Mission Blog  August 29, 2012  Wednesday

It has been sometime since adding to the blog.  Lots have happened.  The church had put the Institutes under the Stakes.  From the time that Elder Perry had his vision of how the church would survive because of the young adults, here in Europe, there has been transitions developed and created.  It was decided that each Institute would have their own center.  Larger ones were given institute centers, while the smaller ones would stay in chapels.  There were great programs created to keep the centers open where the young adults could come, study, play games and bring friends.  It had a three fold purpose, which still exists.  Getting our young men on missions, couples married in the temple and raising families in the church, reactivate the less active and bring other young adults into the social network of the centers where they could eventually embrace the gospel of Christ.

Problem was the CES couples who have gone a little overboard.  We were only to be shadow leadership, encouraging where we could, but mainly doing for the program what the young adults could not do.  It was to encourage team teaching allowing the young adults to learn and practice the skills of teaching the gospel, or leading in gospel discussion.  It was their program, and  we were here to support it.  But to many CES couples or center couples treated them more like teenagers and got carried away with the program.  When we arrived back in February and Elder Storrer announced that it was their program, they were to decided how they wanted it ran.  Well they pretty much froze.  Our JAE president looked helpless.  Then it was almost as if they wanted to disband it.  They let us know that they considered anything beyond Thursday night institute a burden, and seemed happy with all the Austrian holidays that fell on Thursday, and the ready excuse they had that institute would not be held.  They also quickly announced that they did not want Family Home Evening as they lived at home and wanted to attend their family home evenings.  The new Bishop, not understanding that our calling was to the YSA told us we were to have FHE with the older single adults and new members.   Elder Storrer in his enthusiasm got a little carried away trying to support the Bishop, because he has the keys, even when President Miles informed him the the Stake President held the keys for our calling.  He really wanted to get out a proselyte like the young missionaries.  He was really disappointed when it became obvious because of my bad knee he could not do it.  He was even disgusted with another Senior Missionary who informed him that we did not have to do that.  Well Elder Holland in last October conference had tried to encourage the Seniors by telling them that their missions are different from the young missionaries.  Then when our confused Bishop called our mission President, who informed him that our first job is working with the YSA, and if we were not going to be used in that capacity, he would pull us from Salzburg.  By that time Elder Storrer was finally catching on that our first job is working with the YSA, and the second is working in Membership and leadership support.  So we had to create a meeting with him and help him understand that we have a lot of down time working in the YSA, and that is when we give the ward membership support.

So we go to Vienna early this month to a Tagung for the YSA and spend at least one hour everyday with the regional leadership, area Seventy, and also First Quorum of Seventy leadership.  Just as we thought we were getting a handle on things, the rug got tugged again.  It is no longer called “Outreach Centers” but rather “The Stake Program for Young Single Adults.”  But it was how we envisioned it was to run.  No two groups are alike.  No two groups have the same needs.  Also Gerald and Traudi Roth, a newly returned mission president and his wife were called as our new institute teachers.  And Traudi is also been called as the Stake Institute Director.  Their youngest child Julia is 28.  She is a very pretty girl, with the ideals of a worthy man who will take her to the temple.  But she has gone on to create a career so that she can support herself.  (We saw this in others at the Tagung.  What choice do they have.  They lived through her needs and desires, and struggles trying to support and over active “Outreach program”  She tried to do it all, but was exhausted.  As the Roth’s have talked to others they see that the Institute program here in Salzburg needs to pull in it’s horns a bit.  Everyone of our JAE are apprentices.  They work long hard hours as they learn their trade.  Coming to Institute is not always an option because of this.  Supporting nightly activities is definitely not an option.  And in the past with the overzealous CES Missionaries they have been made to feel guilty by not being so involved.

Thus came the rebellion against FHE and weekly Friday activities.  These kids will turn ropes to get to Tagung, and even sometimes to their dismay they cannot even do that.

Our institute program covers , two wards and hundred’s of square miles.  Some of these kids live so far away, they don’t even make it to church.  Some get to those Tagungs, and some have gone inactive.  So it alone is a challenge. 

The second problem is the location of the church.  If they catch a train into Salzburg, it can be a long train ride.  Then they have to catch a bus at the Bahnhof and it is two buses and at least 35 more minutes, minimum if they don’t have to wait for the second bus.

To come to institute, they really have to want to come.  We have done well enough to average 8 in attendance.  They have agreed to one activity a month.  In November the stake announced a Formal Ball in November.  That will be their activity to decorate, and un decorate, besides the Ball.  They are happy to do that but do not want another activity on top of that.  As we talked to the Roth’s it was so good to see we are on the same page, and not feel guilty by comparing ourselves to the notebooks of our predecessors.  Traudi did not leave any stone unturned in telling us that what ever we do we are not to make them feel guilty.

We have felt like we are on a roller coaster in the dark, never really knowing what is around each bend.  We lost our first President to marriage, our second to school in Wien and excited to be with a larger, more enthusiastic group.  So Josua Brunner was called as our new president.  The first thing he did was talk to Karl Sikora, the High Counselor over the institute program for the stake.  He told them that they hated the stage, and wanted a better room.  They also would prefer to have the kick ball game and the pool table taken away, and replaced with two tables that they could sit around.  They wanted the collapsible bulletin board, “one of those folding clothes changing  screens”  Elder Storrer and I could not agree with him more.  The games are so crowded that they are worthless and are never played.

Elder Storrer had a dream that we needed to be working below the foundation, and we believe that these YSA, if allowed to run their own program the way they want it run, it will be more successful.  So we are in total support.

And it is interesting when the inspiration is right, you are not the only one who has it.

And we have also be working with Sean Baillargeon our grandson, as well as taking out time of our P-Days to help him see the sites.  We went to Bertsches Gaden and the Eagle’s Nest,  The World War II museum and Hitler’s bunker.  He truly was a mad man.  Sadly it is shocking the parallels of his skeams plans and programs to what is happening in America.  The idiots who claim that the Holocaust didn’t happen have never witnessed the Nazi’s own photography, or the evidence.  They have their own wicked agenda.

The people here only have known Kaizers and Socialism.  They cannot begin to understand American’s and our fight to maintain our Freedoms.  We all need to be praying for our nation daily.  Or because of the wickedness that it will end shortly, so the Savior can come.  Those who don’t want it to happen, so they can make their’s first, are not only living in a dream world, but it is all about them.  Their eye is not upon the Savior and his love for us.  We see the selfishness of man, and it is heart breaking.

We also went to BurgHausen and finally went through the longest Castle in the world.  It was built on a narrow ridge, and protected two bodies of water, for the transportation of the salt.  We saw one doorway built in 1080  and another that indicated it was still being built in the 1500s.  I have never seen so many twists, turns and many different angles in one building in my life.

The gospel is true.  It is founded on the love of our Savior.  Matthew 22:37-40  Says it all.  It is founded upon loving our Savior and loving our neighbor.  On these two principles hang all the laws of the prophets.  We are promised in Moroni 7:46-48 That everything fails—but—Charity never faileth.  And we are told what we are not worth, when we fail at Charity in 1 Corinthians 13.    That is what counts most and is more successful.

When the members of the ward pray for the missionaries to find those prepared, and for those who are prepared to find the missionaries, it really works.  We have seen the struggles to find and teach those who are not prepared.  But when they are prepared, it comes together on the Lord’s time.