From Dad 8/25
Hi everyone,
Even the medical community goes on vacation in Germany in August. There are very few left to sustain emergency services. Yet life goes on. We have had to scramble to find people to visit. We have had several cancellations. It’s all in the life of a missionary.
Gunther Jindre has come through many trials by fire as far as the Church is concerned. Friday the elders and I met with him again for the first time in six weeks for a normal discussion about the Church. We felt the Spirit and he was teachable again. For several weeks the door had been closed. His business is starting to show signs of positive life and even some strength. Time will tell whether he will actually make it all work.
The young father who lost his membership in the Church through his actions who also is a returned missionary shows a clear path of what happens in our lives when we turn away from living the gospel of Jesus Christ. We met this week and when I asked him his feelings about Jesus Christ, he said he was unsure who he was. I know from the many examples of men who have let the cares of the world crowd out their working at living the gospel, that faith and knowledge about Jesus Christ is one of the first things they lose. After this young father and I had talked for about an hour sitting in a parking lot I offered to give him a ride back to his barracks. He asked to just walk back. He wanted time to think. I look forward to next week to learn more about what he has been thinking.
Tim Palmer who has three boys, no job, and the mother of these three children now has someone else in whom she wants to spend her time and wants him to move on. He has no claim on his children. The past fifteen years have been for naught in his life. He is interested in learning more and becoming more involved with the Church again. We hope life will turn a corner for the better for him. He is very likable and we hope through strengthening his testimony he too will find work again and start a new life at 50.
The resistance to living prophets comes from the heart. When all the true prophets in the Old Testament times were alive there were those who loved them and followed them and those who fought against them and when possible killed them. The same was true for Jesus Christ when He lived on the earth. There have always been false prophets and false Christ’s since the beginning. Today there is much resistance to listening to and following the voice of a living prophet. Many reasons are given. None of these will hold water in the end. We make choices every day who we will follow in life. Pride simply says, “I’m my own man. I don’t follow anyone.” The sad reality will one day not always so gently inform us none of us is so strong as to stay aloof from either the Lord’s or Satan’s influence. These two are the only two forces at work in t he world. We do have the power, the right, and the responsibility to choose who we will follow. Only after our time of probation is past will we fully be aware of who we chose to follow and why. Our prayer as mom and dad and grandma and grandpa is that each of us will make every effort every day to exercise faith in Jesus Christ and build into our lives His teachings in how we live. None of us are perfect. We can always look at the holes in our armor. We can also look at the strength the armor provides and go forward in faith and each of us fulfill the mission in life we were foreordained to fulfill before we were born.
We love each of you with all of our hearts. Thanks for being family. Thanks for caring.
Love always,
Dad
Even the medical community goes on vacation in Germany in August. There are very few left to sustain emergency services. Yet life goes on. We have had to scramble to find people to visit. We have had several cancellations. It’s all in the life of a missionary.
Gunther Jindre has come through many trials by fire as far as the Church is concerned. Friday the elders and I met with him again for the first time in six weeks for a normal discussion about the Church. We felt the Spirit and he was teachable again. For several weeks the door had been closed. His business is starting to show signs of positive life and even some strength. Time will tell whether he will actually make it all work.
The young father who lost his membership in the Church through his actions who also is a returned missionary shows a clear path of what happens in our lives when we turn away from living the gospel of Jesus Christ. We met this week and when I asked him his feelings about Jesus Christ, he said he was unsure who he was. I know from the many examples of men who have let the cares of the world crowd out their working at living the gospel, that faith and knowledge about Jesus Christ is one of the first things they lose. After this young father and I had talked for about an hour sitting in a parking lot I offered to give him a ride back to his barracks. He asked to just walk back. He wanted time to think. I look forward to next week to learn more about what he has been thinking.
Tim Palmer who has three boys, no job, and the mother of these three children now has someone else in whom she wants to spend her time and wants him to move on. He has no claim on his children. The past fifteen years have been for naught in his life. He is interested in learning more and becoming more involved with the Church again. We hope life will turn a corner for the better for him. He is very likable and we hope through strengthening his testimony he too will find work again and start a new life at 50.
The resistance to living prophets comes from the heart. When all the true prophets in the Old Testament times were alive there were those who loved them and followed them and those who fought against them and when possible killed them. The same was true for Jesus Christ when He lived on the earth. There have always been false prophets and false Christ’s since the beginning. Today there is much resistance to listening to and following the voice of a living prophet. Many reasons are given. None of these will hold water in the end. We make choices every day who we will follow in life. Pride simply says, “I’m my own man. I don’t follow anyone.” The sad reality will one day not always so gently inform us none of us is so strong as to stay aloof from either the Lord’s or Satan’s influence. These two are the only two forces at work in t he world. We do have the power, the right, and the responsibility to choose who we will follow. Only after our time of probation is past will we fully be aware of who we chose to follow and why. Our prayer as mom and dad and grandma and grandpa is that each of us will make every effort every day to exercise faith in Jesus Christ and build into our lives His teachings in how we live. None of us are perfect. We can always look at the holes in our armor. We can also look at the strength the armor provides and go forward in faith and each of us fulfill the mission in life we were foreordained to fulfill before we were born.
We love each of you with all of our hearts. Thanks for being family. Thanks for caring.
Love always,
Dad
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