FEELING BLESSED

We have experienced several tender mercies this past week.  Wednesday night some senior missionaries got together to celebrate Elfie’s 88^th birthday.  Elfie is German, and although not a member of our church, has close ties with the senior missionaries. After the birthday party I received a call from a close friend of mine who is also a senior missionary. She was in a total state of panic and asked if I would help her.  She had gone to a large store, similar to Costco in the United States, to buy food for the birthday party.  In her hurry to get home she had inadvertently left her credit card in the machine at the store. We hurried off to the store to see if anyone had turned it in. While she drove, I called the store. I spent 20 minutes on the phone and was told that no credit card had been turned in. My friend was beside herself with concern. I felt impressed that we should say a prayer before going in to the store and that everything would be ok.  A beautiful prayer was offered by my friend. She plead with the Lord that we might be able to find someone who could help us in English and that we could find the card.  Within 10 minutes she had her credit card in her hand. We were both filled with gratitude at the graciousness of the Lord in helping us find the card. Another prayer of thanks was again offered as soon as we reached the car.

There was a holiday in the office this week and we took the opportunity to attend the temple in Freiberg Germany. My sister had done some family history and found a number of direct relatives from the early 1600s who needed temple work done for them.  The story of these relatives is pretty miraculous in itself. The records indicated 10 children were born in this family, however something didn’t seem right to her. She found the death record for the mother listed and the mother actually passed away before five of the children listed on the records were born. Following promptings, she discovered that my grandfather (many generations back) had remarried a few months after his first wife died.  He had a total of 10 children. Three of the children have an identical name as their half-brother or sister.  In two of the three cases the older child which shared the name had died in infancy or as a toddler.  As I did some research on this family before going to the temple I felt very strongly that this family needed to be united.

While at dinner on Friday night I received a call from another of my sisters.  She told me that my father had experienced several symptoms of a stroke and was being taken to the emergency room. I was very concerned and asked her to keep in touch.  My father turned 93 years old 2 weeks ago. My mother is 89 years old.  I recognize that either could pass on to the next life at any time, however it will be very difficult for me when they do so. I love them both very much.  As it turned out many tests were done and he was sent back home without a serious diagnosis. This was another tender mercy offered to my family. As I was in the temple my thoughts turned to how gracious my Heavenly Father has been to me.  Today is Father’s Day. I feel truly blessed to have three very good father figures in my life, my husband who is the father of my children, my earthly father and also my Heavenly Father. 

Elfie and Sister Keyser,  I think someone got the amount of years wrong-I was told Elfie turned 88 years old.

On our way to the temple we had a quick stop in Prague. It is a beautiful city with tons of tourists

Eileen and Russell with Prague Castle in the background. We did not take the time to go to the castle.

 Theresienstadt concentration camp was established by the SS during World War II in the garrison city of Terezin located in German occupied Czechoslovakia. Tens of thousands of people died there, some killed outright and others dying from malnutrition and disease. More than 150,000 other persons (including tens of thousands of children) were held there for months or years, before being sent by rail transports to their deaths. 

This sign in German stating "works make you free" was very misleading

Russell, Eileen and Sister Keyser at Freiberg temple