Language humor (unintentional)

A couple of days ago, one of my sons (D) came in and asked why we hated our toilet. It turns out that I had placed little sticker notes on various objects around the house so that my wife could learn few German words. In German, der, die and das are the equivalents to "the" in English and each noun has a gender. We have to learn those specific articles along with the words. Anyway, he knew what was meant, but it looked nonetheless like we had a death wish on the toilet.

Communications

As of today, our phone number is no longer working. The boys are still here, but are using internet only, no land line. (Even if they were to have opted for continued land line, it would have been a new number).

The best way to communicate with us is via email.

Our cell numbers will work good up until the 7th of January when we discontinue that service. The boys likely will keep their cell numbers after that.

When we are in Germany, we expect to skype and use internet phone options for direct communications. I know that we will have a cell phone there, but we don't know the details yet. In emergency, contact our sons at the house, or our married son who lives in West Jordan and he will get to us. If you need that number, please send us an email message or leave a comment on this blog post and we will get to you.

A whole new adventure awaits us!

We appreciate your good wishes!

Best gift of all

Our Christmas was a little different this year. First of all, it was very quiet, to begin with, just the four of us. It was joyous and happy when the others arrived and we just had a lot of fun together. Of course we had æbleskivers. We were able to Skpye with our Hungarian family and hope to get together with our Maine family.

Lots of good things were given to each other. The best, of course, is being with each other, though we deeply felt the difference with our two families far away.

The best gift, in my opinion, was a beautiful book put together containing pictures of the family, but especially the letters, notes and testimonies that were contain within. As John wrote in his third epistle: "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. "

It touched my heart (and brought many tears to my dear companion) to read those precious words given to us by our children and grandchildren.

Thank you all so much!

I have at this point only read some (much), and expect to spend a lot of time, here and in Europe, re-reading this wonderful book.

German game and the mission

On Monday evening, We were playing a game we have and I noticed how much it matched the mission where we are going to be serving. The game is called Thurn und Taxis and is based on the history of the development of the postal system in Germany. It works around building the routes between the cities on the game map. The cities include many which are in the boundaries of our Alpine German Speaking mission (I list those with wards and branches):

Switzerland: Zurich, Basel (wards in both)
Austria: Innsbruck (branch), Salzburg (ward), Linz (wards)
Germany:
Freiburg (ward)
Stuttgart (ward)
Sigmaringen (west of Ravensburg Branch)
Ulm (branch)
Augsburg (ward)
Kempten (east of Ravensburg Branch)
Ingolstadt (branch)
München (Munich has 4 wards)
Passau (branch)

Not in the mission: (Germany) Carlsruhe, Mannheim, Würzburg, Nürnberg
Czech Republic: Budweis (now Budějovice) and PIlsen (now Plzeň)
Poland: Lodz (now Łódź )

I thought it might be interesting to see. Here is a photo of the map game board, (too small to read).

I assume the postal system has improved since those days (just kidding!)

- - - -

A side note...

I have been helping a neighbor with his genealogy and he has a line that comes from those parts of the Czech Republic. Back then it was controlled by Austria and was called Böhmen, known in English as Bohemia. Germany had a far reach back then (way before the 1900s).

- - - -

We are greatly anticipating our work with the wonderful people of that region.

Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness

I thought I would post the notes from my talk last Sunday, mainly for those of the family who weren't able to be there.  Of course, there are a lot of differences between this and what was actually said, but I enjoyed the process of bringing it all together. The Bishop assigned me the topic, this specific one of the Beatitudes.

Here it is:


Hunger and Thirst and you shall be filled

1. What do you "hunger and thirst" for? The expression goes: "I want it so bad, I can taste it…"  What is it that you really, deep down, want?

That really defines your soul and your life.

Even in popular literature there is a reference to this:

"It shows us nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts."  - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Wouldn't it be great to have something that would let us see what we really, desperately desire?

Do you know what it is that you "hunger and thirst" after?

"I don't check the Newsfeed, I feast on it." - Sprint ad in newspaper 12/16/2012

I put forward that once we have that hunger for righteousness, or the love of our Savior and for what is right, then we can be filled. We can been filled with peace, with hope, with courage to face daily adversity - or, in other words, be filled with the Holy Ghost.

Matthew 5:6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
or
3_Nephi 12:6 And blessed are all they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost.

2. Does it say that they ARE righteous? No, it is what they really want, more than anything else. We stumble and fall, but we still work at it and do not give up.  Also, there is so much in life that cloud our resolve, our good intentions, and causes us to forget what we truly honestly desire. It can even make us replace the true desire with a counterfeit - something transitory, ultimately unfulfilling, empty and hollow, trite. It is important to take time to ponder and review our desires. This is accomplished by true introspection, prayer and following the directions of the Holy Spirit when they come.

3. Enos wrote about his moment of introspection. It demonstrates his "hunger"

Enos 1:4 And my soul hungered; and I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul; and all the day long did I cry unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens.


4. [Elder Busche's experiences - see below]
 This not an ordinary experience. No everyone can be an Enzio Busche and have his experiences, but he searched much and worked hard because of his hunger, his "Yearning for the Living God."
But note: even when he came to the point of conversion and baptism, that was just the beginning. There is no end point of this process in life. It is a continuing process. So it is with us all. We are at different stages of our spiritual development. We may not even be where we once were. Once we lose sight of our true and deepest desires, we find ourselves in darkness and misery, because we have lost the Holy Ghost.

What must we do, then?

5. Here are some points:

a. Concerning the sacrament, Elder Don R. Clarke, in the latest conference said:

"Upon instituting the sacrament during His visit to the Nephites, Jesus stated, “He that eateth this bread eateth of my body to his soul; and he that drinketh of this wine drinketh of my blood to his soul; and his soul shall never hunger nor thirst, but shall be filled.” They had been promised that if they hungered and thirsted after righteousness, they would be filled with the Holy Ghost. The sacramental prayer also promises that if we live up to our covenants, we will always have His Spirit to be with us."

[3_Nephi 20:8 And he said unto them: He that eateth this bread eateth of my body to his soul; and he that drinketh of this wine drinketh of my blood to his soul; and his soul shall never hunger nor thirst, but shall be filled.]

b. In Elder Bednar's talk in the most recent conference he talks about testimony vs conversion and talks about what the essence of the Gospel is.

6. In review, here are the points:

a. Determine what it is that we truly, deep down, desire and then evaluate our situation. If it is the true hunger and thirst for righteousness, we receive, "be filled" by the Holy Ghost.

b. Set a pattern of reviewing our lives to see if we are moving towards that desire, i.e. striving for righteousness. Again, the reason is so we can have genuine peace. There is no other way to receive that peace.

c. Remember that we are never finished. We have not "attained." It takes small successes - continual progress - changing and fixing over and over, knowing that the hand of the Lord is there to pull us out of the pitfalls, the potholes we find ourselves in. The Holy Ghost will renew us.

That is reason why we should seek out that deep desire.

[End of talk]
Here are my notes about Elder Busche:

Here are some interesting parts of the book written by Elder F. Enzio Busche, "Yearning for the Living God." When I was a missionary in that part of Germany, he was the district president (like a stake president, but they did not have any stakes then). He later was a counselor to our mission president.

I remember him telling us a little bit about his conversion. I also remember his powerful testimony.

He had a traditional upbringing in Germany, which emphasized philosophical thinking and intelligence over spirituality. He had some powerful spiritual experiences in his life that led him to start considering the power of the Gospel, many years before he actually heard of the church. The first story here is when he was in the hospital with a very serious illness, newly married, but had no idea about our church. He had had an experience where he heard the spirit tell him to pray and he would be healed. He then read the bible and considered what the truth was. Here is this first story.

In the Catholic hospital, there was a nun whose name was Irrenea. She was the most angelic human being one could ever imagine. Although she was in her forties of fifties, she behaved like a little girl. To see her walking, one would think she was almost dancing. To hear her talk was almost like hearing her sing. I never saw her discouraged or overly serious. There was always some merriment in her eyes and a sincere interest in the well-being of the patients. During the five months I spent in the hospital, I learned to admire Irrenea greatly. I watched her  because she was of the caliber I wanted to achieve in order to be acceptable to the other world, and I benefited from the daily exposure to the authority and dignity of this wonderful daughter of our Heavenly Father.

One day when she was not busy, I took the liberty to ask her if she could spend an extra minute by my bedside. She gladly agreed. I asked her, "Sister Irrenea, can you please give me the answer to just one question — just answer with a 'yes' or 'no.' Tell me, is the Catholic Church the trie church of Jesus Christ?" She was somewhat, but not overly, surprised. She looked off toward the horizon and, after some time, her gaze turned toward me and she said, quite matter-of-factly and without any apologies, "No, it is not. The church you are looking for is the church of the living Christ, and the Catholic Church is a church of dead traditions. You can only remain a member if you have grown up in the church, for then you are so caught up in it, it is difficult to leave it."

After a while, he tried his own church (Evangelical Lutheran) and learned, but found disappointment. He was visited  by the missionaries and met with them for quite a while, but through the process, he started to have feelings of hopelessness, basically that it was probably true, but he felt that he was not adequate or able to live this gospel:

… it happened that by and by, I came to know the doctrine of the Gospel. But the more I got to know of the doctrine, the more overwhelmed I became with its unique, vast completeness. The next step was fear, even panic. My mind was filled with the thought that if their message was true, I would be confronted with something I could not push away.

How ill prepared I was for this message as I saw myself in comparison to its ultimate demands! I felt that I was too far away, with too many casual attitudes and bad habits

… The power of my traditional thinking and my laziness in spiritual matters were so overwhelming that I saw no possibility of reaching the level of these young men...

He eventually agreed to be baptized and here is an interesting story about his interaction with his father:

Because of the great respect and admiration I had for my father, one of the most difficult aspects of my decision to be baptized was, of course, the question of how he would react towards my baptism. ...

My father's attitude was very serious and sincere when I told him. He said, "Before I say anything, let me sleep on it and I will talk to you tomorrow." He came into my office the next day and said, "I have something that I want to tell you. I have three questions for you." First he asked me, "Have  you really investigated this?"

I answered, "Yes."

Second, he questioned, "Have you really taken enough time? Did you look into all corners and read everything you could find, even the literature of its critics, or has someone pressured you?"

I replied, "No, there has been no pressure. I have done everything I could to investigate and I have also read the 'anti' literature."

He continued, "Then, here is my third question: Are you really convinced that this is true?"

Without hesitation, I answered, "Yes."

He said, "Well, then you have no choice. You have to do it. We have to follow our convictions in our lives. Otherwise, we will not be able to stand. Even when it is not popular, and even when people sometimes can't understand us, it is necessary to stand by our convictions. Otherwise, we are unable to stand."

I was completely overwhelmed by my father's final statement. It was so unique. I knew so many people who made compromises for all kinds of reasons, but here was my father who was concerned that I might have been brainwashed or coerced in some way. When it came to the final analysis, however, he respected my decision and was willing to support me.

[End of Busche notes]

Weekly report

For the sake of continuity, I thought I would write a few thoughts and report a few activities of the past week.

First of all, we are now both officially retired. Of course, I was retired officially last July, but now she is retired having worked her last day on Friday, the 21st. They gave her a lot of parties, gifts and even a decorated car (see picture). It is certain that she will be missed and will miss her work and people (maybe not the work so much). Anyway, we are focused on our final preparations.

As for that, both of us are engaged in language training several times per week. The MTC has set us up for individual German training in hour-long sessions over Skype. It is a wonderful thing. She is learning the basics of the language and I am learning narrative and conversational past, reflexive verbs, giving spiritual thoughts and having discussions. It is a blessing that we can do this without leaving our home. Wir sind von der Herr sehr gesegnet!

Last Sunday, we both spoke in Sacrament meeting. It went well. There were a lot of people in attendance and we were blessed to see so many come. Afterwards, we had food and visiting at our home (see a few pictures). I am thinking of putting my talk notes in another blog posting. She was released as Relief Society President just before she gave her talk. She did very well and was able to control her emotions.

 little Oak

Little Coop in uncle's arms

We finally got all our papers back and ready for our visas and sent them all off to the church travel department. They asked to have them by the day we enter the MTC.

Our homebodies both now have gainful employment, so they will be taking care of the home while we are gone. This coming week is very busy, with Christmas, especially. Payless is busy and has our son working some today and a lot this week. He went to another ward for church this morning before having to be at work at 10:30. Durufus has Sunday's off, but has been putting in long hours at Dominos and will do so also this week. At least now his car is running well.

We are happy and looking forward to a wonderful Christmas, though we very much miss our Maine family and our Hungary family. We hope to Skype with them on Christmas Day.

A few family pics

Here are a few random shots. First is me holding one of our little grandsons in the hospital in WJ.

Here is our famous bunny as dressed as a knight up by Soapy.

 Little Oak trying out the armor (taste test, of course).

Our Durufus after his successful job hiring!

New Grandson

No, this is not a repeat of the last blog.

The highlight of the day was our brief little Skype session today at about 2. We got to see our new little grandson from 8 time-zones away! He is a handsome little guy and Mom is doing well, now that the baby has finally come. Wow, two grandsons in a week.

We learned about the birth while I was at the church running water for the baptismal font and my dear sweetheart was off at a wedding shower across town. We both hurried back for the long-distance encounter. After the Skype session, we both went to the church to get ready for a wedding (not the one with the shower) and baptism taking place. It was a busy, but blessed day.