From Dad 12/1
Hi everyone,
I know it’s a little early but it’s fun to share the warmth of the season every chance we get. Last night was a clear night and the stars were out in their full glory. Cassiopeia, the “W”, Orion (I think) and others were visible. The angle of our building made the big and little dippers hidden from view. I love the consistency of the North Star!
Anne Berner loves our Heavenly Father. She just hasn’t yet been able to understand Him enough to know how real He is and how much He truly can and wants to help her. She has been taught all of her 75 years that the Bible is correct as long as it agrees with what the Catholic Church teaches. To her and to many what is in the Bible is only figurative and not literal. She has made great strides. She went to school to become an accredited religion teacher and taught religion in the Catholic schools for more than 10 years. Sometimes when we say things like our Father in Heaven is a real person with feelings who can hear and speak, she just shakes her head in wonderment. Such a thing has been beyond her grasp to understand. We retold the Joseph Smith story and how important this knowledge is to us and to the entire world. We bore our testimony of the truthfulness of this event. We began reviewing some of the times when the voice of the Father was heard introducing and declaring His Beloved Son to be His true representative and spokesperson in the earth. Anne said where does it say in the Bible someone has seen God? We have a list of 85 different persons who are mentioned in the Bible who have seen and talked with God. We look forward to tomorrow. As unbelievable as the truth sometimes seems, nevertheless it is the truth.
We have a sister in our ward whose husband has decided to become a woman. She still loves him and feels this is a sickness by him. This week it was almost too much for her. She was not sure she would make it one more day. We reviewed the truth in the Proclamation on the Family wherein it describes gender is a part of who we were before we were born, who we are today and will be who we are in the resurrection. We discussed no matter what he does to physically change his gender in this life, in the resurrection he will be a man and he will be glad. We said we would call daily to see how she was doing. Each day she has been a little stronger and yesterday she was at the Church to help the relief society president with something. We love seeing the healing power of the gospel in people’s lives.
Yuka Matsumoto who is here studying to become a concert violinist has accepted an invitation to play for our ward conference next Sunday. Her whole person moves with the music when she plays. She will play a medley of Christmas hymns. When she obtained her undergraduate degree in London she had drifted a long ways away from activity in the Church. We hope she will rediscover the light in the gospel and how it will make her ability with music greater than what is ever possible to do alone. She loves her music and her family and we hope in time she will come to realize how much she loves the Lord too.
Gundo Vollrath has reached a point where his prayers are prayers of thanksgiving and we think he is coming close to being able to ask for the help he needs. When he reads or when we meet he growth is so rapid that everything he learns adds more questions. These are not questions of doubt as they were in the beginning months. They are questions seeking answers and believing the answers when they come. The Spirit has a lot of room in his heart right now. We are very hopeful he will continue to progress.
Mom remains the practical person in our area. We had a key yesterday to unlock the garage behind the Church so the elders could do some service. We were trying to figure out which way we still needed to turn the key to open the door and mom said, “Have you tried turning the handle?” You know the rest of the story. She is great. Her sense of humor and her ability to tell stories adds wonderful flavor to the work. In these two areas she needs take a back seat to no one.
We are excited to see what BYU is offered for a bowl game. With the work being somewhat slow during the holidays we may be able to watch some or all of it on a delayed basis or if not it will still be fun to hear how they did. Mom is excited thinking the Jazz will still have three months of basketball when we are home again. She is a true sports fan! I like cheering along with her as well. It’s a good life.
We hope the coming weeks will be full of warm and lasting memories. We hope to do the same. This will be our last Christmas in Germany. We are happy wherever in the world we are as long as we can stay in touch with those we love.
Have a great week!
Love always,
Dad and Grandpa
I know it’s a little early but it’s fun to share the warmth of the season every chance we get. Last night was a clear night and the stars were out in their full glory. Cassiopeia, the “W”, Orion (I think) and others were visible. The angle of our building made the big and little dippers hidden from view. I love the consistency of the North Star!
Anne Berner loves our Heavenly Father. She just hasn’t yet been able to understand Him enough to know how real He is and how much He truly can and wants to help her. She has been taught all of her 75 years that the Bible is correct as long as it agrees with what the Catholic Church teaches. To her and to many what is in the Bible is only figurative and not literal. She has made great strides. She went to school to become an accredited religion teacher and taught religion in the Catholic schools for more than 10 years. Sometimes when we say things like our Father in Heaven is a real person with feelings who can hear and speak, she just shakes her head in wonderment. Such a thing has been beyond her grasp to understand. We retold the Joseph Smith story and how important this knowledge is to us and to the entire world. We bore our testimony of the truthfulness of this event. We began reviewing some of the times when the voice of the Father was heard introducing and declaring His Beloved Son to be His true representative and spokesperson in the earth. Anne said where does it say in the Bible someone has seen God? We have a list of 85 different persons who are mentioned in the Bible who have seen and talked with God. We look forward to tomorrow. As unbelievable as the truth sometimes seems, nevertheless it is the truth.
We have a sister in our ward whose husband has decided to become a woman. She still loves him and feels this is a sickness by him. This week it was almost too much for her. She was not sure she would make it one more day. We reviewed the truth in the Proclamation on the Family wherein it describes gender is a part of who we were before we were born, who we are today and will be who we are in the resurrection. We discussed no matter what he does to physically change his gender in this life, in the resurrection he will be a man and he will be glad. We said we would call daily to see how she was doing. Each day she has been a little stronger and yesterday she was at the Church to help the relief society president with something. We love seeing the healing power of the gospel in people’s lives.
Yuka Matsumoto who is here studying to become a concert violinist has accepted an invitation to play for our ward conference next Sunday. Her whole person moves with the music when she plays. She will play a medley of Christmas hymns. When she obtained her undergraduate degree in London she had drifted a long ways away from activity in the Church. We hope she will rediscover the light in the gospel and how it will make her ability with music greater than what is ever possible to do alone. She loves her music and her family and we hope in time she will come to realize how much she loves the Lord too.
Gundo Vollrath has reached a point where his prayers are prayers of thanksgiving and we think he is coming close to being able to ask for the help he needs. When he reads or when we meet he growth is so rapid that everything he learns adds more questions. These are not questions of doubt as they were in the beginning months. They are questions seeking answers and believing the answers when they come. The Spirit has a lot of room in his heart right now. We are very hopeful he will continue to progress.
Mom remains the practical person in our area. We had a key yesterday to unlock the garage behind the Church so the elders could do some service. We were trying to figure out which way we still needed to turn the key to open the door and mom said, “Have you tried turning the handle?” You know the rest of the story. She is great. Her sense of humor and her ability to tell stories adds wonderful flavor to the work. In these two areas she needs take a back seat to no one.
We are excited to see what BYU is offered for a bowl game. With the work being somewhat slow during the holidays we may be able to watch some or all of it on a delayed basis or if not it will still be fun to hear how they did. Mom is excited thinking the Jazz will still have three months of basketball when we are home again. She is a true sports fan! I like cheering along with her as well. It’s a good life.
We hope the coming weeks will be full of warm and lasting memories. We hope to do the same. This will be our last Christmas in Germany. We are happy wherever in the world we are as long as we can stay in touch with those we love.
Have a great week!
Love always,
Dad and Grandpa
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