Stephens Berlin Germany Mission Blog

  25 October 2025 Tamas was baptized.  He was taught by  Sister Kunkel and Sister Jones. Richard was also baptized.  In this picture: Elder Daniels, Richard, he ward member who baptized him,  Elder Koshar, and Elder Schmidt. Praveen was also baptized but I didn't get a photo of him.   21 October 2025 We celebrated our 48th wedding anniversary.   Gary, who doesn't usually eat sweets, splurged. Gary and Louise Gary had a salmon dish and I had a chicken.  It was tasty.     We are trying to learn how the trains and bus system works here. We have a car and usually we drive where we need to go.  However,  parking is always an issue.  We had Sister Pearson explain to us how to look for train schedules on Google Maps.  I think Gary has a pretty good idea of how it works-we just need to take a trial run. One of our missionaries lost his train/bus pass so Gary and I had to drive up to the main train station about...

  This is my friend Jasmine.  She is from Iran and is interested in learning more about Jesus Christ.  We sat together in  Relief Society on Sunday and I helped her download the  Gospel Library App.  She and her friend, Hossein, have met with Elder Erickson and Elder Jones for some of the lessons and have a baptism date set for November 8.   These are our office missionaries.  The picture was taken in the kitchen of the Mission Offices located at Zerbster Strasse 42 in Berlin, Germany.   Elder and Sister Stout have completed their 18 months and headed home this week.   Elder Stout, Elder Christensen, Sister Christensen, Sister Stout, Sister Jensen,  Sister Stephens, Elder Stephens, and Elder Jensen (in back) We had three new sister missionaries arrive this week. Sister Heidenreich, Sister Eardley, and Sister Williams We did some orientation and training at the Mission Presidents home before taking them to the train st...

  We love Fruhstucks Brotchen!   It is a pack of 6 rolls that is shelf stable.  We cook them for  6 minutes and eat the bread/rolls hot.  So yummy! Every Sunday night we have "Power Meeting" by Zoom. All the missionaries in the Germany Berlin Mission join. We have a thought, talk about goals, and have some short presentations.  This week I will present a health message on Upper Respiratory Infections and what to do about them.   Sister Stephens, Elder Sparks, and Elder Turley We were saying goodbye to Elder Sparks who left for home on September 30.  He was a great missionary and so much fun to be around.  We will miss him. Sister Stephens, Sister Reilly, and Sister Robins Sister Reilly has finished her mission on September 11 and returned home to Hyrum, Utah.  I will definitely have her over for dinner once we return home. We help with apartment inspections every 6 weeks.  These darling girls dejunked and filled 6 bags ful...

  Gary & Louise with Elder and Sister Christensen.  We went  on a bus tour of Berlin.  It is a good way to see things either from the bus or to get off and walk around an area and then get on the next bus.  This is the Victory Column (Siegessaule).   It is a National Monument commissioned by the Prussian King William 1 and was constructed between 1864 and 1873.  The column has a bronze statue  of Victoria on top.  She is the goddess of victory.  We climbed the 285 steps to the top for a stunning panorama view of Tiergarten Park and Berlin. The statue has Victoria holding a laurel wreath aloft in her right hand and a  field sign with the Iron Cross in her left hand.  An eagle is sitting on her helmet.   The column is 67 meters high.  The site sustained damage during the war.  On the side of the Victory Column are murals.  In this picture, you can see where a man's head was shot off as well as mu...