Saved by Mormons. . . seriously.
A few days ago someone told me about a park in Mannheim that was simply wonderful. It has a small zoo, playgrounds, gondola rides and much more. Since today is Saturday and there is nothing I have to do other than entertain my children, it seemed like a good day to head to the Luisenpark. I looked up information on the park online and found out that today IS the best day to head to the park, because it is kid's day. Not only were both kids' admission free but there were also special events taking place.
We arrived around 1pm and started through the maze of paths and attractions. There were about 50 booths that were sponsored by community groups that offered things like bounce houses, face painting, balloon animals, etc. There were also performances by bands, dancers and a magician.
One of the booths was sponsored by a local chapter of Mormons. I couldn't read a word from their banner but they were the only people in the park dressed in black pants, white shirts and a tie. Obviously Mormons. A closer look revealed their name tags. The only thing missing was the bikes, they would have come in handy today.
We visited the fire department booth and the boys took turns knocking down cans with the fire hose and then went around the corner to watch people climb the rock wall. 30 seconds pass and Eli is running around this huge fountain and Gabe is. . . . nowhere to be found. Never mind the details of the first 10 minutes of looking for Gabe, it was a lot of looking and praying. Once that time had passed I knew the chances of me finding him were slim. I needed help.
Who speaks English at a local kids fair? The Mormons, and they happened to be 10 feet from the very place that I lost sight of Gabe. I walked over to the Mormon tent and asked a guy "Sprechen Sie Englisch?" He answered "nein" but motioned for one of the young Elders to come over and told him I spoke English.
The Elder asked me "what's up?" and that is when I started to cry. I told him I lost my son and needed to know who to contact in order to find him. There was German spoken which I didn't understand and before I knew it a flock of bilingual Mormon missionaries were taking pictures of a photo I had of Gabe with their iphones and then they were off. They went in all directions calling his name. I was left standing at the place I lost him, trying to keep it together enough to console Eli, who by the way had already written off any chance of finding Gabe and was morning the loss of his "only brother".
A few of the Elders came back without Gabe and led me to some guy who seemed to know something about something. He made a call and then told us to go to the Suchdienst fur verlorene Kinder - the lost kid tent. As we were headed over there an Elder told us that he ran into a gentleman who thought he saw Gabe being escorted to the tent. That was promising but now we just had to find that darn tent. We were walking every way but the right way, turning around and heading in another direction at every turn. The Elder I was with got a phone call saying that his other Elder buddies were with Gabe.
About 10 minutes later we finally met up with Gabe sitting a table with 3 Mormons and another gentleman who had joined the Mormon search party early on. Gabe was sucking on a sucker and having a conversation with these men. I cried, wiped my tears and thanked each of the Elders profusely.
They then invited me to come to church with them tomorrow and gave me their business card in case I needed anything (like help finding my kids again). Thankfully, they didn't go into their whole high pressure speech, because I was so thankful for them I probably would have pretended to be super interested and maybe even agreed to come to church.
Those bikes would have really sped up the process of finding Gabe. They should definitely not go anywhere without them. In all seriousness, I'm so blessed by those guys today. The first thing the young Elder said to me when I told him Gabe was lost was "we should pray" and I responded "I have, that is all I've been doing since I lost him".
Dear God, bless those men and show them your truth. Thank you for delivering Gabe to me safely today and please help me to never lose him again.
We arrived around 1pm and started through the maze of paths and attractions. There were about 50 booths that were sponsored by community groups that offered things like bounce houses, face painting, balloon animals, etc. There were also performances by bands, dancers and a magician.
One of the booths was sponsored by a local chapter of Mormons. I couldn't read a word from their banner but they were the only people in the park dressed in black pants, white shirts and a tie. Obviously Mormons. A closer look revealed their name tags. The only thing missing was the bikes, they would have come in handy today.
We visited the fire department booth and the boys took turns knocking down cans with the fire hose and then went around the corner to watch people climb the rock wall. 30 seconds pass and Eli is running around this huge fountain and Gabe is. . . . nowhere to be found. Never mind the details of the first 10 minutes of looking for Gabe, it was a lot of looking and praying. Once that time had passed I knew the chances of me finding him were slim. I needed help.
Who speaks English at a local kids fair? The Mormons, and they happened to be 10 feet from the very place that I lost sight of Gabe. I walked over to the Mormon tent and asked a guy "Sprechen Sie Englisch?" He answered "nein" but motioned for one of the young Elders to come over and told him I spoke English.
The Elder asked me "what's up?" and that is when I started to cry. I told him I lost my son and needed to know who to contact in order to find him. There was German spoken which I didn't understand and before I knew it a flock of bilingual Mormon missionaries were taking pictures of a photo I had of Gabe with their iphones and then they were off. They went in all directions calling his name. I was left standing at the place I lost him, trying to keep it together enough to console Eli, who by the way had already written off any chance of finding Gabe and was morning the loss of his "only brother".
A few of the Elders came back without Gabe and led me to some guy who seemed to know something about something. He made a call and then told us to go to the Suchdienst fur verlorene Kinder - the lost kid tent. As we were headed over there an Elder told us that he ran into a gentleman who thought he saw Gabe being escorted to the tent. That was promising but now we just had to find that darn tent. We were walking every way but the right way, turning around and heading in another direction at every turn. The Elder I was with got a phone call saying that his other Elder buddies were with Gabe.
About 10 minutes later we finally met up with Gabe sitting a table with 3 Mormons and another gentleman who had joined the Mormon search party early on. Gabe was sucking on a sucker and having a conversation with these men. I cried, wiped my tears and thanked each of the Elders profusely.
They then invited me to come to church with them tomorrow and gave me their business card in case I needed anything (like help finding my kids again). Thankfully, they didn't go into their whole high pressure speech, because I was so thankful for them I probably would have pretended to be super interested and maybe even agreed to come to church.
Those bikes would have really sped up the process of finding Gabe. They should definitely not go anywhere without them. In all seriousness, I'm so blessed by those guys today. The first thing the young Elder said to me when I told him Gabe was lost was "we should pray" and I responded "I have, that is all I've been doing since I lost him".
Dear God, bless those men and show them your truth. Thank you for delivering Gabe to me safely today and please help me to never lose him again.
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