Longen Branch

On Sunday, January 10, 2010, we traveled to the Longen Branch of the church here in the Darmstadt area. This is a small branch of about 60 members. The high councilor over the young single adults took us there to meet the young single adults and to encourage them to come to the center. It was a very good experience. We were able to meet with Christian Wagner and his family. Christian was a child when we had visited his family once before when we were here in the Army from 1970-73. His father and mother were taught by the missionaries and joined the church. Dad was one of those missionaries. We have kept in touch over the years and it will be great to see them again. They were both ill that day and could not make it to church. They really wanted to come. We will visit them next week when we go to inspect the missionaries apartment. I went to relief society and a young woman translated for me. During the Sunday School time we met with the Branch President and then to Sacrament Meeting. They asked us to share our testimony with the branch. I began with someone to translate and then had prepared my testimony in German. I had to read it but I did say it. It was very basic and one of the older members said that my German will get better. Does that mean it was bad? Dad shared his testimony and both of the other speakers were young adults. It was a great meeting and even though I didn't understand everything that was said, the spirit of our Heavenly Father was definitely there. We came back to the ward in Darmstadt just as they were going home. Dad had a missionary meeting and I talked with the single adults until about 3 pm and then we headed home. We were tired. Monday night was a great Family Home Evening. We had a big group there and they were having a good time together. We had dinner first--pulled pork sandwiches, potatoes au gratin, cut veggie tray, and banana bread. They ate it all! One of the single adults gave the lesson and we had one investigator there. Her name is Natasha and she is from Thailand. She speaks very good English and is very polite. They have given the first 2 lessons to her and the young adults have already made her feel so welcomed. We cleaned up after FHE and then fell into our beds at home. Today was our p day and we cleaned and washed and shopped. It has been so snowy and cold we haven't wanted to travel too far. I can hardly wait for sunshine and a little better weather. We are exploring more bakery shops, grocery stores where we look for items that we recognize and things that we can make. We have found oatmeal that dad loves and of course the kasekuchen was our big find this week. We are going to the Frankfurt Temple on Saturday to do baptisms for the dead with the young adults. They do this every six weeks and have a large turnout. The other young adult center kids come too and then they have a meal and an Institute class following this. It is a great time to be together and to share the spirit of the gospel.