We believe we finally have a working JAE program, created by them.

Mission Blog Oct 13, 2012

I  could have gone all day not knowing it is Friday 13^th.  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.