It's Spring but you wouldn't know it!

Pamela Done and Carol Nelson and myself took off on Friday and headed for Rothenburg (about two hours from Frankfurt).  It was so cold!  Where is Spring????  It's the end of March and I WANT SPRING!  It was just a "day" trip

 Then on Saturday we decided that we needed to take the Calls and show them around Frankfurt.  We had great couples that took us around when we first arrived (the Roberts and the Stays) and we remembered how much we had appreciated it, so we decided to do the same with the Calls, who arrived a week ago.  First we took them to Hessen (about 30 minutes from Frankfurt) to see a small town that had buildings that had been "moved" to make room for highways.  All these buildings were restored and are now restaurants and buildings for craft fairs.  They had a lot of Easter decorations and crafts.  We didn't spend a lot of time here, instead we headed out to Romer Platz in Frankfurt.  This picture below is Randall Call and Tony.

 Some of the buildings that had been moved, with a craft fair going on outside.

 I love Randall Calls face looking at Tony with his hat!

 I took this picture because I wanted to show the roof, it is actually grass that grows on the roof!

 Another home with a "thatched" roof which grows grass

 Oh how I love this man............

It's hard to believe that we just hit our "half way" mark on our mission.  The mission has kept us so busy, I suppose that's why it's going so fast!  We now have 9 months left.  Tony is still busy working on Visa matters for missionaries in all of Europe and I am busy working with the Area Authorities articles for the magazine, Liahona.  I reformat, make corrections, edit end notes and send them to be translated into 23 languages before they go to Salt Lake City to be published.  I also have been busy working in the Financial department recording Priesthood Leadership travel for the European Area.  I worked hard for the last 9 months to get the department caught up to date so that the analysts can take my reports and monitor what is being spent.   They are all so appreciative of what I am doing that it makes my work very easy and rewarding.  We just said "good bye"  to dear friends, the Rich's, they are on a plane as I write this, back to America.  We live close to them so I am sure when we get home next Christmas, we will be getting together and it will be a sweet reunion!

Goodbye luncheons and hello new missionaries

We have a new group of missionaries that will be leaving us within the next few months.  This is always a difficult time for us to say good bye to our friends that we've become close with over the past 9 months.  But, there are also new missionaries coming to take their place and we make new friends.  Nonetheless, it is always difficult to say good bye.  Ruth Rich and Jill Roberts will be leaving us.  This is probably the roughest for me because I have become close to these dear friends and will miss them both.  Janet Nelson always has a wonderful luncheon for those leaving us and today was one of those days.  She had about 20 of us over to her home and we had a wonderful lunch.  Jill had the great idea to have everyone write their name on a piece of paper that went into a bag for a drawing.....when she drew your name, you got to choose something "from her cupboard"..... these are items that are difficult to acquire here in Germany or just don't exist here, like chocolate chips, crisco, vanilla and cream of chicken soup.  We had a lot of fun taking turns picking our treasures for baking.  I think I'll do this when I am ready to leave, it was really a cute idea!

Below is a picture of Marlene Lindsay and Pamela Done with Jill Roberts in the background.

 Jill Johnson (Pres. Johnson's wife), Dani Garrett, Sister Monson-she just arrived in Germany as a new missionary, Pam Cottam, Karen Orlowski and Mona Bateson.  These ladies are all so wonderful.  The next ones to go home are the Cottams, Orlowskis and Batesons.  Always difficult to think of them going home!

 Jill Roberts with her "treasures".  In the background is Paula Call, our new next door neighbor.  She's still dealing with Jet lag.  It takes about a week to get used to the new time.

 Good bye dear friends......Ruth and Jill

Off to Boleslawic Poland

Ruth Rich invited me to go on a "girls" trip to Boleslawic Poland to shop at the famous Polish pottery shops.  Carol Von Tonder, and Jill Roberts also came.  Carol was our tour guide and Jean Claude Von Tonder's  (head of the finance dept.) wife.  It was a long drive, six hours but we are so glad we went!  We arrived and had dinner at the hotel.  The hotel was a wonderful "bed and breakfast".  The building was, at one time, a barn set in a field of Beetroots, therefore the name....."The Blue Beetroot".  One of the most popular uses for beet root is moonshine.  The legend goes, in 1791, the fields were all planted with the beetroot and the alcohol was all stored in the basement which now houses the wood to keep the barn and guests warm.  Only a few of the locals knew that the carts coming from the barn hid a stash of moonshine below.  The story goes that one evening the farmers left the barn with goods in tow  and the horses bolted and slipped  badly on the ice and the farmers, horses, carriage, beetroot and moonshine ended up in the pond!  Despite dredging, everything mysteriously disappeared ..... this story has been passed down thru generations and every once in a while a blue beetroot will float to the surface of the pond with a strange blue color and of course completely impregnated with alcohol.

 All the furniture was made by hand and the building is a real tutor half timbered barn.  It was just beautiful.  Jill and Ruth and I slept in this room and Carol had the adjoining room thru the door at the right.  It was very comfortable.

 Dinner at the Blue Beetroot.  I think this room was once a wine cellar.

 All the pottery shops that we visited had some kind of decor outside with their broken pottery.  I just loved the colors.

 The Blue Beetroot

 We visited many stores, this is just one of them......so quaint.

 Jill and Ruth will be leaving our mission to head home.  Ruth leaves in another week and Jill will leave in 5 weeks.  I will miss them both terribly!

 Carol Von Tonder, has made a small business of traveling to the southwest corner of Poland to pick up pottery pieces and sells them when she gets back.  she knows her pottery!

 These are some of the pottery pieces that I just loved but they are very heavy and would cost a fortune to send to America.

 Jill getting a closer look at some of the pottery plates she liked.

 This was fun......Ruth decided she want to buy plates and Jill helped her mix and match some patterns..... they came up with a really cute pattern of mixed plates and salad plates.

 These were some of my finds.  These "little" tea cups only hold about 2 oz's of liquid.  We went to dinner at the Lundquist's home after dinner, Kay served us this wonderful "thick" hot chocolate drink with whipping cream on top.  You really couldn't drink much more than just a few ounces.  It was such a fun desert to have after dinner.  I've been looking for these little tea cups since Christmas and  I couldn't fin them n France.  Instead, I found them in Poland!  I also bought ornaments for my girls for their Christmas trees  and a small  gift for my sister.  It was a fun trip! 

 Dinner at the Blue Beetroot.  Salmon, rice and curry sauce with a salad.  Staying on my weight watchers plan!

 This is a picture of a pitcher that I really wanted but had to start saying no, there were just so many thing I wanted to purchase!

 Adding more to my wish list!

 Unfortunately the three of us came down with the flu, at exactly the same time......Hit like a ton of bricks!  We are all fighting this off now!!  Just love these two ladies!

Each store had some kind of decoration outside with pottery...look at the cups hanging on the branch!

 I took this as we were driving, most of the buildings looked gray but some of the architecture is beautiful.

Oh how do I resist......these are MY colors!!!!

 

Poland was one of the first places to be taken over by the Germans in WWII.  The Germans actually started the pottery business and then the Polish took it over after the war ended.  

Cold weather and a quick Saturday drive

Tony is still suffering from his cold, which has gone thru most of the senior missionaries here, it's just "his" turn!  Today is Saturday and we usually go somewhere fun but due to the Siberian blast of cold weather we thought we would just stay at home.  Around 3:00 Tony decided we should go for a drive (about an hour from Frankfurt) to a city called Heidelberg.  Because of the cold, we didn't get out of the car but just drove around and thought that this would be a great place for a Saturday in the Spring/Summer!  It's a lovely town and we will be visiting it again, just on foot!

I only took two pictures during our drive.  The first in crossing the river over this bridge.   This is called the Theodor Bridge, commonly known as the "Old Bridge" crossing the Neckar River.  It connects the Old City with the eastern side of the Neuenheim District of the city on the opposite bank.  This bridge was constructed in 1788.  The first bridge built here was destroyed by and ice flow in 1288.

 After we crossed the bridge we saw this HUGE castle that we could not see from the other side of the bridge because we were right beneath it and apparently too close and never looked UP!  When we saw it after we crossed the bridge, we were so surprised that we had missed it!  This castle ruin is one of the most important Renaissance structures north of the Alps.  The castle was struct twice by lightening bolts.  One in 1537 and another in 1764.

 Good-bye David and Paula Thomas.  Our dear next door neighbors are heading home to America!  We will miss them so much!  Not only are they our next door neighbors, separated only by one wall but they are our office next door neighbors, separated by one wall.  We have enjoyed them, traveled with them,borrowed an occasional egg from them, laughed with them and played Mexican train with them. They are such humble, delightsome people that we will forever be friends with.  Their home is just across the lake from us in Utah, about a 25 minute drive so we have promised them that when we get home ..... we will bring over some of my chocolate chip cookies (which David loves) and a game.  Even tho' we are sad to see them leave, I could not contain myself with all the excitement I felt for them to re-unite with their family and realize that soon, we too will be in their same situation where we will be leaving this wonderful place to return home,  forever thankful for this experience.  Good bye Elder and Sister Thomas, until we meet again...

LUNCH IN FRANCE

We keep busy each week doing the work we came to do, some days are easier than others.  This particular week, we both have been extremely busy.  Me with the Finance department and logging Priesthood leadership travel throughout the area and Tony with keeping up with Visa issues through out Europe for our missionaries.  Elder Thomas is leaving and until the Calls arrive on the 16th, Tony will be handling his work on top of his own.  And, on top of this, Tony has come down with this horrible cold that has been spreading through all the missionaries, some sicker than others.  One even ended up in the hospital.  Mine lasted a week, which has been the case for most of the senior missionaries here.  I hope Tony can shake this! 

On Friday, Sister Lindsay arranged for a group of us to drive to Soufflenheim France (for lunch!)  Actually, we went to go and visit some handmade pottery stores and also had lunch at a sweet little french cafe where they served crepes.  We had a great day all together.

 From left to right.....Carol Nelsen, Theresa Dewey, Dani Garrett, Marlene Lindsay and Karen Orlowski.

 Although Jill Roberts didn't want her picture taken, I took it anyway.  She has been a dear friend and we have gone on some wonderful excursions with she and Don.  They will be leaving in April and we will miss them!

 We were able to go into the back room where this potter was working and took some photos of him doing his craft.  Very interesting!

 Cute Marlene Lindsay showing off some of the things she liked in the shop as Dani Garrett looks on.

 This was one of the cute shops that happened to be closed but I asked Carol Nelsen to stand there so I could get a photo!

 Below is a photo of all eight of us.  It was one of the coldest days we've seen here!  BRRRRR!

 At another store, we were once again able to go into the back room to watch the girls painting the pottery before it is fired.  Very interesting!  They did it so quickly!

 This store below is where I bought my soup tureen in the next photo

 We just couldn't pass up a French Bakery!