WERE HOME

Today is February 2, 2010 and we are back in our familiar surroundings. We arrived Friday January 29, 2010. Family and friends greeted us at the Salt Lake Airport. It was a very joyful reunion. We were especially happy to to see the Grandchildren (15 out of 17 were at the air port). They have changed a lot and it will be fun to get to know them again.Our children did a wonderful job in preparing our home for our arrival. Not only was the home clean and inviting, but we were surprised by a few changes. A new carpet in our bedroom, a beautiful new bed spread and a new flat screen TV were part of the surprises. Family, neighbors, friends came and visited us even before we had time to unpack our suitcases. Everyone brought some wonderful treats and welcomed us back home. We already had a family get-together on Sunday afternoon at our daughter's home (Heidi) with lots of good food. We attended our ward church services on Sunday and the Saints greeted us with open arms and welcomed us back. Our Stake President released us as missionaries and thus ended a chapter in our lives we will not forget. Even tough we will not give our report in our Sacrament Meeting until February 21, we already spoke to a Home Evening group last night.These past few months gave us a greater appreciation of the restored gospel. Our love for the Savior and for His Atoning Sacrifice grew, as we served the the people in Germany. It was easy to love especially the young adults with whom we rubbed shoulders on a daily basis and we were rewarded as they expressed their love to us. These wonderful Young people have struggles and challenges that many of us can not imagine. Many have wonderful testimonies and many more need to be "rescued". We pray that they will be blessed with with people that care and can serve them.Our association with the full time missionaries was very rewarding. Their commitment and hard work was breathtaking to behold. That association we will treasure as one of the highlights of our mission.It is now time to get back to a normal life and hopefully "enduring to the end".We are already doing the things that Grandparents do. At 5:00AM this morning we drove to our son's (Stephen) home to tend two little children as Stephen and Sarah left to go to the hospital. We are awaiting soon the news from them of the birth of our 18Th Grandchild.We have tried to share with you some of our mission experience over the last 22 months. Thank you for for allowing us to communicate with you in this e-mail format. Thank you for your support and prayers in our behave. Please know that it made a difference. The Lord has blessed us beyond our expectations. Now, "may the Lord bless you and keep you".

GOODBYE, FAREWELL AND AMEN

The unexpected seems to be the trend while on this mission for the church. The language was harder than expected to learn and feel comfortable with, the missionary work the Young Elders do every day is a lot harder work than we had imagined; the disappointments when people did not accepted our message was more painful than we thought; the love for the Saints developed so quickly; the joy of working with the young people with so much potential and enthusiasm was breathtaking; the joy of working with the missionaries has been a blessing and the thought of leaving so many things undone is painful. The Sacrament meeting today was an experience we will not soon forget. We had a chance to thank the Saints for all of the love and support we received from them. We were grateful for so many that came. We felt the Spirit and many were touched. Tears came freely as we communicated with each other. Anina gave most of her talk in English with a member of the Bishopric interpreting. At the end she thanked him for his service, and than talked to them in German for a few minutes. I think people witnessed a miracle. Days before she ask me to help her with a few words and she never was able to say the words in a way anyone would know what she was saying. So, to me, it was amazing how well she spoke and able to bear her testimony of the gospel and of the love she had for the saints, in the German language. It was amazing!!!!!!After the meeting block the ward had a potluck dinner for us. They presented a book of remembrance to us with lots of pictures of ward members. We visited with many for quite a while. We felt a bond of love and respect and the embraces were heartwarming.

This will probably be the last e-mail from this side of the ocean. We hope to see you soon.. Don't be too surprised when you see us and you find that we left part of our heart here among the people that we have learned to love.

The banquet Table

PANIC!!!!

It is Monday afternoon and we are about to go to the Outreach Center for our family-home evening. We will just send you a short note to tell you that all is well. There is little time left to do all we want to do.We did take two days to visit with our relatives in Bortfeld-Wendeburg near the city of Braunschweig. It was a wonderful visit to meet with my ailing cousin, Hildegard,and her extended family. It was hard for us to part and it was a very emotional experience. We are not sure if we will see them again in this life. While we were there, they could not do enough for us. We visited a few points of interest in the area. We had a wonderful time visiting one with another and talk about the past. (You know, how only the "old people" can do.)We returned home to our apartment just before midnight on Saturday evening. Sunday was a full day. We don't think that we have ever turned down so many invitations, and on our last Sunday in Dortmund, the Ward will have a pot-luck dinner right after our church block. It is also the Sunday we have been asked to speak during the Sacrament meeting.This morning we did our last apartment visit of the Elders apartment in Gelsenkirchen. We finished painting the Kitchen and also painted the Bathroom. It is nice to have this last project completed.There is a lot more that should be said about the past week, but we need to go to our home-evening appointment.We will see you all soon, if we survive the next few days.

Anina sitting next to Brother Rudakowski and Sister Jensen, Sister Simionescu (from Rumania), Elder Smith and Elder Schaefer. Brother Rudakowski takes the missionaries every month to this Mongolian/Chineese restaurant.

Hildegard and her two daughters and their Husbands. (from left to right ; Simona Springer, Wolfgang Ehlers, Andrea Ehlers, and Thobias Springer. Hildegard is in the middle of the front row.

TIME KEEPS MARCHING ON

Time keeps ticking away, ready or not! To leave this assignment without having a replacement in view is a scary thought. There are so many things that are hanging in the air, so many more things we would like to see completed and so many things to pass on before we leave. The reality of our return is beginning to take a hold. As we talk to our Mission President about a replacement, he has only one answer; "we must pray someone here." He reminded us that this was the way you (meaning us) appeared on the scene at just the right time. We only have three weeks to go and it looks a little scary.
Even the young missionary force is getting smaller in our missions. We have felt that reality last week as we lost the Sister Missionaries here in Dortmund. The set of Elders left in Dortmund have more to do than they can handle and are asking for help from the members to go "joint teaching" with them.
Today was a wonderful day. We attended our meetings here in Dortmund and right after we drove to the Unna Ward (about a 45 minute drive) to attend a baptism of a mother along with her 8 year old son. The 12 year old daughter did not feel that she was yet ready. I was asked to conduct the baptism interview, which we did this past Wednesday. It has been a struggle for the mother to come to this point. She first met the missionaries some six years ago and had been meeting with the missionaries as she was able to. Her husband was abusive and was against her joining the church.. Since her divorce she moved to several places to get away. This now brought her to the point where she found the Church Building and walked in one Sunday and approached the Missionaries and ask what she needed to do, to become a member of the Church. It is now six weeks later and the baptism ordinance has been performed. Now the big question is how she will be able to travel the 50 to 60 kilometer each Sunday to come to church, with the limited means she has to buy the pass for the transportation. There are no members that live in that part of the Ward's boundaries. She displayed a greater amount of faith than I have, when she responded to our concern with; "the Lord will provide".
Later this afternoon we returned to Dortmund for a dinner appointment with a young couple. Nine (9) months ago both of them were in the young single adult group in our Outreach Center. It was so fun to see both of them so much in love and establishing a wonderful Latter-Day Saint home. By the way the food was delicious! Before we went home they showed us a CD from their wedding festivities. It brought some memories of our participation on this festive occasion.
We have a desire to endure to the end and finish with another baptism on the last Saturday here in Dortmund.
The whole area is turning into a winter-wonderland. It has snowed, of and on since the Year started. They are running out of salt to keep all of the streets clear and are now only keeping the major streets clear of snow and the rest are snow-packed. We are glad for the good snow tires that keep us safe without too much difficulty.
Several have asked again for our return information. We are scheduled to arrive in Salt Lake City on the 29Th of January at 2:05 PM (Delta). It is not until the 21st of February at 1:00 PM that we will be speaking in our home Ward. (Located at 6301 South 2300 East in Holladay,84121).
Thank you all for your encouragement and support.

ARE WE TO OLD FOR THIS ASSIGNMENT?

Two days are past and we are still feeling the effects of our New Years Eve. Four-o-clock in the morning is a bit too much for a couple of old people. Yes, we were not able to bring the New Years Eve party to a close! The Young Adults just did not want to go home! They were just having such a good time, eating, playing, eating, dancing, eating, shooting off fireworks, eating, watching a movie, eating and just sitting around. Actually, we left at 4:00AM and they were still going strong. We were the only seniors at the party and for some reason they made sure that we were involved. After the fireworks, Anina and Hugo baked waffles for every-one, along with some of Anina's home made syrup. We were done with the large batch of waffles before the kids were completely full, so they had to go back to the other goodies and drinks on the table. We don't know exactly when they all went home. We had a very pleasant surprise when we returned the next morning (about 11:00AM) to find the place completely cleaned up! The only task we needed to take care of, was the removal and storage of all of the Christmas decorations we placed in the Center for the Young Adults for the holidays. The kids at the party were all local kids from the Stake, for all of the others left to go home for the holidays.
We were hoping for a quiet evening on the 1st of January, but that was not to be the case. A telephone call from a couple kids changed all of that. There was a group of kids who wanted to come to the Center to play some games and just hang out. They mostly played with our newly purchased "Wii game" and had a blast doing just that.
We are not complaining, for that is exactly what the Outreach Centers are for. We only regret that we did not have this mission experience a few years earlier. All we can say to some of you who are close to retirement or are retired, do it sooner than later!
Today is Fast-Sunday, it was our last Fast Sunday in Germany for this mission experience. The Spirit at the Sacrament meeting was very strong and I bore my testimony and thanked all of the members for the support we received. On the 24th of January will be our last Sunday in Dortmund and we have been asked to speak in Sacrament meeting on that date. If any of you want to be there to hear our "other farewell talk", you must be here by 11:00AM. We know that this assignment will be a lot more interesting than the home coming talks.
This coming week we are scheduled to do a couple Baptism Interviews for the Mission President. This is an assignment that seems to come more frequently to us because we are the furthest away from our Mission Headquarters.
We are beginning to worry about the flight back home. Not the least of our worries is the amount of baggage we are allowed to take with us on the fight. We are allowed only one checked bag and one carry-on.. We brought with us four checked bags 21 months ago and now the rules have changed. Anina is especially panicked, trying to decide what to leave behind.
Some of you have ask about our schedule. We will leave Hamburg at 7:10 AM on the 29th of January and arrive via Paris in Salt Lake City at 2:05 PM on the 29th of January. (We hope that we will have enough time in Paris to make the connection. You know, with all of the new security procedures, that will be a task.-We hope for the best.)
We have been notified by our Home Ward that we will be speaking on Sunday the 21th of February 2010 at 1:00PM.
Time is running out for us. We will leave with some regrets for not having achieved enough. We pray that we will yet do some good during the next 3 to 4 weeks.
One thing we know for sure is that "this work is the Lord's Work", and we have been blessed doing His Work.

Just a couple of pictures of some of our favorite people at the New Years Eve party. 2009/2010

CHRISTMAS WEEKEND 2009

It is Monday morning, the 28th of December 2009. Some of you wrote that we had forgotten to send you an e-mail. Actually, we did not forget, but are late in writing. We did come home early enough, but received a call from the Sister Missionaries that they were without hot water and heat, so we went and fixed the problem.
Christmas Eve we were invited to spend with a couple about our age from near the city of Hagen. It was more of a formal event than what we are used to, but it was nice. We started at 3:30 PM and did not return home until about 10:30 PM. The home was a very nice and typical German Home. Every room is closed with a door leading to a hall-way. Upon our arrival we were taken into the kitchen where we enjoyed some wonderful cake and cookies and some herbal tea. We were told that "der Weihnachtsman" (Santa-claus) was busy in the other room. When we came into the living room we saw a beautiful Christmas tree with around 24 real candles all lit and some packages under the tree. It was a breathtaking sight. Next came the wonderful meal. Of course we ate too much and we even found extra room for some delicious desserts. By the time we were through eating, the first set of candles were burned and we all put a second set of candles on the tree and lit those candles. We read together the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke and exchanged stories of our Christmas traditions. It was a real effort for us to leave and go home, for a long day lay ahead of us on the first Christmas day.

On the first Christmas morning at about 5:00 AM we managed to drag ourselves out of bed and make an all anticipated call home to our Family. It was about 9:00 PM Christmas-Eve in Salt Lake City. Our Children and Grandchildren along with Anina's aunt (Darlene) and Anina's sister (Alayna) were all celebrating Christmas Eve at our home. We did get to talk to most of then on the phone. Oh, how we wished we could have transported ourselves to that place, if only for a few moments! We are grateful for the technology that made that visit so memorable. We could not dwell and savor those moments too long, for we had to finish packing and drive to our "second home". It was a very anticipated visit to Vockerode-Meissner. As we arrived for the 3 day visit, the extended family of Carl-Heinz and Brigitte was already sitting at the table for their Christmas dinner. The dinner was more like our Thanksgiving dinner with all of the trimmings. Instead of Turkey we enjoyed a roasted goose, instead of mashed potatoes we had the potato balls, and instead of pumpkin pie we had some wonderful German pastries and cakes. After exchanging many gifts the large room looked very much like the room looked after you opened all of the gifts. It was a great day even with a "touch of family".
As many of you know, in Germany we have two Christmas Holidays, the 25th and 26th of December.

After breakfast, Karl-Heinz and Brigitte suggested that we go for a little ride. After an hour car ride we arrived in the city of Eisenach. We parked at the bottom of a hill and climbed up to the burg that we noticed on top of a hill for some distance. The Wartburg has a very rich and colorful history that date back to 1067. We took an hour long tour through those unique halls and rooms. There are so many things that transpired there, we can not even begin to mentions these in this writing. We will mention only two that were of special interest us.
The story of a Hungarian born princess is a very touching one. She was only 4 years old when she was taken to Thueringen to be the future wife of Ludwig the 4th. She was married at the age of 14. Had children and lived a live devoted to the poor. She started Hospitals, helped the poor and underprivileged and worked hard to make the lives of the poor more tolerable. She did all of this at the objections of the royal court. Her husband died in the crusades. She died at the early age of 24 in the year of 1231. She lived such a extraordinary life that it took only 4 years for her to be canonized by the Pope in 1235. Some day we have to spend some time to talk about some of the stories, miracles and legends of Elisabeth.
At the conclusion of the tour we were taken to an area and museum of the castle that depicts another fascinating event that took place here. Martin Luther, who is regarded by many as the father of the reformation spend some very valuable time here. It was after he (Martin Luther) pinned the 95 Thesis to the door of the Wittenburg church and after he was excommunicated from the Catholic Church as a heretic and outlawed by the emperor because he would not revoke his teachings, that he found refuge and safety behind the mighty walls of this fortress. While here in hiding from the rest of the world, he translated the New Testament from the Greek original into German. It felt like a sacred place as we walked into the so-called "Lutherstube" - the room where he did the work of translation. It was a great experience to visit this historical place.On Sunday we were too far away to go to church, so it turned out to be a day of visiting and meeting with family. We talked a lot of who was related to who. We met for the first time with Brigitte's sister, Sigrid. She is married to Karl Heinz Grebe. Her Birthday is 26 April 1955. She was actually raised by an Aunt in the nearby village of Wollrode. Brigitte has actually one more Sister, Erni. Her married name is Erni Nickel, born 9 July 1949 and they live in Frankenheim.. As a family we did not get to know those sisters because they were born after we last visited the family before our imigration to the USA.It is time to mail this, but do remind us to tell you about the Grimm Brothers story of "Frau Holle" some day.We love all of you and wish you a wonderful "Rutsch" into the New Year.

CHRISTMAS EVE

We are in a winter wonderland. It has snowed off and on for the last three days. There is more snow than we have seen since we have been in Germany. We need to really slow down while we are driving. The car (Opel Corsa) drives quite nice and we are sure the snow tires help. If anyone drives without four snow tires, he is subject to a fine. All of the people change to the snow tires in the first part of October and than change back in the end of March.
We have had a chance to go to a few Christmas Markets. We don't know how the merchants’ stays warn in the cold weather. The markets are full of people regardless of the weather. It is a real wonderful festive experience just to walk around and see what is going on.. It will definitely be one of the things we will miss as we return home at the end of January, 2010.
In fact the whole Christmas experience is steeped in many old German traditions. Many of those traditions have some wonderful meanings. We have noticed that just about every window shows some arrangements of candles (either real candle or electric once) that carry the meaning of "we have not forgotten you" or "we are thinking of you". Just this past week we have bought a very beautiful wooden bow with some carving inside the bow and 10 candles on the outside of the bow. We are displaying it in our outside window and it can easily be noticed as people walk or drive by our apartment. From where you are, you may not be able to see it, but as we see it, it means that we have not forgotten you and soon we will see each other again.
This is a hard time to be away from home. It is made a lot easier by the love and acts of kindness from many of the wonderful Saints here in Dortmund. It is a sweet experience to be associated with some great missionaries. As we get together we remind ourselves often of the great Christmas message we wish to share with all we meet. If in this country of Germany we could only insert and emphasize among their traditions the message of the birth of the Savior and the great blessing this birth is in our lives. The setting would almost be perfect. For us, the beautiful carved peaces of wood depicting the major scene, the Shepherd's, the wise men, the star, the Holy-Land and of Joseph and Mary are representations of a real and important event in the history of the world. The artists are masters at producing such wonderful peaces of art, but fail to recognize the significance of the events depicted.
We are struggling to keep from purchasing some of those masterpieces of wood carvings. They can tell a story that is very dear to us at this Christmas season.
This past week we had our Zone Conference in Bielefeld. We enjoyed being together with the missionaries of the Hannover and the Dortmund Zone. We enjoyed a very spiritual day with a Christmas program and instructions from our Mission President and his Wife (President and Sister Thompson). At this conference we were reminded that this would be our last Zone Conference before going home and that we were to give some remarks to the group. Being obedient, we took a few sobering moments to offer our thoughts about the mission and about our testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.
Both of us will come home soon and perhaps somewhat changed. One can not be in this missionary service without gaining a greater appreciation of the Savior and Redeemer, whose birthday we remember at this Christmas Season.
We love you all and do miss you.

The Third Candle is Burning

This is a very busy time of the year for us, but we are enjoying every minute. We have more appointments, more invitations and more get-together's. Three candles are burning. That means, one more candle to go and then it will be Christmas. It is sad that it will be over with so soon, but we sure hope that the Spirit will linger for a long time.
It is past 9:00PM Sunday evening and we are ready to go to bed. We left our apartment at 7:30 this morning. We participated in the meetings at the Münster Branch along with some of the members of our student council. The purpose was to make the young adults more aware of the activities at the "Center For Young Adults".
The Branch President from Münster invited us to have a meal with them after church. Tonight we watched the broadcast of the "First Presidency Christmas Devotional". In the chapel of our building it was broadcast in German and at our Center we listened to it in English. It was especially enjoyable for Anina, for it was the first meeting of the day where she understood everything that was said.
We are grateful for this special assignment that is ours the "invite other to come to Christ". This experience helps us to appreciate more what this Christmas season is all about. We pray that we all may enjoy more of this wonderful Spirit of Christmas in our individual lives and in homes.
Thank you for being there for us. Many of the blessings that are ours are as a result of your prayers for us. We are grateful for the health we are enjoying. (I - Hugo-am now completely recovered from the kidney stone problems.)
We love you and wish all of you a wonderful Christmas season.
See you all soon,

The Second Candle is Burning

The second candle is burning. A sign that the Christmas season is in full swing. Some of you have asked what this tradition of the four Advent candles mean. So, here it is: "Der Adventskranz hat eine lange Tradition, die immer noch sehr gepflegt wird. Immerhin dienen die vier Kerzen nicht nur der zeitlichen Orientierung der Festtage, sondern symbolisieren mit der Zunahme des Lichts die vier Adventssonntage sind of Papst Gregor den Grossen zurueckzufuehren: Die vier Wochen sollen 4000 Jahre versinnbildlichen, an denen die Menschheit auf die Ankunft von Jesus Christus warten musste." Now you know!
This past week was a very busy week, full of activities. There was no time for even a short afternoon nap. We were either driving to, preparing for, shopping for or attending some event. We almost forgot that they even removed three kidney stones for my (Hugo) body. We were lucky and I only had to stay in the hospital on Monday and Tuesday. This coming Wednesday they will go in and remove a stint and the ordeal will be over with.
We had a good group of young adults out for the institute class and the meal afterward last Thursday. We did not get home until quite late. On Friday morning we left before breakfast to take the 2 3/4 hour drive to Hannover for our Senior Couples Conference. The Couples get-together was not all meetings. We even went about the serious business of "shopping". We learned that the Sisters do not loose the urge to go shopping, just because they are on a mission. It may have been the fault of the place we visited. A place like the "Steinbach Nutcracker Factory" was just too much of a temptation. They not only know how to make beautiful things out of wood, they also know how to keep us brethren occupied while the sisters find just the right gift. They served us peppermint tea and all of the great German pastries we wanted to eat. I was proud of Anina; she bought the least amount of all of the couples.
At the "Out-Reach Center" in Hannover we enjoyed a great time with all of the Senior Missionary Couples from our Mission, as we shared ideas and had a nice Christmas program. We had a nice meal together. We could not stay because we had to hurry back to Dortmund. The Young Adults had a Dance Evening and we needed to be back for that by 8:00 PM. The dance was well attended and some came from other places around Germany. We even enjoyed visiting with four Young Adults that we knew from Bremen. We all had a good time. The dance went until 12:30 AM (just past midnight). By the time we cleaned up everything it was 2:00 AM. It was a long and exhausting day.
The next day we could not even sleep in, for preparations needed to be made for our Young Adult Christmas part on Saturday. Also, the kids from Bremen had breakfast with us in our apartment.
Today is Sunday; we are having a hard time keeping our eyes open. Looking at our calendar, this coming week will not be much better. Anina keeps saying, "when we get home in a couple of months, we are going to sleep for a couple of weeks".
We are beginning to worry about a replacement for us here in Dortmund. The Mission President has not heard of a couple that may be coming. There is such a great need for couple missionaries. There are just not enough couples to take care of all needs of our Hamburg Mission. The President keeps asking us if we know of someone we could recommend. There are four couples that will be leaving within the next three months and no word from the Missionary Department of any that are coming. It has even been suggested that if we do not find a replacement that we come back and finish the work. As a second thought, there is no such thing as "finishing the work".
We better close for now.
Enjoy this wonderful Christmas time of the year.
May the Lord bless you all.

All of the couples at the Steinbach Factory ( 4Dec2009).

Sister Thompson (Mission Presidents Wife) accepting accepting a needle point art picture from all of the couples. (Anina found this beautiful picture in an antique store).

BEAR 1999 - 2009

Missing Bear

His warm fur against my feet
His doing a "trick" for a special treat
His big, brown eyes that understood
All my frustrations and efforts for good.

The "Wildness" in him that stirred my soul;
This "silent" friend that accepted my goals.
His soft, low "growl" when he wanted "out",
And the extra nudging with his snout!

He was "Dasher" and "Dancer" all rolled into one!
Our walks on the beach; the chases, the fun!
Brushing his "coat" until it just glistened!
He'd stand there and love it and listen and listen!

He's walking ahead of me now, on the trail;
Shaking his collar and wagging his tail
Checking to see if I'm close with the "truck"
Knowing "his" presence assures me of "luck"!

Anina Diederich

THE FIRST ADVENT

In Germany, today is the first day of the Christmas season. It is the "First Advent". The first of four candles is now flickering. The Christmas Market here in Dortmund is in full swing. Christmas decorations are every-where. We put up our Christmas decorations at the Center For Young Adults only yesterday. It is sad that we are missing another Christmas away from our Family, but we are glad to experience our second Christmas season here in Germany. They have some very wonderful Christmas traditions that we will enjoy. We already have invitations for Christmas Eve with a wonderful couple that lives in the city of Hagen. The Couples Missionary Christmas Conference is this Friday in Hannover. We will have the Young Adult Christmas Party this coming Saturday. The Ward Relief Society will have their Christmas Party this Tuesday. The Ward will have their Christmas party a week later. We will have to be in good shape to participate at all of the activities that are planned.
At our Ward in Dortmund we completed a 40 day fast for missionary work. Every day for the last 40 days a different person fasted and we all ask the Lord to bless us in our Missionary effort. Right after church we all brought something to eat and we all enjoyed a meal together at the ward.
Our Mission President called yesterday and ask us to conduct two Baptism interviews in the City of Essen. We had a great experience doing that this afternoon. We are having two baptism dates here in Dortmund and we hope and pray that those good people will be able to follow through with that commitment. Our missionaries are working very hard.
We don't know where the past week went. It was a very busy one with something to do everyday.
The Elders left a few minutes ago. It was nice to have them with us. Before thy left they gave me a wonderful blessing and put my mind at ease. Tomorrow morning at 7:00 AM I will check into the Hospital. I am scheduled to have surgery in the morning to remove the Kidney Stone. We are praying that conditions will be just right this time so they are able to do that without complications. They told me that I will be in the Hospital for at least three days.
Last night in our sleep we heard some loud noises. It was not until this morning that we recognized what all that screaming was about. The Internet gave the score of the BYU vs Utah football game. It must have been some kind of game with overtime and all.

!!!!!!!!!!GO BYU FOOTBALL!!!!!

We are doing well and are happy to be on the Lord's errand.

Crazy Week

We both decided that it was time to find some medical help. We found a good urologist near our apartment and so started a roller-coaster journey of the week. I, Hugo, received a real royal verbal spanking from the doctor, for waiting so long to ask for help. After a short examination and x-rays, etc, he send me directly to the Hospital. Once in the hospital they took me to a surgery room where they relieved me of a blockage between the bladder and the kidney. When I woke up in a hospital room I felt a lot better and thought that we could go home. When later the doctors came into the room, they informed me that they would schedule surgery to remove the kidney stone on Wednesday morning.
On Monday evening a few from the Young Adult Center came to the hospital for a visit and to have our Family Home Evening right in the hospital room. At the conclusion of the Home Evening we all had a prayer to ask for the Lords blessing. It must have seemed strange to the patient next to me. He is recovering from a cancerous bowel surgery. We even asked him before the prayer if he would like us to also pray for him. He did not know what to say, so he just said, no. After they all left, the man asked me what that was all about. That gave me a chance to tell him about a God in which he did not believe. For the next two days we had some wonderful conversations about the gospel of Christ. He told me before we parted that he wished he could believe the things I told him. I told him that this was a good start and for him to pray about it, and the Lord would let him know that there really is a God.
On Tuesday I was told to relax and heal, so I would be ready for surgery on Wednesday morning. On Wednesday morning they took me into surgery to remove the stone. When I woke up after surgery, I felt right away that something went wrong. My thoughts were confirmed later on that evening when a team of doctors came into the hospital room and they told me that could not reach the stone. So, they stabilized the stone and inserted a couple of stints and rod. That way they will try to expand the opening. This process will take about eight days. The bottom line is that I am scheduled to go back to the hospital on Monday the 30th of November for another attempt to get the stone removed. They told me to count on another 3 day hospital stay. We will all be glad to have this experience behind us.

All of the above is probably more than you want to know or more than I should have written.

The institute and out-reach center is still doing well. Today was a busy Sunday with several appointments. Tomorrow morning is our conference call when we will all find out who of the missionaries will be staying and who will be transferred throughout the Mission.
The Lord is directing His work and truly blessing us. We feel of His spirit especially in times of difficulties.
May you all be blessed, We will be thinking about all of you on Thanksgiving day.

ST. NICK

The picture is one that Anina took in front of our apartment. It is a couple that has walked by our apartment a few times. Anina one day ran to get the camera and asked the couple if she could take their picture. They just smiled and in German told her that they could not understand her. So, she pointed to the camera and just said "smile". They did and this is the result.
Anina came back into our apartment and said:"I just met and took a picture of Mr and Mrs Santa Claus before they head for the North Pole". For all that I know, she may be right. There is only one problem -- I thought that Santa Claus understood English. Well!!!!!!!

THE BITTER AND THE SWEET

There are lessons we must learn many times during our journey hear on earth. In order to really enjoy and appreciate our heath one must go through some periods of pain. I have had a few moments like those as a kidney stone decided to move. To some of you, I don't need to tell you the pain such a stone can cause. On the other hand it feels so great when that little stone (I hope little) decides to go to a place that does not hurt. So far it has not decided to exit yet. The whole day today was great and we were able to go to church. We will see what the next few days has in store.
It is late and we will make this writing short. The regular Church block was great. We enjoyed having a few investigators to church.
The young adults conducted a special Sacrament meeting this evening. President Zarse, our Stake President was the main speaker. Following that meeting we enjoyed some refreshments that Anina prepared. We concluded the evening by listening to the broadcast of the CES Fireside where President Uchtdorf was the Speaker. We had about 40 of our young adults that really enjoyed what he had to say. Anina and a few others went into another room to hear it in English.
We are doing great and are enjoying our association with all of the Young Adults. We also enjoy our work with the Elder and Sister Missionaries. We have a good group serving within our "Outreach Area". Some are bringing some young investigators to our Institute Classes and to some of our activities like we had tonight.

Halloween in Germany

Anina was home on Saturday evening to answer the door bell for any Halloween "trick or treater's" and we had only one group of three that came to our door. As I came home, I noticed a lot of kids in the town square making a lot of noise. Each of our missionaries carved a pumpkin and that was about all of the Halloween experience for us this year.
The young missionaries have been teaching a wonderful family. The whole family is not yet ready to be baptized, but the mother told us today that she wants to be baptized on the 21st of November. We hope that the rest of the family will not be far behind. The family is a neighbor of the Bishops family and the Ward has been very supportive in befriending them. The announcement was made in our Fast and Testimony meeting today. We had a good and spiritual Sacrament meeting and I was moved to talk about the gratitude for having the Gospel in our lives. We, back home take so much for granted. We sometimes feel that we have to much to do. There seem to be so much more that is expected from the Saints to do here in a part of the world where there are few faithful members of the church. This morning in our combined priesthood meeting the priesthood leaders handed out an updated list of Home Teaching assignments. Most of the Home Teaching pairs have between 12 to18 families to visit each month. They are scattered some 30 to 35 Kilometers apart. Some are very hard to get a hold of and some may have even died or moved away. The priesthood leaders said, that they tried to give at least 2 active families to each pair of Home Teachers. The Bishop said that he would like a report if possible during the next three months about everyone on the list. The thought came to me about how many of us at home (Cottonwood Stake) would be up to that task, besides supporting the missionary efforts, the Temple assignments and others. Some have done this long before we came to help and they will continue to do the work after we go home to our own comfort zone. The longer we are on this mission the less critical we become and the more we are in awe of what they are doing year after year. Many of the faithful members are young families with small children. It makes us tired to just think about the task.
This past week we spent some time working and updating (cleaning) some of the missionary apartments. It seems to be a constant struggle to have the Elders apartment in an acceptable condition. The Elders are hard on apartments and are able to turn a nice place into a disaster very quickly. Oh, Mothers, teach your prospective Missionaries how to clean a place. Fathers, teach your Sons how to make minor repairs. Even if it is a temporary repair with duck tape. Tomorrow morning we will drive some 125 Kilometers away from Dortmund to try to repair a broken drain pipe. We hope that we have enough time so that we are back for our home evening at our Young Adult Center.
We are still experiencing some good attendance for the institute and the meal for our Young Adults. It is a joy to associate with them and feel of their spirit.

An extra hour of sleep

We enjoyed a long day yesterday (Saturday). It was a day of activities for the young adults of the stake. In the morning the Stake Presidency conducted a class for the Young married people of the stake. We just called it "eternal marriage". Even us old marrieds learned a thing or two about relationships and how to make things work when two people come together in a marriage relationship. It was of interest to note that couples in Germany experience the same difficulties as they do in the States. It does take some effort and willingness for both partners to make the marriage an eternal marriage. We had a laugh or two as we discussed the difference between women and men. (you know about the Mars and Venus idea).
In the afternoon we enjoyed meeting with the single young adults. We had a class-room activity to begin with. Other activities included cutting up pumpkins, baking pumpkin and baking pumpkin cake. It was supposed to be an American Style Halloween activity. Some kids enjoyed it and others thought that it was crazy!! For some of the young adults it was the first time that they had cut out a pumpkin and they laughed at what crazy things the Americans do on Halloween! Some played games and others just sat around and had a good time. All enjoyed one American food, Chocolate Chip Cookies that Anina made. Altogether we had about 40 young adults (marrieds and singles) that participated in the activities.
We came home very exhausted and we were glad that an extra hour of sleep was ahead of us. Last night was the end of day-light savings time. -I just remembered that there is another clock that needs to be changed.-
We think, that we mentioned before, that as a mission, we are receiving fewer missionaries. There have been some changes and there will be more changes coming as the number of missionaries will be reduced on a gradual basis by the end of the year. Where we had six Zones in our Mission we now only have five Zones. There are still a couple wards in our mission that have two sets of Missionaries, which will change.
There have been some of you dear friends who have written to us about how well our grandchildren doing and how happy we should be for their accomplishments. We are always full of joy when we hear that our family is active and enjoying the Spirit of the Lord in their lives. We all need to work hard to listen to our leaders and parents and to live the gospel teachings of the Savior. This is the only way to truly be happy and find joy and fulfillment in this life. Heaven will not be the same if any of you are missing!

Just a couple of pictures that show a few of the young adults laughing at the crazy pumpkins they carved. The other picture is Anina with a couple of the young adults in the kitchen.

Conferences, A Wonderful Way of Life

There is General Conference, Zone Conference, Mission Conference and Stake Conference. We have had all four of those Conferences within a three week period. We are not complaining, for they all are great spiritual experiences. All of those conferences give us renewed strength and courage to continue the work of the Lord. These are times of learning and help us stay close to that "rod of iron". They are times when we learn to appreciate the leaders the Lord has given us in the Church of Jesus Christ.
Today was the Dortmund Stake Conference. Our Stake Center in Dortmund is not big enough for the whole Stake, so we had to travel to the city of Herne. There we met in a city auditorium. It was not quite the same as meeting in our own stake center. The most important thing, however, was that the Spirit was there and that the Saints were able to be together in such a large group. It was especially interesting to see how many people we have learned to love and are good friends with from all over the Stake.
The highlight of the week was our Mission Conference that was held in Hamburg on Saturday morning (October 17, 2009). It is quite a distance from Dortmund to Hamburg (about 350 Kilometers). We were asked to travel up to Hamburg on Friday and stay at the mission home for the night. We also took with us the two Sister Missionaries (Sister Seiter and Sister Jensen). We left a couple of hours earlier so we could stop and spend some time in Bremen. We spend some time in the old city center and Anina actually did some shopping. It took us a lot longer to travel the distance to Hamburg than was expected. Just like in the USA, there are a lot of construction projects here in Germany. It seems like most of the Auto-Bahn is under construction between Dortmund and Hamburg. (We think that it has something to do with "jump starting" the economy.) There was one stretch that took us 1 1/2 hours to travel that should have taken us 5 minutes. If we would have realized that it was such a big problem we would have taken a different way, but once you get into it there was no way to escape.
The conference was well worth our efforts. It was the first time of our mission that we had a whole mission conference. It was awesome to get together with some 124 missionaries and our Mission President. Then we had the great opportunity to be instructed by Elder Wondra of the Seventy and Elder Russell M Nelson. We did get to shake their hands . Elder Wondra, when he saw our name he wanted to know if we were related to Elder Stephen Diederich. He remembered our Stephen. We told him that Stephen has 2 children and another one on the way. He was glad to hear that Stephen is doing well.
There were so many things said and we made many notes. One of the things that come to my mind now, is that we must do all we can to be ready for that day that Nephi talks about in 2 Nephi 9:41 and what we must do is in vs 45. As good as the words were that were spoken, the most wonderful part was the Spirit that was felt by all. There definitely is something special about the office and the mantel that accompanies the members of the twelve. We were given an Apostolic Blessing at the conclusion of Elder Nelson's remarks. This we will cherish and hold on to for the rest of our mission and beyond.
We are encouraged by the progress that is being made here in our "Center for Young Adults".

We Need the Rest 11_11_09

Besides our normal Missionary Activities and "Center-for-Young-Adult" Activities we were involved in a couple of other happenings. We took the Sister Missionaries from Dortmund to Bremen where they performed during a "musical Open House evening".
The new Ward House in Bremen is finally ready. It is a very beautiful and spacious new building. It is more like a stake center. It also includes a very nice Center-for-Young-Adults. Secretly we are wishing that we could go back and finish out the last few month of our mission in Bremen. --No chance, but it is fun thinking about it!
While in Bremen, we took an hour to visit the old City Center, had an eating appointment at two places, toured the nice new facilities and enjoyed the musical program. It was an exiting time meeting and visiting with some of the Saints from the Bremen Ward. The musical evening was a very nice event.(We will try to send a picture of all those that performed during the program.)
The two Sisters from Dortmund are very talented musicians.(Sister Seiter plays the violin and Sister Moline is good on the piano). Another set of Sister Missionaries drove down from the city of Keil to be in Bremen. (Sister Jones and Sister Folsom.) Both of these Sister have beautiful voices. We will try to send another picture of all the Missionaries that were there for the evening. We sent a picture of the Missionaries to our Mission President and told him that we had a Bremen Zone Conference with-out our president. (We are not going to tell you what he wrote to us in return.)
It was a full day, and then some. We would liked to have stayed in Bremen for the night, but thought it best to return, for the next day was another day filled with activities. We arrived back in Dortmund at 2:00 AM.
Our Ward in Dortmund had a musical program scheduled for a long time. The Sister missionaries were asked to perform. Sister Seiter and Sister Moline asked one of the Elders to come to Dortmund and help with the program. President Thompson gave permission for Elder Wadsworth to play the guitar (he is an amazing guitar player! The Sisters also invited one of their investigators who plays the Violin to join them for the wonderful musical performance. The members of the ward and the missionaries passed out a lot of flyer's and invited many friends to the musical event. We were hoping for a greater turn out, but still had a good number.
Today is Sunday and we just came home from our church meetings. I (Hugo) had to teach a Sunday-school lesson, something that is still stressful because of the limited language skill.
This evening at 6:00 PM the four Dortmund missionaries are coming to our home for dinner. Anina is working hard to prepare for the meal. We wanted to have the missionaries over for dinner, for Elder Thompson is going home this week and it is likely that one of the Sisters will be transferred this week.
This next week there are several places we need to be at the same time, so we need to figure out how to accomplish that.

There is nothing more important than to stay close to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to hold on to that "Rod Of Iron".
We love you all.

Great Conference Week End

This past Saturday was "der Tag der Deutschen Einheit". It was 20 years ago that the two Germany's were allowed to come together. It is a big day of celebration and a national holiday.
It was also the weekend of general church conference, because of that we did not see much of the celebrations. We enjoyed watching all of the sessions (including Priesthood Session), only the Sunday afternoon session we will see in a couple of weeks. (We may jump the gun and watch it on the Internet.)All of the messages really touched our hearts and as a result we hope to be better disciples of Christ. The other plus for watching conference was the feeling of getting a little bit of "Home". Home seems to be so close and yet so far away.
We look forward to enjoying conference with family again. I miss going to priesthood with our sons and grandsons. So, get ready for April 2010.
General Conference was not the only conference of the past week, for we had our every six week Zone Conference. Both the Bielefeld Zone and Dortmund Zone came together here in Dortmund for the conference. It is always great to get together with all of the missionaries.
The other activities also went well for the week with good participation from our Young Adults. At our Institute night we had such a good group that we ran out of food, so the young people could not have second or third helpings.
We look forward to a great and busy week.

A great week and weekend 9/28/09

When we see 3 people join the church, all of the heart aches go away and it makes up for many rejections. Our Mission President called me last week and asked if I would conduct a baptism interview, because of a very sensitive nature. It was a single mother with two of her children being baptized. One is a young adult and has been visiting our young adult program. We have never seen the repentance and cleansing process so vividly before. The great Atonement of our Savior is truly sufficient for us all regardless of our past shortcomings, if we truly repent and turn to the Savior. Our Mission President drove for 3 1/2 hours to attend the baptismal service to see three of his Elders baptize one person each. It was a great event that will not be forgotten by many of us for a long time.It is Sunday today and the meetings went well although the attendance was sparse. If the Saints would realize that it is important not only for them to make the effort, but they would also help the work to progress in this part of the Lords Kingdom if church attendance would become a priority. For the investigators we would like to have made an impression of a more vibrant group of people. It seems that for the slightest excuse people stay home. Even those with assignments sometimes just don't show up and substitutes need to be found at the last minute.
(The above was written during a short period between our church block and our afternoon and evening activities.)Well, it is now Monday morning. It was past 11:00PM when we came home very tired. We celebrated a very successful opening of the Institute year and also had a rebroadcast of the CES Church-wide Fireside. Then we had a wonderful meal afterward. It was a great evening where about 45 Young Adults and about 16 Priesthood leaders with their Spouses were present. I had a speaking assignment, luckily it was a short talk that I was expected to give.
As soon as we get this letter on its way, it will be time to prepare for our Home Evening food and activities.
This week we will be having a Two-Zone Conference here in Dortmund. Our Institute class and meal is scheduled for Thursday. We are looking forward to the weekend of General Conference when we should be able to, via satellite, watch all of the sessions.
We are grateful that our health is doing very well. We do tire a little faster, but they tell us that this is normal. We continue to pray for all of our family and hope that the gospel will always be at the center of their lives.