Beloved Branch Members

 One of the blessings of serving in a small branch of the church is that we became very close to the branch members.

Since we served for 23 months, it gave us many opportunities to get to know them, visit them in their homes, have them over to our apartment for meals, go hiking together, go sightseeing with them, make baked goods for, take meals into their homes, sit by them in the meetings, hear their testimonies, help with gardening, mourn with them, perform together with them in singing ensembles, hug them, learn the gospel from them, counsel together, mourn together and get to know and LOVE THEM!

There are two couples that we tried to visit for months but it wasn’t what they wanted!  That’s OK!  You can't win them all! 

That gave us more time to form wonderful eternal friendships with the rest of them. 

I will mention the dear branch members by name and briefly recap some of the wonderful memories we have of each couple or individual.  

   

Anneliese Riedner is a sister that has to be at the top of this list.   The three of us made many memories together.  We have so much in common. We are the same age, we all love hiking, she is musical and is a very dedicated member of the church.  She also loves to laugh!  She is always eager to take missionaries hiking and we took her up on her offer!  We went hiking in the Austrian Alps with Anneliese!  Judd came with us a few times.   I hiked on several Mondays with her and a group of Austrian women.   I have the most wonderful memories of these sweet women that are such dedicated hikers.  We had some interesting conversations about the church as they asked us questions about the church. They go every Monday throughout the year.  The only weather condition that prevents them from hiking every Monday is rain! Anneliese also went sightseeing with us to quite a few places. 

We met Anneliese's son Hannes our first Christmas season in Austria and he and his wife Elizabeth became some of our dearest friends.  He offered to take us on a tour of Graz.  We enjoyed a whole day with Anneliese too, seeing many things Judd never saw when he was on his first mission in 1970.  We discovered that we all love the opera! We attended many of the delightful operas in the lovely opera house in Graz, which is where Hannes and Elizabeth live.

We are striving to keep in touch with these friends since returning home.  It helps that calling on WhatsApp enables us to make most of these calls free of charge.  We also pay an extra fee per month that allows us to talk to those that aren’t on WhatsApp!

Trond and Monika Ollendorff hold a special place in our hearts. They are ten years older than we are and are not able to come to church anymore because of health problems.   Trond has a very strong personality and is  outspoken and is a retired physician. His wife Monika is the sweetest, most humble and loving person.  They joined the church when they had a young family.  They are faithful and devoted servants of God.  We established a tradition with the Ollendorff's the last year of our mission.  We called it:  “Suppen Dienstag” (Soup Tuesday!)  Every Tuesday we took a delicious pot of homemade soup and bread to enjoy with them.  As we ate, Trond would teach us the gospel.   One of his favorites was teaching from the Book of Mormon about Amulek’s teaching on Jesus Christ’s infinite and eternal atonement. How we miss these dear friends!  How we love them.

Borgny Ollendorff  is Trond and Monika’s dear daughter!  She is also one of our treasured friends. We helped her in the Ollendorff garden and shared many meals together.  We grew to love her as much as her wonderful parents. 

Louisa Pierer was our musical buddy.  Since she possesses musical talents, she admires Judd's musicianship and organized performances for the three of us. We sang together in a trio several times in sacrament meetings.  She has a great sense of humor.  What fun we had laughing and singing together.

Ulriche Kroppel facilitated our Austellungs (Street meetings).  Through her connections we were able to have monthly Ausstellungs (Street displays) in the town square of Bruck an der Mur. These gatherings with the missionaries in our district and zone were wonderful opportunities for us to get out of our comfort zone and speak to Austrians! We love these dear dedicated young missionaries and never ceased to be amazed at their love for the Lord and his work. Ulriche is a faithful sister and we miss her and are grateful that she keeps in touch with us through WhatsApp.

Carl Rauch is a very faithful brother that gave so unselfishly of his means and time to our Austellungs. He drove long distances to drive the missionaries and transport everything.  We also bought them food and treats. (Just a sad side note...Carl is very devoted to serving his former wife that isn't even nice to him.) What a dear soul Carl is.

Heidi and Peter Panser are the bones of the branch.  They have done it all and still are doing most of the teaching and contributing.  Peter is now the branch president once again!  They have two sons who have left the church and they are devastated about it but continue to keep a firm grasp of the iron rod. Heidi's father Arthur Glanser also became friends with us. He was in his 90's and faithfully passed the sacrament each Sunday and distributed the hymnals. Dear brother Glanser sadly passed away a few months after we arrived in the mission. Judd was asked to play at his memorial service. A memory we cherish.

Monika Sucher and her partner Wolfgang Metschitzet also became our dear friends! Monika is a less active member of the Bruck Branch who was and is very beloved. We persisted until we were able to find them home and get to know and love them. Judd shares with them a love of dogs and horses. We shared many wonderful meals together. They taught us how to make Vanille Kipferl cookies. Making these together has become a holiday tradition for us. Monika came again to our sacrament meeting the last Sunday in Austria. We were so grateful she came! The branch members were thrilled to see her after so many years.

Micky and Ruth Korak served in our branch during our two years. Pres. Korak was the branch president and Judd was his counselor. We also have a close relationship with them. They invited us into their home and we delighted in many get togethers. They actually live in Graz and every Sunday they made the 45 minute trek to Bruck on der Mur to serve in our branch. We share many of the same situations with our children that they have in their family, and we have great understanding and compassion for each other.

These friends will always hold a very special place in our hearts.  We plan to return to Austria when the Vienna temple is completed.  What a joyous reunion this will be with these precious souls. We are grateful for these eternal friends.