Teaching the Gospel

It was Thursday and I said to Sis. van Hoff, "There is nothing to write about in the blog this week.  I might skip it until next weekend."  It had been a fairly routine week with nothing special happening.

Well, Thursday evening things changed.  Unbeknownst to me, Sis. van Hoff had prayed to have experiences using her German in conversation.  After work we were walking to the dry cleaners to pick up a pair of pants.  As we walked down the street, I saw a woman on the opposite side step off the curb to cross the street.  We had passed her, when suddenly I heard her call out.  I understood enough that she wanted to speak to us and turned around to ask her what she needed.

She began to tell us about the character and make up of God.  That she reads the scriptures and has studied them for 40 years.  I understood about 15% of what she said.  Sis. van Hoff, however, understood nearly all.  In fact, she was responding back to her questions and comments.  I heard the woman say that God and Jesus were spirits and began to respond by saying that "We believe that God..."   She cut me off, signaling that she didn't want to know what I believed.

We think she was a bit crazy.  After about 15 minutes of talking to us, two women came across the street, called out to her, and then came over.  As they smiled at us, one put her arm around the woman we were talking to and lovingly guided her away.  

We can't really say that this was a true missionary opportunity, but we can definitely said it was a excellent German speaking opportunity and Sis. van Hoff shined.

Friday we had another unique experience.  We mentioned in last week's blog about an investigator that our sister missionaries have been teaching.  Over the past several weeks I have grown close to him.  My involvement has been more to help him and support him through the trials and tribulations he is experiencing.  Anyway, Friday afternoon he called me and wanted to meet.  I asked if he would also see the sister missionaries.  He agreed, but sounded reluctant to meet at our place or at the church.  We agreed to meet at a park.

Answers are in green.

Right after work, we picked up the sister missionaries and scurried over to the park.  It was a beautiful day.  We met him and found a place where we could have a little privacy.  I thought it a little unusual place for a missionary discussion, so I took this picture.  The lesson went very well. 

As he was being taught, the sky began to darken.  By the time we got back and parked the car, heavy drops of rain came pouring down.  Sure glad the Lord saw fit to hold off the rain until then.

On a different note, we are taking every free moment to study for our written driver's license test.  We bought a program that has the test questions on it.  There are over 1,000 questions and each question is worth 2-5 points.  On the real test, there are 30 questions and you can only miss 9 points and still pass.  Most of the questions have a picture or just a question. For the multiple choice questions, either one, two, or all three answers are correct -- and you get no hint about how many. There are some questions that have a video.  You can watch the videos up to 5 times before answering the question.  The question is not visible until you have finished watching the video.  Here is an example video.  Watch driving test video.

We had one question this morning where it showed a winter street with snow falling and snow built up along the side of the road.  We watched the video a few times and then viewed the question, assuming it was going to be about driving carefully because you might skid.  It asked about the green car.  We never saw the green car until we looked more closely at the final picture of the video.  It was on a side street mostly hidden behind a bush covered in snow.  It's going to be a hard test to pass.

We love you all.  You are in our prayers.

Bringing Others Closer to Christ

This week we have done a lot of filming for the Oma and Opa Show.  This is an hour long show we make each year for the grandkids for Christmas.  Last night we had the sister missionaries over for dinner and included them in our show.  During the course of the evening we did several video clips.  Here they are watching themselves on the video camera.

Work this week was extremely fulfilling.  Before I tell you what happened, it is necessary to tell you what our missionary assignment really entails.  We are responsible for encouraging each Stake or District in Europe (over 100) to call a Melchizedek priesthood member to be the Stake or District Technology Specialist (STS or DTs) for their area.  Many of those STSs who are called already have technical skills.  At that point, it is our job to train them with the equipment and software the Church provides them. 

These individuals are so important.  This is not only because technology is becoming so imperative to communicate and function quickly in this fast-paced world, but, here in Europe, there are so many areas where members live extremely distant from one another.  In order for leaders to meet together and discuss sensitive and important issues or for training, or for people to travel to conferences to hear the word of God and be uplifted, it becomes quite a sacrifice on members--monetarily, let alone time away from home.  Webcasting and Personal Video Conferencing (PVC) turn out to be wonderful blessing for those areas of Europe.

Currently 85% of the Stakes and Districts in Europe have an STS or DTS to oversee the technology issues in their area.  We sent letters out to those Stakes and Districts who do not have any STS or DTS.  We have learned that many struggle with who to call to such a position.  There just are not enough men to call from.  We were successful in telling them that there is another alternative.  They could call an Assistant Technology Specialist (aTS).  An aTS can be any youth from age 12 and older or an adult sister.  We have received several responses back thanking us for that information and that there was hope now in finding someone to oversee the technology in their area.  This was especially helpful to a District in Slovakia, another in Moldova, and another in Portugal.

As mentioned earlier, it is our assignment to help train and to be a technical resource for the STSs.  We received an email from an STS in England.  He told a sad story of a woman who signed for her deaf husband.   During General Conferences, she would sign for him during each 2-hour session.  Her arms would ache with pain.  She also had to sign for him during church, even when video clips were shown.  The STS said he did some research and could not find Closed Captioning on many of the church's films or on conferences.

We were able to research this and found out that this is true on mobile devices, but not so true with PCs.  When General Conference is broadcast from Salt Lake City, a special channel is set up for American Sign Language (ASL) during the broadcast.  This is only through satellite broadcasting and not webcasting.  We believe that this information will be invaluable to the sister.

What made this week especially great for us was not only successfully helping to make a difference for members in other areas of Europe, but also helping the one member as well.

It is wonderful to have the opportunity to serve the Lord and our brothers and sisters here in Europe.  We pray every day for our families and for many of you, our friends.

By the way, Sister Griffen is transferring in a couple of days.  We will really miss her and her accent.  She is originally from Scotland and moved with her parents to New Zealand.

Sister Griffen, Sister Schulz, and us!

Pretty Full Week

This past week we had a lot of involvement with Jan.  He is a German who is married to a Russian.  The sister missionaries are teaching him, but he and I have gotten to be pretty close.  Just this past week he and I have communicated several times, where he has only talked with the sisters a couple of times.  He feels the peace and the love of the gospel and has a strong desire to stay close to the Savior.  He knows that he wants to be baptized, but it would create a lot of conflict in his life right now.  That makes it a very difficult decision.  We pray for him daily.

Munich Mission Office

We got to travel to Munich, Germany.  We accompanied two Church ICS employees. Our assignment was to help switch out five old computers for new ones.  This involved saving all the data from the old computer, saving bookmarks from the web, finding out what printers the computers are set up for, saving the church email contact information and, after installing windows and software on the new computers, we were to restore the old data onto the new machine and set things up like before.  In Diane's and my mind, we figured it would only take half a day.  We were hoping that that would leave us some time to see some of the sights of Munich before heading home. 

It didn't turn out quite that way. We left Frankfurt at 4:00 AM and arrived at the Alpenländische Mission Office in Munich at 8:30 AM.  (The mission area is also known as the Alpine German-speaking Mission and covers southern Germany, Austria, and the German-speaking part of Switzerland.) Unfortunately, we didn't finish until 5:00 PM and then had to leave back for home.  As disappointed as we were, there was a silver lining.  The parents of Karolina, one of the employees we accompanied, had invited us to dinner.  They lived a hour's drive back toward home, so the timing was perfect.

Karolina next to Sis. van Hoff

What a treat that was.  To eat with an almost German family.  Her folks are actually from Hungary and have lived here quite a while.  He spoke pretty good English, only having trouble with a few words.  Her mother, however, only spoke German.  They have had a rough life and have now taken on the responsibility of raising a young woman who needs some tender loving care.  We could tell that these people have hearts of gold.

Going to Munich and back was a bit scary.  We were on the autobahn. This is not our first experience, but the first time the driver took advantage of the no speed limit.  It seems that most of the autobahn does have speed limits.  Here is what it looked like from the back seat passenger side.  https://youtu.be/C0JoGugDkjo You actually don't get a real sense of the speed from this video, because almost all the vehicles are going fairly fast.

Yesterday we had our first computer class with the Senior Missionaries.  Diane and I decided to have monthly classes for them.  Yesterday we taught an intermediate course on MS Word.  It was fun listening to the comments as we taught the class:  "Hey, I just learned something.",  "Wow,  I didn't know you could do that.", "I always wanted to know if you could do that.", "That's exactly what I need for my work."

We Are Legal

Over a month ago we went to the Immigration Office to get our visas.  A visa is required within six months of arrival not only to be legally here in Germany, but also to allow us to travel about and return to Germany. That day, we arrived about an hour before the doors even opened. About a half hour after the doors did open, they were no longer accepting new clients needing their visas with last names starting with the last half of the alphabet. Having failed, we were told we should set up an appointment, which we did.  The earliest we could get was on 9 October.

Here is the problem, though.  You cannot drive with a U.S. driver license after six months here and you have to get your visa before you can get a German driver's license.   If we wait for our appointment, that only gives us until 8 November to get our licenses. Simple, right?  No!!!!

Unlike 27 other states in the US who have full reciprocity (just turn in your license and pick up a German license), North Carolinians have to take the written driver's test.  We've heard it is nearly impossible to pass.  Another missionary couple from NC was able to view some of the test questions. One question was: If you are driving 120 k/hr and slow down to 100 k/hr, what percentage of gas do you save?  Now here is what I'm envisioning in my mind.  I'm driving on the autobahn and slow down.  Being a good driver I begin calculating the percentage of gas I'm saving.  While my mind is so focused on the calculations, I don't notice the car in front of me slamming on their brakes.  Well, you can guess the rest.

Yep, the test is extremely difficult so it might take more than one time to pass the test.  We did hear of one senior missionary who took the test and passed.  He took a driving class before he took the test.  It only cost 2,000 euro (about $2,200). Fortunately, the test is in English, but we've seen that the translations of the questions and answers in some study material is not only bad, but in some cases wrong.

With that in mind, we decided to keep the appointment for our visas, but also try to get in early by standing in line again.  We picked Thursday, 3 August.  The Immigration Office opens at 1:00 PM on Thursdays.  We got there a little after 6:00 AM.  You can see in the picture that there were maybe about 30 people already there.  Some had camped out from the night before.  One of those who camped out was an Asian woman with two children.

We brought camping chairs borrowed from another missionary couple.  Sister Done joined us.  She and her husband, who is the European mission doctor, also had an appointment.  Their appointment was only a couple of weeks away, but they were scheduled to travel outside of Germany the same day of their appointment, so they decided to join us. (Elder Done was to show up nearer to the time the doors opened along with Gabi, a native German who helped us through the process.  Elder Done couldn't be away from his medical duties for too long and Gabi has helped many a missionary couple with their visas and other issues.) Unlike us, the Dones are from Utah and have full reciprocity for obtaining their driver's licenses.  Elder Done was an Army pediatrician and pediatric radiologist. He served in many places that Sister van Hoff's father served -- Augsburg, Wurzburg, Letterman -- but, all at different times.

6:15 AM

In the picture to the right, Diane and Sister Done are in their chairs just left of the middle of the picture.  The line comes forward, to the left, and then back to the door just beyond the column.

What a tiring, but interesting day it was.  Most of the morning things were laid back.  I talked extensively to three young men.  One from Botswana, one from Ghana, and another from Eritrea.  Two of them had their PhDs.  I think the young man from Botswana may even come to church some Sunday.

Around 10:00 AM more people started to get in line.  One woman, who was in front of us and had been there since 4:00 AM, got up and began instructing everyone to watch for people breaking into the line.  She could see people gathering outside the chain barrier near the start of the line.  She was telling everyone that they needed to defend their position in line.  I spoke up and suggested that we begin closing in the ranks rather than staying spread out.  That would make if more difficult for others to break in.  Everyone shifted in closer.  Suddenly, a yelling argument ensued.  One individual was not recognized by another individual who was already in line.  Eventually they calmed down, but other smaller arguments flared up here and there.

The security people arrived at 11:30, but before they did one argument became so opposing that I thought there would be a fight.  I got out of my chair and stood up.  I had noticed earlier that several people recognized me as an authority figure.  Probably because I was wearing a white shirt and tie (and wearing a badge I might add).  Soon thereafter, the two individuals, physically separated by some others there, said their final words and stopped arguing.

12:00 noon.  Gabi in the green skirt is patrolling the line. 

Diane has her back to the camera.

When the security guards arrived, we witnessed two individuals get pulled out of line for trying to sneak in.  It was about that time that Gabi showed up.  She was responsible for one of those guys being pulled out.  What a fireball she is.  She is in her 60s or 70s.  She would step out of line and duck under the chain barrier and patrol the side of the line watching for people trying to sneak in. 

We were the 3rd group of people in the door.  Only about ten individuals were allowed in at a time.  Once in, we went to the front counter to get a "waiting number."  The man at the counter looked at my passport and checked on his computer.  He then said something about not finding any record on me.  Gabi talked to him and handed him an email showing that I had a scheduled appointment in October.  He studied it for a while and then handed the passport back and gave me my number.  For Diane, he didn't even look at her passport and handed her a number.

12:30 PM and the line has gotten much longer.

We were very blessed to get in and completed in less than 30 minutes.  As we were leaving we ran into the guy from Botswana.  He was there in line before us and even entered the building with the 2nd group.  He told us that they would not see him because they had taken all the people they were going to see for that day who were needing to renew their visas.  That doesn't make any sense to me.  Do they only do a couple of visa renewals a day?.  He had just wasted over seven hours standing in line. Plus, he had been there the day before, too.  No wonder emotions were so high while waiting in line. There was another man behind us who had already waited three days in line.

On a different note, a couple of weeks ago we were asked to be seminary teachers to the Frankfurt European high school students (English-speaking) in our congregation.  The course of study this year will be The Book of Mormon. This last Sunday we were officially sustained in church.  This means that we will be going to the youth's school on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays at about 7:00 AM.  In addition, our students and students from another seminary class meet on Wednesday evenings at the church.  The teaching of that lesson is traded between the two teachers.  Friday there is no seminary. The students from the other class go to the Frankfurt International School and are mostly children of employees of the U.S. Consulate.

We have been very busy with missionary work after our office hours.  Still, we are excited about this new calling.  What is really nice is that we get to do it together.

Until next blog, may the Lord bless you all.  We want you to know we love you and think of you often.

Missionary Work

This week we have done more missionary work than we have done since we arrived.  How wonderful that has been.

Jan came over to the apartment for dinner and a discussion Thursday evening.  He arrived early so that he and I could talk.  He has been under stress and difficulties.  I think he just wanted someone to talk to and to listen to him.

After dinner, the missionaries, knowing some of the things he is having to deal with, talked about the Gift of the Holy Ghost and how that gift might benefit Jan as he endures these difficulties.  They were smart to tell him that joining the church may not resolve all of his worries but the Spirit would help him cope better.  The missionaries even offered to up his baptismal date if Jan felt that would benefit him.  He said that he would think about it.

I got a text from him today telling me how grateful he was for inviting him over the other night and that he is looking forward to being at church tomorrow.

Yesterday evening the sister missionaries took us over to Dave’s place to teach him.  We’ve had Dave over at our place before.  It was a great experience to go to someone’s own place and teach.  I told the sisters that they were fulfilling my dreams.  I told them how much I wanted to meet the people here in Germany and have the opportunity to go to their homes to teach them.  Dave is not German.  He is from Nigeria, but, still the same, it was a great experience.

Missionary work did not stop there.  Today we visited Elfrieda Herrmann.  She is in the hospital and has been there almost 2 weeks.  Not completely sure why she was taken in, but we heard that she lost a lot of blood.  She is 88 years old and they are evaluating what kind of care she will require once she goes back home.

Elfie

She lives in our apartment complex.  She is not a member and isn’t interested in being a member yet. Elder and Sister Stay, one of the missionary couples, have been friend-shipping her.  I believe other missionaries know her, too, and she enjoys their company.

She is fascinating.  Diane and I let her into the church one day so she could practice the piano.  She insisted we listen to her play.  She would mention a classical composer and then begin playing.  Then she would ask, do you want to hear some Bach?  Then she would play a difficult piece from his work.  Then she would ask, do you want to hear some Mozart or Beethoven and then she would play pieces from their works.  We learned today that she started piano lesson when she was 3-1/2 years old and when she was 5 she played the piano with a full orchestra.  She is extremely talented.

We also learned something else that is interesting.  Supposedly there was a sister of Elder Dallin H. Oaks, Evelyn Moody,  who served a mission here.  Elfie (Elfrieda) got to know her.  It was through Evelyn that she met Elder Oaks and even has a picture of herself and Elder Oaks together when he visited Germany.  Elfie has asked us to contact Evelyn to let her know what is going on.  I believe it was the Spirit that prompted her to ask us.  Of all the people in the world we know the grandson of Elder Oaks, Jake Oaks.  He married the daughter of some good friends of our from Weaverville Ward.  We contacted them and they will notify Evelyn to let her know.

It has been wonderful to be involved in missionary work.  Monday evening, Dave is supposed to come here to be taught.  We are looking forward to that.

A couple of days ago we made two phone calls to two new Stake Technology Specialists.  One was from England.  He has extensive background in computers and technology.  He told us that the furthest unit out from the stake center is about an hour away.  They don’t feel they need to webcast Stake Conference because the travel time is not long.  The same with Video Conferencing with the High Council.  There was very little information that we could share with him.

The other call we made to Italy.  This young man, about 21 years old, has had almost no background in computers or technology.  He is from Portugal and, of course, speaks Portuguese, but is learning to speak Italian.  He doesn’t know any English.  Diego from our ICS group had to translate for us. This poor young man is struggling.  He lives about an hour away from the Stake Center.  He has a mentor from another stake who is trying to train him, but the mentor lives four hours away, so training is very infrequent.  There is a strong desire to use webcasting and Video Conferencing but the Internet bandwith is not very reliable.

What a drastic difference there is between those two phone calls.  Our hearts go out to that young man in Italy.

Is There a Doctor in the House?

I failed to mention in the last blog that a crown on my tooth just came off.  I had just popped a piece of candy into my mouth and suddenly I felt two pieces.  One had no flavor.  You can probably guess what that was. 

That happened a week ago last Monday afternoon at lunch.  I felt fortunate to find a dentist to glue it back on that same day.  I really felt fortunate to know he was Scottish and, obviously, spoke English.  I was happy with the experience.  That is until last Sunday.  We got out of church and were having lunch.  Again, the crown just came off again.

Monday morning I was on the phone calling the dentist, hoping he would fix it for free since it didn't seem to have been properly glued.  Well, this is vacation time in Europe.  That means that most people leave for 2-4 weeks and travel.  Yep, you guessed it.  The dentist office is closed for the next two weeks.

We talked to some other missionary couples and found a name of another dentist.  He took me in and, as of yesterday, everything seems fine.  The dentist told me that he used the strongest glue he had.  This dentist is German, but he spoke fairly good English.

Last Thursday we visited a chiropractor.  It is a little scary not knowing who is good and who isn't.  I've been to some chiropractors who did more harm than good.  Well, the Lord was really looking after us.  This guy was not only good, he was very thorough.  Most chiropractors focus only on the back. He checked my arms and legs, also.  Diane is now scheduled to see him in a couple of days. Oh, by the way, he is from California.

We've been working as closely with the young missionaries as we can and inviting investigators to be taught in our apartment.  We were even fortunate to have one guy, who was born in the Ukraine, come to dinner with the Elders.  He has talked with the missionaries in the past and is being taught by these elders.

Beginning of the 5-K

Coming up to the finish line.                   Two seconds later.

Saturday morning was the annual senior missionary 5-K.  Some of the church employees joined us.  It was called a 5-K run, but most of us walked.  Diane and I stayed in the rear the entire way until the last 10 feet.  Then a couple of Elders stopped to let us through so they could take the glory of being the last.  ("But many that are first shall be last and the last shall be first" - Matthew 19:30.  I don't think this applies here.) 

Just before stepping over the finish line, I acted like I was gasping for breath after a hard run.

5-K participants

Between October and November about seven missionary couples will be leaving back home and seven new couples will be coming in.  This will happen again in May of next year.  Diane and I have learned that most senior missionary couples only come for 18 months, instead of the 23 months we are serving.  There are couples coming in now who will be leaving before we do.

A Garden Story

Sis. Enger cutting up a Kohlrabi

This past week we had a couple of memorable events.  We had our German class in Sis. Enger’s Kleingarten (small garden).  Here in Germany, especially in the city areas, people rent a small plot of land in a gated garden area.  Until now we’ve only been able to see inside of a garden area by looking through the gate entrance or through exposed sections in the fences surrounding them.

Garden areas can be several acres, but each plot is maybe about 1/5 to 1/10 of an acre.  Each garden plot is maintained differently.  Some grow vegetables only, some just flowers and others combine both, as Sis. Enger did with hers.  She has fruit trees, vegetables, herbs, and even a small beautiful grassy area where she can sit amidst her garden.

Small building

Some use all their space for gardening.  Many have constructed

Inside small building

small sheds to store tools and gardening supplies. 

Some even have small buildings where they can spend the night.  Actually we’ve heard that some people spend their weekends there.  Mind you there is no electricity and no plumbing, but there is running water.  I believe most garden areas have a port-a-john.

Sis. Enger has a beautiful living area.  It is just large enough to fit her small bed, table, chair, and a couple of other things.  It is about 10’ x 10’.  She even has a small patio outside the door of the living area which has an awning.  She told us that she spends a lot of time there on her little plot.  I can see why.  It is beautiful.

This week's class

Our lesson that day centered around a story from a town called Hameln, Germany.  Can you guess what the story was?  Yep, the Grimm brothers took this folklore story and wrote it as a tale.  It was what we know as “The Pied Piper of Hamlin”.  Supposedly there is some validity to the story which tells of most of the children disappearing from the village during a time that there was a rat infestation.

Giant Zucchini

Sis. Enger read about the story in German, then we translated some phrases associated with what she read. We understood bits and pieces of what she read.  Then she re-read it to us.  It is amazing how well we understood it the second time through.

That week she gave as one huge zucchini.  I baked her a zucchini bread and gave it to her when we returned this week.   She was so grateful, I think she thanked me 3 to 4 times.

The other memorable event was being invited to a work colleague's house.  His wife fixed a terrific dinner.  Their home was small, but so beautifully decorated.  The dinner was 3-course.  The first course was served on a beautifully decorated back deck.  I know that it was decorated especially for us, because I heard Diego mention to his wife how he noticed that she had hung the Chinese lanterns from the deck’s overhang.

The entire meal was made from scratch, even the salad dressing. She made everything to fit Diane’s special paleo diet.  We started eating our salad, smoked raw salmon, tomatoes stuffed with humus, and rolls made of almond and flax seed flour.  When we finished we were surprised to learn that this was only the 1^st of 3 courses.  By this time, a heavy wind sent us inside to finish eating.

She had made zucchini noodles smothered with a tomato based beef sauce.  There was more meat than sauce.  I had brought the desert to make the 3^rd course.

We spent the entire evening talking around that table.  Little did we know how late it was.  Every time I looked at their clock it said 8:30.  We kept talking.  When we finally got into the car we realized that it was about 11:00 PM.  The conversation was so wonderful.  We learned a lot about them.  She is German, and, of course, we knew he was Italian.  We learned about how they met and their conversion stories and many other things.

This night I have fulfilled my dream of being in a German home getting to know a German family.  It was absolutely wonderful.