Hello Friends and family, I hope that all is going well in
all of your many adventures!
This week had two cool highlights, which I would like to
talk about.
On Thursday Elder Sinclair and I went to Eberswalde (the land
of my inheritance) to do Austausch with the Elders there, Elder McAdams and
Elder Rockwood. I went with the latter of the two, and we had a really good
time. The highlight was an appointment we had with a less active member, who
hasn't met with anyone active in quite a long time, but did so two weeks ago
for the first time. The branch president in Eberswalde is the husband of a
missionary couple, so he is very missionary minded. He, his wife, and the
Elders had an appointment with him two weeks ago which went pretty well, but
was kind of awkward. We had an appointment with him, though, where we really
helped him to open up.
We started by reading the bulk of a talk given by Boyd K.
Packer in the April 2001 General conference called The Touch of the Master's
Hand. The crowning jewel of this talk is a poem which he shares, which I would
like to share with you. It is, naturally, called The Touch of the Master's
Hand.
’Twas
battered and scarred, and the auctioneer
Thought
it scarcely worth his while
To
waste much time on the old violin,
But
held it up with a smile:
“What
am I bidden, good folks,” he cried,
“Who’ll
start the bidding for me?”
“A
dollar, a dollar”; then, “Two!” “Only two?
Two
dollars, and who’ll make it three?
Three
dollars, once; three dollars, twice;
Going
for three—” But no,
From
the room, far back, a gray-haired man
Came
forward and picked up the bow;
Then,
wiping the dust from the old violin,
And
tightening the loose strings,
He
played a melody pure and sweet
As
a caroling angel sings.
The
music ceased, and the auctioneer,
With
a voice that was quiet and low,
Said,
“What am I bid for the old violin?”
And
he held it up with the bow.
“A
thousand dollars, and who’ll make it two?
Two
thousand! And who’ll make it three?
Three
thousand, once, three thousand, twice,
And
going, and gone!” said he.
The
people cheered, but some of them cried,
“We
do not quite understand
What
changed its worth?” Swift came the reply:
“The
touch of a master’s hand.”
And
many a man with life out of tune,
And
battered and scarred with sin,
Is
auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd,
Much
like the old violin.
A
“mess of pottage,” a glass of wine,
A
game—and he travels on.
He’s
“going” once, and “going” twice,
He’s
“going” and almost “gone.”
But
the Master comes, and the foolish crowd
Never
can quite understand
The
worth of a soul and the change that’s wrought
By
the touch of the Master’s hand.
We then proceeded to indulge his interest by connecting this talk with one
of his passions. He loves the violin, and actually owns three of them. Elder
Rockwood is quite the Violinist as well, so they proceeded to play a duet.
After a while, it came to light that I used to play the Viola. We then
proceeded to attempt to tune his third violin to play like a viola so that we
could play a trio. I can bear testimony, that that is something which is not
meant to be done. It didn't work very well, but we had a blast sounding
horrible together. All things considered, including how long it has been
since I've played, we sounded pretty good!
We also had our
Zone Conference this week, which went pretty well! The sad part was that the
Thema which Elder Sinclair and I prepared got cut short and turned into a
mess... We did what we could, though, and enjoyed the rest. A big topic at this
Zone Conference was a focus on the many people who have traveled here to
Germany and their readiness to accept the gospel. Our mission is beginning to
pilot, and even make, new tools that will be increasing our abilities to work
across many languages. The work will go on!
Life has been
pretty good other than that! Sadly, I have a cough right now which isn't
wanting to go away, but I will hopefully be getting better pretty soon.
 |
| Elder Spaulding with Elder Rockwood |
 |
| Elder Sinclair and Elder Spaulding |
I wish you all a wonderful week!
Liebe Grüße,
Elder Austin Spaulding
