The Beschleunigung

Isn't that a fun word? It is German for "hastening." We have been experiencing a crazy time lately. Some of the pictures will show a little of what we are experiencing. Sister B's latest Epistle summarizes it pretty well.

We have had some wonderful Institute classes lately. It is near the end of the year (actually we went longer than the stake has been running - they are already finished, we still have a week to go). Instead of attendance dropping off, we are seeing more out. Considering that we only have about 20 - 30 attend Sacrament meeting, it is interesting that we have 10 or more to Institute. Granted, some are not Institute age, but it was been great. I teach the lesson, which goes about 30-40 minutes and then they just love to stay around and visit with each other a long time. We do provide a dinner at the beginning and goodies at the end, but there are a number of them who do not even eat much. A week ago, one of our attendees was a young lady, 18 years old, who is not a member, though she has come to church, off and on, for the past couple of years. She really got along well with one of the young women of the branch and it looks like she will be progressing as an investigator at last.

She came to our branch game night the next night, and when asked at the end, she gave the closing prayer, sounding just like a member. Our game night was similar to our institute in the people who attended. We had a great time.

The next day, we had the baptism. There have been other places where I have talked about him, so I will not say much here. Ralf is a great person and is really excited about the Gospel and is inviting his relatives and friends to also hear the missionaries.

Sunday, we had the confirmation and he also received the Aaronic Priesthood. We also had Sasha attend for the second week in a row. He is originally from Macedonia and speaks no German. He speaks Italian well, but no one here does, so we use a translator app on the iPad to communicate with him. Without going into much detail, it ended up that he became homeless and so he has been staying with us for a few days. He is a great person and is quickly getting back onto his feet again.

Today, we just had a number of our new people join us (and the elders) and we watched the World cup soccer game of USA vs Germany. Oh well. You can't win them all.

Here are some pictures, some applicable to my notes, some not.

After our game night. The elders had spent the afternoon doing service (hence the different clothes).

Ralf's baptism

After the baptism in our building. Sister B did a lot of cooking and making of goodies.

On the ferry (looking at a passing ferry) on Lake Constance.

A building in Switzerland. You can see that they even use the upper floors as well.

You seldom see a German flag flying in Germany. Because of the world cup games, we see them alot more.

Sister B doing her painting.

Sasha with the two of us.