Dear Family,
It has rolled around to Monday already! Amazing!
This past week has been extremely busy back at the office. To tell you the truth, we are 10x busier here than when we were in Moscow--mainly because of many more members, Area Seventies, Assistant Area Auditors, and countries involved. Each day, there are so many questions and it feels like we are putting out fires every day. We leave this Thursday for Lisbon, Portugal, to try to help out a AAA who has made a Stake President pretty angry because of the way he handled the audit, but the Area Seventy doesn't want us to release him, he wants us to come and try to help him understand a little better how he needs to handle his responsibilities in his calling. In addition, there will be about nine Stake Presidents that the Area Seventy wants us to train because they are all coming in for a Coordinating Council Meeting in Lisbon. So, we will be there from Thursday and come back to Frankfurt Sunday night. We have been trying to prepare our presentation, as well as coordinate with the analyst, Kiever--who is from Spain, in getting ready. There has been one stake there that is having many problems in their reports, so between him and us, hopefully we can get everything straightened out.
Tomorrow night, we have been invited to dinner at another analyst's home--Cristian. He is Italian, married to a Chinese girl. One of the sweetest couples we've ever met. They have two darling children, age five and eight who speak, of course, Italian, Chinese, German, and English. And the little five-year-old reads English, so they asked us to give a spiritual thought while we are there and allow them to participate in it. Of course! We are really looking forward to this!
Saturday, we started our first week in, "Come Follow Me," to be ready for our Sunday School lesson tomorrow in church. Gpa George did such a great job of really getting us ready by having us discuss how we could accomplish what the Prophet has asked for us to do in studying at home. The lessons are laid out so well and really do involve lots of discussion. It was wonderful just talking the two of us about our feelings on certain subjects. We sincerely hope and pray all of you will take this very seriously and really make it a priority in your homes to teach these concepts in your home on Sundays.
After we did a few things around the apartment, we left for our P-Day Adventure by going to Marburg, Germany. This turned out to be such a great place! We definitely want to go back! We LOVED this university town of 25,000 students that has been there since 1527. The castle was absolutely fantastic, which has existed since the 11th Century.
We walked down the millions of steps (it seems) to get to the church below--well worth it because the organist was practicing, which was fantastic! (But then we had to walk back up them to get to our car! Wow!) The Gothic style church has existed since 1222. I really can't wrap my mind around all these dates! We're just used to seeing everything after the late 1700s and we think that's old in America, right?!
Sunday, we had our Friedrichsdorf Dinner and Discussion Group for the five couples that live out here in the country. We really enjoy this group! Not only do we have a wonderful meal, but we, also, have a great discussion. Again, we talked about the first lesson in, "Come Follow Me." We had, also, discussed the topics in Sunday School, so now we had talked about it three times, but each time we got something different out of it. It is pretty amazing! We went to another couple's apartment and then next month, we will hold it again at our apartment. There are only the two of us that have a big enough apartment to hold it, I guess, and it's pretty funny, because we think our apartment is small! But, we have set it up so that everyone takes their turn on being responsible for the food and the discussion, so it really helps. I don't mind that we hold it at ours, really. It makes me get organized!
Hope you all are doing well! Love to all of you! This is the time of year when everything is sort of dismal in the weather and there are sometimes feelings of stress or sadness. As we have served on this mission and met people all over the world in many different circumstances, the main thought I have received is how many people are struggling, but just keep getting up and trying again the next day. I am amazed at their diligence. I have always loved the saying, "Don't rain on another's parade!" Is there anything worse than being so excited to go to a big parade and then have all the floats and people getting wet that are in the parade? That is the same thing we do if we hurt others with what we say or by the actions we take. We all get up in the morning--trying to put on our best face, ready to face the day, and then someone says or does something that hurts our feelings or "ruins" our parade. I know others tell us that we need to be tougher and not let things affect us so much, but at times, that is really difficult. May we all try to praise and build others up rather than making remarks that really do no good but hurt others. That is something I am still trying to work on. As I look back on my life, I know there have been times when I either intentionally or unintentionally said or did things that hurt others. Just a thought for the day and for the year.
Much love to all,
Gma Laura
No comments:
Post a Comment