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 Measure, Evaluate, Assess 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.  We have attached a copy of the Table of Contents page below.  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

    

BEING A MISSIONARY

Last Thursday, May 14^th was a holiday in Germany and many other European nations.Ascension Day is the 40^th day after Easter and celebrates the ascension of Jesus into heaven as described in Luke 24:51. When a holiday falls on a Thursday, you can be sure the office will be a ghost town on Friday, as almost all the employees will take the day off and have a long weekend.

We took the opportunity to go see Elder and Sister Herway (who we work with on humanitarian projects in Milan and northern Italy), where they are temporarily serving for a couple of months, in Istanbul.  We enjoyed seeing them very much and it was a nice change of pace for a few days.  But the most important thing that happened on the trip was probably a 30-minute period on our way over when I was able to talk to a young man from Brazil about the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ, His restored church, and the Book of Mormon. Alex was sitting next to me on the plane and working on his computer for most of the flight.  We started talking about what brought each of us on the flight, he is an architecture student in Sao Paulo and attending a seminar.  I explained that we lived in Frankfurt, where we did humanitarian projects around Europe and that we were going to see some fellow missionaries. He asked which church we were affiliated with.  It turned out that he had a friend named Moroni back in Sao Paulo who he thought might be “Mormon.” I showed him on my phone the Book of Mormon and Moroni 10:3-5.  I told him, I think this is who your friend was named after. Following our talk about the Church, I gave him one of our name cards and told him he should ask his friend to have the missionaries come teach him about the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.  He asked me to sign my name card that I had given him and to write a short message, which I did.

I will likely never know if anything comes of our encounter and discussion regarding the Church, but it did feel good to be a missionary for a few minutes.  Just as it did prior to my retirement, most of my time now is consumed working and associating with those who are already members of the Church. I need to do a better job of looking for opportunities to share the Gospel with those I happen to encounter.  My guess is that it was not just a coincidence that Alex was seated beside me on the plane last Thursday.

We attended church at a small branch of about 30 people on Sunday morning. Elder Herway conducted, Sister Herway played the piano and they both spoke.  There was a young woman sitting in front of us. She was originally from Sudan, and then her family moved to Uganda.  She is attending school in Istanbul and was quite lonely without friends or family.   She reached out through social media with the sister missionaries and has been attending church.   She will be baptized in two weeks. 

This young sister missionary played a beautiful violin solo as part of Sister Herway's talk. The young elders and sister missionaries live in Frankfurt and commute into Turkey every other weekend to attend church. They can only teach those who reach out to them on social media requesting more information. 

It seems like there are mosques every couple of blocks in Istanbul. We visited the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sofia. 

 

We could not wear our missionary badges while in Istanbul except while attending church and had to wear head coverings while in the mosques.   The girl in the photo with the yellow scarf is our tour guide Yagmur.    As we weren't supposed to talk religion we tried to be discreet when she asked us where we were from, and we said were living in Frankfurt. Eventually she found out that we were from the U.S. and specifically Utah.  She said she has several families that she is very close to that belong to the "LDS community".  She was very surprised to learn that we are missionaries. She commented several times during our tour about how she is still thinking about our faith and beliefs. 

Originally built in 537 AD as a Byzantine Christian cathedral, the Hagia Sophia served as the largest church in the world for nearly a millennium before being converted into a mosque, a museum and ultimately an active mosque once again. Most of the Christian themed mosaics were covered up by the Muslims, but were eventually uncovered once it was turned into a museum. 

 

I (Eileen) finally had to tell the guide I couldn't walk any further. We walked over 23,000 steps in 9&1/2 hours.  

This aqueduct is from the 4th century.  Pretty remarkable.  

 

Men carry huge loads of garbage up and down the steep hills of Istanbul. When walking they flip the trolley so that the weight of the garbage is on their back. 

Sister Herway with her favorite street vendors-the doner vendors.  

The Para Palace is a hotel that Elder Herway HAD to visit to get a club sandwich. It was built in 1892 for travelers of the Orient Express. Sister Herway said the first time she visited there she said "doesn't this just make you feel like you are better than everyone sitting in this decadence?  One club sandwich, 3 cokes and a water came up to $40.  

 

Bosphorus River Cruise

The Galeta tour was built in 1348. 

Turkish delight comes in all different colors and flavors-some taste better than others

Not much room for error between the roof of this boat and the bridge. 

 A visit to the spice market

Overlooking the Bosphorous River

Sister Herway and I spent a girls evening at the spa at our hotel. Unfortunately, the water was freezing-including in the jacuzzi.