The Lord is Merciful to His Missionaries
In order to legally stay in Germany for more than 90 days, one must have registered with the municipality during the first 30 days of the stay and must have applied for and been approved for a German Visa within 90 days of arrival. Louise & I registered as required, and called to set an appointment with the Stuttgart City authorities as outlined in a sheet of instructions provided by the City. Appointments are set with several teams alphabetically by last name. I kept trying to reach the published phone number for the person with responsibility for last names beginning with “B.” Although I continued trying to reach the person during the hours posted, I could not get anyone to answer. Finally, in desperation, I called a random number from the list and got someone to answer. She set up an appointment for us to come in the following Monday with the required documents.
We showed up on Monday with all the documents we believed we would need. She and a co-worker looked at our documents and said they did not think we could get a visa to represent our Church because we did not fit the description of single men under 25 years of age, required by the local statutes. Apparently there is a specific provision in the code that refers to our young single missionaries. It was obvious they were misapplying a specific, but irrelevant, section of their laws. Finally, after much discussion they agreed to get another, more official opinion. One of the women came back after making a phone call to a superior to report that we could, in fact, qualify for a visa if we returned with several documents which we did not have. They told us we would need a copy of our rental agreement and a statement that we could support ourselves. Our insurer DMBA had supplied us with an insurance statement signed by an officer of DMBA in SLC who certified that we would have coverage for any and every conceivable illness or accident known to man. The problem for the City was that the certificate was in English, and they needed it in German. She gave us two application forms (ten pages each) that we needed to bring back when we had all the required forms.
The unfortunate thing at this point was that they told us we would NOT be permitted to wear our missionary name tags until such time as the visas were approved, which could be 4-6 weeks. If it went any longer than that, we would not be approved within the 90 day deadline and would be required to apply for an extension. They said they are usually granted.
So off we went to complete the task given us, without our missionary nametags. We almost felt naked without them. The senior elder in the Munich mission office really came through for us. We had the documents in our hands in two days. We called and made another appointment to meet with our newfound friends in the City. When we handed the woman our documents, she looked at us with a frown on her face and said, in German of course, “This insurance document is obviously in German, but it is not on the letterhead of the insurance company.” The office had simply had the English document translated into German, and the mission president had signed it. I explained until I was blue in the face that the insurance company and the Church were one and the same, and that President Miles was legally authorized to sign for the Church.
The woman asked us to take our seats outside the office while she took our documents to a superior authority. After about 20 minutes, she returned with the comment that the insurance document would not be a problem. She then asked us to “go get a cup of coffee” or something and to come back in about 30-45 minutes. When we returned (Sister Benson wouldn’t let me have a cup of coffee, by the way), the city official said, “Now I just need your money!” Then she handed us our passports with the fully approved and completed visas inside. We were flabbergasted! The process that should have taken 4-6 weeks to complete had been completed in a matter of minutes! Does the Lord move in mysterious ways to advance the cause of His missionaries, which in all reality is His cause? It is unlikely that we will ever know exactly what happened before our very eyes. However we know for certain that the Lord intervened on behalf of two old senior missionaries, who needed his help in a big way!
We would like to mention another scenario where the Lord extended his tender mercies. There is a young single woman in our stake who was pregnant out of wedlock. I believe she is either 18 or 19 years of age. She is quite overweight and wears heavy, heavy makeup and gaudy nails. Whenever she attends a family home evening or other YSA function, she tries to be the center of attention and has turned a number of the YSA’s off due to her somewhat outrageous appearance and needy attitude. Two weeks ago she gave birth to a gorgeous baby boy with long black hair. The baby was born by Caesarean section. We got all the information about her hospital location from her mother and planned to visit her following Thursday. We tried our best to get things together so we could visit her early in the day. But things kept delaying us, and I was worried we would not get there before visiting hours were over at 7:30 p.m. Finally we rushed into the hospital just before visiting was over. We asked for her and were told at the nurse’s station that she was just finishing up feeding the baby. We were directed to the door where she was. The door opened and she walked out pushing the baby cart accompanied by a nurse back toward her room. Her mother had just barely arrived as well. She tearfully explained to us that she was feeding the baby and the baby had slipped from her grasp and had fallen onto the hard floor. The attending nurse had rushed him to have a brain scan, etc., and was just returning mother and babe to her room. We sat in the room with mother, child, grandmother and the attending nurse while she explained to the young mother that she would not be able to take the baby home for another 72 hours while he was under required observation for possible serious injury. The mother was very emotional during the entire episode, and the baby was obviously upset as well. The mother asked me if I could give the baby a blessing, which I was grateful and honored to do. After the blessing, Louise (perceptive companion that she always is) suggested that I ask the mother if she would like a priesthood blessing, which she and her mother gratefully responded in the positive. I then gave the mom a blessing. We felt the Spirit so strongly throughout both blessings. I could feel that the attending nurse was positively affected by the blessing as well. We left with the distinct impression that the Lord knew exactly when we should arrive at that hospital that day. We needed to be there at the precise moment after the accident in order to represent Him on behalf of mom, baby, grandmother, and possibly even the attending nurse.
I believe Mom (Louise) has already related the incident of us driving by the Institute our first Monday in Stuttgart to make sure no one had failed to get the message that no family home evening would be held that night. Three YSA’s were waiting for us on the steps of the institute building. That night I was able to give a healing blessing to a non-member who was suffering severe abdominal pains. The medical profession could not tell her what was wrong, but the Lord knew that it could be cured by His Priesthood power. We have developed a great relationship with this wonderful non-member young woman. We’ve had some terrific heart to heart gospel discussions. One of these days we expect to have the honor of attending her baptism.
What a privilege it is to be here to represent the Savior in loving and reaching out to these great YSA’s. We’re constantly amazed at the commitment of most of them. One night one young man rode his bicycle two hours in a downpour to get to Institute. And the story goes on and on.
Thanks to all of you who support us and pray for us. We could not do this without your willingness to get along without Grandma & Grandpa for a while. We love your emails, pictures, and all the news about what you are doing and how you are learning to be missionaries yourselves. We pray for you too, and we love you so very much.
Also to you, our beloved neighbors and fellow ward members: We feel your love and support as well. We miss all of you. We know we’ll be very surprised to come back home and find that our extended back yard is full of new houses and new families. This time of Thanksgiving gives us pause to consider how blessed we are. Tomorrow Sister Benson is showing her love to the missionaries in our Zone by preparing a Thanksgiving Dinner with all the American trimmings as only she can put together. Thanks to a few well-placed friends in the military ward, she has managed to get her hands on American Thanksgiving Dinner commodities that these 24 wonderful missionaries have not seen here in Germany. We’re serving them tomorrow (Monday) because Thursday is transfer day.
Elder & Sister Benson
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