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.
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| 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.
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