We are Here! First week in Frankfurt

Sunday

We spoke at church in Salem.  Several couples who served with us last time came (Greenwood, Vassel, Johansen, Harrison, Hanks, Smith, Feil). Family and friends also came home for lunch: Ahlstroms, Tim Stay and family. Larry and Joyce Stay, Judi Moore and grandkids,  Doug Holt, Steve and Sue Holt, Rob and Jodi Holt and family, Martha and Aaron & Sam and Isabella Henderson, Glaucia and George Brown.  Leah White, Mary and Kay .  At 6 we were set apart. Watsons came to say goodbye. 

Monday : up at 2 am. Doug drove us to the MTC to catch the airport shuttle at 3:30. Probably the shortest MTC stay on record.  All the luggage made weight (a miracle) and we were TSA approved.  We had a 5 hour layover in Atlanta . On the flight to Frankfurt I had an entire center row to myself so laid down and slept!

Frankfurt airport

Tuesday we arrived in a grey and foggy Germany . Sharpes ( the humanitarian couple we trained) came to pick us up.  They drove us to our apartment in Friedrichsdorf, just 3 blocks from the temple, which is closed for renovation.

view from balcony

spare bedroom and extra chairs

  Our car was here at the apartment, so after unpacking a few things, we headed into the office where we met or re-met lots of people.  New were all the senior missionaries except the Sharpes and Denis and Jackie Hawkins.  But Denis had surgery last month for a torn meniscus and Jackie was flying to Guatemala with a sister missionary in crisis so we didn't see them.

  

Our new office is where Vassels used to be, but they had torn down the wall between their office and were the Footes were: Big airy room, but hard to not overhear conversations. Sharpes had arranged a lovely lunch with salad and homemade rolls. We met Tom King, who is over Family Services.  Our boss, Gilles Francois, was sick all week.  Tuesday night was Relief Society.  GREAT to see everyone, especially Jill Dyches and Jen Kearon!  Melissa Dalton Bradford did a presentation on being a "Global Mom," which is the title of a book she wrote.  Only one woman there is from Germany, so advice on moving around and living in new places successfully was welcome.  We had chocolate chip cookies (which is a big deal here! you can't buy chips, vanilla, baking powder or brown sugar in typical stores so someone goes to a LOT of work and effort to make chocolate chip cookies!).  Bob and Judi Palmer had helped me out by picking up normal bed pillows (American sized : Germans use huge ones) and a under futon bed warmer!  Since our bedroom is freezing, it makes all the difference.

front room and dining room

Wednesday: first full day in the office.  We have 70 projects completed or underway.  We submitted two projects for approval by Gilles and the area committee.  Randy got the warehouse restocking approved: they have supplies for hygiene kits which we then send by truck to European stakes and missions.  Randy also got a report sent in and closed one project.  Only 69 to go. I spent the day getting acquainted with the projects in hand and developing a process to deal with projects from arrival to approval to placing the orders to following thru with delivery.  Many are trucks full of donated goods and hygiene kits from English wards who deliver to Calais.  Italian stakes are combining efforts to pack and deliver 10K hygiene kits!.  So, a lot is going on.  We met with Craig Hunt, who is DTA over all of Europe Area, who offered guidance and suggestions. I went to the Wed. Lunch and Learn - which is the class I started - and it is still going.  They trade off each week: this week was 3 Nephi 17 to 20.   Randy's eyes started to burn so missionary medical set up and appointment for him for tomorrow.  Sister Dyches brought us dinner!  Meat loaf, potatoes, salad and dressing, grapes and lemon cake/bread.  It was wonderful to have a delicous, warm meal when we got home at 8 pm and there is enough for a second meal.

kitchen: one big refrigeraton on the left!

Thursday: We got our computers tweeked and our cell phone set up.  We can call home free from the office anytime.  We can call you with our cell, if we need to, and you can always contact us on that phone. +49 69 1449 2242.  We also have free texting (thanks for checking on that, Peter) on my T-Mobile phone 1 385 309 7675 so you can communicate any time for free (if your texting is free).  The eye doctor said Randy has 'acute dry eye' from air travel, winter heat and computer eye strain!  Deja vu! Just what happened to my eyes on our first mission.  I got trained by Sister Katy Ryser, wife of one of the medical advisors, who has been doing our job for the last two months.  I was able to contact 5 stakes to get needed details on their scheduled projects: one contact was with Pres. Ugo Perego, who gave the most interesting talk I heard at FAIR Mormon: it was about what DNA tells us about Joseph Smith's ancestors and descendants. You can watch it at http://www.fairmormon.org/perspectives/authors/perego-ugo.

We got money out of the bank machine and went to NiHao dinner: Randy had the duck and I got fish and veggies (our two favorites).

NiHao chinese restaurant

Friday we went straight to the warehouse up near our apt. in Bad Homburg.  We met the people in Purchasing and Delivery who ship hygiene kit contents out to stakes and missions.  It was good to get a look at the quality of the items (we need thicker blankets!).Jenny Rossin has been especially instrumental in the process, setting up the spreadsheets and order forms.We visited with Denis, then had leftovers for dinner.  We are pleased to report that Netfix works for us here! (unlike last mission).    

Saturday we slept in, then walked over to the Friedrichsdorf temple renovation open house.

walking thru Friedrichsdorf

It was great, with lots of photos and site maps and floorplans, with a video of the original temple buiding. 

 And the food was just amazing!  Imagine serving fresh mozzerella and tomato, or brie, or lachs (smoked salmon) sandwiches! Delicious.

No idea what is being done inside the temple, except we heard that they are moving the baptismal font to a new basement location outside of the old foundation, thus freeing up considerable space within the building.  The new chapel - north of the temple patron housing complex in that field we used for parking - is well underway.  They expect it to be done this summer.  The interiors look a lot like the chapel in Offenbach, clean spare lines I think of as Scandinavian. The baptismal font will be off a foyer and have a big window like Offenbach. The old chapel will be torn down as soon as the new is finished along with the old distribution center building which is gone: big hole there now with a yellow crane (the German national bird) and an amazing pile of trailers forming a 3 story construction headquarters. They will both be replaced with two new buildings of temple missionary apartments with a distribution center. I am glad we will get to see the finished product. 

Existing Chapel on the left; Temple Pres home in middle. Construction offices made of shipping containers stacked up on the right, blocking the view of the temple.  Big hole will be new temple missionary housing. 

We walked home and stopped at a new-to-us store: Norma.  It is a low-end, close out place like Penny Markt.  But, they still had some Stollen left from Christmas!  Microwaved for a few seconds, it freshens right up and is delicious with Mandel paste (almonds) in the middle

We had dinner (pizza) and changed into church clothes and went back to the Friedrichsdorf building for the baptism of two Iranian refugees!  Elias and Vahid.  

We also met investigators from Egypt, Dominican Republic and Yemen. I had never seen a baptismal program in Farsi (Persian) before!  The mission president - Pres. Stoddard - and Sister Limer (I think her husband is an area 70?) spoke, and, even tho' it was in German the spirit was strong.  We sang 5 or 6 hymns in German, which I love.  And I understood about 80% of the opening prayer.

  Again, awesome food: some kind of persian chicken and rice with raisins and maybe apricots.  Pistachio candy from Iran. German casseroles with minced meat (think hamburger mixed with ground pork) mixed into mashed potatoes, then topped with lines of colored vegetables.  And then the drink: called nowruz, it is chia seeds in a sweet liquid with either rose water or brewed saffron added.(see  http://www.labnoon.com/en/2015/03/16/persian-chia-seeds-drink-for-nowruz/) Tasted good, but it was so thick it was like drinking a whole cup of roe!

These are the two drinks: nowruz with saffron on left, rosewater on the right.

We went home and watched episode 3 of Downton..