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
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
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