A Tender Mercy

We had a very special experience on the 23rd of June and Bob shared it with our Mission President.  The story in his words follows:

" We drove to Fellbach (northeast of Stuttgart) and met Sister Helga Hoerstel (she lives in a Care Center and is a member of the Waiblingen Ward.  She is 90.  We met her and her family in my first area as a 19 year old missionary (Bremen) and we taught this family for months.  The mother and her two teenage daughters were baptized while I was still serving there (the husband was not).  We kept in contact up until about 2000 when I lost track of this family because they moved a few times.  I had this feeling that I would find them on the mission, but I wasn’t sure if the mother would still be alive after all these years.  Well, I was blessed to find the mother and the two daughters (who we have not met up with yet), but today we went and visited Sister Hoerstel and it was a very, very special day for me.  By the way, she has a picture of her grandson on the wall.  He is currently serving a mission in the Germany Berlin mission. Amazing how the Gospel works and blesses families.  She is the sweetest, most faithful person ever and it was so wonderful to see her after so many years.  To complete the story, her husband, Rolf, was baptized in about 1998 and on the anniversary of his baptism, the family was sealed in the Freiberg Temple.  She told me today that that day was the happiest day of her entire life.  This family has been a huge blessing to me over the years and to have a chance to reconnect with her (in this life) was something very special."  

What Bob didn't share is that these three people were his only baptisms on his mission.  But because these three special people joined the church, many more people also had the gospel bless their lives.  Both daughters served missions and helped others to come unto Christ.  Then, they each married in the temple and one has 6 children and the other has 3 children.  Sister Hoerstel and her daughters are all still active in the church.  Her husband was, as well, until he passed away a few years ago. They are a strong and faithful family.  It is a blessing to us to know how the gospel has blessed their lives and many others.  We hope to see Sister Hoerstel again and reconnect with her daughters as well.

"Break the Fast" Dinner and our first Zone Conference

They've had a tradition going here of having a dinner on Fast Day to "break the fast".  The Tonolis have been hosting or organizing this meal since the last Senior couple left, either at their apartment or at the church for the missionaries, some of the single brothers, or less active members of the branch.  Sometimes the Elders have brought people investigating the church.  Since we are the Senior couple here now, we offered to have the dinner at our apartment in June, the Sunday after Stake Conference.  It was a nice opportunity to get to know some of the people in our Branch.  We wish we could have a bigger group, but we are limited by the size of our apartment.  Everyone seemed to enjoy the meal, stayed to visit for awhile afterwards, and it helped us form some new friendships.

Alex Huber, Wladimir Lange, Ralf Lorenz, Elder Williams, Elder Johnson, Sister Lake, Corinna and Giampi Tonoli 

We had our first Zone Conference for the St. Gallen Zone on June 13 in Zurich, Switzerland.  It was at the same church where we went for the evening adult meeting of Stake Conference.  The Ravensburg Elders rode there with us and we made it in about 2.5 hours.  We enjoy our long drives with the Elders for a couple of reasons.  It's been a great opportunity to get to know all about them and we feel a stronger connection to them.  Also, we can talk about the missionary work in our mission.  We sometimes listen to fabulous talks that the missionaries have on their tablets. And, it is the most beautiful drive imaginable!  We always go past the beautiful Lake Constance (Bodensee), everything is incredibly green and lush, the mountains are high and rugged and snow capped still, and I love all the small villages nestled between the expansive farmlands and up the hillsides.  You can't travel by freeway (the autobahn) everywhere here.  Much of the time you have to drive through every small village.  It makes the trip longer but I love seeing the quaint old towns, the interesting homes and shops and the beautiful and very colorful flowers in gardens, window boxes and pots.  They love flowers here!

This Zone Conference was our first but the last for President and Sister Kohler.  They have been outstanding at leading and loving the missionaries, we could tell.  We have been blessed by them in the short time we have been here.  President Kohler sends out emails every week teaching and inspiring the missionaries.  He is a master at using stories and analogies to teach a lesson. Sister Kohler is warm and fun and we have been very impressed with how well she speaks German.  She doesn't even use notes when she speaks.  It's amazing! The Kohlers spent part of the time interviewing all the missionaries.  This conference was actually several zones combined.  We divided into zones for training from our Zone Leaders.  They were terrific!

Zone Leaders - Elder Mateer and Elder Whitaker, both from Great Britain

 All the new missionaries were introduced to the group, including us.  Some members of the ward there provided lunch for everyone, which was very nice.  This was also a great opportunity for the Elders and Sisters to visit with each other and catch up with former companions.  We took advantage of the time to meet and get acquainted with some of the missionaries.  That was fun!

Sister and President Kohler

 Packages were brought from the office and that is a real treat for those fortunate enough to receive one.  President and Sister Kohler each took some time to speak to everyone.  They taught, testified and gave counsel and advice.  It was their opportunity to say "Goodbye" and encourage everyone to carry on, work hard, do their best, and support with all their hearts the new mission president and his wife.  President Kohler set aside a day that every companionship is to clean their apartment from top to bottom, very thoroughly.  He also set aside a day for everyone to fast and pray that the transition would be as smooth as possible for President and Sister Brown.  He explained how challenging it will be for them and how much they will need the love and support of everyone.  There was a video presentation that President Kohler had made with pictures of every missionary they have had in the last 3 years.  Everyone enjoyed that!  At the end, the Kohlers let everyone come up one at a time and have their picture taken with them.  That way they could also say goodbye personally to each one.  It was a special day and one we will always remember.

Stake Conference in Switzerland

Before I get to the "meat" of this post, I just want to mention that I made my first batch of chocolate chip cookies here.  That wouldn't ordinarily be a major accomplishment but it is here.  We had to go to three different stores to track down all the ingredients.  I also had to adjust to an oven in centigrade instead of fahrenheit. But they turned out great!  We shared them with some of the families who live in our apartment building as well as the Elders and the Young Adults.  They were a hit!

Our third weekend on the mission was our Stake Conference.  We are the only German unit in the St. Gallen, Switzerland Stake.  So our conference was held in Frauenfeld and Zurich.  The Saturday Adult meeting was held in the Stake Center in Zurich. But the Sunday meeting for everyone was held in a large community auditorium in Frauenfeld.  President Uchtdorf told us they don't have a church building big enough for the whole stake for the Sunday meeting.  They would prefer to meet in a church but don't want people to be turned away for lack of space.  We took the Elders with us on Saturday and drove to Zurich.  We had a little difficulty finding the best route and it took us almost 3 hours to get there.  But it was an incredibly beautiful drive.  It doesn't work to take pictures out the window of the car so you'll have to use your imagination.  This mission covers three of the most gorgeous countries in the world.  Everything is very green with forests and farmland.  Red roofed white homes are nestled in small villages in the valleys and up the hillsides.  All villages have their beautiful churches with interesting and picturesque steeples.  The mountains are rugged and breathtaking.  It is always a delight to travel here.  Our meeting Saturday was terrific!  The Stake President, Christian Bolt, spoke and he is amazing.  We also heard from an adult sister in the stake. A young man, Benjamin Roffler, who has received his mission call shared his faith and testimony.  A young woman, Alexandra Calame, shared her incredible conversion story.  Our mission president, Brian Kohler and his wife, Cheri spoke as well.  The final speaker was Elder Alessandro Dini Ciacci, the area authority seventy from Italy.  We thought he did a great job and involved members of the stake.  He doesn't speak German so he spoke in English and a young man stood by him and translated. They also had a beautiful violin and piano musical number.  I noticed halfway through the meeting that there was a rack of headsets for translation.  Unfortunately, they were not accessible at that point.  I just felt the strong spirit and enjoyed the association with so many faithful saints from all over the area encompassed by our stake. The members here are very dedicated and willing to sacrifice a lot to be faithful members of the church.  We visited afterward with missionaries and members of our branch and ward in Dornbirn.  Then we drove back home.

Sunday morning we drove to Frauenfeld.  We made it in about 2 1/2 hours and arrived early.  I was able to find the headsets this time.  Yay! Bob was excited to find and visit with Peter Sieck, who was a brand new member in Bremen, Germany when Bob arrived on his mission in 1973.  He was only about 19 years old then.  Bob hadn't seen him in over 40 years. They both enjoyed connecting again.

Bob and Peter Sieck

 We sat with members of our branch and enjoyed another wonderful meeting.  They had organized an outstanding choir which sang several truly beautiful pieces and truly added to the spirit of the meeting.  We heard from President Thomas Ottiker, second counselor in the Stake Presidency.  The Stake President spoke again.  The temple is very special to me, so I was thrilled to hear from the Temple President, Erik Psota, and his wife, Berit.  They gave beautiful messages.  The Stake Patriarch, Peter Gysler, shared a message.   A young sister, told how she had slipped away from church and how she had returned to the gospel.  Tom Erhart, a young man, also shared his story and testimony.  The final speaker again was Brother Ciacci.  I thought his talk was very inspiring.  The whole conference was inspirational and motivating.  We were thankful we were able to attend and be edified.  We mingled with the saints afterward and felt of their strength and unity.

Jurgen and Susanne Klaumunzner and their grandchildren

Elders Williams and Johnson

We were invited to dinner afterward at the home of Max and Suoma Lieber in Felben-Wellhausen, Switzerland.  We met brother Lieber when he visited our branch in Ravensburg the Sunday before when his sister, Susanne Klaumunzner's, husband was released as our Branch President.  We were delighted with the invitation and took the missionaries with us as well.  Sister Lieber fixed us a lovely and delicious dinner and we enjoyed getting to know them both.  We found out that my friend, Susan Lieber Morrow, is a relative of theirs.  We hope to associate with this dear couple again.

Suoma and Max Lieber

New Branch Presidency

Our second Sunday at the Branch was fabulous!  They reorganized our Branch Presidency so the entire Stake Presidency came from Switzerland.  We had twice as many people as last week (about 50) due to all the visitors.  Our Stake President is Christian Bolt.  There is a Mormon Message on him (you should check it out!) He is a sculptor, as in a very good and well known sculptor. We both think he is super cool. One of the counselors is Guido Uchtdorf.  He is the son of President Dieter Uchtdorf.  He approached Bob and I after the meeting and talked to us about the great need they have here for us.  He told us the members had petitioned the mission president for a senior missionary couple. He gave us some counsel on reaching out to members in this tiny branch and encouraging support of the YSA here.  He let us know that we are very much wanted and needed here. Our new Branch President is Denes Wijsbeek.  He and his wife are Dutch.  They have 5 children and are the only family in the Branch with children at home.  The first counselor is Giampietro (Giampi) Tonoli.  He and his wife are the only young couple in the Branch.  He was in the former presidency and served a mission in Northern Germany (yes, he is Italian).  The meeting went a little long because we heard from the former Branch President and his wife, the new Branch President and his wife, the counselor, Rudiger Trautmann, who was released, and all members of the Stake Presidency. Bob was asked to give the closing prayer.  They had a break after the meeting and then we reconvened to set the new presidency apart.  Then there was a pot luck lunch.  They have one of these about every other month for the members to socialize.  The Branch is scattered over a very large geographic area so many members come a long way to attend church.  They don't have many opportunities to socialize.  The only room large enough is the chapel, so they moved chairs and set up some tables in there.  There was lots of good food and the members and visitors really enjoyed it.

I made a wonderful new friend today.  Her name is Irina Kiefer.  She is from Russia but also speaks English and German. I marveled at that but she said it is very common here to speak several languages. She is tall and thin and very kind. She offered to meet us in the old city next week and show us around.  We told her we would love to!

Irina Kiefer

We also had a fun experience meeting up with Talmadge Eyre and his wife, Anita, and their daughter Annina.  He is from Utah and served in Brazil on a mission with our son, Spencer.  He is Richard and Linda Eyre's son.  They were vacationing in our area and just randomly chose our branch to attend church. They live in Switzerland (Anita is Swiss) and are members of our Stake.  It was great to get acquainted with them.  We will look for them at Stake Conference next week in Zurich.

Talmadge, Anita, and Annina Eyre

View from the window of the church
Not too scenic!