Courtyard of the Herblingen castle; an interesting decorated house; market stand.

MARCH 17, 2010 WEDNESDAY

This afternoon at 4:00 we had a meeting scheduled with Sylvain at our home to teach him the second step of the Addiction Recovery Program. Our workshop with the Relief Society was scheduled at 7:00 at the Church. We had given thought on how and what to do at the workshop, but hadn’t put anything concrete on paper or created a lesson plan for it. Time for procrastination was over so we spent a lot of time today putting it together. We put the final touches on the song and made sure the sunstones were dry and ready. The addiction recovery program is new to us so we read over the step two chapter and prepared a discussion for it.

We called Ewa Neidhart to check on Martin and everything went well with the operation on his leg. The specialist who did the operation was ecstatic about how it all went together in the four hour operation. Ewa and Martin were convinced the fasting and prayers were the cause of the success.

Suwang called to let us know the apartment complex where she lives are evicting the drunk who has been causing her problems and she is overjoyed. She attributed this welcomed development to the prayers that have been offered in her behalf. She also hasn’t given up on the idea that after our mission we come back and live with her. She still wants to arrange English language classes for us to teach so we can afford to stay with her.

Sylvain arrived at 4:00 and he looked, acted and smelled stone cold sober. His eyes were clear and he didn’t keep repeating himself as people who are under the influence tend to do. He related his joy at having a job and being able to work. This has improved his self worth and his desire to move forward along the recovery path. But we feel his studying the recovery book, reading, pondering the scriptures and then answering the questions at the end of the chapters has helped him understand the root causes of his addiction. Emphasized in the manual is that recovery is more a spiritual process rather than a physical one. Actually writing his feelings about how the atonement works in his life has helped him build faith and commitment to achieve recovery. We hope and pray that he’ll continue working hard to improve his life and consequently the lives of the people who love him.

During the time we had between when he left and the time we needed to be at the Church, Roxsan called to talk about our taxes. Unfortunately, taxes still need to be paid even while on a mission. Roxsan, bless her heart, is doing the monumental task of preparing the information for our tax person. We appreciate her hard work and effort to keep us out of the hoosgow.

We were sure Relief Society started at 7:00, but the way I had written it down in our planner caused some doubt to creep in as we were riding the bus to Schaffhausen. When we got off the bus, we hurried extra fast and went a different way that seemed to be quicker. However, it demanded climbing steep steps rather than walking up a steep road. We were both winded when we got to the Church, but we discovered we were the first ones there. False alarm; it really did start at 7:00. Since we were early, we had time to make a couple more copies of the song and then practice it a little bit. Dorothea arrived and we all three practiced the song together. She insisted we change the way we sang one word to make it German rather than Americanized German.

At 7:00 Sylvia and her mother Irma arrived and then we waited for the others to come. No one else came; some previously excused themselves and telephone calls confirmed that we five were the only ones coming. Silvia postponed the workshop until next month because she felt it was important for all the sisters to be in attendance. We had an opening prayer and then had a spiritual thought given by Silvia and then another by us. We gave each a sunstone and discussed the symbolism they represented. We wanted to teach them the new song which we did. They enjoyed it and so did we. Dorothea insisted we make a couple of minor changes and now we have it in it’s final form. After that she put some snacks on the table to eat as we played a couple of simple games. We enjoyed the time and then the meeting was closed with prayer. Dorothea offered to drive us home and, since it was on her way home anyway, we accepted.

When we arrived at our place, she wanted to tell us about some problems in the branch involving two members and an investigator. This all happened before we arrived except there is still feelings between two of the members which we won’t go in to here. By the time she wound down we said goodbye, hugged her and walked to our door. Before we parted company she invited us to lunch again next Wednesday, but instead we invited her to come to us this time. She agreed and so we have an appointment. We also suggested we invite Sister Kusz and she was pleased with the suggestion. We’ll call her tomorrow to extend the invitation.

The following is the tender mercy for today. As we were going in our door we heard Dorothea trying to start her car to leave, but having left the lights on, her battery didn’t have enough juice to get her car started. We returned to help out, but all that was needed was the suggestion to turn her lights out and try it again. It worked for which she was happy.