Tagung

A group Picture of most of the Youth at the Moehnesee Tagung.

It is Tuesday morning and we are about to go to our District meeting. We will be finishing this writing probably sometimes later today.

We are finding out that people are reading our weekly message, for some of you wrote to us, saying, that we did not get an e-mail this week.

We returned yesterday late in the afternoon from a four day Young adult "Tagung". (It is like a Young Adult Conference or Super-activity). We left Friday morning to help in setting up and prepare the facility for the arrival of the 48 registered Young Adults. It was a very nice facility in a small village near a most beautiful lake (Moehnesee). The Girls fixed up the upstairs next to the Hall as their sleeping area and boys made their sleeping area in a room next to the Hall. There was a nice kitchen and eating area for the whole group. Two young couple had the assignment to prepare the meals.

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The activities consisted of a dance on Friday night and one on Saturday night. We held seminars and played a lot of games and listened to a lot of what they called music. In fact we asked at the dance, when they were going to play some music that people could actually dance to, instead of just hearing a loud beat. They did not think that we were funny and told us just to get with it.
On Sunday we held our meetings and had a wonderful Fast and Testimony Sacrament Meeting. A member of the Stake Presidency and many other Young Adults joined us for our Sunday meetings, closing of the Institute Year and Fireside. We were kept very busy in giving talks and helping where we could. Anina spend a lot of time in the kitchen. She also spend a considerable amount of time talking to many of the Young people. They sure love her and treat her just like they would their favorite Grandma. My endurance on the Foosball field with the young men lasted less than five minutes.

We forgot to tell you that we did not sleep at the facility like the rest of the group, but rented a nice "Bed and Breakfast"room only five minutes from the "Schuetzen-Halle" (the Gun Cub Hall). For the mornings we had a nice breakfast with the Host and another couple staying at the same place. The first morning we took the opportunity to tell them what we were doing at the Lake and in general,what we were doing in Germany and told them a little about the Church (Saturday morning). On Sunday morning we again had breakfast with the same couples. We came to breakfast with our Sunday attire, only I did not have a tie. (I forgot to pack one in our suitcase ). I ask the Host if we could borrow a tie for the day. Of course they said, yes and came up with a black tie. The man said that we are lucky, for he bought the tie recently to go to a funeral. He told us also that the tie should be appropriate for me to hold the "Gottesdienst" (Church Services). Next they ask us: "Now, are you "Katholisch oder Evangelisch"? (Catholic or Protestant.) Oh, how did we fail to tell them who we were. So, we tried again and had a very pleasant conversation about the Church and some of its teachings. The next morning (Monday morning) we again sat around the dining room table and having a good German type breakfast.. The conversation started like " I think I know who you are; are you Jehovah's Witnesses?" So, the next 30 minutes we had a good conversation about our Church and a couple principles of the Gospel that made us very different from the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Catholic Church and the Protestant Churches. Just as we thought that we very clearly told them of who we were, came the statement from one of the men: "I think I know now who you are; You are the once that have several wives." With that remark I was never happier to say :"You are getting closer! Let me explain." So we did, and soon left to go to our Young Adult group.

It always surprise us when we think that there are so many people who have never heard of the Restored Gospel. There is still a lot of work ahead of us. We must all do a better job of spreading the "Good News" of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We are a little worn out and tired, but we had a wonderful time associating with all of those Young people. Most of the Young people were from the Dortmund Stake. A few (about 12 ) came from other parts of Germany (like Berlin, etc.) There are other "Tagungs" that are held in other parts of Germany and in August is a "Tagung" for all of the German speaking Young Adults for Austria and Germany.

Moehnesee Dam