PUTTING MY PROBLEMS INTO PERSPECTIVE

Mondays are Eileen’s least favorite day of the week.  It is the day we and the other three humanitarian missionary couples are required to be in town for Welfare Department and Humanitarian Division meetings.  Meeting with the other couples is great, perhaps the best part of our mission.  Since we have three regional (country) managers, while the other couples have just one, it means we can have up to five meetings that day.  In addition to the three regional managers, we have three humanitarian managers that direct our work.  As each of the six managers have their own unique views on our activities, navigating simultaneously their various directions can get complicated.

On Monday night, at FHE for the senior missionaries, President Peter Huber of the Europe Central Turkic and Persian-Speaking Mission (headquartered in Frankfurt), spoke about the growth of the Church in Turkey and among immigrants to German-speaking areas in Europe.   Listening to him caused us to compare the experiences missionaries are having there with what we are currently doing.

On Tuesday, we went to eat lunch at a table in our office.  Sitting there was a man who was finishing up a phone call.  We introduced ourselves and spent a few minutes getting to know Aleksey Tkachenko.  He is the Welfare and Self-Reliance Manager for Ukraine and Moldova.  He was in town to attend the meetings the last two weeks with our Area’s Welfare Department employees.  When I asked if he knew Kai Hintze, a member of our ward in Centerville and former DTA in the old Europe East Area, he lit up and said, “Yes, he hired me for my first position with the Church.”  He then went on to tell us how Kai had challenged him to go back to school and get a college degree.  Aleksey said both he and his wife now have master’s degrees because of Kai’s influence in his life.

Aleksey and his family currently live in the Ukraine.  Eileen started asking him about his life there and problems with the war.  As Aleksey was talking about effects of the war on his family and neighborhood near Kiev, he showed us pictures of war damage.  Suddenly, my problems didn’t seem quite so serious.   I am grateful for my problems and that I don’t need to worry about my family’s safety while living in an active war zone. 

                                      

                             Aleksey Tkachenko is the Welfare Self Reliance Manager in Ukraine. 

These are photos Aleksey shared with me of Kiev and the effects bombing had on his country. This is a photo of a children's clinic which was bombed.  He showed us some photos of pediatric oncology patients out side of a bombed out hospital. Most of the children were bald from their cancer treatments, and were wrapped in space blankets trying to stay warm.  

                             

President and Sister Huber served as humanitarian missionaries in Turkey from 2022-2024  organizing relief efforts after the earthquake. President Huber told of the remarkable efforts taking place in Turkey.  His presentation was informative and uplifting. However it would not be appropriate to share his insights on social media. 

                                                                                      

I didn't know Russell was taking this photo of me.  I have the "corner office" which I like. 

   

I (Eileen) play pickleball on Tuesdays and Wednesday mornings. It means I have to get up at 5:45.  It has been a fun social outlet. Sister Parks (far right) organizes the group as we have to drive 15 min to get to where we play.  She just found out last week she and her husband are being transferred to Manila where they will work with Mental Health for the missionaries.  I will really miss her as she has been a good friend.  

We took the Parks out for lunch on Saturday.  This huge bowl is a Parmigiana cheese wheel which has been hollowed out.  The waiter stirred hot pasta in the cheese wheel and the parmigiana cheese melted into the pasta. It was delicious.

                                       

This past week we had a seminar for all the WSR missionaries throughout the Europe Central Area. We were only invited to one morning session as the rest of the seminar didn't apply to our position.  It was fun seeing all the missionaries together. 

I am not sure why the person who planned catering thought American senior missionaries would eat raw hamburger on a sandwich.  The veggie sandwiches disappeared quickly. 

The infield couples from the different countries  received this booklet which will be shared with priesthood leaders. 

A DIFFERENT KIND OF MEAL

This last week we attended a conference of the Humanitarian Division of the Area Welfare Department.  The meeting is referred to as a MEAL conference, an acronym for Monitor, Evaluate, Account for and Learn.  These conferences are held maybe three times each year.  This was our first.  We had nine senior missionary couples attend, the eight from our Area plus Elder and Sister Ford who serve in Moldova.  Technically they are part of the Europe North Area; but since they are geographically closer to Frankfurt than London, they do quite a bit with our Area. The six employees associated with our division were also in attendance.  We covered a number of technical topics such as certain processes in CHaS (the Church Humanitarian (computer) System), a new NGO vetting process from HQ/SLC, and a new document for Church leaders outlining all of the welfare and self-reliance services that our department now has available to assist leaders and members in the Europe Central Area.  The question now is how long will it take before the local church leaders utilize the services?  The need is there, and we have senior missionaries available to help provide the services, but acceptance of new programs can be challenging for already overstretched local church leaders.   

In addition to the scheduled meeting activities, we also participated as a group in the Frankfurt JP Morgan Chase sponsored 5k.  Most of the seniors walked with the other estimated 73,000 who ran/walked the race.  We also attended a temple session together on Thursday.  This weekend, like several others in May was marked by another religious holiday – Corpus Christi. We used the time off to visit Krakow and see Elder and Sister Jarvis, the WSRS couple in Poland.  Like us, they had previously served in Frankfurt, where Sister Jarvis was an Area Mental Health Advisor. 

E & S Johnson hosted the Humanitarian couples for dinner last Sunday. From L-R,  E & S Sutterfield, Muelleck, Johnson,  Dodgen and Healy 

Sister Johnson planned and organized the MEAL conference which was held in the Area Office. 

                                 

Dinner with the couples and employees. 

   

We were encouraged VERY strongly to do the 5k.  After an hour of standing and waiting to start a few of the seniors were already having difficulties. 

    

We have an acronym for this "fun run".  INDIA as in I will never do it again. I guess it is good to say we have done it once. Part of our 73,000 new best friends. 

The Wieliczka Salt Mine was pretty incredible. We had to go down 800 stairs to reach the base of the mine which is 1073 feet below ground level. There are 245 km of winding galleries in this mine. It was excavated from the 13th century. Numerous statues carved from salt adorn the mine, including this one of Jesus with the pope in the background. 

A chamber within the salt mine with many salt carvings of the life of Jesus

This was one of the original cars used to transport jews to Auschwitz and Birkenau. 75 people were crammed into these train cars with no windows or places to relieve themselves.

              

Auschwitz is a very sobering reminder of man's inhumanity to their fellow man.

Original gas chamber at Auschwitz. 1500 people were killed at a time. It took 25 minutes to kill that many people. 

One of the plaques at Auschwitz identifying the ethnicity of the 1,100,000 people killed there.

I was so done with all the gold embossed everything in the church at Wawel Castle. I told Russell we needed to leave, when I stumbled on a small side room with the statue of the Christus there. It didn't fit with the rest of the church but I was happy to see it. 

I (Eileen) found my happy place in a store which sold Polish pottery. 

E & S Healy and Jarvis at the meetinghouse in Krakow. It was on the third floor of a building on a strip mall. A large group of BYU study abroad students came and there wasn't room for them in the meeting.

This video was shown to all the members of the Church in the Central Europe Area for the 5th Sunday in May second hour meeting. It is about Caring for the Poor and Needy. 

EVALUATION AND RESET

Eileen pointed out to me that this week we passed the quarter-way point of our 18-month mission.  Maybe it is just because I am getting older, but time seems to pass much quicker now.  Next week we have a four-day conference for the Europe Central Area humanitarian employees (4) and senior missionaries (16).  Both things caused me to consider the humanitarian work within the countries we look after and to evaluate our mission so far. 

Currently we have 30 projects at varying stages, from pre-approval development to final stage before formal closure.  This does not count the half-dozen that are “on the horizon” that we may or may not actually end up spending much time developing.  Of those 30, 10 are projects in central and southern Italy that we are in the final stages of closing.  Of the remaining 20, 12 have been started since we arrived.  Unlike our prior humanitarian missions where we were involved in a wide variety of project types, being assigned only relatively affluent western European countries, our projects are limited to just a few different types.  About 35% of our projects are food kitchens, 25% are dealing with homelessness and safe houses for women & children, 25% are education and integration efforts, and 15% with funding psychological or mental health services and access to medications.  My best guess is that 75% of our project’s end beneficiaries are refugees or migrants from Ukraine, the middle east, and Africa who now reside in western Europe.

With the way our assignment is structured, the Welfare field-couples in Italy, Austria and Germany have the face-to-face contact with the NGOs and beneficiaries.  The employees compare our respective roles to those in a restaurant, where the field-couples take the orders and deliver the food and we in the Area roles cook in the kitchen.  When I used to train humanitarian couples, I would describe the work as 20% meeting people (the best part - 10% at the beginning and 10% at the end of a project) and 80% office work.  We have the 80% on this mission. 

We have found a lot of joy here serving with the other senior missionaries in Frankfurt.  This is one of the reasons we have tried to have others over for dinner each Sunday afternoon.  Eileen has been going to early morning pickleball and swimming with a few of the other sister missionaries, and she will begin taking German language lessons later this month.  I’ve decided I need to look around and see what things I can do which may possibly make others around me happier and then follow through.  

In preparation for the conference next week, Elder and Sister Busath flew in on Friday afternoon from Tashkent, Uzbekistan.  They do not have the benefit of many other senior couples serving around them or access to western restaurants.  We decided to invite them out for dinner on Friday night and offered to take them somewhere on Saturday of their choosing.  We ended up going to a German restaurant on Friday, Heidelberg castle on Saturday, a Mexican restaurant on Saturday evening, doing their wash last night, and taking them to church with us today.  While it may have been of benefit to them, it has made both Eileen and I happy to be of service, and we have gained new friends!

Elders and Sisters Busath and Healy at Heidelberg

Overlooking Heidelberg

Russell and Elder Busath taking the funicular up the mountain

Heidelberg castle is extremely large, overlooking the city and the Neckar River.

Numerous statues adorn the outside of the castle. 

Overlooking Heidelberg

There were tables set up in one of the rooms for a wedding which was later in the day.
This was a theater built for Elizabeth Stuart by her husband 

The Alte Bruce Bridge was built in 1788

There were multiple beautiful stained glass windows dating back to the year 1604.

Overlooking the Heidelberg Castle. This castle was first started in the 13th century. Different pieces were added on until the 17th century. 

This funicular goes to the top of the mountain and it is over 100 years old

AN INDONESIAN MISSIONARY REUNION IN BERLIN

While the world we live in is indeed large with its billions of people living in almost two hundred countries on six continents and many islands, it can at the same time seem much smaller or closer at times.  Shortly after moving to Germany, we were contacted by Elder Gary Stephens.  He and his wife are currently serving in the office of the Berlin Germany Mission.  Elder Stephens served in Indonesia in 1974-5.  While not companions, we lived in the same house in Semarang, he in his last transfer and I in my first in Indonesia.  My companion at the time, Elder Zobell, was in the same group with Elder Stephens, who were among the first missionaries to receive language training at the MTC in Hawaii before going to Indonesia.  

Years later, I (Russell) came in to contact with Elder Stephens again at Jessica’s wedding reception.  Gary had been in a bishopric with my son-in-law’s father. We talked then again around/during the time Eileen and I were called to Indonesia to serve as humanitarian missionaries in 2012.  Elder Stephens and his wife likewise served as humanitarian missionaries in Indonesia a few years ago just after the Covid pandemic.  Unfortunately, they had to alternate between serving in Malaysia and Indonesia because of visa challenges.  Visa issues in Indonesia have been a recurring subject for Christian missionaries for over 50 years.  

The Whit Sunday/Monday holiday celebrating Pentecost (Germany has several religious holidays in May), provided us an opportunity to visit Berlin with another missionary couple from Frankfurt (Elder and Sister Muelleck), and to meet with Elder and Sister Stephens at church today.  It is great to see those you served with in your youth still firm in the gospel of Jesus Christ and continuing to serve missions. 

                                   

             Elder and Sister Healy with Elder and Sister Stephens in Berlin. Fifty nine visitors were at the meeting on Sunday acoording to the sister conducting RS.

                             

Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam, the summer palace of King Frederick the Great

                                                Beautiful columbines in the Sannsouci Gardens

                                                  

                                                 

                             

Berlin Cathedral is a magnificent basilaca which was built in 2 years. It serves the Protestant           community. 

                                

This fountain in front of the Cathedral is not usually green. We are not sure if it was a prank, or why it is green. 

Beautiful stained glass windows in the Berlin Cathedral.

                                            You can rent these Trabani cars to drive around Berlin.

The courtyard near the Opera House.  The amphitheater showing behind us was where they had an outdoor concert later in the evening. It was called Opera for All.  This is also the site of the infamous book burnings by the Nazis. 

In order to be in the courtyard to see the opera you either needed to sit on the ground or bring your own char. We sat on some benches in the street and were able to still hear the opera fairly well. 

The medical missionary who recently came down with Ebola in the DRC was evacuated to this Charite hospital in Berlin not far from our hotel. Vaccines for cholera, and TB were developed here. 

These Trabant cars can be rented to take a drive around Berlin.

The Healys and the Muellecks in front of the Brandenburg Gate. 

Plaque near Brandenburg Gate memorializing the visit from Ronald Reagan on June 12, 1987 challenging Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the wall. Reagan stated "Mr Gorbachev, open this gate!  Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall! The Berlin Wall fell on November 9th, 1989.

Every week I (Eileen) think I have walked the most steps of my life.  Once again I improved my record of steps in one day. Thankfully with a shot in my foot and knee on Monday I didn't hurt too bad this week. 

A short clip from the Opera for all in the plaza of the Opera House in Berlin

We saw this choir from William and Mary college sightseeing in Potsdam. They invited us to their concert in Berlin which we went to Saturday night. The missionaries were all surprised to hear the melody to one of our sacrament songs sung to German lyrics (different from the sacrament song). It is Sechs Leader, op 59 no 1, 3-6 by Felix Mendelssohn