From Mom 7/19
Dear Family,
Summer has finally come. The weather is HOT but there is still rain about every other day so the humidity is crazy. My hair is so frizzy with all the humidity and tomorrow I’m going to get it cut----a little bit. Speaking of hair, Dad’s is getting very sparse. I told him he is rubbing it all out wearing a hat at night (yes, even in the summertime). Every time I cut his hair, there is less and less on top to cut. Last night when we got in the elevator, he looked in the mirror and said,”I think I forget to comb my “hairs”. Just want you to be prepared for that change when we come home.
We’ve had a wild week. Saturday Dad had run to the store to pick up some groceries for a man we’ve been trying to help get back on his feet. He was gone a LONG time and I was beginning to get worried. Then he came in with a very red, hot face carrying two sack of groceries and said the car had quit and he couldn’t get it started. We called a member in the ward and he came over and got Dad and took him to deliver the groceries. The people at the store had told Dad it would be okay to leave the car there until Monday. Sunday we went with Petra to get her Patriarchal blessing. It was another hot day. We left to come home about 3 o’clock and we hadn’t been on the road for more than a half hour when all of a sudden her car lost power and then just died. We called the company which is similar to AAA road service and they said they would be there as soon as they could but they had a lot of calls. They told us to get out of the car and put the warning triangle up and just wait. We walked through so pretty tall weeds and grass and found some shade in the trees just off the highway and waited for 3 hours for a truck to come. They loaded her car on the truck and drove to their shop in Nurnburg but couldn’t find out what was wrong so they loaded it on a trailer and off we went to Wurzburg. We got home a little after ten. The next morning we called the towing service and they met us at the parking lot and loaded our car on a truck and drove us to the Opal dealership. These wonderful little electronic devices are great when they work but when they quit, you don’t go anywhere. They had to order the part so they gave us a rental car for a couple of days until ours was done. It took the shop where Petra took her car 10 minutes to fix it and $10 for the part but they also found out she had no brakes at all. As we talked about it later, she said how much worse this could have been had we gone on in all the traffic and had to stop with no brakes. So in spite of the long wait and the frustration of a broken down vehicle, we feel the Lord’s hand was in it and we were all safe-----a bit frazzled but safe.
It was a wonderful experience being with Petra as she received her blessing. We attended all three meetings prior to her receiving her blessing. The bishop came and sat down by us and visited for a few minutes before church started, asking us all about our mission and our family and just being really friendly. When he stood up to go up to the stand, he asked if it would be okay if he called on us to say a few words during Sacrament meeting. Everything is in German but they have a young man who translates and the bishop said he would translate for me. So, we each gave a short message and bore our testimonies. After Sacrament meeting we went with Petra into the bishops office where she received her blessing. It was a beautiful blessing. The Lord has many things for her to do and she was told she would be a great missionary for the church and would be given many responsibilities. She was also promised that she would be given a companion to go to the temple with during her life here on earth. She was very happy about that. As we talked about her blessing a little bit, she told us that the moment the Patriarch put his hands on her head, she felt like she had a direct connection with Heavenly Father. She said it seemed like He had forgotten everyone else and had given her His full attention. She realizes now that she does have a relationship with our Heavenly Father, that He is someone who is real and knows her and how much more meaning prayer will have for her since that experience. After our “nightmare” trip home, she said, “It was still a wonderful day, wasn’t it?”
We’re not sure where Sister Meyers is with her testimony. She said she wants to have her “own” testimony of the gospel. Petra invited her and Brother Meyers and us over Wednesday afternoon and we talked a lot about prayer. Sister Meyers still has a hard time thinking of offering a personal prayer and asking for something just for her. I think Petra helped her understand that it’s okay to do that and that personal prayers are very important. She also encouraged her to pray out loud, telling her that it is easy to not get distracted when you are speaking out loud. We asked Sister Meyer if it would be okay if we called her every day to just see where she was and she said it would be fine. I guess at this point, only time will tell-----time and lots of prayers. She has a good understanding of the gospel but wants to “feel” it in her heart.
Do you remember us telling you about the family we visited shortly after we got here who had a big blowup when we asked when we could come back? I was scared to death but Dad didn’t give up on them. He and Brother Peterson, who has not been active for many years, had talked on the telephone every week. His wife is against the church and especially the Book of Mormon. She told us we could teach her out of the Bible but not the Book of Mormon. Well, we haven’t been back for several months and my heart sank when Dad got off the phone the other day and said the he wants us to come out to their house again. With fear and trembling, I went with Dad. I think the Lord must have heard my prayer and sensed my fear because his wife wasn’t home. We had a wonderful meeting with Bro. Peterson. What a change in him since the first time we met. He has been studying the scriptures and reading in the Book of Mormon and he wanted to be taught from the Book of Mormon that day. He was raised in the church and he showed us the inside cover of his Book of Mormon where his mother had written when she gave it to him as a gift. If hasn’t had a lot of use and doesn’t have the ready references in like the new one does so we are ordering one from the mission office to take to him next time we go. He said he hopes his wife is home next time. I’m not too sure I like that but we’ll go. He has been talking to two of his sisters who live in Utah more than he has talked to them for years and they always ask him if he is going to church. He says, “Not yet. But I’m going to.” He is such a nice, personable man and would be a great help to this ward. Again, we’ll try to do our part and then wait to see what happens. He offered the closing prayer on Tuesday and it was so heartfelt and sincere, asking that he would be a better husband, father and man and that the leaders of our church would be strengthened and guided as they direct the church.
We hadn’t seen our Muslim friend for a couple of weeks. When we went to see him last week, he was on a little vacation. His brother was minding the store. When we stopped in yesterday, he said, “Where have you been. I’ve missed seeing you.” With zone conference and everything else, we had been a little extra busy. Then he said he hadn’t balanced his books for three months and was in the middle of doing that so asked us to come back. We have an appointment with him at 9 o’clock in the morning.
So life goes on. It seems like we are always “preparing” for classes. Tuesday and Thursday are English classes and Wednesday is Institute. Then there is always FHE on Monday night and we always prepare treats and sometimes the lesson for that. Monday night there were 10 at FHE. We had a fun evening. We had invited everyone who plays a musical instrument to come and participate. There were a couple of guitars and a young adult who plays the piano beautifully. It got hot in the church and we had filled about 20 water balloons and taken towels with us so we went out to the back of the church and had a water balloon toss until the balloons were gone. I think everyone got pretty much cooled off. It was a lot of fun. Then we went back inside and the music started up again. We brought in the refreshments, (zucchini brownies) and just sat and talked and sang songs. Some of them had to leave and the rest of us went into the chapel where this good piano player played hymns and we sang. The kids would just call out a favorite hymn and she would play it and everyone would sing. We were there until 9:30 and Dad said it’s probably time to wrap things up. These are just amazing kids. It’s just a privilege to be associated with them.
We gave a new missionary couple in our district. They are from Rigby. Their last name is Meng. We haven’t met them yet but have talked on the phone. They are still trying to recover from the trip over. We will see them on Tuesday when we go to Nurnburg for our interviews with President Rakow. Elder Meng served his mission here the year after Dad went home from his mission. They had the same mission president for a short time. We are looking forward to getting acquainted with them. It will be nice to have another female in District meeting.
I guess that’s it for now. It seemed like this was kind of a slow week but when I got writing about things, I guess it wasn’t so slow after all. The other night on the way home from our English class, Dad mentioned that we need to work on our lesson for Institute for the next night. We’re never done. There’s always something else to be working on and that’s good. It’s much better to stay busy than having time on our hands. Sometimes we have to just take some time to let it “all hang out.” This is not easy work. Emotionally it can be very draining and physically, sometimes we just plain get tired! But luckily, we were told that if we need to take a rest in the middle of the day, do it. And we do. I usually go in and lie down on the bed and feel guilty because Dad is studying. But when I come out, he’s usually asleep in his chair so he gets his rest too.
Thank you all so much for your good letters. We look forward to hearing from each of you. It’s nice to know what’s going on in the family. You all sound like you are not lacking for things to do. You are in our thoughts and prayers each and every day. We love you very much. Time is marching on. Soon that little Peterson boy will be here and then it will only be a few months before we will be with you again.
Much love always,
Mom
Summer has finally come. The weather is HOT but there is still rain about every other day so the humidity is crazy. My hair is so frizzy with all the humidity and tomorrow I’m going to get it cut----a little bit. Speaking of hair, Dad’s is getting very sparse. I told him he is rubbing it all out wearing a hat at night (yes, even in the summertime). Every time I cut his hair, there is less and less on top to cut. Last night when we got in the elevator, he looked in the mirror and said,”I think I forget to comb my “hairs”. Just want you to be prepared for that change when we come home.
We’ve had a wild week. Saturday Dad had run to the store to pick up some groceries for a man we’ve been trying to help get back on his feet. He was gone a LONG time and I was beginning to get worried. Then he came in with a very red, hot face carrying two sack of groceries and said the car had quit and he couldn’t get it started. We called a member in the ward and he came over and got Dad and took him to deliver the groceries. The people at the store had told Dad it would be okay to leave the car there until Monday. Sunday we went with Petra to get her Patriarchal blessing. It was another hot day. We left to come home about 3 o’clock and we hadn’t been on the road for more than a half hour when all of a sudden her car lost power and then just died. We called the company which is similar to AAA road service and they said they would be there as soon as they could but they had a lot of calls. They told us to get out of the car and put the warning triangle up and just wait. We walked through so pretty tall weeds and grass and found some shade in the trees just off the highway and waited for 3 hours for a truck to come. They loaded her car on the truck and drove to their shop in Nurnburg but couldn’t find out what was wrong so they loaded it on a trailer and off we went to Wurzburg. We got home a little after ten. The next morning we called the towing service and they met us at the parking lot and loaded our car on a truck and drove us to the Opal dealership. These wonderful little electronic devices are great when they work but when they quit, you don’t go anywhere. They had to order the part so they gave us a rental car for a couple of days until ours was done. It took the shop where Petra took her car 10 minutes to fix it and $10 for the part but they also found out she had no brakes at all. As we talked about it later, she said how much worse this could have been had we gone on in all the traffic and had to stop with no brakes. So in spite of the long wait and the frustration of a broken down vehicle, we feel the Lord’s hand was in it and we were all safe-----a bit frazzled but safe.
It was a wonderful experience being with Petra as she received her blessing. We attended all three meetings prior to her receiving her blessing. The bishop came and sat down by us and visited for a few minutes before church started, asking us all about our mission and our family and just being really friendly. When he stood up to go up to the stand, he asked if it would be okay if he called on us to say a few words during Sacrament meeting. Everything is in German but they have a young man who translates and the bishop said he would translate for me. So, we each gave a short message and bore our testimonies. After Sacrament meeting we went with Petra into the bishops office where she received her blessing. It was a beautiful blessing. The Lord has many things for her to do and she was told she would be a great missionary for the church and would be given many responsibilities. She was also promised that she would be given a companion to go to the temple with during her life here on earth. She was very happy about that. As we talked about her blessing a little bit, she told us that the moment the Patriarch put his hands on her head, she felt like she had a direct connection with Heavenly Father. She said it seemed like He had forgotten everyone else and had given her His full attention. She realizes now that she does have a relationship with our Heavenly Father, that He is someone who is real and knows her and how much more meaning prayer will have for her since that experience. After our “nightmare” trip home, she said, “It was still a wonderful day, wasn’t it?”
We’re not sure where Sister Meyers is with her testimony. She said she wants to have her “own” testimony of the gospel. Petra invited her and Brother Meyers and us over Wednesday afternoon and we talked a lot about prayer. Sister Meyers still has a hard time thinking of offering a personal prayer and asking for something just for her. I think Petra helped her understand that it’s okay to do that and that personal prayers are very important. She also encouraged her to pray out loud, telling her that it is easy to not get distracted when you are speaking out loud. We asked Sister Meyer if it would be okay if we called her every day to just see where she was and she said it would be fine. I guess at this point, only time will tell-----time and lots of prayers. She has a good understanding of the gospel but wants to “feel” it in her heart.
Do you remember us telling you about the family we visited shortly after we got here who had a big blowup when we asked when we could come back? I was scared to death but Dad didn’t give up on them. He and Brother Peterson, who has not been active for many years, had talked on the telephone every week. His wife is against the church and especially the Book of Mormon. She told us we could teach her out of the Bible but not the Book of Mormon. Well, we haven’t been back for several months and my heart sank when Dad got off the phone the other day and said the he wants us to come out to their house again. With fear and trembling, I went with Dad. I think the Lord must have heard my prayer and sensed my fear because his wife wasn’t home. We had a wonderful meeting with Bro. Peterson. What a change in him since the first time we met. He has been studying the scriptures and reading in the Book of Mormon and he wanted to be taught from the Book of Mormon that day. He was raised in the church and he showed us the inside cover of his Book of Mormon where his mother had written when she gave it to him as a gift. If hasn’t had a lot of use and doesn’t have the ready references in like the new one does so we are ordering one from the mission office to take to him next time we go. He said he hopes his wife is home next time. I’m not too sure I like that but we’ll go. He has been talking to two of his sisters who live in Utah more than he has talked to them for years and they always ask him if he is going to church. He says, “Not yet. But I’m going to.” He is such a nice, personable man and would be a great help to this ward. Again, we’ll try to do our part and then wait to see what happens. He offered the closing prayer on Tuesday and it was so heartfelt and sincere, asking that he would be a better husband, father and man and that the leaders of our church would be strengthened and guided as they direct the church.
We hadn’t seen our Muslim friend for a couple of weeks. When we went to see him last week, he was on a little vacation. His brother was minding the store. When we stopped in yesterday, he said, “Where have you been. I’ve missed seeing you.” With zone conference and everything else, we had been a little extra busy. Then he said he hadn’t balanced his books for three months and was in the middle of doing that so asked us to come back. We have an appointment with him at 9 o’clock in the morning.
So life goes on. It seems like we are always “preparing” for classes. Tuesday and Thursday are English classes and Wednesday is Institute. Then there is always FHE on Monday night and we always prepare treats and sometimes the lesson for that. Monday night there were 10 at FHE. We had a fun evening. We had invited everyone who plays a musical instrument to come and participate. There were a couple of guitars and a young adult who plays the piano beautifully. It got hot in the church and we had filled about 20 water balloons and taken towels with us so we went out to the back of the church and had a water balloon toss until the balloons were gone. I think everyone got pretty much cooled off. It was a lot of fun. Then we went back inside and the music started up again. We brought in the refreshments, (zucchini brownies) and just sat and talked and sang songs. Some of them had to leave and the rest of us went into the chapel where this good piano player played hymns and we sang. The kids would just call out a favorite hymn and she would play it and everyone would sing. We were there until 9:30 and Dad said it’s probably time to wrap things up. These are just amazing kids. It’s just a privilege to be associated with them.
We gave a new missionary couple in our district. They are from Rigby. Their last name is Meng. We haven’t met them yet but have talked on the phone. They are still trying to recover from the trip over. We will see them on Tuesday when we go to Nurnburg for our interviews with President Rakow. Elder Meng served his mission here the year after Dad went home from his mission. They had the same mission president for a short time. We are looking forward to getting acquainted with them. It will be nice to have another female in District meeting.
I guess that’s it for now. It seemed like this was kind of a slow week but when I got writing about things, I guess it wasn’t so slow after all. The other night on the way home from our English class, Dad mentioned that we need to work on our lesson for Institute for the next night. We’re never done. There’s always something else to be working on and that’s good. It’s much better to stay busy than having time on our hands. Sometimes we have to just take some time to let it “all hang out.” This is not easy work. Emotionally it can be very draining and physically, sometimes we just plain get tired! But luckily, we were told that if we need to take a rest in the middle of the day, do it. And we do. I usually go in and lie down on the bed and feel guilty because Dad is studying. But when I come out, he’s usually asleep in his chair so he gets his rest too.
Thank you all so much for your good letters. We look forward to hearing from each of you. It’s nice to know what’s going on in the family. You all sound like you are not lacking for things to do. You are in our thoughts and prayers each and every day. We love you very much. Time is marching on. Soon that little Peterson boy will be here and then it will only be a few months before we will be with you again.
Much love always,
Mom
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