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.