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.

Learning Can Be Fun!

We can't believe we are at the end of October.  Unlike the first couple of months, our mission is flying by.

Answer is at the end of this blog. Hint 2 Nephi 2:22-25.

This week we had seminary each morning except Friday.  There were no Wednesday evening activities at the church, so we had seminary in the morning,  We decided to make it fun for the kids and us.  On Tuesday we spent most of the time learning Doctrinal Mastery.  We did this by taking the scripture's key phrases and projecting them up on a screen.  Only, they weren't written out.  For those who remember the TV game, Concentration, that is how we set it up.

The last two days of seminary, we acted out the Allegory of the Olive Tree from the Book of Mormon.  Along with this we had them watch a short film where some teens acted the allegory out in costumes.  To really make things pleasant, I brought cinnamon biscuits with icing on the last day.

We had an interesting visit with an unusual missionary couple.  They were missionaries, but without badges.  They arrived at the end of the week.  We trained them in using Windows 10.  They were proficient in Apple computers and lost with Windows.  We also covered so other things to make it easier to use some of the software.

We spent part of two days with them.  Diane treated them as though they were dignitaries. Their assignment is to attend United Nations meetings and associated functions.  They will be stationed in Geneva and will report to the Church's legal council and the First Presidency.

They were so appreciative of our spending time with them, the sister asked to take our picture and commented that we were a tender mercy to them.  She also told us we were a "cute couple."

Nice close for a long week.

We want you to know we love you all and we are loving our mission.

On a sad note, the sister we were hoping to bring to church last week, didn't come.  We're still hopeful for this Sunday.

The answer:  "Adam fell that men might be."

Busy Week

So, it has been an interesting week. 

At work we were involved in determining the cause of interruption and loss of signal while streaming Elder Ballard’s broadcast last Sunday evening.  A number of stakes in Europe experienced problems.  Most of the week was spent talking to STSs in various parts of Europe, sending out a survey, and receiving email responses.  From our communication we learned that too many people streamed the meeting rather than watching it by way of satellite.  Streaming over the Internet was supposed to be a secondary source should satellite reception not be available or the satellite reception failed. 

Not only did we find that a number of stakes that could have received the transmission by satellite used Internet streaming, but a link to stream was given out through unapproved sources: Facebook and Google.  As a result, the servers were overloaded and those wards, in parts of Europe where Internet service is weak, but is the only means of hearing Elder Ballard, had a difficult time viewing it or could not view it at all.  So sad.

We were very fortunate here. The senior missionaries had the opportunity to travel 20 minutes away to listen to Elder Ballard in person. The next day he came to Frankfurt to talk to the missionaries and employees at the Europe Area Office where we work.  He spoke to all of us for about 1/2 an hour.  

For those reading this blog and might not know, Elder Ballard is one of 12 Apostles of the Lord.  He is so amazing, I heard of his schedule for the 2 weeks he is in Europe.  I, myself, would have a difficult time keeping up with him and he is 89.

I'm going to share a neat experience I had this week.  I hope it develops into something good for her. 

Wednesday evening Diane and I stopped into the Mein Markt to pick up a couple of food items.  This is a small store right at the entrance to our apartment building.  I decided at the last minute to pick up an extra item in the store.  That section is where I met Martina.  She is wheelchair bound; both legs are gone. 

She started to talk to me in German and asked if I was from a church.  As she spoke she looked at my badge.  I knew what she said because I recognized the word "Kirche" (church).  She realized I couldn't speak German very well, so she spoke English.  It was poor, but good enough for me to understand. 

She told me about a young man from our church who helped her one rainy day. Her bags of groceries were on the handles of her wheelchair.  They fell off and the groceries came out.  The young man came over to help her. 

We must have talked for over 5 minutes. She spent most of the time complaining about her apartment conditions; however, by the time we ended the conversation, she accepted an invitation to come to church and gave me her name, address, and phone number.

Entrance to Roman Military Base

Friday, I made arrangements to have one of the three German sister missionaries, Diane, and I visit her.  Most of our meeting consisted of her again complaining about her apartment and other things.  Before we had to leave, I was able to teach her about Pre-earth life - part of the Plan of Salvation.  She listened intently.  We also made arrangements to come by Sunday and walk her to church at the German Ward.  Again, I hope things go well for her.  I'm hopeful that once she learns of Christ's love for us that she will find more peace and joy in her life.

 Roman Dining Area with pieces of

original artwork on the walls.

This morning we went with some other senior couples and visited a fully reconstructed 3rd century Roman army base in Saalburg.  The tour was in English.  The information was absolutely fascinating. The archeologists have had a lot of "evidence" to work with. After wells ran dry, the people used the holes as garbage dumps, filling in the top with dirt. The dirt blocked out the oxygen, so very little decay took place. 

Moss on tree roots.

Afterwards, while the others went to a nearby restaurant for lunch, Sister van Hoff and I took a walk in the woods nearby.  Oh, it was just like being back in the mountains of North Carolina.  However, the forests are so young here, the smaller vegetation was not overgrown around the base of the trees.  I took a picture of some moss on the roots of the trees.  The picture makes it look greener than it was but it was greener than I've every seen before.

I visited Jan today.  He and I walked around in his neighborhood and talked.  I am continually impressed by him.  With all the struggles and conflicts in his life he is truly putting his trust in the Lord.  At one point of our conversation he told me that he wants to be “more active."  I asked him if he meant physically or in the church.  He told me he meant looking for a job.  He explained that he is doing what he can looking locally, but has been reluctant to look at other countries.  Actually he would probably be more successful in other countries with his skills.  He said he was reluctant, because for the first time in a long time he feels happy and at home here.  Then he told me that this was because of the church and his new life.  

Of course, I informed him that he would find a home in church wherever he moved to.  He seemed to know all this already, but was just letting me know why he felt the way he felt.

Overall, it's been another great week.  We want you to know that we pray for all of you; our family and friends.  We really miss you and look forward to seeing you again.  Until then, God bless you.

Jan

Today Jan was baptized.  What a beautiful service.  What a beautiful Spirit there was during the service.

Jan was very nervous, but everything went smoothly and wonderfully.  You can see how nervous he was in the picture.  Diane and I got there before 11:30.  Jan wanted to meet me early so that he and I could practice how the baptism was be done.  We had already done it last Sunday, but he was nervous about it.

It was 10 minutes before 12 noon before we saw him.  He was walking with a woman.  It turns out that it was his friend who came from Bremen. 

Let me break here and tell you how things developed to this point.  His friend, mentioned above, originally introduced Jan to the church.  He moved to England were he was taught.  He would have been baptized there, but he needed to get back to Germany to fulfill family obligations.  That is how the sister missionaries here got involved.  

When Diane and I arrived in Germany, we told ourselves that even though we were assigned to an office job in IT, we wanted to get intimately involved in working with the missionaries.  When we heard about Jan, we immediately invited him over and had discussions with him.  Jan and I hit it off.  Jan and I became very close and we have taken a personal interest in helping him along the way.  

So, now, let's get back to today.  It was a tender mercy that he was walking to church with his friend.  We learned late yesterday afternoon that she planned to get to Jan's baptism by train.  There was a violent storm in northern Germany.  It knocked out the train system there.  She lives 4 hours away.  Not trusting the train system to be back in operation, she booked a flight to come.  The tender mercy is that they happened to come on the same U-bahn (subway/streetcar).  He saw her as he debarked at the station and they were able to walk together to the church.

Once inside, we changed and took pictures.  Before going into the service we FaceTimed with a wonderful senior missionary couple in England.  They had grown very close to Jan, also.

Like I said earlier, the service was wonderful.  Bro. Dicataldo (Italian) talked on Baptism.  He is always smiling and so happy.  You just can’t help smile back when he is talking.

Then came the baptism.  Jan was so nervous about the ordinance.  His health has gone downhill over the past 3 weeks.  He learned he has thrombosis.  (When he learned of that, he told me that he wanted to go through with the baptism.  He didn't want to leave this earth without being baptized.)

He expressed his nervousness even as we were entering the water.  He told me to be careful with his back and his neck.  They were feeling weak.  However, after the baptism and before we returned to the service, he thanked me for doing such a great job and how smoothly it went.  He was so happy and relieved.

We changed and when we got back to the service, a senior missionary sister shared her conversion story and they were just beginning to sing a hymn.  This was followed by a young missionary who has never taken piano lessons playing “I’m Trying to Be Like Jesus” on the piano.  The rendition was so beautiful, that the Spirit touched everyone in the room. 

Then Jan's friend spoke.  The words she said were perfect for Jan.  It has to be one of the best talks I’ve heard given about the Gift of the Holy Ghost at a baptism.  I spoke to her later about it and she told me that she got a lot of the information from a talk from an Apostle.  It wasn't quoted, so I still say she did a good job.

Soon, it was the end of the service.  I didn’t mention, but many of the attendees were Senior Missionaries.  We tried to put out the word, but it was last minute and the Senior Missionaries came out for support.  I think each one brought a dessert.  The table was covered and way too much for everyone. 

There happened to be another baptism for the other ward, so we left most of the food for them.

We FaceTimed with the senior couple from England again before we had to leave.  This couple will go home in about a month and a half.  What a beautiful way to depart from a mission.

You know, someone asked me after the service if this was going to be the highlight of my mission here in Germany.  I told them that it was my dream to come to Germany to see someone’s life change.  I told them that I have seen a change come over Jan.  I told them that his baptism was special, but when he gets the Gift of the Holy Ghost, I will be able to witness the greatest of change as he grows and matures in the gospel.  That is what I came here to see. 

I called Jan this evening to see how things are going and to ask him to prepare for who he wants to bestow the Gift of the Holy Ghost on him tomorrow.  He told me he would be honored if I would do that.  I would really like a member to do it but I didn’t tell him that.  I just politely agreed and told him I would love to.  You see, I know he is close to me, but I won't be here as long as the members will.
He told me something else that I don’t want ever to forget.  I know that he has faced and still is facing several burdens.  No fault of his own.  He told me when he got home things became very tense and stressful, but he said that today amid the turmoil he is surrounded with, for the first time in his life he feels “at peace."  How beautiful those words were to hear.  He thanked me again, reminding me that I had told him he would feel different after he was baptized.  He told me that, though he doesn’t expect his trials to end soon, he now has the strength and conviction to know that they will get better because the Lord has blessed him.

I told Jan that he is very special and I feel blessed just to know him.  Actually, I feel doubly blessed.  My wife is such a great support and not only that, but she has given me so much advice in helping me to help Jan to come unto Christ.

Evidence Of God In Our Lives

Filling Luther's shoes

Place where Martin Luther stood.

Last weekend, we had an enjoyable Saturday.  We went to Worms, Germany.  This year, Germany is celebrating the 500 year anniversary of Martin Luther, the reformer.  Worms is the city where Martin Luther went to on three different occasions.  On his last trip, under a letter of agreement to travel to and from the city with safe conduct, he appeared before the emperor.  He had been excommunicated from the church and it was hoped that his appearance before the emperor would pressure him to recant his teachings.  Instead, he not only didn't recant, but said the following words:  "Unless I am convinced by Scripture and plain reason, I do not accept the authority of the popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other.  My conscience is captive to the Word of God.  I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe.  God help me. Amen."  When he said this it was in a church which no longer stands.  However, there is a memorial of the place he must have stood when he made those remarks.  Martin Luther was one of many to pave the way for the restoration of God's church.

There were some beautiful churches in the area that were open for the public.  In one part of town there was a guy who appeared to be standing in air.  I'm sure he was standing on a piece of metal that was under his clothes and shoes. Here is a link to a video of him: https://youtu.be/_GdwkDR_uOI

Inside c

Do you remember, from our last blog, the difficulties we had in transmitting and receiving a webcast?  Well, it took all week long but we finally had a successful webcast.  Woohoo!  Nearly every day we would set up the equipment and put it away at the end of the day.  Halfway through the week, we got assistance from our department team members.  It wasn't until the last few minutes of the last day at work, Friday, that we finally understood what the problems were.  I say "problems" because there were more than one issue.

There is a small box that goes between the camera and the box that transmits audio and visual to the internet.  That box is called the signal converter.  The original one was not functioning.  It was totally broken.  We used several other signal converters, having success for only a few moments, about 15% of the time. 

It wasn't until later that we learned that there were two other problems.  One was that there is a switch on the side of the converter that we didn't think was important.  It actually was.  When we made sure that the switch was in the right position, we began to have success about 50% of the time.

The final resolution was the web browser we were using to transmit through.  We were using Firefox.  My favorite.  As it turns out, Google Chrome worked better and quicker.

We left work exhausted, but renewed and even excited about what we had learned.  Though the entire week was filled with challenges and frustrations, the information we have will be invaluable to others.  It was well worth the effort. 

As I contemplate what we had experienced, I feel that it relates very well to life itself.  Life is full of challenges and struggles.  Along with the enjoyable times, we seem to receive more than our share of frustrations and disappointments. After this life, however, I believe each of us will be able to look back and say it was worth it.

This week was emotional, also.  The investigator I've been talking about for the last several blogs experienced more turmoil in his life.  I told you that he already had a lot on his shoulders and if that wasn't enough, he just discovered he has thrombosis.  For those who don't know, if not treated, it is life threatening.

In a conversation with him earlier this week, he told me how much he wanted to get baptized.  He said, "I don't want to leave this world without getting baptized."

Tonight he visited us and while we ate dinner, we watched Saturday morning conference live.  At the end of the conference, he told us that he had two things to say to us.  He started out by telling us that he felt the Spirit.  Referring to the conference talks given, he has decided that he needs to be baptized as soon as he can.  He would rather not wait for this coming Saturday,. but he will because he knows that the sisters still have more to teach him.  Second of all, he has a new resolve.  He is not a going to allow himself to be dragged down.  He is will be the person God meant him to be.