Feb 3  Post.  Pictures posted, but the blog draft did not so I will copy again.  Thank goodness I always do it in word first.

February 3 Blog.  Well on Feb 5 in two days, our anniversary we will have been in Salzburg one year.  It has been a very eventful year.  We have watched our original calling migrate away from the “Outreach Youth Centers,” to what it really has aways been in Salzburg, and Institute.  It is a direct correlation with the stake and not under the Mission.  The Stake aways has controlled the funds, and had representatives, but so has the mission.  In our last interview with President Miles we told him that we really had little to say, and were basically relegated to Cooks and bottle washers.  We have an awesome Stake director called, who also shares with her husband the teaching of the institute.  We have a great YSA called as President, who is a great capitan.  He has some good YSA on the committee.  They are putting together a great fireside schedule, and taking charge of their own activities.

In a dream after we arrived and in answer to prayers, Norm had a dream that told him we were to work below the foundation and the members would began to build the church and pull us up making our work lighter.

We are seeing it happening in our JAE, and now we are observing the ward finally getting the picture that they must be involved in Member Missionary work, however it is slow in coming.  They needed prodded by the prophet in Munich last September, and the missionaries always ask them to pray for their success.

But we have a lot of less actives, and total inactives that no one knows, even if they are still in the area, for they are on the books but were baptized and never attended church again.  

Today we had a wonderful baptism.  The Bishop told the Elders that he did not want a baptism on Saturday, where he would be confirmed the next day, but rather on a Sunday, right after church and then and imbiss meal right after, provided by the RS.  Well E. Storrer felt he was going against mission set programs.  But as I was sitting at the piano providing the music and the spirit was so strong and the strongest members, without small children, some with, stayed.  There was a packed chapel for Sacrament Mtg, today, and about as many as we often have on a ighter Sunday who stayed.

So in our last interview when we talked about our job, and how it is disappearing, which we are glad, because we have felt for some time that it should be local members, who know these youth, running the program.  He told us that is exactly how the church wants it to run.  If they cannot rely on the missionaries, many will step up to the plate and quite looking for excuses.  We followed the prompting and found our work and worries made lighter.

Now the majority of our attention is turning toward Ward and Member Support.  We have a circuit of people we try to see, some less actives and some contacts that have fallen into the area book as the missionaries don’t have time for these people.  They are reachable, some have had the lessons’ many times.  One sister was close to baptism and fell out.  However, we are creating friendships and bonds with these people, and know that someday, they will reach out to the church.  And Rosie Kinz, our nonmember missionary.  We visit with her several times a month.  She takes all the clothing left in Wohnungs by the missionaries and taken to the mission home when they dejunk the apartments.  She loans out one of her three Books of Mormon, in German, Hungarian, and Serbian and she is always showing her personal copy of “The Restoration.”  Don’t know if she will be baptized in this life, but we are working on it.  She was looking for pictures of Christ to make picture books for the orphanage she visits in Serbia.  Many of them are abandoned by their parents or taken from them by the state because they are so poor they cannot provide for their children.  She says they need a lot of love, and she wants them to know about Jesus Christ.  So we are giving her all our old Liahona’s both English and German.  Hoping of course that she will also read them.  Our works are slow, but we are prayerfully hoping that if we serve and love them, they will come to Christ, by our example.

We cannot afford to let others draw us in to family concerns and squabbles as it draws from our spirit and in order for us to be effective missionaries we need to pray unceasingly for the gift of Charity.  Charity never faileth and we cannot afford to fail these people.  The love of Christ and showing love to our fellowman is the only way missionary work is done.  And it is the only way people are truly converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ.