The "girls" are here. We have spent so much time laughing we have sore faces. We have taken a river cruise up the Rhein, gorgeous. We saw castles and little dorfs tucked in the valleys. We hopped off the boat and shopped in this great little dorf. We have ridden a train, a strassenbahn, a boat and a car. We are cramming 3 weeks worth of Germany into one week. Of course we plan each day's activities around where we are going to eat. We are so glad they are here to see what we see, eat what we eat, meet our friends, and witness why we enjoy living in Germany!

 

We have been assigned to do a "Clean Check" on 6 missionary apartments. They were given a list of about 40 things they were responsible to have clean. The moms of these 12 missionaries would be proud!! Not only because their apartments were clean (for the most part) but because they were willing to work and try. Some were surprised that shower curtains could be washed in the washing machine, some didn't realize silverware drawers collect crumbs, some didn't know that ovens needed more than water to be clean - they loved the bottle of amonia, new cleaning rag and candy they were each presented with at the end of their inspection. Some were more excited to get the cleaning supplies than the candy! Tradition in Germany - sing Zum Gubertstag viel glueck while lifting the

birthday person in the air and dropping them 3 times. Very funny. Duane went back and found his guitar in the window, it called his name and followed us home.
Behind the church in Erfurt is a park with 3 large ponds full of these fish. They swim to you when you walk by and wait for you to throw fish food in then they fight over it! There is a restaurant overlooking these ponds. You can order fish for your dinner, the cooks go fishing and you have fresh fish for dinner!

Only wimps need hiking boots, backpacks and Cabela shorts. Yes, we hike mountains in church clothes. This is a Roman Installation built in 1166. Then we had our own Olympics as part of our Branch Sommerfest. My team won gold and Duane's won bronze. Some took it very seriously. A friend made me a birthday cake (delish!) and I got the traditional German Birthday experience of sitting in a chair being tossed in the air. (Pics of that to come, maybe.)  Our District is losing another one of our favorites, his two years is up and he's going home.

Can we be proud? How about extremely happy - this is our FamLee!!

A week of work - tisch tennis, cleaning the church and teaching at an English camp. A week of play - castle exploring with the Elders (all 3 built around 1100). Ending with a wonderful Saturday at the Freiberg Temple with people so happy to be there. (It's hard to tell which is work and which is play isn't it!)