Russell and Eileen's Church Missions: October 2026

The schedule for watching General Conference while living in Europe is a Saturday and Sunday evening activity. With the eight-hour time difference, the sessions start at 6:00 and 10:00 PM. And perhaps because we are old and usually in bed by 10:00 PM, the second sessions are usually Sunday morning and Monday evening. Technology today is a wonderful gift that I (Russell) take for granted too often. To be able to watch a meeting live, half-way around the world or choose to watch it the next day at my convenience is wonderful. Quite a change from when I was serving my first mission in Indonesia and written copies of conference took weeks before they got to us.

Elder D. Todd Christofferson’s talk, “O be wise” was the last talk we heard Saturday evening. I told Eileen that by morning the internet would be buzzing with comments regarding his warnings to the world about the dangers of gambling, particularly the recent growth in on-line betting. Lotteries, sports betting, and more recently “prediction market” betting have become accepted by many normal recreation, some even comparing them to investing in the stock market (an intellectually flawed argument).

By morning, my guess was correct and many were criticizing Elder Christofferson’s words. My thoughts went to D&C 1:38, “What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.” The Lord inspires His apostles to tell us what we need to hear, often an unpopular message for those of us who need that direction. We will address General Conference more next week after we have had a chance to hear all of it.

This last week we had a change in management of the Area Welfare Department. Christian Ottiker has been replaced by Matthew Robertson as the manager n charge of the department. The department is a bit larger than when we were here 10 years ago. Back then we had four employees and nineteen senior missionary couples. Today we have about twenty employees and nearly forty senior missionary couples. The growth has been primarily in the self-reliance related areas.

Saturday, October 3^rd was the National Day of Germany (aka Reunification Day), commemorating the day in 1990 when the German Democratic Republic ceased to exist and joined the Federal Republic of Germany. Since everything was going to be closed (stores, restaurants, etc.), we and most of the other senior missionaries decided to visit the neighboring countries. I wonder if this is how non-Christian foreigners feel being in the U.S. on Christmas? While we were out-of-town, Eileen racked up her busiest day yet with nursing: 11 calls, with one going to the hospital!

Sister Zander is a single sister serving in Church History. Here she was listening to her fellow colleague in Church History Elder Gatherum give his farewell testimony. Elder Gatherum is a widower and was one of the first single senior elders serving for the Church. He is an excellent cook and poet. He said he learned how to cook when he was taking care of his wife for so many years and did the cooking for the family.

Christian Ottiker with his two boys. Daniella, his wife, is due with a 3rd boy in December.

Sister Jorgensen teaching Isaiah for our weekly Come Follow Me class

We were sightseeing when Russell overheard this family speaking Indonesian. He started speaking back to them in their language. They were not the only ones surprised. I (Eileen) was surprised that he remembered Indonesian so well considering it has been 13 years since we served there. The little girl in the family takes swimming lessons right next to where our apartment was located.

John Lennon wall in Prague which promotes freedom and energy of ideas.

Many of the senior missionaries left town this past week to enjoy one last weekend of nice weather. The office was pretty much empty. We did a last minute trip to Prague. You can take me out of the office, but you can't keep me from working. Most of the drive there and during tours, I was on the phone doing medical calls.