Another trip to Heiligenberg

I was asked to dedicate a grave. This is a member from near Frankfurt, but one of the family members lived near us and the person was to be buried at the Friedwald of Heiligenberg. We were there two weeks ago for the burial of a person who used to live in the Branch. It is a place where they bury the urn of a person's remains in a spot among the trees, instead of in a cemetery. It was quite cold as it was two weeks ago.

I noticed this grand building last time and this time I took a picture. I found out later that it is the Heiligenberg Castle. I checked the website and it is not open for visitors until Easter (next week). Perhaps we will find a reason to go back. It is fairly far away from our apartment, but still in the branch boundaries. It is the highest point in the area (as you can see).

This is a view as we started down the road from Heiligenberg.

This is a picture of the castle from below.

I had to take another movie snippet as we drove back through Urnau. We drive through here every week or so. It is interesting how narrow the streets are.

Biff

I saw this product in the store and thought about the bully in "Back to the Future," Biff.

It is a bathroom/toilet cleaning product. Biff is totally bad!  (Bad is the word for bath.)

Visit to Pfullendorf

This report is from Sister B. with pictures and a few other comments from Elder B.


Today we had a great tour with one of the members in our branch.  She was on her vacation from work so she spent the morning with us showing us around.  One of the places she took us was to her town or dorf where she grew up - Pfullendorf.  It has the oldest house in southern Germany, built about 1317.  We took some great pictures.  The dorf is on a hill and has most of the old city wall around it.  She told 4 great stories about her dorf.  The key words I used to remember them are bread, dog, bell, and rope.

1.  At times the dorf had armies come and try to take over the town.  One came from Sweden in the early 1600's and was approaching the town.  A lady living outside of town saw them coming and they camped outside her home.  She heard what they were planning and worried how she would get the message to the town.  She wrote a note and baked it inside a loaf of bread and then sent a servant to give it to the mayor.  He noticed it was still warm so he thought it would make a good meal.  As he cut into the loaf, he found the note inside.  He quickly had the guards bring in the flocks, close the city gates and stopped the invaders.

2.  At another time an army was approaching and they had the farmers bring all the herds inside the city walls.  One of those who lived near the gates had a favorite dog he fed very well, making the dog rather plump.  As the soldiers approached, they noticed this well fed dog.  They figured the people were all well supplied since they had enough even to feed their dogs well, so they would not succeed in laying siege around the city, so they left.

3.  This next is a story how Jesus Christ became a citizen of Pfullendorf.  Once they had an Emperor visit on a celebration commemorating an event in Jesus' life, and they only rang some small bells.  He asked why they didn't ring the large church bells in the Catholic church.  The citizens explained they only rang their large church bells to remember favorite citizens of the city.  The Emperor paid 50 Gilder to buy citizenship for Jesus so they would ring the large church bells for Him.

4.  One more army story.  The men of the city had learned how to make a rope with pieces of leather attached to the end that when whipped would make the sound of a gunshot.  When an army was approaching, they placed men around the city to whip the ropes making it sound like ammunition was going off.  The army thought if the city had enough ammunition to shoot for fun, they would run out of ammunition before they could take over the city so they too departed.  Even now in the summertime they have competitions between the different ages who can make the best gunshot sounds with the ropes with leather attached.

Sis. Hofmann lived on a farm outside the dorf which her father farmed for 33 years (in the valley of Andelsbach).  She grew up and went to school there.  Once her sister went on holiday who lived in another city, and asked her to stay and take care of her home while she was gone.  It was while staying there the missionaries knocked on the door, bringing her the gospel.  She served a mission in Munich and is a strong member of our branch.

This is the street named after the woman who saved the city (Loaf of Bread story)

 This is inside the Catholic church in the city.
(The painting is in the ceiling --->.)

 The "road" runs around the church. On this side, it gets a bit narrow. If you look closely, there are gashes in the opposite wall where trucks didn't quite make it through. We drove through here twice.

 This is the oldest house in southern Germany. It was built (according the plaque below) between 1317 and 1357. In the picture it shows Sister B. looking up at the house. The wall of the city was broken at this point so a road could go through here. A lot of the city wall is still in place.

Goodbye Elder Pope

Elder Pope gets transferred this coming week. It will be hard to see him go. He brings sunshine and a glow where ever he goes. As Branch President, I have really come to rely on him with his knowledge and love of the people here. Elder Hyatt came just shortly before we did and we now count on him and treasure his good work here as well. It just won't be the same with Elder Pope gone. Plus, he is taking his Siedler game with him. Sister B says that we need to buy one now.

Here are a couple of fun pictures we got off his camera the other day. One is of all of us at dinner a month or so ago, the other is of him with a local cat.

We hope to see Elder Pope more because he has over a year to go on his mission. He is now going to be in Salzburg.

A drive near Salem

We made some visits in the area of Salem, Germany. We visited a wonderful lady there who is a member, but cannot get around much and doesn't come to church much. She comes to America usually once every year. Her daughter lives in Post Falls, Idaho and a grandson in Bountiful, Utah. It is wonderful to find these people. They are so happy to see us.

On our way, we saw a couple of Zeppelins flying. The Graf Zepplin built his construction company in Freidrichshafen, near here. Their company (ZF) still builds transmissions and drive train parts for companies all over the world. They also have a Zeppelin museum and have a couple of Zeppelins that they built and take people on tours. Here is the best picture we could get of the closest Zeppelin to us.

Here is a snippet of our drive heading out of her town area towards home.

Bye!

Another City View

We have been busy lately with apartment inspections again, this time helping one of the missionary apartments prepare for another pair of elders. With the increasing number of missionaries coming (due to the lower age now), our mission is receiving quite a number of new missionaries over the next few months.

It was interesting to visit stores to get furniture, bedding, chairs, etc. One thing I noticed (more than before) is the many bakeries found everywhere. The bread is wonderful. We can find bakeries in every store (separate from the store itself), including every hardware store. It is even more common that the McDonalds or credit unions we find in stores in America.

In addition to these observations, I though I would include a new video. This one is a short trip we made into and through the upper part of inner city. I thought you would like to see how we drive through these narrow roads. This trip was part of a drive we took to get to the furniture store. We actually talked a little in this one.

Joy and Thanks

Our experiences and blessings have been wonderful. Today in meeting we had three less-active members attend with us, one of which was also with us last week. Our Relief Society President gave a wonderful lesson about Faith, and mentioned a struggle she had overcoming adversity ( just the day before) and feeling the spirit in order to give the talk. The spirit she brought told us of her success over that adversity.

We had a fun Institute evening last Friday. There were 5 young people there and we enjoyed the lesson and games. Sister B made cinnamon rolls earlier and they were a hit. We have a fantastic new couple move into the branch from Utah and will be with us for 5 months. They came and joined us, though the husband was in the other room doing some homework. They both are anxious to help in the Branch.

We visited a gravesite service yesterday morning at a Friedwald. The German word for cemetery is "Friedhof" or "peace yard/field." This was a "peace forest." There is a trend here to bury deceased loved-ones in these special forest areas, among the trees and roots, mainly after cremation. It was a touching ceremony in a peaceful place.

After our experience at the Friedwald, we tried to find a lost member (unsuccessfully) and then visited a less-active member. She told us of her mother in a near by care center who is a member. We had no record of her so this helped us to find someone we can visit and help.

It is inspiring to see the progress Sister B is making with German. She still does not know the words to speak and much of what she hears are still unknown, but she reads in the scriptures very well with a pronunciation that is quite good. The Lord is blessing us in this regard, helping us both with the gift of tongues.

One language experience we had last night was a play we attended. Our second counselor (Branch Presidency) is an actor in this amateur acting club and they had their play performances this past week. The play "Für die Familie Kann Man Nichts" (For the Family you can't do anything), was presented in Schäbisch, a very strong local dialect. All the characters spoke this dialect except one (our brother) who spoke normal German. I missed most of the punch lines and Sister B. just enjoyed watching the others have a good time. It made me wonder whether I even know German at all. Still, it was funny.

We are feeling the strength of the Lord in this work. The last experience I want to mention is our teaching meeting with our young lady investigator. She has always been very accepting of us, and has included her sister in recent meetings. The last time we met, her friend from school was visiting and we taught them both, not the lesson prepared, but the lesson on the Restoration. This time the lesson was taught in German (all previous lessons were in English because the family is from Nigeria). It began with her (the friend's) question about how the church differs from her Catholic faith. It was a very spiritual evening and in the end she accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon, though at first she chose not to. We offered her the Book earlier and she felt that she could not accept it. As we continued to speak and read a passage in the Book of Mormon, she asked whether it was too late to change her mind and asked to have a copy. She has a sharp mind and is open to the Gospel. We pray that we will be able to continue to teach them. When I say we, the young Elders lead these lessons and we are basically participating, contributing as we can or are asked to. It is truly a joy to be a part of the work.

Thank you for all your prayers!

How many ways can you say "spatula?"

Being in Europe is fun. One of the interesting things here is the multitude of languages. Everything has at least a few panels saying the same thing in another language. Sometimes, though, I think they get a little carried away.

The right side just says what this thing is (a spatula or a turner). The left says not to leave it in a hot pan - all in 23 languages.

I could not scan it, but I have a potato chip sack. The name on the front is "Crunchips   Salted" and is made in Germany. They love to use sort-of English words on their products. On the back it has what it is (in English, GB: Crunchy Potato crisps), and the ingredients, in:

German(D), English (GB), French(F), Italian(I), Spanish(E), Greek(GR), Portugal(P), Danish(DK), Bulgarian(BG), Slovenian(SLO), Croatian [not Hungarian](HR)(BIH), Russian(RUS), Armenian(ARM), Kazachstani(KZ), and Arabic(ARAB)

I guess you have a different world population who uses spatulas from those who eat potato chips.