President Monson

Today was a very humbling day.  Only a few short weeks ago we learned that the prophet of our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, aka Mormons) had, at the last minute, requested to visit the members in Frankfurt, Germany. No one was sure why he decided to make such a last minute trip to many areas of Germany; some speculated he wanted to visit his old stomping grounds (I think he served in the war here) and others worried it was because he was either going to die soon, or announce some big "end of the world" thing. 

Whatever the reason, we were definitely blessed to have such a great man come overseas to visit.  Just to give you an idea of how close he was, he visited the Frankfurt area and the tickets were for the Frankfurt Jahrhundertalle, a nearby concert hall that is only a short 15 minutes from our house.  Our ward was able to get an allotted amount of tickets and then they also broadcasted it from our local building.  

I was very impressed with how the bishop divvied up the tickets.  Many times tickets to events like this are given to very faithful and involved members of the ward.  Not in this case. Our bishop (the man in charge of our local branch... similar to a priest in a Catholic church) saw this as an opportunity to uplift lives that may have definitely needed it.  There were not only members who were going to the temple, or maybe questioning things, or ones who had come back to the church, but every single member of the youth group was given a ticket, including a few youth leaders.  How inspired was the bishop to give it to these young men and women.  It was truly inspiring for them. (The bishop, his wife, and their counselors all stayed behind to watch the young kids of those families who went to the main hall.  I was so impressed.)

These young kids were able to experience an intimate event with the prophet of our church. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.  I was so proud of Xoe & Xanthe.  Saying they were extremely busy over this weekend was an UNDERSTATEMENT.  They were seriously busy.  But they chose going to this as a priority, even if it meant showing up late to their Junior Leadership Seminar week.  They are awesome girls!

Here was my view:

And this was the girls' view:

Xanthe, Jaedon Schwartz, Xoe & Tatiana Schwartz

Oh, and I've had a few follow-up comments asking me about the event above.  The first two speakers were a woman and a man.  The woman was so funny and bouncy and cute.  A round-ish German lady.  I want to meet her someday.  :) she and the male speaker after her both spoke in German.  The kids were supposed to have had gotten earphones in the hallway, but nobody told them. So they didn't understand these two speakers, but we did at the church through a translator.

President Monson spoke English and a translator translated into German.  His main message, which has been the message in our Region and seemingly in all of our meetings, is Administering to the One.  All the speakers talked about being people's friend, listening to the Spirit and seeking out those to serve.  I definitely felt the Spirit and was inspired to do much more good in my life.