Christmas in Germany

Note: This is an email I sent to Russell about our experiences in Germany/Austria/Switzerland over the holidays. We went with our daughter Lyndy, to visit her mission area. She has been home from her mission for 3 years now.

Going to Germany was a especially touching and memorable experience for me. My mother's family is originally from Germany. Our grandfather used to speak to us in German. We were raised in the Lutheran Church. We had wonderful children's Christmas Eve programs every year. You will see my reference to this memory below.

It was wonderful to be there and celebrate Christmas in the German fashion. We had a typical German meal, sausages with mustard. It was great! We were there with the sister missionaries. The Lippl family has one son, Sebastian, about 8 years old. He was so excited! The parents read the Christmas story (in German of course), and we each choose a Christmas carol to sing. They sang in German- we sang in English. It didn’t matter, because the spirit was there. We closed with the traditional “Stille Nacht”. I loved being able to sing this beloved Christmas carol in the traditional way, on Christmas Eve. I was thrilled I knew it in German from my childhood days of Christmas Eve programs, singing it on Christmas eve, in German. It was such a wonderful, memorable experience for me.

We went to the Temple in Bern, Switzerland. As we walked into the Temple, we could hear one Temple worker using German, another using French, and another using Italian. As everyone enters the Temple, they are asked what their language is. Then the number of languages is tallied, and the predominant language of the people there is used for the session. Our session was in French. It was great for me, because I took French in high school. Although I did not understand all the words, it was wonderful to hear the session in that language. We were given headsets to listen in English. The sister next to me was listening in Spanish- there were others listening in German, Italian, Swiss German and other languages there too. The spirit was so strong there. It helped us to grasp the truly universal, truly worldwide nature of the gospel, and the church. We counted our blessings as members of the church, and reminded of the unconditional love our Father in Heaven and Jesus has for us.

Your story about the member and missionary work reminded me of something my mom told me recently. When we went to Austria, we were near the place where the famous Christmas carol Stille Nacht (Silent Night) was written. There is a small chapel built there to commemorate the occasion. Your dad and I took a train to the small town near Salzburg to see the Stille Nacht chapel. It was small, and very picturesque. I sent a post card of the chapel to my mom. She told me she received the postcard, and wanted to share it with the missionaries when they come over the next time. I wanted to share that special experience with her and my sisters of being where the Christmas carol was inspired!

All our love and prayers are with you!
Love,
Mom

I'm staying in Koln!!!

Note; notice the German grammar creeping into Russell’s writing. :-)

So I don't have to pack- thank goodness, Though I will be getting a new companion. Which is cool. I'm excited to try some new ideas out this transfer. So all is going well.

As far as packages go I’ve gotten a few. The one from the young women/young men got to me...I believe, also the package from the Thorntons.

I've got a cool story about how missionary work's supposed to do.

We had an appointment with a family in the church (mother and her daughter) set up. I didn't think much about. Just go eat, give a thought, and leave. Well, we show up and there's a girl I've never seen sitting next to the daughter. I thought it might just be someone visiting from another ward. Well as we traveled to the appointment the girl came with. On the way to the member’s house, she started asking non-mormon questions, like where did we learn the language, if we study here too, how long do we stay. Fairly safe to say she wasn't a member. Well, we got the place and the mother says, “It'll take a while to get lunch ready”, so we just talked with the girl about the ward about America and about the church in general. The subject of Joseph Smith was brought up. She wanted to know his story (I was planning on telling her that after dinner but I couldn't very well say NO, you can't know about Joseph Smith) Then right after, she asked us why we do all the stuff that the church asks from us. Well then (by the inspiration of God) lunch was ready. After that we find out the girl had asked the mother why she joined the church. So the mother gave this great conversion story (a little long) and all I had to say was “Well your question is answered”, gave her a Book of Mormon and invited her to meet again. She didn't commit right there but they don't always. It was amazing cause that's how it's supposed to work. Nobody's hurt. There was no blood, no anger. Just learning and love.
Anywho life's awesome
Elder McDonald.

Why hello!

Note: I am woefully behind in posting to Russell's blog. Here is his email received just before we left for Germany. Karna and Christian were German exchange students we had stay with us when Russell was in high school They are from Bremen, which is farther north and outside of Russell's mission area.


December 16, 2008

That's crazy that you guys are going to be in Germany this weekend. Hahaha have fun at church! You won't understand a word. Let me know how Lyndy does, her German’s not that bad but I'm willing to bet it'll take her a while before her ear gets used to it again. Though it's no big deal. Anyone under fifty can speak a decent amount of English.

Thanks for Karna and Christians addresses, I can't wait to write them in German. I'll have to make it legible. I would offer to send you something from Germany for Christmas, but seeing as you're coming here there's nothing really that I can buy that you can`t get yourself.

UMMM thanks for the cd's. If you could send me one now and then that isn't too Christmasy. Just need a little abwechslung (hahah look that one up) (hopefully I spelled it right).

In the past two weeks we've had people who just found their way to church. Two weeks ago an ex-Jehovah’s witness and this last week a guy who just heard about the church while studying history, got information about where our church is and when we meet and he just showed up. It's always fun doing the "I don't know you, who are you visiting game" then to discover they don't know anyone and aren`t members, then it's the "who among the missionaries knows him" game. Then to find out none of the missionaries are connected to him. Then it`s the "who`s gonna meet with him so he learns" game. Honestly it was fun but a little silly. All is good here.

Love
Elder McDonald

I did look up “abwechslung”. It is a noun meaning:
1. change
2. diversion
3. diversity
4. variety
5. alternation
6. diversification
7. relief

Weekly report

Hey! Not much new this week. We've just been prepping for Christmas (only two weeks away- crazy!) It hasn't snowed in the past little while which makes me sad but what-ev. We've been doing a lot of member work. Trying to help them get the courage to open their mouths...So yea it's cool.
Well, one really crazy thing that I found out is that the sister of a member that lives in my old area (Wesel) lives here in Koln. We were only able to talk real short and I wasn't able to talk to her about the gospel, but she was really happy to see us and I was amazed by such a "random coincidence". Anyhow, like always, I'm real busy.

Till next week
Elder McDonald

Mir is kalt- #3

The latest email received from Elder McD this morning. He shares a response from an email I sent him. Our patriarch, David Feil, served in the same mission in the 1960's. Russell and Brother Feil have been comparing notes on the area and its changes in the past few years. See my original email below, and Russ' response on top.

Hey that's weird cause I sent a email to Brother Feil a couple of weeks ago if he didn't get it I'll just give it to you right now:

I must admit I never expected to be serving here in Koln- I just didn't think I was a big city missionary. Right now we've got three companionships here. One up north in Leverkusen. One on the east on the Uni center. Then us in Kalk, we're mostly between here and Mulheim we also go down to Portz and of course spend a good amount of time in Deutz. Well, actually at the moment the ward's relatively small (a lot of people have moved out). Right now the bishop's Brother Rimmel. I have no idea how long they've been here. The people who you've mentioned don't ring a bell but I'll check the ward list. After all I've only been here for a month.

It's funny that you mention Rome. We had lunch with an inactive member and his roommates and I learned all about Rome’s travel up the Rhein. It was really cool because I was also able to see the Xanten ruins when I was in Wesel. So I found it fascinating. But history discussions are hard in German.

I'm doing great. At the moment I don't have a German companion but I did! it was sweet. There's also a German missionary in our districkt so it's cool.

Well you know better than anyone a p-day on the computer in koln is just a waste of time.

Love
Elder McDonald.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ok well as for me, Elder Harris and I are staying here in Koln, so The address you have goes. Umm as far as Christmas stuff I don't know, you'll have to use your imagination.

Well, it is transfer p-day so we've got a lot to do (mainly party before the members of our distrikt leave) so I'll send you a longer e-mail later.

Much love
Elder McDonald

-----Original Message-----

From: "Cyndy McDonald"
To: "'russell McDonald'"
Date: Tue, 2 Dec 2008 00:02:34 -0800
Subject: RE: Mir is kalt

Russell;
It was great talking to you on Thurs/Friday. It was good to hear your voice! I hope the rest of your day and weekend went well.

Did you receive an email from Brother Feil? He wrote to you and was wondering if you had responded in an email to me. If you can, send a return email to him- or send it to me and I will forward to him.

Are you staying in Koln? I hope that works out for you. If not, the Lord needs you somewhere else in the mission.

We do want to know where to send packages to you for Christmas. There is another couple in the ward that asked me about where to send packages to you, too. Should I send (and have others send) packages to the mission home? Or to your apartment?

Besides music, is there anything else you need or would like to request?

Food for thought: Helaman 5:44-45.

from an email sent by Russell 11/25/2008

It has gotten cold! It snowed most of Sunday, of course it's melted by now. But still. Transfer calls are this Saturday. So don't mail anything just in case i get moved to another city.

Well here's a story about an awesome guy I met.

J. is a young man who have a horrible car accident about four years ago, which basically made it so he had to learn everything over again, walking talking the works. So we've been trying to meet with him for awhile and finally got our first appointment. He had a lot of questions, but it was funny ‘cause he said "convince me, teach me." He is not ready for baptism or anything yet but he is prepared. When we got to the point where we told him how we found the truth, he asked us why we tell other people and whatnot. Then when we told him that we know this gospel is the key to happiness, no matter who you are. His first reaction was "That's a big claim", then the next thing he said was that he needed that. It was really sweet.

Well, till next week (here's hoping I stay in Kln)

Elder McDonald

I have been very busy in the last two weeks with students, so I have not had time to update our Elder's blog. Here is his email from 11/18/08

This week has been really cool and gone by really fast. This week we had Zone Conference and I loved it. The second counselor in the area presidency came and talked to us and it was amazing. I learned lots of cool spiritual stuff and it's helped me to grow a lot. The more I learn the more amazed I am at the amount of spiritual Giants there are among our church.

We've also had the opportunity to meet with a young man who is extremely honest and searching for the church. At the moment he is really busy but he still takes the time to read and pray and I'm certain that he will come to the knowledge of the truthfulness of our message quickly.

Well I'm off.
Love you all