We have a dinner appointment at noon and another one at 6 o’clock but with the difference in the time we should be able to work something out. Send us an e-mail and let us know what’s best for you.

Have a fun day on Sunday celebrating Caitlyn’s birthday and know that you are very much in our thoughts. It is hard being away from family on Christmas! We didn’t plan this mission very well. We’re going to be gone to Christmases! But we will survive and it will be a wonderful time when we can all be together again.

We’ll talk to you on Sunday.

Much love,
Dad & Mom

From Dad 12/17

Hi everyone,

Today was one of those days you will probably always remember. There were so many things that happened. Some I will let mom tell you in her weekly letter. Others, I want to tell you now.

At the beginning of the day mom mentioned it felt like it was going to be another very difficult day for her. An investigator, with whom we hadn’t been able to meet with for ten days and who had just been going through a very difficult personal situation, came to Church. In the gospel principles class there was a new investigator (82 years old) as well as the one mentioned above and there was no way I could translate for mom. She was on her own the whole time. Tonight we had a new member discussion to give. Mom led the discussion for the first half and the wife translated for her to her new member husband. On the way home mom commented how she was in the dark about what was going on about 90% of the time. This is a first. We talked about how the 90% will decrease and the other part will continue to grow. At one point when the wife was translating for mom, the wife left off the last point of what she had just said. Mom gave her the information again without any prompting. She just knew!

As we drove to the evening appointment mom drove to and from their home and we talked about a lot of things along the way, but she needed no real help with directions and the traffic didn’t bother her. She drove knowing she was on familiar ground. Mom is coming up with some great meals. I’m putting on weight! And Mom is also killing me in dominos!

It was just a great day and I wanted to share it.

From Mom 12/14

Dear Family,

We can just imagine the excitement that is building with Christmas just 10 days away and also how busy you must be getting everything ready. This is a different Christmas for us but I must admit that I haven’t missed the pressure. I do miss the fun and being with family and we look forward to being with everyone again. We’ve made lots of “goodies” to take to members we visit, to district meeting and to FHE. By the way, I’m converted to convection ovens. I can bake a batch of cookies in 5 minutes! It’s not a true convection oven but has a fan that you can turn on that distributes the heat and things just bake faster. Next time we get a new oven, we’re getting one!

We should have a very busy January judging from all the people who have asked if we would call back or come after the holidays. This is such a hard time to find people at home. Everyone is busy getting ready for Christmas or is leaving for the holidays. It’s a hard time to do missionary work but we have found a few people to visit. Last Friday was a real bummer. It rained all day. We checked on 5 referrals and didn’t find anyone at home. The one appointment we had set up called and cancelled. There’s only one way to go after a day like that and that’s up! Every missionary has plenty of those days. It just goes with the job. It would be so easy to get discouraged and just “hang it up” but a new day comes and you try again. Visiting members is such a blessing. They treat us so good. We have been invited to lunch the last two Saturdays, both part member families. After lunch we have talked about the birth of Christ and gone to scriptures both in the Bible and the Book of Mormon regarding His birth. Then we sing a few Christmas songs with them and they seem to really enjoy it. Sunday morning one of the sisters we had been to the day before told us how much she had enjoyed what we had done the day before. Just knowing that we may be bringing even a little bit of joy to someone’s life helps make this worth while.

I think I told you about the little girl we went to tutor. Her mom called the other day and started the conversation with, “I don’t know how to say this so I’ll just ask you. Do you celebrate Christmas in your church?” I told her we sure did and that Christ was the very center of our religion and that Christmas was a very important time for us. Then she asked if we would come and have dinner with them on Christmas Day. Mind you, we have only been in her home one time. I felt terrible to have to turn the invitation down. We already have two dinner appointments on Christmas, one at noon and the other at 6 o’clock. She said she wanted us to come another time. We are having a hard time getting with her because they live on the military base and are still trying to get a pass for us so we can go help with her daughter. One of the members who lives on the base and lives quite close to her has offered to help us get on too so we’re hoping we can get back with them.

Last Saturday we drove to Schweinfurt, which is about 35 miles from here but is still in our district, and participated in a Christmas Sing In. A couple missionary who are working there put this together. He is a music teacher from Salt Lake and both years they have been here for Christmas he has organized an orchestra and a chorus and has put on a nice Christmas program. He asked Dad and I to sing the Hallelujah Chorus from the Messiah with a group. The last three weeks after district meeting we have practiced with him and then Saturday we met about an hour before the program and went over and over the song with the group. There were 12 of us and it sounded pretty good, if I do say so myself. It was a good experience and a very nice program. I love singing The Hallelujah Chorus and hope I have enough more chances that I can get it all right before my time on earth is over!

Sunday evening we got to see the rebroadcast of the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. It was so good! When I hear President Hinckley bear such a powerful testimony of Christ, there is just no doubt in my mind about His reality and the mission of the Savior. How grateful I am to know He lives and is the head of this church. I loved the stories President Faust and President Monson told. We are so fortunate to have the leadership in the church we have. On our way home, Dad asked me what I was thinking as I watched the broadcast and I burst into tears and said, “I was thinking that I wish we were home with the family!” I’ll be glad when the holidays are over!

Today was P-day but we did a 5 hour service project. Every week we think we’re going to have a full day P-day but something always seems to come up. The bishop suggested to us right after we got here that maybe we could contact some of the sisters in the ward whose husbands are deployed right now and see if we could help them our with their families for part of a day so they could go do some Christmas shopping. Our wonderful, and I do mean wonderful, Relief Society president announced last week in ward council that she would baby sit any children while their mothers went Christmas shopping on Thursday. Then she said, “I’m going to need some help.” We were at this meeting and all eyes went to us. So today that’s what we did. Luckily, there were only 6 children there but that was plenty. This Relief Society President taught kindergarten for 10 years and is so organized. She had all kinds of things set up for the kids to do----some of them a bit messy, like the finger painting and making cookies, but the kids had fun and we did too. There was an 11 month old baby that was my main responsibility. The others were 2, 3, 4, 8 and 9. They were good kids. You never know what you may be doing when you go on a mission.

Tuesday was our Zone Conference. The mission president and his wife are in charge of these and do most of the instructing-----usually. This time the doctor who is over all the missions in Central Europe, was with them and did a lot of instructing on staying healthy, physically, emotionally and spiritually. He spent a lot of time on emotional well being. I guess this time of year with the days so short and also the holidays, there are a lot of reports of depression. Two of the young sister missionaries have gone home early because of depression in the past month. I can see how that can be a problem! Basically what he told us was too be absolutely obedient to the mission rules so you don’t feel guilty and he spent a lot of time on the importance of proper exercise. He said the young elders and sisters should jog or walk a minimum of 20 minutes a day---non-stop. That’s in addition to the exercise we are to do for muscle strengthening and flexibility. He said nothing helps the endorphins in our brains do their job like physical exercise and when the endorphins are working right, it helps with depression. But the best part is yet to come. The mission doctor is Elder Moody, who was Dad’s companion when they were here in 1960. Dad was so excited to see him. He is a wonderful man. Dad said he probably has influenced his life as much as anyone he has ever met. He was a hard working missionary and a very non-nonsense but very caring person. He still is. He has a great knowledge of the scriptures and a fun sense of humor. It was a wonderful day. We sat by them during lunch and were able to visit with them quite awhile at the end of our meeting. This is their second mission. They were at the MTC in Madrid, Spain before coming to Germany. They are in the Frankfurt Germany mission but he has 16 missions he travels to. His wife served a mission to France before she was married then was in Spain and now in Germany and she said German is by far the hardest language to learn. It did my heart good to hear that!

Well, I’ve gone on long enough. Thank you for the Father Christmas contribution. The bishop really appreciates it and said he would let us know how it was used. I hope you know how much we appreciate your letters and your encouragement. We need lots of that too and look forward to hearing from you. We know how busy all of you are and that makes those letters even more meaningful. Someone asked about some German Christmas traditions. I don’t know a lot but I do know they celebrate for three days---the day before, Christmas Day and the day after. Everyone has a wreath sort of thing that sits on a table and has four candles in it. Each Sunday starting the first Sunday in December they light one of these candles. They use lots of candles here. Christmas is called Weinachten---pronounced vine-auk-ten. To say Merry Christmas, you say Frohliche---pronounced fro-lick-a--- Weinachten! So with that, Frohliche Weinachten to all of you.

Much love,
Mom

From Mom 12/7

Dear Family,

We’re finished our cleaning and the washing is hanging out on the patio. It’s not that warm but it will make things smell fresh. We have an appointment in awhile but I’ll try to get this written first. We keep forgetting that Thursday is P-day and when we call to see if we can visit and they say come Thursday, we just write it down. Oh well, it seems we have plenty of time to do other things so I won’t complain.

We’ve met a lot of people this week and they are so nice to us, even if they don’t always agree with what we say. Our #1 investigator, Petra Kempe, is someone we always look forward to meeting with. She has come from never praying and not even being sure if there is a Father in Heaven to praying many times a day. We’re not sure she fully understands about Heavenly Father but is trying to and knows there is someone who is having an influence in her life. We’ve talked about living with our Heavenly Father before we came to earth and that we were all brothers and sisters. Last night she said she found herself being much more patient with people than she has been before, particularly with the way people drive. She says she doesn’t honk her horn nearly so much when she gets irritated the way people drive because, as she puts it, “they are my brothers and sisters.”

She was amazed when we told her that we have a living prophet on the earth today and wanted to know all about President Hinckley. All of this is so new to her and she really wants to know and she is studying and praying about it and that is the way she will find out for herself if what we are teaching her is true. Last night she said, “I am nearly 50. How will I ever “catch up” to you and know what you know?” We told her that there wasn’t a certain “score” she had to have or a particular goal to meet. The important thing was the direction she was moving, that being working to live with our Father in Heaven again. She seemed to like that answer. She has lots of questions and the last two appointments with her have lasted 3 hours. When we say we need to leave, she asks us if we have some place to go and when we say no, she asks us to stay. So we do. It is so great to feel the spirit she has and her wanting to learn. Sunday as we walked from Sacrament meeting to SS class she commented that she loved testimony meeting and hearing the testimonies of so many people. And it was a great testimony meeting. All these things a good.

I think I mentioned the man who hadn’t been to church for a long time but was there a couple of weeks ago. We went to visit him and asked him how long he had been a member. He told us 8 years and he had been to the temple but no longer holds a temple recommend. We got the feeling that he wanted us to ask him why but we didn’t, we just listened. Later on in the conversation he said, “Do you know why I don’t have a temple recommend?” Then he went on to say that it was because he doesn’t pay tithing. His wife is from Peru and her family is very poor and they send a lot of money to them. He also has two daughters from a previous marriage who he helps support and just feels like he shouldn’t have to pay tithing too. Again, we just listened. He feels like the church is too concerned about money, that they are a very rich church and that he is contributing in other ways. We talked to him about how great it was that he was so generous with helping his wife’s family and we also talked about what the church did with the money it received----that no one was getting rich from that money but that it was all going back into helping with church programs such as temples, schools, etc. Then I felt impressed to tell him how I gained a testimony of tithing and that it had stayed with me all my life. I’ll tell you if I haven’t already. I remember my Dad telling about about when he was buying his farm. It was time too make a payment on the farm and it was also time to pay his tithing. He couldn’t do both but knew that if he didn’t make the farm payment, there was a chance he would lose his farm. But he paid his tithing. Then he went to the bank and told them he didn’t have the money for the farm payment but if they could give him some time, he would get the money to them. They gave him the time and 2 or 3 months later he had what he needed for the payment. This was a testimony to him about tithing and I’ve never forgotten his telling us that. We both bore our testimonies of how we have always paid our tithing and there has always been money when we needed it. I can’t describe the look on his face. His countenance literally changed before our eyes. He said with tears in his eyes, “Thank you for coming today.” And as we stood to shake hands, he pulled each of us to him and gave us a hug. He was in church on Sunday and he was still there just talking to people when we left. And that was long after the meetings were over. In testimony meeting tithing was mentioned several times. Oh how the spirit touches lives.

We met another “less active” member and that appointment turned out to be a bit scary. She joined the church because she knew it was true when she learned about it but, in her own words, “I have outgrown the church. There just isn’t enough there for me.” She feels that everyone can return to live with Heavenly Father and that they will just keep coming back to earth until they understand what you’re supposed to do. A bit of reincarnation there. She said that she feels that even Satan will one day repent and return to live with Heavenly Father. In her words, there is no right and there is no wrong. It is through love that all these things are possible. We don’t need scriptures are anyone telling us what we should do. She does remember the good feeling she had when she read it and Dad challenged her to read it again. But she feels the gospel is too limiting and too narrow. Oh dear, isn’t there somewhere in the scriptures that says, “Straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leafs to life eternal.” There are so many “voices” out there trying to convince us of these sorts of things. It was an interesting but draining conversation.

We had a bit of a wild time at Family Home Evening on Monday and our dear friend Thomas ended up breaking his ankle. We were playing balloon soccer where you have two teams and two balloons. You are trying to get your balloon to the goalie while keeping the other balloon from getting to it’s goalie. One of the Elders who was there with an investigator, hit the balloon really high to get it past Thomas and Thomas jumped up to hit it and came down on the side of his foot. He heard it pop and was in terrible pain. We drove him home and watched him hobble up the stairs to his house. The next day we called and found out it was broken. He loves chocolate so yesterday we took him a plate of brownies. He was so appreciative and said he would see us at church on Sunday. He is one of the young men who is waiting to turn 18 so he can be baptized. We met his parents when we went over and they are really nice. Hopefully they will see how much he wants to be baptized and let him go ahead. He gave the lesson in FHE and I just sat there amazed at his knowledge of the gospel and his ability to teach. He is a 16 year old unbaptized missionary!

We had an opportunity to do a service project this week. It was tutoring a little 8 year old girl who is struggling with school. The sister missionaries that we here a year ago were both teachers and they had done some so out of the blue, we got a call from a school counselor who asked if we would be willing to do some tutoring. We need service hours so we told them we would. This was a family where the father is in Iraq and I think the mother is just “frazzled”. She is very negative to this little girl and the girl refuses to do her homework. Anyone else she works with but she and the mother don’t get along. And I can see why. I don’t think it’s the girl’s problem. I think it’s the mothers. Anyway we worked with her for a little over and hour and finished her homework and when we got up to leave, the mother handed us 10 Euros. We told her we wouldn’t accept it, that we just wanted to do this and she couldn’t believe it. She got tears in her eyes when we told her we would be back to help again. The problem is she is living on the military base and has to get a pass for us and that may take some time. So we’re waiting but that too was a good experience. We meet all kinds of people.

We had two sunny days and we went for a long walk both days. The light helps a lot. We still don’t have snow and people here are getting concerned. I just want winter to hurry and pass, snow or not, and get spring here. Every day is a challenge but little by little we’re trying to do what we’ve been asked to do. I’m not sure we’ll ever know how we’ve touched people’s lives but we will visit them, we will love them and we will try to strengthen their testimonies of the gospel That’s what gets us through when all is said and done.

Thank you for your letters and for your prayers. We love you and we miss you. It’s very hard to be away from our family, especially at this time of year, but it’s good to hear of the good things that are happening with all of you. Take care of each other and keep in touch with each other. Family is what it’s all about.

Much love always,
Mom