From Mom 3/29
Dear Family,
Its 9:30 P M and we just got in. This is supposed to be our P-day but everyone we talked to earlier in the week wanted to meet on Thursday so that’s what we did. We took part of yesterday to do our washing and a few other things. We also went for a long walk above the grape vineyards that are on the hill that goes up from the city. We walked for about an hour and it was beautiful and peaceful. The weather was warm and it was very relaxing. We’ve had a good week----a very busy week but a good week.
Thomas’ baptism on Saturday was a wonderful experience. He is so happy. There were 83 people there. His parents and sister and some aunts were there. I think this has been very hard for his mother but she was there and tried to look happy for Thomas. I was trying to think how I would feel if one of you were baptized into another church. I’m sure it was hard for her. They are such nice people and have invited Dad and I over sometime after Easter to talk to them about the church. Thomas had a lot of friends from school there too and he told us Monday night that one of the girls that came has been asking him a lot of questions about the church. He told her the missionaries would be glad to meet with her so she is going to talk to her parents. He’s going to be a great missionary and a great influence for good on a lot of people. Everyone brought food so we had a real feast after the baptism. I think Sunday is the only day we go into the church without carrying food!! We always have treats for FHE and it seems like there is always something going on in the ward that we sign up to bring food for.
Wednesday night was the Relief Society anniversary party and I was asked to bring brownies. Those zucchini brownies are a hit!! I’ve given out the recipe to several people. The RS party was very nice but a bit difficult for me. All the people my age speak German so I sat at the table with the American women who are busy talking about their sick babies and their aerobics classes and all sorts of thing young mothers talk about. I guess I was having a bit of a “pity party” because I sure felt alone in a room full of people. But the food was great and the spirit of the occasion was great too. I was just thinking of how nice it would have been to be sitting and visiting with family and friends. For some reason, I’ve been really homesick this week. I’ve been thinking about Zach a lot-----going through the temple and getting things ready to go. That gets me thinking about Chris and how happy she is about her oldest son going on a mission while at the same time feeling the tugging in her heart. And I think about Brent and the possibility of Rex going to Oregon with Erika and that about does me in. Then I get to thinking about everyone else and how busy you all are and how yucky Cindy is feeling right now and how much I wish I could be home to help out a little bit. But I just keep all of you in my prayers and hope you know how much we love you and miss you. I know this is where we are supposed to be right now and I know that we are being blessed and feel that you are being blessed by our being here. I think I’m just having one of those bad weeks emotionally that us women are famous for.
I think I told you about the woman we went to see in the hospital after her sister called us at 5:30 last Thursday morning. Friday morning her husband called and said we don’t have to take care of his wife, that he could take care of her himself. He said it in kind of a mean way and I felt my blood immediately boil. I told him we knew he could take care of her and the last thing we wanted him to think was that we didn’t think he would take care of her and that if he felt like that, we were sorry. Then I told him the only reason we went to the hospital was because we had told her sister that we would go visit her and find out what was going on. He backed down then and even told us thank you for going to the hospital to see her. Later that night he called and told us he had brought her home from the hospital and that she was going to take some time off from work to rest and would be seeing a doctor here in Wurzburg. Then about 5 minutes later, the phone rang again and it was him calling to invite us to come and have lunch with them on Saturday. We had a wonderful time together. Brother Gunter leaves early on Monday morning to go back to Stuttgart where he works all week so we asked his wife if she would like us to come and visit her so she wouldn’t be alone all week. She said she would like that so we went over Tuesday and again today. It’s hard to believe that 6 weeks ago she told us she didn’t want us to come back and didn’t want anything to do with anyone from the church. Today she told us how all alone she felt while she was in the hospital. She and her husband had decided that they didn’t need anyone else in their lives and had pretty much cut themselves off from everybody but while she was there, she realized that she had been wrong. She did need other people and she needed the gospel in her life. She thanked us over and over for coming to see her at the hospital and so appreciates our visits with her at her home. She is a wonderful person with a generous heart. That is part of her problem. She takes care of everyone else before she takes care of herself. She is from Peru and her family there is very poor. She says every time she sits down to a nice meal, she thinks of her brother and five children in Peru that hardly ever have enough to eat. Her sister that lives in Salt Lake refuses to learn English and doesn’t have a job and her husband bounces from job to job and doesn’t provide well for the family so Sister Gunter sends all her paycheck to her family is Peru and in Salt Lake. I think that’s starting to get to her. She said when we were there Saturday that she would like to go to town and buy something for her but she never has the money to do it. She has a lot of thing to sort out. I think they have been building inside of her for a long time.
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago the 74 year old man we have started meeting with. He is the one who was married for 35 years and then divorced his wife. He is really a nice man and loves studying the gospel. We went to his place Monday and he asked us to come back tomorrow. It has been such a long time since he had much to do with the church but I think he still has good feelings toward the church. He is fascinated with the Book of Mormon and is reading in it and had lots of questions when we were there. Dad does a great job answering his questions. He just acts like he can’t get enough of it right now. We’re looking forward to our visit. He is very active. He rides a bike and plays tennis. He has had a bad infection in his leg and hasn’t been able to play tennis yet this spring and his tennis playing buddies are always calling and asking him when he’s going to come and start playing. He is just a delightful person to be around.
Remember the couple who got in a big fight when it came time to setting another appointment with us? I told Dad I NEVER wanted to go there again but he didn’t listen to me. We went a couple of weeks ago and got the “cold as ice” treatment from the wife. Then I’ll be darned if Dad didn’t call and make another appointment!!! I wasn’t very happy with him. But we went today. The wife was not at home and when we walked into the living room, there was his Bible, a notebook and pencil and a Book of Mormon on the table. We talked about living with God before we came to the earth, about the importance of families and how the gospel helps families, about the need for prophets, about Christ establishing a church when He lived on the earth and about the apostasy. He wrote down every scripture we looked up and was so interested. He asked when we were going to talk about the Book of Mormon and Dad told him, next time we come. He got right up and went to his calendar and set another time for us. It was an awesome experience and there was such a good spirit there. I guess it’s best never to try to outguess how people will react to hearing the gospel. He is such a nice man and seems to really want to learn about the church.
The Holzers, the other couple missionary that have been in our district were transferred to Nurnburg to run the Outreach Center there. I feel so bad that they won’t be in our district anymore. They have become such good friends. But we will see them at Zone conferences and probably when we go for interviews with our mission president so it won’t be like we’ll never see them again but we’ll sure miss them at our district meetings. What wonderful people we have met and great friendships we have made while being here. That is one of the greatest blessings of serving a mission.
Guess that’s it for this week. Life is busy and time marches on and that’s just fine with me. We’re looking forward to seeing conference this week-end. It will be shown at the church in both German and in English and we can also get it on the computer at BYUTV. It’s always such a boost to hear our wonderful leaders.
Know that you are loved, thought of and prayed for many times each week. Thank you for being such a great family.
Much love,
Mom
Its 9:30 P M and we just got in. This is supposed to be our P-day but everyone we talked to earlier in the week wanted to meet on Thursday so that’s what we did. We took part of yesterday to do our washing and a few other things. We also went for a long walk above the grape vineyards that are on the hill that goes up from the city. We walked for about an hour and it was beautiful and peaceful. The weather was warm and it was very relaxing. We’ve had a good week----a very busy week but a good week.
Thomas’ baptism on Saturday was a wonderful experience. He is so happy. There were 83 people there. His parents and sister and some aunts were there. I think this has been very hard for his mother but she was there and tried to look happy for Thomas. I was trying to think how I would feel if one of you were baptized into another church. I’m sure it was hard for her. They are such nice people and have invited Dad and I over sometime after Easter to talk to them about the church. Thomas had a lot of friends from school there too and he told us Monday night that one of the girls that came has been asking him a lot of questions about the church. He told her the missionaries would be glad to meet with her so she is going to talk to her parents. He’s going to be a great missionary and a great influence for good on a lot of people. Everyone brought food so we had a real feast after the baptism. I think Sunday is the only day we go into the church without carrying food!! We always have treats for FHE and it seems like there is always something going on in the ward that we sign up to bring food for.
Wednesday night was the Relief Society anniversary party and I was asked to bring brownies. Those zucchini brownies are a hit!! I’ve given out the recipe to several people. The RS party was very nice but a bit difficult for me. All the people my age speak German so I sat at the table with the American women who are busy talking about their sick babies and their aerobics classes and all sorts of thing young mothers talk about. I guess I was having a bit of a “pity party” because I sure felt alone in a room full of people. But the food was great and the spirit of the occasion was great too. I was just thinking of how nice it would have been to be sitting and visiting with family and friends. For some reason, I’ve been really homesick this week. I’ve been thinking about Zach a lot-----going through the temple and getting things ready to go. That gets me thinking about Chris and how happy she is about her oldest son going on a mission while at the same time feeling the tugging in her heart. And I think about Brent and the possibility of Rex going to Oregon with Erika and that about does me in. Then I get to thinking about everyone else and how busy you all are and how yucky Cindy is feeling right now and how much I wish I could be home to help out a little bit. But I just keep all of you in my prayers and hope you know how much we love you and miss you. I know this is where we are supposed to be right now and I know that we are being blessed and feel that you are being blessed by our being here. I think I’m just having one of those bad weeks emotionally that us women are famous for.
I think I told you about the woman we went to see in the hospital after her sister called us at 5:30 last Thursday morning. Friday morning her husband called and said we don’t have to take care of his wife, that he could take care of her himself. He said it in kind of a mean way and I felt my blood immediately boil. I told him we knew he could take care of her and the last thing we wanted him to think was that we didn’t think he would take care of her and that if he felt like that, we were sorry. Then I told him the only reason we went to the hospital was because we had told her sister that we would go visit her and find out what was going on. He backed down then and even told us thank you for going to the hospital to see her. Later that night he called and told us he had brought her home from the hospital and that she was going to take some time off from work to rest and would be seeing a doctor here in Wurzburg. Then about 5 minutes later, the phone rang again and it was him calling to invite us to come and have lunch with them on Saturday. We had a wonderful time together. Brother Gunter leaves early on Monday morning to go back to Stuttgart where he works all week so we asked his wife if she would like us to come and visit her so she wouldn’t be alone all week. She said she would like that so we went over Tuesday and again today. It’s hard to believe that 6 weeks ago she told us she didn’t want us to come back and didn’t want anything to do with anyone from the church. Today she told us how all alone she felt while she was in the hospital. She and her husband had decided that they didn’t need anyone else in their lives and had pretty much cut themselves off from everybody but while she was there, she realized that she had been wrong. She did need other people and she needed the gospel in her life. She thanked us over and over for coming to see her at the hospital and so appreciates our visits with her at her home. She is a wonderful person with a generous heart. That is part of her problem. She takes care of everyone else before she takes care of herself. She is from Peru and her family there is very poor. She says every time she sits down to a nice meal, she thinks of her brother and five children in Peru that hardly ever have enough to eat. Her sister that lives in Salt Lake refuses to learn English and doesn’t have a job and her husband bounces from job to job and doesn’t provide well for the family so Sister Gunter sends all her paycheck to her family is Peru and in Salt Lake. I think that’s starting to get to her. She said when we were there Saturday that she would like to go to town and buy something for her but she never has the money to do it. She has a lot of thing to sort out. I think they have been building inside of her for a long time.
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago the 74 year old man we have started meeting with. He is the one who was married for 35 years and then divorced his wife. He is really a nice man and loves studying the gospel. We went to his place Monday and he asked us to come back tomorrow. It has been such a long time since he had much to do with the church but I think he still has good feelings toward the church. He is fascinated with the Book of Mormon and is reading in it and had lots of questions when we were there. Dad does a great job answering his questions. He just acts like he can’t get enough of it right now. We’re looking forward to our visit. He is very active. He rides a bike and plays tennis. He has had a bad infection in his leg and hasn’t been able to play tennis yet this spring and his tennis playing buddies are always calling and asking him when he’s going to come and start playing. He is just a delightful person to be around.
Remember the couple who got in a big fight when it came time to setting another appointment with us? I told Dad I NEVER wanted to go there again but he didn’t listen to me. We went a couple of weeks ago and got the “cold as ice” treatment from the wife. Then I’ll be darned if Dad didn’t call and make another appointment!!! I wasn’t very happy with him. But we went today. The wife was not at home and when we walked into the living room, there was his Bible, a notebook and pencil and a Book of Mormon on the table. We talked about living with God before we came to the earth, about the importance of families and how the gospel helps families, about the need for prophets, about Christ establishing a church when He lived on the earth and about the apostasy. He wrote down every scripture we looked up and was so interested. He asked when we were going to talk about the Book of Mormon and Dad told him, next time we come. He got right up and went to his calendar and set another time for us. It was an awesome experience and there was such a good spirit there. I guess it’s best never to try to outguess how people will react to hearing the gospel. He is such a nice man and seems to really want to learn about the church.
The Holzers, the other couple missionary that have been in our district were transferred to Nurnburg to run the Outreach Center there. I feel so bad that they won’t be in our district anymore. They have become such good friends. But we will see them at Zone conferences and probably when we go for interviews with our mission president so it won’t be like we’ll never see them again but we’ll sure miss them at our district meetings. What wonderful people we have met and great friendships we have made while being here. That is one of the greatest blessings of serving a mission.
Guess that’s it for this week. Life is busy and time marches on and that’s just fine with me. We’re looking forward to seeing conference this week-end. It will be shown at the church in both German and in English and we can also get it on the computer at BYUTV. It’s always such a boost to hear our wonderful leaders.
Know that you are loved, thought of and prayed for many times each week. Thank you for being such a great family.
Much love,
Mom
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