Busy June

This month is flying by with busy and interesting things.  It was our turn to clean the church last week so we spent a few hours there on Sat. morning.  We have a beautiful meetinghouse that is about 2 years old.  It is quite large with 2 wards; our international ward and a German-speaking ward.  We love our diverse and fun ward where everyone is"away from home."  I spoke on Father's day on fathers in the scriptures.  That was interesting as they really don't celebrate Father's day here.
Our days at the "office" continue to be long but productive.  They are installing a new air conditioning system so the entire building is pretty noisy and torn up.  I think they will be finished in time for winter.  We are on the 4th floor-west side-so it is often quite warm.  Once a month we have an interview with Elder Teixiera who is a counselor in the Area Presidency, since we are not under a Mission Pres.  That interview is always a bit stressful - although he is a very kind and wonderful man, he knows how to hold your feet to the fire!  His latest assignment is for us to help produce a training DVD for Centers for Young Adults.  No small task writing a script, setting up filming in Centers in Portugal, Spain, Germany, England and France.  We have a great video production dept. here but they are extremely busy so to get schedules-theirs, ours and those country Centers-on the same page is a challenge.  We have developed the script and storyboard of filming we need and will begin shooting next week.  We will do Germany and then go to Portugal and others are doing the remaining Centers.  We have a August deadline.
So this on top of our "normal" work is pretty daunting.  But we know the Lord provides a way for this important work to be done so we move forward with that trust.
We have had huge changes this month as 8 couples are leaving and 6 new have/are arriving.  A new couple on the medical team was on the same cruise we took last fall.  It is sad to see our relatively new   friends leaving but good to embrace more new ones.
Saturday we went to a very historical city along the Rhine River.  Lunch was at a quite authentic mexican restaurant run by a guy from Texas and then we wandered the town .  Many of these small towns have a "festival" during the summer which is like our state fairs only located throughout the city.  So the festival and St. Martins church were quite fun to experience.  The train around town was also fun.

These are some of the sights along the streets--gingerbread cookie necklaces, interesting food stands, strawberry delights (we were forwarned that these tasty treats were actually beer laced).

We are never at a loss for fun things to experience here.  It is a beautiful and interesting country, as is our mission experience.

Rhine Rivertrip

Our cultural activity for June was a trip down the Rhine river.  We drove to Rudesheim which is about 60 km from Frankfurt and boarded a 3 decked riverboat.  We cruised down the Rhine for about 2 1/2 hours through magnificent country.  One side of the river was hill after hill of vineyards and small villages with old church steeples dotting the hillsides.  The opposite side was one unique castle after another.  It felt like you were in a fairy tale.

We got off at a village called St Goar for lunch and a hike up to an old fortress.  More amazing views and things to see. 

 About 20 of us went so everything was terrific--company, lunch, picturesque country and leisurely cruise up and back down the Rhine.  For those of you who COME TO SEE US, it will be a must do.
Once a month we have a "women's night out" ie, enrichment night.  We went on a tour of the German cemetary which is across the street from us.  It is where we go for our daily walks and nothing like a cemetary in the U.S.  It covers a square mile and is lush with trees, foliage and each plot is bought/rented and cared for privately.  We saw some amazing things including an American children's section, the Heindenburg memorial, World War 1 and 2 memorial, and other famous sights.  This sounds like a rather strange thing to get excited about but it really is amazing.

Roaming in Romania

Well our last training took us to Bucharest, Romania.  There are 2 nice new buildings in the city with about 100 members in each Branch.  The church has been there for about 20 years.   There is a Center for Young Adults in one of the buildings and a new couple came last month so we went to do training and visit the Center.  Bucharest is a huge city- 3 million - and has many old and interesting buildings with lots of dramatic history.  We had a good training with the Center couple, Mission Pres. and Institute director.  We went on a home visit to a less active family of one of the YSAs.  They were such gracious and kind people, giving gifts and refreshments and sharing their family story.  We climbed to the 7th floor of an old apt. building to their modest  home but the spirit was in rich abundance.  It was a beautiful experience.

We had some free time in the afternoon to tour the city and visit a Romanian Historical Park  where dozens of old homes, waterwheels and historical buildings are located.  It was very interesting and I got to buy some Romanian hand painted eggs (duck, goose and wooded).

Couldn't resist this bank sign.  And yes, we escaped WITHOUT any teeth marks in our necks!!  But made for some great stories for the grandkids!

We took Matt and Brenna to Heidelberg last week.  It is really another amazing sight to see.  It has been so fun to have Matt and Brenna here.  We will hate to see them go before the fun is over!!

Now, just to keep things in their proper perspective.  Amidst our 10 hour days in the office, we MUST travel on assignment and Saturday is P-day.  So don't ask if we are realllllllllly on a mission.