OUR FIRST VISIT TO CHURCH

 Sunday, 13 October 2024

We did not plan on making it to Church this week. But, on Saturday we received a phone call from a woman in the ward who told us that she would be coming to pick us up to take us to Church. This was welcome news because we thought that because we didn't have our car yet, we just would not be able to get to Church. It is a 45 +/-  minute drive from Detmold to Bielefeld and the public transportation is unreliable on Sundays and complicated to manage for newbies like us.

I did not have any idea who the woman was, but Elder Ermler from the Bielefeld Ward had told us that he would try to find people to give us a ride since there were a couple of members of the Ward who actually live in Detmold so we thought it was his doing. 

This morning a man showed up, announced that he was the husband of the woman who called us and he would be providing the ride to church. He turned to Ed and handed him the keys saying, “you will drive so you can learn”. Ed quickly told him that I was the family driver so I got the keys! 

This sweet man trusted me with his car. He climbed into the little back seat and gave me instructions/directions from there. Quite the experience but it was very informative for teaching me about the perils of driving here. Lots of challenges with signage, speed limits, narrow roads, and moveable cameras along the roads to record speeding and sending you a ticket...well actually, the mission office gets the ticket and notifies us but the Church pays the ticket promptly with the expectation that we will reimburse.

Half way to the Church building I realized the man whose car I was driving must be the Bishop of the Bielefeld Ward! 

Bishop Wagnitz and his wife, Doris,  invited us to their home for a meal and games after church. They had also invited three of the young members of the ward. It was delightful! Fortunately, everyone in this group spoke English.

After the delicious meal of German goulash, we played a board game, I think is called Dog. It required a lot of explanation but it ended up that Ed won!

Then I "got to" drive home. 

One of the interesting things that happened on that part of the day, was coming around a corner to see a vista of beautiful trees and I just exclaimed, "How beautiful!" The Bishop was quick to respond,   "Sister Moulder, you live in paradise" 

Yes, Bishop, we certainly do.