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My daughter just opened her mission call, and we were able to participate via Skype. She is reporting to the MTC on February 6th on her way to the Germany, Berlin mission.
Congratulations Ray, this has got to be such an interesting time to be the father of a missionary in whatever continuum of the Mormon moment we are in. Perhaps Germany isn’t quite like the US in this respect but I sense at least a small international spark has been lit in this regard, I couldn’t be happier for you. Any thoughts… joys or initial concerns about destination? Germany we hear in the news is one of the more stable and prosperous European countries right now. Of course cultiral prosperity can be its own mixed bag when it comes to missionary work. Congrats to your daughter on her call. I wish her nothing but sucess and growth. We just had a kid cone back a few months ago and he said it was a very good mission. Germany is a beautiful place. She studied French in high school, so I told her if she can’t go to France at least she can teach their conquerors. 👿 (Of course, that could be said of most European countries . . . )😈 Interesting tidbit: Germany is called the atheist capital of Europe, with 60% of the population not claiming any religious affiliation.
She is a unique young lady. She told me a couple of days ago that she was in a bad enough mood to punch someone in the face – and “not just because I’m in Utah”.
:silent: (That was following a conversation in which she told a friend she had voted for President Obama and heard the response, “Are you serious? I’m not sure if you really did or are just stirring the pot, like you like to do.”) Her wardrobe is not risque or inappropriate in any reasonable way, but she certainly is going to have to do some shopping to leave for the MTC. (I hear visible bra straps and hem lines significantly above the knee are not encouraged.) She also is going to have to stop using some of her favorite expressions when upset – and when not upset. (She once told a male friend to “grow a pair” and ask out a girl he liked.)😳 She will love the German people, and she is going to teach more than one companion the need for tolerance, I’m sure. She plays the saxophone and piano, but she can be a metaphorical kazoo at times. She certainly will add her own unique sound to the orchestra in that area.
Congradulations. You have to keep us informed through this posting. It should be interesting. Don’t you wonder how the experience will change her?
Congratulations Ray! That’s great news. Friend of mine went to Germany on his mission and has loved the country ever since.
When’s she headed to the temple?
I do wonder how it will change her – but, given the kind of person she is, I wonder just as much how she (and other young women like her numbering in the thousands) will change it and other missions. We don’t have a temple trip scheduled yet, but it will be sometime in January, probably. We want to have it be early enough that she can go a few times but late enough that we will have some more time for her to prepare for it properly. She will be home just before Christmas, so it will be soon after that.
Congratulations! I spent a summer in Bavaria a few years ago. The local ward members were very strong in the gospel. They didn’t have a lot of baptisms, but their activity rate was something like 80%. When Germans commit to something, they don’t mess around.
I hope she has a rewarding experience.
Old-Timer wrote:My daughter just opened her mission call, and we were able to participate via Skype.
She is reporting to the MTC on February 6th on her way to the Germany, Berlin mission.
A heart-felt congrats! Having five daughters, #4 chose to go on a mission, and it was a great experience for all of us.Congrats from me too Ray. I was born in Berlin, but served my mission in Austria. It is a hard area and I hope she gets a good mission president as that makes a big difference as well as good companions. It sure helps you grow up and do alot of thinking. I highly recommend she read this book before she goes about lds members in Berlin during WWII. All of chapter 7 in the book is about my mother and 3 older brothers and what they endured during the war. How members saved their lives. Very interesting reading to help her understand the German members background: http://www.amazon.com/We-Were-Not-Alone-Survived/dp/1570089760/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1353895431&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=lds+members+survived+WWII+in+Berlin bridget_night wrote:Congrats from me too Ray. I was born in Berlin, but served my mission in Austria. It is a hard area and I hope she gets a good mission president as that makes a big difference as well as good companions. It sure helps you grow up and do alot of thinking. I highly recommend she read this book before she goes about lds members in Berlin during WWII. All of chapter 7 in the book is about my mother and 3 older brothers and what they endured during the war. How members saved their lives. Very interesting reading to help her understand the German members background:
http://www.amazon.com/We-Were-Not-Alone-Survived/dp/1570089760/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1353895431&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=lds+members+survived+WWII+in+Berlin Thanks for sharing this Bridget. I’ve often wondered what life must have been life for the German LDS during the 2WW. Seems a good place to start. It’s an area where the question of supporting the law of the land is really brought strongly into question. I know that the JWs in Germany got a lot of problems for their commitment to their faith and passivity.
bridget_night wrote:I highly recommend she read this book before she goes about lds members in Berlin during WWII. All of chapter 7 in the book is about my mother and 3 older brothers and what they endured during the war. How members saved their lives. Very interesting reading to help her understand the German members background:
http://www.amazon.com/We-Were-Not-Alone-Survived/dp/1570089760/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1353895431&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=lds+members+survived+WWII+in+Berlin I read this a few years ago and it was a good read. I have read everything I could get my hands on about WW2 and if it had church stuff all the better. “The price” by Karl-Heinz Schnibbe is another good book about this. I have German ancestors on my Dad’s side and German Jewish ancestors on my mom’s side but luckily they all came to the US in the late 1800s. The german people have had to endure many hardships, some of their own doing, some not and I think they have lost a lot of faith because of that. I have been to Germany 3 times as a stop on my way to Iraq and back on on my way to Turkey but I have only seen the different US military airports. I would love to really see the place.
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