Primary Activity Day

We have been the Activity Day leaders for the past few months and love this great group of kids.  Here the boys and girls meet together because there is no scouting.  We have 12 who attend, ages 8-11.  They are really nice kids--smart and very international.  They come from 5 or 6 different countries and all are so nice and get along quite smart!  This month we made candy leis for their Dads and then we had some competitions - the tallest towers made with marshmallows and spaghetti - paper airplane designing - crabwalk soccer and pic pocket tag.  It was a wild but fun evening.

Last Saturday we had our cultural outing with the other missionary couples.  We went to the Burg Eltz castle which sits down in a wooded are that is one of the most beautiful settings that we have seen.  We had a lovely tour of the castle and walked around the valley and then went to Cochem, a small city on the Rhine river for lunch.  It was a cool but very beautiful day in a lovely part of Germany.

During the summer many of the villages in Germany have summer festivals called Hessentags.  There are many local delicacies and entertainment and interesting markets. 

Exciting Things a Happening

We hosted a conference last weekend here in Frankfurt for our Area Advisors for Centers for Young Adults.  We have 12 couples from the larger countries in Europe who have been called to supervise and support the Centers in their region or country.  Most have 15-20 Centers they are responsible for.  We bring everyone together semi-annually for training and messages from the leaders.  The theme this year was "Ministering to the One".  Elder Teixeira from the Area Presidency spoke as well as Elder Wright, our Area Seventy over the Centers.  They both are so inspiring and great teachers.

We held it at the Airport Holiday Inn where everyone was staying.  The planning was quite intense with making all the flight arrangements from 11 countries and hotel as well as meals, etc. for the Conference.  But everything went very smoothly and everyone seemed to really enjoy being together.  The instruction we received and gave was quite pertinent for carrying out the work at the Centers.

We had a lovely dinner together at an outdoor restaurant.  It is always so interesting to be with these wonderful couples and hear their accents (some needed translation) and speaking in 6 or 7 different languages.  Valentinis are from Italy, Stanks from Germany, Hungers from Switzerland, Lindgrens from Finland, Mocellins from France, Mattssons from Sweden, Carvalhos from Portugal, Serranos from Spain, Gouts from the Netherlands and 2 couples from England.  They are all soooooooo fun!

We love serving with these faithful leaders in all their lands.  They are devoted to the gospel and are so joyful in their service.  They uplift and teach the couples serving in the Centers and the YSA leaders.  We have made friendships that will be in our hearts forever.

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.

Last week we met Linda and Dennis in Amsterdam for some fun "tiptoeing thru the tulips".  We had a Mission Conference of the Belgium/Netherlands Mission that we were speaking at so they flew into Amsterdam and then we spend a couple of days seeing the sights.  Holland, or the Netherlands, is a beautiful and flat country on the North Sea.  We visited the Zaanse Schans area which is famous for windmills and wooden shoes.  We actually went inside a "working windmill" which was crushing peanuts to make oil.  It was quite fascinating.

We loved the wooden shoe factory with 1,000,000 styles of wooden shoes and a viewing area where they carve the shoes.  We also went to a cute and quaint village named Edam - famous for it's great cheese.

The city of Amsterdam is pretty amazing with it's many canals and beautiful architecture.  We took a cruise around the city on the canal boats and walked around viewing the amazing buildings and visited the Anne Frank haus.  It was sobering to go through .

Of course no trip to Holland in April would be complete without a day at the Kukenhof Tulip Gardens.  There are literally acres of tulip (and other flower) beds.  I never dreamed there could be so many different varieties of tulips.  It was a cold but amazing journey through these beautiful gardens.  Kind of makes the 3 or 4 tulips in the flower bed at home seem pointless.

There are also fields of tulips growing all around the area and driving past is a wonder in itself.  It looks like a patchwork quilt of colors.