One of the fabulous families of Jena. We had a wonderful German dinner last Sunday with them.

Here is Opel, this is what I traded my Jag for. She's got some pick up and go which is necessary on the autobahn. The Jag would have loved the autobahn.

Yes, it's a toaster oven and I have two burners, who needs more? And yes, the refrigerator is the small opening under the cupboard. So far we have frozen everything because we can't figure out the control. It started snowing last night and hasn't stopped so we went out and both bought boots. The streets are still full of people walking, lots of baby carriages with plastic coverings, little kids in snowsuits, not so many bicycles - wet, snowy cobblestones are slippery!

Here's the oven, the refrigerator (look close) and the washer in the bathroom. It is all so efficient (except the oven), it really does make things easy.

Some have asked for pics of our apartment. BIG tub in the bathroom with a tiny washing machine, little kitchen in the entryway, can you find the stove or refrigerator, "office, diningroom, living room" combination. It really is a great apartment. Much more than we expected. The ceilings are about 10 feet high and the door frames are about 7 feet. Huge windows overlooking campus and the hills surrounding this end of the city (the blue curtain is the full size of the window).

We stopped at a Dorom cart. Delish! Some kind of shaved meat with gravy, cole slaw and lettuce with herbal dressing and real fries. The sisters have been here several months so they know their way around!

First day in Jena

This is looking out our apartment window overlooking a campus and up into the hills and countryside.

This is the entrance to our building. We are on the 9th floor. It was built in 1930 and is considered a new building and the first "skyscraper" in Jena.

As we drove from Frankfurt to Jena we needed to stop for lunch and were happy to see a familiar sight. I know, pathetic.

We are safely in Germany. Our assignment is in Jena, 3 hours east of Frankfurt. We are in a very small branch and helping with the Center for Young Single Adults. There are two Univerisities here. Our apartment is 8 floors above the main square of one of the campuses. Very fun place to be. We are exhausted most of the time from walking. We are still in the process of registering ourselves in the city, getting Visas, setting up a bank account and getting internet. I hate not being able to communicate with my family. It will be another two or three weeks before we have internet in our apartment. We are in a cyber cafe right now but I can't get my emails or send. We will try again to get email while we are in a church in Leipsig tomorrow. Love to all. :)

Salt Lake airport with all of our young missionaries and all of our luggage. Most of them were headed to Mexico and points south. After a long day we are now at our Holiday Inn in Frankfurt. We just ate sandwiches out of a machine (they were either really good or we are really hungry!) and are headed to our twin beds to take a coma! Will post more when we are in Jena and have more than a few minutes and pics.

Thanks for all of your love and support!

The kids wanted to see our palatial accommodations here in the MTC. It's not going to take long to clean that's for sure!!

Rob and Sienna came down from Rexburg on Saturday to take us to the Temple and out to lunch. It was a great day. For those who haven't been to the Missionary Training Center there is more to it than this map. Rob just wanted one of him without him pointing to Argentina. He was at this very map 4 years ago. Richie was at this very map 9 years ago. Ryan was at this very map 18+ years ago. Melanie was at this very map about 15 years ago.

Sister Reese is a friend of Duane's sisiter. They met as missionaries in South Carolina. We found her pretty easy but still haven't seen our nephew, Jonah. There are about 2,000 missionaries here this week, all in suits, we'll keep looking!

This is our MTC district. We spent all of our training time together this week. The "kid" in the front is our morning teacher - he did a great job of keeping us focused. The couple on the far left is going to Everett, WA; the next couple is going to Manhatten, NY; the next couple is going to West Africa in Public Relations. There are two retired teachers, a retired high school counselor, retired church lawyer serving in South America, a previous member of the general Primary Presidency, a member of the General Young Men's Board, bishops, etc. etc. Lots of church experience, lots of children, tons of grandchildren, and all very excited to go on their new adventure. It's been wonderful getting to know these people, teaching and learning with them.

Fun thing from today: A young elder was waiting in line with us for lunch, we started the normal conversation - where are you from, where are you going - he's from here, going to the Ukraine. He asked if he could bear his testimony in Ukrainian to practice. It was so great to hear his confidence after only 3 weeks here. Then we sat down to eat and had the same conversation with two elders across the table from us - one is from Sri Lanka going to North Carolina, the other is from South Korea going to Virginia. People are coming from and going all over the world. As far as we can tell we are the only ones going to Frankfurt, Germany. Gute nacht!

We are so lucky to have friends with us at the Missionary Training Center. It was not planned this way but we just happened to be here at the same time. Browns are in different classes than us but we get to eat meals and have our picture taken with them. This is an amazing place - people are leaving here to go all over the world. The young elder that took our picture is going to Japan. We ate dinner with elders going to Argentina. We are learning new things including how to function outside of our comfort zone!

We are so happy to be here. It's amazing how many people are here and how organized everything is. We are busy every minute going to Gospel classes and the evenings are full of language classes (we even have our own personal language tutor). And this is only the first day. Our day starts at 6:00 tomorrow morning and will end at 9:00 tomorrow night. This may be the only post this week!

It's official. We are now carless. Duane's dream truck was sold yesterday and our famlee-hand-me-down Explorer sold last night. Does anyone know the Dial-a-Ride number?

We have made our first friend in Germany! We met her through friends of ours who served a mission in Germany and met her there. She contacted us and has offered to take us to dinner and get us to our hotel our first night in Frankfurt. We are almost packed, sold two cars, ate at Zip's one last time, and squeezing in time with as many people as possible before we leave. We are so excited and feel so blessed to be able to do this at this time of our lives. We are grateful to so many who have helped us and encouraged us. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!