Sundays Are Busy

We seem to stack up a lot of activity on Sunday. It is a busy day almost as busy as in the mission field in Germany and Austria.

It started out at 7:30 AM with a Stake PEC. Then from 9:30 to 12:30 I attend Paul's ward and that is always interesting. Cheryl gave the marriage prep class on the importance of families eating together. Bunch of kids are engaged to get married in that class.

Then I took Paul F. with me to speak in another singles ward from 1:00 to 2:10. He does a nice job telling how he joined the church.. we like to emphasize missionary work.

Then back home only to drive back again at 4:30 for a stake missionary meeting. Then back home and at 7:00 PM a missionary fireside in which David and Ann W. spoke on their experience as president of the Nauvoo temple. We belong to two missionary groups: one when I was a younger missionary 53 years ago and a second group of missionaries who came as I was leaving but many of whom I picked up at the Basel Bahnhof as they arrived on their missions.

It is interesting when they come up to you (and I have not seen them for 50 years) and say, "Hey do you remember the time when you took us tracting in Linz, Austria?" "Ahhh seems to have slipped my mind" and then there are bone numbing details that proved I got through to them at the time. It is amazing how these men remember the details of their missions and talk about them like it was yesterday. "Remember the great meal we had in Salzburg after zone conference? Gemischtes Fleisch mit Pomme Frittes fuer zwei for a dollar?" I well remembered that one and the meal for two was eaten by single missionary. It was a mixed grill with all sorts of grilled meats in the center with piles of French Fries on each end. We had to fast for zone conferences in those days.

"Remember our Hausfrau... Frau....? She used to cook our meals, shine our shoes, draw our bath water and even offered to come in and scrub our backs but we said no to that one!" Those were the days.

Many of these men went on to do interesting things in life and several returned as Mission Presidents. One is serving as Mission President for the second time and is currently Temple Square Mission President. This is a mission with all Sister Missionaries and only sisters. They come from all over the world and are great. He told me they had one there from mainland China. They had about 20 - 30,000 visitors from mainland China last year. They had about 20,000 from Germany and there are German, Austrian and Swiss Sister missionaries. They send out 30,000 referrals each year.

These Sister Missionaries wear the flag of their country on their name tag. Once James F (age 6 at the time). went up to one and asked what it was like to live in Zambia. "How did you know I come from Zambia?" "I memorized the flags of all the countries on CIA.com".

Forgot to mention that on Saturday night, we drove to North Ogden and gave a stake fireside on Joseph Smith's surgery...

It was a busy weekend

Alles Gute, Dad