More than thirty years ago I lived in Germany for two years as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. My first assignment in Germany was in a little branch of the Church in Duisburg-Hamborn, a heavily populated area at the confluence of the Rhine and Ruhr Rivers.
This afternoon I had a mission reunion of sorts, as I was invited to have dinner with Judge Steven Swift and his lovely wife Lorraine in the vicinity of the Lukyanivska Metro station. Judge Swift currently lives in Ukraine and has also lectured this year for the Leavitt Institute. Also at dinner was a longtime friend of Judge Swift, Wilfried M. Voge. We soon discovered in our dinner conversation that the three of us--Judge Swift, Wilfried Voge and myself--all served missions in the Germany Duesseldorf Mission as young men (although Steve and Wilfried preceded me there by more than a decade). I further discovered in the course of our conversation, that Wilfried actually founded the Hamborn Branch, where I first served. We had a long pleasant conversation about Germany and, of course, Ukraine. Wilfried's wife Meka is a native Ukrainian and they have deep ties to this nation--Wilfried having served as the President of the Kyiv Ukraine Mission of the church from 1996 through 1999.
After dinner Wilfried and I walked together from the Lukyanivska district all the way to St. Michaels. It was a pleasant and unexpected reunion.
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