Letters from Elder Spaulding: Week 69 - Life in Greifswald Week 11: ZoKo

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.