From Mom 2/22
Dear Family,
I’ll start this letter while Dad is playing with his new “toy”. He convinced President Rakow that we could use a cell phone and it came today. It has all the bells and whistles you would ever want. He told the company he got it from that he wants just a basic phone. This one you can do e-mails on, it has a camera on it, an alarm clock, you can put in appointments----just everything and he’s busy figuring it out. It will be nice to have one when we’re out of town a ways and needing to be to an appointment and running late which happens quite often. And if we do the apartment inspection again this spring, it will be good to be able to call the missionaries and have them tell us where they live. Here they call cell phones “Handys”. We had to sign a two year contract but the payments are just $20 a month with unlimited minutes and you can call anywhere in Germany. We’ll just pass it on to the couple who takes our place when we leave next year.
This week has been a little slow as I’ve been a little slow. I guess I had a bad sinus infection. I had a whopper of a headache and was so dizzy I could hardly stand up. At one time we thought it was an inner ear infection and it may have been but today I’m feeling much better. We stayed in all day Saturday and Sunday but we’ve had appointments every day this week. Monday we had district meeting. Out district leader finished his mission this week so Sister Holzer made pizza and I made a big green salad and took some drinks and we had lunch together for a little farewell for Elder Boos. That night we found out that one of the Elders who work in our ward here was also transferred so we were extra glad that we had made our district meeting a little extra special. One thing that’s consistent in missionary work is change. We’re so hoping that we will be here until the end of the school year at least. President Rakow told our bishop here that we would be here for at least 6 months. That would be the end of May. Our president doesn’t like anyone getting too comfortable in one place.
Petra is still our # 1 priority for time. We feel it is so important to meet regularly with people right after they have been baptized. Petra has had a lot of questions asked her about the church since she joined. The one on polygamy is one we’re happy to have behind us. Another things she has been bombarded with is why she would join a church that puts so many restrictions on its members----“Mormons can’t do this and they can’t do that and on and on”. She went to stake conference on Sunday with some people in the ward. (We missed it because Sunday I could hardly sit up without getting sick to my stomach.) Anyway when we went to see her on Tuesday she said she got the answer to what to say to these people when they start in on all the restrictions. Elder Hilbig was at stake conference and he told a story of when he and his family were in Switzerland where he served as a mission president. Two of his sons had been asked by their friends to go to a movie with them. The Hilbigs talked it over and decided their boys could go. But when the kids got to the theatre and saw some of the posters about the movie, they decided it probably wasn’t a good idea for them to see it. They told their friends they weren’t going to go but that they would be their waiting for them when the movie was over. The friends didn’t believe they would be there but they were. Later on one of the friends asked one of the Hilbig boys why they would want to belong to a church that told them you can’t do this and you can’t do that to so many things. The boy answered, “Oh, we can do those things but we don’t want to do them.” Petra was so impressed with that story and said that’s how she can answer those questions put to her. When she has a question, she really tries to find the answer in the scriptures and is very diligent in her studies. We talked to the bishop last night about home teachers and visiting teachers for her and asked that he would see if some dependable people could be assigned to her. He agreed that that’s very important right now.
We’re off to the grocery store. I’ll finish this later.
Well, we made it back from the store. We ran out of everything this week! Then we had dinner and went to another appointment. This was with a family who lives in this building. It is a part member family. The mother is a member and has wanted their 12 year old son to be baptized. She is inactive because of having to work every Sunday. The father is Catholic. He told us tonight that he was forced to go to church when he was young and now has no interest in any church. He also said it was up to his son if he wanted to go to church and if he wanted to be baptized. I think Dad was very wise when he asked if we could come when both parents were home so they, especially the father, would know exactly what their son was being taught. They both agreed to that and the father said it would be no problem getting his son to church if he really wanted to go. Dad is very bold. He doesn’t beat around the bush------well, some of the time he doesn’t beat around the bush, especially when it comes to talking about the church. He likes to get things out in the open so there are no surprises when it comes to the church. We have an appointment to start teaching him, Christopher, next Tuesday. I think my job will be to keep his “chatter box” little 3 year old sister entertained! She is a character and is so cute. So all in all it has been a good day. We have clean clothes, we have food and best of all, we have another person to teach the gospel to. Christopher is a really nice young man. He will be in Dad’s deacon’s quorum class and all the kids from 12 to 18 meet together for Sunday school so he will have a good time with them. We’re hoping this will be a good experience for him.
Our dear friend Stephanie, who has been in the hospital-----the one who told Dad what to say when she wanted a blessing----is struggling. The doctors wanted to give her some very strong medicine and she didn’t want to take it. Her argument was, “this is my body and you can’t force me to take it.” When they insisted, she called the police. They came and she told them what was going on so they called her guardian and a judge and the decision was made to move Stephanie to another hospital. I don’t know what will happen now. It is out of our area but is still in our district so we’re going to try to get permission to go see her. She is a character! She thinks she knows what is best for her when in reality she really doesn’t. She has some serious emotional problems and is kind of in and out of reality a good deal of the time. Last night the bishop counseled us to be her friend but not to get too taken in with her. That was wise counsel because I have worried so much about her. We’ve visited her regularly while she has been here and have taken her little treats. Tuesday we didn’t take anything and she asked us why we didn’t bring her anything. That’s when doing favors for people isn’t enjoyable anymore. Yesterday we took her some Jelly-Belly’s and some batteries for her CD player. She was taken to this other hospital today so it will be a few days before we can visit her, that is if we get permission to do that. Some people have so many challenges in life. Stephanie has certainly had her share.
Last night we both had good experiences with seminary and institute. Dad had five young people in his class and he said they did most of the talking. That’s what a good teacher does, get the class discussing things. In my class, I’m always self conscious of the fact that I don’t speak German but the three sisters that were there who do speak some English were very kind. I kept asking if they understood what I was saying and they said yes they did. I never cease to be amazed at what the Spirit does. We discussed the 76th section of the Doctrine and Covenants on the degrees of glory and we had a very interesting discussion. The teacher always learns more than the students and I am grateful for the opportunity to study for and teach this class. I don’t know if I told you that I have been asked to teach the 3rd Sunday in Relief Society while we’re here. I love the teaching of President Kimball and am looking forward to that. It will be a new experience to have to say a few things and wait for it to be translated but having to do that means I have to prepare just half as much material!! How thankful I am to have this time to study the gospel. Because we can’t study anything else, it’s a good reason to not get sidetracked by all those great church history novels but I do want someone to send me one of those in about a year so I can read it on the plane on the way home!
I’ll close by sending you this funny little thing written by a black man in Texas. Uncle Jay sent it to me and I got such a kick out of it.
When I born, I black,
when I grow up, I black,
when I go in sun, I black,
when I cold, I black,
when I scared, I black,
when I sick, I black,
and when I die, I still black.
You white folks…..
when you born, you pink,
when you grow up, you white,
when you go in sun, you red,
when you cold, you blue,
when you scared, you yellow,
when you sick, you green,
when you bruised, you purple,
and when you die, you gray.
So who you callin’ colored folks?
With that “spiritual thought”, I’ll call it good for this week. How we do love every one of you. I’m grateful for the experiences we are having and for the people we are meeting but you will always be the most important part of my life.
Much love always,
Mom
I’ll start this letter while Dad is playing with his new “toy”. He convinced President Rakow that we could use a cell phone and it came today. It has all the bells and whistles you would ever want. He told the company he got it from that he wants just a basic phone. This one you can do e-mails on, it has a camera on it, an alarm clock, you can put in appointments----just everything and he’s busy figuring it out. It will be nice to have one when we’re out of town a ways and needing to be to an appointment and running late which happens quite often. And if we do the apartment inspection again this spring, it will be good to be able to call the missionaries and have them tell us where they live. Here they call cell phones “Handys”. We had to sign a two year contract but the payments are just $20 a month with unlimited minutes and you can call anywhere in Germany. We’ll just pass it on to the couple who takes our place when we leave next year.
This week has been a little slow as I’ve been a little slow. I guess I had a bad sinus infection. I had a whopper of a headache and was so dizzy I could hardly stand up. At one time we thought it was an inner ear infection and it may have been but today I’m feeling much better. We stayed in all day Saturday and Sunday but we’ve had appointments every day this week. Monday we had district meeting. Out district leader finished his mission this week so Sister Holzer made pizza and I made a big green salad and took some drinks and we had lunch together for a little farewell for Elder Boos. That night we found out that one of the Elders who work in our ward here was also transferred so we were extra glad that we had made our district meeting a little extra special. One thing that’s consistent in missionary work is change. We’re so hoping that we will be here until the end of the school year at least. President Rakow told our bishop here that we would be here for at least 6 months. That would be the end of May. Our president doesn’t like anyone getting too comfortable in one place.
Petra is still our # 1 priority for time. We feel it is so important to meet regularly with people right after they have been baptized. Petra has had a lot of questions asked her about the church since she joined. The one on polygamy is one we’re happy to have behind us. Another things she has been bombarded with is why she would join a church that puts so many restrictions on its members----“Mormons can’t do this and they can’t do that and on and on”. She went to stake conference on Sunday with some people in the ward. (We missed it because Sunday I could hardly sit up without getting sick to my stomach.) Anyway when we went to see her on Tuesday she said she got the answer to what to say to these people when they start in on all the restrictions. Elder Hilbig was at stake conference and he told a story of when he and his family were in Switzerland where he served as a mission president. Two of his sons had been asked by their friends to go to a movie with them. The Hilbigs talked it over and decided their boys could go. But when the kids got to the theatre and saw some of the posters about the movie, they decided it probably wasn’t a good idea for them to see it. They told their friends they weren’t going to go but that they would be their waiting for them when the movie was over. The friends didn’t believe they would be there but they were. Later on one of the friends asked one of the Hilbig boys why they would want to belong to a church that told them you can’t do this and you can’t do that to so many things. The boy answered, “Oh, we can do those things but we don’t want to do them.” Petra was so impressed with that story and said that’s how she can answer those questions put to her. When she has a question, she really tries to find the answer in the scriptures and is very diligent in her studies. We talked to the bishop last night about home teachers and visiting teachers for her and asked that he would see if some dependable people could be assigned to her. He agreed that that’s very important right now.
We’re off to the grocery store. I’ll finish this later.
Well, we made it back from the store. We ran out of everything this week! Then we had dinner and went to another appointment. This was with a family who lives in this building. It is a part member family. The mother is a member and has wanted their 12 year old son to be baptized. She is inactive because of having to work every Sunday. The father is Catholic. He told us tonight that he was forced to go to church when he was young and now has no interest in any church. He also said it was up to his son if he wanted to go to church and if he wanted to be baptized. I think Dad was very wise when he asked if we could come when both parents were home so they, especially the father, would know exactly what their son was being taught. They both agreed to that and the father said it would be no problem getting his son to church if he really wanted to go. Dad is very bold. He doesn’t beat around the bush------well, some of the time he doesn’t beat around the bush, especially when it comes to talking about the church. He likes to get things out in the open so there are no surprises when it comes to the church. We have an appointment to start teaching him, Christopher, next Tuesday. I think my job will be to keep his “chatter box” little 3 year old sister entertained! She is a character and is so cute. So all in all it has been a good day. We have clean clothes, we have food and best of all, we have another person to teach the gospel to. Christopher is a really nice young man. He will be in Dad’s deacon’s quorum class and all the kids from 12 to 18 meet together for Sunday school so he will have a good time with them. We’re hoping this will be a good experience for him.
Our dear friend Stephanie, who has been in the hospital-----the one who told Dad what to say when she wanted a blessing----is struggling. The doctors wanted to give her some very strong medicine and she didn’t want to take it. Her argument was, “this is my body and you can’t force me to take it.” When they insisted, she called the police. They came and she told them what was going on so they called her guardian and a judge and the decision was made to move Stephanie to another hospital. I don’t know what will happen now. It is out of our area but is still in our district so we’re going to try to get permission to go see her. She is a character! She thinks she knows what is best for her when in reality she really doesn’t. She has some serious emotional problems and is kind of in and out of reality a good deal of the time. Last night the bishop counseled us to be her friend but not to get too taken in with her. That was wise counsel because I have worried so much about her. We’ve visited her regularly while she has been here and have taken her little treats. Tuesday we didn’t take anything and she asked us why we didn’t bring her anything. That’s when doing favors for people isn’t enjoyable anymore. Yesterday we took her some Jelly-Belly’s and some batteries for her CD player. She was taken to this other hospital today so it will be a few days before we can visit her, that is if we get permission to do that. Some people have so many challenges in life. Stephanie has certainly had her share.
Last night we both had good experiences with seminary and institute. Dad had five young people in his class and he said they did most of the talking. That’s what a good teacher does, get the class discussing things. In my class, I’m always self conscious of the fact that I don’t speak German but the three sisters that were there who do speak some English were very kind. I kept asking if they understood what I was saying and they said yes they did. I never cease to be amazed at what the Spirit does. We discussed the 76th section of the Doctrine and Covenants on the degrees of glory and we had a very interesting discussion. The teacher always learns more than the students and I am grateful for the opportunity to study for and teach this class. I don’t know if I told you that I have been asked to teach the 3rd Sunday in Relief Society while we’re here. I love the teaching of President Kimball and am looking forward to that. It will be a new experience to have to say a few things and wait for it to be translated but having to do that means I have to prepare just half as much material!! How thankful I am to have this time to study the gospel. Because we can’t study anything else, it’s a good reason to not get sidetracked by all those great church history novels but I do want someone to send me one of those in about a year so I can read it on the plane on the way home!
I’ll close by sending you this funny little thing written by a black man in Texas. Uncle Jay sent it to me and I got such a kick out of it.
When I born, I black,
when I grow up, I black,
when I go in sun, I black,
when I cold, I black,
when I scared, I black,
when I sick, I black,
and when I die, I still black.
You white folks…..
when you born, you pink,
when you grow up, you white,
when you go in sun, you red,
when you cold, you blue,
when you scared, you yellow,
when you sick, you green,
when you bruised, you purple,
and when you die, you gray.
So who you callin’ colored folks?
With that “spiritual thought”, I’ll call it good for this week. How we do love every one of you. I’m grateful for the experiences we are having and for the people we are meeting but you will always be the most important part of my life.
Much love always,
Mom
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