Stephen and Elaine Biddulph: 6

Elders and Sisters Mumm and Biddulph

Monday evening we drove to Friedrichsdorf and met with the Young Single Adult group there for a fireside. Elder and Sister Mumm, the YSA coordinators for Friedrichdorf, asked if Stephen would come and give "A Love Story From Vietnam" that he gave to the senior missionaries in Frankfurt a few weeks earlier. It was a small group, but warm and friendly. We could tell that the Mumms were having a challenging time getting the group active and united. We sensed that they felt kind of isolated from all the other senior missionaries who work at Europe Area headquarters. Elder Mumm attended his senior year of high school in Rexburg, Idaho (Madison High School) where I and my siblings all went to school. He was just one year behind my sister, Susan, and 2 years ahead of my sister, Marilyn. It was fun to be with them.

Part of the YSA group

On Wednesday evening we took Ira and Joachim Obst out to supper at a restaurant (Ni Hou) to say goodbye and thank them for their service in our little Offenbach branch. They leave tomorrow and move to Giessen to be close to his the university that he is attending. Ira works for the Church and will still drive to Bad Homburg to work each day. Ira served as a counselor in the Primary organization with Elaine, and Joachim was our Elders Quorum president. They will be missed in our little branch. Ira is Russian but speaks good German and English and is a fine pianist. Joachim served a mission in Berlin a few years back. Both are still in their twenties.
We wanted to get some diversion on Saturday and not just sit around the apartment. So, we drove over along the Moselle River and visited Burg Eltz which lies just north of the town of Cochem between Trier and Koblenz. The Moselle River joins the Rhine at Koblenz at a place called "Deutsche Ecke." The Eltz castle began around the 9th century A.D. and in the 1400 and 1500s was added upon by various families. It is still owned and occupied by a branch of the early 1200 family. It is quite an

Eltz Castle "Burg Eltz"

enchanting atmosphere, set back in the forested hills and surrounded on 3 sides by the Elzbach River, a tributary of the Moselle River. A sign at the trailhead is an off-shoot from Disney's Snowwhite and the Seven Dwarfs, "Spieglein, Spieglein an der Wand, wer ist die Schönste im ganzen Land?" (Mirror, Mirror on the wall who is the most beautiful in the land). We invited Jim and Diane Hacking to accompany us, and we spent a wonderful day just seeing countryside and the beautiful Moselle area and tiny villages (Dorfs).
The week has been a busy week with calls. As I look back over my posts, I realize that I say this often. The need for help with missionaries never ends nor does it seem to slow down. Endless are the young people who need someone to talk with, to counsel with, and from which to receive some comfort and encouragement. They are all wonderful, righteous young men and women who are trying to do their best despite weaknesses. In the preface to the Book of Commandments (now Doctrine and Covenants 1) the Lord notes that He sends out the weak and simple souls of the earth to confound and tear down the wisdom of the earth. I often ask those who struggle with self-confidence or other weaknesses why the Lord would send out the weak and simple to do such a vital work. Why

Sister Biddulph and Elders

would the Lord send out 18 and 19-year olds with little knowledge or education to teach the wise and the learned of the world? If this gospel is so critical to salvation, as we say it is, why doesn't God just send down angels and confront people and call them to repentance?
Of course one of the answers is that we all must learn to walk by faith. But just as important is that He does it to show forth his own power. This is his work and his glory, and it is done by the power of the Holy Spirit of Truth, not by missionary power. This leads us into a discussion that the missionary's role is to be a messenger of truth and to invite people to come unto Christ. It is Christ who calls them and who heals, sanctifies, and saves them through their own faith and repentance. The most important thing a missionary can do is live close to the Spirit of Truth and learn to invite others to hear their message by that power. I use D&C 4 to remind them that they are called to go into the field and glean the souls of men for the last time before the second coming of the Savior, and that they are to thrust in their sickle, which is their testimony of the truth spoken by the power of the Spirit. I try and keep it very simple to remove the tremendous and unnecessary stress they tend to heap upon themselves. We love this work and will miss it deeply when it is ended

Anne Frank Memorial

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We enjoy walking and do it as often as possible. When my phone calls are done we put on our walking clothes with my trusty mobile phone in my pocket and we walk. We have several trails, parks, and cemetery that we walk through. Part of one route takes us along Marbachweg past the home where Anne Frank (Diary of Anne Frank) was born and lived for a time before they fled to Amsterdam and later were sent to concentration camps to perish (mother and two daughters). This is a picture of the missionaries and sister Biddulph in front of the Anne Frank house. We met them while walking and they were out contacting people.