Bienvenue! Herzlich Wilkommen!

Bienvenue! Herzlich Wilkommen! This means "Welcome" in German. We made it safely to Germany. We will be serving our mission in Chemnitz, a city in Eastern Germany. Here is Doug sitting in our Wohnug.... it means place where we live.

A letter from Sister Austin on June 16, 2008

Guten Tag.... Familie and Freunde,

I hope that is right. We are moving forward. Family home evenings....Institute and highlight activities are coming out of our ears. Preparing food for these occasions is another important event.

We had a Sister in the mission who spent a couple of days in the hospital and is home now doing fine. Her companion stayed with us and then it was determined I would stay with her.... Which I did. That was an interesting adventure.

Doug was called late one evening and went to the hospital to pick up a Young Single Adult with the Elders. They went and all was well.

We were informed we are now to also help the Dresden YTA'S Young Single Adults. This will much more responsibility and time. Centers generally work with one center only. We will do our best. Traveling to Dresden is over an hour. We went last week and met with the incredible Student Officers. They were awesome.

We also just finished a training in Frankfurt. That trip is about 4-5 hours away. It was wonderful after a month do go to a training and finally feel like we can see a vision of what we are doing. We went down on Friday and returned on Sat. We then immediately wen to visit a young man who was to be baptized. We picked up the Elders and Sisters, and believe me that is a tight squeeze in our little car but we did it. He was committed but when it finally came down to it, he cancelled. We are not sure why but things like that happen more often than we desire. Elder Austin spoke extensively to both parents. They are very kine people from Turkey who have lived here for many years. They have quite a story to tell. They are so hospital and kind to all the missionaries as they share their food and time with us......

Well we now have a much better feel for who we are and what we are to do and how we are to work with the missionaries etc. We can see that we are going to have to lay down some stricter standards for the missionaries. Transfers are happening tomorrow and we will have a meeting with the missionaries and start a new policy.

We have had dinner now with 2 families. The Jentz family who is the Bishop. Wow what a wonderful spread of food, and also the Myers this last week. This is an older couple in the ward who have lived here many years though the DDR years. They shared an incredible story of how the saints in the time of the DDR would ask the government to go to the temple in Switzerland. They kept asking until one day they said no and the saints said but we want to go to the temple. And the government said well then just build a temple. And they did.

Our Stake President told Brother Austin that at one timer there were 5 Wards here in Chemnitz. We only have one now. Many of them left before the wall came up. It is an interesting thing to talk to people who have 3 or 4 generations in the church. We have a few families in the ward that are in that position. It is amazing to listen to them speak at church and hold callings. They understand the gospel and try hard to live it.

Well I broke our light in the living room exercising. We had repair people come today, and it looks like we will need to have a whole new light. I guess I just must not be so rigorous.

I am getting ready for FH E tonight. I must say we feel the Spirit of this work when we are with the Young Adults. The Lord loves these Young People and so do we....

By the way i am working on Genealogy. Those of you who need to can e-mail me the information...... You Know who You Are......

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We are hopping to get our phone soon... I have been saying that for 2 months I know.,,,,,

Love
Sister Austin