For all those following our blog, we don't want you to think this mission is all fun and games. We work very hard all day, we just know what to do with our free time. We also have spiritual moments on and off like you would at home. This Sunday was one of those spiritual highlights. Bishop Jorg Klebingat, a native German, spoke to us at our monthly fireside. His topic "The tender mercies of the Lord". That is when the Lord blesses you and you don't realize it until after the fact. This is the case with Jorg. His whole talk was a recap of his life with slides etc. Here is his story in a nut shell, a very big nut shell I mean.
Jorg was not always a member of the church. He was the Captain of his soccer team at school and loved Heavy Metal music. His whole room was covered with ACDC posters. One time he and his team mates went to a concert where everyone was looking forward to drinking. (By the way, the drinking age limit in Germany is 16 yrs). He said he never had the desire to drink but he loved the music so he went anyway. After a while he lost his friends and he sat watching people walking by.
Tender Mercy #1 He saw a guy who he thought would be someone he might like to talk to so he went over, tapped him on the shoulder and said, "Hi, I'm Jorg" and the guy turned around and they just began a great friendship right away. Jorge was invited back to his friends home to meet the parents, who by the way was the Stake President. He went into his friends room and there all over the wall were pictures of temples. He thought,"this is a strange family." After a few minutes the mother came in and announced that "she knew the LDS church was the only true church on the earth today" and just as quickly left. The son was a little embarrassed, but Jorge said from that time on he could not get enough of this church. He read the B of M in a few days and asked to be baptized. They were the closest of friends. The day came when his friend went on a mission and Jorge was left without friends because all of his school mates went in other directions. After he graduated from HS, he wanted to go to USA to college and learn English.
Tender mercy #2, He went to a college fair and a representative from USC was there. She said the tuition was too much for him to afford but they had ways of getting loans. After he decided that would be out of the question, he started to walk away and the lady said, "Would you be interested in showing my son around Germany for a few weeks. He thought, well it is pretty bad with no friends, I guess it would be okay. The son came and stayed at Jorg's house. Jorge said he could not get over the guy calling him dude all the time. He was also into Heavy Metal, but by this time, Jorge was losing interest. After two weeks this woman's son joined the church and decided to go with Jorg to school at Ricks College.
Tender Mercy #3, he had no idea what to major in and the spirit whispered to him, "take Russian" he couldn't even speak English good enough, why Russian? He followed the spirit anyway and that night he was given the assignment of going to a concert given by a Russian group. While there, he noticed a little Russian girl who was acting as an interpreter for the group. Her name was Juli. To make a long story short she became his wife but not before serving a mission and they have 3 small children.
He told us so many instances where the spirit has told him what to do and he does it. He is afraid not to. Because of this kind of faith he has been an instrument in the hands of the Lord. Today he works for the church. He is in charge of all the distribution for church materials going in and out of Europe, that includes Europe, China and Africa. That is a lot of trust to be given to one person barely 35 yrs old. We are so blessed to be under his leadership. Each morning he makes sure all of his staff are at a devotional with a spiritual thought and a prayer. He is also a great administrator. You will surely see big things from him in the church in the future.
We just received an e-mail from Richard Stange who told us Bruce Boston would be in Germany on Tues. We thought , "great, he can stay with us". Bruce is now the replacement for Gene's old position in the High Priest Group. It will be good to see old friends from Vista.
So the question is, did Bishop Klebingat give the Fireside in English or German? Interesting story. I'll have to think about the Tender Mercies in my life. Also, each week, you need to share your favorite Spiritual Thought from your morning Devotionals.
ReplyDeleteRichard
What great things happen to All the Lord's children...I have to write down how Sam & I got together. I did know that it was a "tender mercy" and should have put it to paper. Ah well, maybe I'll have time this summer.
ReplyDeleteSo I guess this answers the argument about feeling the spirit in clubs and listening to metal...ha ha
ReplyDeleteActually a friend of mine was listening to Metallica in his early teens and a missionary that was teaching his family came in and told him, "Oh rad! I love Metallica!" My friend said, "But you can't, your Mormon." From that conversation he learned you can be yourself and be a good member. He was the only one in his family to get baptized. He served a French speaking mission, married in the temple and still rocks out.