The past week or so has been particularly noteworthy. First, the most notable for us is the engagement of our son. While hardly surprising, it was a reason for real excitement. The two of them have been making preparations for weeks on their marriage, but it is now official and we are excited for the time in Utah in August. Officially, we will be on leave of absence from the mission between August 6-19. People here are reassured that we will indeed be returning to our place here for the remaining time of our mission.
Next, we had a remarkable conference broadcast last Sunday, originating from Zollikofen, Switzerland (where the temple is). President Uchtdorf presided at the meeting. The main emphasis is that Western Europe will be focusing on growth and strength of the saints. It was said that there is no record of the land of Switzerland ever being dedicated for the preaching of Gospel. Before the conference, President Uchtdorf gave the dedicatory prayer. We do not know any other details.
Once thing that we do know is that up to this point in time, the work is difficult in Switzerland. Most of the success is with immigrants (non-Europeans) and the country now is becoming less friendly to non-Swiss people living and working in the country. Americans (non-Europeans) are not allowed visas in the country and they are making laws making it harder to non-Swiss people to have jobs in the country. It will be interesting to see whether a change in attitude will come as a result of this dedication. We know that the Lord works in His own way to accomplish His work.
Our branch work is also interesting. The international nature of our people here is expanding. Our dear sister from Ivory Coast is improving in her health and she should be attending with us more. She speaks mainly French. One of our investigator families is from Macedonia. A recent member who moved in will be attending with us tomorrow. He is also from Macedonia and doesn't speak German or English, but Italian, Bulgarian and Macedonian. One or our missionaries in the mission is from Italy and he has successfully made contact with our member and we are now all set to pick him up from the train station. We have Russian-speaking members and a couple of members from the Philippines who come from time to time. Our Derick is from Nigeria. It will be interesting to see how it all fits together tomorrow with French, Italian, Macedonian and our usual German.
I hope to add some pictures in the next post.
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