Sunday, April 12, 2009

A TIME TO LOOK BACK AND A TIME TO LOOK FORWARD

This coming week (April 14, 2009) we will remember that it has been a whole year since we entered our short stay at the MTC in Provo. We look back and find that the time went by quite quickly and yet it seems like a lot time since we have associated with all of you that we love so very much. We have missed Sunday family dinners with the grandchildren; we have missed watching the ball games and wrestling matches of our grandchildren; we missed dance recitals, gymnastic meets, Birthday parties, the first steps or words of the little once and many more activities that grandparents live for. This is the sacrifice we have been called upon to give.
We have been called to serve in an area of the world where we enjoy all of the comforts that we would enjoy at home. The Saints in Germany are wonderful people to be associated with. We have the privilege to work with wonderful dedicated Missionaries. Many of the young adults are responding well to our assignment. We love them and they show their love and respect in return. We work with the Saints as we would at home. We are traveling to the various parts of this part of the mission as we visit some of the missionaries and thus we are able to enjoy this beautiful land with some of the most beautiful landscape. This past week we visited a couple of places where I spend some of the fun days of my childhood. As I leaned on one of the fortress wall of the Hercules Castle and looked down on the cascading waterfall down to the Palace below, I imagined myself , my brother Wilford and my father walking up to the castle while leaving my two little sister with my mother down below on the Palace lawn. We enjoyed seeing young families still doing the same things on this beautiful sunny day. So much has changed over the more than 60 years as I looked at the sprawling City of Kassel below. I am grateful that there are a few things that did not change, that are reminders of the past.
We are enjoying good health and some other wonderful blessings. So !!!!, where would the sacrifice be if it were not for the longing of Family and Friends.
This is the Easter Holiday Week-end. Friday was a national Holiday and today and tomorrow (Monday) is the Easter Holiday. A lot of people were out of town and the Sunday services were not well attended. We held our Fast and Testimony meeting today. For the few of us who were there, it was a wonderful meeting and the Spirit of Easter was felt by all. I felt a strong urge to bear my testimony of the "Empty Tomb" and the "Resurrected Savior". He lives and because of that we shall all live again.. What a wonderful hope for the future that gives us.
It is our hope as we look forward this next 11 months that we really will be able to make a difference in the life's of the young people in this part of the Lords Kingdom.
Thanks for being there for us. Your prayers and encouraging words really make a difference in our life's

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