President Kohler spent the first part of September finishing up this round of interviews and training.
Here are the Ellwangen, Stuttgart & Göppingen Districts
And here he is with the Zürich & Singen Districts
Interviews and training with the Linz & Innsbruck Districts
And with the Salzburg & Klagenfurt Districts
Meanwhile, back in München, I attended a great district Meeting with the München No. District
Next on the docket was our monthly Mission Leadership Council. Here our Assistants did some valuable training.
There was a lot of great input from our leaders.
The Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders had a chance to do some practice.
They also broke into groups to discuss ways to help their zones.
Lunch Break made everyone happy!
The missionaries love to be together!
September's Mission Leadership Council
The next day we were extremely grateful to welcome Elder & Sister Bader into the mission! They are from Switzerland and will be serving in Ingolstadt.
And the day after that we hosted our quarterly Coordinating Council Meeting. We enjoyed a delicious lunch together after the first half of the meeting.
Then it was back to work. This is a great group of Priesthood Leaders--the Stake Presidents from our 7 stakes in the mission, our area 70, Elder Leimer, and President Kohler.
Our Assistants, Elders Rozan and Ridd were always good to counsel with President Kohler.
President Kohler's final interviews were with the Augsburg & München Süd. Districts
That day we said a temporary goodbye to Elder Gibbs--we will see you again soon!
The next day President Kohler and I headed to Wien for our semi-annual Mission President Seminar. It is a time for the approximately 30 mission presidents and wives in the Europe area to be trained by our wonderful area presidency.
Our Area Presidency: Elder Johnson, Elder Kearon, Elder Dyches
Elder & Sister Kearon have been such good, kind mentors to us here.
And what a treat to talk with Tanner's mission president and wife--the Ivorys!
While at our seminar, President Kohler and I were able to sneak away to attend a special baptism--Sister Braunizar
Many missionaries were there to support her on this special day.
The day after we returned from our Training in Wien, we drove to Stuttgart to meet another of our new couples--Elder & Sister Despain. They have been serving in the temple in Frankfurt, and now have come to our mission--a big transfer! They will be serving in Stuttgart.
That evening, after stake conference, it was great to be walking down the street and see a group of our missionaries waiting for the bahn--we love them!
On Monday we went to the airport and welcomed another wonderful couple into the mission--Elder and Sister Kinghorn. They bring so much experience with them and will be wonderful in Graz!
That day we also had an emergency staff meeting to discuss the shut down of trains between Austria and Germany--that would be a significant blow to our transfer plans! A contingency plan was made.
And the next day the transfers began--a big welcome to our 21 Goldens!
We trained and oriented them at the church because they were such a big group.
That evening they were very excited to hear who their trainers would be
and where they would be serving.
At the bahnhof the next day we bid Elder Jähn farewell.
That evening we enjoyed celebrating with our going home group--7 elders.
After a wonderful testimony meeting we said goodnight. We will definitely miss them!
The next day at the airport we also said goodbye to Sister Priest--we love you and wish you the best!
A few days after successfully completing our transfer, it was Zone Conference Time again--we started in Switzerland with the St. Gallen Zone.
President Kohler had the missionaries practice their teaching skills--teaching the main points of their message and the first lesson in just a few minutes.
The Relief Society provided a wonderful lunch.
The St. Gallen Zone
The next day we enjoyed meeting with the Bern & Zürich Zones.
More practice teaching
I loved watching these missionaries' faces as they taught the simple truths of the first lesson.
Another wonderful Relief Society group blessed the lives and stomachs of these missionaries.
The Bern & Zürich Zones
From our first zone conferences, President Kohler and I went to Bern to join all of our senior couples for a Senior Conference. Whom should we run into by the temple as we grabbed some lunch? Our assistants! What a fun surprise!
We were blessed to begin our senior conference with a session in the Bern Temple--it was a wonderful time to all be together there.
Our seniors loved being together...
eating together, visiting together, and learning together.
And Sister Fox put us to work in the kitchen that first evening.
The next day there were good workshops like this one by the Zauggs on Apartment Inspections.
Our senior couples are amazing to go around and regularly inspect the MANY missionary apartments that we have. Not only do they inspect, but they are often repairing things for our young missionaries.
Many ideas were talked about,
And wonderful testimonies were shared--we love our seniors!
The next week brought us back to Munich and another zone conference--more good teaching!
Even our senior couples joined in the practice
"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings..."
More angel sisters prepare more food.
And more hungry missionaries enjoy lunch.
After each lunch, we all gathered and sang "Auserwählt zu Dienen" (Called to Serve) to our wonderful Relief Society sisters. Then each missionary went through a line and shook their hands to personally thank them--you can see the 5 sisters up front.
The München & Stuttgart Zones
That night we were at the office loading up packages to take to the next zone conference. We overheard two of our wonderful office elders doing a Skype teach with a man in another part of the world. As they explained to him about how the Lord uses prophets I thought, "They are awesome!"
Next day we were in Salzburg for our final zone conference with the Salzburg & Wien Zones.
I love hearing and seeing these missionaries bear testimony
And another delicious lunch!
It was certainly a very full month!
