From Mom 11/8
Dear Family,
We’ve had a busy week and have seen a lot of people. Last Friday we met a 35 year old inactive member. He has three children but is divorced and sees his kids every other week-end. He hasn’t been active in the church for 14 years and we’re the first people who have contacted him since he went inactive. He is such a nice guy. We visited with him for awhile and then he said he wanted to fix us something to eat. We told him not to bother but he wouldn’t hear of it. He talked and talked and several times became quite emotional and said he knows he is really lacking spiritually and needs to get back into church. He is from Russia and had his Russian and his German Book of Mormon sitting out. When I looked at the Russian book, I thought I had better quite complaining about this language. We could have been sent to Russia!! Anyway, we had a nice visit with him and he thanked us over and over again for coming to see him and hopes that we will come again. We’re planning on it. He said that while he was active in the church was probably the best time in his life but when he moved from where he had been attending church, he became disconnected with the church and just got involved in other things. We want to stay in touch with him. He has a girl friend right now. She has one little boy but on the week-ends that he has his kids and this other little boy is there, things don’t go at all well and he isn’t sure what to do about it. By the way, the meal he fixed us was delicious. It was a one pot stew and he just kept putting things in to it but he knew the right spices to add and it was really good. It was fun watching him at work in his kitchen.
We met another lady for the first time this week. This is the mother-in-law of Sister Reynolds who was recently baptized. We went there Wednesday morning with Sister Pinder to do another new-member lesson and this lady was there. Sister Reynolds husband is not a member-----yet, but is so pleased with how happy his wife is in her “new church” and is looking forward to learning more about it. He works two or three jobs and is just about impossible for the Elders to catch up with. Since her baptism,Sabina and her husband have prayer together every day and their life is much better than it was a short time ago. The mother-in-law told us that she has seen such a big difference in her son that she wanted to come and see what this church was all about. We, mostly Sister Pinder, gave the first discussion which is on the restoration and she really listened and asked a lot of questions. Dad felt like she was almost too cooperative. She agreed to everything we said. She asked when we were coming back to see Sabina again and we told her next Wednesday and she asked if it would be okay for her to come again. Sabina said it would be fine. She asked if it would be okay to come to church and Sabina told her she would pick her up. I had a good feeling about her but both Dad and Sister Pinder were a little cautious so I guess we’ll just see what happens. I guess she has caused some grief in her son and Sabina’s marriage and even Sabina was a bit concerned about how she would be during the discussion. So, hopefully that story will continue and have a good ending.
Saturday we met Elder and Sister Gardner. He is the mission doctor and they live in Frankfurt. Actually, he is the doctor for 16 missions! President Rakow had called and asked if it would be okay for Dr. Gardner to bring the flu vaccine here to our place and then if we would take it to the Zone leaders because they, the zone leaders, were going to Munich for some meetings on Monday. When we saw them, Dad thought he looked really familiar and as we visited for awhile, we found out he had been in the South German mission the same time Dad was here so Dad got his journal out and he had actually worked with Elder Gardner for a few days during times when missionaries do splits. Small world, huh. Dr. Moody, who was the mission doctor a year ago was also one of Dad’s companions-----his very favorite companion. The Gardners are so nice. He practiced medicine in Ogden for 35 years and when they retired, they moved to Highland, which is somewhere close to Alpine, Utah. I had fixed some corn chowder and we got some good rolls from our handy bakery across the street and just spent a nice hour together. Dr. Gardner had worked here in Wurzburg on his mission and wanted to see the church so we went over with them and showed them our nice church building. When he was working here, they met in the upstairs of a store downtown so he was very pleased that we had just a nice meeting place.
Tim Palmer is making progress. He didn’t make it to church on Sunday. His live-in wife was away with her new boyfriend and he had their three boys. He just wasn’t up to getting them ready for church. He is still on crutches from breaking his heel nearly two months ago. He was very frustrated and when we visited him on Tuesday, he seemed really down. His hair was a mess again and he hadn’t shaved and we were more than a little concerned. But he is hanging in there with no drinking and is still reading in the Book of Mormon. It is such a difficult situation in their home. I feel bad for the boys because of all the contention between the parents. What a mess people get themselves into. We took him the Priesthood/RS manual and he called us the next day and said he had read the lesson on forgiveness and feels like he needs to make some peace in his family with a sister who he had a falling out with several years ago and asked what he should do. Dad told him if he could take full responsibility for the bad feelings, whether he was fully responsible or not, he could let it go and feel guilt free. He told Dad he thought he could do that. He’s really been “unloading” on us. He’s had a hard life and has made a lot of mistakes but seems sincere in wanting to make things right and move forward. We met with him again this morning and he looked much better and sounded much more positive about what he needed to do.
Mary Durhman is an inactive sister who lives in this building. We have visited with her quite a few times. She works every week-end so can’t come to church but hopes to get a job that doesn’t require Sunday work so she can start coming to church again. Her husband is not at all interested in the church but is willing to see that she gets to church if she wants to come. We started teaching her 13 year old son but the Dad has more influence in his life than we do and said he doesn’t have to learn about the church if he didn’t want to. Mary has been quite depressed lately. She has some health problems with high blood pressure and our visits with her have been pretty irregular. But she acts like she wants us to come. We didn’t go last week and when we went there this week, she asked us why we hadn’t come last week. I don’t know why we didn’t make it, but we didn’t. Anyway, we had asked her to try to read just a little bit in the Book of Mormon each day. She told us that she had been too busy to read and she just didn’t seem very interested in doing anything. Dad asked her if it would be okay if we read one chapter in 3rd Nephi so she went and got her book and we took turns reading. She really got into it and it was amazing how her mood changed by the time we had finished reading chapter 11. She really warmed up and was so friendly and thanked us time and time again for coming and that she looked forward to next week.
As you can tell, we have a variety of experiences and a variety of people we work with. It takes every bit of patience we have to work with some of them. The progress is so slow but the fact that they want us to come back is an indication that they still have feelings for the gospel. If we can help them move even a little bit closer to the blessings they will have with the gospel in their lives it will be well worth it. I think many times of the different things we do in a week and as hard as this mission is, we just plain wouldn’t be having all these experiences and meeting all these people had we not come on a mission. I will always be thankful for these experiences and for the opportunity of meeting so many great people. We love the other missionaries in our district. It is so nice to have another couple that we meet with each week and we really get attached to the Elders. Transfer day is always a sad day when one of them leave. I am so impressed with their dedication and their tireless effort even when we don’t see a lot of success. They seem to always stay positive and up beat. Next week is Zone Conference again and that is always a boost. This time it will literally be “a shot in the arm” as we will be getting our flu shots.
Sunday in Relief Society, we had time for a few testimonies and one of the sisters who gave her testimony told of an experience her husband recently had in Iraq. He is due back the end of this month after having been there for 15 months. He was the bishop of this ward before he was assigned to go to Iraq. He told her of teaching and baptizing two women from Peru who he works with. The interesting thing about this is where the baptism took place. All the churches hold their meetings in one of Sadaam Hussein’s palaces in Baghdad. Our church has one hour on Sunday for their meetings. The baptism took place in the swimming pool in this same palace. Sister Merkley said she was sure this was not what Sadaam intended his swimming pool to be used for but was thankful there was a place for them to be baptized. I thought that was interesting.
It was a funny feeling yesterday to receive a telephone call from the mission secretary asking us for our bishop and our stake presidents addresses as they are getting our release papers started. We asked him when the date was and he told us it is March 6th. We will be flying in to Salt Lake so we can pick up the car. When we get more information on flight numbers and times, we’ll let you know. I guess with all the comings and goings, they have to start early to keep up with everything. Today we went downtown to try to find a sweater for Dad. All the stores are decorated for Christmas and there are LOTS of people shopping. That will be here before we know it and then we will have just over two months left. The ward is having another Thanksgiving Feast. That was such a fun event last year right after we got to Wurzburg. I guess as long as there are still Americans here, they will do that. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens to the ward next year. The base is to be completely closed by the end of June. I guess we won’t have to be worrying about that though but we’ll always be interested.
Take care and remember how much we love each one of you. Someone asked me Sunday how much longer we had on our mission and when I told them 4 months, they asked if I was getting excited about going home. I told them I’ve been excited to go home ever since I got here! I just love being home with my family.
Much love always,
Mom
We’ve had a busy week and have seen a lot of people. Last Friday we met a 35 year old inactive member. He has three children but is divorced and sees his kids every other week-end. He hasn’t been active in the church for 14 years and we’re the first people who have contacted him since he went inactive. He is such a nice guy. We visited with him for awhile and then he said he wanted to fix us something to eat. We told him not to bother but he wouldn’t hear of it. He talked and talked and several times became quite emotional and said he knows he is really lacking spiritually and needs to get back into church. He is from Russia and had his Russian and his German Book of Mormon sitting out. When I looked at the Russian book, I thought I had better quite complaining about this language. We could have been sent to Russia!! Anyway, we had a nice visit with him and he thanked us over and over again for coming to see him and hopes that we will come again. We’re planning on it. He said that while he was active in the church was probably the best time in his life but when he moved from where he had been attending church, he became disconnected with the church and just got involved in other things. We want to stay in touch with him. He has a girl friend right now. She has one little boy but on the week-ends that he has his kids and this other little boy is there, things don’t go at all well and he isn’t sure what to do about it. By the way, the meal he fixed us was delicious. It was a one pot stew and he just kept putting things in to it but he knew the right spices to add and it was really good. It was fun watching him at work in his kitchen.
We met another lady for the first time this week. This is the mother-in-law of Sister Reynolds who was recently baptized. We went there Wednesday morning with Sister Pinder to do another new-member lesson and this lady was there. Sister Reynolds husband is not a member-----yet, but is so pleased with how happy his wife is in her “new church” and is looking forward to learning more about it. He works two or three jobs and is just about impossible for the Elders to catch up with. Since her baptism,Sabina and her husband have prayer together every day and their life is much better than it was a short time ago. The mother-in-law told us that she has seen such a big difference in her son that she wanted to come and see what this church was all about. We, mostly Sister Pinder, gave the first discussion which is on the restoration and she really listened and asked a lot of questions. Dad felt like she was almost too cooperative. She agreed to everything we said. She asked when we were coming back to see Sabina again and we told her next Wednesday and she asked if it would be okay for her to come again. Sabina said it would be fine. She asked if it would be okay to come to church and Sabina told her she would pick her up. I had a good feeling about her but both Dad and Sister Pinder were a little cautious so I guess we’ll just see what happens. I guess she has caused some grief in her son and Sabina’s marriage and even Sabina was a bit concerned about how she would be during the discussion. So, hopefully that story will continue and have a good ending.
Saturday we met Elder and Sister Gardner. He is the mission doctor and they live in Frankfurt. Actually, he is the doctor for 16 missions! President Rakow had called and asked if it would be okay for Dr. Gardner to bring the flu vaccine here to our place and then if we would take it to the Zone leaders because they, the zone leaders, were going to Munich for some meetings on Monday. When we saw them, Dad thought he looked really familiar and as we visited for awhile, we found out he had been in the South German mission the same time Dad was here so Dad got his journal out and he had actually worked with Elder Gardner for a few days during times when missionaries do splits. Small world, huh. Dr. Moody, who was the mission doctor a year ago was also one of Dad’s companions-----his very favorite companion. The Gardners are so nice. He practiced medicine in Ogden for 35 years and when they retired, they moved to Highland, which is somewhere close to Alpine, Utah. I had fixed some corn chowder and we got some good rolls from our handy bakery across the street and just spent a nice hour together. Dr. Gardner had worked here in Wurzburg on his mission and wanted to see the church so we went over with them and showed them our nice church building. When he was working here, they met in the upstairs of a store downtown so he was very pleased that we had just a nice meeting place.
Tim Palmer is making progress. He didn’t make it to church on Sunday. His live-in wife was away with her new boyfriend and he had their three boys. He just wasn’t up to getting them ready for church. He is still on crutches from breaking his heel nearly two months ago. He was very frustrated and when we visited him on Tuesday, he seemed really down. His hair was a mess again and he hadn’t shaved and we were more than a little concerned. But he is hanging in there with no drinking and is still reading in the Book of Mormon. It is such a difficult situation in their home. I feel bad for the boys because of all the contention between the parents. What a mess people get themselves into. We took him the Priesthood/RS manual and he called us the next day and said he had read the lesson on forgiveness and feels like he needs to make some peace in his family with a sister who he had a falling out with several years ago and asked what he should do. Dad told him if he could take full responsibility for the bad feelings, whether he was fully responsible or not, he could let it go and feel guilt free. He told Dad he thought he could do that. He’s really been “unloading” on us. He’s had a hard life and has made a lot of mistakes but seems sincere in wanting to make things right and move forward. We met with him again this morning and he looked much better and sounded much more positive about what he needed to do.
Mary Durhman is an inactive sister who lives in this building. We have visited with her quite a few times. She works every week-end so can’t come to church but hopes to get a job that doesn’t require Sunday work so she can start coming to church again. Her husband is not at all interested in the church but is willing to see that she gets to church if she wants to come. We started teaching her 13 year old son but the Dad has more influence in his life than we do and said he doesn’t have to learn about the church if he didn’t want to. Mary has been quite depressed lately. She has some health problems with high blood pressure and our visits with her have been pretty irregular. But she acts like she wants us to come. We didn’t go last week and when we went there this week, she asked us why we hadn’t come last week. I don’t know why we didn’t make it, but we didn’t. Anyway, we had asked her to try to read just a little bit in the Book of Mormon each day. She told us that she had been too busy to read and she just didn’t seem very interested in doing anything. Dad asked her if it would be okay if we read one chapter in 3rd Nephi so she went and got her book and we took turns reading. She really got into it and it was amazing how her mood changed by the time we had finished reading chapter 11. She really warmed up and was so friendly and thanked us time and time again for coming and that she looked forward to next week.
As you can tell, we have a variety of experiences and a variety of people we work with. It takes every bit of patience we have to work with some of them. The progress is so slow but the fact that they want us to come back is an indication that they still have feelings for the gospel. If we can help them move even a little bit closer to the blessings they will have with the gospel in their lives it will be well worth it. I think many times of the different things we do in a week and as hard as this mission is, we just plain wouldn’t be having all these experiences and meeting all these people had we not come on a mission. I will always be thankful for these experiences and for the opportunity of meeting so many great people. We love the other missionaries in our district. It is so nice to have another couple that we meet with each week and we really get attached to the Elders. Transfer day is always a sad day when one of them leave. I am so impressed with their dedication and their tireless effort even when we don’t see a lot of success. They seem to always stay positive and up beat. Next week is Zone Conference again and that is always a boost. This time it will literally be “a shot in the arm” as we will be getting our flu shots.
Sunday in Relief Society, we had time for a few testimonies and one of the sisters who gave her testimony told of an experience her husband recently had in Iraq. He is due back the end of this month after having been there for 15 months. He was the bishop of this ward before he was assigned to go to Iraq. He told her of teaching and baptizing two women from Peru who he works with. The interesting thing about this is where the baptism took place. All the churches hold their meetings in one of Sadaam Hussein’s palaces in Baghdad. Our church has one hour on Sunday for their meetings. The baptism took place in the swimming pool in this same palace. Sister Merkley said she was sure this was not what Sadaam intended his swimming pool to be used for but was thankful there was a place for them to be baptized. I thought that was interesting.
It was a funny feeling yesterday to receive a telephone call from the mission secretary asking us for our bishop and our stake presidents addresses as they are getting our release papers started. We asked him when the date was and he told us it is March 6th. We will be flying in to Salt Lake so we can pick up the car. When we get more information on flight numbers and times, we’ll let you know. I guess with all the comings and goings, they have to start early to keep up with everything. Today we went downtown to try to find a sweater for Dad. All the stores are decorated for Christmas and there are LOTS of people shopping. That will be here before we know it and then we will have just over two months left. The ward is having another Thanksgiving Feast. That was such a fun event last year right after we got to Wurzburg. I guess as long as there are still Americans here, they will do that. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens to the ward next year. The base is to be completely closed by the end of June. I guess we won’t have to be worrying about that though but we’ll always be interested.
Take care and remember how much we love each one of you. Someone asked me Sunday how much longer we had on our mission and when I told them 4 months, they asked if I was getting excited about going home. I told them I’ve been excited to go home ever since I got here! I just love being home with my family.
Much love always,
Mom
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