Temple trip and Inspection tour in July

This week we did a fair amount of traveling. We set up a temple trip for branch members and rented a van for transportation. The scheduling in the temple is a bit difficult and we need to travel far. We started the day getting up at 3 AM, picking up the elders at 4 and a couple at about 4:30, arriving at the temple between 7 and 7:30. Some of us participated in an endowment session at 8, then we all took part in a sealing session at 10:30. The first session was in Italian and the sealing session was entirely in French. We had translators in the session, but the sealing work was done without translation. One of our members was sealed to his parents, so it was a beautiful experience. Later, we are able to experience another endowment session, this one in French. We ended the day by returning our rental vehicle at 8 PM.

The next day, we did our missionary apartment inspection tour in Switzerland. We got to sleep in until 6:30 this time. We had an enjoyable trip. Both days we had beautiful weather.

Arrival at the temple

The elders and Sister B entering the temple.

The Swiss temple. Some work was being done on the spire.

Happy missionaries near the end of the trip

the view of Ravensburg as we entered the city, showing some of the famous towers.

The tower Spitalturm

The missionary apartment (3rd floor).

Traveling in Switzerland.

looking towards Lake Zurich as we cross the Seedamm

more of Lake Zurich

Most of these kinds of houses have brown trim.

One of those rare straight roads in Europe.

Another covered bridge, this one crossing between Switzerland and Germany near Schaffhausen.

As we parked in the parking lot to visit to visit a member in the hospital, Elder Richman decided that this should be his mission vehicle.

A Trip to Isnyland

One of our tasks here is to locate lost members. There are many members here in Germany who, over the years, have drifted away from the church after joining. It is difficult to find people here because of stronger identity protection laws here, but there are ways of finding people using internet searches and other methods. We knew of a few people in the city of Isny, far in the east part of our branch. In the past year-and-a half we have never been to this area, so we were going to visit that city. The elders referred to this as our trip to "Isnyland."

The town is not very large, about 15000 in and around it. We did not have much success there, but did locate the possible location of one of our members. Driving to and from Isny was quite beautiful and we got a few pictures.

During that week, we also had a zone meeting in Switzerland and I took a few pictures on that trip as well.

Some of the farmlands in the area of Isny.

One of the typical farmhouses, including the beautiful flowerboxes and solar panels on the roof.

The road going through a dark forest.

Another colorful house.

We found a salamander (or something similar) we saw after visiting one of our members.

Traveling in Austria on our way to Switzerland for our Zone Training meeting. This picture shows a number of things. See how narrow the left turn lane is. That is common if there is a left turn lane. Ofter there are no left turn lanes. You get used to a lot of stop-and-go traffic here in Europe. The car in front of us is a very small Triumph from Wuppertal, Germany (about 300 miles north of here).

Here is our crossing on the way back from Switzerland into Austria (Österreich). Austria is part of the European Union (EU). Switzerland is not.

This is a wooden bridge in Austria. Trucks are not allowed on this road, as you can imagine. The height limit is just under 8 feet (2.4 meters).

Another picture of the zeppelin over Lake Constance.

Quite often (many times daily) we are stuck in traffic following a farm tractor. Passing is not always an option.

Back at home, here is a picture of Sister B's work on dresses for some of our granddaughters in the upcoming marriage of our son and associated activities.

What was that?

This is another one of those "What was that?" weeks. There was not a lot of astounding  experiences, but rather a blur of unexpected turns and changes of plans. It is amazing how we can go from day to day not entirely sure what to expect next.

With the regular Institute year over, we decided to not stop holding activities on Wednesday evenings, just no lessons, per se. This week we had the pleasure of one of our less-active families coming to get help with family history research. Sister B had a blast helping them and trying to understand what they were saying. They have a fairly strong local dialect. Through it all, I could hear her really doing well in speaking good German and she succeeded in finding some good leads for their research. Through it all, I was frantically (ganz sehr frustriert!) trying to help our Italian/Macedonian friend get tickets to go to Italy in his way back to Macedonia. That took quite a while with Sister B occasionally dropping in on my hair-pulling to help me keep my focus. In the end it all worked out, but I missed all the fun with the family history research.

Oh well, we had some good experiences yesterday in the church, finding some family history connections for another family on some microfilm research. I had arranged to have some films sent here and we have had good success finding people and filling in families for the family.

We had a wonderful time on Thursday evening visiting a Macedonian family in Markdorf. We have been "teaching" them for about a year already, but have not been able to make much progress because of the language barrier. Sasha helped them really understand a lot about the church and the Gospel. I are grateful that the Lord sent us someone to help us, even though we are still trying to communicate with him!  I am also grateful for the iTranslate app on my iPad that helps us communicate with Sasha. Unfortunately, I can only use it at home and at the church (wireless access).

We went out the the elders a couple of times to try to find people in Friedrichshafen. Once, as we were looking up an old investigator, they came across a member and had a good visit with him. We knew that he lived in Friedrichshafen, but never knew where or how to contact him. Now we have a connection. The Lord moves us where we need to be.

Also this week we have had the World Cup soccer games. Yes, it has been a bit crazy here. Last night the German team won the final championship game (as I am sure you probably already know). The people go absolutely nuts about these games, especially in the wins. We never see German flags anywhere, even on public buildings, but as mentioned a bit before, we see a lot right now. Also, driving around town (or even trying to sleep) is difficult when Germany wins. It was a long a noisy night last night.

There are only two pictures today and one has nothing to do with anything mentioned here - just a bit of fun.

This is a small sample of the celebrations here. They carry flags and honk horns, waving at everyone in the streets. Elder Richman got some good pictures and a video. I will see whether we can post something more later.

Whenever I see this I think about my fun days as a scout master. The boys would go nuts about this. The Germans, when they wish you a good trip say "Gute Fahrt!" 

Yes, it is pronounced that way (goo-tah fart).

Plan of Salvation

We have been trying to get permission to draw a chalk rendition of the Plan of Salvation in a public place in the city. Before we do that, we tried drawing it in our garage area. The 4 of us, including the elders, did that today. It was hot and there was no rain so it was a good day for it.

Also, today, in in church, we had 10 visitors to church, but we had at least 10 of our regular members not there, so the attendance was about normal. After church, we had a pot luck lunch and some stayed to visit. It was a nice time. The meetings were particularly spiritual as well, so it was a good day.

Yesterday, we traveled to the northwest quarter of the branch and visited, or tried to visit some members, see some and not others - as usual. Anyway, they all got Sister B's great chocolate chip cookies.

The left end. It was too big to get it all, but we tried (as you see later).

The right end.

Looking across the panorama.

I tried it from a different angle (upside down) and flipped it using Photoshop, but it is still hard to see.

As seen from our third floor balcony, with camera zoom.

On our trip yesterday, some goats seemed to want to block our way

A pretty farm house in Gangenweiler.

You will have to ask us about these, but we couldn't help ourselves.

You never know

Sometimes we just feel like we go along day by day with no clue as to what comes next. I think of President Hinckley's quote:

"Life is like an old time rail journey…delays…sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling burst of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride."
I was about to make a post on Monday concerning the really extreme ups and downs of emotions we have here, especially as we get so caught up emotionally with the people here - seeing exhilarating spiritual rejoicings and devastating struggles in their lives. We hit some jolts and sidetracks in the last week, but even they changed from day to day leaving us the better for it all.

How's that for leaving you with a lot said that tells you nothing?

Anyway, there are always things we cannot talk about, but somehow I wanted to let know know a little about what it is really like. We love the experience, but still find ourselves looking back wondering what really just happened.

Basically, we are still doing well and the people here are great. We made a lot of visits, some remarkable, some totally beyond description. We ended up with 34 solid visits to members (our home teaching, sort of), dropping things by for others and many other contacts in other ways. It was wonderful to bring some gifts to a sister in a care center, sent by her daughter in America. At the end, she said in emphatic words, "Danke, danke!" She does not say much normally because it is difficult for her to talk. Another sister, 91 years old and still quite clear-thinking, though mostly blind and deaf, thanked us at the end of a visit on Sunday. It takes her a while to realize who we are, but by the end of our visit and giving her the sacrament, she really loves the visit.

We had a very wonderful day yesterday in a double zone conference. President and Sister Miles completed their mission last week and this week we welcomed President and Sister Kohler as our new mission president in the meeting.

Now for the pictures.

Sister B took this picture to illustrate how things have been lately - a bit crazy! This is her desk a few days ago.

Here we are at home watching the Germany/USA world cup soccer game last week. On the couch is a German, a Russian, a Macedonian and two Americans. Talk about world!

We went to Konstanz to deliver a refrigerator to the elders there. It is always fun going over on the ferry.

Sailing on the Bodensee (Lake Constance)

Sasha taking a picture of Sister B taking a picture of us in Freidrichshafen.

Posing for pictures at the Zone conference in Winterthur, Switzerland

We like these beautiful flower boxes on the houses around here.

On our way home from Winterthur on the Ferry

Our great elders - Thompson and Richman

Fruit is huge here. You can tell by the displays. Cherries, strawberries and apples are the most common. They usually always have these displays with large depictions of the fruit they sell.