A Time To Be Thankful

Last week we had to say goodbye to Sister Schulz.  She and her companion, Sister Hodges, were the ones who taught Jan the Gospel of Jesus Christ and about the restoration of His church.  What a blessing they were to him.  What a blessing it was for us to be involved in the process.

Sis. Hodges, Sis. Schulz, Diane, and me

It is impossible to say goodbye without remembering the fun times.

We had so much fun with our Wednesday evening seminary class.  Each Wednesday our seminary students and students from another seminary class get together for a gospel subject discussion.  We had about 14 youth there that night.  The topic we were assigned was priesthood and priesthood keys.

We started off talking about the difference between the priesthood and priesthood keys.  We were amazed that some of them knew that.

Then the fun started.  We had all the offices in the priesthood represented by an actual representative standing in line from lesser priesthood to highest: Deacon, Teacher, Priest, Bishop, Elder, High Priest, Patriarch, Seventy, Apostle.  We were going to have a Seventy there, but he had to go out of town.  So we took his picture and a picture of an Apostle to represent those offices. (The office of Deacon can be held at age 12; Teacher, at age 14; and Priest, at age 16.)

Next, the kids were given individual pieces of paper which had duties specific to a priesthood office. They taped each duty on the person it belonged to.  It was interesting to see the ones they got right and the ones they didn’t.

Then we gave them other pieces of paper with duplicate duties to tape to these men and boys.  This was to show them that as you advance in the priesthood, you retain the duties of the lower priesthood. Some of the men were just covered with pieces of paper.

Then we gave them pictures of keys and the students were asked to distribute them to the correct priesthood holder.  Of course we had to explain that keys would only be given to a Deacon or Teacher or Elder if they were the president of that quorum.

Elder De Feo

After class a lot of the youth came up to us to thank us for that lesson. It was just as much fun for us and the priesthood holders who helped us.

Thursday was Thanksgiving for us as it was for ya’ll. However, it was a regular workday for us. For dinner, the 50 some senior missionaries, having fixed their assigned traditional Thanksgiving dish, met at the church to have a wonderful dinner together. Other Americans were invited and the local young missionaries. Also, Elder De Feo, counselor to the Area Presidency, and his family and Mission President Boyer and his family.  We probably had close to 80 people there.

Not eating sugar, it was especially hard for me to walk past that dessert table but, poor Diane. There wasn’t anything there, dinner or dessert, that she could eat.  She was prepared, though, and had brought her own food.

Last night we group Messenger’ed with my siblings.  It was wonderful to see them all together and be able to talk to each other. Having a loving family is such a great blessing.

Power of Prayer

Each week the senior missionaries gather together to discuss a few chapters in the Book of Mormon.  There are typically 16 to 24 missionaries, many of them having been bishops, stake presidents, mission presidents, Relief Society presidents and other important positions in church.  It makes the discussion very interesting to listen to.  With such spiritual giants we feel a little intimidated being among them.

This past week, at the end of our discussion, we were informed about an incident involving one of the new couples.  They had just arrived a few weeks ago and had an assignment to travel to another country.  At one point, the sister left her husband sitting on a bench to look at something nearby.  She left her purse with him.  She hadn’t been gone more than a few minutes and upon returning her purse had been stolen.  All her important papers were in there: driver’s license, credit cards, insurance card, and both their passports.  Most of those can be replaced without a whole lot of trouble except the passports.  Upon reporting the missing passport, they were told that they had to provide their original birth certificates, marriage license and some other documentation they didn’t have.  They weren’t even sure they had some of those things and, if they did, they didn’t know where in their storage unit back in Australia they could be found.

At our Zone Leaders’ request, all the senior couples knelt down and, one sister being the spokesperson, said a prayer asking for Heavenly Father’s help.  Oh my!  The strength of the Spirit that was in that room was incredibly overwhelming.  Long after the prayer other senior couples were still talking about what the Spirit felt like in that room.

That next morning we heard from the sister whose purse was taken.  The government officials had emailed her.  According to the time stamp it was emailed only a few minutes after our prayer.  She didn’t actually read the email until the next morning.  They told her that they decided to make an exception with her case and not require her to provide all that other information.

What a wonderful thing to be a part of that amazing experience.  Another testimony that the Lord watches over his missionaries.

We heard the other day that when a senior missionary returns home, they will feel a large empty hole in themselves. One that needs to be filled.  Many will choose to go on another mission, but if that is not possible or not practical, service of some kind is the best way to fill that gap.

We are loving our experience here, but miss you all.  Feel free to Messenger us any time.  We are usually up no later that 6:00 AM Central European Time during the week and 8:00 on the weekends.  We typically go to bed at 8:30 PM because many mornings we are up at 5 for seminary.  (Those times are our times in Frankfurt.)

Catching Up With News

This is a little late, but is still big news for us - WE PASSED THE DRIVER'S LICENSE TEST!  We took it on the 3rd of November. For the past three months we've dropped everything we could to study to pass the German driving test.  I did not study German (Diane still did), we didn't go to some missionary activities, we didn't people over to socialize and other things.  We studied during every meal and, during the last few days before the test, we used every free moment we had to study.

There are over 1,000 possible questions.  We had bought an online driver's course which consisted of each of the questions with the correct answers that are on the official test.  You'd think that it would be easy having all the answers.  Well, it isn't.  The English translation didn't always make sense. I'll give you an example.  If they ask for the "braking distance" in one question and "stopping distance" in another, there were two totally different answers.  We did finally come to realized that the stopping distance was the reaction distance plus the braking distance -- all of which had formulas to calculate. We still don't know what the difference between a "registration certificate" and a "registration book" or exactly what they meant by a "clearway."

I'll tell you how nervous I was.  I asked for a priesthood blessing from our missionary Home Teacher.  What a wonderful blessing he gave.  Come the day of the test, I went in feeling somewhat calm and remained that way through the test.  Diane, however, felt okay until the 2nd question on the test.  She was unsure of it.  She became nervous and when she ran into another difficult question, her heart began to pound.  I came out of the test, feeling like I aced it.  She came out not knowing if she passed.  As it turned out, she only missed one question and I missed three,  just barely passing.

However, the bottom line is: We now have our German Driver's License.  WhaaHoo! Photo proof below!

Gabi (center) was our translator and helped us through the process.

Today we had a 2nd missionary discussion in our apartment with Chiru.  He is from India.  The missionary elders are teaching him. He is really well versed in the scriptures.  He has a strong Catholic background.  What is so interesting and unique about him is that he listens very intently on everything that is said.  Also, he commented last week as to why he likes our church so well.  He is surrounded by people who are positive.  He is not bombarded with any negativism.  That makes him comfortable.

Diane went back to the eye doctor this past week.  He doesn't feel it is anything urgent, so he has asked that we get him more information by contacting her eye doctors back home to provide a history.  Before we left his office, I tried to pin him down to tell us what he was thinking it might be.  He refused to convey any thoughts until he gets that information.  

This morning we helped out with members and senior couples at the church.  Starting at 8:00 AM we helped set up for a boxing up of baby supply kits for refugees in Germany.  It consisted of clothes, diapers, wipes, and other supplies.  Putting together the kits was scheduled later in the morning and was supposed to take about an hour.  So many people turned out, everything was done in 30 minutes.

I have to admit, it was a lot of fun. We manned boxes of baby clothes and handed the prescribed number to each person coming through with a box. Each box got three newborn, three 3-month, three 6-month, and three 1-year outfits from our station.

Group picture after the work was done

Everything packaged for shipment.

We tried a unique fruit the other day.  It is called cherimoya.  When you cut it open, it appears milky.  It is the sweetest fruit I think I have ever eaten.  It is nearly impossible to take a full bite without taking in seeds.  Kind of like how it is when you bite into a seedy watermelon, only less meat.  Diane is not crazy about it, but I had some on a peanut butter rice cake and it was fantastic. We never would have tried it, but the proprietor of our favorite fruit and vegetable stand suggested it.

I forgot to mention, last Saturday we went out of town for some seminary training.  While out we decided to visit Wiesbaden.  There we saw the Russian Orthodox Church of St. Elizabeth. Actually it is a memorial built by a member of Russian royalty whose wife died at 19 giving birth to a daughter who also died.  This church became his wife's resting place.  He also purchased a large plot of forest next to the church.

Thanks for all of your prayers and thoughts.  We truly miss you all, our relatives and friends.  God bless you in your lives with good health and the blessings of love.

Tender Mercies

Tuesday, a week ago, was another German national holiday.  This one, unlike all other national holidays, is only celebrated every 500 years. Try to put that on your calendar. (It is an annual holiday for 5 states in Germany.)    It was in recognition of the early Christian reformers such as Martin Luther.

Germans take their holidays seriously.  All the stores and other public places are closed.  They even prohibit trucks from driving between midnight and 10:00 PM.  Needless to say, the Europe Area Office where we work was closed.

We are so excited to watch Jan grow in spirit and in the gospel.  Two Sundays ago, he was sustained and ordained as a Priest in the Aaronic priesthood.  A tender mercy occurred for that ordination.  Right after sacrament we approached the bishop in the hall and asked when Jan was to be ordained.  Suddenly Elder Gary Sabin, 1st Counselor to the Europe Area Presidency, walked up to Jan to congratulate him on being sustained in sacrament service.

Unbeknownst to me, Jan had met Elder Sabin one evening when Jan was visiting President Johnson, the Europe Area President.  Jan told me privately later that he really admired Elder Sabin and from the first time they met, Jan felt a connection and an admiration.

Bro. Dicataldo, Bishop Calabrese, Jan, and Elder Sabin

We soon learned that Elder Sabin had only 15 minutes before he had to leave.  Jan wanted him present during the ordination.  Quickly, the bishop and I rounded up all those who Jan wanted present at hiss ordination.  Gathered in the bishop's office, Jan asked if Elder Sabin would ordain him.  What a beautiful blessing he received.

Afterwards, Jan privately asked me in his humble way if he did the right thing.  He felt he should have given the honor to the bishop to perform the ordination.  I told him that in my mind, the Lord had placed the order of things to allow Elder Sabin to be there and to ordain him - a tender mercy.

Last Sunday, Jan was asked to bless the sacrament.  He was so excited, but so nervous.  With the help of a priest we went over all the steps on knowing how to bless the bread.  Half way through Jan exclaimed that there was a lot to know.  I told him he only needed to know one thing and that was to follow the lead of the other priest who was blessing the water.

During sacrament, Jan blessed the bread.  It was incredible.  He read the prayer slowly and with so much emotion.  I have heard from others that they, too, felt as I felt when they heard him bless the bread.  The prayer became so personal and sincere.

Let me tell you about Sis. Reus.  My sister, Jill, asked me about her.  I told my sister that I had received a text from Sis. Reus.  She informed me that her Catholic friend talked to her about our church and now she is requesting that we no longer have contact.  My sister recommended that I still let Sis. Reus know that we would still like to be her friend.

Normally, I would just respect Sis. Reus's request and not contact her, but I decided to follow my sister's advise.  I texted her and let her know that we understand she did not want any more contact with our church, but would still like to be her friend and if there is anything we can do for her to let her know.

The tender mercy here is that she actually responded with a short text, "Thanks."  Even the other day, we saw her from a distance leaving the corner store where we live and I shouted hello.  She turned and waved and said hello back.

Yesterday afternoon, Sis. van Hoff and I were invited out for lunch by Sis. Enger, our German Culture teacher.  Lunch was wonderful and it was great to practice our conversational German with her.  She is so patient and speaks slowly and clearly for us.  Midway through our lunch we reverted back to speaking only English.  The conversation moved to Family History.  She told us of a book she obtained that is a wealth of information on her family.  She wanted to share some of the pictures and information with a friend of hers.  Supposedly, they have a common ancestor. Her friend now lives in New Zealand and Sis. Enger didn't know how she could get all this information to her.  On top of that she wanted to put some of the pictures of her ancestors in FamilySearch.

Well, for IT people like us, those are not problems.  The tender mercy here is that she confided in the right couple to help her out.  Our tender mercy is the opportunity to repay her for all that she has done for us.

One more tender mercy.  In our conversation, Sis. Enger asked if, whenever we go to the temple, we could take some of her family names with us.  We told her that we hoped to go to the temple this mid-December.

After our lunch we came back to the office.  I hadn't been there long when one of our department team members came up to me and asked, "Do you do much Family History?"  I told him that I do.  He then asked if I had any names that he could take to the temple this weekend.  His ward was going and they needed names.

Amazing!  What are the chances of me being approached asking for names to take to the temple and only an hour before, being asked by someone else to take their family names to the temple.  Our German culture class was immediately after work.  When I told Sis. Enger about the brother's request, she was so excited.

Truly a tender mercy.