DECEMBER 31, 2008 WEDNESDAY NEW YEAR’S EVE

District meeting this morning so we were up bright and early and on time or, I should say, way early. We thought the meeting began at 10:00 and the six missionaries in the Schwamendingen ward usually meet a half hour early to coordinate our activities. Well, the meeting started at 10:30 and the other four missionaries didn’t come early either, so we were an hour early. Everyone finally arrived and the meeting began. They are always so well organized and the missionaries who have assignments always do a good job. The theme of this meeting was humility. Elder Ehlen spoke on and asked us to think of all the characteristics that demonstrated humility. All of the usual attributes were given, but at the end, Elder Ehlen reminded us that we don’t have to be weak to be humble. He used the example of the Savior, who was the humblest of all, and talked of his courage, confidence and strength as well as the other humility characteristics. Elder Evans spoke on charity and related it to humility. The quote that stuck with me is, “You can’t help everyone everywhere even though you want to, but you can help somebody somewhere.”

At the district meeting we found out that one of the less-active members whose door we knocked on, wasn’t home and we left a Christmas gift/card, lives in Slovakia. Evidently he rents his apartment to someone, but has left his name on the mailbox. The renter must have sent the member a letter complaining the missionaries were bugging him and he wanted it stopped. The member wrote a letter to the mission home and the AP’s gave us the news today. One more checked off our list. We get emails from one of our MTC couple missionary friends who seem only to meet people who WANT to hear about the gospel. They tell of all the teaching experiences they are having. Here, it seems no one wants to let us in or talk to us. Most of the less-active members have had no contact with the Church for years and when we come around, they have either moved or don’t want to talk to us. It makes us sad to know they once had testimonies, but through neglect or other influences, have let the world take over their lives again. We won’t give up and we’ll keep plugging along, doing the best we can.

After district meeting we went to town, bought a few things, then came home and cooked and prepared some things for whoever shows up tonight. We invited all the missionaries who didn’t have an invitation somewhere else, to come over this evening and celebrate with us. We have pizza (jazzed up, of course), croquettes de pommes, ham sandwiches, banana pudding w/vanilla cookies, munchies and plenty of games to play. We’ll see what happens and who comes. Maybe we’ll celebrate alone, who knows. It’s snowing outside right now. It finally stopped snowing about 10:00 and that is when the missionaries finally arrived. We had just finished getting everything ready and the pizza cooked when they came. We ate and played “shanghai” and other games until about 12:30. At midnight there was a lot of fireworks going off and the church bells sounded all over the place. Another year has ended and a new one is here. WE WISH EVERYONE A HAPPY AND SUCCESSFUL NEW YEAR. WE LOVE YOU ALL.