BBQ at Nelson's

Janet, who is the ALC's (Jeff Nelson's) wife.  She does a fantastic job of having us over to her home for dinner's and BBQ's all during the year.  We are so lucky to have them as our boss.  They are here from Brooklyn NY and will be here for 3-4 years.  Jeff's position is Area Legal Council and he directs the attorney's here in the office, he is a paid employee.  She is just incredible.  She makes sure each new missionary couple's apartment is ready for them upon their arrival and even buys food and flowers to have a nice welcome for those coming in to the mission.  She also makes sure that we as the OGC group (office of general council) are unified and are comfortable in the office by having activities at her home to help us.  She is just the best!  We will leave before they leave but we will go to NYC and visit them at some point after they return.

 Jeff, Janet Nelson and the Fager's at Nelson's BBQ

 The couple with the baby are here for just a short time.  He is interning from Notre Dame Law School for the office of General Council.  (Michael and Michela Duval) He does a lot of work to help Tony.

 The Fager's

 Tony and Randall Call - they are our next door neighbors (took the place of the Thomas') We have quickly become close to them.  He keeps teasing us because we will be leaving in 5 months and he wants us to extend our time here.......

Saturday Bike Ride and Heidelberg

 We work all week and look forward to our weekends when we usually have some sort of outing with just the two of us or with other missionaries serving the church here in Frankfurt.  We have had two more couples arrive this past week, we haven't had a chance to get to know them yet.  We are enjoying our associations here so much.  The people who have set aside 18 months to 2 years away from their families are such big hearted and kind, loving people and we are so blessed to have made so many wonderful friends.

It was a beautiful Saturday, beautiful mild weather and Tony and I decided to ride our bikes North to Hausen.  The farm land and green belt and river are just a beautiful sight.  

 As we road our bikes I snapped a picture of Tony riding ahead of me thru the little town.  This is what a typical street looks like in any neighborhood in Germany.

 We have loved our bike rides on the weekends, when we get a chance to enjoy the countryside.  We realize all the more that this is our last summer to ride these beautiful streets because we will leave to go back home in December this year so we are taking every advantage to take walks and ride our bikes.

 This small home reminds me of our home in Massapequa New York so I took a picture of it.  The houses here are quite small and modest.

 This is the entry to our apartment building.  Yes, we take our bikes up the elevator and keep them in our apartment entry way.....not a lot of room but they will go back down to the "keller" (which is our storage unit in the cellar) in the Fall.

 One Saturday we decided to ask Paula and Randall Call (our next door neighbors) to take a ride with us (45 minutes) to Heidelberg to see the Allstadt (old town).  We first drove up the mountain to the overlook of the city.  It was a hazy day unfortunately, but still beautiful!  Heidelberg is a town that sits on the Neckar River in Southwestern Germany.  It is home to the Heidelberg University founded in the 14th century.

 This is the charming cafe lined Marktplatz in the Allstadt with the Gothic Heiliggeistkirche in the background.  Heidelberg may have escaped bombings during WWII because the United States wanted to use the Allstadt as a base after the war because of it's great infrastructure.

In 1945 General George S. Patton was in a car accident and died in the Heidelberg US army hospital.

 Me and Paula

  

Leaving the Catholic church (on the right)

 Believe it or not, cars actually drive down this street!

 Heidelberg castle in the background....towers over the city across the Neckar River

 Typical housing on the North side of the Neckar River

 This was taken from across the river looking at the castle

Hohenzollern Castle Home of the Emperors of Germany

 This weekend we decided to visit another castle......Hohenzollern.   We invited the Call's, the Nelson's and the Johnson's  along.  The trip was about 2hrs 45min just to get there, with a few pit stops and traffic along the way.  Below is a picture of the castle taken from above.....The view from the castle is second to none!  The valley was absolutely beautiful but the mist from a storm that was rolling in blurred my photos.  

The castle of Hohenzollern is a dynasty of former Princes, Electors, Kings, and Emperors of Hohenzollern, Brandenburg, Prussia, the German Empire and Romania.  

 Below is the Grand Ballroom 

  This was called the Blue Room and has pictures of the different wives of the castle over the centuries

 The view from the south side of the castle

This is the actual crown worn by one of the Kings of Hohenzollern.  At one time, the diamonds around the bottom of the crown were real,  they were stollen and replace with glass.

A few of the Emperors of the time period

My King leaving the dungeon

This is Kay Johnson at "BurgerKing"......yes, an American store!  Sometimes ya just gotta have American fast food!

 Carol Nelson

 The Courtyard

 Every Castle has it's own chapel

 I was being goofy and jumped out from behind the wall to frighten Elder Nelson (mission Doctor).....but he wasn't scared at all.....joke was on me!

 The eight of us....such a fun day!

 See description below

 Such a great picture to end our visit to the Castle......Love these ladies!

3rd Zone Conference and Rindi Lynn is born

Time is passing so quickly.  This is our third zone conference.  Tony was asked to sing in a quartet between speakers.  He sang "Abide with me tis Eventide" with Elder Jim Nelson, David Monson and Jon Van Hoff

 Elder Sabin and his lovely wife Valerie both spoke at Zone conference and afterward we had a group photo and then a luncheon put together by the wonderful sisters of the Frankfurt 2nd Ward.

 Something VERY odd is happening to Tony!

 Rindi Lynn Goodall was born in May 10th... 8lbs 3oz and 20 inches long.  That's the exact weight that Hunter was.....such a nice size baby!  She's beautiful and we are so glad she is here!  This is Hunter introducing Paisley to her new baby sister.

 Paisley and Rindi (look at that face on sweet Paisley!

We now have three new babies in our family that we cannot wait to meet in December!  We love them already!