Hi All,
How are you doing? What's new in your world?
We keep plugging along, always trying to do better and learn more. We both decided that this mission of ours suits us in that we have a variety of ways to serve, we love the Linz Ward, and we meet the most interesting people.
We talked about what it would be like to work in a mission office and both decided that would be a big headache. Even the couples that have the same calling to work with the YSA have unique situations in their areas. We have the added joy of being able to teach Institute because of our German skills. Many of the members of the ward have said that us being able to speak German has motivated them to invite us over for dinner more often. The older members can't always speak English. So we do have lots of dinner appointments.
We have one sister that has us come over every Thursday. She loves doing genealogy and often has questions for us. The hard part for me is that we are not allowed to hold babies or interact with the children. There are about 40 primary aged children in the Linz ward. They are a busy bunch!
We have an appointment today teaching with the sisters. This is a man from Ghana. The missionaries have a hard time finding Austrians that will listen to them. So, they teach Romanians, Africans, Middle Eastern people (men mostly) and occasionally an American.
Last Friday we had a dinner put on by the Afghani, Iranian, and Iraq members and investigators.It was inspired by the talk that was given last conference about the Lord guiding people out of their oppressed countries and into Europe. The members here are very leery of these people because they have sometimes shown up to see what they can get out of the church. Our mission president has made it a rule that the missionaries are not allowed to baptize anyone until they have their official resident papers, which can take up to a year. Joining a Christian church becomes an advantage in getting these papers. Anyway, we had a delightful evening together and broke down some barriers. The biggest challenge is that they have such poor German language skills and communication is so difficult. They gave us a slide show about Iran, mostly Teheran and a wonderful meal of lamb with lentils and potatoes. Success!
Retaining members is always an issue. So, much time is spent visiting the less active new members. It is discouraging to see them slip away so quickly and easily. Did you know that of the 15 million members we have on the records, about 4 million are lost and cannot be found?
When Pres. Monson uses his phrase "to the rescue" he is thinking about all these lost sheep. There are not enough hours, days, weeks to ever find them all and bring them "home". We just have to start with the one. It is interesting to us that the Savior healed one person at a time. He never stretched out His hands over a crowd to heal them all. That is inspiring!
We have a very fun trip to Vienna tomorrow. Elder Dykes, a member of the Seventy, is coming to speak to all the missionaries there. All the Austrian missionaries will be there. The next day he will be in Munchen (Munich) and the day after meet with the missionaries in Switzerland. We will be driving to the stake center in downtown Vienna. There is no parking lot attached to the building, so we will have to find a place on the street and feed the meter at intervals.
We love you all so very much! You are in our prayers and thoughts on a daily basis. Keep well and safe.
Tchuess, MOM and DAD
How are you doing? What's new in your world?
We keep plugging along, always trying to do better and learn more. We both decided that this mission of ours suits us in that we have a variety of ways to serve, we love the Linz Ward, and we meet the most interesting people.
We talked about what it would be like to work in a mission office and both decided that would be a big headache. Even the couples that have the same calling to work with the YSA have unique situations in their areas. We have the added joy of being able to teach Institute because of our German skills. Many of the members of the ward have said that us being able to speak German has motivated them to invite us over for dinner more often. The older members can't always speak English. So we do have lots of dinner appointments.
We have one sister that has us come over every Thursday. She loves doing genealogy and often has questions for us. The hard part for me is that we are not allowed to hold babies or interact with the children. There are about 40 primary aged children in the Linz ward. They are a busy bunch!
We have an appointment today teaching with the sisters. This is a man from Ghana. The missionaries have a hard time finding Austrians that will listen to them. So, they teach Romanians, Africans, Middle Eastern people (men mostly) and occasionally an American.
Last Friday we had a dinner put on by the Afghani, Iranian, and Iraq members and investigators.It was inspired by the talk that was given last conference about the Lord guiding people out of their oppressed countries and into Europe. The members here are very leery of these people because they have sometimes shown up to see what they can get out of the church. Our mission president has made it a rule that the missionaries are not allowed to baptize anyone until they have their official resident papers, which can take up to a year. Joining a Christian church becomes an advantage in getting these papers. Anyway, we had a delightful evening together and broke down some barriers. The biggest challenge is that they have such poor German language skills and communication is so difficult. They gave us a slide show about Iran, mostly Teheran and a wonderful meal of lamb with lentils and potatoes. Success!
Retaining members is always an issue. So, much time is spent visiting the less active new members. It is discouraging to see them slip away so quickly and easily. Did you know that of the 15 million members we have on the records, about 4 million are lost and cannot be found?
When Pres. Monson uses his phrase "to the rescue" he is thinking about all these lost sheep. There are not enough hours, days, weeks to ever find them all and bring them "home". We just have to start with the one. It is interesting to us that the Savior healed one person at a time. He never stretched out His hands over a crowd to heal them all. That is inspiring!
We have a very fun trip to Vienna tomorrow. Elder Dykes, a member of the Seventy, is coming to speak to all the missionaries there. All the Austrian missionaries will be there. The next day he will be in Munchen (Munich) and the day after meet with the missionaries in Switzerland. We will be driving to the stake center in downtown Vienna. There is no parking lot attached to the building, so we will have to find a place on the street and feed the meter at intervals.
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| In front of the baptismal font in the Vienna Stake building for a special conference for all the Austrian missionaries with Elder Dykes speaking. We love Austria! |
We love you all so very much! You are in our prayers and thoughts on a daily basis. Keep well and safe.
Tchuess, MOM and DAD
