The First Week

This was a week of firsts.  The last post talked about our first Sunday in our Branch here. Monday was our first District Meeting.  This is a common occurrence to all missionaries but it was my first time. I enjoyed it thoroughly! The Elders in our district are Elder Darren Quinton, Elder Timotheous Vierbuchen, Elder Riley Hudson and Elder Spencer Williams. They all took different parts and, even though I didn't understand most of what was said because it was in German, I thought they did a great job.

Because transfers are next week, our District Leader decided to have a District outing on Tuesday, which is P Day (Preparation Day).  We took the Ravensburg Elders with us and drove to Bregenz, Austria for miniature golf.  The place we went is right on the Bodensee (Lake Constance) and it is super beautiful.  The weather was perfect!  The Elders are all terrific and we laughed a lot and had a marvelous time.  We stopped afterwards for gelato and ate at tables on the sidewalk.  Bregenz is a touristy kind of place with lots of people walking, roller blading, boating, and just enjoying the beautiful day.

Later, in the evening, Bob and I walked into the old city (Innenstadt) and ate at our first restaurant here.  We stopped at a great Italian place in the heart of the city on the main plaza and ate outside on the cobblestones.  We were surrounded by many classic ancient buildings and beautifully maintained shops and homes.  The streets are narrow and the architecture is fabulous!

Wednesday we traveled to Dornbirn, Austria for our first Institute meeting there.  The meeting is all in German, of course, but I read the lesson in English so I would know what they were talking about.  Bob prepared some material to share.  I fixed fruit and crepes for afterwards.  It was delightful to meet the YSA's and they were very warm and friendly to us.  The Dornbirn Elders also joined us that night.

Thursday was our first Institute in Ravensburg.  We had two men and the Elders.  Elder Hudson taught the lesson. The spirit there was very sweet and we are grateful we are here to support this group.  We had crepes again this night and they really enjoyed them.

Today was a holiday here in Germany.  It is called Christi Himmelfahrt.  It is a Catholic holiday celebrating 40 days after the ascension of Christ.  We found out they have lots of Catholic holidays here.  Quite often they are on a Thursday and then they take Friday off and have a four day weekend.  But on their holidays almost everything is closed and the city is very quiet.

Saturday we were very excited to witness our first baptism on our mission.  A young woman in her 30's, Elizabeth Parso, who is from Spain, was baptized by Elder Quentin.  She doesn't speak German but Elder Vierbuchen speaks Spanish and he taught her.  She was so excited and it was a lovely service.  The Bishop spoke about baptism and Elder Hudson spoke about the Holy Ghost.  Bob and I were surprised to see our names on the program to give the opening and closing prayers but we were thrilled to do it.  Of course I had to do it in English, but she wouldn't have understood it in German either!  The Spirit was so strong at the meeting and during the baptism.  We are so happy this special girl has taken this important step and has become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  She was confirmed on Sunday by Elder Vierbuchen.  They had refreshments afterward and I was happy I could bring a homemade treat.

It was a very full week and we loved it!  It's a challenge to get settled, find our way around, get organized, try to learn to speak German and get over jet lag, but it's coming.  The people have been wonderful and we look forward to meeting many more.

Our First Sunday in Ravensburg

Our initial call was to serve with the Young Single Adults.  A few weeks before we were to leave, we received an email from our Mission President asking us if we would serve as member leadership support (MLS) in Ravensburg where they have a small branch.  He also wanted us to serve in Dornbirn, Austria with a small Young Single Adult group there and support the missionaries in part of Switzerland.  Of course we agreed to all of the above and were excited to be able to serve in numerous capacities.  Our mission district here consists of two Elders in Ravensburg and two Elders in Dornbirn and the two of us.  We have a district meeting every Monday to discuss the work in our district and to train using Preach My Gospel and Gospel Essentials.  It usually goes about an hour and a half.  We are in the St. Gallen Zone which includes Ravensburg, Dornbirn, and several districts in Switzerland.

The Young Single Adults in Dornbirn meet on Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m.  It is a 45 minute drive from Ravensburg. The teacher is Gerda Stubbe-Greill.  Her husband is the bishop of the Dornbirn ward. She has been teaching the YSA's for quite a while and loves them and is very dedicated.  There are about 6 students who come regularly to Institute but they are terrific!  They study the material and are working on passing the exam at the end of the year.  It is a real challenge for Gerda because she has to try to squeeze two lessons into an hour each week.  She has also been providing some food each week and she has been doing this on her own, since the last Senior couple left in October of last year. We are delighted to be able to help her and support these YSA's.

Institute is also held in Ravensburg on Thursday evenings but it is a little unusual. Their are no active Young Adult's in Ravensburg but there are two single men who are fairly recent converts who come for gospel instruction.  The Elders have been teaching them but that will now be Elder Lake's assignment.

Our first Sunday in Ravensburg was fabulous!  We picked up the Elders on our way to church and arrived about an hour early.  The Elders like to help get things set up and be there when the members arrive to greet them.  We meet from 10:00 until 12:00. Our little branch meets on the top floor of a commercial building about 15 minutes from our apartment.  It's actually quite a nice spot.  It's rather new and has a decent sized chapel, rooms for nursery, Primary, youth, and the Relief Society.  There is also an office for the Branch President.  There is a tiny kitchen as well.  We just wish we had a church building that could be a presence in the neighborhood and invite interest from the residents.  We only have one family with children and they were gone that day.  We had two children visiting with their grandparents.  So that was very different for us following our calling in the Married Student Ward in Salt Lake with so many children.  There were about 25 people at church, which is typical, but they are a friendly, close knit group.  They warmly welcomed us and we started learning their names.  The Branch President is Jurgen Klaumunzner and his wife is Susanne.  They are awesome!  They have been serving here for 2 1/2 years even though they live in Switzerland and it takes them 2 hours each way to come to church on Sunday.  They have to take the ferry across the Bodensee (Lake Constance) twice.  We found out that next Sunday the whole Stake Presidency will be at our little branch to reorganize the Branch Presidency.  We are very sad because we instantly fell in love with this dear couple.  She served a mission to France but speaks excellent English.  That was a blessing for me!  We have a terrific young couple in our branch, Corinna and Giampietro (Giampi) Tonoli.  He is Italian and she is German.  They both speak English.  He is in the Branch Presidency.  She sat down by me and offered to translate. Yahoo!  He translated for me the second hour for Gospel Doctrine class.

Jurgen and Susanne Klaumunzner

Elder Hudson (top photo) and Elder Williams

We invited the Elders over for dinner and then we were fortunate to be able to go to Dornbirn for a special musical evening put on by the members there as a missionary event.  They had invited friends and neighbors to attend.  They had a pretty good turnout.  Much effort and preparation had gone into the evening.  There were about 10 different numbers with assorted groups and musical instruments as well.  They had a couple of videos interspersed with messages of finding God.  There was a very special spirit there.  We met some wonderful people before and after.  We met the Institute teacher, Gerda, and she expressed her gratitude and enthusiasm for our arrival.  She is very excited to have our support and help.  They served lots of delicious finger foods in the yard behind the church.  The weather was perfect and it was a delightful evening.

Ravensburg here we come!

Friday morning, May 19, we had a lovely breakfast with the Kohlers.  Then we were introduced to our new little Hyundai that we would be driving for the next 18 months.

We were able to get everything, except the bikes, into the car.  Hooray! The Kohlers were going to Switzerland for a Stake Conference on the weekend and agreed to leave the bikes with the Elders in Dornbirn on their way.  We drove to Dornbirn (45 minutes away from Ravensburg) on Monday, May 22, and picked them up.  So, back to Munich.  We bid farewell to the Kohlers and drove the 2 hours and 15 minutes to Ravensburg.  It was a beautiful drive!  When we arrived, the young Elders met us at our apartment at Wangenerstrasse 88/99 88212 Ravensburg.  The apartment hadn't been occupied since October when the last senior couple, the Justesens, left.  But the Elders had kindly done some cleaning for us so it didn't look bad.  The apartment is actually bigger than we expected.  It has one good sized bedroom for us and another small bedroom with two twin beds end to end for guests. There is a pretty small but light kitchen and a larger living/dining room.  There are two separate bathrooms.  One is a water closet with a toilet and tiny sink.  The other has a bigger sink and a tub/shower and a stackable washer and dryer.  We are on the third and top level of a building with 13 apartments.  We are grateful to be in a corner apartment because there are more windows.  We have two balconies, one off the living room and one off the kitchen.  The living room is on south side and the kitchen is on the west side.

 Most all homes and apartments have exterior blinds that you lower at night and raise in the morning.  They completely shut out the light and most of the noise.  We really like this feature!
So, we deposited all our things in the apartment and then the Elders took us into town to get some groceries.  That first visit to the market was quite an experience!  We bought just enough to get us by till the next day.  We treated the Elders to a lunch of bratwurst out on the plaza.  We were surprised to find out that they really don't eat brats here in Southern Germany like they do in the north.  The Elders had never had one!
The Elders were on splits that day, so we connected them with their own companions and then headed back to the apartment to put the food away.  We took a walk into the old city in the evening and loved seeing the old architecture and the cobblestone streets.  What an adventure lies ahead!

We're off to Germany!

We took off very early on Wednesday morning, May 17, to fly to Munich, Germany.  Our good friend, Eric Belnap, drove us to the airport in his truck.  We had 4 large checked bags, two carry-on bags, two personal bags, and two bike bags. Phew!

 Unfortunately, it was snowing when we left, so we piled all the bags into the cab of the truck and put the bikes in the back under a tarp.

  It was a little bit of a challenge to get everything into the airport and checked.  But we made it and barely came in under weight with our checked bags.  We flew to Chicago where we had a 5 hour lay over.  (The Church travel department made our reservations!)

Chicago selfie

 Then we flew 9 hours to Munich and arrived about 10:30 a.m.  We were exhausted but excited.  Needless to say, it was quite a chore to get all our luggage from the carousel out to the front of the airport where the President and his wife were waiting to pick us up without leaving it unattended. But we were successful! President and Sister Kohler were warm and friendly and we were so delighted to see them. We loaded everything into the mission van and headed to the mission office.  We met the office couples, the Hansens and the Gildners.  They took care of paper work and gave us instructions.  I'm not sure how much of it we remember because we were pretty much in a fog mentally.

 Then the Kohlers took us to the mission home, where they live, and Sister Kohler fed us lunch.  We were able to visit with them for a little while but then Sister Kohler noticed we were dozing off and suggested a nap.  We took advantage of that idea!  We only slept an hour or so because we wanted to be able to sleep at night.  We met the Kohler's 16 year old daughter, Erica.  The five of us went out to dinner at a lovely German restaurant and sat out on the patio.  I had wienerschnitzel, of course, and it was delicious! Everyone's meals were fabulous.  We were grateful we had decided to stay Thursday night with the Kohlers instead of driving two hours to Ravensburg where we would live.  We looked forward with great anticipation to getting to our new home for the next 18 months but thankfully had a good night's sleep before we left.

The Mission Story Begins

(I am finally getting this blog going!  Please bear with me for these first few posts while I get caught up to the present. We want this blog to cover the entire mission.)

I guess I'll start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. We received our call to The Alpine German Speaking Mission on March 2 and opened it March 3 when we returned from a trip to Hawaii early in the morning.  We had Brandon and Julie Ann and their family at our home and everyone else on FaceTime or watching the recorded version later. We also had our bishop, Eric Belnap, with us since he had picked us up at the airport.  Bob let me read the call because it was my first time to receive a mission call.  We were called to work with the Young Single Adults.  We were super excited.  We were told we would report to the MTC on May 8, 2017.  Just over two months to get ready.  We had no idea how fast the time would go or how much there would be to do to get ready.



The next step on this journey was the Open House we had on Saturday, April 29, at our home from 2:00 until 5:00.  We had lots of help from friends and family and it was terrific! We had the Open House so we could see family and friends before we left.  Lots of people came and we loved it!  We felt so much love and support and it was truly a blessing.


Sunday, April 30, we spoke in our Sacrament Meeting and again we felt tremendous love and support. We were grateful for the opportunity to share our testimonies and our gratitude for the opportunity to serve a mission.


On Tuesday, May 2, we headed to the MTC for two days of immersion language training.  We had been receiving language training by Skype once a week for about 6 weeks.  We each had our own tutor and we also each had a learning coach.  This was great but they encouraged us to come to the MTC and spend full days with tutors and volunteers immersed in the German language.  We took advantage of this service and really enjoyed it.  Each hour we had a different experience.  We wished we had been able to spend more time there because it was very beneficial.  The spirit of missionary work is very strong at the MTC and it was inspiring and motivational.

Language tutors, Jaron Thorley, Natalie Motto and Grace Hendricks.

The following Monday, May 8, was when we reported to the MTC to stay for the week and be taught how to be missionaries.  We had a group of about 120 senior missionaries.  We were very impressed by this group of dedicated and faithful seniors heading all over the world to help build the kingdom. We met some really terrific people.  We were taught by outstanding returned missionaries and we all learned a lot. This was an amazing week that we will never forget and we loved it!  We were sad to see it end.  We went home for the weekend and celebrated Mother's Day with our family.  On Monday, we returned for two days of CES training to learn how to teach the Young Single Adults in our mission.  We were joined by the other senior couples who were called to teach as well. The Church has put together an incredible manual for teaching.  These two days we were taught by Church Education instructors who have a lot of experience teaching young people.  We hope we will be able to put into practice all the principles they taught us.

Our MTC district with our teachers. The Grants, the Mechams,and the Dearings.
Sister Donakey and Sister Anderson.

The Senior couples in our CES training.

We came home Tuesday night and finished packing so we could leave early Wednesday, May 17, for Germany.   Our kids and grandkids in Utah came over to help us get ready to go and to say goodbye. We had already said goodbye to the families in Missouri when we visited there at Easter.  It was very difficult to say goodbye because we will miss them all so much, but we hope our mission will bless them as well as us.  Thank goodness we will be able to call and FaceTime frequently.