Belated Birthday

My birthday was two months ago but I want to post about it because it was one of my most special birthdays and shows how terrific the people are here, where we are blessed to serve.  I wasn't expecting any kind of celebration because we are away from our family and long time friends.  But the day played out very unexpectedly!

In the morning we had District Meeting in St. Gallen. Somehow the missionaries found out it was my birthday.  They really went all out to make it special for me. They decorated the room and had it darkened with little candles and when I walked in they started to sing "Happy Birthday".  They gave me a few small gifts as well.  We brought lunch but made it very simple.  We had picked up special cheese cakes at the Saturday Market in Ravensburg and they loved the special birthday treat.  It was one of the most delightful District Meetings.

The St. Gallen District

Visconti, Bushman, Hilton, Sister Lake, Elder Lake, Chisholm, Weisler, Pedersen, Passey, Titmus

Bob convinced me that we needed to stop in Dornbirn, after taking the missionaries home, to study for awhile at the church before going home.  I agreed, never imagining he might have an ulterior motive.  I thought we were going out to dinner for my birthday.  He told me we needed to stop at our apartment to get umbrellas since it was raining.  I decided that I would change into pants and comfortable walking shoes to walk into the city.  When I opened the door, I was shocked to find our apartment filled with many of the wonderful and dear friends we have made here in Ravensburg and in Dornbirn.  I actually got quite emotional realizing how much these dear people mean to me. They had planned and prepared a really fun surprise birthday party for me.  And boy, was I surprised!  It never entered my head.  Some of them came all the way from Austria, almost an hour away.  Our cute young friend, Corinna Tonoli, had organized the whole thing and had people bring food.  She came early and decorated with streamers and balloons and had party hats, too.  Everyone came into the hall when I walked in and sang "Happy Birthday" to me.  They had a wonderful chocolate cake with candles.  Some of them even brought gifts.  Corinna remembered that we had said we missed having Mexican food here, so they prepared a taco buffet.  Very thoughtful!  And everything was delicious.  It was really a fun party!  Everyone enjoyed visiting and eating.  It was a birthday I will always remember because of the love I felt from so many.  The people are definitely the best part of a mission.

Irina Kiefer with me

Gerda Stubbe-Griell, Diane, Susann Trautmann

Nicola and Jordy Wijsbeek

Fleur Wijsbeek

Jorg Stubbe and Rudiger Trautmann

Ralf Lorenz and Wladimir Lange 

Irina, Corinna, Flora and Bob

Elder Hilton

Elder Bushman

The Buffet

The Tonoli Family
Giampi, Corinna and Flora

Senior Conference in Innsbruck

On the 19th of April, we headed to Innsbruck, Austria on the train for our semi-annual Senior Conference with all the other senior missionaries from our mission.  Our wonderful mission president's wife, Sister Laura Brown, posted a lot of fun photos from the conference on Face Book immediately after and tagged me in the post, so anyone who follows me on Face Book has already seen a post about this event.  Well, now you will see and read my version of the event.

We were thrilled that the conference was held in beautiful Innsbruck.  We have been anxious to see this remarkable city and we were not disappointed.  But we were also excited to spend some time with the other senior couples.  These are outstanding people who are serving here with faithfulness and dedication and giving everything they've got to bless the members, missionaries, and others in the Alpine German Speaking Mission.  It is called the Alpenlaendische Mission here.  This was an opportunity to share ideas and strengthen each other and be inspired and motivated to continue serving with hope and optimism.  And that is exactly what happened! 

We arrived in Innsbruck on Thursday about noon and enjoyed a lovely lunch sitting outside at the hotel.  We had some wonderful workshops in the afternoon and then a delicious dinner at the hotel.  In the evening, we had Elder and Sister Peery from the area office in Frankfurt speak to us.  They are  mental health advisors for the area.  But they are also terrific missionaries.  They shared some helpful information and some incredibly inspiring stories.  We loved them!

Friday morning was a wonderful breakfast buffet at the hotel and then more workshops in the morning at the church, which was in walking distance from the hotel.  All the senior couples participated in teaching the workshops or filling some assignment for the conference.  We were on our own for lunch and then we had the afternoon free to do some sight seeing.  One of the couples, Dean and Judy Wade (from Davis County, UT), gave us fabulous ideas for things to see and do. We were very blessed because the weather was absolutely perfect! A group of us took a tram to the top of the mountain and we trekked around in the snow and enjoyed the incredible view.  We had dinner at the hotel and a delightful evening focusing on Family and Marriage.

Saturday morning was another breakfast buffet at the hotel, we checked out, and then headed to the church again.  The Browns shared and inspired us all.  We all shared "Tender Mercies" experienced on the mission which touched our hearts and caused tears to flow.  It was a special conclusion to a special and memorable conference.  We look forward with great anticipation to the next one!

We had a fun afternoon seeing more of Innsbruck before heading back to Ravensburg.  I'm afraid the photos really don't do it justice!

The Austrian Alps

Walking to the church.

President and Sister Brown starting the conference.

The Wades, the Andreasons, and the Stephensens

The Peerys, the Madsens, and some guests

The Browns, the Mathews and the Hansens

The Hughes' and the Stringhams

The Norths, the Russells and the Lakes

The Golden Roof

Looking down on Innsbruck from the top of Nordkette

From the top of Nordkette

Snowboarding hill

Innsbruck

Adorable President and Sister Brown

Hofkirche

Bob on the stairs climbing to the top of Stadtturm.

Wrap up February and Welcome March

We had lots of great things happen last week.  We started off with Zone Conference in Zurich on Monday, February 26.  We haven't had a Zone Conference since before Christmas, so it was great to meet with our three Swiss Zones again.  Zone Conference is always a wonderful spiritual and motivational infusion.  We love being with so many outstanding missionaries and seeing missionaries we haven't seen for awhile.  Our fabulous Mission President and his wife inspire us to be the best we can be and teach us to be better disciples of Christ and representatives of Him in the Alpine German Speaking Mission.  We also received instruction from the Zone Leaders and from President Markus Gappmeier, who is a counselor in our Mission Presidency.  He does amazing presentations and has an incredible testimony and spiritual strength that blesses us all.  We learn so much from each conference and we're always grateful to be serving here.

Elder Whittaker, an Assistant to the President, who used to be our Zone Leader (He's from England).

Elder Davis and Elder Wrangell (Both from Finland)

Beautiful musical number by some talented missionaries.

Elder Ormsby, our former District Leader (He's from Australia)

On Tuesday, our P-day, we took the train to Stuttgart.  Our next door neighbor in Bountiful, Brad Kofford, and his son, Quin, were in Stuttgart on business and wanted to meet us for dinner.  We were anxious to go and see a little of Stuttgart at the same time.  Unfortunately, it was the coldest day yet this winter.  We bundled up the best we could, but we still froze!  We walked 20 minutes to the train station in Ravensburg and then walked from the train station in Stuttgart into the city.  Our train ride was just over two hours and we arrived at lunch time.  We walked through the very large inner city.  Stuttgart has many, many streets of shops and businesses but we were looking for a good place to eat lunch.  We found the restaurant where we planned to meet the Koffords for dinner, so that was good.  We finally found a little Asian restaurant and thawed out while we had some delicious stir fry.  We don't have a good Asian restaurant in Ravensburg, so we don't get this kind of food very often.  After lunch, we made our way to the Information Center and asked about what we could see in Stuttgart.  The kind woman gave us directions to some "in door" attractions.  We went to the Landesmuseum Wurttemberg in an ancient castle and wandered around there looking at relics from the area.  The museum was founded in 1862, but it contains things many hundreds of years old.  We then went to an indoor market in another old building (mainly to stay warm).  It was filled with many different shops selling cheese, meats, vegetables and fruits, candy, etc.  Everything looked delicious but we resisted the urge to buy because we didn't want to carry anything home.  We left there and walked until we were sufficiently frozen and then stopped at a cafe for some hot chocolate.  We relaxed and visited and warmed up until it was time to meet our neighbors, the Koffords.  We enjoyed a lovely evening with them having traditional German food in a quaint and cozy European style restaurant.  It was fun to get caught up on the happenings at home.  They also brought some things we needed from home, and that was a blessing.  We caught the 8:00 p.m. train back to Ravensburg and then walked home through the deserted city at around 10:30 that night.  It was actually not as cold as when we left, so that was good.

A castle in the city of Stuttgart.

Bob inside the courtyard (at the Museum).

The central square.

Fun photo opportunity!

The Opera House and Ballet Theater.

Brad and Quin Kofford at Ochsen Willi restaurant in Stuttgart.

Brad, Quin, Bob and Diane at dinner.

Wednesday, the 28th, was our weekly YSA Institute class in Dornbirn, Austria.  We welcomed our new teacher, Sarah Reid.  We were sad to lose our former teacher, Gerda Stubbe-Griell, as she was called to be the Relief Society President, but we are excited to have Sarah.  She is a delightful person and very enthusiastic about teaching the YSA's.  We had a great lesson from her and look forward to getting to know her better and learning from her.

Sarah Reid, our new Institute teacher, standing by Diane.
Left to right: Anya, Eva, Yamina, Elder Bushman, Bob, Elder Hilton, Sarah, Diane

Friday evening, March 2, we had a special "Date Night" in Lindau, Germany.  Lindau is a quaint old city on an island in Lake Constance, or Bodensee.  There is a bridge from the mainland connecting it.  In the spring, summer and fall, this is a very busy tourist destination city and a fun place to visit.  The buildings are very old and the streets are narrow and it has a very old German feel.  There are many fun shops and restaurants.  But in the winter, it is much more quiet and peaceful, especially at night. Our good friends, Giampi and Corinna Tonoli, gave us tickets to the marionette opera in Lindau as a Christmas gift.  We went early in the evening and had a delicious dinner at Zur Fischerin, a restaurant recommended by our friend, Kenneth, who lives and works in Lindau.  It has been open since 1952.  We can't think of a restaurant at home that has been in business that long, but here there are restaurants that have been opened much longer than this.  Then we walked to the opera house and watched "Zauberflote" or "The Magic Flute" opera performed by marionettes.  It was in a small theater and almost every seat was taken.  This is one of the few places in Germany where you can still see this kind of performance.  It was very well done.  The music was recorded but it was beautiful.  Of course it was all in German.  It was a lovely evening!

The theater before everyone arrived.  No photos could be taken during the show.

Bob in Lindau, March 2

Winter evening in Lindau.