From Mom 11/1
Dear Family,
The last two mornings we have had heavy fog. Yesterday it burned off by noon but today it stayed all day. We had an appointment tonight in a little town about 9 miles out. We didn’t want to drive out there in the dark plus the fog so we drove out while it was still light to find out where to go. We’re so glad we did because tonight it was really thick. I’m not sure we would have found it. And to top it off, the family had forgotten we were coming and had gone to bed. Bummer! I don’t handle those kinds of things well. Today was another holiday in Germany and they probably thought we had taken the day off too. Yesterday was a holiday celebrating Martin Luther and the reformation when he posted the 95 points that he considered not correct about the Catholic Church. Today was a Catholic holiday beginning Fasching and it goes until the 20th of February. It’s similar to Mardi Gras. It starts out mild but the last two weeks it turns into “living it up” and carnival type activities and they have a big parade where everyone dresses up in crazy costumes. This part of Germany is predominately Catholic where northern Germany has more Protestants and they have LOTS of Catholic holidays. School lets out and all the stores are closed. With it being on Thursday this year, most places are closed tomorrow too and I think everyone was in their cars going somewhere. Last night it took us 45 minutes to get out to an appointment that usually takes us 20 minutes to get to. Seventeenth street is going to be a piece of cake after driving over here!
We had some interesting news about the mission this week. They have taken the whole Stuttgart zone, which is 30 missionaries, and put it in the Swiss mission. That mission has only 70 missionaries and is really struggling. We have had two combined zone conferences with the Stuttgart zone, both when general authorities were visiting the mission and they were very nice occasions. We will miss those missionaries and that association. There were two couples in that zone.
Daniel Ewert is a student here at the university and faithfully comes to FHE and institute. Last week-end his parents came to visit and we had the opportunity to meet them. His Dad told us about his conversion to the church 53 years ago. He said he was an alcoholic and smoked about 2 packages of cigarettes a day. One day when he was in town he saw a street display the missionaries had set up. He stopped and looked and they gave him a Book of Mormon and also made an appointment with him for the next day. He had no intentions of reading or keeping the appointment but he started reading it that night and he didn’t put it down until he had read into 3rd Nephi where it tells of Christ appearing to the people. When he read that, he decided to keep the appointment with the Elders. He liked what he heard at the appointment but came away feeling confused and that he just wasn’t sure he could measure up. But he decided to pray and ask for help that he would be able to make the changes he needed to in his life to be able to live the gospel. Shortly afterwards he had the assurance that he would be able to. The following Monday he met with the missionaries again and when they introduced the Word of Wisdom to him, and he told them he was sure he could live that. Once he told them that, he completely lost his desire for drinking or smoking and has never had that desire since. The missionaries charged full speed ahead and gave him all the lessons and he was baptized 10 days after his first meeting with the missionaries. He said he has never had a doubt about the truthfulness of the gospel and feels he has been so blessed because of accepting it. We thought that was just an amazing testimony. Now we know why Daniel is such an awesome young man. He served a mission to England and is so much fun and such a good example to the other young people in the ward. He translates in Sacrament meeting and does such a good job. It’s amazing how he can switch from German to English so well.
Last night as we were coming home for the last time, we talked about all the different things we had done that day. We picked up Sister Pinder and took her with us to give the new member lesson to Sister Reynolds. The Pinders don’t have a car and she asked if we had time to stop at a store on our way home as the stores were going to be closed today. We were glad to do that. It was fun shopping with her. She has two small children and it was fun seeing “real” food going into the shopping cart. Ours is the same thing week after week. We’re not very creative with the cooking. When we got to her house and helped her carry her things in, she told us she had to go pick up her little girl from kindergarten so we offered to take her there. That was fun too. Then we stopped at the nursing home to see Sister Mohr. We had been told she was not responding to anything any more but when she saw us she took hold of our hands like she was never going to let go. She smiled and her eyes shined. She loves for us to sing to her and we sang three hymns. Tears came to her eyes when we started singing, “I Know that my Redeemer Lives.” That was a very rewarding experience. We came home and had some lunch and got things together for institute and then left for our appointment before institute. That’s the one that took us 45 minutes to get to. Bro. Vollrath, the tennis player, is coming along-----ever so slowly but we see progress. He actually prayed twice this week. He has just never gotten into the habit of praying and we’ve spent a lot of time talking to him about that. Then it was off to the church for institute but because of the holiday and the kids being out of school no one showed up. (When we got home there was a message that they weren’t coming) While we were there, a car drove up behind us and it was the Elders with three members of the ward who wanted to go on some splits and visit some members. They didn’t know where one of the families lived so we told them we would show them. When we got there, the husband wasn’t home and because two men can’t visit a woman alone, they asked if we would stay. So we did and it was a good experience. It’s good for the Elders to get to know more of the members and it’s good for the members to feel of the Elders spirit. It wasn’t a typical missionary day----or maybe it was with all the changes---but it was a good day.
Sunday we had stake conference. Thomas Beck was presented to be approved to become an Elder and they invited Dad and I to go with him when he was set apart. The stake presidency were standing by him and asked Dad to come join them and then the stake president asked Thomas who he would like to set him apart and he asked if it would be okay for Elder Price to do it. Dad felt very honored and gave Thomas a wonderful blessing. Their next step is to get to the temple and President Fingerli asked that we spend some time talking to them about the temple. Elana, his wife, just wants to be sure that Thomas is ready and wants to go for the right reasons----not just because he knows how much she wants to go. We’ve worked with them for nearly a year now and it has been such a great thing to see them progress in the church and get to this point. We are really going to miss them when we leave here.
Tim Palmer is still making progress. We met with him today and he still looks good. He hasn’t had a drink for a couple of weeks now. He says he loves the taste of beer but knows he won’t be drinking it anymore. He has read a lot in the Book of Mormon and still loves that. When we left, he said he’s see us at church on Sunday. We told him it was fast Sunday and he said he would like to fast. We talked about the importance of having a specific thing to fast for and he wants to fast for the strength to keep on the course he is on right now. He sounds very sincere. We’ll see where this goes but we are encouraged.
Anna Berner consented to read in the Book of Mormon. We showed her in John 10:16 where Christ said, “Other sheep I have which are not of this fold. Them also I must visit.” Then we turned to 3rd Nephi 15:21 where he says, “ye are they of whom I said: Other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice----“ This seemed to really catch her interest and when we asked her if she would read some from the Book of Mormon, she asked where we wanted her to read. We asked her if she would start in 3rd Nephi 11 and read about Christ teaching the people there and asked her to pray before she read so she would understand it. We also told her that she’s going to find the teaching very similar to what she reads in the Bible because Christ didn’t say something to one group of people and something else to another. She wrote it down and said she would do it. She hasn’t wanted much to do with the Book of Mormon. She says her religion is the Bible. She is a sweet, sweet lady.
That about wraps it up for our adventures for the week. The kids at FHE love to play Scum. We try to have a variety of things to do and take turns being in charge of the game but every time it’s the Elders turn, they ask us to bring the cards so we can play Scum. We have a lot of fun with them. They love the home made goodies. This week it was Reeses peanut butter chip cookies, apples and bananas and milk. We went through nearly 5 dozen cookies!
We thought about all of you a lot on Sunday. We’re glad for those who were able to be with Nate and Cindy for Cade’s blessing. We’re anxious to see some pictures and are anxious to see him. We’re grateful for the little children in our ward. A lot of them call us “Oma” and “Opa” which is grandma and grandpa and we love that. We’re thankful for all that all of you are doing. Life is just plain busy for everyone but we’re so thankful that you stay in touch with each other. I’m looking forward to Thanksgiving------next year.
Let us know if you’ve thought of anything that might remind you of Germany. Christmas is a big thing here and they have beautiful decorations. They have beautiful cuckoo clocks too and you can turn the cuckoo off at night! Be thinking of some things. We’re like to bring something for everyone from Germany.
Have a good week. Happy Birthday Janie, Justin and Henry. Yikes! Henry is going to be a teenager! Where does the time go?
Love you lots,
Mom
The last two mornings we have had heavy fog. Yesterday it burned off by noon but today it stayed all day. We had an appointment tonight in a little town about 9 miles out. We didn’t want to drive out there in the dark plus the fog so we drove out while it was still light to find out where to go. We’re so glad we did because tonight it was really thick. I’m not sure we would have found it. And to top it off, the family had forgotten we were coming and had gone to bed. Bummer! I don’t handle those kinds of things well. Today was another holiday in Germany and they probably thought we had taken the day off too. Yesterday was a holiday celebrating Martin Luther and the reformation when he posted the 95 points that he considered not correct about the Catholic Church. Today was a Catholic holiday beginning Fasching and it goes until the 20th of February. It’s similar to Mardi Gras. It starts out mild but the last two weeks it turns into “living it up” and carnival type activities and they have a big parade where everyone dresses up in crazy costumes. This part of Germany is predominately Catholic where northern Germany has more Protestants and they have LOTS of Catholic holidays. School lets out and all the stores are closed. With it being on Thursday this year, most places are closed tomorrow too and I think everyone was in their cars going somewhere. Last night it took us 45 minutes to get out to an appointment that usually takes us 20 minutes to get to. Seventeenth street is going to be a piece of cake after driving over here!
We had some interesting news about the mission this week. They have taken the whole Stuttgart zone, which is 30 missionaries, and put it in the Swiss mission. That mission has only 70 missionaries and is really struggling. We have had two combined zone conferences with the Stuttgart zone, both when general authorities were visiting the mission and they were very nice occasions. We will miss those missionaries and that association. There were two couples in that zone.
Daniel Ewert is a student here at the university and faithfully comes to FHE and institute. Last week-end his parents came to visit and we had the opportunity to meet them. His Dad told us about his conversion to the church 53 years ago. He said he was an alcoholic and smoked about 2 packages of cigarettes a day. One day when he was in town he saw a street display the missionaries had set up. He stopped and looked and they gave him a Book of Mormon and also made an appointment with him for the next day. He had no intentions of reading or keeping the appointment but he started reading it that night and he didn’t put it down until he had read into 3rd Nephi where it tells of Christ appearing to the people. When he read that, he decided to keep the appointment with the Elders. He liked what he heard at the appointment but came away feeling confused and that he just wasn’t sure he could measure up. But he decided to pray and ask for help that he would be able to make the changes he needed to in his life to be able to live the gospel. Shortly afterwards he had the assurance that he would be able to. The following Monday he met with the missionaries again and when they introduced the Word of Wisdom to him, and he told them he was sure he could live that. Once he told them that, he completely lost his desire for drinking or smoking and has never had that desire since. The missionaries charged full speed ahead and gave him all the lessons and he was baptized 10 days after his first meeting with the missionaries. He said he has never had a doubt about the truthfulness of the gospel and feels he has been so blessed because of accepting it. We thought that was just an amazing testimony. Now we know why Daniel is such an awesome young man. He served a mission to England and is so much fun and such a good example to the other young people in the ward. He translates in Sacrament meeting and does such a good job. It’s amazing how he can switch from German to English so well.
Last night as we were coming home for the last time, we talked about all the different things we had done that day. We picked up Sister Pinder and took her with us to give the new member lesson to Sister Reynolds. The Pinders don’t have a car and she asked if we had time to stop at a store on our way home as the stores were going to be closed today. We were glad to do that. It was fun shopping with her. She has two small children and it was fun seeing “real” food going into the shopping cart. Ours is the same thing week after week. We’re not very creative with the cooking. When we got to her house and helped her carry her things in, she told us she had to go pick up her little girl from kindergarten so we offered to take her there. That was fun too. Then we stopped at the nursing home to see Sister Mohr. We had been told she was not responding to anything any more but when she saw us she took hold of our hands like she was never going to let go. She smiled and her eyes shined. She loves for us to sing to her and we sang three hymns. Tears came to her eyes when we started singing, “I Know that my Redeemer Lives.” That was a very rewarding experience. We came home and had some lunch and got things together for institute and then left for our appointment before institute. That’s the one that took us 45 minutes to get to. Bro. Vollrath, the tennis player, is coming along-----ever so slowly but we see progress. He actually prayed twice this week. He has just never gotten into the habit of praying and we’ve spent a lot of time talking to him about that. Then it was off to the church for institute but because of the holiday and the kids being out of school no one showed up. (When we got home there was a message that they weren’t coming) While we were there, a car drove up behind us and it was the Elders with three members of the ward who wanted to go on some splits and visit some members. They didn’t know where one of the families lived so we told them we would show them. When we got there, the husband wasn’t home and because two men can’t visit a woman alone, they asked if we would stay. So we did and it was a good experience. It’s good for the Elders to get to know more of the members and it’s good for the members to feel of the Elders spirit. It wasn’t a typical missionary day----or maybe it was with all the changes---but it was a good day.
Sunday we had stake conference. Thomas Beck was presented to be approved to become an Elder and they invited Dad and I to go with him when he was set apart. The stake presidency were standing by him and asked Dad to come join them and then the stake president asked Thomas who he would like to set him apart and he asked if it would be okay for Elder Price to do it. Dad felt very honored and gave Thomas a wonderful blessing. Their next step is to get to the temple and President Fingerli asked that we spend some time talking to them about the temple. Elana, his wife, just wants to be sure that Thomas is ready and wants to go for the right reasons----not just because he knows how much she wants to go. We’ve worked with them for nearly a year now and it has been such a great thing to see them progress in the church and get to this point. We are really going to miss them when we leave here.
Tim Palmer is still making progress. We met with him today and he still looks good. He hasn’t had a drink for a couple of weeks now. He says he loves the taste of beer but knows he won’t be drinking it anymore. He has read a lot in the Book of Mormon and still loves that. When we left, he said he’s see us at church on Sunday. We told him it was fast Sunday and he said he would like to fast. We talked about the importance of having a specific thing to fast for and he wants to fast for the strength to keep on the course he is on right now. He sounds very sincere. We’ll see where this goes but we are encouraged.
Anna Berner consented to read in the Book of Mormon. We showed her in John 10:16 where Christ said, “Other sheep I have which are not of this fold. Them also I must visit.” Then we turned to 3rd Nephi 15:21 where he says, “ye are they of whom I said: Other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice----“ This seemed to really catch her interest and when we asked her if she would read some from the Book of Mormon, she asked where we wanted her to read. We asked her if she would start in 3rd Nephi 11 and read about Christ teaching the people there and asked her to pray before she read so she would understand it. We also told her that she’s going to find the teaching very similar to what she reads in the Bible because Christ didn’t say something to one group of people and something else to another. She wrote it down and said she would do it. She hasn’t wanted much to do with the Book of Mormon. She says her religion is the Bible. She is a sweet, sweet lady.
That about wraps it up for our adventures for the week. The kids at FHE love to play Scum. We try to have a variety of things to do and take turns being in charge of the game but every time it’s the Elders turn, they ask us to bring the cards so we can play Scum. We have a lot of fun with them. They love the home made goodies. This week it was Reeses peanut butter chip cookies, apples and bananas and milk. We went through nearly 5 dozen cookies!
We thought about all of you a lot on Sunday. We’re glad for those who were able to be with Nate and Cindy for Cade’s blessing. We’re anxious to see some pictures and are anxious to see him. We’re grateful for the little children in our ward. A lot of them call us “Oma” and “Opa” which is grandma and grandpa and we love that. We’re thankful for all that all of you are doing. Life is just plain busy for everyone but we’re so thankful that you stay in touch with each other. I’m looking forward to Thanksgiving------next year.
Let us know if you’ve thought of anything that might remind you of Germany. Christmas is a big thing here and they have beautiful decorations. They have beautiful cuckoo clocks too and you can turn the cuckoo off at night! Be thinking of some things. We’re like to bring something for everyone from Germany.
Have a good week. Happy Birthday Janie, Justin and Henry. Yikes! Henry is going to be a teenager! Where does the time go?
Love you lots,
Mom
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