From Mom 10/18
Dear Family,
This has been kind of a “ho-hum” week-------not a lot of exciting things happening, just same old, same old. We spent a couple of days feeling very much under the weather. Last Friday, Dad didn’t even get dressed until after 3 o’clock. He had had a couple of restless nights with a bad headache and lots of aches and pains. Thursday I felt lousy and didn’t accomplish a lot. We had appointments both days and went to the appointments but sure didn’t feel well. Both days ended much earlier than usual. We’re blaming it on to the weather. Everyone else does that around here. There is just a lot of sickness everywhere right now.
We had our interview with President Rakow this week. He said he’s definitely planning on leaving us here in Wurzburg for the rest of our time. I have mixed feelings. It would have been nice to see some other parts of this mission but at the same time, I’m glad we don’t have to pack up and move and get acquainted with a new area, a new ward and new people. We have to remember that it was just a year ago that we saw every part of Germany that had missionaries in as we inspected apartments. That’s a lot more than most missionaries will ever see. But we feel comfortable here and are seeing some progress with some of the families we have been working with. We talked with him about Petra. He said we did all we could have possibly done and not to blame ourselves for the decisions she has made. He suggested that we continue to treat her as a good friend and leave the church out of our conversations with her. He feels that some day she will come around again. We hope so. She hasn’t responded to any of our e-mails and has asked that no one from the church try to contact her. It’s hard to stay away but we need to honor her request. She did tell her home teachers that she has been very much distraught over her live-in boyfriend who was the one who introduced her to the church in the first place. She has been hoping that they could patch things up but decided that wasn’t going to happen so she got rid of anything that had any connection to him. That included the church. I have been really discouraged about it but am finally realizing that she has the right to make her own choices and that we need to let go and move on. She will always be in our prayers and we will always hope that the good feelings she had about the church will come back.
We were impressed with the remarks of our new bishop on Sunday. He said he feels strongly about the need for everyone in the ward to work with our part-member and inactive families. The ward is shrinking in size and by next summer all of the American families will be gone. We need to get these inactive and part-member families active and coming to church again. I worry what will happen to this ward if that doesn’t happen but feel encouraged that the new bishop is making that a priority. Sometimes it’s hard to see that we are making any progress but we just keep trying. We had a good meeting with Anna Berner this week. She said that her church is the Ten Commandments and the teachings of Jesus Christ. We are glad that we can show her that both of these things can be found in the Book of Mormon. She usually has her Bible laid out but not her Book of Mormon. She was wondering what happened when we die and we read with her from Alma chapter 40. She was quite interested and said she would finish the chapter. Dad kept going back and forth from the Bible to the Book of Mormon and she was surprised how well the Book of Mormon validated the things we read from the Bible. It was an interesting discussion and she asked us to come back in two weeks. We encouraged her to pray before she started reading in the Book of Mormon that she would understand what she is reading and she agreed to do that. She doesn’t really disagree with anything we tell her. It’s just something new and she wants to study it out and be sure. And that’s as it should be.
I think every missionary that has been in Wurzburg has met and taught Sister Meyer. No one really understands why she won’t be baptized. Today we went over D&C 20:37 which talks about the qualifications for baptism. We went over everything that is mentioned in that scripture one thing at a time and told her we felt like she met every one of them. And she does. We asked her to pray about it and read it some more and think about the importance of being baptized. She said she would. We’ll see what happens there. Her husband’s greatest desire and concern is for her to be baptized so they can go to the temple. She is just an awesome lady. You would think she has been a member for a long time to see her interact with people in the ward and participate in everything. Again, we’ll just keep trying.
President Rakow told us that we probably won’t realize the good we’re doing until the next life. Then someone would come up to us and say, “Do you remember me? I was in Wurzburg when you were there on your mission and you helped me------“ I hope we don’t have to wait that long but we might and if we do and if we find out we really did help someone, it will be worth the effort. At our zone training this week, there was a couple there who are both converts to the church. One of them was four years and the other six or seven years meeting with missionaries before they finally came into the church. They both encouraged us to not become discouraged and to never give up on people. Keep in contact with them and keep working with them because some day they will understand and come to know the truth of what we are teaching. They emphasized the importance of keeping a good record of everyone we teach so that other missionaries could know what has been done and continue contact with them. That really helped us realize that the little things we are doing may be stepping stones for someone looking into the church. They have both served missions and are so thankful for the gospel in their lives. It was good to hear their conversion stories and feel their strong spirits.
Monday night at Family Home Evening we were asked to think back to when we first realized that Jesus Christ was someone very special. As I thought about it, the songs I learned in Primary were the first things that brought those feelings to me. I remember singing, “Jesus once was a little child, a little child like me. And He was pure and meek and mild as a little child should be. So little children, let’s you and I, try to be like him, try, try, try.” I love the Primary songs. They teach so many gospel lessons. I love the song, “I’m trying to be like Jesus” that the children sing now. Speaking of Primary songs, we had a neat experience yesterday. I think I mentioned last week that we are meeting with Sister Reynolds, who was baptized last month. We take Sister Pinder, who is a member of the ward with us and she gives the new member discussions. Yesterday she reviewed the Plan of Salvation lesson which talks about our pre-earth life and that we lived with our Heavenly Father before we came to earth. As she taught that, I had a strong feeling that we should sing a song so when she was finished, I asked Sister Reynolds if we could sing my favorite song to her and she said it would be okay. So Sister Pinder, Dad and I sang, “I Am a Child of God”. Sister Reynolds had tears in her eyes when we finished. She had never heard that song and thought it was beautiful. I told her that is the song I always think of when things seem to be just too difficult to handle and at those times when thoughts come to my mind that shouldn’t be there. It always helps me get back on course again.
Tomorrow night we’re going to a high school football game. Two of the young men in the ward, brothers, who are struggling right now as far as activity in the church goes play on the team. We always ask them how the team is doing when we see them at church and they seem happy that we are interested. So we decided to go watch their game tomorrow. I’m not wearing panty hose and a skirt!! It’s not P-day but I’m wearing my P-day clothes. We’re both looking forward to it.
Well, I think I’ve rambled on enough for another week. I have a favor to ask of all of you. Will you think about something that you would like to have that reminds you of Germany? We need some ideas. We want to bring something for everyone but aren’t too bright when it comes to thinking of things. Be thinking about it and let us know.
We hope all is well with everyone and that the farmers in Idaho got their spuds out between snow storms. Chris, we didn’t hear of see the news conference with Elder Eyring. We’d love to be able to listen to it. Know that you are loved and missed and very much appreciated. We hope everyone has a good week.
Much love,
Mom
This has been kind of a “ho-hum” week-------not a lot of exciting things happening, just same old, same old. We spent a couple of days feeling very much under the weather. Last Friday, Dad didn’t even get dressed until after 3 o’clock. He had had a couple of restless nights with a bad headache and lots of aches and pains. Thursday I felt lousy and didn’t accomplish a lot. We had appointments both days and went to the appointments but sure didn’t feel well. Both days ended much earlier than usual. We’re blaming it on to the weather. Everyone else does that around here. There is just a lot of sickness everywhere right now.
We had our interview with President Rakow this week. He said he’s definitely planning on leaving us here in Wurzburg for the rest of our time. I have mixed feelings. It would have been nice to see some other parts of this mission but at the same time, I’m glad we don’t have to pack up and move and get acquainted with a new area, a new ward and new people. We have to remember that it was just a year ago that we saw every part of Germany that had missionaries in as we inspected apartments. That’s a lot more than most missionaries will ever see. But we feel comfortable here and are seeing some progress with some of the families we have been working with. We talked with him about Petra. He said we did all we could have possibly done and not to blame ourselves for the decisions she has made. He suggested that we continue to treat her as a good friend and leave the church out of our conversations with her. He feels that some day she will come around again. We hope so. She hasn’t responded to any of our e-mails and has asked that no one from the church try to contact her. It’s hard to stay away but we need to honor her request. She did tell her home teachers that she has been very much distraught over her live-in boyfriend who was the one who introduced her to the church in the first place. She has been hoping that they could patch things up but decided that wasn’t going to happen so she got rid of anything that had any connection to him. That included the church. I have been really discouraged about it but am finally realizing that she has the right to make her own choices and that we need to let go and move on. She will always be in our prayers and we will always hope that the good feelings she had about the church will come back.
We were impressed with the remarks of our new bishop on Sunday. He said he feels strongly about the need for everyone in the ward to work with our part-member and inactive families. The ward is shrinking in size and by next summer all of the American families will be gone. We need to get these inactive and part-member families active and coming to church again. I worry what will happen to this ward if that doesn’t happen but feel encouraged that the new bishop is making that a priority. Sometimes it’s hard to see that we are making any progress but we just keep trying. We had a good meeting with Anna Berner this week. She said that her church is the Ten Commandments and the teachings of Jesus Christ. We are glad that we can show her that both of these things can be found in the Book of Mormon. She usually has her Bible laid out but not her Book of Mormon. She was wondering what happened when we die and we read with her from Alma chapter 40. She was quite interested and said she would finish the chapter. Dad kept going back and forth from the Bible to the Book of Mormon and she was surprised how well the Book of Mormon validated the things we read from the Bible. It was an interesting discussion and she asked us to come back in two weeks. We encouraged her to pray before she started reading in the Book of Mormon that she would understand what she is reading and she agreed to do that. She doesn’t really disagree with anything we tell her. It’s just something new and she wants to study it out and be sure. And that’s as it should be.
I think every missionary that has been in Wurzburg has met and taught Sister Meyer. No one really understands why she won’t be baptized. Today we went over D&C 20:37 which talks about the qualifications for baptism. We went over everything that is mentioned in that scripture one thing at a time and told her we felt like she met every one of them. And she does. We asked her to pray about it and read it some more and think about the importance of being baptized. She said she would. We’ll see what happens there. Her husband’s greatest desire and concern is for her to be baptized so they can go to the temple. She is just an awesome lady. You would think she has been a member for a long time to see her interact with people in the ward and participate in everything. Again, we’ll just keep trying.
President Rakow told us that we probably won’t realize the good we’re doing until the next life. Then someone would come up to us and say, “Do you remember me? I was in Wurzburg when you were there on your mission and you helped me------“ I hope we don’t have to wait that long but we might and if we do and if we find out we really did help someone, it will be worth the effort. At our zone training this week, there was a couple there who are both converts to the church. One of them was four years and the other six or seven years meeting with missionaries before they finally came into the church. They both encouraged us to not become discouraged and to never give up on people. Keep in contact with them and keep working with them because some day they will understand and come to know the truth of what we are teaching. They emphasized the importance of keeping a good record of everyone we teach so that other missionaries could know what has been done and continue contact with them. That really helped us realize that the little things we are doing may be stepping stones for someone looking into the church. They have both served missions and are so thankful for the gospel in their lives. It was good to hear their conversion stories and feel their strong spirits.
Monday night at Family Home Evening we were asked to think back to when we first realized that Jesus Christ was someone very special. As I thought about it, the songs I learned in Primary were the first things that brought those feelings to me. I remember singing, “Jesus once was a little child, a little child like me. And He was pure and meek and mild as a little child should be. So little children, let’s you and I, try to be like him, try, try, try.” I love the Primary songs. They teach so many gospel lessons. I love the song, “I’m trying to be like Jesus” that the children sing now. Speaking of Primary songs, we had a neat experience yesterday. I think I mentioned last week that we are meeting with Sister Reynolds, who was baptized last month. We take Sister Pinder, who is a member of the ward with us and she gives the new member discussions. Yesterday she reviewed the Plan of Salvation lesson which talks about our pre-earth life and that we lived with our Heavenly Father before we came to earth. As she taught that, I had a strong feeling that we should sing a song so when she was finished, I asked Sister Reynolds if we could sing my favorite song to her and she said it would be okay. So Sister Pinder, Dad and I sang, “I Am a Child of God”. Sister Reynolds had tears in her eyes when we finished. She had never heard that song and thought it was beautiful. I told her that is the song I always think of when things seem to be just too difficult to handle and at those times when thoughts come to my mind that shouldn’t be there. It always helps me get back on course again.
Tomorrow night we’re going to a high school football game. Two of the young men in the ward, brothers, who are struggling right now as far as activity in the church goes play on the team. We always ask them how the team is doing when we see them at church and they seem happy that we are interested. So we decided to go watch their game tomorrow. I’m not wearing panty hose and a skirt!! It’s not P-day but I’m wearing my P-day clothes. We’re both looking forward to it.
Well, I think I’ve rambled on enough for another week. I have a favor to ask of all of you. Will you think about something that you would like to have that reminds you of Germany? We need some ideas. We want to bring something for everyone but aren’t too bright when it comes to thinking of things. Be thinking about it and let us know.
We hope all is well with everyone and that the farmers in Idaho got their spuds out between snow storms. Chris, we didn’t hear of see the news conference with Elder Eyring. We’d love to be able to listen to it. Know that you are loved and missed and very much appreciated. We hope everyone has a good week.
Much love,
Mom
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