Nach sechs Monaten - eine kurze Pause (After Six Months - a Short Pause)

 It is hard to believe it has been 6 months since we arrived in Germany on August 27.  So much has happened.

Of course the biggest blessing and challenge was receiving over 90 missionaries from the United States in two short months.  They arrived on different flights on different days and were placed in housing for quarantine all over the mission.  Fortunately they are now all in their mission companionships.  Many are in threesomes due to the lack of enough experienced missionaries to be training, but during the next transfer in mid March they will go into regular twosomes which means we can reopen many cities in the mission that were closed when the numbers of missionaries went down last year.

Most of our missionaries are thriving.  These arriving missionaries brought new enthusiasm that has spread throughout the mission.  Many of them are fearless in approaching people on the street. Even though they have difficulty communicating in German, they give it their best which is all that the Lord asks.  As a result they are being blessed.  We hear report after report of their experiences.  And many people actually approach them, wanting to talk about the church or to have a copy of the Book of Mormon.  Our missionaries are also having great success offering a free copy of the Book of Mormon on Facebook Marketplace.  In fact, so many copies of the Book of Mormon have been given away that our mission has run out and we are anxiously awaiting a shipment of more books!

This week Germany entered its fifth-straight month of lockdown.  The only places open are grocery stores, bakeries and gas stations.  Food can be ordered for take-out only.  Hotels are only open to those who have proof that they are traveling for business.  We visited the Nürnburg area this weekend and learned that several of the wards have not met for an entire year!  We are all anxious for things to change but Germany's numbers quit going down and they are lagging behind the U.S. in getting people vaccinated.  How we hope things will change in the coming weeks.  Scott and Jodi Naatjes serving as mission president and companion in the Alpine Mission brought their 17-year-old daughter with them.  She has been so envious watching her friends back home whose lives are much less restricted.  They have decided to send her back to live with her sister in the states.

On March 1 hair salons finally opened here after being closed since the week before Christmas. One news headline read "After a haircut I feel like a human again."  Some of our missionaries have cut each others hair but others have bushy curly heads of hair!  Dan's hair has gotten pretty long and I have tried to trim mine myself, so we can't wait to get cuts, but all the salons have long lists of people they are trying to fit in.

As Dan probably mentioned before, we put 10,261 miles on our car between August 27 and December 31 as we traveled throughout the mission. With tighter lockdown restrictions we held our December and January zone conferences using Zoom, but we received special permission to meet in person for our February conferences.  The missionaries really needed it.  For many of the 90 who arrived since November it was the first time they had met as a group with other missionaries.  It really lifted their spirits -- and ours as well.  There is nothing liking meeting in person.  We were all so grateful for this opportunity to get together -- and of course eat soft ice cream!

We have been traveling from place to place.  While Dan has been interviewing the missionaries, I have met with their companions to show them how to use the Family Tree app.  My goal has been to show them how easy it is to learn about their ancestors so that they can learn from their lives and feel close to them.  One of my favorite things to do is to bring up their fan chart by birth country and see if they have German ancestors.  Many did not think they had any but with a little searching I have been able to find German ancestors for almost every missionary!  For the remaining handful we have found ancestors who served missions here.  What has also been fun has been to look up the German cities of their ancestors' births and find that many lie within the boundaries of our mission!  This really excites them and makes their service here more personal.  Several missionaries have even discovered that the people they are currently teaching have the last name of one of the missionary's ancestors!

What a blessing it is to be serving here with these wonderful missionaries who have a desire to be their best selves and invite others to come unto Christ.  I know that He lives and is guiding this work.