15-21 FEBRUARY 2015

Elaine at the office

     On Thursday, 19 Feb, I participated in my first WebEx bridge meeting with several AMHAs throughout the world hosted by Missionary Medical in Salt Lake City. About eight of us were on-line receiving information and giving reports in our areas. AMHAs reported from Brazil, Hong Kong, Chile, Peru, Frankfurt, Africa, and Philippines. SLC shared the 2014 statistics with us. A total of 4930 missionaries were served, typically 5 sessions per missionary, 24,600 sessions held which represents a 40% increase over 2013. 79% of those served stayed in the field. Only 19 AMHAs did this all. Two-thirds of the missionaries served were mental health issues. It was fun to see Paul Garrett in the Philippines with whom we went through training at SLC. He has a huge area (over 30 missions) and a heavy load. Also fun to see Dr. Ralph Olsen and his wife in Chile. He and I were colleagues at Provo Canyon School for years.
    On Friday we traveled with the Greenwoods to Landstuhl and Ramstein AFB near Kaiserlautern to get registered with the military hospital there. It was build back in early 1950s and is a huge complex built up on a forested hilltop. We were assigned a primary care physician and can get our medical care and support there. It has a monstrous PX and Commissary there, but it takes about 90 minutes to drive there, so, we won't go more often than is necessary. Any PX and Commissary needs we'll get filled at Wiesbaden.
   

Stephen in Europe Area Office

From the balcony window of our apartment we have a panoramic view of Frankfurt skyline with its many sky-scrapes. The weather has mostly been gray and overcast, but occasionally patches of blue appear, the sun peeks out for a time, and brightens our day. Infrequently, we even have a sunny day. When those days come, if we can, we like to walk through the cemetery that is just across Marbachweg where we live. It is a huge cemetery, much different from those in the states. It is well kept but is mostly forested with pine trees and hardwoods. The graves are set within this forested environment with their very large marble headstones. Often the graves mark family burial plots, such as: Muller Familie or Bergermann Familie. Many of the older graves are marked with Christian statues of angels or the Savior, etc. But the newer graves manifest the declining faith that has swept Europe and Germany particularly.
     This past week was particularly heavy. I typically rise early and go to the office by 7 a.m. Elaine comes over about 8:30 or 9:00. Due to ward council, branch presidency meeting, the Webex meeting with Salt Lake and my counseling schedule, I was putting in 12 and sometimes 14 hour days without a break. By Friday afternoon I was bushed. I don't think senior people are supposed to work this hard! Here we could be at home sleeping in until 10 a.m. and just doing whatever we feel like! Ah, but the work of salvation is so sweet. It is all worth it.

Cemetery

One of many walkways  in cemetery

Hall commemorating the Jews