"Fährt" from Frank"furt" to Roman "Fort"

A Self-Reliance week in Frankfurt and ending as we traveled (Fährt) to an old Roman fort!  Our primary focus this week was to start the next Self-Reliance Groups in the Frankfurt 2nd ward.  

In front of an old Roman Fort, our Saturday activity

The week started with a Self-Reliance sacrament meeting in our ward.  17 graduation certificates were awarded to those who completed the last Self-Reliance groups.  Each was able to shake the hand of the bishop and the stake presidency member and high councilor from our Stake Self-Reliance Committee.  We were then able to listen to three speakers from among the 17.  Each shared a wonderful testimony of the principles of Self-Reliance and their experiences in the Self-Reliance Group.  It represented one person from the Education group, one from the Finance group and one from the My Foundations Sunday School group.  We were really pleased with the Sacrament meeting.  We felt that it did a good job of sharing the doctrine and the tools of the Self-Reliance initiative.

We prepared invitations to hand out to all at sacrament meeting and the bishopric extended 13 personal invitations to attend our My Path Workshop on the following Thursday evening.

We trained three of our new facilitators on Wednesday afternoon, preparing them to facilitate some of the groups and to assist in the workshop.  Personal invitations were given to some returned missionaries and investigators.  In fact, on Wednesday night, the missionaries introduced us to an investigator who was looking for a job.  We promptly invited him to the workshop the next day.

On Monday night we went to the office to run off copies of some of the new manuals.  We need to do this at night to not dominate the printer when others are using it.  We also went on Thursday to set everything up.  With everything that we could think of to be prepared, we came to the workshop with faith that others would be there.

My Path Workshop facilitated by Sister Rueckert for the Frankfurt 2nd Ward

Another photo of the workshop from a different angle

As can be seen in the photo, we had around 30 individuals in the workshop.  Four were from the German ward who came to see how this works.  Seven were supportive senior missionaries.  Counting us, five were facilitators.  That left 14 individuals who came to pursue their own self-reliance. In the end four groups were organized with a few more to be organized if we can identify others to participate.  Below is a photo of the My Job Search group that began the very next evening. This includes the one non member and another member who did not attend the workshop the night  before.  The other groups will start next Sunday, since today is General Conference.

My Job Search group (4 plus the facilitator)

Coming back around, the photo below is of the Mendes family, who are our dear friends.  We have the privilege to home teach them.  They all graduated from the Self-Reliance courses and have been so supportive and kind to us.  They had invited us to dinner, but did not have necessary chairs for us to sit at their dinner table, so we decided to have dinner with them at our apartment.  They brought the food and we provided the space.  We were able to have this wonderful dinner right after Church on our Self-Reliance Sunday.

Melissa, Ury, Wilson and Sister Mendes (mother)

 The photo below shows the end of the first phase of our mission.  Sister Rueckert provides incredible note taking expertise to all of our meetings.  She is always writing on her yellow legal pads.  She writes on both sides of the paper.  The problem is we cannot find this type of writing pad in Europe.  We brought a large package of these on our mission.  The yellow pad below is the last of those that we brought.  Sister Rueckert will need to adapt to local supplies for the rest of our mission.

We also started a formal German class on Tuesday evening.  For the next 10 weeks, we will meet with 4 other senior missionaries and be forced to learn and practice more German conversation.  The instructor is a local member of the Church who is a translator.  We know quite a bit of German vocabulary and grammar but have great difficulties to express ourselves.  Hopefully this will help us take the next step forward.

On Friday night, we felt like our challenges of the week were over and we could relax for a long weekend.  Next Monday is a German holiday (reunification day) and we are planning on enjoying the General Conference weekend.

On Friday night we were invited by Elder and Sister Healy to go with them to Saalburg, the ancient Roman fort which is fairly close to where we live.  We decided to make this trip on Saturday, with time to return home before conference began (6:00 pm, German time).  The following is from our trip to Saalburg.  The following is a description of Saalburg form Wikipedia:

The Saalburg is a Roman fort located on the Taunus ridge northwest of Bad Homburg, Hesse, Germany. It is a Cohort Fortbelonging to the Limes Germanicus, the Roman linear border fortification of the German provinces. The Saalburg, located just off the main road roughly halfway between Bad Homburg and Wehrheim is the most completely reconstructed Roman fort in Germany. 

 The ruins here date back almost 2,000 years to the time when the fort was active.  Most of what we saw in the fort has been reconstructed.  However, we were able to see several items from the Roman era and a few remains of structures that were there:

In front of the entry to the fort.  The reconstruction was ordered by Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1897

Elder and Sister Healy looking out from the fort

Inside of the fortification, easier access than from without

Near the back gate to the fort.  It was a rainy day, but not too cold

Other original foundations and ruins.  Looks like water ways

An old original bath foundation?

Old Cooking ovens

Old roman cooking utensil to put items in the ovens

Room full of Roman items from the 2nd century A.D.

Part of monuments to Roman Gods

Roman base for a statue, dated 222 A.D.

 

This fort is part of a long line of walls that separated the Roman Empire from the German Empire.  The  item below shows where this line of fortifications were.  Below that shows some of those fortifications.

We ended our week attending General Conference.  We are not through yet, but so far it has been amazing.  Our thoughts are too many to include in this blog.  We will save that for next week!

The Power to Astonish!

 The Power to Astonish!  This was the theme of our annual seminar with the Self-Reliance Services Managers in the Europe Area.  The seminar was held this past week in Madrid, Spain.  The results of this seminar and the activities of this week were absolutely astonishing! 

Our Self-Reliance Team after completing an endowment session in the Madrid, Spain Temple

Our week began with a busy Monday before heading to Madrid.  We had last minute preparations for the managers seminar and had our second session of "My Continuing Mission" with Pedro Santos.  It is great to see the spirit of a returned missionary.  He had done all of the assignments from the previous week and has a good start to his own personal plan for his life.  We also had our monthly senior couple devotional that evening.  Elder and Sister Galbraith, Public Affairs missionaries, shared with us experiences and perspective on the Freiburg Temple Open House and dedication. 

On Tuesday morning early, we got on a plane to head to our seminar in Madrid.  We arrived early to help with last minute preparations.  However, the major efforts needed were simply to pick everyone up as they arrived from the different locations in Europe. With a little time available, we went early to the temple and completed the initiatory work for those that were baptized the previous week at The Hague Temple.  There was only about 6 or 7 names for each of us to do to complete what we began the previous week.  We were then able to sit in the peacefulness of the temple and wait for our Self-Reliance team to arrive.  

As they arrived, I gave some of our family names to several of our managers.  In total we were able to have 10 males performing an endowment for a "Rueckert" in the same temple session.  Sister Rueckert and I were asked to be the witness couple for the session, which was a special treat.  The session was held in English, since that was the predominant common language.  We had never done a temple session with our managers before.  As we were able to see each other in the celestial room after the session, many had spiritual experiences.  We all felt a strong feeling of unity and love for those we work with as we shared this special experience.  What a wonderful way to begin our astonishing week.

Full photo of the Madrid temple in the evening, after our temple session

After the temple session, we went to the Mercado de San Miguel for an evening of "Tapas".  These are small portions of all types of food.  Throughout the market, you choose and buy what ever small items you would like.  The photos below show a little of the variety:

Outside of the mercado as we left

Inside the mercado, standing room only

Sister Rueckert with our French Manager, Momo, near sea food options, including a major fish head

With members of our team (Mendonça - Cape Verde, Les - England, Thomas King - our Area manager and Ether - Italy)

 Wednesday morning we continued our seminar.  It began with a doctrinal discussion of D&C 109:22 from the Kirtland Temple dedicatory prayer. This verse promises power, His name, glory and angels  from our temple service. This was a perfect tie in to our seminar theme.

Thomas King, our Area manager, then facilitated a discussion on The Power to Astonish, including materials that had been shared in his regional training seminar a few months ago.  Thomas is an excellent manager and did a wonderful job of coordinating and organizing this seminar.  His message started with a review of the recent conference talk from President Monson "A Sacred Trust".  That set the tone perfectly.

We were privileged to have Elder Paul V. Johnson of the Europe Area Presidency join us by video conference at 11:00 am.  His message was powerful and added to the great spirit that we had felt. He shared his experience of the years that he served on the Board of Directors of the Perpetual Education Fund and his perspective on the expanded role of Self-Reliance.   We were encouraged to serve priesthood leaders by helping them with their needs and goals rather than "dumping" additional responsibilities on them.  We love the support that we are receiving from Elder Johnson, who is the Chairman of our Area Self-Reliance Committee.  It was clear to all that he understands the blessings of this initiative. His counsel is invaluable.  

After his presentation, we continued with our review of The Power to Astonish.  So many quotes and scriptures support our opportunity and privilege to access the powers of heaven in the work that we do.

After lunch, Miguel Adriano led the discussion of Power to Astonish, part 2.  Our team is very participative and they added great insight to the discussion.   Once we start sharing scriptures and insights, there is unlimited participation and the Spirit is so strong.  I finished up the day sharing ideas on how we can have the continuing momentum of the work that has begun.  The managers shared some of the experiences of the most successful stakes in the Europe Area to help us see how the culture is beginning to change.  Once again, more ideas than we had time to include.

On Thursday, the training continued, beginning with a doctrinal discussion around the quote from President Benson, "When obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes our quest, in that moment God will endow us with power."  This is so profound and once again our managers had many insights.  One of my favorites came from PAco, our Spain manager.  He shared a quote from Seneca, a Roman philosopher "I do not obey God, I am in agreement with him."  That summarizes it so simply!

The rest of the day we had break-out sessions and continued discussion about many aspects of our work.  We were privileged at 3:00 pm to have Elder Joseph Sitati of the Seventy participate with us via video conference.  Elder Sitati is the General Authority responsible to supervise the Self-Reliance efforts in Europe.  He taught us from the scriptures in the Whys and Hows of Self-Reliance.  Another Spiritual Feast.

We finished our seminar with a testimony meeting.  Most were able to share their feelings of love and appreciation for being involved in this great work.  We felt more unity and power amongst our team than ever.  We love working with them, they have become our best friends and associates during our mission.  The following are a few photos taken during the Thursday morning doctrinal discussion.  You can see that the entire seminar was facilitated, not taught.  No one standing in front, everyone participating.

On Friday morning we had time to make one more visit to the Temple before returning to Frankfurt.  Our German manager, Günter and our Area Manager, Tom King went with Sister Rueckert and I as we did some family sealings.

Photo outside of the temple.  Appeared appropriate before going in to seal children to parents.

Inside the sealing rooms, we felt the abundance of the Spirit.  There were others in the session with us.  The sealer spoke only Spanish, so all the work was done in Spanish.  The session lasted for an hour and a half and still all of the family names (ours and others) were not able to be completed.

It was a spiritual experience to kneel across the alter with my wife and participate in sealings of couples that are our relatives.  The culmination was probably when we were able to be sealed for Sister Ruecker's 5th great grandparents (Moellers) and to have her 4th great grandfather sealed to them.  Sister Rueckert had been able to complete the endowment for her 5th great grandmother on the previous Tuesday.

We were also able to have children sealed to my 8th, 9th and 10th great grandparents, including many that died as infants.  Emotions were high and many tears were shed.  We were also able to witness a brother from Spain have his parents sealed together vicariously and then be sealed to them.  We could feel that incredible power first hand as we watched this special sealing occur.

What a wonderful way to finish our "Astonishing" week.  Below is a photo of the names of the individuals whose work was done in the Madrid temple this week, either in the initiatory sessions, the endowment session or in the sealing work that was performed.  Many of these names have been discovered in our family history work last month.

Couple sealings on the left and the family work done for Sister Rueckert's great grandparents.  Also the children by family with my 10th, 9th and 8th grandparents.  Additional work done in endowments and initiatory work on the right.

On Wednesday evening, we also were able to attend a Flamenco performance in Madrid with our Self-Reliance team.  This was an astonishing cultural experience.  The following is the Wikipedia description of Flamenco:

 Flamenco (Spanish pronunciation: [flaˈmeŋko]) is an artform native to the Spanish regions of Andalusia, Extremadura and Murcia. It includes cante (singing), toque (guitar playing), baile (dance), jaleo (vocalizations), palmas (handclapping) and pitos (finger snapping).

The following photos are from that evening.

In front of the Flamenco house

Photo from the stage of part of our group.  We had dinner before and during the show.

Clapping, singing and dancing

Men behind the dancer are singers with a very unique singing style

Dance includes feet stomping

Guitarrist, singers and dancers

Grand finale dance

After the performance we walked around downtown Madrid with our group.  The following are some of the photos of the walk before we returned to our hotel:

This was a hotel in the background, but we thought it looked a little like the Nauvoo Temple from the distance

The middle spot of Spain.  Equal distance from the East and West of the Iberian Peninsula.

Main plaza of Madrid

Releasing the Captives on both sides of the Veil

This week I was was reunited with Jacqueline Lacerda 43 years after I baptized her on my mission in Brazil.  She was baptized as a young teenager and served in the Church in Brazil for many years.  Later she moved to Croatia where there was no Church and was not able to keep attending.  About six years ago, she ended up living in the Netherlands.  Some time after that she contacted me on Facebook and we have been Facebook friends ever since.  In our previous visits to the Netherlands, we were not able to meet up for different reasons.  This week during our visit to the Netherlands it finally worked out.  We were able to spend several hours with Jacqueline which was a great joy.  It was the first time for Sister Rueckert to meet her and my first time since being transferred out of Santos, Brazil 43 years ago.

Elder Rueckert and Jacqueline Lacerda in a restaurant in Rotterdam, Netherlands

Our week started out with our last family home evening Self-Reliance lesson with Jonathan Evans-Southall and his family.  We have loved visiting with them for the past 4 weeks.  This week completed all of the make up lessons for Jonathan's Completion Certificate of the My Foundations class.  They are originally from England but are now living in Frankfurt where Jonathan works in the Area Office. 

During our family home evening lesson.  Jonathan, his wife Ashley and his children Elizabeth, Noah and Thomas

We have enjoyed following all of the steps of the My Foundation group, including commitments, reporting and action partners.  Sister Rueckert and I have been the action partners for the two oldest children. We have enjoyed contacting them during the week to make sure that each of us is following up with the commitments made during our group meeting.  We testify that the My Foundation  lessons and principles work in all setting, including families.

Noah has been my action partner and his sister Beth has been Sister Rueckert's action partner.

This week we have been making final preparations for our Managers seminar in Madrid and also for a training visit to the Netherlands.  With preparations in hand, we left for the Netherlands on Wednesday, immediately after our Book of Mormon class.  We left right after 1:00 pm and arrived in time for our 6:00 pm dinner invitation in the home of a member of The Hague stake presidency.  We had a delightful evening getting to know this wonderful family, including their two sons, ages 11 and 13.  The meal was delicious!  We were so grateful to be invited.  This was the first time we had met this member of the stake presidency.  After the meal, we spend quite a bit of time discussing the principles of Self-Reliance and the steps to helping the members of his stake to participate in Self-Reliance groups.  We went to our hotel very enthused about the spirit that we felt and the love that was shown to us.

On Thursday we took time to visit The Hague Temple.  We had in hand 29 temple names that were part of my 9th, 10th and 11th great grandfathers' families.  These were some of the names that we had discovered in our visit to Ergersheim, Germany the previous month (See "Pearls of Great Price" blog entry).    We arrived as the temple was opening at 11:00 am.  They were so kind to arrange for us to do the baptisms and confirmation for these 29 names and added a few more from one of the temple workers.

I was privileged to do the baptizing of Sister Rueckert for 15 individuals.  As the first "Rueckert" name came up, I felt strong impressions from the Spirit and tears came to my eyes.  What a wonderful opportunity after just finding these names a short time ago.  The name was Sara Rueckert, born in 1656.  Most of these were born in the 1600s.  They have been waiting a long time for the opportunity to be baptized.  I know that the work of family history is primarily to prepare opportunities for these individuals to have sacred ordinances done in their behalf.  When these two opportunities come together, the feelings are amazing.

Just a little humorous experience to go along with our temple visit.  After Sister Rueckert was baptized for all of the females, one of the temple workers entered into the baptismal font to baptize me for the males.  Sister Rueckert remained sitting in a chair to observe the remaining baptisms.  After the first baptism, I realized that I had not removed my hearing aids.  I immediately took one of them out of my ear and discovered that the other was sitting on the bottom of the baptismal font.  At this point I had no option but to swim down to the bottom of the font to pick up my hearing aid.  It took several attempts but the hearing aid was retrieved.  It certainly was my first experience of swimming underwater in a baptismal font.  With the hearing aid recovered we continued on to complete the baptisms of the remaining individuals.

After we finished the baptisms, we performed the confirmations of the same individuals, completing these vital ordinances.  We then had the privilege to receive the initiatory work (washings and anointing) for many of these individuals.  With this completed, we will be able to do the endowment work for many of them this coming week as we have a special temple session with our Self-Reliance Managers in the Madrid temple.

The Hague Temple, Elder and Sister Rueckert, holding the ordinance cards of the 29 individuals for whom the baptisms and confirmations were completed. 

We returned to our hotel room before our evening meeting commitment.  I had put the hearing aids back into my ears but they did not work.  This was an obvious concern, since we had not planned on replacing hearing aids during our mission and the cost is over $4,000.  As we got to our hotel room, the hearing aids still did not work.  I took the hearing aids apart as well as I could and used a hair dryer to better dry them out.  I also replaced the batteries and then I prayed.  As I put them back into my ear I was greeted with the wonderful sound of the hearing aid booting up.  I took all the steps that I knew how and than asked the help of the Lord and my prayers were answered.  God is good and kind!

That evening we met with the entire Self-Reliance Committee of the Rotterdam Stake.  This stake has started teaching the My Foundation lessons on the first Sunday of each month in the wards of their stake.  This has been implemented better in some wards than others.  The good news is that the members of the committee have been very engaged in this process.  The meeting went very well.  The new stake specialist was very prepared and suggested that they start holding the Self-Reliance groups with the My Path Workshop and the group meetings outside of the Sunday meeting block. Sister Rueckert suggested that they set a date for January, so that they can appropriately prepare.  The Stake President, who presides in this committee, supported this plan.  They will continue with the monthly emphasis in the wards but take the next step to implement the workshops and groups as suggested.  We felt a wonderful spirit of council with this committee, much of the discussion was in Dutch, while we observed.  This included the stake president, high councilor, agent bishop, relief society president, the stake specialist and another couple that are finance specialists.   We left this meeting enthused for the future of this stake as they are led by their stake president and the stake self-reliance committee.

Our next meeting was not until Friday night with the stake presidency councilor that chairs the Self-Reliance committee of the Apeldoorn stake. Since we had some open time during the day on Friday,  we took advantage to do some work from our hotel room. We then had lunch with Jacqueline Lacerda.  This certainly was a joyous occasion.  We took several hours to catch up on the past 43 years and to share our feelings about the gospel.  We felt a great love from Jacqueline and we love her just as much.  She has retired from teaching languages in Brazil and is currently teaching languages in the Netherlands. She teaches Portuguese to business men working with companies in Brazil. She works with a local university and other schools and also teaches Dutch to foreigners.  She speaks Portuguese, English, German and Dutch, an amazing language ability.

After 3 hours together, we scheduled to get together again the next time we visit the Netherlands which we believe will be in January.

With Jacqueline Lacerda in front of the restaurant where we shared a long, wonderful lunch

After saying good bye to Jackie, we traveled for almost two hours to meet at the Appeldoorn stake.  It is in the Northeast part of the Netherlands.  The stake presidency member is so kind to spend time with us while his son attends seminary and young mens.  In this stake, the stake specialists are frequently in the U.S. visiting family. This was an opportunity to visit with the Chairman of the Self-Reliance Committee, understanding their progress and next steps. As usual, the meeting was positive and we feel that progress will continue, especially as the stake specialists return in November.

That evening after returning from Appeldoorn, we stopped at a nice Chinese restaurant for dinner.  The food was delicious and we enjoyed time to reflect on the completion of our Netherlands trip.  I love serving with my sweet wife.  She is good at feeling promptings of the Holy Ghost and contributing to our efforts.

Before leaving the Netherlands, I wanted to share a few photos of our impressions in our several visits here.

This is a photo of the hotel where we have stayed.  It is reasonably priced and located in between The Hague and the Rotterdam stakes and near the temple.  It is feeling like our home in the Netherlands.

This is our car in the parking lot of the hotel.  One thing that I have noticed in the Netherlands is that all parking spaces are clearly identified with stone outlines.  Very impressive!

Just a photo that I was able to take of a bike parking spot.  I believe that the Netherlands has the highest population of bike riders.  They are everywhere.  Bike lanes are often as large as car lanes.  I know because I have been known to dive down them. Bikes are parked in all locations, well in excess of the cars.

On Saturday morning we left to return to Frankfurt.  The ride is between 4 and 5 hours.  As we have now made this trip several times, we have developed a routine.  During this time, we spend several hours studying German.  Sister Rueckert takes us through an outlined training process and we probably do our best companion studying of German on these trips.  I believe on this trip that we are starting to better understand the Genders and Cases in German, which is one of the most difficult part of the German language.  Besides the study of language, we usually spend a few hours listening to CDs of General Conference.  We have the CDs of October 2015 and have listened to them over and over.  We were once again touched by the talks by Sister Marriot and Elder Lawrence on the Saturday Morning session.  These are amazing talks that inspire us every time we listen to them.  I really love the concept of "What Lack I Yet?" as shared by Elder Lawrence.  There is room for all of us to learn specific direction from the Holy Ghost if we follow the steps that he suggests.  In between German lessons and Spiritual talks, Sister Rueckert continues to feed me snacks, etc. so that I can remain alert and safe while we take these long drives.  I could never make these trips without her.  With her, they are a delight!