New Responsibilities

I guess what I learned from this email is that it's never too late to have new and more difficult responsibilities on your mission. Just when Jaren thought that maybe things would slow down, he gets more responsibility. Not leadership-wise, but work-wise, for which I, as a mother am grateful. I wouldn't want him to get trunky his last several weeks out!

Dear Family,

Well, it has been a very interesting week. To start off, President came and visited all the wards in Kaiserslautern and did our interviews as well. I also had to speak in ours with him, and had to play the piano in the German branch. Ours turned out very well and he gave an excellent talk. But, the German branch was different, there were 20 people there, and only one member of the Branch Presidency was present. After giving his talk in that meeting, and as we were headed out, he told Elder Weng and I, "Das war komisch." Meaning, "that was bad." No one is excited to do missionary work in that branch, they were all spread out in this huge chapel, and no one was sitting next to any one. It was rather depressing to see. When we came back yesterday evening to the church for our interviews, President told both Elder Weng and I, "I know that you are doing finding for Americans, (of course while doing Germans as well) but, I need you to help the German branch, so I want you and your companion to focus on finding Germans. The American ward can function on its own. You should help them with the work they have given you, but they should give you referrals. So I want you to coordinate your efforts with the German Branch and help build them up. If the military ever pulls out of here, there won´t be a branch, or the number to support a building of this size. Well, talk about an assignment change. We are now responsible for two wards, we find for the Germans and help the Americans do their missionary work. Elder Weng and I are so excited because we have been struggling trying to find things to do in the mornings, since Americans are not really at home. We of course would do Germans, but in the end, we have only found Germans! So go figure!

Needless to say, Elder Weng and I couldn´t sleep at all last night, because we were absolutely amazed. We are happy and excited to help, and it is urgent! This is a desperation attempt to save this branch, and we are going to give everything we have to help them. We are also going to be combining our efforts with the German Elders, switching our finding time and doing everything we can to stay upbeat and focused because there isn´t a minute to lose! We have also planned to involve inactives, less actives and active members in our finding efforts by going by them and asking if we can come in and pray with them, and ask if they could recommend where we should go to find these people. We will then split and go as a four some doing finding. On Sundays, we are involved with the meetings in our ward, but during the week, we are involved with the German Branch. So many different things have been going through our minds last night, that we could not sleep at all. We couldn´t get to sleep until about 1:00 in the morning, it was that shocking! But President was absolutly serious, and over the years, 3 other branches have been dissolved, and Kaiserslautern is the last remaining branch in this area. The next nearest is the Saarbrücken ward to the west and Mannheim to the east. One was just closed four weeks ago, the Idar-Oberstein branch, and it has since been dissolved and is now part of the Kaiserslautern branch. But, the branch hasn´t really taken it seriously, but they probably will now. The first counsellor in the Branch presidency and a member of the high council in the stake were present yesterday and were embarrassed about the turnout and how it was. We will see how it goes, but I hope they begin to sense the urgency and concern that we have, as well as the concern that President showed. We are not going to give up, and we are not going to take no, or maybe as an answer. It really feels miraculous, but I both Elder Weng and I and the other Elders have really felt a surge of energy just go through us, and we have urgency for the job placed before us. I am excited.

Aside from that, tell Erik congratulations, and good job, but I still beat him to it on the Eagle! But that doesn´t really matter, you got it, and you´ll be glad you did it! By the way, is he going to the Jamboree this year? Tell Holly hi for me, and that I am waiting for my letter now! Anyway, glad you are all doing well, stay safe, and have a great week!

Mit voller Herzenliebe,

Elder Smith

P.S. did Dad successfully talk to the U of U about registration?