From Mom 8/9
Dear Family,
Hello again from Germany. Another week has flown by, a week full of a variety of experiences. We spent all day last Friday and Saturday checking apartments. We have 3 more to do and we’re going to do them tomorrow. We drove over 500 miles doing the ones we did last week. Dad is as good as any GPS system. I just tried to turn when he said turn and go straight when he said go straight and we were able to find all 12 of the apartments. We learned one thing for sure and that is that the Elders don’t use a lot of their time on their missions cleaning. I think the apartments are a place to eat, sleep, shower and do the laundry. In one of them, the tile floor was really dirty and they said they didn’t know how to clean it. They said they vacuumed but the “dirt” didn’t come up. I rubbed my foot across the “dirt” and rubbed it away so we told them they just need to get a bucket, some warm water and soap, a rag and wash the floor. They hadn’t even thought of that! Oh well, they’re 19 and they’re boys. I’m thinking that to them, that isn’t the kind of thing they do. Some of them were really clean. Some should be condemned! Missionaries shouldn’t have to live in some of the conditions the apartments are in. We’re hoping our reports will bring some action but our job is just to inspect and report so that’s what we’ll do.
When we got to one of the apartments there were two plates of food on the kitchen table. We apologized for getting there just when it was lunch time and they told us that food was for us. And it was really good. The problem was that our next apartment was the Holzers, the couple we think so much of and they had told us they were planning lunch for us whenever we got there. So we had two good lunches about an hour apart. We didn’t have to bother about eating the rest of that day. The next day, our last appointment was with Elder and Sister Meng who just recently got here. After we looked through their apartment, Brother Meng asked us if we’d like to go with them to get something to eat. He said the food was good and reasonably priced. We went---it was good and the price was good but there was way too much food to be eating that late in the evening. We were stuffed and neither one of us slept very well that night. Sunday we were invited to lunch at our Relief Society president’s home. That too was very good and we enjoyed our time with them. We had another appointment a couple hours later and when we got there, they had dinner on the table for us.
Another sleepless night! And then came Monday, district meeting day. Transfers were coming up. Our district leader is going home. We had planned to all go to lunch together. We went to a restaurant famous for big servings of schnitzel. BIG is right! The meat covered the whole plate and hung over the sides. Dad and I got one order for the both of us and we still brought about a third of it home. It was delicious and it was fun being together. Elders can put away a lot of food and its fun watching them enjoy it. If we have many weeks like this, we’ll have to get new clothes!
Thomas Mueller is leaving this week-end to go live in California and go to a junior college there. Monday was his last Family Home Evening with us and he had asked if it would be okay for him to invite some of his friends and if we could have kind of a party before he left. He wanted to watch a movie and have treats and we told him that would be fine. We were running a little late because of the extra time district meeting took and when we got to the church, they had the TV set up in the cultural hall and there were 18 non-member friends there. They had brought chips and candy and I had told Thomas I would bring whatever he wanted me to bring. He wanted banana bread, chocolate chip cookie bars and zucchini brownies. I made the banana bread before we left for district meeting and did the other two after we got home. Thomas wanted to watch “Mobsters and Mormons” and a member had let him borrow the DVD but before we started that, he had asked the Elders to show “The Restoration”. Those kids really paid attention to that and when it was over, Thomas stood and bore his testimony to his friends. After a treat break, they put on the other movie and just watched and ate and talked. After it was all over, Thomas was sitting with 8 or 10 of the kids he had invited and answering their questions about the church. We had the opportunity of talking to one of the girls. She is very dissatisfied with her church right now and had a lot of questions about what we believe. Two of the girls asked for a Book of Mormon. We felt like it was a very successful evening. We just wish Thomas wasn’t leaving. He is such a missionary and people are just drawn to him. We tried to convince him that he was needed here more than in California but he’s been planning this for too long of a time for us to be able to get him to change his mind. We will really miss him.
We had another 3 ½ session with Petra earlier this evening. She has met someone who is looking for a wife. She’s looking for a husband so this looked like a good thing to her. One catch though----he thinks our church is a sect and he doesn’t think any church has a right to tell people how to live. Petra was confused. The world thinks that it’s okay to live together before you get married and decide if you really want to marry the person. While we were teaching Petra before her baptism, she learned that that isn’t the way it’s supposed to be and she knows that but she wants someone in her life so badly that she had almost convinced herself that it would be okay. It took a lot of talking to remind her that we don’t pick and chose the commandments we will live. We try to keep all of the commandments. She finally came around but it took some time. It’s interesting to watch her expressions as she works these kinds of issues through. You can tell just watching her when she finally realizes that what she was thinking of doing was not right and that keeping the commandments was the way she really wanted to live. She’s still fairly new in the church and it’s easy to be swayed by “the world” still. She did say when we left that she learned a lot more about the importance of the atonement and felt a much closer feeling toward Jesus Christ so that was good. She has struggled feeling a strong relationship with Him. She has no problem with our Heavenly Father but the Saviors role in her life has never been clear to her. We are so grateful that when questions come up, she is willing to work them through. I can see more all the time the importance of working with new members for a good period of time after they are baptized. A lot of things are so new to them.
The young mother of two active boys whose husband has been unfaithful to her is about at the end of her rope. Yesterday we went over and stayed with the boys for a couple of hours so she could go to the gym and exercise to relieve some of the stress and just get away for awhile. She looked better when she came back and appreciated the break. Its one day at a time for her. We are trying to stay in touch and it’s hard seeing her go through this and not being able to do more. Satan is having his hay day but we know it won’t last forever. But he sure is doing more than his share of damage to families.
We’ve had rain the last two days. Yesterday before it actually started to rain, you could just feel the humidity in the air. I had done some washing but decided it was no use trying to get it dry outside. We have a little patio out our back door that I like to put the drying racks on but the clothes would never have dried. Today it was raining when we got up and has been raining all day. It has been a very different summer. Everyone we talk to says that. Here it is the 9th of August and the high temperature is 61”. From what we hear, that’s quite different from the weather you are having.
We have a full day tomorrow with apartment inspections and then an appointed with a part-member family in the evening. Saturday and Sunday and full days too. Saturday we are meeting with an inactive member and his non-member wife. We’ve been trying to get together with them for several months. She answered the phone when we called and gave us an appointment. We are happy about that. She’s a bit skeptical about Mormon missionaries but when she found out we were couple missionaries she decided it would be okay for us to come. We have two other appointments that day too. Sundays are usually long days with our weekly missionary meeting before church and then a couple of appointments in the afternoon. But that’s how we like it. Time goes faster when we’re busy.
I better get to bed. Our first apartment appointment is at 9 o’clock and it’s a two hour drive to get there. Know that we love you and we miss all of you. You are in our prayers every single day. I mission is a great experience but there’s really nothing like being with family. We look forward to the day we will be together again.
Much love,
Mom
P.S. I forgot to tell you one of the best parts of our travels last week. When we took Petra to get her Patriarchal blessing, Dad was talking to the stake patriarch and asked him about a sister he knew while he was here on his first mission. The Patriarch knew her and told Dad that she now lived in Nurnberg. We were hoping we would get to see her when we took Thomas over there a couple of weeks ago but found out she had just had surgery so wasn’t able to be at church. But we got her phone number and Dad called her and told her we were going to be in Nurnberg on Friday and asked if we could come and see her. She seemed very happy to have us come so after we were done inspecting for the day, we went to he apartment. She is 86 years old and is so full of life and is just a happy person, a delight to be around. When Dad met her, she has just been baptized. She lived in the first city Dad served in. She has stayed active all these years and is just so enthused about the church and being a part of things. She walked with us to the elevator when we left and when Dad said, “bis spatter, which means, “see you later”, she said in English, “No, it’s see ya later alligator” and then she started laughing. It lifts your spirits to just be around her. She usually helps with the lunch we have when we are in Nurnberg for Zone Conference but hasn’t been able to because of health problems but she assured us that she would be helping at the next conference. What a treat it was to meet her and visit with her.
When we were set apart for our mission, Dad was told he would have the opportunity of renewing acquaintances from his first mission. Elder Moody, our mission doctor was one of his companions. Sister Wenzel, who lives here in the Wurzburg ward was in one of his districts when he was a district leader and now seeing Sister Shoenfeld is the third one. What a great experience it has been for both of us to meet these people again.
Gotta run. Have a good day. Hope you are all well and prepared for another school year.
Love ya much,
Mom
Hello again from Germany. Another week has flown by, a week full of a variety of experiences. We spent all day last Friday and Saturday checking apartments. We have 3 more to do and we’re going to do them tomorrow. We drove over 500 miles doing the ones we did last week. Dad is as good as any GPS system. I just tried to turn when he said turn and go straight when he said go straight and we were able to find all 12 of the apartments. We learned one thing for sure and that is that the Elders don’t use a lot of their time on their missions cleaning. I think the apartments are a place to eat, sleep, shower and do the laundry. In one of them, the tile floor was really dirty and they said they didn’t know how to clean it. They said they vacuumed but the “dirt” didn’t come up. I rubbed my foot across the “dirt” and rubbed it away so we told them they just need to get a bucket, some warm water and soap, a rag and wash the floor. They hadn’t even thought of that! Oh well, they’re 19 and they’re boys. I’m thinking that to them, that isn’t the kind of thing they do. Some of them were really clean. Some should be condemned! Missionaries shouldn’t have to live in some of the conditions the apartments are in. We’re hoping our reports will bring some action but our job is just to inspect and report so that’s what we’ll do.
When we got to one of the apartments there were two plates of food on the kitchen table. We apologized for getting there just when it was lunch time and they told us that food was for us. And it was really good. The problem was that our next apartment was the Holzers, the couple we think so much of and they had told us they were planning lunch for us whenever we got there. So we had two good lunches about an hour apart. We didn’t have to bother about eating the rest of that day. The next day, our last appointment was with Elder and Sister Meng who just recently got here. After we looked through their apartment, Brother Meng asked us if we’d like to go with them to get something to eat. He said the food was good and reasonably priced. We went---it was good and the price was good but there was way too much food to be eating that late in the evening. We were stuffed and neither one of us slept very well that night. Sunday we were invited to lunch at our Relief Society president’s home. That too was very good and we enjoyed our time with them. We had another appointment a couple hours later and when we got there, they had dinner on the table for us.
Another sleepless night! And then came Monday, district meeting day. Transfers were coming up. Our district leader is going home. We had planned to all go to lunch together. We went to a restaurant famous for big servings of schnitzel. BIG is right! The meat covered the whole plate and hung over the sides. Dad and I got one order for the both of us and we still brought about a third of it home. It was delicious and it was fun being together. Elders can put away a lot of food and its fun watching them enjoy it. If we have many weeks like this, we’ll have to get new clothes!
Thomas Mueller is leaving this week-end to go live in California and go to a junior college there. Monday was his last Family Home Evening with us and he had asked if it would be okay for him to invite some of his friends and if we could have kind of a party before he left. He wanted to watch a movie and have treats and we told him that would be fine. We were running a little late because of the extra time district meeting took and when we got to the church, they had the TV set up in the cultural hall and there were 18 non-member friends there. They had brought chips and candy and I had told Thomas I would bring whatever he wanted me to bring. He wanted banana bread, chocolate chip cookie bars and zucchini brownies. I made the banana bread before we left for district meeting and did the other two after we got home. Thomas wanted to watch “Mobsters and Mormons” and a member had let him borrow the DVD but before we started that, he had asked the Elders to show “The Restoration”. Those kids really paid attention to that and when it was over, Thomas stood and bore his testimony to his friends. After a treat break, they put on the other movie and just watched and ate and talked. After it was all over, Thomas was sitting with 8 or 10 of the kids he had invited and answering their questions about the church. We had the opportunity of talking to one of the girls. She is very dissatisfied with her church right now and had a lot of questions about what we believe. Two of the girls asked for a Book of Mormon. We felt like it was a very successful evening. We just wish Thomas wasn’t leaving. He is such a missionary and people are just drawn to him. We tried to convince him that he was needed here more than in California but he’s been planning this for too long of a time for us to be able to get him to change his mind. We will really miss him.
We had another 3 ½ session with Petra earlier this evening. She has met someone who is looking for a wife. She’s looking for a husband so this looked like a good thing to her. One catch though----he thinks our church is a sect and he doesn’t think any church has a right to tell people how to live. Petra was confused. The world thinks that it’s okay to live together before you get married and decide if you really want to marry the person. While we were teaching Petra before her baptism, she learned that that isn’t the way it’s supposed to be and she knows that but she wants someone in her life so badly that she had almost convinced herself that it would be okay. It took a lot of talking to remind her that we don’t pick and chose the commandments we will live. We try to keep all of the commandments. She finally came around but it took some time. It’s interesting to watch her expressions as she works these kinds of issues through. You can tell just watching her when she finally realizes that what she was thinking of doing was not right and that keeping the commandments was the way she really wanted to live. She’s still fairly new in the church and it’s easy to be swayed by “the world” still. She did say when we left that she learned a lot more about the importance of the atonement and felt a much closer feeling toward Jesus Christ so that was good. She has struggled feeling a strong relationship with Him. She has no problem with our Heavenly Father but the Saviors role in her life has never been clear to her. We are so grateful that when questions come up, she is willing to work them through. I can see more all the time the importance of working with new members for a good period of time after they are baptized. A lot of things are so new to them.
The young mother of two active boys whose husband has been unfaithful to her is about at the end of her rope. Yesterday we went over and stayed with the boys for a couple of hours so she could go to the gym and exercise to relieve some of the stress and just get away for awhile. She looked better when she came back and appreciated the break. Its one day at a time for her. We are trying to stay in touch and it’s hard seeing her go through this and not being able to do more. Satan is having his hay day but we know it won’t last forever. But he sure is doing more than his share of damage to families.
We’ve had rain the last two days. Yesterday before it actually started to rain, you could just feel the humidity in the air. I had done some washing but decided it was no use trying to get it dry outside. We have a little patio out our back door that I like to put the drying racks on but the clothes would never have dried. Today it was raining when we got up and has been raining all day. It has been a very different summer. Everyone we talk to says that. Here it is the 9th of August and the high temperature is 61”. From what we hear, that’s quite different from the weather you are having.
We have a full day tomorrow with apartment inspections and then an appointed with a part-member family in the evening. Saturday and Sunday and full days too. Saturday we are meeting with an inactive member and his non-member wife. We’ve been trying to get together with them for several months. She answered the phone when we called and gave us an appointment. We are happy about that. She’s a bit skeptical about Mormon missionaries but when she found out we were couple missionaries she decided it would be okay for us to come. We have two other appointments that day too. Sundays are usually long days with our weekly missionary meeting before church and then a couple of appointments in the afternoon. But that’s how we like it. Time goes faster when we’re busy.
I better get to bed. Our first apartment appointment is at 9 o’clock and it’s a two hour drive to get there. Know that we love you and we miss all of you. You are in our prayers every single day. I mission is a great experience but there’s really nothing like being with family. We look forward to the day we will be together again.
Much love,
Mom
P.S. I forgot to tell you one of the best parts of our travels last week. When we took Petra to get her Patriarchal blessing, Dad was talking to the stake patriarch and asked him about a sister he knew while he was here on his first mission. The Patriarch knew her and told Dad that she now lived in Nurnberg. We were hoping we would get to see her when we took Thomas over there a couple of weeks ago but found out she had just had surgery so wasn’t able to be at church. But we got her phone number and Dad called her and told her we were going to be in Nurnberg on Friday and asked if we could come and see her. She seemed very happy to have us come so after we were done inspecting for the day, we went to he apartment. She is 86 years old and is so full of life and is just a happy person, a delight to be around. When Dad met her, she has just been baptized. She lived in the first city Dad served in. She has stayed active all these years and is just so enthused about the church and being a part of things. She walked with us to the elevator when we left and when Dad said, “bis spatter, which means, “see you later”, she said in English, “No, it’s see ya later alligator” and then she started laughing. It lifts your spirits to just be around her. She usually helps with the lunch we have when we are in Nurnberg for Zone Conference but hasn’t been able to because of health problems but she assured us that she would be helping at the next conference. What a treat it was to meet her and visit with her.
When we were set apart for our mission, Dad was told he would have the opportunity of renewing acquaintances from his first mission. Elder Moody, our mission doctor was one of his companions. Sister Wenzel, who lives here in the Wurzburg ward was in one of his districts when he was a district leader and now seeing Sister Shoenfeld is the third one. What a great experience it has been for both of us to meet these people again.
Gotta run. Have a good day. Hope you are all well and prepared for another school year.
Love ya much,
Mom
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