Yet another parade going by our apartment.

Life goes up and down doesn't it. We received sad news and happy news just like everyone else. One lady reminded me today - Life is hard, but wait, it always gets better just be patient. She has had a few very hard weeks but yet she smiles! One friend is home from the hospital and improving. Transfer calls were this week, one of "our" six has served faithfully for 2 years and is headed home, his companion is getting transferred to Austria (sad). They come and go but we are so grateful to work with such faithful young adults! They keep us on our toes and make us laugh. These are some things that made us happy:

One of our families. We help them with English, they
help us with German. We laugh a lot!!



Lunch with our District before some leave our area.

Apartment check. New cleaning supplies! Yeah!



Our Hohentwiel AND blue skies!!



 Big heart from the sisters, little clay heart from
our favorite waitress, plaque from our favorite
 cousin. Happy Valentine's Day!

Another favorite restaurant

Dinner and games with great people!!

Beautiful drive to church this morning. Blue skies came later.

If we get to categorize this week I think it would have to be - party time! Fasching in Germany is one big week long party. We were awakened one morning at 7:15 by a parade of about 50 people going past our apartment. Three hours later it went by again with more people. That evening the parade had grown to about 200 people walking down the street in crazy costumes, an oompa band, a "float" of a large wagon filled with "witches" being pulled by a tractor, and a stripped down Christmas tree being pulled by a tractor. This parade went by twice, louder and more people each time. We spent part of Saturday downtown and saw more crazy costumes and more bands. It has really been fun. We, as missionaries, were warned about staying off the streets after dark. We've also had some heartbreak of dear friends being terribly sick and facing trials. We keep them in our prayers.

Our frosty drive Sunday morning.

One of the many bands walking around town.



A group of friendly witches.



Mission Tour with an Area Authority, very uplifting meetings.

Just some passersby.

The wagon of "witches."



These friends are getting ready to finish their mission so we had
to go explore with them.

An evening of bowling.





A delicious Valentine's Day lunch.

Some of our favorite companions.

Another delicious lunch with wonderful company.

 Looking back at the week I guess it was pretty full, filling and fulfilling with lots of partiness!

This was a week of love. We discovered the Sisters' refrigerator had gone kaput. By the time we checked on it the next day some of the lighting in their apartment had gone out. With just a phone call and a run to a store they now have a new refrigerator and all of their electrical is now working - love miracles! Lunch at Doris' was lovely as is she - she shows so much love to all of us. Sometime this week love notes were put in my purse when I wasn't looking. And our new "grandbaby" needed to snuggle today. We love this place and these people!!

Aren't they adorable in their matching dresses!

Three new members in this District. The Elder in the middle back has
been here the whole time we have. We love all of them!

Love boxes from home that she shared!

We love her lunches!

I think we both needed some snuggle time.

Surprise birthday party!



It's been a very sweet week. We've watched more people want to change their lives. We are grateful for the young missionaries that show such enthusiasm and maturity as some deal with difficult situations. It's such a remarkable thing we're able to be involved in.

Some of our faithful missionaries leaving a meeting to go meet
with others. They teach each other and then teach others.

She loves my nametag. So do I.

Our beautiful landscape that we see every day.



Lives change. Progress made. Such an inspiration to watch.

 

 

This seemed to be such a non-eventful week I had to reread our journal to see what actually happened. We experienced several miracles but none picture-worthy. For example: My Mann had broken two teeth over the week end. He got two referrals for dentists from church members, chose one and called the office on Monday morning at 9:00. They said come right in. We were there by 10:00, filled out paperwork, answered questions, saw the dentist and were home by 11:00. So far, no charge, we're anxious to see how much it cost but we were so pleased with how fast it all happened and relatively pain-free.
Our toilet broke and was fixed in two days - miracle. We contacted the Hausmeister, he contacted a friend - fixed.
We made two batches of crockpot lasagna and 5 dozen cupcakes. I count that as a miracle because it tasted really good and I'm not a good cook! I made the first lasagna for Tuesday night Institute and the other for Wednesday afternoon District Meeting. They were both consumed quickly and completely as well as all of the cupcakes.
We had an interview with President Kohler and he gave us permission to go to Frankfurt to witness the marriage of one of "our" girls from Jena. The marriage is in April, we're really looking forward to seeing her and several of our other "kids" that we dearly love.
We have been reading The Book of Mormon together and looking for specific doctrines of Christ - examples of faith, repentance, baptism, Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. We are gaining a deeper understanding and testimony of this miraculous book.
We've been able to visit with people and hear of their miraculous life stories.
I guess we've needed some down time too - I suffered a pinched nerve in my shoulder, took some Voltaren and it was better in a day. My Mann suffered a migraine, is getting some rest and will be better soon. President suggested we take more time to get out and see some of this beautiful country - I guess we must obey.
Since these were taken a few days ago it has snowed, making it even more beautiful. If you look really closely at the top of the volcano behind the horses you can see Hohentwiel.

It was a full week - happy, sad, good byes, hellos, pick ups and deliveries, beautiful sceneries and the official end of Christmas. We had rain, shine, snow, slush and wind. We discovered the bakery up the street is open way more hours than we thought - that's dangerous. We witnessed, once again, what a fabulous little community we live in. And we are so grateful, over and over again, for technology. We get to hear and see our famLee almost anytime we want. We were able to sit with people from Russia and watch a church video in their own language. It brought tears to their eyes and ours. We can't always understand what is said but we feel the love through hugs and eyes. We love these people!



Train Station good-byes are always so bitter sweet.
Excited for them, sad for us. Anxious to meet replacements.



It's hard to say good bye to the ones we've worked with for so long.





And of course another fantastic meal with great people.



Our last District Meeting with these fabulous missionaries.
The men in front are going home, the sister is going to Switzerland.





The last official act of Christmas - the burning of the trees.
Our community met in this field. The fire department picked up trees and people
brought their trees in wagons and we watched them go up in smoke, in the rain/snow
and drank hot punch and ate sausages while listening to music - it was reminiscent of
Oktoberfest. It touched all of the senses. Another great experience.



This last week made up for the previous week of contemplation. We spent more time on the road and in meetings than we did at home. We made lunch for 26 missionaries - it never ceases to amaze us that these young people can conduct meetings, teach each other about spiritual matters, teach complete strangers about the teachings of Christ and keep clean/semi-clean apartments AND they are fun to be with! We are learning so much from them. We got to end the week at the Swiss Temple followed by lunch at Cindy's Diner - delish! My companion spoke in church today about forgiving and moving on - he used the analogy of Tarzan swinging through the jungle. The only way Tarzan could move forward was by reaching for a vine and letting go of the one behind him. If he held onto both vines his progression would stop, if he didn't reach forward he would swing back. He gave a wonderful talk and he did it in German! We continue to love this work and the opportunities it gives us to move forward and watch others do the same.

Why didn't I think of this when we were raising our famLee?
They are lining up to wash their own bowl so they could each
have two cookies and most had fun doing it!



And they are off to teach and preach after being fed spiritually
and physically.

A little ancient city we found on our travels.

Oranges instead of chocolate - flu season - as a reward for
a clean apartment.

An elf from Forks provided wonderful Christmas gifts for my friend.
She'll probably never get to Forks so we brought Forks to her.

We traveled two hours to get here by 8:00 am, beautiful
way to start a Saturday.



We ended the week with another delicious meal with fantastic company.