End of July

We have now come to the end of July. These past couple of weeks have been quite hot (for us here) and we haven't had as much success in meeting people. It is the start of Urlaub (vacation) season. School was officially out last week and people really get into taking vacations. Quite often we hear the answer (when we call to ask for an appointment to come visit): "Sorry, we are leaving for Urlaub. Try again in 4 weeks. When they go, they are gone for 4 weeks, usually.

Here are a few more random pictures.

The first one is of Elder Herzog and Elder Kingery with Derick and Sister B. Elder Herzog was transferred to St. Pölten (new Vienna). The missionaries have a tradition of a Tschüss Book, a book where they get people to add pictures and write notes to them as they leave a place. Derick is writing something in Elder Herzog's Tschüss Book (Tschüss is the German word for Goodbye).

Here is our district meeting, held in our apartment yesterday. We now have three elders here in Ravensburg. Also in this group are the Elders from Dornbirn, Austria.

 I added this one because most every person here, as they read our name, says "Buchmann" instead of Buchanan. Buchmann literally means "Book man." There is a large meat-packing company here, famous for their wursts, named Buchmann.

 This grove is not far from our home. This time I hiked to the east. The other pictures from before are up the hill behind us to the west. This east hike is actually a little shorter distance from our apartment, but I had to cross a busy street and the hill climb is a little steeper than it is to the forest behind us. I love their forest hiking paths.

 In town a little ways, there is this intersection. It is rare for us to find a green light here. It is an intersection of a number of roads, coming in from varying angles and several pedestrian crossings. When we stop for this light, it is a LONG wait, because of all the other varying left turns, ped crossings, etc. At least it is a nice view of Frauen Tor (Women's gate) on the left and Grün Turm (green tower) on the right. Then there is the big beer haus on the right side, right next to the "Orient Pizza Kebap" fast food place (we stay away from those last two places).

Lastly, we had a nice visit with the Van der Heiden's and their dog, Rocco.