Several good things happened this week. On Tuesday we had an Area-wide devotional that was attended by all three members of the Area Presidency. Elder Michael Cziela and his wife Margret spoke. Elder Cziela is the newest member of the presidency and a former stake president in Frankfurt.
In his first address in General Conference from October 2025, Elder Cziela related the story of how his grandmother and great grandmother joined the Church in East Prussia during 1926. Elder Cziela told about his grandmother’s challenge of being unable to meet with other members of the Church for decades, about the family’s move to northern West Germany following WWII, and his father’s running across a branch of the Church in 1955, at the age of 17, while away from home at trade school.
Elder Cziela’s 88 years-old father was with us at the devotional. Now the stake patriarch, he was asked by Elder Cziela to bear his testimony. As I (Russell) listened to Brother Cziela tell us about finding the Church and helping his mother reunite with the saints, I could feel some of the joy his mother experienced after having been separated for so many years from the Church and of being home again with her fellow believers in the restored church of Jesus Christ. For a few brief moments, I wondered if going home to my Father in Heaven might feel similar. A return home to a very familiar comforting place after struggling for decades in this temporal world. It lasted for just a short time but was a poignant reminder to me of where home really is and the importance of focusing on what I need to do to return there someday.
On Friday afternoon I got by email a proposal from the municipality of Milan and their NGO partner ARCA for the Church to participate in a large project refurbishing a children’s wing of a homeless shelter known as Casa Jannacci. The shelter is the largest homeless shelter in Italy. We have been working with this group to develop the project since last March. Management of this facility do a wonderful job helping the residents prepare to return into regular society. After renovation, the facility will serve as a preschool for over a hundred full-time students and a hundred more attending part-time while their mothers work or go to school preparing to find work. I’m sure the project has become personal for me/us due both to the challenges we have had to face developing the project, and our anticipated turning the project over to other missionaries following its formal approval in the next few weeks (as we give up responsibility for Italy).
On Saturday we attended an activity with the other members of our zone. We went to a pumpkin festival in Ludwigsburg, a city just north of Stuttgart. It rained most of the day and after being outside for several hours we were a bit on the damp side. While making our way to the restaurant where all the missionaries were meeting for dinner, we ran across a shoe store. In the window was a sign noting a sale going on. By the time we reached the restaurant, both Sister Sackley and Eileen had new pairs of shoes.
Left to right-DTA, Pres. Gerard, Elder McConkie, Elder and Sister Cziela 
Brother Armin Cziela (father of Elder Michael Cziela) was the former Frankfurt Temple President in 2001-20004
We had an early departure time for our zone outing. It was fun to get together with so many other missionaries. We had 50 total with about 4 guests on this outing.
Inside the castle
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