Getting caught up at the end of the year...

Well, as you can probably guess, we have been busy at home getting adjusted and caught up with things.

Of course, jet lag, along with some sickness, made it hard to get adjusted, but we are doing OK now. Both Shauna and I have been to all our doctors and are doing OK. It has been two years since we have been checked, so that was a good reason to see doctors and dentist, but we also pushed through mission papers and now have submitted everything, including the doctor reports.

We have had a wonderful time with family. The family served us a belated Thanksgiving dinner on the Sunday following our return. Also, we have had a number of family activities and are loving it. Jon and his family came from Oregon the day after Christmas and have been staying with us most of the time before they return home at the end of this week.

Shauna and I received an assignment to visit some members of the ward as special representatives of him and we have enjoyed being back in service.

Also, shortly after arriving home, a young lady we met in Germany came to the US to see the marriage of her friend. She stayed with us a couple of days and was present at our homecoming Sacrament Meeting on the 14th.

I thought this picture of us arriving at the airport on the 2nd was good to see.

Here is Elisa as she visited us.

It was wonderful to see our mountains again. They are not the alps, but they are home.

Home again

I thought I should write something to let you all know we are home and getting adjusted to things after our mission. It has been a bit difficult getting up to speed, though we are quickly getting things done.

Here are a few farewell pictures we got just before leaving.

We arrived in the evening on Tuesday (Dec 2), very tired. I developed a bad cold just as we were leaving Ravensburg, so it was a bit harder to adjust, but nonetheless, we were very happy to see family as we were greeted at the airport in Salt Lake.

Since arriving, we tried to get some rest. The Jet lag really took its toll on us, especially me with my cold. Still, we were able to get our needed tasks accomplished, including Credit Union, getting new phones (send me email to get new phone numbers), replaced drivers licenses (Ravensburg made us surrender our US licenses in order to receive the German licenses), Car insurance, family visits, etc.
Actually, she was not able to get hers quite yet, but it is coming. Also, the insurance ran into a hiccup as well. Our sons worked to get us a new (2011) car, and it is very nice.

We were released as missionaries on Wednesday. That was difficult. We are no longer Elder and Sister B.

We are really missing our friends and loved ones in Ravensburg. Sister B. (she is still Sister B.) said yesterday that she really missed the German and did a run on DuoLingo. We have been able to do a little communicating with some of our people over email and Skype.

We have had two wonderful family activities so far. Our granddaughter was baptized on Saturday and many of the family were there.

Our youngest granddaughter still is not sure about us. She only saw us briefly in August, so we are just learning to know each other better.

Our wonderful granddaughter and her father - after the baptism.

We had a "Thanksgiving" dinner together with family on Sunday evening and all the family that live here were with us. It was a wonderful evening.

Thanks to everyone who has prayed for us and supported us through this transition. Next Sunday we have our mission report in our ward. I hope you all can be there to see us. We are meeting at our home afterwards.