Birthday Week

This has been a remarkable week. The highlight was our trip to the Swiss temple on Saturday. In the previous post I listed a number of blessings we have seen. In this post, I will mainly just show pictures from this past week or so, with some notes.

Here is a gorgeous tulip growing next to our apartment building.

I saw a water skeeter (Wasserläufer) in a pond as we visited a less-active member. It turned out that the reflection of the clouds came more in to focus than the skeeter. It looks amazing, I think.

He gave us some absolutely beautiful and tasty radishes.

Our drive to Dornbirn last week was on a cloudy day, but the mountains of Austria were beautiful as we drove there on the Autobahn.

We had a wonderful Institute class last week.

The temple visit:

on the ferry to, and from.

Our trip to Durchhausen to see the area where Sister Pabel's ancestors originated from:

the cemetery

Some of the scenery in the area.

In all thy ways acknowledge him...

I have had this as my favorite scripture since my senior year in high school. My wonderful seminary teacher, Keith Perkins, at Granite High school seminary, taught me the value of the Old Testament and this wonderful scripture:

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart,
and lean not on thy own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him
and He shall direct thy paths.
Be not wise in thine own eyes
fear the Lord, depart from evil."    - Proverbs 3:5-7

During the night a couple of days ago, it struck me that I have missed a vital part of that scripture, even though I have it well memorized. I have always loved the concept of trusting in the Lord and feel that it has been so important to me in my life and in the Lord's service. However, I never even thought a bit about acknowledging the Lord in all my ways, as being part of that trust.

In the past week or so, we have had some amazing experiences here on our mission. First, we had the baptism of Wladimir a couple of weeks ago (pronounced Vladimir). It has been a blessing to see him find confidence in the Lord and see the change that has come over him as the healing powers of the atonement has worked in him. Then, about two weeks ago, Ralph met the missionaries on the street and, after a short discussion about the church and the gospel, he said he would come to church. Often, people say they will come, but never do so. He came to church and has regularly attended since then, including Institute each week. The missionaries only last week began teaching him the missionary lessons. He has a baptism date coming up soon. Then last night, the elders finally met a young man who has been taught the gospel in the past, but broke off the lessons, and they had a wonderful discussion with him and he promised to come to church next week.

We have a dear sister who has been seriously ill over the past weeks, including some special hospitalizations where we and others have not been able to contact her to comfort her. Last week I asked the branch to pray especially for her and I fasted. When others tried to contact her (she was not in our area at the time), they could not find her and after a few calls, we discovered that she had been released and was at home. She still has some difficult times ahead, but she is much better.

Sister B. has had fabulous success in finding names of ancestors for one of our dear sisters and literally hundreds of names have been prepared for work in the temple. We will be traveling today with this sister today to visit this tiny village of Durchhausen where her ancestors lived. I have also been working with some other members in genealogy and we feel that we are receiving help from the other side of the veil in our work here.

A young man whom we have visited off and on over that past 17 months suddenly started coming to church and has come consistently for the past 5 Sundays. A less-active member brought a newly found friend to church a couple of weeks ago, who is also a member, but had lost contact with the church for years. This dear new sister, Grace, has now come to church twice and each time her friend.

We are seeing the hand of the Lord in the work and things are opening up.

It is so important to acknowledge the hand of the Lord. Trusting in Him is the first step, but acknowledging His love and influence is tied directly to this. Then He will direct our paths.

Mother's Day, New Missionary, etc.

In Germany, they celebrate Mother's Day exactly like they do in the US. I had the opportunity to speak in church. We also heard from our Relief Society president. As usual, she did a splendid job. I felt that the best thing I could talk about was to honor my own mother. She was born 100 years ago this year. I felt that her example of service was a good lesson. She worked hard but was always behind the scenes and never wanted to be noticed. It is really the quiet "doers" like her who really make the world a wonderful place.

We had a wonderful time visiting with our children and families over Skype over last Saturday and Sunday. We also received some great letters and a package. Sister B. put up all the pictures and cards and took pictures so I could share them in this blog. Those are the first pictures I will show. 

We also had a new elder join us this past week. Elder George went home and Elder Richman came to Ravensburg. We have been going around the area visiting people and introducing the elders to the members. Also, on Sunday, we provided the women of the branch with potted flowers. The elders joined us as we went around delivering them to less active members. The pictures show some of the places we went along the way. We had a mixture of weather with sudden rain showers and took some pictures of the clouds.

Another wonderful development is a young man who started attending church with us. I won't give his whole story at this time, but wanted to talk a little about him. The elders met him as they were walking along the street and talked a little about the church. They invited him to come attend church services on Sunday a week ago. He came. He said he always kept his word and had told them he would come, so he did. He was invited to attend Institute last Wednesday and he came. He attended again this Sunday. So far, he has not even had any missionary lessons (they start tomorrow) and he is really interested in being with us and understanding the gospel. I hope we will be giving future reports about his progress. 

The elders visited with their mothers at our place using Skype. It was a great day.

The pictures from our grandchildren are on the cabinets in the kitchen.

Most of these are for mother's day, but a few are also for me for father's day. Thank you all so very much.

Here are the cards hanging from the curtains. (We still have easter eggs hanging there as well.)

They have a number of these around the area. They are May Poles. They are very tall pine trees with all but the top stripped of bark and limbs. They usually are love messages for someone, but the cities also  erect tall May Poles.

Spring is beautiful with the vibrant green colors.

Here are some of the clouds that brought some crazy rain storms.

Here are Elders Thompson and Richman with Sister B. as they tried to visit someone.

We made a little side trip to Meersburg on Lake Constance (Bodensee)

They had a large safety fair in the middle of the city.

I had to add this. Our large grocery store has a USA section. It is mainly things like Pop Tarts, Mac and Cheese, Barbecue sauce, marshmellows, Shortening, hot sauce, etc. Most of the things are not cheap, though Baking Soda and microwave popcorn are cheaper here. You should be able to zoom in on this picture to see what is there.

May Day, Inspections and a gondola ride

Last Thursday was a big holiday here in Europe. Everything closes. Even some missionary appointments did not happen because the people thought that missionary work comes to a halt on statutory holidays like this (Day of Labor). We ended up staying home most of the day because of it.

On Saturday, we did our missionary apartment inspection tour (sorry, no pictures this time). In the middle of the tour, I attended a meeting of the stake bishops and branch presidents in Winterthur, Switzerland (where we were doing a couple of inspections anyway). We had an early start because of the meeting in the middle of our schedule. We were on the road by 6 AM. In the first place, Konstanz, we needed to repair their storage shelves, so that took a while. We did make it to Winterthur in time for the meeting at 9 and at 11 we resumed our work, ending up at Dornbirn, Austria at about 3:30 and then inspected our own elders' apartment in the evening.

On Sunday, we did not have as large an attendance as the past few weeks, but were heartened to see some of the less-active members who started attending in April, also attend last Sunday. We are finally beginning to see some solid progress in re-activation. It is the Lord's influence, with very little credit due to what we are doing. We do have a couple of our sisters in hospitals with serious problems, so we are praying hard for them.

Today we made an excursion to Dornbirn (part of our district, but still in another country - Austria) to take a gondola ride up the side of a mountain. It is called Karren and is about 1000 meters in elevation (about 3280 feet), or about a 1600 foot vertical rise from the base. There is a restaurant at the top that is really quite reasonable. We met with the Elders in Dornbirn and all went up together. Several of the missionaries had their lederhosen and posed for some pictures, as you can see. The views from up there are amazing. The pictures here do not do it justice.

Elders George and Thompson at the bottom, near the map

joined by two other of the elders who also had their lederhosen, Elders Aardema and Nielson

Elder Thompson looking at the gondola going up from the base station

A view across towards the west, as we were going up on the gondola. Liechtenstein is in this valley.

The elders taking pictures at the top.

I was probably the oddest dressed person there, with a suit and tie.

The whole group of missionaries: Elders Weston, Nielson, Aardema, Thompson, Stuart and George.

Another view to the west from the top.

The view across Dornbirn, Austria. In the distance is Lake Constance (Bodensee). Our branch area is on the other side of the lake.

A lonely dandelion among the wildflowers  up there.

They had this crystal/lens to look through across the area.

Sister B viewing the panorama.

looking to the east. There are many small villages (Dorfs) in the hills and mountains.

on the way down, we passed the up-going gondola.

Uniforms and medals, the ferry and Mission Tour

The end of April was full of interesting and uplifting activities. After church and lunch on the 27th, we headed out to Wangen for visits. We had two appointments, but one cancelled on the way and the other was not home. That kind of experience is not unusual for missionary work. Rather than head home, we drove the opposite direction (actually passing home - do not collect 100€), and went to Deggenhausertal to visit with the Kiefers. He has a fabulous collection of uniforms, medals, etc. from the war and other service organizations. I took a few pictures. While we (the elders and I ) were visiting with him, Sister B had a long visit with Sister Kiefer and felt that it was where she really was meant to be for the evening.

On Tuesday, we had "Mission Tour." This is sort of a mission conference. Since the mission is so large, in area and number, they cannot have a single mission-wide conference. We met together the the other zones that are in Switzerland or contain some part of Switzerland, 4 zones all together, in Zurich, Switzerland. We me with Elder and Sister Dyches, he being a member of the Seventy and the area presidency here. He gave us some wonderful counsel and it was a very enjoyable day.

First, President Miles spoke and talked about a new teaching program that has been introduced - not a missionary program, but a church program, called "Come Follow Me." we are to teach the way the Savior taught and he listed 10 points to follow (things the Savior did):
1. Love the people.
2. He knew who they were and what they needed.
3. He prepared himself.
4. He used the scriptures.
5. He shared stories and examples.
6. He asked questions.
7. He invited them to testify.
8. He trusted them.
9. He invited them to act in faith.
10. He was their example and mentor.
President Miles said that the Area presidency  had set a goal of having 100,000 saints in regular attendance in Sacrament meetings in Europe by the end of 2013 and that goal was reached.

Elder Dyches talked about "Doing the Hard thing," and spoke of Justification, Sanctification and Consecration. Justification is being clean (he referenced King Benjamin's speech where the people exclaimed that they had no desire to do evil). Sanctification is to do good continually and Consecration is to do it because we really can - giving back. His emphasis is to work with the members, both in activation of less-active members and in new conversions. The work is hastening.

- - - - -
Here are some pictures.

Brother Kiefer had a flag from the Soviet Union.

This is one of the MANY uniforms he has, this one showing a number of the medals from World War II

Some military knives

Elder Thompson on the Ferry ride to Zurich

a view of the island Mainau in the distance

Some of the elders gathering just before the meetings at Mission Tour. Elder Thompson is on the rightmost end.