Rutenfest and a special dinner with the Browns

Most areas in Germany have a special festival sometime during the summer.  In Ravensburg, it is called Rutenfest and this year it ran from the 21-25 of July.  It is a pretty big deal. They set up a carnival of sorts, with a huge ferris wheel and other rides and entertainment.  They sell lots of different traditional foods at stands. There are parades and traditional costumes.  Some evenings, groups of people playing pipes and drums march through the town.  Twice they started out in our neighborhood.  People come out of their homes and watch as they go by.  Sometimes there is singing as well.  Lots of people come into town to participate in the festivities.  We were in Switzerland for Zone Conference on the day of the main parade and felt bad that we had to miss it.  But the next day we walked into town and were fortunate to catch another parade.  People started to gather right where we entered the city and we could tell something was going on.  We waited and the crowd grew and grew.  Finally, they started the parade and it was lots of fun.  There were lots of different groups.  Some were in costumes, some on horses, lots playing drums and pipes and other instruments.  We were surprised to see many people just join the parade and walk through the old city together.  That night they had a big fire works display.

On the evening Rutenfest began, we were delighted to have our new mission president and his wife and son come to Ravensburg for dinner and interviews at our apartment with the members of our district.  This was a special opportunity for us to visit with them and get to know them better.  They are really terrific and we feel blessed to have them leading our mission.  This was their first stop on their travels for 10 days through the whole mission to interview all the missionaries.

McKay, President and Sister Brown, the Lakes

McKay Brown, President Brown, Elders Davis and Ormsby, Sister Lake, Elder Lake, Elders Johnson and Williams