A LONG WALK AND A LONGER RIDE

Most of what we do in a week involves office work, primarily on the computer, related to humanitarian projects that we currently have open.  As I told several Welfare couples that were in a training with us this last week, 20 percent of the humanitarian work is fun, the 10 percent on the front end when we are finding and planning new projects, and the 10 percent on the back end when we are implementing and finalizing the projects.  The field or in-country Welfare couples participate with us in those activities.  80 percent of the time spent on a project is office work: emails and time on the computer. So, rarely will we spend much time writing about the 80 percent.

 While we didn’t have any project finding or implementing type work this week, we did have a fun day yesterday.  Eileen suggested we go on a short walk.  We ended up walking over five miles to the center of Bad Homburg and back.  It was good to get out and see the neighborhoods, people, shops, church buildings and old city castle.  

Early in the afternoon we were picked up by one of our managers to go visit a member in the US military stake a couple of hours southwest of us.  Eileen and I had been invited by a member of the high council to meet with them between two of their stake conference meetings.  I had come into contact with the Brother Smith about a reimbursement from the Area office that had been messed up.  Eileen had come into contact with his wife due to her submission of a potential project for the women in their congregation.  Only by comparing their email addresses did we figure out that they were related. 

As we were not the best people for them to be in contact with regarding their interest in volunteering type projects, we invited our manger over Germany, Florian Titze and his wife, Lisa.  Lisa is in the stake relief society presidency here in Friedrichsdorf.  Friedrichsdorf is city where the temple is located.  Bad Homburg, the city where we live, is located to the north between Frankfurt and Friedrichsdorf.  We also took with us a young woman, Julie, who is working at the office and helping to coordinate volunteering projects for the Church members here.  Julie has had a very interesting but challenging life for a 21-year-old.  Born in Syria, she left alone at age 16 to move to The Czeck Republic, where she joined the Church.  Recently she moved to Germany, met her husband in the Frankfurt temple, getting married in Denmark because the paperwork in Germany would take many months to work through.  The life of a refugee is complicated, difficult in ways that are unimaginable to most of us.  We have seen that up close during our times living in Europe and at home in Utah.

Our meeting in Kaiserslautern (aka K-Town), was delightful.  K-Town is close to Ramstein air base, so there are a lot of US military and civilian personnel in the area.  It was fun to meet and serve with regular members of the Church, and not just with senior missionaries in the office.  The Area Presidency has promoting volunteerism for the members here as one of their focuses for this year.  We should all take to heart King Benjamin’s words, “When ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God” (Mosiah 2:17).  While we will not be directly involved with the activities coming out of our visit, it was still fun to get out and meet people.        

I (Eileen) had a doctor's appointment in downtown Frankfurt.  When we walked into the medical office, Russell recognized it immediately, having been there 10 years ago. We both have a history of kidney stones.  I try and drink a lot, however in Europe you pay 8 dollars for .75 liter of water so it is pretty pricey to drink while not home or at the office..  You can't get tap water at restaurants. After the doctor appointment we went to a popular Doner shop.  My doner lasted several meals.  The thing was huge!

    

We had new missionary training this week.  The couples who are serving out in "the field" came to Frankfurt and we were taught about Welfare/Self Reliance skills. We had couples serving in Austria, Macedonia, Croatia present, along with a couple from Turkey viewing the training session remotely.  

                             

 The same dinner but from the other end of the table.  

                                                        

We have company for dinner every Sunday.  We have found the easiest dinner to cook is a roast in a crockpot. Usually there is a butcher who speaks English and points out the best roast to buy.  Russell bought this roast at the local market, but wasn't sure what he was purchasing as the butcher on Saturday didn't speak English.  We had others say based on the package description, that it was either lamb or pork. Russell thought it might be venison.  In the end we asked a butcher on our walk what he thought it was. He saw a photo and said it was beef.  Whew, we were worried about sharing meat of unknown origin with company.

                                                 The entrance to the Bad Homburg Castle

                            One of the buildings with ornate carvings at the Bad Homburg Castle

This is the tower which we saw on our walk. It is part of the Hamburg Castle.  It was first built in the 12th century.

          This street is for pedestrians only.  There are lots of cafes and little shops on Louisenstrasse.

Homburg has been a Protestant town since the reformation in 1527.  It was not until the end of the 18th century that a small Catholic community was formed. This church is St Mary's Church and is the principal Roman Catholic parish in Bad Homburg.

                         The Church of the Redeemer was built to serve Bad Homburg's Lutheran Christians

     

                                                    The center Square of Bad Hombug
                               

We had a wonderful time traveling to Kaiserslautern with Florian and his wife and Julie. In our other missions we haven't really gotten a chance to know the local church members.  With the 2 hour each way drive we learned about all 3 of these great members.