A Greg Olsen painting.  Love the Messages

                       We discovered how true this is in the quiet hills of Switzerland last September

Everythings fails,--but Charity never faileth  Moroni 7:45-48

 Our district with the addition of the new Elders.  S. Marquart, S Amstrong, E. McClellan, Svoboda (Hungarian father but raised many years in Vietnam and speaks perfect German, English, and speaks also Hungarian.  His brother was here as an AP when we arrived, released to train his little brother.  He is a sweet young Elder and very sincere about the gospel.  Hopes to join to siblings at BYU after his mission. Caraway, who was office when we arrived, but now trainer to Mochon.  Of course there is us with the xtra pounds of Christmas.  I have lost 8 kilo and two inches around the waist since then.

 The Altstadt of Salzburg from across the Salzach river and the Festoon built to guard the river, in stages between 1050 and the 1600's.   Picture taken from Kapuzinerberg where there is another Catholic chapel

 In the tops of the Alps near a ski resort on our way the Lankmayers to visit them and take them the Sacrament.

                                  Another valley and a nother group of mountains in a panorama.

So all the pictures posted in Missionary posts are dorky so we created our own today with the web cam.  Now if they will only use this one.  Yah, I know black on black.  

January 13, 2013 Missionary Blog

So we now have four Elders in Salzburg and with the two sisters in Neumarkt we are now a district of 8.  It is nice.  They are the Zone leaders, E.  McClellan, and E. Szvoboda (father is Hungarian mother is Swiss.)  E. Caraway is trainer and E. Mochon is the golden.  The sisters are S. Marquarte and S. Armstrong     .   Life is getting interesting.  Our pool of visits to or being visited by less actives is growing.
It is amazing how easy it is to go inactive and how hard it is to make activity in the church a good habit again.

Our major job is really ward and missionary support after JAE.  We are working with a number of less actives.  We are quite close to some wonderful people in the ward. It is amazing how easy it is to go inactive and how hard it is to make activity in the church a good habit again.

Mission Blog:  Jan 3, 2013-01-03

It was a good day.  Though it was transfer day and Elder Harris was transferred, we did expect it.  He was so happy to get to spend Christmas here.  With this transfer he went to Münich as an Assistant to the President.  He is such a sweet wonderful young man.  We will miss him, but joy with him in his new Calling.  When a door closes a window always opens.

With the new increase in Missionaries we will be getting 90 over the next several months.  Even when Degen was serving in Portugal the missionaries were being told that something good was about to happen to the missionary work in Europe.  It is following prophecy, of the last one great push.  So with this transfer we got what we so badly needed and hoped for a second set of Elders in Salzburg.  So Elder McClellan has Elder Sabota the younger brother of another awesome missionary Elder Sabota who was serving as the president’s AP when we arrived.  And We have Elder Caraway and a brand new Elder from the states who he will be training.  Elder Caraway was one of the first missionaries we ever met as an office missionary.  He was responsible for getting our tickets and on the train to Salzburg the next day. 

We also work quite closely with a less active who has a marvelous testimony of the gospel.  We try to meet with her every Wednesday for her own personal Family Home Evening.  Usually she is working on Mondays.

So she was with us yesterday when the Elder’s showed up to teach Rashaid a musiim who wants to convert to Christianity.  Then she asks if she can come over tonight to share something with us.  I know she is starved for gospel discussions and feeling the spirit.  Yet she struggles with becoming fully active in the church.  It was a young couple, boyfriend and girlfriend who came tonight.  They desire to know.  Yet Ildiko called the Elders after they left.  She had participated in the lesson as a member of the church.  We were in the back ground observing.  She was so good and so powerful.  She would be so good for Madaliene the girl as she takes people to her heart especially the young.  Daniel desires to embrace the gospel and drinks it in.

We need every prayer to pray for this.  Ildiko needs these two young people in her life and they need her.  I understand little but I see this clearly.  Ildiko loves to serve, and when she serves she can forget her problems and get so excited about the gospel.  She also would be the ideal person to help these young people get to church and it would help her have the desire to be active.

It is a wonderful experience to see it unfold in our home.

But we are at an apex.  Ildiko called after she left and kindly told the elders that they needed to lower the playing field and talk to them on their level.

We are learning as we work with people here that they need to learn who Jesus Christ is so that they can learn how to have a personal relationship with him and with God.

Dec 25 2012 Mission Blog

Oberndorf Silent Night Kapella

The Kapella Good picture of the Kapella

                                                            Hellbrunn Chriskindlemarkt

Advent Calendar in Hellbrunn Schloss Windows

A Schloss in Giligan

Display window in St. Wolfgang

Who is that Tirolean Man?

Norm, is that you. here in Wolfgang.

Heidi and Karen in Oberndorf

The antique train ride (yup) Coal burning engine.

Mechanic woring on greasing wheels.

The baby being baptized in the Silent Night Movie.

Recognize the parents.  Couldn't get a picture of his bashful sister.

Walk from train to Stille Nacht Kapella, across river in Germany

Sunset behind forest,  Note no snow.  Rainstorms melted it all

St. Johanns in Pongua has snow for Christmas

So we awakened too early having gotten to bed aft er 2:30 am having attempted to Skypp the kids.  And attending a Catholic Christmas Eve High Mass.    It was a very old church and very cold.  It was odd to attend a church service with everyone dressed as if they were going on a cold Sleigh ride.  The music of the mass was beautiful.  We were nearing the end of the mass and the song was a Kyria.  It shocked me.  I suddenly connected that I was listening to a composition of the Mass, when I connected with the Kyria, having studied the form and parts of a Mass in a composition class back in about 1967.  We were with the Feggs and she invited us to go up above where the Choir and Orchestra had been performing.  It really was a very old church, with very old uneven and wide floorboards.  We also met the Organist.  The performance he gave was about as good as I have ever heard.  The Orchestra and Choir though small. preformed excellently. 

The culminated a wonderful day with the Andreas and Nadia Dengg family.  We arrived for a traditional Chistmas Eve breakfast   We were greeted warmly by Nadia Andreas and their three girls Yasmin, Julia and Lina.  The breakfast was also very European with Breads, thin meats and sausage, and a choice of cheeses and marmalades.  Then a few games of Uno until it was time to hit the road.  As we came upon an antique train along side the road, we all knew we were headed to Oberndorf, a family tradition, on the antique train.  The town of Oberndorf were full of tourists even foreign ones.  It was very festive with  a Brass band.  We were all treated to “Kindle Punch.”  A lot of Dengg relatives met us at the station and we walked around the Salzach River as we looked across into Germany.

We returned home to a wonderful traditional Austrian Christmas Eve supper.  It was a clear soup with whole carrots floating in it.  The accompaniments were noodles, Rind roast, and a special white sausage that is only made for Christmas.  It was marvelous.

Dinner cleared away and the three girls disappeared to their rooms.  Mom and dad having loaded the dishwasher prepared the Christmas gifts for under the tree.  The family gathered, we sang Christmas carols and then Mom read the Christmas Story from an old, very worn, Kinder Bibel.  (Child’s Bible.)  They finished with the traditional, “Silent Night.”  Dad handed out the presents as he explained to us they found it much more pleasant one at a time as they all appreciated the gift with the receiver.  It was wonderful as some of the first gifts were given, it included cards from each other to express their appreciation and love.  We and the Elder’s even received one.   Karen Birth had left three the the swatch style watches with the jewels around the large face.  There were the perfect number of 3.  We had noted that it was becoming a popular watch around here, so it was perfect.

So it is almost 9 am, and the Christmas bells are ringing in Salzburg.  It has been a good Christmas and the day is just beginning.  Loved seeing the traditions of the area this year.

Interesting conversation with Bruder Dengg, the father in picture of their little boy.  Wonderful spiritual man from Neumarkt.  So we were in Oberndorf, and seeing all the alt.  And were talking about why American's love to come to Europe to see history.  Well Norm says, "We don't have a lot of very old  With the exception of the Indian ruins.."

Brass band Christmas Eve in Oberndorf

Missionary Blog  December 20, 2012-12-20

So I started fixing the Jello Salad last night, then spent the most part of the day fixing Cranberry Stuffed Turkey Breast, and Garlic Roasted Green Beans and Sweet Potato Pie.  Very first class meal, but three of the Jellos went untouched, halve of the Sweet Potato Pie, and one Turkey Breast also went untouched.

Then several of them picked out the dressing from the Turkey, and dabbled in the Jello salad, and scrambled the Sweet Potato Pie.  Several made certain we knew that they do not like Pecan nuts, or nuts in the Turkey Dressing.  And of course one only ate his vegetables after picking out all the Hazel nuts.

So I announce to Norm that from now on they get only junk food as it seems to be the only thing they all appreciate.  They loved the Chili, the In-an-Out Burgers, Pizza, Garlic Bread, Anything Mexican like Tacos, Burritos, Enchilladas or Turkish Kebaps.  And they love Chocolate Maltz.  So there you have it.

Missionary Blog number 2 on Dec 1

 My springerli cookie mold antic, made in 1739

 Mauterndorf castle

Another view as we were walking up to the enterance

The entertainment room, and the games they played

The enterance.  Need to go back and capture picture of steel door.  The archbishops daughter was left alone with the servants.  She was told to not allow anyone enterance while they were gone.

Three knights rode up that evening and when she refused them enterance they attacked the castle.  She lead the charge with her cross bow and the servants.  One of the knights had thrown a spear hard enough at the door to penetrate the steel.  The hole is there today.  Oh, yes, she and the servants were successful in denying them enterance so they found other quarters for the night.

This castle is considered to have one of the best museums in Europe, for this period of time.  

Chapel in Mauterndorf Castle

Took 2 poses, but don't have time to go back and capture the one that is not blurred.

T

These two pictures show the musicians and the instruments of the period.

Castle was started in the 1000s and finished in the early 1600, typical of the castles constructions in the area.
This represents the traveler and freighters who passed through.  They had to pay tax at every castle with product.  it is amazing they made any money.

Couldn't resist.  The crapper.

Original wall painting.

Mission Blog, 2012-12-01

Will this by our last Christmas?  It is sad to read the news from here and see what is happening to our beloved United States of America.  A number of years ago I was reading in Heleman and 3 Nephi about the time of the Savior’s birth when the wicked announced that unless the Savior came that night the believers would all be slain.  It came over me that would be repeated in our time.

Only wickedness would get above us if the people were wicked.  In 2004 I was watching the Democratic Convention when a young Illinois Senator was introduced as their key note speaker.  What I heard was frightening,  I had the distinct warning that standing at that podium was another Korihor with a very glib tongue.  I called Norm in California and told him that I had just witnessed the most frightening thing.  Heaven help us if this man ran for President of the United States.  Four years later it happened.  I read all I could research out on him and found out that he was indeed a follower of Alinsky, who lived in Chicago and wrote communistic propaganda.  I opened his writings which began with a visit by  someone who dared defy God and in doing so was able to establish his own Kingdom.  Well we know who that is.  Then the second thing was that the middle class has to be destroyed.  We are seeing that one happen.

Elder Storrer was curious about the Rothchilds who it is said owns over half of the wealth of the world.  He did some research on them and found that it is probably true.  He found how they have literally stolen the money of the world with Governments’ blessings, by establishing Central Banks where they collect all the interest.  John Kennedy wanted to do away with the “Federal Reserve”  (which is now called the “Central Bank”, )and establish our own bank with no interest, shortly before he was assassinated.

It also pointed out Abraham Lincoln had wanted to close the banks and establish as well an interest free bank.  Then Norm also read that the Rothchilds claim that they were told by Satan that he is the God of the World and “ that they visit with him on a regular basis.  I think we have unearthed the “AntiChrist.”  They are proud of this fact.  They claim that they have financed many wars and proud of all the slaughters.

America was promised that it would survive only if it worshipped Jesus Christ.  Now we are reading about all the attacks on Jesus Christ and those who worship him.  California is literally passing wicked laws, that are to force people into wickedness.  The teachings in the schools are to destroy the righteousness of the children.

America is more wicked than any other country, when it comes to destroying peoples lives both physically and spiritually.  Does not that fulfill prophecy?  It is amazing how closely we can follow exactly what is happening in the prophecies of the scriptures, both Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants and the prophecies of Orson Pratt, who was commanded by God to prophecy in the D & C, at the tender age of 19.

The only choice we have is to follow the commandments of God.  There is one tool missing in Satan’s arsenal and that is Love.  The Savior was very specific that it is the greatest commandment.  Satan desires our souls and President Packer some years ago warned us to be very careful of righteous indignation.  If Satan can stir us up to anger because of the horrible wickedness of those who rule over us he will destroy us as well.  We cannot afford to have any hate in our hearts.  That is going to be a very difficult thing to do, unless we call upon God in the name of Jesus Christ to overcome these feelings.  And it must be unceasingly. 

Our latter day prophets have given us the key to this by admonishing us to study our scriptures with unceasing prayer, daily.

Last Thursday the Roth’s were back from America, and Gerald Roth, released as Mission President to Bulgaria is their Institute instructor.  He is awesome.  No I understood very little, but Norm told me what he basically said, that impressed him.  (I can read the manuals in English to know the subject matter.  I just wish I could understand the important points he brings out.)  One of the things he challenged our young adults with is making a habit of reading the scriptures daily.  Only one of the JAE there at the time could admit to reading and studying the scriptures daily.  Brüder Roth told them, “I promise you if you do not prayerfully study the scriptures daily you will apostatize.  Sister Roth, a very smart woman says, “I don’t know if you should say that.”  His quick response was, “Yes I should say this.”  I think Elder Storrer said that he repeated it again.  You could feel the spirit in that room as he taught.

He probably has been the best teacher we have seen, and we have had quite a number of substitutes, including Achim Erlacher, who works for the church in the Area as the Instituted Director.

The Roth’s and Erwin his brother are very aware of what is happening in America.  There are members here who follow the propaganda and are shocked that the Saints in America are so conservative, but these two brothers, really keep themselves abreast of what is happening.  They are great men with a wonderful and spiritual mother, and they know what it takes to keep a testimony.

I know that what Gerald Roth told those YSA is very true.  May our children take heed, that it is so important that the home be the first and strongest learning of our grandchildren. 

We must pray unceasingly and practice unceasingly Love or Charity.  As Moroni 7: 44-48 tells us about Charity.  “All else fails………..but Charity never faileth.”  The brethren are talking a lot about it.  It is the only tool that can defeat Satan.  “Stand ye in Holy Places, and be not moved, until the Savior com