4 down and 1
to go; in this case not a punting situation, we just completed our 4th
visa trip and we will take one more such trip in November and then when that
visa expires we will head for home. It
hardly seems possible but we’ll save that discussion for another time. This past week was another amazing
experience. We were able to travel to
Frankfurt, Germany for this visa trip where we attended the Temple in
Fredricksdorf, about a 30 minute drive northwest from Frankfurt. It was great to get back to the temple and be
reminded of why we are here and what we have promised our Heavenly Father we
would do with our lives. It is a very
small temple but its beauty greatly overshadowed its size.
When we came
out of the Temple Sister Webb’s sister
who is living in Wales was there with her husband to meet us. They had ferried across the English Channel
and driven down to Frankfurt to spend a couple of days with us. It is the first any of her family has been
able to “personally connect” since her Mom passed away in June so it was a
special time for both of the sisters.
They spent one whole day together while Thayer’s husband Keith and I got
in a round of golf at the Mainz Golf Club.
It was great to be back on the course but it has been a long time. I can say that I ended the day with at least
the same amount of balls as I started with but they were all much less quality
and much more used than the starting line-up.
We spent one
day on a river tour up the Rhine which was breathtaking. We will definitely want to go back and take a
longer trip so we can see more of the Rhine Valley. There were castles on every bend, some in use
and some not, old toll houses in the middle of the river and vineyards growing
up and down the steep mountains on both sides of the river. Those vineyards had to be planted on at least
a 60degree incline.
We stayed in
a hotel in Weisbaden which is home to the big American military base in
Germany, although we saw no signs of any military personnel anywhere we
went. We spent one afternoon walking
through the parks and exploring the city there a little and stopped for dinner
in a little sidewalk café. It reminded
us a lot of our trip to Prague. Our last
day, as we travelled back to the airport, we stopped in a little town,
“Weilbach” I think it was called, for some lunch. We found a small local restaurant there so we
went in and sat down. It became quickly apparent that this was going
to be more difficult that we had considered.
We of course spoke no German and the waitress, cook, other patrons, or
anyone else in that establishment spoke no English. There was no one who could help us understand
what we were ordering. So after being
taken back to the kitchen to actually “see” the entrees (which did not help at
all), and numerous hand gestures and guttural noises we just ordered one each
of the first four meals on the menu and shared.
It was quite fun, the food was tasty, and the waitress let out an
audible sigh and wiped her forehead with the back of her hand upon discovering
that we truly enjoyed our meal and had eaten everything.
We are now
back on duty as it were facing the numerous tasks that pile up when we are
away. Elder Bennett of our Area
Presidency is on a Mission tour with Pres. and Sister Gibbons and will be in
town the end of this next week. We have
a missionary Zone Conference on Thursday and then a Mission District Conference
on the weekend with sessions on Saturday and Sunday. We will be broadcasting this conference
across Siberia and Kazakhstan (our entire mission). We are hoping that with a successful
broadcast of training and general sessions we can set the stage for becoming a
Stake very soon.
Life is
good, the weather is warm, we are still able to get up in the mornings and
carry on for most of each day! What more
could one ask. We pray for each of you,
our family and friends, every day and thank you all for taking the time to
write and email and call to keep us connected.
We love you all.
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| Worlds largest Cuckoo Clock Wiesbaden |
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| A Castle on the Rhine |
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| Another Castle Notice the Vineyards all the way up the Mtn |
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| Sister Webb w/her sister in Wiesbaden |
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ReplyDeleteYour notes on the trip to Germany were very fun to read. Our family spent a total of six years there. I had the blessing as serving as Bishop of the Frankfurt Germany Servicemen's 1st Ward beginning in 1987. I remember interviewing all of my ward members for worthiness prior to the dedication of the Frankfurt Temple. What a blessing that temple has been in the lives of the members. Our ward had twenty young men/young women. Because the temple was so close we took them to the temple each month. Because of the smaller size we could only take 10 youth at a time. It worked out that we had 10 young men and 10 young women, so we rotated and went every month with them. What a blessing was. We have very fond memories of that time. F. Enzio Bushe was the Temple President at that time. Thanks for sharing your fun experiences. Brought back MANY fond memories.
The sod is in around the chapel. Still waiting to see when they will hydro-seed.
Take care.