09-16 Jan 2011 Spiritual Experiences

It is not snowing now but we have storm after storm dropping loads of water on the now overflowing rivers. I loved these pictures of a new storm brewing out there.






















This is the Town of Freigerisch and it is a beautiful drive to get there. As you can see the snow has all melted but the rivers in Germany are all overflowing their banks. Our work has a creek that runs near it and they say if it keeps raining we will be flooded out. The Main River in Frankfurt is already up into the city.









































These are pictures of Gene working at the house in Freigerisch. The picture on the side of their house is a old painting of a dragon. I guess they will just leave it on the house for art sake.































I am sorry I haven't contributed to our blog lately, but we have been busy with all things temporal which actually turns out to be spiritual. Two incidents stand out in my mind as something that will be a highlight in my life. The first one happened on Sunday January 9th. We had been preparing all week, nonstop, for the lesson we were to give to our Primary class that afternoon. We have 8 boys ranging in ages from 8-11 yrs. old and they are all so different in their personalities and interests. (If I haven't mentioned it before, we have been going to the International Ward for the last three months and we love it. We were called to teach the Valient class. There are two sets of brothers and one set is from France, you guessed it, they don't speak any English, so we have one of our boys who is 10 yrs old and speaks four languages translate. I wonder how they learn four languages at the same time when they are young? and this is what their family does, the mother speaks only Russian to the children, his Dad only speaks French to them. They learn German and English in school. What a blessing to have him in our class.)

To go back to my story, a week before this time, I was asked in passing if I would give a talk on the 9th and I said, "Sure". I was going out the door so I didn't write it down anywhere." That was the biggest mistake I have ever made. Well the Sunday started as we were a little late coming in so we sat in the back, then I hear the Counselor say my name as one of the speakers. I had totally forgotten about the talk. I got physically sick. I have never winged a talk in my life. I pride myself on the fact that I can organize a pretty good talk, sometimes even forgetting to ask for Heavenly Fathers help. What arrogance on my part. I just assumed Heavenly Father would help me and up until now, it has always worked, but today was another thing all together. I turned to Bro Walters and said, "What am I going to do, I don't even know what my subject is?" He said, don't worry Heavenly Father will help you, I said a quick prayer and walked up to the stand past the Stake President, the Mission President and the Area President. That was the longest walk I ever had to make. As I looked over the audience my mind was a total blank. I do remember telling them, I totally forgot about my assignment, which was on Faith by the way, so I hoped I had enough faith that Heavenly Father would be with me and help me say something that would be worthwhile. The only thing I do remember is that I said, "I know faith is the first principle of the gospel. Well from then on I draw a blank until I bore my testimony. I actually had people come up and say they really enjoyed my talk. The Mission President's wife said her 16 yr old son commented, "that was awesome, with stories and everything". Too bad I can't remember what I said.

I know why this happened to me. I know I have to rely more on Heavenly Father for my inspiration. I also know I need to listen more carefully when he speaks to me. This was a total experience in faith and humility. Thank you Heavenly Father for that tender mercy.

A week later came another wonderful experience with Brother Causse, our Area 70. We were so blessed to have him, his wife and two of their children speak and perform at a Senior Missionary fireside on the 16th of Jan. They are originally from Nancy, France and his assignment is the Frankfurt Area. He brought two of his children to help perform Hymns that he had arranged personally. One, is a daughter who is about 16, who plays the violin and the other is 14 and plays the cello. Before Bro Causse was called as a 70 he was some what of a concert pianist. The whole fireside was amazing. The three of them playing the most beautiful hymns and then the wonderful talks given by him and his wife.

Bro Causse said that his whole family is musical. When they first got married their Christmas's consisted of both of them singing in hospitals and retirement homes on Christmas Eve. As their family grew they added more and more choir members. Today they have a group of 40 singers who do the same thing that they did when they were first married. Each member also plays a musical instrument. His other 3 children play the piano. After he told us a little about his life, he and his daughters played "Come Thou Font of Every Blessing" and "I Know That My Redeemer Lives."

He wanted us to know how it was when he was called as an Area 70. He had been a Stake President for 6 years before that time. It was 3 years ago that he got a call from Elder Uchtdorf who asked him if he would come to a Video Conference where they would have an in depth interview. The time came and he said he was sitting there in front of a huge TV screen all by himself and he was so nervous. Pres Uchtdorf and Pres. Oaks came on the screen and they asked him if he was willing and able to consecrate his life to the Lord? They asked him if he had any outstanding debts that were not taken care of? Was there any reason that he and his family could not leave their home to go wherever the Lord needed him? They said when we call you as a 70, you will be a 70 until you are 70. He said he calculated he would be living away from his home for 25 years. They said they didn't know where they would be sending him but he was asked to go home and talk to his wife and family about it. Of course you know what his answer was and how grateful we are that he was ready and willing to serve. He said the only regret he had was that he had to leave his newly acquired grand piano. That got a laugh from everyone.

He talked about consecrating our lives to the Lord. He made some really good observations of what that would actually mean to us. How would we feel if the Prophet called us in for an interview and ask if there was any reason that we could not serve the Lord full time? He said that being a Missionary certainly qualifies as consecrating our lives to the Lord. Serving in the Temple also qualifies. Do we say yes to each calling? Do we volunteer our talents or knowledge when needed? Do we pay a full tithe and offerings? These are all parts of consecrating ourselves to the Lord. The little string quartet then played "Ill Go Where You Want Me To Go,"and "Come, Come Ye Saints." They were both beautiful.

Then he talked about an incident that happened in President Monson's life when he was 10 years old. If you want to read about it, you can find it in his autobiography. One day, Tommy's Mother was cooking dinner and Tommy went out to see a boy he did not know sitting on the fence post. He asked him what he was up to? and the boy asked him what his mother was cooking? Tommy said, "Oh that's chicken." Then the boy said, "What does chicken taste like? Tommy said, "Just like Turkey". The boy said, "What does turkey taste like? and Tommy said, "What are you eating tonight?" The boy said not much of anything, so Tommy said, "I'll give you something that tastes even better than chicken, and he took him to the barn, opened up the hutch to where his two prize, pet rabbits were housed. He took them out and got them ready for the boy to take home for dinner. Giving him the hides that could be sold for a good price. Bro Causse said "Can you imagine giving up your pet rabbits so that a family could have meat to eat?

He also talked about the Prophet Joseph Smith and some of his apostles during the early days of the church. At one of the conferences of the church Joseph leaned over to Heber Kimball and said "You will be going to England on a mission." Heber felt so inadequate. He stumbled and stammered when he spoke so he spent weeks every day in the Kirtland Temple praying to God that he would have the courage to go and talk to a people that were so much more intelligent that he was. He was a very successful missionary in England. The lord doesn't need the most intelligent, he needs the most teachable, humble and prayerful men. Bro Causee was asked to speak at our last General Conference and he felt he needed to talk about being as a little child, teachable and humble. As he turned around there was a choir of 350 children singing that afternoon. He was so grateful that the Lord gave him that tender mercy for the day. The string quartet then played "Seek, Ponder and Pray" a Primary song. It brought tears to my eyes. The entire evening was a spiritual feast for everyone. There was not a dry eye in the room. How blessed we are as Missionaries to be in the presence of such great men.