A HAPPY REUNION
I WAS VERY HAPPY WHEN MY DAUGHTER, DORIS, RECEIVED HER MISSION CALL TO THE GERMANY HAMBURG MISSION IN THE LATE 1980S. THIS WAS THE SAME AREA IN WHICH I WAS A MISSIONARY 31 YEARS BEFORE.
I WAS EVEN HAPPIER WHEN SHE WAS ASSIGNED TO TWO LOCATIONS AT WHICH I HAD SERVED, INCLUDING BRAUNSCHWEIG, IN WHAT WAS THEN WEST GERMANY. I ASKED HER IN A LETTER WHETHER SHE KNEW A SISTER JORDAN AND A BROTHER WOZNY, TWO INVESTIGATORS I HAD TAUGHT. SHE WROTE BACK THAT BOTH OF THEM WERE STALWART MEMBERS OF THE WARD IN BRAUNSCHWEIG.Shortly after the Berlin Wall came down in November 1989, our daughter completed her mission. My husband and I picked her up and traveled to Dresden to visit my husband's relatives. This was in January 1990, before the reunification of Germany. After an hour's delay at the border, we crossed into the German Democratic Republic.
We drove through the city of Magdeburg, then on to a small village 35 miles to the east. There we came to a fork in the road, and soon realized we had taken the wrong road. We stopped to look at a map. Another car with a West German license plate then stopped behind us, and a woman approached us and asked, "Is this the road to Braunschweig?"
While she spoke with my husband, Doris whispered to me, "That is Sister Jordan."
I didn't recognize her. Besides, what would she be doing in East Germany? I whispered back, "She can't be."
Doris asked the woman, "Aren't you Sister Jordan from Braunschweig?" The woman replied that she was, and said, "I came here to invite some friends to Church, and I got lost on my way home."
While serving in Braunschweig, Doris had told Sister Jordan that she was the daughter of the lady missionary who had helped teach her the gospel. Now, she turned to my husband and me and said, "These are my parents."
I had not seen Sister Jordan for 31 years. We hugged each other in happy reunion. She told us that after her baptism she and her son had remained very active in the Church. Her husband had later joined, and they were sealed in the Swiss Temple. Her husband had since passed away. Sister Jordan and I agree that it was the Holy Ghost who helped our paths cross again. - Gerda Doelling, Centerville (Utah) 16th Ward
(Another in a series of "Missionary Moments." Illustration by Deseret News artist Reed McGregor.)