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
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
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