Harris Missionaries

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Fri., Sept. 4, 2009

Guten Tag, Family & Friends,

I can’t believe that we are again at the first of another month. Things just keep purring along here in Germany. We have spent most of our P-days revisiting areas that we have been to before & our pictures will reflect that but we never cease to be amazed at our beautiful surroundings & what a blessing it has been in our lives to have been able to visit such picturesque places full of tons of history. It has truly been a dream come true for me & I am trying to soak up as much as I can.

Sat., Aug. 8 we returned to Bayreuth & visited the Liszt & Wagner Museums & other famous sites.

Sat., Aug. 15 we went back to Bamberg in hopes that we would be able to identify the Bamberg picture that we took last month & we were successful plus we found tons of other things to visit in the old city.

Sat., Aug. 22 after the Ward BBQ we took a fast trip to Ansbach which produced a desire to return the next Sat. for an organ recital because of all the advertisements than were posted around the town.

Sat., Aug. 29 we made our way back to Ansbach for the organ recital which was awesome. Then we wandered around the countryside hunting old castles & palaces finally ending up in Rothenburg ob der Tauber where we checked out several shops laden with all kinds of wares. It was quite the experience.

We continue to hold FHE every Mon. evening with our newly marrieds & Tues. evenings we try to visit inactive YSA’s. This month we visited Johannis Liewald & Melanie Körmer in their apartments & were able to leave with a prayer. We hope this Outreach effort will eventually return some to activity. Attendance at Summer Institute has been at the short end but we have seen a couple of less actives come & participate, Johanna Hunger & Joshua Grasser. Our weekly Thurs. English class seems to be yielding some good things. Our little Russian gentleman, Valerie, that we thought was a non member turns out to be a member who is now starting to come out every Sunday. We have hopes that he will eventually invite his family to join him. I am still giving Michelle Muse weekly piano lessons on Fridays. She is finally going to be baptized on Sat., Sept. 12. Elder Harris entertains her & her sister, Sydney at the pool table after her lesson. He has won them over with his teasing. They like him a lot.

We said our Good-byes to Richy Dautel on Aug. 25. He has been the YSA President since May. He is going to London to study. His family gave him a send off BBQ with all kinds of wonderful food. We were pleased to be invited. We love the Dautels. Their examples of service are unbelievable. They are a stronghold here in the Nürnberg Ward.

Gary had his turn at speaking on Sun., Aug. 16. His topic was Adversity. He did a good job even though he sweat bullits. He will also be speaking in the Schweinfurt Branch this month & next. Lucky him!

Well, I’ve about reached the end. Hang with me for one more minute. On Sun., Aug. 30 we were invited to Bro. Männchen’s birthday celebration in Erlangen. They have become some of our best friends here. We will have a hard time leaving them in January. They have been by our side in this Outreach Center from the very beginning. They are very caring & generous servants of the Savior & they have certainly served us many times over as well as the YSA’s.

And while we are on the subject of leaving, we have to enter into the record that we lost one of our favorite Sister Missionaries, Sis. Ray from Arizona, on the Wednesday transfer. After being here for 4 transfers (6 mos.), she went to Munich. Her upbeat personality certainly blessed our lives as well as the people of Nürnberg. It was a pleasure to see her so totally involved in the missionary work here. These young elders & sisters are amazing.

Our final note is about the upcoming visit of our daughter, Alayna & her husband, Bryan. We are soooooo excited. They will be getting here on Sept. 17 for a week’s visit. We will be counting down the days, you can be sure. We appreciate having a Mission President who approves of these visits for the senior missionaries here. So hurry home to Germany, Don’t stop until you get here!!!

Love & good wishes to all,
Elder & Sister Harris, Gary & Renee, Dad & Mom, Gpa & Gma

September 2009

Wagner's & Cosimo's Grave

Wagner Museum

Village outside of Ansbach

Sister Ray from Arizona

Seehoff Palace outside Bamberg

Organ pipes in St. Peter & St. George Cathedral

Michelsberg Monatery in Bamberg

Marko Schultz

Liszt Museum

Juan Dominguez

Brother Mannchen's B-day Dinner

Cathedral's Mahlhausen Altar - 15th Century

English Class Students

Flower boxes on Old Court- 1007

Gate to Ansbach

Brother Defalco

Bayreuth Ermitage

Anbach

Ansbach

Ansbach deco

Branch President & Sister Dominguez

Bamberg New Palace Rose Garden

37th Anniversary at Mullers

7 Point Buck

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

August 5, 2009

Wed., Aug. 5, 2009

You gotta love how time flies. It seems like yesterday that I wrote the July letter & here it is August. Can’t believe it. It must be due to the temperate weather we have been experiencing. Simply beautiful! So far we have only had a few very hot days. So that leaves nothing to complain about, right? I’ll find something & so will you, huh?

We’ve done two road trips this past month, one to south eastern Bavaria & the other to north eastern Bavaria. Lots of beautiful sites, quaint villages & inspiring curiosities. Hopefully our pictures will tell the story. In the south we visited Landshut & Burghausen. In the north it was Ludwigsstadt & Kulmbach.

We’ve visited our YSA’s in Bamberg & Würzburg this month so that put us on the road more than usual. It was all well & good though. In Bamberg we were able to meet a YSA, Alex Oler, who has been deployed for a year & is now returning to Germany to serve an additional 3 years of duty. He had only been home 3 days but decided to come to church. He sat right behind us in Sacrament Mtg. After the service, Elder Harris introduced him to the Bishop, the Elders Quorum President & the YSA Representative. Just another one of those small miracles that has flooded our lives here of being in the right place at the right time.

We were also able to meet another YSA, Mariah, in Würzburg that was new to us. Too bad that she is returning to the states next month. Our commute to & from was very pleasant though & certainly not a waste of time because we were able to get better acquainted with our Stake YSA President, Richy Dautel. He is a very capable dedicated leader but again, too bad but he is leaving for school in London at the end of the month. We will miss him a lot.

We went on 3 Outreach adventures last month without much success but we’re going to keep it up. We will be sending out a quote from Pres. Uchtdorf’s conference talk on April 5, 2009. We hope it will carry some weight with his fellow German saints. It is an invitation to come back to the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. It is very powerful.

In addition to our regular missionary studies, I have again read Talmage’s Jesus, the Christ this month. I thought it was wonderful when I read it on my first mission but it was very profound this time around. I just wish I could remember all the thought provoking information. If you haven’t read it in a while, I recommend that you try it.

This letter wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t mention that we were saddened to miss our Hannah’s baptism on July 11. It was certainly one of the hard times of our mission (actually # 3 – first, Bryce’s ordination to the Priesthood, second, Oscar’s birth & third, Hannah’s baptism) but we were consoled because we could feel her excitement through our telephone conversation with her that day & we could read it in her face when we saw pictures of the event on Rachel’s Blog. Congratulations Sweetie for Choosing the Right.

We send our love & prayers for all good things to make their way to you & yours. Thank you for all you do & for being the good people that you are.

Much love, Elder & Sister Harris, Gary & Renee, Dad & Mom, Gpa & Gma