Training Elder and Sister Jones in Tirana, Albania

On Tuesday, November 12, 2019 we flew to Tirana, Albania to train out new couple Elder Clifton and Sister Diane Jones.  Elder and Sister Jones are from Billings, Montana

After arriving at the Tirana Airport, E/S Jones took us to our hotel.  The hotel was about a 5 minute walk from their apartment.  They have a very nice apartment and one of the few larger cards that missionaries drive.  Most senior missionaries have Hyundai i30's (like ours).   They have a Hyundai Tucson, which is really good because they are both quite tall.

After dropping our things off at the hotel we made the five minute walk to their apartment where we worked to make sure their phones, computers and printers worked.  We also needed to activate and get a pin number for their humanitarian credit card which they will use for their work.   

Each day was spent reviewing their humanitarian projects, learning project since procedures and discussing how to submit a variety of reports.  Each evening we were out to dinner; nothing fancy, but after spending the whole day doing office work it was a welcome change.

We did take the opportunity to visit some of their humanitarian project partners as well as going to Durrës, the second largest city in Albania.   In Durrës, we met with a few potential organizations that perhaps E/S Jones will be able to do humanitarian projects with.

Stake Conference November 9/10, 2019

Last weekend we had the opportunity to attend Stake Conference for the Frankfurt Stake.  The visiting Area Seventy was Elder K. Roy Tunnicliffe from York, England.  Elder Tunnicliffe was called in April 2017 and has a background in Seminaries and Institutes.  Elder Tunnicliffe is an excellent story teller and had everyone's attention.  Stake Conference was interesting because on Sundays we attend the International Ward which is in English, but the rest of the Stake is German speaking.  On Saturday night we had headsets to listen to the translation.  On Sunday there was a translator for each of the talks as there were not enough headsets for everyone.

Saturday Night

Elder Tunnicliffe began his talk by asking us "Are you happy?  Isn't it wonderful to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" He told us to be alert to what the Lord wants us to learn - with pen in hand.  He went on to say that when we are ready, the Lord will help us.
He talked about the story of the Good Samaritan.  He asked - Did those who passed by the man from Jericho really see him?  Really see him?  Only the Samaritan saw him and he showed him compassion.

Next he talked about Zacchaeus.  He reminded us that Zacchaeus was a small man and probably not well liked in his community because he was a tax collector.  Zacchaeus had climbed up the tree to be able to see Jesus.  He was basically standing in the shadows not wanting to be noticed - but the Lord saw him and told him to come down; "for today I must abide at thy house".    Others considered Zacchaeus a sinner, but Jesus saw Zacchaeus as a person.  Elder Tunnicliffe challenged us to see with new eyes, to try to see things from the other person view.

His final story was about how he had set up a tour of Oxford for a seminar he was in charge of.  The lady who volunteered to guide the tour took them on a two hour tour.  A totally different route than the one with all the famous places.  She showed them obscure places and told stories about them.  He told how disappointed he was as the tour was not what he expected.  He explained that he had learned more about the lady who gave the tour.  She had lived on the streets growing up, she was raised in uncertain places.  He asked us "Why is is that we fail to see people?  Everything is always about ourselves.  We have cataracts across our eyes."

Sunday Morning

As Elder Tunniclife started his talk he said that some of us had felt have inspired to write something down.  That was an indication that Heavenly Father wanted to speak to you.  He asked us to please act upon the things that we had been inspired to write about.

He told us that when he was a young boy he did the shopping for his Mother.  They did not have a car so he walked about 2 miles to the supermarket.  If he was lucky he had the trolley, but if not he had to carry groceries in two bags with straps home.  The bags were heavy and they would cut into his hands.  He would walk for awhile till his hands hurt and then he would have to let go for awhile..... hold on and then let go.  Life is like that... exercising our faith, repenting of our sins, being baptized and receiving the Holy Ghost and then the final part of Christ's doctrine  - to endure to the end.

Next he told us a story that if we visited his house, the house might be a bit messy.  As he and his wife would see us coming up the walk, they would pick up all the mess, hurry around and put everything that they didn't want us to see in his office.  Then he would show us his house, but there would be one room we would never see.  The office!  The office contains all of the stuff they don't use.   The microwave box that we think we might need, everything is in the office.  Item by item, box after box, bag after bag - the room becomes filled with stuff until it is impossible to walk around.  He told us about when the time finally came to clean out the office, he and his family took everything from the office to the back of the car.  He said it took a long time to get it from the office to the back of the car.  Then they took everything to that wonderful place.... the Recycling Centre.  He told us that you can take things to the recycling center and think they will never take this, but they do.  He asked us "Isn't life like my office?  We just carry such a lot of stuff with us - some good stuff, but stuff that stops us from entering our office. Stuff that prevents us from being happy."  Things that keep us from walking the covenant path.  We all carry stuff, it is all different.  He reminded us about the rich young man who asked Jesus what he needed to do to inherit eternal life.  How the young man went away sorrowing because he just could not let go of his riches.  He compared the rich young man to the father of King Lamoni.  Who was willing to to let go of everything, and he went away rejoicing.  The Saviour is willing to take everything that we are willing to let go of.  Jesus sees us with our shopping bags of burdens that we carry around and he says - Let go and please give it to me.  He will take it all from us.  We all have these things and just like the recycling center he will take our burdens from us.  Whatever it is that we need to let go of - we just need to let go.

He concluded with a story of a young girl whose mother was the leader of the "girl guides" in her town.  She was able to earn the same merit badges as the older girls.  One day the girls all went to an Olympic size swimming pool to earn their swimming badges.  She got a badges for doing all kinds of things such as swimming under water and picking up a rock or swimming through a hoop.  She did all the events just like the older girls, but she began to grow tired.  The final event was swimming 4 lengths of the olympic size swimming pool.  As she began to swim the first length and got about 3/4 of the way all of the muscles in her arms began to ache.  She managed to finally get to the end and then turned to start the 2nd length.  As she began the 2nd length she started to struggle.  The lifeguard on the side of the pool was watching her very carefully.  All of her friends were watching her as well.  They were afraid she was going to drown.  Quick as a flash the lifeguard dived into the pool.  Everyone knew what would happen next.  They knew he would swim up to her and pull her quickly to the side so that she would be safe.  But he didn't do that.  Instead what he did was come up right in front of her and told her to hold on to his shoulders. She held onto his shoulders, but he didn't swim to the side - he started swimming the 2nd length.  He swam the 2nd length and then swam the 3rd length.  As he swam the 4th and final length all of her friends stood up and started chanting her name and shouting to her to "Hold On".

Sometimes we get discouraged but every time we do, Jesus tells us to Hold On.   To hold on to his shoulders and he will help us.  He is there for us.  Satan would like us to hold on to all our stuff and let go of Jesus Christ.  But the Saviour will always be there for us.  He wants us to let go of the "Stuff" and hold on to Him.

Our discipleship and enduring to the end is all about simply letting go and holding on.  Every day, when it is tough, when it is easy, let go and hold on.  We went home spiritually fed and uplifted.


"Brother and sisters, enduring to the end is the great test of discipleship. Our daily discipleship will determine our eternal destiny.  Awaken unto God, cling to truth, keep your sacred temple covenants, and stay by the tree!"  Kevin W. Pearson, Stay by the Tree, April General Conference 2015

Barriers Come Down - November 9, 1989

November 9, 2019 makes the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.   Many German people including Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf said that they never thought it would happen in their lifetime.

Photo courtesy of dv.com 

 The wall was built to close off access to West Germany.  This was because so many people were crossing the border from the East to West Germany daily (an average of 2,000).  The loss was devastating to the East German economy.  To stop the exodus, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev recommended that East Germany close off the access to West Germany.   On Sunday, August 13, 1961, 30 miles of barbed wire was laid through the heart of Berlin.  Stores and business are closed on Sundays in Germany.  It is a day for everyone to spend the day with their families. East Berliners were forbidden to pass into West Berlin.  On August 15th the border of barbed wire to West Berlin was replaced by a wall of concrete slabs and hollow blocks.  It was built by East Berlin construction workers under close supervision of the border guards.  Those people whose homes were along the border were evicted, ground floor windows and front entrances were bricked up.  The barriers were modified and expanded over the years.  The wall divided friends, families and loved ones, making people lose their jobs and more if they were trapped on the wrong side.   The wall stretched 28 miles through Berlin.  About 5,000 East Germans were able to escape across the wall to the West, but over 191 were killed.  There have been many movies and stories about the escape of some of those people.  There is a museum in Berlin today telling these stories.  It is amazing what one will do to have freedom.

On the evening of November 9, 1989, East Germany announced an easing of travel restrictions to the West.  Thousands insisted on passage through the Berlin Wall.  The border guards opened the borders - Berliners climbed on top of the Berlin Wall, cheered and painted graffiti on it.  The next day East German troops began to dismantle the wall.  On November 3, 1990, East and West Germany were united again.  In Germany it is called Unity Day.  It is a holiday, just like the 4th of July is in America.

Photo courtesy of Telegraph, UK

We grew up during the time of the Berlin Wall.  We were in junior high and high school when it was built.  We remember the morning we heard on NPR (National Public Radio) the fall of the Wall.

We had the opportunity to visit Berlin in August of this year.  Below are some of those pictures.  We have often wondered if our children or our grandchildren even know what the Berlin Wall was and why it was built.  Therefore we have shared this post for them as we have been counselled to share these memories and stories.   

"We had similar dreams, aspirations, and hopes for our lives.  Of course we had our differences too, but our intrinsic values and goals were similar.  We found ways to focus on the similarities we had rather than the differences.  Over time, the miracle of unity happened for Germany."  Elder F. Uchtdorf

Mission or Vacation?

Judging from the pictures you see on our blog you might wonder if we are really on a mission or just on an 18 month long adventure where we go sightseeing wearing missionary name tags.  As we have mentioned before, the larger part of our missionary assignment is Monday through Friday, 8 to 5.  Other than a weekly devotional meeting that takes place on Monday mornings, our day consists of walking over to the office building from our apartment and going to work in the area office. (The operative word in missionary-work is "work".)

 

Our walk to the office might take 5 minutes tops, depending on how long we have to wait for the elevator (we live on the 10th floor).  Once we are in the office, we log into our computers, read our emails, make and answer phone calls and attend meetings.  Every other week we have a humanitarian project review and approval meeting referred to as an Area Humanitarian Committee Meeting.  Those who attend this meeting are ourselves, Elder and Sister Davis (Area Welfare Specialists for Refugees), Chrisitan Otter (Welfare Self Reliance Department Manager), Gilles Francois (Humanitarian Project Manager), Celia Diez (Welfare Self Reliance Administrative Assistant) and Hannah Ashby (our intern).  This meeting is where we discuss the projects which the humanitarian couples in the Europe Area have submitted for approval.  When the meeting is over we go to work notifying the various missionary couples if their projects have been approved and what they might need to do to implement their projects.

The rest of the days and weeks consist of supporting our humanitarian missionary couples (we have 15).  Susan's support could be making sure the accounting codes are put into the finance system properly and approving their expense reports.  She also must assemble and distribute a monthly newsletter which shares what each of the couples have done in the past month.  She also contacts the new couples that have been called and prepares numerous things to take when we go to train the couple after they arrive in their specific country of service.  She also plays detective - finding the missing transactions so the couples do not become out of compliance and get their credit card suspended.

Gary's day is working with the couples so that the projects they submit get approved.  He asks the hard questions and then helps the couples to write the information into the request so that the project has the best chance of approval.  The biggest part of our day is spent in solving problems.  For instance, a new couple has arrived in country - no missionary name badges and missing 3 suitcases, or the couple has to pay for a humanitarian project related expense with their church issued credit card and the transaction is declined.  We try to help them solve their challenges. Much of the work is simply letting them know we are there for them.

Each month we conduct Zoom Video Calls (similar to Skype) with our couples.  We like to connect three couples at a time because we find the couples can and do offer solutions to each other's challenges and problems.

We also travel to the different humanitarian missionary couples and provide on site training.  Sometimes we use Uno cards to teach various "color-coded" Humanitarian Principles.  In the picture below we taught these principles to our management team - Christian, Gilles, and Celia - an assignment from Sister Sharon Eubank.   

In addition to our mission call assignment we have an additional assignment from the Senior Missionary Zone Leaders.  We help coordinate the Senior Missionary Family Home Evenings.  Our duties are to schedule the lesson presenters, coordinate the refreshments, and schedule potluck dinners for departing missionaries.  The picture below shows one of the potluck dinners.  Family Home Evenings are held twice each month.  In our Welfare office we also help celebrate staff member birthdays.

So we actually do "work" during the week - but the on the weekends, especially on Saturdays we try to go somewhere and learn about Germany.  The country is the size of Montana and has a population of 83,500,000.  There are so many little towns and hundreds of castles that need to be explored.  When we were preparing to go to New Zealand on our previous mission, Elder Glen L. Rudd told us to not be "knuckleheads" and sit in our apartment.  "Go out on the weekends; see and learn about the country."  We are following his counsel.  Now the big question - Where should we go next weekend?

"The ways in which couples can serve are virtually limitless,  From mission office support and leadership training to family history, temple work and humanitarian service - there is an opportunity to use almost any skill or talent with which the Lord has blessed you."  Robert D. Hales, Couple Missionaries:  A Time to Serve, April General Conference 2001