From Mom 8/23
Dear Family,
Guten Tag---or in other words, good day. How are things at your house? I’m sure it has been a mad rush getting started in another school year but it’s always a relief to get back on more of a routine again too. We hope everyone is happy with their teachers and with their classes and have lots of new friends to enjoy. We’d love to hear all about it.
We have two elders in our district going home soon. In fact, our district leader has just 6 days left. He is leaving 3 weeks early so he can get back into school. The other one will leave on regular transfer day which is in three more weeks. Anyway, with the two of them leaving, we decided to have a district P-day and got permission from President Rakow to all go to Rothenberg. The Elders had never been there and if you’re in Germany, you must see Rothenberg. That’s the city we went to with Petra a few months ago. When we went with her, it rained all day but today was beautiful. It’s like stepping back in time about 600 years to walk into that city. We enjoyed just walking around and seeing the sights and going into all the little shops. The streets are cobblestone so it’s not the easiest place to be walking around. Its fun thinking about what it was like in the 16th and 17th century. Many buildings have when they were built carved into the stone. I think the earliest one was sometime in the 1400’s. This is the area where knights in shining armor fought to defend their country. It’s called the medieval city. There is a wall clear around the city and it’s interesting to be up on that wall and see the evidences of many battles fought. The Elders seemed to really enjoy it. They took lots of pictures and seemed to enjoy doing something completely different. It was having Elder and Sister Meng in our district and having them there today. It was just a good day.
This has been a week of “service projects”. Elder and Sister Mengs car was due for a 75,000 mile service so they asked us if we would meet them at the shop and spend some time with them while their car was being serviced. That ended up being nearly an all day thing. They hadn’t been to Wurzburg and wanted to see some of the sights so we went for a walk along the river toward town but instead of going into town, we decided to walk up to the big castle on the hill. It’s a long ways up there!!! We spent quite a bit of time at the castle and then walked back to a floating restaurant on the river and had lunch then took them to get their car. By then the day was pretty much gone as far as time for real missionary work goes but we did have an appointment with our 74 year old tennis player and that turned out to be a really good meeting. It’s always interesting to teach people how to pray and to hear their experience with it. Brother Vollrath hasn’t prayed in years but he has tried to pray a few times since we’ve been meeting with him and he said he is feeling something different than he has ever felt before and likes what he is feeling. He has tournaments the next two weeks but said he would continue to try to pray. We’ve seen his interest in the gospel grow so much since our first meeting with him.
We had an interesting meeting Sunday afternoon. It was with an inactive sister that we’ve tried to meet with ever since we got here. She’s either never home or she doesn’t answer her phone. Dad left several messages and last week she called and said she would like us to come and see her. This has to be one of the most unhappy women we’ve ever met. She was divorced from her first husband and her second husband died of lung cancer. She has been a member of the church for nearly 50 years and told us what it was like when this ward was an all German ward and when the chapel was closer to downtown. She liked going then. But she didn’t like it when the American soldiers and their families came and they combined the German and English speaking wards. That’s when she quit coming to church. When we brought up the Book of Mormon, she didn’t want to talk about it. She said her religion is what comes from the Bible. She isn’t sure there is a God anymore. She doesn’t believe that prayer does any good and she came right out and told us that she just wanted to die----that she was just plain tired of living. What a sad condition to be in. So she doesn’t want us to talk about religion but she wants us to come and visit her because she is so lonely. So we’ll go and we’ll hope we can help bring some happiness.
The bishop has asked us to work with a couple of very troubled families in the ward. One is a situation where the mad is on disability. He has MS and it has affected his brain. If he stays on his medicine, he does okay but for some reason he doesn’t think he has to take his medicine all the time and when he doesn’t he becomes very violent. They have a 4 year old and a 1 year old and when he gets into one of these moods, he’s very abusive to his wife and to his children. They are fairly new in the church but have been to the temple and they love going to the temple. They live quite a ways out and don’t have much association with people from the ward so the bishop has asked if we would go there on a regular basis and be their friends and talk about the gospel with them. He said they are hungry for the gospel but they need someone to talk with them about it.
The other family is the one I’ve told you about where the husband was unfaithful to his wife. Bishop Moffitt has met with the husband every week for over a year and felt like he was coming along with his repentance process but his wife just can’t forgive him and is trying to “get even” by doing things to hurt him. A couple of weeks ago she decided she wanted a separation and told him to leave. So he left and then she was mad all over again. She just let this whole thing eat on her to the point the she just had to do something that would really hurt him so she went to his commanding officer and told him what had happened. As a result, he can only see the kids 2 hours a week and can’t be alone with them. Those two little boys absolutely adore their Daddy. He is a good man who has made a serious mistake but has been trying to rise above it and because of her not being able to forgive and try to help him, she has caused more pain to both of them. The Army is in the process of making arrangements for her to go back to the states. We have tried to befriend both of them. Dad met with him for a couple hours last night and he is so confused. He didn’t want the separation. He wanted to try to work things out. He regrets so much the mistakes he made but really wanted to put his life in order again. He asked Dad if they could meet and talk again next week. Oh, the messes that people get themselves into. And it seems like somehow we get right in the middle of them too. But the bishop asked us to do anything we could do to help and encourage them. My heart goes out to both of them.
A mission is a mixture of a lot of different experiences, especially for senior missionaries. Sometimes it’s hard to feel like we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing. I think the mind set of a missionary is “teach and baptize” and when we spend most of our time doing other things, it’s hard to feel like we’re really missionaries. But when we came to Wurzburg, President Rakow told us to do whatever Bishop Moffitt needed us to do. We worry about what will become of the ward. By this time next year the army base will be completely shut down. By the end of this year, three active families will be gone. That’s 16 people. We have plenty of work to do to try to activate people again so this ward can stay a ward. Bishop Moffitt will be leaving the end of September. I don’t envy the new bishop! I don’t envy any new bishop but with this ward shrinking, it will be extra challenging. We’ll continue to work hard and do our best to try to help the people here.
We got a letter from some friends we met at the MTC. These are his thoughts about a mission:
“If anyone tries to tell you that a mission is not work, don’t listen to them. Not so much hard work, but daily work, does not go away work; must be there work; study the scriptures daily and pray for the spirit work.” I think that’s a pretty accurate description of what a mission is like. It’s no vacation. I can’t say it’s fun but is very rewarding.
Thank you for being who you are. Know that we love you and we pray for your well being every day. President Hinckley said in a recent article that there has never been so much wickedness in the world as there is right now. How very important it is to live the gospel of Jesus Christ and resist the many temptations that are out there. If we do that, we will be okay and will find peace even in a much troubled world.
Much love to all of you,
Mom
Guten Tag---or in other words, good day. How are things at your house? I’m sure it has been a mad rush getting started in another school year but it’s always a relief to get back on more of a routine again too. We hope everyone is happy with their teachers and with their classes and have lots of new friends to enjoy. We’d love to hear all about it.
We have two elders in our district going home soon. In fact, our district leader has just 6 days left. He is leaving 3 weeks early so he can get back into school. The other one will leave on regular transfer day which is in three more weeks. Anyway, with the two of them leaving, we decided to have a district P-day and got permission from President Rakow to all go to Rothenberg. The Elders had never been there and if you’re in Germany, you must see Rothenberg. That’s the city we went to with Petra a few months ago. When we went with her, it rained all day but today was beautiful. It’s like stepping back in time about 600 years to walk into that city. We enjoyed just walking around and seeing the sights and going into all the little shops. The streets are cobblestone so it’s not the easiest place to be walking around. Its fun thinking about what it was like in the 16th and 17th century. Many buildings have when they were built carved into the stone. I think the earliest one was sometime in the 1400’s. This is the area where knights in shining armor fought to defend their country. It’s called the medieval city. There is a wall clear around the city and it’s interesting to be up on that wall and see the evidences of many battles fought. The Elders seemed to really enjoy it. They took lots of pictures and seemed to enjoy doing something completely different. It was having Elder and Sister Meng in our district and having them there today. It was just a good day.
This has been a week of “service projects”. Elder and Sister Mengs car was due for a 75,000 mile service so they asked us if we would meet them at the shop and spend some time with them while their car was being serviced. That ended up being nearly an all day thing. They hadn’t been to Wurzburg and wanted to see some of the sights so we went for a walk along the river toward town but instead of going into town, we decided to walk up to the big castle on the hill. It’s a long ways up there!!! We spent quite a bit of time at the castle and then walked back to a floating restaurant on the river and had lunch then took them to get their car. By then the day was pretty much gone as far as time for real missionary work goes but we did have an appointment with our 74 year old tennis player and that turned out to be a really good meeting. It’s always interesting to teach people how to pray and to hear their experience with it. Brother Vollrath hasn’t prayed in years but he has tried to pray a few times since we’ve been meeting with him and he said he is feeling something different than he has ever felt before and likes what he is feeling. He has tournaments the next two weeks but said he would continue to try to pray. We’ve seen his interest in the gospel grow so much since our first meeting with him.
We had an interesting meeting Sunday afternoon. It was with an inactive sister that we’ve tried to meet with ever since we got here. She’s either never home or she doesn’t answer her phone. Dad left several messages and last week she called and said she would like us to come and see her. This has to be one of the most unhappy women we’ve ever met. She was divorced from her first husband and her second husband died of lung cancer. She has been a member of the church for nearly 50 years and told us what it was like when this ward was an all German ward and when the chapel was closer to downtown. She liked going then. But she didn’t like it when the American soldiers and their families came and they combined the German and English speaking wards. That’s when she quit coming to church. When we brought up the Book of Mormon, she didn’t want to talk about it. She said her religion is what comes from the Bible. She isn’t sure there is a God anymore. She doesn’t believe that prayer does any good and she came right out and told us that she just wanted to die----that she was just plain tired of living. What a sad condition to be in. So she doesn’t want us to talk about religion but she wants us to come and visit her because she is so lonely. So we’ll go and we’ll hope we can help bring some happiness.
The bishop has asked us to work with a couple of very troubled families in the ward. One is a situation where the mad is on disability. He has MS and it has affected his brain. If he stays on his medicine, he does okay but for some reason he doesn’t think he has to take his medicine all the time and when he doesn’t he becomes very violent. They have a 4 year old and a 1 year old and when he gets into one of these moods, he’s very abusive to his wife and to his children. They are fairly new in the church but have been to the temple and they love going to the temple. They live quite a ways out and don’t have much association with people from the ward so the bishop has asked if we would go there on a regular basis and be their friends and talk about the gospel with them. He said they are hungry for the gospel but they need someone to talk with them about it.
The other family is the one I’ve told you about where the husband was unfaithful to his wife. Bishop Moffitt has met with the husband every week for over a year and felt like he was coming along with his repentance process but his wife just can’t forgive him and is trying to “get even” by doing things to hurt him. A couple of weeks ago she decided she wanted a separation and told him to leave. So he left and then she was mad all over again. She just let this whole thing eat on her to the point the she just had to do something that would really hurt him so she went to his commanding officer and told him what had happened. As a result, he can only see the kids 2 hours a week and can’t be alone with them. Those two little boys absolutely adore their Daddy. He is a good man who has made a serious mistake but has been trying to rise above it and because of her not being able to forgive and try to help him, she has caused more pain to both of them. The Army is in the process of making arrangements for her to go back to the states. We have tried to befriend both of them. Dad met with him for a couple hours last night and he is so confused. He didn’t want the separation. He wanted to try to work things out. He regrets so much the mistakes he made but really wanted to put his life in order again. He asked Dad if they could meet and talk again next week. Oh, the messes that people get themselves into. And it seems like somehow we get right in the middle of them too. But the bishop asked us to do anything we could do to help and encourage them. My heart goes out to both of them.
A mission is a mixture of a lot of different experiences, especially for senior missionaries. Sometimes it’s hard to feel like we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing. I think the mind set of a missionary is “teach and baptize” and when we spend most of our time doing other things, it’s hard to feel like we’re really missionaries. But when we came to Wurzburg, President Rakow told us to do whatever Bishop Moffitt needed us to do. We worry about what will become of the ward. By this time next year the army base will be completely shut down. By the end of this year, three active families will be gone. That’s 16 people. We have plenty of work to do to try to activate people again so this ward can stay a ward. Bishop Moffitt will be leaving the end of September. I don’t envy the new bishop! I don’t envy any new bishop but with this ward shrinking, it will be extra challenging. We’ll continue to work hard and do our best to try to help the people here.
We got a letter from some friends we met at the MTC. These are his thoughts about a mission:
“If anyone tries to tell you that a mission is not work, don’t listen to them. Not so much hard work, but daily work, does not go away work; must be there work; study the scriptures daily and pray for the spirit work.” I think that’s a pretty accurate description of what a mission is like. It’s no vacation. I can’t say it’s fun but is very rewarding.
Thank you for being who you are. Know that we love you and we pray for your well being every day. President Hinckley said in a recent article that there has never been so much wickedness in the world as there is right now. How very important it is to live the gospel of Jesus Christ and resist the many temptations that are out there. If we do that, we will be okay and will find peace even in a much troubled world.
Much love to all of you,
Mom
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