To celebrate on the morning of her birthday, I fixed cinnamon biscuits for the Seminary students (also fixed some gluten-free, sugar-free items for two of our eight youth) and surprised Sister van Hoff with a piece of paleo chocolate cake with a strawberry. We all sang "Happy Birthday" to her.
That evening we had the Sister missionaries over for dinner. That made for a special birthday dinner.
The next day I made a breakfast lunch for our department at work. Some were not there so the total, including us was eight. I fixed a big spread: southern biscuits with omelette (I had a Paleo wrap and Sister van Hoff only had the omelette), grapes, pineapple, strawberries, carrot sticks, zucchini sticks, milk and orange juice. I also served a cinnamon coffee cake and for Sister van Hoff, me, and two others who are diabetic, I made a paleo, allspice coffee cake.
We have learned that here in Germany, instead of others preparing a birthday celebration, the person having the birthday prepares it. Interesting concept don't you think?
Yesterday we went to the Architecture Museum with another missionary couple, the Mellors. Every 4th Saturday some of the museums in town are open for free. It was a great activity for a blustery fridged day.
At the museum, Diane is standing next to a model made out of cardboard. |
This is not a picture but an actual model of a row street in England. |
The Mellors have a unique mission. Though they live in the same apartment building as us, their mission really isolates them. They serve the Europe Area like we, do but they do not work for the Area Office. They work for Family History, but report to the Mission President. (We report to the Area Presidency.)Unlike other missionary couples, they have no TV, no house phone, and no car. In fact, they have to ride public transportation to work every day. Contact with other missionaries is infrequent. They don’t belong to our zone and, because they don’t have a car, it is difficult for them to get to their zone activities.
At work they are isolated, also. They are not allowed to wear their missionary badges. They work in a seven-story building (an archive) with only four other non-member people. One person cannot speak and the others speak little or no English. They are from other parts of the world.
Their job requires them to work in the dark except for a direct light over their desk. The work consists of them finding names printed in books, newspapers, and other sources and photographing them. Elder Mellor told me that, if this were a career job, he would would not want it; however, because of the spiritual experiences he has had, he loves his work and, if given the opportunity, he would come in six days a week. He explained how extremely tedious and unexciting the work is. It takes a lot to position the paper exactly right before the photo is taken, but it is nothing more than setup, take a picture, and setup for another picture--all day in a dark room with no one to talk to.
What he has experienced spiritually is amazing. A couple of weeks after he and his wife started doing this work, he told me he heard a distinct voice tell him how critical this work is. He said he wrote down the words he heard and some time he would share them with me.
He told me of the following experience he had on another occasion. The names he is supposed to photograph are underlined in red. It was near the end of a day and his next document was a newspaper that was difficult to open without it falling apart. He carefully unfolded the paper, but did not see any names underlined in red. He then folded it back up when suddenly he heard a voice which said, “Don’t forget about me.” He re-opened the paper and at the very bottom of the page there was a small thin, barely noticeable red line under a name. Interestingly it was the name of a Catholic priest.
He said he has had other experiences like that, but what really keeps him going is the overall feeling he has when he leaves work for the day. He has this feeling of having helped thousands of people in only one day. Between he and his wife they do nearly 6,000 names each day.
Elder and Sister Mellor |
What a fascinating mission he has. It must be wonderful to be so spiritually close to your work. For us, it does not manifest itself so clearly. I know that we are led by the spirit to correct technical problems that are emailed to us from other parts of Europe or whenever a senior missionary comes to us with a computer problem, but it is nowhere the same as hearing the voice of someone from the other side.
All in all, it is wonderful to have this opportunity to serve the Lord at this time in our lives. We could be back home, watching TV or busying ourselves with something or another, but here we are not only having wonderful spiritual experiences for ourselves but also hearing firsthand experiences from others.
We love you and pray for you every day.
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