Well I have become a blog "slacker".  Life has been crazy the past month .  I feel like I've been on a treadmill trying to run from one thing to the next.  But it has mostly been exciting and fun here as usual.
First and perhaps most important, we welcomed our newest grandchild last week--Joseph Thomas Asplund made his debut to Jason and LeAnne at a whoppin' 8.9 oz.  He is a cutie and looks alot like Jake and Zack.  Can't wait to hold that one!!
We have had a fun visit with Jim, Anita and Nikki (Allan's brother, sister & niece).  It is so fun to have family visit but pretty challenging to entertain, be the tour guides and attempt to maintain some of our missionary responsibilities.  We love sharing the beauty of Germany with others.  We went to Heidelberg, around Frankfurt & it's rich history and on the Rhine River cruise.  We never tire of these beautiful places and they seemed quite amazed by it all!

We are busy planning our semi-annual Advisor Conference which brings together our 15 couples from all over Europe who supervise the Centers in the various countries.  They are wonderful leaders of the church and we will be blessed to hear from our new Area President, Elder Teixeira and also from Elder Wright who is the Area Seventy over Centers for Young Adults.  This will be a wonderful weekend conference but requires alot of work and planning on our part.  
Several of our dear friends who have served here in the Area office during our mission have recently left.  We miss these great friends and look forward to reuniting in "civilian" life in a few months.  It is also nice to meet and welcome the new couples as they begin their missions here.
We had a farewell fireside with Elder and Sister Kopischke last Sunday.  He has been an amazing Area President and she is always bursting with enthusiasm.  They both gave such inspiring messages and told of their preparations to leave their homeland here, take their family and worldy possessions and move to Utah .  Even though it is difficult to leave with the possibility of never returning, they are such wonderful examples of walking by faith as they begin further service for the Lord. 
We just returned from a training in Bucharest , Romania.  It was a great meeting with the mission President and 3 new couples serving at Centers and the YSA leaders.  We love meeting with those at the Centers and helping them to see the vision of rescuing the less actives, welcoming new converts and leading the young adults to the temple and on missions.  Great things are happening with the young adults of the church in Europe.