Often it seems like nothing
eventful has happened during the last week.
So much of what we do is routine in nature that we might overlook things
that later, in a different setting we might view as interesting if not
important. This has been one of those
weeks, busy but seemingly mundane.
On Thursday we held our
monthly video conference call with all the Welfare couples in the Europe
Area. To me it seemed to go as what has
come to be normal. First we had trouble
getting ourselves and then some of the other couples on the call, which was consistent
with prior months. Then I made a
presentation on Senior Missionaries’ role in Major Initiative projects (like
the wheelchairs, clean water, etc.) that are directed out of Church
headquarters.
During my presentation I
noticed my wife and Gilles Francois (our Area Welfare Manager) exchanging
notes. After the call I asked what they
were doing. Both had noticed things by
watching the couples’ pictures that I had missed due to my concentrating on my
presentation. With nine couples on the
screen at once you have to watch closely to notice things. One couple was wearing coats and another
sister looked troubled.
After the call, I returned to
my accounting type work and Eileen started making calls to the two couples she
was concerned about and another who hade missed the call due to another
pressing matter. Rather than being three
simple calls, they ended up being a series of calls extending over the next two
days. She learned that one of our
couple’s apartments had lost its primary heat source. Not a fun proposition when the temperatures
are below zero degrees Celsius. From another
call she learned that the sister missionary’s mother was seriously ill and in
need of the couple’s assistance.
Eileen’s calls to another sister missionary revealed that the couple’s
car had been towed and the troubles involved with getting it returned. Where they live it is a much more complicated
process that it is in the U.S. – and they got the opportunity to negotiate it
in a foreign language that they did not speak.
As I watched Eileen deal with
each of these situations I was impressed at the way she did it. She was genuinely concerned, nurturing and showing
love for the couples. While this is not
abnormal for her, the assertiveness and strength I witnessed within her was
something I have not seen often since she was working at PCMC and with Operation
Smile as a nurse.
During the last few days one
of our senior missionaries here in Frankfurt contracted meningitis. Elder Thomas Rich, one of my former partners
at Deloitte, has been in the hospital and quite ill. Fortunately one of his sons is a doctor
stationed at a military base not far from Frankfurt and has been able to be
with his parents for a day. As
missionaries we have been fasting and praying for Elder Rich’s recovery. We are truly blessed to live in a time and
place where both good health care and priesthood blessings are available to us. Perhaps I have taken this for granted too
much in my life.
Three days ago I got an email
from an associate at my former employer asking if I would be interested in
coming out of retirement. The timing of
their need and my availability did not work but it felt good to hear from a
friend and flattering to be wanted by people I so highly respect. I had many good friends at work, a blessing I
did not fully appreciate until after I had left.
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