Elders Bentley, Anderson, Talley, Sills, Bushnell, Dahneke, Neuffer and Sister Larson

JUNE 23, 2010 WEDNESDAY

We shut our eyes at night and all of a sudden it was morning. What’s up with that? The elders were due to arrive at 9:30 this morning for district meeting so we had an hour less than we normally do to get things ready. Most of it was done last night, but we had to slice the grapes and add the other fruit to the tuna and chicken salad sandwich filling and then make the crossandwiches. We made other preparations such as pulling the table out in the living room and getting it set up with peanuts, gummi bears, chocolate balls and popcorn. We got the laptop computer moved to the living room also and had it set to show the movie Elder Bentley was going to bring. This was our Omega meeting so it would be a little different than usual.

We had everything ready when the first elders arrived, Elders Talley & Anderson (ZL’s). We expected them to bring our case of BM’s, videos and other things we had ordered, but they were empty handed. They were totally apologetic that they’d forgotten, but we needed some of it for our street contacting activity on Saturday. We said we’d be in Schwamendingen for David and Sveta Wichtermann’s wedding reception and asked if they would help Elder & Sister Walters bring our order either to their apartment or to the stake center so we could get them and bring them home ourselves. Elder Talley is being transferred tomorrow, but Elder Anderson said he would be sure to do it this time. The other elders arrived and Elder Bentley called our meeting to order.

The first half hour was like a normal district meeting albeit shortened. Instead of giving out assignments in advance, he called on people spontaneously. Elder Neuffer was asked to give the white handbook tip (mission rules); Elders Talley & Anderson conducted a question answer game on gospel topics, and Diana was asked to tell a story she had prepared some time agao and hadn’t gotten a chance to give. Then we watched the show “Luther” which was about Martin Luther as he broke from the Catholic church traditions by posting his famous list of complaints on the church door. The movie was really good and gives one insight into the corrupt practices that existed at that time. We are very thankful for all of the reformers who loosened the grip of the Catholic church and made it possible for the restoration of the true gospel. Martin Luther risked his life to translate the bible into the German language to make it available to the common people.

Before, during and after the movie the elders helped themselves to all the goodies on the table. When the movie was underway, we brought in the crossandwiches for them to enjoy along with orange soda and fruit cool aid punch. What more could they ask for? Well, they didn’t ask, but we also served jello fruit salad topped with bananas and whipped cream. When the movie was over, they were still looking for something so we finally brought in the dessert which was waffle cone ice cream cones. And while they were still eating and enjoying being together my work began.

Elder Daneke called yesterday and made an appointment to get his haircut today after the meeting. I was glad to oblige. We thought we would have plenty of time after he was done and the elders had left to prepare a lesson for our home teaching visit with Michael Hartig, Michaela Zaunigt and Beatrix Oswald in Horheim tonight. However, while I was cutting E. Dahneke’s hair, Franz Meier, and inactive member we’ve been trying to contact for several months, called and said he’d like to meet with us at 2:00 in the Manor restaurant in town. There went our peaceful anticipated afternoon prep time. We made the appointment thinking I only had to cut one head of hair. Then in walked E. Bentley and asked if it was okay for both him and E. Neuffer to get haircuts, too. The pressure was on. I rushed through the haircuts fairly quickly, and E. Bentley agreed to drive us into town which saved us precious time. We were only ten minutes late for our appointment.

Franz Meier was fun to talk to, just like the last time, but all he wanted to talk about was politics and the condition of the world. During the next hour we were able to interject gospel principles into the conversation along with the other stuff. We reminded him he promised us last time that he would come to Church and hadn’t done so. He said the main reason he didn’t go is because he didn’t like some of the members in the branch. We told him we go to Church to worship God and Jesus Christ and not necessarily because of the people. We told him we saw good in all people and realize neither they nor we are perfect. He agreed with that. He promised again to come to Church and we said that Pres. Bolt would visit on July 11 and he might want to come on that date. He promised to call us to verify the date and also to set another appointment for us to get together and talk before we go home. He’s a delightful guy and very frank and honest.

When we were finished, we saw we had an hour or two so we went home and did some preparation for our visit to Horheim. When it was time, we left (4:47), traveled to Horheim by train and bus, met with Michel, Michaela and Beatrix and arrived back home at 10:00 pm. It was an enjoyable ride and we had a good gospel lesson and discussion with them. We know the Lord has just got to love these three and we do, too.

We could only stay 50 minutes because of the bus schedule (we didn’t want to wait on a bench for two hours if we missed our bus) and then we went back to Waldshut and visited the LiDL grocery store by the bahnhof and then went home. It was a long and tiring day, but we felt we had accomplished what the Lord wanted us to do on this day.