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.