Baptismal font for sprinkling babies in the Munsterplatz church; Ram statue at the Munsterplatz; wall climbing in one of the abbey hallways.

FEBRUARY 23, 2010 TUESDAY

I got up early this morning so that I could go over the first step in the 12 step program to get ready for our meeting with Sylvain this afternoon. I also reviewed the scriptures that are included in the 2nd PMG lesson on the Plan of Salvation for our district meeting. By then Diana was up and pre-cooking spaghetti sauce and getting the garlic bread ready to put in the oven. Root beer went into the fridge last night to get cold for floats after the meal. I had to make a quick run to Migros for the ice cream, but I made it back just after two missionaries arrived and before the last two did.

We had a good district meeting with Elder Tavake conducting his first meeting as district leader. Elder Bushnell, his new companion who replaced Elder Holzapfel, has been on his mission for a year now. Elders Bentley & Von Niederhausen were the other companionship. Diana had the song and the opening prayer and then we had a missionary rule book activity which teaches us to obey the rules. Elder Bentley gave a spiritual thought on prayer which generated quite a bit of discussion. After that we each discussed our favorite scripture to teach a principle about the Plan of Salvation which also generated some good questions and discussion. Then came our turn to present our ideas on how we work with members in our wards. Some of the things we talked about was that we need to love them first, all of them and not play favorites, in Church sit by those who sit alone, watch for those who are absent and call them to let them know they’re missed or ask if they need help, be dependable, be an example, be willing to serve without criticizing or complaining, visit them on their birthdays, be their friend, know their names including the young ones, talk to them and get to know them on a personal level and, when invited to a meal, be polite, compliment them on the food and thank them for being kind to them, and leave them with a spiritual thought. We gave examples of some of the experiences we’d had and are having. We felt it was a worthwhile discussion.

About halfway through the meeting we slipped in and out to get the spaghetti cooking, the garlic bread in the oven and do other things so the food would be ready when the meeting was over. The official meeting came to a close and some helped set the table and get the food from the kitchen while Elder Tavake set up our laptop to show a DVD about the worldwide Young Single Adults encouraging each other to “be strong.” It was a wonderful inspiring DVD with subtitles in English when other languages were spoken. We watched the DVD while eating lunch. Lunch was especially good and they were all excited about having real root beer. Some said they hadn’t had root beer since they left the USA. The meeting wrapped up about 1:30 and we were able to get things cleaned up before Sylvain came at 2:30.

Our meeting with Sylvain started and ended with a prayer. It was interesting in that we didn’t get to the official 12 step program today. Instead, he needed help with a problem that was causing him a lot of turmoil where he lives in a group home with about ten other men. He also feels it’s part of the root problem of why he drinks. Mainly it’s his inability to say no and he feels he is being taken advantage of but, if he were to say no, he’d feel guilty. He says his father trained him that way and to get rid of the frustration, he drinks. However, he’s come to realize that he’s the one accountable for his own actions and he can’t lay the blame on others. We gave him counsel and worked on strategies how to cope and to deal with others who like to pawn their work off on him. We used some scriptures to build up his self esteem and his worth in the eyes of the Lord, talked about the Atonement, faith and hope. The hour and a half went quickly by, but we felt the time was very productive. Later on tonight he called to tell us he had had the courage to say “no” to two of the residents who are the main ones with whom he’s had problems with and that he didn’t feel guilty about it. This was a big step forward for him.

Yesterday we went to the broken house and saw some games for kids, but didn’t buy any. Today we could have kicked ourselves because we could have used them for birthday presents for kids in our branch. Some were brand new. After Sylvain went home Diana had me go there to get them, but everything we wanted was gone. It brings back the lesson we have to learn over and over. If you see something you want, buy it. If you wait, it’ll be gone.