A note from Camille

I wish to apologize to EVERYONE for being remiss in getting these letters on this blog. I can only hope that you will offer me clemency. I hope to do better in the future.

LOVE to you all!

Camille

From Dad 1/26/2008

Hi Family,

Yes, it was an awesome week! Tim Palmer, who has struggled so much knowing what to do with three sons and no marriage, is fighting back again to see himself as a person of value. One thing he said this week that gave us some hope was, “I will fight to the end”. He called last night for support. His family is out of town and he plans to be in Church this morning. He talked about having feelings like there was a major battle raging inside of him. He knows what he wants to do to improve his life and then come the feelings to do the opposite. He said when he prays sometimes he feels like he is really speaking with someone and other times he feels nothing. We talked about his feelings when he reads in the scriptures. It was interesting. There has been only a limited time for a few days a couple of months ago when he was consistently reading in the scriptures. Of that time he said, “I always felt good”. We talked about the promise from our Father in Heaven when we read any scriptures with a sincere heart to learn more about Him and His directions He is giving us, we will feel His Spirit and know what we are reading is true. Tim said he will be with us today. There is a lot of good in him and we know he can be a great help to others.

Peter Huerdler is a nice man. He has a tendency to go with the flow. Right now his wife has chosen, again, to go with the flow of another man. He thought he had found the perfect situation. A woman about his same age who has a son seemed to take him under her wing. They invited us to meet with them a couple of times. He could not say enough about his “good fortune”. He said, “When I am there she cooks the meals and does all the cleaning. I couldn’t have it better.” He said, “Elder Price I give my priesthood back to you. I am not worthy to carry it right now, but God will understand.” So much for having it “better”. When we talked a couple of weeks ago he was alone again. He did say he would read in the Book of Mormon 7 to 10 minutes a day. We hope to find out more later today. He is very gentle. With a little backbone and commitment life could be very good for him.

Jan Storz is a brilliant young man about 22. He is taking his oral exams to complete his degree this spring. He plans to be an engineer or work with astronomy. He is like so many of the young people who go away from home for the first time. He feels his life was always being directed and wanted to see what it would be like when he became the director. Religion was a non-subject for many months. In December an active young single adult went with us and afterward suggested the next time we met with Jan to encourage him to think back and express any positive feelings he had had about the gospel when he was growing up. We did this last Tuesday. He told how at a youth conference when they were on a mountainside for a testimony meeting early one morning and he had born his testimony and the strong feelings that came to him. He shared a few other times he had born his testimony and had had those same strong feelings. The end result was he told us the next time we meet we can discuss the first two lessons in the new priesthood/relief society manual on the teachings of Joseph Smith. We are excited for Jan. He comes from a very good family.

We see so much of good that has and is happening in our family. We can only be thankful and recognize the Lord is very involved in guiding the lives of all of us. Thanks for letting Him, for trusting Him enough to see how much He wants to and is blessing our lives. We feel ready to hit the ground running. We plan on keeping our “running shoes” on the remaining few weeks we have here. Mom is a great inspiration and influences for good the things we do every day. When the Gunthers moved this week when we were leaving their home sister Gunther put her arm through mom’s and said, “Elder Price could you just disappear for two years and let sister Price go with us?” Needless to say, mom is well thought of. It is easy to understand how you must feel having the privilege of having her close by once again.

Have a good week. We are so thankful for everyone of you.

Love always,


Dad

From Mom 1/24/2008

Dear Family,

This morning Dad and I walked to our first two appointments. It was so nice. Dad actually took off his coat for part of the time. That has to say something about the weather here right now. It’s quite a contrast from the weather in Idaho. I’m glad there are still a few weeks for things to warm up before we get there.

We’ve had a good week----a very busy week and that’s what makes it good. Monday was our district meeting. Sister Meng and I take turns bringing treats for district meeting but Sunday night when our district leader called, he said not to worry about fixing anything because the Elders had something special for us. So when the meeting ended, they said to just stay where we were and enjoy visiting and they went to the kitchen. Pretty soon things started smelling really good. They came in and put silverware and glasses on the table and then each of them carried two filled plates of food. They had fixed schnitzel, potatoes and kraut and it was really good! We were stuffed. They said it was there way of saying thanks for the treats we had brought and for the times we had paid for their meals when we’ve all gone out together. We had a feeling that a couple of them might be transferred this week and sure enough, it happened. My very favorite elder, Elder Zern is now in Austria. Elder Weixler, from Schweinfurt also went to Austria. He was a brand new missionary when he first came to our district and he really struggled. He’s very small and he was very homesick and would have done anything to go back home. But he stuck it out and has developed into a good missionary. A few weeks ago he bore his testimony and told of having such a feeling of love for the people they were teaching. Of course, he had never met them before but as he got to know them he really started developing some close feeling for them. He said when he felt these feelings, he felt he was finally getting some of the feelings a missionary should have------not so much just caring about how he was doing but really starting to care about other people. Ever since that time we’ve seen a real change in him. It’s wonderful to work with these young missionaries and feel of their spirit and their dedication to this work.

We had our meeting with the Petersons and Martina’s Jehovah Witness friend. I should say “friends”. This young woman that Martina, (Ron’s angry wife), has been studying with brought a man with her who is the Elder of the church in the congregation here. He announced right up front that we were not here to argue but to share beliefs. Dad did a wonderful job. All his studying the past two weeks paid off. Their beliefs are so different. They think that all the trouble and things wrong in the world are because Adam and Eve partook of the fruit. We tried to talk to them about what would have happened had they not partaken but it was useless to try. When you ask what they believe about where we were before we were born they have no idea and they believe that when you die, that’s it. And when you die all your sins are taken away regardless of what you’ve done and that there is nothing more, but in the same breath they talk about the thousand years after you die that you will have to learn the gospel. The Bible is their one and only source of scripture and anything in addition to it is not from God. How thankful I am for the scriptures we have that explain so many things so clearly. It was an interesting visit----exhausting but interesting. Martina went off on us a couple of times but both of her friends told her to calm down and not be so critical. She didn’t have to believe what we believed but she should at least be respectful to us. That was nice. She gets pretty excited and says some pretty ugly things. My personal prayer before we left to see them was that I would be able to control my feelings and keep my mouth shut! And I did a pretty good job. As I said, Dad really knows his scriptures and did a great job explaining things. When we were driving home we both commented that the young woman who was there just seemed like she would have liked to know more about what we believe. Maybe a seed was planted. That remains to be seen. I wouldn’t mind if we didn’t have another meeting like that one! It will be interesting to talk to Ron and see what was said when we left.

We visited with Alicia Antivo on Tuesday. She is married to a non-member. We taught him one time but he hasn’t been there the last couple of times we’ve gone. He’s trying to find a job and was gone on job interviews both times we have been there. We had a really nice visit with Alicia. She hasn’t been active for a long time so we started from the first and talked about the first vision and what Joseph Smith learned about the Godhead and about God and Jesus Christ. She had a lot of questions-------not that she questioned what we were teaching but just a lot of basic questions about the church that she had just forgotten. When we were ready to leave she commented that she wish we could stay with her for half a day because she loved the feelings she had when we talk with her about the gospel. She is such a neat lady. How we hope she will want to get active in the church again. And her husband is just a super nice guy too. He had worked as a manager for a cleaning company for several years and one day they announced that they were selling the company and he was out of a job.

Three of the inactive people we’ve been working with have said they would be in church on Sunday. We’ll see what happens. We’re really concerned about what is going to happen to this ward when all the American military people are gone. There just won’t be many left. We need to get these inactive members active again!! We have been told that some of the German people really resented the Americans. Hopefully when the Americans are gone some of those will want to come back. It’s a slow, discouraging job. There are so many wonderful people but they just aren’t that interested in church. As we talked to the other couples at the conference last week, they all said pretty much the same thing---that people have so much and just don’t feel a need for religion in their lives. It kind of frightens me to think what might have to happen to get their attention.

President Rakow said that a German couple would be coming to this mission near the end of February and right now he is thinking that he will have them come here to replace us. He said he hasn’t talked to them yet and doesn’t know much about them but that is what he is thinking right now. That would be so good for this ward.

It has been a short week since I wrote on Sunday and told you all about the couple’s conference so I don’t have a lot more to say. Just know how much we love you and how much we are looking forward to being with all of you again. The gospel is true. We should be so very thankful for it and work every day to keep our testimonies strong. That is what is going to get us through whatever this life throws at us.

Much love,
Mom

From Dad 1/20/2008

Hi everyone,

We hope all of you have had a good week. Everyday we become a little more excited thinking what it will be like when Kathy meets all 31 of you who she has yet to see and greet. It will truly be a great home coming.

Mom and I are discovering we can still all or most all of the things we have always done. The difference is in the recovery time afterward! We are glad none of you have experienced such changes yet, or have you?

Being a family is the greatest blessing we know. We are so glad none have given up on another. There will be so many fun stories to hear and share. It will be the greatest! We are sure there will be a few games played along the way. We hope there will be fun activities for the teenagers, budding teenagers, and one day hope to be teenagers, as well as the young ones. Whether they are Nate activities or otherwise we know they will be fun. We can all squeeze into Russ and Camille’s lower level or the front room/dining room at our place if no other location is available. Mom is a home body and doesn’t mind where we are as long as everyone can be there and participate with whatever is going on. We will have four days together and any or all of the four days you can be with us will be awesome!

One of our friends from England, David Tindell, has little opportunity to be exposed to the Spirit except through visits in his home. We are thankful he is open to visits. We hope one day his wife will feel in her heart how our Father in Heaven has a personal interest in her and that it will be worth her time to become acquainted with Him. So often people are quick to assure us they have a religion and it is usually the case they have little activity with their own church.

Sabine Reynolds who is just 24 today and has one son, Tyrees, knows the feeling she has felt about the Church is true. She told us Wednesday when she first heard about Joseph Smith it seemed so unreal. The more she heard about it the more she has come to feel it is true and it has influenced her life and how she treats her husband and other members of her family. She is very nice. As is true about all of us she has a lot to learn. She accepts this and is happy to be making the effort.

Tim Palmer, our other friend from England who has made Germany his residence for the past 20 years, has a hard time accepting or acknowledging anything worthwhile about himself. We talked for a long time this week until he could name one good quality that was such a firm part of who he is he knows it will be the same tomorrow, the next day, and the day after that, and so on indefinitely. We encouraged him to recognize this as a foundation and to find other traits he may be close to putting into practice and would recognize as something he was to do something about today. He has a good sense of humor and that usually gets us on the right track again and away from putting himself down. He reaches into his bag of goodies or want to be me traits and thinks about what he can add. We hope each week he will relive the determination we felt from him at one point in November when he was ready to stand fast with the Lord and deal with all other issues of his life and make new commitments to reflect this determination. He’s facing being alone if Ursula continues to request his leaving the home so a new friend can come. Having three sons to leave behind is what tears him up. We seek daily and weekly to assist any way we can to help him see the blessings of forgiveness and that without it he is the one being punished, not Ursula. Having agency and accountability for our choices is sometimes very nice to exercise. Other times we balk and just want to be alone and suffer. His sense of humor keeps us going and hopefully soon him as well. We really like Tim and know these decisions are not easily made nor are the consequences however he decides easy either.

The four elders have something fun planned after our district meeting tomorrow so it will be a fun day. Mom really likes elder Zern (a great sports fan). He is also pretty level headed and has a strong testimony of the restoration and his responsibilities to keep the commandments. Tomorrow are the phone calls for notice of transfer for the elders. Mom hopes it won’t affect elder Zern. We have had some fun and many good missionaries since we have been here. There is not one we have not liked. Even the ones who are sometimes challenging have found their way into our hearts.

Have a good week. We love you all and are thankful for your letters.

Love always,

Dad and Grandpa

From Mom 1/19/2008

Dear Family,

It’s 5 o’clock Sunday morning. We were “wiped out” when we got back from our couples conference. We had to go to the store to pick up a few things and when we got home from the store, I couldn’t even think straight. I was trying to read the Sunday school lesson that I have to give today and could hardly keep my eyes open so decided to quit fighting it and go to bed. So here I am----still not fully prepared for the Sunday school class but need to put first things first and get this letter off to you.

We had a wonderful time at the couple’s conference. It was very relaxing and at the same time very uplifting spiritually. Saturday afternoon we went on a 3 hour tour of an art museum in Munich. The building is huge and there are hundreds of paintings but after awhile they all started looking alike. It was interesting though. Each area of the building featured art from a certain period or from different countries. I guess I’m just not cultured enough to appreciate all of this. Many of the pictures were numbered and we had headphones and could put in the number of the picture we were looking at. When we could hear the explanation it made it more interesting. Of course not nearly all of the pictures were numbered but as I said, it was an interesting experience. One thing for sure is that while being here in Germany we’ve seen a lot of “old” things. Most of the artists lived in the 16 and 17 hundreds. The pictures have been beautifully preserved. During the war all of the pictures were taken out and stored somewhere then put back up again afterwards. Last year we visited one of the “Residences” in Munich which was the place where the leaders lived and conducted the business of the country. That too was a very extravagant place with lots of painting on the ceilings and walls as well as huge pictures hanging on the walls----lots of gold trim in the rooms and all of this paid for by taxes the people paid and just few enjoyed the luxury of living there. It’s all a part of German history.

Friday evening we went to the mission home and had a wonderful dinner and then had a very relaxing evening. President Rakow asked each couple to take two minutes and tell how they met, which was a fun thing. There were lots of, ‘we were both attending BYU”. Then we played some fun games. It is fun to see this side of President and Sister Rakow. There was a new couple that had just arrived in Munich from Salt Lake that afternoon. They didn’t go to the museum. They were taken to the motel where they got to sleep for a couple of hours but they were with us in the evening. I don’t know how they even kept their eyes open. I remember our first day here and going to sleep in the meeting we were in and having the Elder who said the closing prayer say “Amen” three different times to wake us up. That flight from west to east is grueling! There was also another couple that we hadn’t met before. He was a mission president in Switzerland from 1989-1992. Both couples are just so nice as are all the others. They will be life long friends. How grateful we are for our association with them.

Saturday was workshop day. We were all assigned a chapter in “Preach My Gospel” and asked to adapt it to missionary couples, not that we are trying to re-write the book but how can couples apply these things to their work. Our topics were “How do we as missionary couples find people to teach?” and “How do we as missionary couple prepare people for baptism and confirmation or help bring them back into church activity”. We all shared experiences on each topic and it was very interesting. We learned a lot. Sometimes I feel we as couples have an advantage over the young missionaries because we usually stay in one area for most of our missions and have an opportunity to work with the same people longer. Getting to know them better and having them know us better builds trust and friendships and hopefully we are able to influence them in their decisions regarding the church. As much as I would have like to have seen Austria, which is part of our mission, I’m so thankful that we’ve been here in Wurzburg for most of the time. I don’t think I realized how big Munich was while we were there at the beginning of our mission. It seemed like such a huge city when we were there this time. I guess it is a huge city----nearly 2 million people is not a small city!

All in all, it was a great conference. The train ride there was very enjoyable. We were with Elder and Sister Meng going and then Elder and Sister Holzer and the Mengs on the return trip. We were on a really nice train which at one time was traveling at 300 KMS which is around 200 MPH. But it was such a smooth, quiet ride and it was nice not to have to be worrying about the driving. We will miss these kinds of events. This is our third and last one. There are getting to be a lot of “lasts”-----and that’s okay.

We have a full day today. After church we have a teaching appointment with the Elders at the church then we have appointments at 3, 4, and 6 o’clock. Tomorrow should be a little more calm. We have district meeting in the morning and just one appointment in the afternoon before Family Home Evening. Sometimes we just need time to catch our breath! We have pretty much a full schedule the rest of the week and that’s how we like it. One of our appointments this week is with Ron Peterson and his wife AND her Jehovah Witness friend. I’m not sure how much I’m looking forward to that day but it will come and we’ll make it through it but I’ll be glad when it’s over. Dad loves these kinds of challenges. He’s been looking up a lot of material about what they teach and believe and has been busy studying to prepare for it. It’s best for me to just stay quiet during times like this because I get frustrated and then can’t think straight. I’ll be praying for Dad and quietly cheering him on!

Last week in Relief Society the teacher was telling us about the first time she met the missionaries and how she gained her testimony. That morning a couple of Jehovah Witnesses had come to here door and she had spent a couple hours talking to them. The rest of the day had been “one of those days” for her where she felt like she was being pulled in many different directions at one time. Later that afternoon her doorbell rang again and it was a couple of Elders. As frazzled as she was, she felt impressed to invite them in. At the time, they didn’t have any children. She was nervous about being home alone all day so her husband had bought her a dog and this dog would not let anyone between her and the dog and he wouldn’t let anyone touch him. The Elders came in and started talking to her and she noticed the dog going toward them and was a little bit worried about what he might do but one of the Elders reached out and to pet the dog and the dog let him pet him. This was a first. Then when the Elders stood to leave, they shook hands with this lady and the dog didn’t do a thing. This lady said this was a strong indication to her that there was something very special about these young men and that she should listen to them. She made a return appointment with them and they taught both her and her husband and eventually they came into the church and are strong faithful people. She claims that it was her dog that helped her get interested in the church. I thought that was a fun story.


I need to go work on my lesson for today. I’m glad we’re in the Book of Mormon again. I don’t teach that often but this lesson is much easier to prepare than the last one I taught, which was from Revelations or some of the ones from the Old Testament the year before. I love to listen to the lessons from them and read them but don’t do very well teaching them. Next week we both are speaking in Sacrament meeting. Never a dull moment!!! My brain will be ready for a rest.

Know that we love you. We got lots of comments from the other couples about our time being nearly up. Many asked what our plans were when we got home. We told them our only plans right now are to just spend time with our family. That’s what we’re looking forward to the very most. You are in our thoughts and prayers many times each day and will always be most important in our lives.

Much love,
Mom

From Mom 1/17/2008

Dear Family,

It’s late and this has been a long day. We leave in the morning for Munich for the Couples Conference and we still need to work on our part for the conference so I’ll write a real letter when we get back Saturday evening.

It’s been pretty much the same old, same old this week. Nothing earth shaking, just a typical missionary week with a variety of people and more than a few cancellations. They are so frustrating! We’re looking forward to the conference this weekend and getting our batteries recharged for the last leg of our missionary journey. We’re having spring-like weather with the temperature in the low 50’s. Quite a contrast from what we hear about Idaho and Utah.

Take care. Know that you are loved and I’ll write more in a couple of days.

Love ya,
Mom

From Mom 1/14/2008

Dear Family,

We kind of got the “cart before the horse” and assumed that we would be reporting our mission on March 16th. It doesn’t look like we will be doing that. There is ward conference on that day and another missionary coming home the same time we are that I suppose would report before we would as the bishop likes the young elders to report as soon as they can when they get home. So----right now all I can say is that I don’t know when we will be reporting. As far as I know, Dale and Chris will be there on the 15th. They have spring break that next week so that is the best time for them to come. Brian and Kathy will be getting there on the 13th. We’ll just have a fun time together as a family that week-end and record our report for those who won’t be there when we speak in church. As I said, I have no idea when we will be doing that..

Sorry about all this. We are really looking forward to all being together though and we can make our “report” to the family while we’re together and then talk in church another time. You’ll probably get some details that we wouldn’t want to tell in church anyway!

If something else comes up or you can think of a better idea, please let us know. Right now, all we know for sure is that we’re being released on the 6th of March and are planning to fly in to Salt Lake. At our interview with Pres. Rakow, he told us he has another couple coming and they will be here on the 29th of January. He doesn’t quite know what to do with them. He would like them to replace us but doesn’t know what to do with them for the 5 weeks they will be here before we go home. It was all I could do to keep myself from volunteering to go home a month early!! Dad said that wasn’t a good idea. We will finish what we started! And that’s the right thing.

I hope this hasn’t frustrated some of your plans. Being together will be the best part regardless of when it is.

We love you all.

Mom

From Dad 1/12/2008

Hi everyone,

Here we are in the middle of January. Two months from now all of our family who can be together will be together. What an awesome event! We remember our time together in June before we came to Germany. It seemed everyone participated and Nate had a lot of fun things planned (with a lot of help from everyone especially the grandkids) and time didn’t ever seem to drag. Mom is thinking with “March Madness” underway (especially if BYU is in the mix) there might even be a little basketball included. Whatever happens, just being together as much as possible as often as possible during Friday through Monday will be an awesome homecoming. We can hardly wait!

We are also thankful there are still 7 & ½ weeks of full missionary time left for us here. This work changes daily. That is one of the things that make it so fun. We have so many good things that can still happen!

“Sister” Meyer crossed a major bridge with us on Thursday. There were six major points offering two different views we asked her to choose between. We started by reviewing the scripture about the two different ways – one being broad and many people go there, and the other being narrow and few people find it according to the words of the Savior in the New Testament. These included: 1- In what form does God exist; 2- Is the resurrection more than the spirit surviving death;
3- Before eating the fruit were Adam and Eve sinners or innocent and pure; 4- Is more than faith required to make a covenant at baptism and must this covenant be performed by someone who has the authority; 5- Are only the few who hear the gospel and accept the covenant of baptism in this life, of all the billions who have ever lived, able to return to live with our Father in Heaven; and 6- Were prophets and apostles given only to a select few people to guide their lives and everyone else has to figure things out for themselves? Her answers came after much thought but each time sided in favor of the teachings of Jesus Christ during the time of restoration. Sister Meyer’s agency to choose for herself is very important. Only when she wants to make a covenant and then to work each day to live more of the teachings of Jesus Christ would making such a covenant have any value for her. It is a very personal decision. Her desire to be with her husband through all eternity is her incentive to think through and pray about whether such an opportunity requires any work on her part or if it only requires her to want it to be so. When you are almost 82 such decisions are not so easily made or understood. Nothing is impossible through the Spirit, the only teacher of the truth.

Tim Palmer our English friend who has never married, has three sons, and their mother who has found a “new” best man friend with whom she wants to live, seems more prepared and willing to live his life respecting the agency and decisions the mother is making. Finding work is and has been his greatest obstacle. His level of confidence has never been consistently strong. Fortunately there have been times where daylight has broken through and we could see that he knew the things he needed to do and was determined to do them. We are thankful for everyday remaining. We talked for a long time on the phone Friday and he said a prayer asking for the strength to do the things he needs to do. We really like him. His middle son, Ferdie, 9, has been more influenced by Tim than the other two. He knows he has no legal rights the day he steps out of the home and into a separate home of his own. He knows this is what he wants to do. We will pray for him and for his faith and efforts to find a job through which he can support himself and perhaps plan for a new beginning. He knows leaving alcohol behind will also bless his and his son’s life. We hope he can do this as well.

Thanks for all the good things you are including and doing in your lives. We see and feel good from every direction. How can life be better than this! We are so thankful for a Heavenly Father who knows us personally and works daily to support our efforts in every good thing we choose. His is the winning team. All else will fail. Courage and hope spur us on to make one more effort to reach out to one more person that they too can know and feel deep in their heart the love of someone who cares more about us than we can even comprehend.

We look at the snow pictures and have mixed feelings. It would be so fun to slide down the hill after Camille! It would be fun to pull the grandkids on sleds or go down a hill together. We don’t miss driving on snow and are thankful when we are around so much traffic that we have not had to deal with this issue! It looks beautiful and we will enjoy being a part of it next winter!

Have a good week. Thanks for being family.

Love always,


Dad and Grandpa

From Mom 1/11/2008

Dear Family,

We don’t know if this weather is the calm before the storm or if we are in for another early spring. The temperatures have been in the low and mid 40’s all week. But Dad keeps the thermostat at the same temperature. I’m always opening the windows and sliding door a crack and he come behind me and closes them. It will be nice when we’re home and he can be in his toasty office and I can be in cooler places in the house!

This has been quite a week. We went to see Ron Peterson on Wednesday. He is the one with the wife who just doesn’t like Mormons at all. She usually leaves when we come but this time she came and sat down and joined in. She didn’t mince any words about her feelings for the church. She used some pretty crude language in expressing them and I could feel my blood pressure going up! She said everything she needs to know is in the Bible and that the Book of Mormon is half a copy of the Bible and the rest is “stuff Joseph Smith made up”. That was hard to hear. She also tore down our temples saying we don’t need all those big, beautiful buildings to worship God in and thought that temple work was a waste of time. She went on and on with her ranting and raving. Dad was his patient self and I was shaking with anger. She wouldn’t listen to anything we tried to say. I’ve never met anyone so ornery and full of anger. Ron walked out to the car with us and apologized for how his wife acted and told Dad that he had never met anyone as patient as he is. We have another appointment with Ron in two weeks and will see what happens then. She meets regularly with a Jehovah Witness friend and Dad asked if she would consider meeting with us and that friend at the same time. Yikes! I hope I’m sick that day! Not really, it’s just that Dad isn’t afraid to “take anyone on” and I am. Could be a very interesting meeting. Oh, what experiences missionaries have!

Do you remember our telling you about Sister Paahs, the older inactive sister who gave us all of her church books and then called back and asked if we would bring her triple combination back? We hadn’t seen her for quite awhile. She just wasn’t well for quite awhile and kept putting us off but we did get to see her his week. She was so friendly and nice to us. We talked to her about the Atonement and read some about it from the Book of Mormon. This is the first time she has let us do that. Other times it has been, “You can read from the Bible but not the Book of Mormon”. She even told us that she would come to church next Sunday. We’ll see what happens come next Sunday. She has quite a sense of humor when she’s feeling good and is enjoyable to be around. But when she doesn’t feel well, she can be a bit of a grouch and you leave wondering why you came to see her.

It was nice to be back with the young people for Family Home Evening and Institute class. They are so enjoyable to be around. We are very happy to report that a young man and young woman who met at one of our institute classes became engaged at Christmas time and are getting married in late June. She had been invited by a couple of young girls in our ward to come over for institute. Daniel was there and she told these friends that she would like to get to know Daniel better. They, the friends, were good to make sure she was at all the stake dances and other activities the Young Single Adults had because Daniel attends all of them. This summer they both went to a Single Adult conference. We could tell when they come home from the conference that they had become quite attached to each other. We are so happy for them. Kristen is a returned missionary. She served in Washington D.C. Daniel served his mission in England and is just completing his research work for his thesis for his Masters degree. He told us Monday that he wants to have everything done by the end of March so he can concentrate on finding a good job and a place for them to live. It has been a fun thing to watch this relationship progress the past few months.

We have been meeting with the Gunthers ever since we got here. They are the ones who have their niece living with them now. Lindsey, the niece, loves to come to Primary so Brother Gunther has been a little bit better about coming to church to bring her. When he doesn’t come, she calls and asks us for a ride. Sister Gunther works every Sunday and comes only when she has a late afternoon shift, which isn’t very often. They are moving to Stuttgart at the end of the month. He works in Stuttgart and is gone all week and comes home on Friday night. She has found a job there so they will be able to be together more. She asked us if we would come and just talk to her on Tuesday. She poured her heart out about her concern for her niece and her husband. She has found out that he has been drinking quite a bit. She really loves him and is hoping that this move, where they will be together more, will solve some of those problems. After the closing prayer, she thanked us for coming and told us that she really feels our love for her and more importantly, that she is beginning to feel our Heavenly Father’s love for her. That will go a long way to help her with the adjustments coming up for them. We will really miss them. I don’t know if you remember that she told us one time that the reason she had called and asked us to come over was so she could tell us she didn’t want us to come over any more and didn’t want any contact with the church. Then she got sick and ended up in the hospital and her sister called and asked us to go see her. From that time on, our relationship with her had changed and she has opened her feelings to us more than she ever had. People in the ward have been so helpful to them with Lindsey. You just have to see the Lord’s hand in some of these things. They will be another family that we will really miss but will try to stay in touch with.

Yesterday was P-day. All of us in the district went on a tour of “The Residence” here in Wurzburg. This is the HUGE building the arch-bishop had built in the 14th century. It was damaged quite heavily during the war but has been restored and is a beautiful building. Each time we go into one of these kinds of buildings I can’t help but feel bad that only a few people got to really enjoy the building and the biggest part of the population paid for it. There were lots of servants and I’m sure it was an honor for them to work there but their living quarters were much different than the other rooms that were for the leaders of the country and honored guests. But it was fun to see. It is amazing to think that that building was built before America was even discovered. And I thought the historic places we went to see with Dale and Chris in New York were old! It’s hard for me to comprehend the history of this part of the world. This is where all the stories of “knights in shining armor” took place. It’s just interesting to think about.

We always enjoy your letters and any word from home. I have missed the snow. I love it when we have a real winter with lots of snow. Hope we have another one like it next winter. We are counting the weeks. Both of us are very anxious to get back home with family. This has been and continues to be a wonderful experience. I’ll always be thankful for it but I must admit that I’m ready for a change. And I think Dad is too. He is like the Eveready Battery Bunny, he just keeps going and going and going. And that is good but I think we’re both getting a little bit worn out. We’re looking forward to the couple’s conference next week. That’s always so enjoyable. Dad and I each have to give talks on a couple of chapters from “Preach my Gospel”. After that is over with, we can enjoy the rest of it!

Know that we love you. You are in our prayers every day. Thank you for all you are doing in your families. They are the most important thing in all the world!

Much love always, Mom

From Dad 1/6/2008

Hi Family,

It has been a good week. We are also glad the holidays are over and we will be able to see more people once again. Mom is truly a people person and it drives her nuts when it is just us two. There is only so much we can think to talk about 24/7. As for me, I love every minute we are together. I will miss it a lot when the time comes for me to share her and be away from her so much of the time. This has been a good experience and a good time for us. To have someone as your personal tutor on how to figure things out, how to read people, how to see the common sense approach to everyday things has been nothing short of awesome! The list of good things goes on and on. We love going for walks. There is something that happens every time we come away from an appointment and the Spirit was there. Holding hands, talking gently one with another, thinking good things are all examples of what happens after we have especially felt the strength of the Spirit. This is what a mission is all about.

Brother Tindell we met with yesterday morning pays his tithing regularly. He works every week end and going to Church at this time in his life is not an option. We are the only option at present. His wife is very nice. She is a member of one of the long standing churches in the area but never goes and has no interest. We would love for the opportunity to sit down with the two of them at least once before we return home to see if a spark may still be there in her feelings about our Father in Heaven.

The man sister Sack has lived with for almost 20 years met with us and talked about religion for the first time yesterday. He was raised in a home that followed the communist ideas about God being something or someone you wanted out of your life, not into it. He is a member of one of the churches but holds no warm feelings about God. He does have important good feelings about the woman who has shared her life with him the past 20 years. Mom suggested encouraging her to read with him a few minutes every day in the Book of Mormon to see if he would not once feel some desire to know more about his Heavenly Father. We hope something will come of this. So little is understood about the love of our Father in Heaven that He would allow His Son to make such a sacrifice for us, or the love His Son had for us to got through what He did to make it possible for us to return to our Father in Heaven. There is no other way.

We hope you can feel our love for you even though we are many miles apart. We think about you every day. We are so thankful for the internet and the pictures, the letters, the funny stories, even the challenges. Keep them coming. We look forward to telling you thanks in person in a couple of short months. Have a great week.

We love you all always,

Dad and Grandpa

From Mom 1/3/2008

Dear Family,

Well, 2008 is finally here. There have been times I thought it would never come and there have been times that I wish it would never come. It’s all a part of the ups and downs of missionary life but in spite of those ups and downs, we will always be grateful for this opportunity. I think of the experiences we have had and the people we’ve met and realize how blessed we have been to have had these experiences. Every day is different and I’m sure every missionary’s experiences are different so to tell people what a mission is like would be almost impossible. Is it hard? Yes. Is it worth it? You bet!! Would you do it again? Well, not for awhile at least. Are you glad you did it? I wouldn’t trade the experience and this opportunity to spend all our time in the Lord’s service. It only happens on a mission.

We feel like we’re finally getting back to our work. The holidays have taken their toll on our time to contact people but the holidays are all but over and people are getting back into their normal routines again. We had a very interesting day today. I’ve talked a lot about Christian and Stephanie. Stephanie’s sister is spending some time with them. She’s probably 27 or 28 years old. Stephanie called and asked us if we would come over and teach her the gospel. I was a little concerned about doing it and asked Stephanie what her parents would think of us doing that. They don’t have a lot of good to say about the church. Stephanie told us that her parents told her not to be telling her sister about the church. Then she said, “But they didn’t say anything about anyone else teaching her.” So we went over yesterday. We’ve been a bit hesitant about doing it so we went into it with the idea that we would just tell her about the church and not teach her as if we were going to baptize her. Yesterday we talked briefly about a lot of things-----our Heavenly Father’s love for us, the importance of families, and the Book of Mormon. She (Sonia) loves to read and was so happy when we gave her a Book of Mormon. We told her a little bit about it and invited her to start reading. She asked us if we would come back today. She had read clear up to chapter 10 in 2nd Nephi and said that it was really interesting to her. Today we read together the 11th chapter of 3rd Nephi and she was really impressed with the. She wanted to meet again tomorrow but has to go back home. She said she’s coming over later in the month and wants to continue learning about the church. I just hope all this doesn’t cause problems with her family.

I mentioned last week about going to check out a referral. This is a young man from India who is here in Germany as a political refugee. Some one gave him a Book of Mormon in Hindi (the language of India) and he has been reading it and loves it. The big problem is that he speaks very little English and hardly any German. It is very difficult to communicate with him. When we met with him last Saturday we thought he must be in his mid twenties. Today a friend who lives in the same apartment building he lives in was there. This friend speaks good English and was able to help us communicate with this young man---Kumar Manis. We found out he is only 16 years old and in Germany you can’t work until you are 18. He lives is one room that is probably 14 x 8 feet. We had hoped to help him find a job here in Wurzburg and help him find a better place to live but finding out his real age, our hands are pretty much tied as far as helping him find a job. He has permission to stay in the country until February 14 and then they will decide if he can stay longer or if they ship him back to India. What a life!----no job, no family, wondering if he’s going to be sent back to India and only 16 years old. But he does love reading his Book of Mormon. With his limited English it’s hard to try to teach him anything so today we took an English Book of Mormon with us and sat at his table with him and helped him read about 10 verses. That took half an hour. He would read then if a word came that he didn’t know, he would look at his Hindi book and come back to the English one. It was amazing how quickly he started recognizing words. He said he would keep reading and we have another appointment with him next week. We’ve heard stories of people learning to read and even learning the English language through reading the Book of Mormon. I guess I just never thought we might have one of those experiences. As we sat there working with him, I couldn’t help but think, “Where else would I ever be having an experience like this?” He wanted us to have a cup of coffee before we left and was pretty adamant about it. Thank goodness his friend came back about that time and we were able to tell him we didn’t drink coffee and he explained that to Kumar. Then he asked what we did drink and we told him we would drink some Herbal tea and he said he’d have some for us next week. He’s such a nice young man. We realize more each down what a sheltered life we have lived and our eyes have really been opened to what some people have to go through in their lives.

Yesterday we were upstairs in our building talking to a sweet lady we’ve met with several times. I’m not sure she is that interested in learning about the church but she does love having us come. She loves to have us sing to her so we take our hymn book and sing a couple of songs each time. She loves “How Great Thou Art” and sings along with us. She has a deep voice, almost like a man’s voice. She used to sing in a group and loves music. Her step brother was there while we were there. When we saw that she had company we told her we would come back but they both insisted that we come in. The step brother is Russian. He speaks enough German to get by. He didn’t have a lot to say while we were talking to Edda but after awhile he came over to where we were and expressed to Edda that he wishes he could understand us. We asked Edda if he could read Russian and she said he could and then we asked her if she thought he would like a Russian Book of Mormon. She thought he would so we ran down to our apartment and got him one. He seemed so pleased and very gracious when we gave it to him. We asked him to read from it to Edda as her eyes are very bad and she can’t see well enough to read much. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens in that case. So between our experience with the young man from India and our new friend from Russia, we kind of feel like we are on an International mission. It all makes for some very interesting days.

Monday afternoon all the missionaries in our district---two sets of Elders and two couples---got together and went to dinner than back to the church and played ping-pong and some table games. A couple from the ward who are in the army and are just waiting to leave for their new assignment at Fort Lewis Washington were there with us and they were a lot of fun. We played Scum and Mormon Bridge and just had a good time. We had to be in our apartments by 10:30. About 11:30 the fireworks started right outside our window and they went steady until about 12:15. It’s just what people here do on New Years Eve. All week when we would go to the store, people were buying huge amounts of fireworks. What a mess the streets and little parks around here were the next day! But it’s pretty much all cleaned up by now and life is settling down again. Tuesday was an almost impossible day to do any missionary work. We tried. We spent some time talking to people on the phone trying to get things set up for next week. The Elders called around 3 o’clock and said they had had zero success contacting people so we invited them over. I made some scones and they really liked them. Then we had about an hour study time together. We each read and told about our favorite scripture in the Book of Mormon and why it was our favorite scripture. Then we all shared some experiences we have had with the Book of Mormon on our missions. It was a great hour! Then we pulled out the Rook cards and played a couple of games of 3-13. They love that game!! All in all our New Years celebrations were good.

Tonight we went to Sister Shuster’s and had a Family Home Evening with her and her almost 6 year old Luca. I think I mentioned them in my last letter. She is a single Mom and just feels burned out trying to do everything required of her. She said Luca doesn’t like FHE and he doesn’t like it when the Home Teachers come so we told her we would try to make it an enjoyable evening for Luca. We sang a song, which he doesn’t like to do but he got a recorder for Christmas and played it as we sang. He didn’t get the tune to well but had the rhythm perfect. Then Dad gave a short lesson on the Book of Mormon and gave Luca one for himself. Then we played the M&M game and both of them seemed to have had such a good time. It was good to see Sister Shuster let her hair down and laugh and have a good time. She is pretty serious about life and we saw a new side of her tonight. It was good. We’re going to try to go back each week while we’re still here. Another good experience that we wouldn’t be having if we weren’t here.

And so life goes on here in Germany. We have a lot of people we want to meet with the next couple of months. I don’t think we’re going to have much trouble keeping plenty busy. The time will fly by and then we will fly home. And we can hardly wait!! We hope you know how much we love each one of you.

Much love always,
Mom

From Dad 12/29

Hi everyone,

There are only three days left until the New Year! This has been a great yet challenging year. What an opportunity we have each day to decide how the rest of our life is going to look. Having a new beginning is so awesome!

We met Kumar Manis from India today. He was a referral. He has been in Germany for 5 months and just recently moved to our area. The missionaries in Karlsruhe gave him a Book of Mormon in Hindi, his native language. He is so happy with the book. He reads in it every day. He understands some words in English but is not able to think in sentences. He speaks very few words of German. He has a job washing dishes 1 or 2 hours a day. His roommate drinks a lot and becomes angry often. We hope we can find someone who speaks Hindi and fairly good English so we can teach him and help him get settled into life in Germany a little better. He calls us “mother and father”. He is very clean and we think is very willing to work. Your prayers for him will also be appreciated.

The elders helped us do a service project on Thursday for brother Vollrath who is 75. He had a few pieces of furniture he needed to move around. It only took about a half an hour. He was so happy. We had time afterward to sit and talk about prayer and answers to prayer. Elder Zern when he was 17 and was thinking about a mission knew he had gone to Church because his mom and dad went to Church. He believed it was true but felt he needed his own testimony. We asked him to share how he received his testimony with brother Vollrath. He told about how he began reading in the Book of Mormon everyday and afterward praying to know if it was true. Brother Vollrath asked if he received an answer right away. Elder Zern said no. Brother Vollrath was amazed how he kept reading and praying everyday without any concrete answer. As he came close to the end of the Book of Mormon Elder Zern told about one night when he prayed a feeling came into his heart he felt throughout his whole person. He knew. There were no more questions about this. No question has come up in his mind or heart about this answer since that night. This strength has helped him deal with the language barrier, the desire for education and learning barrier, and being in a country that is very different from what he was familiar with and is a long ways from family. We feel strength from him whenever we are around him. Brother Vollrath found some new hope in what he still needs to personally do in order to also receive answers to his personal prayers.

Alina Guenther is from Peru and speaks pretty good English and enough German to navigate in this country. She was so excited to learn both Cindy and Nate speak Spanish! She asked for their phone number and wants to call and congratulate them on their new arrival, Cade. She has a sister who lives in Salt Lake. The daughter of this sister, Lindsay, lives with her aunt Alina and Uncle Stefan here in Wuerzburg.

Yesterday we met with David Stoppel who is 35, divorced, and has three children who live with their mother and her present husband. He said he knows he drinks too much and doesn’t control his temper as well as he should. He knows very, very little about the Church. He is a great cook and made a super bean soup for lunch. We talked for a while afterward. He said he knew there were a lot of things going on in his life he would be better off without. He also said he seldom prays. We asked if he was ready to accept a challenge to pray every day. We suggested if he read for five minutes before he prayed in the Bible or Book of Mormon his heart would be more ready to open up to his Father in Heaven. We asked if we could kneel in prayer and if he would say the prayer. He said yes and all of a sudden he was on his knees and prayed in Russian with sobs coming frequently. We hugged afterward and talked about meeting again in two weeks. He makes us feel the door is open to help him find the strength to live a better, happier life.

Missionary work is a new experience every day. You are preparing the next generation of missionaries in the Church. Thanks for all of the Family Home Evenings, family prayers, family scripture study times, and all the fun things you have done and continue to do to help keep your families strong and your young men preparing for the day when they will be writing their own missionary experiences back to you.

We love all of you guys. We love and are thankful to be part of the family.

Have a great week. In German they say, “We hope you will slip into the New Year well!” (Wir wuenschen Ihnen einen guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr!)

Love always,


Dad

From Mom 12/27

Dear Family,

There isn’t a lot to report since Christmas but we want you to know how much we enjoyed talking to each one of you. We are really getting anxious to be home again. To hear some of the grandkids say, “I really miss you” or “I want you home right now!” was music to our ears. We are looking forward to seeing all of you again.

We had mostly just a fun, relaxing week. Today we have two appointments and tomorrow we are going to check out a referral we received. When Dad called the referral, the man seemed very nice and looks forward to meeting with us. That will be an interesting experience. Most of our appointments this week have been eating appointments! Yesterday we took the Elders with us to do a service project. Brother Vollrath, who we have been meeting with for some time, needed some furniture re-arranged and some things taken out of his apartment----some to be put in storage and others just needing to be disposed of. I mainly sat while the men did the work. Then after the work was done, we had a good meeting with him. I think he enjoyed hearing the testimonies of the young elders and hearing their experience with their prayers being answered. He is struggling with wondering if his prayers are even being heard. I think he wants to hear a voice or see a vision to be sure his prayers are answered. It was good to hear the elders say it was just a feeling in their hearts that was witness to them that Heavenly Father did know them and hear their prayers. It was a good experience.

When we finished there, we took the Elders to Pizza Hut. Oh, it was so good! The German pizza is so flat and so dry. We all enjoyed that and then we went bowling for a couple of hours. I’ve never bowled so badly! The Elders had a good time beating up on Dad and I. All in all it was a good, fun, relaxing day. Now it’s time to get back to missionary work.

I just wanted to share some feelings I’ve had over the past few days. People have been so very good to us. As I told you, we are well supplied with cookies and fruit. But putting those things aside, being in their homes most of this past week has brought such good feelings. On Sunday, the Braithwaites had us over for lunch after church. Brother Braithwaite was the ward mission leader until just recently when he was put in as Young Mens President. He was a great mission leader and is still very much interested in missionary work. They are such a nice family. They have two little boys, Sam and Jack, who are so great. They are just good people to be around and there is always such a feeling of peace and love in their home. Then on Christmas Eve we were with the Bacon family to celebrate their little Lucia’s second birthday along with Christmas Eve. It has been so fun watching her throughout this year and thinking about Kaitlyn and what she is doing. Lucia has much more hair than Kaitlyn! Each time we see her, she is talking more and doing such fun things. They too are a wonderful family. Brother Bacon is in the bishopric. They both served missions in Italy and have traveled a lot while being here with the Army and he is a great story teller. It’s always fun to be in their home. They acted out the nativity and it brought back many good memories of doing that with you throughout the years. It was just such a warm, very much at home feeling being with them. On Christmas Day, we went to the Merkleys. Brother Merkeley recently returned from spending 15 months in Iraq. He was the bishop in this ward before he left and it goes without saying that there is a wonderful feeling in their home too. They have five children. Sister Merkley is an amazing lady. I admired her so much for the great faith she displayed while her husband was gone. It was a very difficult time. She was pregnant when he left so she went through having the baby without him being here. He did come home on a 2 week leave in April and blessed the baby then. They too made us feel very welcome and very much at home. It was fun sharing some of their family experiences and especially hearing some of Brother Merkley’s experiences in Iraq. How grateful we are for those who are willing to put their lives on the line to protect our freedom. I have so much respect for the wives and families left at home while their husbands and fathers are away. It has been a real eye opener to be associated with this kind of life. The day after Christmas we were invited to lunch at Sister Shusters. She is a single Mom with a 5 year old son. When she invited us, she was apologetic about what she had to feed us. Her income is very limited but she made a delicious vegetable soup and had some of this wonderful German bread and it was all just great. We played some games with them and then Sister Shuster just needed to talk. She is struggling so with being a single mom and wants so badly to do what is right by her son. She asked if we would come and have Family Home Evening with her so he would hear something taught by someone other than his mother. (She is also his Primary teacher) We told her we were busy on Monday night but have it set up to have FHE with them on Thursday evening. The little boy is Luca and he really likes Dad so I think this is going to be another good experience for us.

All in all, it has been a good week and I’ve thought many times how thankful I am for the experience of being on a mission for the last two Christmas’s. We had planned to be in town when the stores opened on Monday morning to pick up a few things for Christmas. We wanted to take some things to the Gogan’s as we know this has been a difficult time for them with their mother being in the hospital but is now home but on bed rest. But with the strong feelings of the true meaning of Christmas that we had received with our Christmas program at church and with our time that afternoon with the Braithwaites then an investigator and then with Thomas and Elana Beck and then coming home and just thinking about the real significance of the birth of Christ, when I woke up on Monday, the last thing I wanted to do was to be in town with a lot of people and material things. Dad had to go meet a member who had called and wanted a copy of the “Joy to the World” DVD to share with a non-member neighbor and while he was out, he stopped and picked up a couple of boxes of oranges and a couple of bags of apples and some candy and we took that to the Gogans instead of the “things” we had talked about getting for them. It was so good to have that real Christmas spirit all that day and Christmas Day too. I think the greatest blessing to me personally on this mission has been realizing more fully what Jesus Christ really means in our lives and how important His birth really was. We are truly blessed to have His gospel in our lives and to know of His love for us and to know that through Him we can be forgiven; we can have our burdens lifted and that He has given us His gospel as a means of helping us prepare to live with our Heavenly Father again. How grateful we are.

A year ago, the year 2007 seemed like a long time to still have in Germany. But it has gone so fast and now we are to the point that there are just days left on our mission. It will be with mixed emotions that we leave Germany. I’m so anxious and excited to come home and see everyone again but I think a part of me will always be here in Germany. Can you believe I am saying that? It’s hard for me to believe it with how I felt a year ago. Thank you all for the love and support we’ve felt through your letters and through your prayers. You have been a big part of our success and of how much this mission has come to mean to us.

Have a fun New Years Eve party and may this New Year be full of wonderful blessings for each of you. We love you dearly and can hardly wait to see you!

Much love always,
Mom