The Weather
A lot of the month of June has been cold and rainy, with the exception of a few days last week when it got up to 37°C (98.6°F). Sister B mentions that in her post.
June 21, 1970:
"It's real hot and muggy here lately - and working in a suit all day doesn't help either. It was about 32° today (Centigrade) 90°F"
Monday June 29 - Fri July 3, 1970
This week was quite dreary and rainy all week - and cold.
Monday eve. We walked the bikes home in a big rain storm.
July 4, 1970 (letter home) We've about frozen this week. It's been quite cold and has rained all week. It's been pretty dreary.
June 21, 1971 (1 year later, in a letter home) It's really been cold and wet lately. Almost since the 1st of June it's been almost constantly raining and the past little while we've had the heat on.
About money and the value of things
The church and mission take care of our housing, including all utilities, etc. We pay $1336 per month. The exchange rate now for dollar to Euro is about $1.25 per 1 Euro. We usually get cash out and Visa gets a small percentage and there is a conversion fee as well, so we lose about 2% in the process. We can use our debit and credit card at some places and then there is only just a 1% Visa fee.
Milk is pretty reasonable here, about .6 Euro per liter or about $2.40 per gallon. Eggs are sold in cartons of 10 and sell for about 1.39 Euro per carton, or about $2 per dozen. Gas is only 1.59. Unfortunately, that is Euros per liter. I will let you figure that one out. It isn't pretty.
Then
(June 27 letter home) Yes, I can cash the money fine, but the value is always going down. I used to get 3.66 marks for 1 dollar Now its 3.61 for a dollar. Last November it was 4.00. Eggs here are about 2 marks or 55 cents a dozen (sometimes a little cheaper). Milk is about 60 or 70 cents.
(July 4 letter home) I got the check alright and cashed it. $90 = 325.80 marks and immediately 100 marks went for rent (kind of expensive, but it's a nice family). The land lady does our wash for us.
(We didn't care what gas cost back then :-)
The way of missionary work here
The elders do a lot of door-to-door work, what we used to call tracting. Usually when they do not have appointments or other activities, they visit an area and just knock on doors. It is not very productive work ( and wasn't back then, either). Sister B and I have done a little door knocking as well, but not much. We visit less-actives and do research in trying to find them. The new broadcast from the Church leadership is very interesting concerning that work. We are excited to see the changes coming. The Elders now can use the internet only in order to send and receive their email on preparation days. They have cell phones that do not have additional (internet) services, but they can text. (Back then we did not even have telephones.)
Then
June 21, 1970 (letter home) We haven't had any success at all lately. It's getting discouraging. We tracted 32 hours this week. (20 hours is the expected total). Nobody will even listen. One family who we talked with shortly explained that salesmen really give the people a bad time and the Jehovah's Witnesses are around about every 2 weeks.
Transfers
The whole system now has a 6 week transfer cycle. Every six weeks they get contacted by their zone leaders to let them know whether there are any changes. They are usually contacted by telephone and then a published newsletter summarizes the transfers and other matters, which also comes out every 6 weeks. Quite often, elders stay in a place for a longer time than before. We appreciate having the elders stay longer with us.
Then
Tuesday June 2, 1970 - Today we ate breakfast at the other brethren's place because they'd find out about transfers sooner than us. Nothing came that affected us. There'll be more big transfers next week and the following though.
The People we work with
Many of the new converts here in our mission are not native Germans (or even Europeans). A number of our members are originally from Russia (actually Kazachstan), but many of the converts are refugees or immigrants from Africa. The missionaries usually teach the African people in English. Many of the Africans are seeking refuge from military conflicts and oppressive regimes.
Then
June 16, 1970
We next went to a referral next who we met on fast Sunday. (They came to church in the afternoon - when there wasn't any.) They were really nice - Frau Zippel described to us the real present-day Russia and East Zone - very ugly. She and he used to live in Schlesien out by Poland. We ate a short dinner there.
A lot of the members and more receptive people we found back in 1970 and 1971 were from the eastern countries, including (as mentioned) Poland, Russia and Yugoslavia (as it was called then). They usually spoke German, though. They came to Germany seeking refuge from the Soviet governments.
Here is an interesting quote from back then:
(also June 16, 1970) We tracted for a while. Before we knocked off for a "lunch break" we talked to a communist fellow. He said that the East Zone (East Germany) and Russia were beautiful and made it sound like paradise. He said that if Christ were to come to earth again he'd go to the Communists because they have his teachings in the most complete form.
Right...
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