Mission Blog Oct 13, 2012
I could have gone all day not knowing it is
Friday 13th. And been
perfectly happy
Well I have survived
the Pneumonia, but still am struggling with energy. It is becoming a disaster, especially when we
are invited out to eat, and everyone is talking German. It is hard enough to keep up with the
conversation, but even worse because of bad hearing, I could not hear what they
say if it was in English. So here I sit
for about ½ hour through a spiritual thought given by the Elders, that I know
nothing about, and having just eaten trying to stay awake.
It is not only
annoying but very embarrassing. It was
hard enough before the illness, now it is impossible. I tried last night to read the scripture on
my smart phone, and found myself waking up over a very good scripture. I have got to find something to draw my
interest, so that even though I am not part of the conversation, I can still
appear to physically be there.
We have had real
struggles, since we arrived with our JAE program. We were trained to run “Outreach Centers” in
the MTC. So I kept thinking that we
needed to get the program up so that we had something to invite the less active
and JAE age investigators too. But from
the get go it was not going to happen.
Elder Storrer in the meantime wanted to be out tromping the streets proselyting.
There
was not time for both, and we were getting side tracked away from what
our calling was.
The President kept
telling the older couples that we did not have to do street contacting. Even Elder Holland, three months before we
came in during conference told the Senior’s that our job is different. Well the Lord promised me that I would have
what I needed, and language has not been one of them, although it is becoming
mostly my fault as I don’t put the study into it as I should. And then it seems that when Elder Storrer
gets drawn into it in a big way my knee seems to give out. I lost my cane on the train in Switzerland,
so I cannot rely on it now.
President Miles has
assigned a finding day every Tuesday.
This Tuesday we are going to spend with the younger missionaries in
Neumarkt, street tracking. The program
is fine, but it side tracks us off of our program by eating a lot of time. We need to be visiting the LankMayers in
Mauterndorf. We need to be going to St.
Johann’s in Pongau and visiting the less actives there. Many of these people are less active because
they live so far from Salzburg—about 60 km away. Some are old.
We have been trying to
work with members of the ward, and soliciting their help in working with the
less active. If they are more envolved,
I believe that when we do have success they are the most vital part of
fellowshipping and edifying each other.
Sadly they do not even assign them Home Teachers and Visiting
teachers. Part of the problem is the distance
factor and the unwillingness of the HT and VT to travel that distance once a
month. The Lankmayer’s have been without
any visits for a long time. Only after
we went there, found them unable to attend because of health reasons as well as
distance, did they finally assign them a couple to visit them once a
month. But we are still expected to take
the Sacrament to them, once a month. We
don’t mind, but the ward relies to much on the missionaries, to do their work
that they don’t want to be bothered with.
But back to our
JAE. So in nine months we are on our
third President. The first were two
darling young women. But it was obvious
that they did not have any real leadership training. Elder Storrer did not understand what shadow
leadership is. So we kept very quiet and
waited. When Josua was called, he took
immediate control. And he has ran with
the program. We needed to let these YSA
find their way, but they were probing in the dark, because Elder Storrer
insisted that we could do nothing. I
finally pulled up some good instruction as to what Shadow Leadership is. No we are not to take over their program,
which most of the exuberant missionaries do, but we are to train them in
leadership. Well Josua, a return missionary,
has not needed the training but the Sister’s did. They went from completely controlled by the
missionary couples to “you figure it out.”
But in another way it
was not a bad thing, because it became obvious that we had to build their
trust. Then the church changed the name
of the program. Instead of the “Outreach
Centers” it was announced that there would be no more “Outreach Centers”
created. This CES program was proving to
be a disaster. The program was finally
put under priesthood authority and is now called, “The Stake program for
institute.
It was at this time
that Josua was called as president. And
he started doing what he longed to do for a long time. Salzburg put out a lot of money to create a
center that would never really be. The
ideal is to keep a center open as many days of the week, where members could
bring their friends. It was to be a home
away from home. This works in the big
cities like Vienna (Wien), Berlin, Bern, but where the wards are small like in
Salzburg, and it takes two wards to make up an institute like Salzburg and
Neumarkt, it was never really going to happen.
Missionary couples worked tirelessly to make it happen. But when we arrived we found only rebellious
resentment. So it was good to step back
and just observe, not push our agenda.
It had become “them
for the program, not the program for them.”
It was with enthusiasm that we embraced the new concept. Josua was at the helm, and we had a new stake
institute director in an ex mission president’s wife. She is
also local and knows these YSA. Infact
one of our older YSAs is their daughter.
As she met with us, we were to have a clear understanding, which
explained their feelings to us. We were
assured that we were on the right track by letting them build their own
program.
So then Josua kept
asking the question, “Why do we always have to go to Wien for the closing of
Institute in May and then the opening at the end of September. Why are we not building the Salzburg Stake
Institute program. They decided that
rather than make and expensive, 8 hour round trip train ride for Sunday Sept
30, that no one could afford, time or monetarily they would like to have their
own fireside, that evening.
But when President
Achiem Erlacher, who is also the church hired regional Institute director, was
approached by Karl Sikora, the high councilman over Institute, he went
ballistic. He demanded that they be
there, informing them that it had been decided by the Stake in Salzburg and the
Vienna Stake that this was how it was going to be. He also indicated that they had been in on
the decision making. Well that fell
under a totally different presidency and missionary couple.
Now in fairness the
Pres. Erlacher, they look for ways to get these YSA together, where they can
find mates. But for these kids an Annual
Tagung,which runs between 135-150 Euro plus transportation is enough. They are students and apprentices and spend
12 hour days in classes and apprenticships.
They are often saving for missions.
Twice a year they also have a “Stake Sacrament Meeting. This can be between two stakes. So
what they see is, “The program is not built for them, but rather they
are expected to be there for the program.”
And keeping the center
open several days a week with activities, they were expected to be there as
well. It is impossible for them to do
all this, and work on their future. So
we have also had culture clashes between the American way versus the6 European
way. We were told by Traudie Roth, our
stake institute director, not to make them feel guilty for non
participation. And it was decided that
they would have one activity a month.
Well the stake has
been remiss, and so had the other missionary couples in having firesides for
the CES Devotionals that happen every two months, from leadership in Salt
Lake. So I approached Josua about that,
and we had our first fireside in over two years. The YSA loved it and it was decided that they
would have an Andacht the week following
so they could get the German translated one.
We will have one Oct
28 so they can get Marlin K. Jensen’s talk and then again in November so that
they can capture the last one of the year.
They love the Malts
that E. Storrer makes so I believe that will become a standard. And we will probably add cookies to it, for
refreshments.
So after the
disasterous command of Pres. Erlacher’s they were soured. We took a plate of cookies to each one and a
card. We had 6 out to institute,
believing that we would only have five.
As we observed how
their committee functioned over the table of chili, and quesatillas, and
Mexican breadpudding, which they downed, we were impressed. They all were involved. They are doing a service project for
November. There is a Pfahl Ball (Stake)
being held Nov 9, Friday. So our JAE is
setting it all up so that they will organize and move out extra chairs, set up
tables and decorate for the dance. Lisa
Dengg, who is very good at this, is over decorations.
They discussed the new
JAE that will be coming in as they turn 18.
There are two in the Neumarkt ward and two in the Salzburg ward. They discussed how to get everyone involved and
enthused. Lisa, who has struggled with attendance
because of distance and late night trains, enthusiastically said, “I would love
to see us build to an average attendance of twenty.
We felt and knew that
if these kids ran their own program, they would have ownership and it would
become successful. We have relied
heavily on the Lord for direction. Then
we went “below the foundation,” while these beautiful YSA started to create
their own program. We are only there for
support. We will now have something that
we can invite our less actives to. But we
must pray diligently to keep the good work coming. A great tradition could be established that
would carry forward for years.
We did not do a
thing. It was the Young Adults,
themselves who are putting this program together. We are only here to assist. It still is in its infancy, and Satan will
work hard to discourage it. We know we
have seen it happen, over and over again.
Now if we can just
figure out how to build the same enthusiasm with the ward. It has got to be contagious.
I cannot leave this blog
without a word about Socialism. So
everyone is treated a like, even though each person’s needs are different. We visit Sis. Thibaut in Freilassing,
Germany. She is in a nursing home. She gets exactly the same meal as everyone
else. It does not matter that she is
diabetic and has special needs. She is
fed lots of sugary things. She complains
of very sore joints, she suffers constipation, and she is always very tired. We thought she was going to be gone in a
couple days. She was fairly alert in the
morning, but each afternoon she was going down.
Well, to many people bring her chocolates, and then the staff feed her
things like, white toast covered with marmalade, sweetened of course with
sugar. Well sugar raises the blood
sugars, making her very tired all the time.
Also it acts as an inflammatory so that her arthritic joints ache
constantly. When her diet is better we
find her wide awake, and watching a silent TV, just looking at the pictures
that flash before her. She is more
conversational. Yesterday she only
wanted to sleep.
And when they thought
she was dying they took everything but her bed and bed clothing out of the
room. When she suddenly seemed to
survive they brought other things back, like a TV set and tables. Socialism takes away the individuality of
people as well as their dignity. It is
certainly Satan’s counterfeit to God’s plan of the ‘United Order,” which is
that all people will have what they need not just all things in common.
