As part of our Sacrament meeting last Sunday, I spoke a little from the words of President Uchtdorf, including his words about how we need everyone. Some may not feel that they "fit in," but everyone helps us learn and we all help because we all have different talents and ideas. The Lord helps it all fit together. In an earlier week, we had a lesson from President Snow's life and I was impressed by his statements concerning unity. We have always been told that we should be "one." I always have thought of it as meaning that we should be be against one another - avoiding contention. That is good, of course, but a group of one usually doesn't experience contention. It is important that we be with each other. One means that we come to church! There are many who say that they do not need church, an organized religion, or even regular church attendance. It is so important that we come together. Even if you come away without a specific new point learned, we have come away better by being with others of the faith and feeling the spirit we have when we are toegether. I have never had a problem with wanting to stay away from regular attendance, but I see a lot of people who feel contented with only an occasional interaction with others that we experience in church meetings.
Last Sunday, we had a good group of people come to church, including a new investigator, a young man from China. Later in the day, we had a very nice dinner together (mid-day dinner), including people from four continents: Africa, Asia, North America and Europe. After the Elders left, we played a game together and helped our new investigator see how the Gospel is intertwined in our lives. Much of our casual conversation touched on Gospel subjects.
I have mentioned before our interactions with people of other languages. One day last week, we visited a family who are from Macedonia. We could not find any materials or conference talks translated into Macedonian, but found some in Serbian. I saved the video clip of one of the conference talks onto my iPad, with the voice of a Serbian interpreter, and we played it for this family. It was wonderful to see how these people could finally understand what we were talking about. They both understand Serbian, but cannot read it, but at least they were able to hear the Gospel in a language they understood.
We had a fun Institute meeting on Wednesday and Sister B had made some Halloween candy bags for people and shared them with people, including our Institute young people, so they could share them with friends. It is interesting that Halloween is starting to catch on here. It was un-heard-of when I was here in the 1970s. We still only see a few children dress up, but they were out on the streets on Halloween visiting some homes. We were also amazed to see some of the parties that were advertised, but I guess they like to try out the fun as well. The real holiday was today, November 1, All-Saints day. Everything was closed.
Well, after all that, here are some pictures for this week - quite a mixture.
First, we were in Dornbirn, Austria on Tuesday for the district meeting. If you look closely on this mountain, you will see the restaurant that is on the side of the mountain. It is about 3/4 the way to the top. They have a cable car for it, but one of the elders here told me that he and his companion hiked up to it one day (on a preparation day).
Buy a brand new Ford Kuga (pronounced almost like Cougar). It is really a Ford Escape. Only 24,000 Euro (times 1.3 dollars per Euro)
I have mentioned the "Pin Cushion" before. It is a fountain in the middle of Ravensburg. They shut off the water this week. I still think it looks like a bunch of bent pins and staples in a pin cushion.
Out fun institute group last Wednesday.
We went out looking for a warehouse store the other day. Our GPS (a a bit old and confused at times) led us to the dead-end by this Monastery. Well, we saw that it was not much further, so we decided to walk the rest of the way (not knowing exactly where it was).
Well, down this path we went for quite a while, including a side trip. We could not find it.
We headed back (on the way back to the Monastery). We finally found it on some roads that were too new for the GPS.
This is in the building where the Elders live, in the middle of the city. The building owner is a member of the local Druids. V. A. O. D. means (United Ancient Order of Druids).
Here is an advertisement for the events at the local concert hall. Lovely.
More autumn leaves.
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