Our trip to Frankfurt included visiting with friends (Frankfurt Temple behind us), touring a castle, strolling through the little berg below the castle, training into downtown Frankfurt, shopping at a few of the hundreds of shops, and watching the sun go down over the River Main. It was a wonderful trip. We are so glad we got to share it with dear friends.

Two of my newest friends. They let me be their pretend grandma.

Duane's sister will recognize this wonderful sister.
She said she needs to run up and down the stairs carrying more ironing boards?

Hello to Dave and Marie from Frankfurt!!

I wish I had a picture to share from tonight but I don't, just a fun story. Every Thursday night I make dinner for 15-20 Young Adults. Tonight I made Navajo tacos - I fry bread dough and have all the normal taco toppings (hamburger with taco seasoning, chopping tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, salsa, etc.) One of our favorite young men is on the bigger side, has a very deep voice and a very thick German accent when he tries to speak English. After eating 4 of these big "tacos" he brought his plate into the kitchen where I was washing dishes. I asked him if he wanted anymore and did he like them. He said he didn't want anymore and no he didn't like them. I apologized, he nodded and walked out. A few minutes later he came back in and said he was sorry but they weren't his favorite, I told him I appreciated his honesty. He smiled big and said, "But I do like lasagne!"

Thursday nights we host a German class, a religion class (Institute) and dinner. Last night was especially international. England, Lithuania, Germany, Guatemala, Romania, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Persia, Iraq and America were all represented although not all in the picture (and our friend from China was in Sweden.) They all speak their mother language, German and English. We introduced them to St. Patrick's Day with green necklaces, banner (thanks Dave and Marie) and chocolate cake with green frosting - they didn't get it. One thought she was getting prayer beads when given the necklace. (1/2 of these are not members of our church) We had a hootenany after our Italian dinner, lots of laughing and we came home exhausted!!

Quickly coming to an end of my tried and true recipes I asked the Young Adults for some suggestions. I put out a sign up sheet - Hilfe fur Sister Lee, Ideen fur Institut Abendessen. Here is the list of responses: pancakes, lasagne, waffeln, kartoffelauflauf, Navajo taccos, auflauf, nudelauflauf, hessekloise, buletten und salzkartoffeln, konigsberger klopse, peanutbutterbars, hawaiian haystacks. I don't know which is funnier - the German requests or the American requests. Any other suggestions from any of you? I am always open for ideas!!

LOOK what we got today!! Such a wonderful surprise. Thank you Dave and Marie!!

"Our" girls are on a temple trip to Frankfurt. They are the sweetest bunch of girls - Katarina, Irina (just baptized last month), Rima, Antonia and Ileen.

Rima getting her mission call. She called us right after she opened it - St. George, Utah. She is so excited and wants to go today. She is from Armenia, speaks German and English and will teach in German in St. George at the visitor's center.

 Just to prove these guys know how to have fun. It was Elder Kempe's birthday so he got the normal birthday treatment of being thrown up in the air from his chair. This while they sing Happy Birthday in German and English.

 We had the opportunity to have lunch at this dear sister's home. She has been serving lunch to the missionaries since the wall came down 20+ years ago and missionaries have been allowed in East Germany. She has a picture book of all of those missionaries. We found a picture of an elder from our Ward 20 years ago!!

These Elders are our District plus me and Sister Kempe. Fun group of missionaries and very good at teaching the Gospel.

I didn't realize I would miss sewing so much. The Elders found the little machine on the left in their apartment and thought it would make me feel better. A friend here was in touch with a lady that owns a tailor shop and occasionally has machines for sale. We were able to buy the machine on the right for 35euros. The lady said it was very sturdy because it was built in the DDR. If heaviness is the indicator to sturdy then, yes, it is very sturdy. Hopefully we'll be able to find a fabric store that has more than 5 bolts of fabric to choose from.