A PICTURE BLOG!!!!

Clog America in Darmstadt - July 9, 2015

Dale singing "The Beverly Hillbillies" Theme Song

The Darmstadt Clog America Performance Audience

Some of our Young Single Adults with Clog America

Looks Familiar!  Love Clog America Tours!

Our wonderful Clog America Friends and Director - Dwayne and Shawnda Bishop

Dale's Tomato Garden on our Balcony
"You can take Dale out of his garden,
but you can't take the garden out of Dale!"

 Bad Homburg White Tower

Marberg Allstadt Visit

Beautiful View from the Castle with the City and Church in the Bachground

The Castle and that is Cinderella's "red" slipper - the Grimm Brothers lived in this City for a time

 OUR MOSEL RIVER AND CASTLES VISIT 

The beautiful Burg Eltz

The City of Cochem - Waiting for the Bus to the Castle

View from the Cochem (Reichsburg) Castle - Notice the Vineyard on the hill side

Views of the incredible Mosel River from both directions

Special Friends and Missionaries in our German Life

Our Michelstadt Elders at a Member's Home for Dinner and Song

The Frankfurt Mission Office Missionaries

Good Friends - the Eglys - in Michelstadt

We wen up and out of a valley on a road similar to the switchbacks going to Big Lake in Sevier County - but paved and we were not in our ATV.  It was very narrow, but the view was spectacular when we reached the top.  We could not help but compare it to the journey of life.  Sometimes we are prompted to take a road that does not appear to lead anywhere promising, but when we arrive, it was worth the efforts we made.

 HOW WE KNOW WE ARE NOT IN 
UTAH (KANSAS) ANYMORE....

Giant Hay Bale Wedding Announcement!

There are a few adjustments we've had to make in the way things are done here. Different cultures have different ways of doing things. I guess there must be some middle ground, where "Yankee ingenuity" and "German technology" crossover. There is also somewhere, where the two go different directions. Who are we to decide whether or not they are good differences or not-so-good differences? I'll let you decide. Here are a few we have noticed:

1. Here in Germany it is against the law to leave your car windows rolled down (even 2 centimeters) or your doors unlocked when you park, even if it is 100 degrees + outside. The reason, I was told, is because if cars get broken into, it makes more work for the police, and they are spread too thin as it is.

2. The traffic lights turn yellow before they turn green, as well as red. (this gives you time to hang up your cellphone before it turns green, I guess).

3. On the autobahns(freeways), most of the time there are no speed limits. I don"t know about you, but it is a little unnerving for me when I'm already going 120 kilometers per hour (75 mph) and someone whizzes by me going 220 kilometers per hour (135mph).

4. Because there are fewer gas stations as you drive through the little villages around this forested area, they understand the principle of "Supply and demand". After about 7:00 pm, the few gas stations that stay open that late start raising their gas prices. The later it gets, the more demand, and the higher the prices. All this time I thought American were the  "Capitalists". Maybe they learned a lesson from us.

5. In your car it is required that you have 3 important things: namely, a Fluorescent vest, a First Aid kit, and a reflective triangle to set up behind your car if you have an emergency. Now I think those are good items to have on hand.

6. You had better have enough gas in your car when you enter a freeway, because if there is a traffic jam and you run out of gas on the freeway, you will get a ticket.

7. If you get pulled over by an officer for a traffic violation, you may pay your fine directly to him, on the spot. Just think, no going to city hall to pay the fine. It's done and taken care of.... So if you want to speed or do something illegal, make sure you have a lot of cash on hand.

8. Honking seems to be the Germans' national pass time. If the light turns green and your engine isn't already gaining RPMS, expect a honk just to make sure you are awake.  They honk for everything you might do wrong! So, when we get honked at, we write down what we were doing at the time and try not to do it again. That's how we learned the rules of the road.  (Of course, this happens in Utah as well but not as often!)

9. If you go to a restaurant to eat, don't expect a cold glass of water as a starter. If you want water, you have to pay for it. And, if you're lucky, it's not carbonated or warm.

10. Sales Tax here is 19%. (Yes, I said nineteen percent)

11. If you go to a hospital to get minor treatment, chances are good you won't get billed, even if you are not native German. You see, here all health car costs are mostly paid by the government, after you pay about 1/2 of your salary each month for taxes. The hospitals are so busy that your bill will probably get lost in the shuffle..   Mine did.

12. There are big rodents here who live in the forest, who kind of look like hairy weasels. There is one in particular, who thinks it's great to chew on warm radiator hoses. They say that the hoses are made partly out of fish parts  (???) so, when hoses get hot they radiate a fish smell. Our car did, and we have a bill for $320.00 to prove it. Can't they find something else besides fish parts?

13. When you go shopping, in order to get a shopping basket, you have to insert money into the handle. You also have to bring your own grocery bags and bag your own groceries. When you bring the cart back, you get your money back. On the bright side, you don't see shopping carts scattered around parking lots. America should adopt this one, except for the bags part.

14. When you are traveling, make sure you have coins enough to pay for the toilets. Some of them even automatically clean themselves. Just make sure you are not still sitting on the toilet after you flush it. Maybe that's where we got the phrase,"It's like flushing money down the toilet".  What is nice on the Autobahns are the "Rest Areas" which are usually a quick on and off the actual road and they have great food and these wonderful toilets.

15.  Parking is almost always a problem here.  So, there are many narrow roads where cars are parked on both sides and somewhat out into the road.  We call these streets "Dodge em' Cars".  We have one that we travel frequently because it is the quickest way to the shopping area here in area.  (Please see video if you are on a computer and we are sorry it isn't in the right format.).  When driving these streets, you must stop and wait for oncoming cars if there is a car parked in your lane.  It gets pretty exciting at times!

We don't mean to sound judgmental, we would just like to know why some of these rules exist. And, we wish someone would have told us about them when we first came.  We love being in Germany and everyday we seem to feel more at home here.  I am sure all of our German friends would feel the same way about Utah and wonder about some of our "cultural" differences.  Just ask them about "slow cookers/crock pots" "fry sauce" and "Stovetop Stuffing".

AND WE THOUGHT WE WERE 

BUSY BEFORE.....

I just read through our last post and....   WOW - how things have changed since that post.  One never knows what the Lord plans for us and what might come next.  I believe we mentioned that we were serving three missions in one - correct that - it is now four missions in one!

About a month ago we were called to go to the Michelstadt Branch as, basically, Member Leadership Support.  We are still doing everything else we have been assigned but attend church in this wonderful, small branch about 45 minutes south of where we live as well.  It is in the Odenwald Forest which is one of the most beautiful parts of Germany.  We love our drive there and it is also a little cooler there as well.  Dale is serving as Executive Secretary to a new Branch President, Walter Wiese, who was also called from the Darmstadt Ward.  Another brother from Darmstadt was also called as the Branch Clerk.  I will be serving as one of the Ward Organists and that makes me happy.  So, in addition to Sundays, we go to Michelstadt on Wednesday evenings for other meetings. We are really enjoying the variety in our lives.

Michelstadt Church

Because we have so many commitments, we are unable to travel around quite as much as we did in Freiberg.  However, we do get to see quite a bit of Germany as we go from place to place.  The picture below is posted on my page on Facebook but I also want to share it here.  These are the yellow fields of Germany.  The flowers are only here for a small part of May each year, but they are everywhere.  They are spectacular!  They are actually Rapeseed plants, the plant from which canola oil is made.  I am so glad we were here to enjoy seeing them.



I think a few more pictures and explanations about some of the things we have seen in the past month might be fun.  An interesting day was on Dale's Birthday, May 14.  It was also a holiday here in Germany and we decided to go to a "castle" above the city of Weinheim.  It was an interesting day to say the least.  We were told that it was just a short walk up the road when we had to park at the bottom of the hill because the road was partially closed.  Long story short, it was a long ways and we ended up going back to the car, thanks to a Taxi, and then driving to the top anyway.  That said, when we arrived there and this is what we saw.



It seems there was some kind of "Fraternal" convention for the entire weekend.  Also, it really was a castle built only in the early 1800's just for this organization.  We snapped a few pictures and headed home.  Fun times!



Also, we went to the center of Darmstadt to go to dinner at a member's apartment and saw this there.




There was a big Festival going on with many stages, music, food, drink, and lots of people.  We knew about the festival and had taken the tram to Luisinplatz instead of driving.  We were glad we did!  How this bus got there from America - we do not know!  But it was like a "food truck" serving American Food.  We enjoyed walking around before we headed to dinner at Sister Kling's.

Another fun time was with our Young Single Adult group.  Some very interesting "games" were played and it was such a fun night.  It was the largest group we have ever had attend Family Home Evening!  Our leader, Tabea Wiese, is wonderful and plans such great activities.  Consequently, we just normally have to cook and plan the meals.  We love these "kids"!

We also really enjoy the young missionaries in our District.  They are so special to us and we love them all so much.  Right now we have two from Utah County, one from Salt Lake area, one from Delta, one from Oregon, the Sisters are from Colorado and Illinois, and one of the Elders is from Ireland but grew up in Australia.  Transfer days are hard for us as well as them.  Darmstadt is wonderful place to serve with very supportive members and many young people from all over Europe go to University here.  It is very International city.

Our District Young Elders and Sisters

Just this morning I met a young man who is a member but hasn't been attending church.  He grew up in Ecuador, joined the church about 16 years ago.  He just noticed my name tag and started talking with me.  He spoke a little German and very little English, his native language being Spanish.  I speak a little German and a little Spanish so we communicated in all three languages.  I love it here!  And that is what the missionaries face on a daily basis.  The young missionaries are amazing young people.

Another piece of news.  The Frankfurt Temple is also closing now.  It will be closed for Renovation starting September 7.  Our friends who were re-assigned from Freiberg are not sure what will happen for them as they will only have about 7 weeks left of their 18-month mission.  And that is how fast your life can change while serving the Lord.

One last big announcement.  This is Shayla ReNae Woolsey, born May 18 in Austin, Texas to Scott and Jennifer.  I feel so honored to have this precious little spirit named after me.  She is number 19 for us and we love all of them and their parents so much.

BUSY TIMES IN 
THE FRANKFURT MISSION

Heidelberg Castle

Time is really flying by now because we are so busy!  It is hard to believe that we have less than 8 months left.  We are enjoying our time here and having some wonderful experiences.  As a matter of fact, just as I started to type here today, a young man we met on one of our walks in the Forest called us back.  He is with a youth group out of South Africa who is here in the Darmstadt area bringing "Faith, Hope, and Love" to the young people through a Christian organization.  Dale just had the distinct feeling we should talk to him and sure enough - he spoke English and no German.  He is a dancer with this group and so we were able to talk about Clog America coming in July and about his group.  He took our number and said he would have his leader call us.  We really never expected to hear from him - but he called today, not even his leader.  We have no idea how this will turn out, but it is so important that all of us continue to listen to the Spirit and then act.

Walking in the Forest

We are still doing a great deal of cooking but then some weeks we have no cooking - or very little because of the YSA schedule.  We spend at least one day a week in Frankfurt working in the office and we usually have lunch all together and all of us bring something.   We also check 11 young missionary apartments, some as much as 1 1/2 hours away.  We enjoy meeting the missionaries and seeing new areas of this beautiful country.  It is almost like we are having three different missions now - Temple, YSA, and Office.  We have also done a little proselyting and it is awesome that we get to experience so many different areas of service.

A few of the YSA (JAE in German) in our area as well as the missionaries

About a week ago we were able to spend a Friday in Frankfurt in a Seminar with Elder Bednar.  What a wonderful experience to be taught by an Apostle of the Lord.  Our young missionaries are going to be using iPads soon and the Seminar was about teaching and serving in the Digital Age.  Nothing was said about the iPad itself but the about teaching the gospel using a new tool and using it "safely".  

We were also able to help with the food that day by helping prepare 270 sack lunches for the missionaries and some of the food for Elder Bednar and other guests.

Before the Elder Bednar Conference - The missionaries from our District

One of the highlights of April was our Senior Zone Conference which was held in Rothenburg an der Tauber - the best preserved medieval city in Europe.  We stopped there briefly during our Europe trip in 2005 and stated that we hoped we could return someday.  Well, check another item off the bucket list!  We actually stayed the night in a Castle outside of Rothenburg called Colmberg and then we traveled into the city.  The conference itself was also wonderful, getting to know the other couples in our mission and learning from our wonderful mission president and others.  

View of the Neckar River and Old Bridge from the Heidelberg Castle

Famous entrance to Rothenburg an der Taube

I WONDER.....

ReNae and I currently reside on the outskirts of Darmstadt, Germany next to a forest. We try to go for a daily walk to fulfill our mission assignment to “Exercise at least 30 minutes a day.” Sometimes I wander off the beaten path and go exploring. As I walk through the denser parts of the forest, I notice several large crater-like holes in the ground, which seem to be there for no apparent purpose. As I consider what the reason might be, I believe they may be remains from 70 years ago when Darmstadt was bombed by the Allied Forces.

I have read about the history of Darmstadt during the war and discovered that this city had been bombed several times. There wasn't a lot of industry going on here, but it was bombed mainly as a distraction. When bombs started dropping here, enemy planes would fly from other cities to intercept the bombers, leaving their own cities vulnerable for a second wave to come in and bomb more important facilities. Ironically, the most devastating raid took place 9-11-1944.

As I wander through the trees, I visualize the 110,00 inhabitants fleeing from their roofless, burning homes into the forest to get away from the bombings. Because most of the air raids were done at night time, I assume some of the bombs missed their targets and landed in the forest. Thus, the big holes in the ground. I find a half-broken, red crayon void of its paper wrapping in the middle of nowhere, and wonder if it had belonged to a frightened child hiding, and trying to distract herself from the terrible destruction. I find an old shovel and wonder if it might have been used to dig roots for food or to dig graves for the 13,500 villagers who died during the raids. I see a herd of wild pigs suddenly explode from the undergrowth, and wonder if they might have been a source of food for the starving, fleeing, refugees, who maybe found a rifle from a dead soldier and hunted game with it. I look up at the towering, patriarchal pines and wonder how many trees caught and still hold the festering shrapnel from exploding bombs and artillery. I wonder what other war-time relics, and even perhaps bodies, still lie buried beneath the 70 years of fallen leaves, who, like giant forgiving snow flakes, attempt to cover the scars of the past...

The Bombing of Darmstadt - September 11, 1944

                               

The same area of Darmstadt today

It is a German Tradition to hang (not hide) colored eggs
from the trees at Easter Time

Michelstadt  - about 30 minutes from our Apartment
Elder Christenson and Elder Tripp with ReNae

WELCOME TO DARMSTADT!

Our First Day in the Frankfurt Mission with President and Sister Stoddard

We miss being in the temple every day and the spirit that resides there, but changes have a way of  keeping you on your toes. We are grateful for the opportunity to work with the Young Single Adult program. We loved the Freiberg Ward and miss our dear friends there.  Thankfully, the youth here in this area are also great and the members of the ward are very friendly and accepting, too. 

Something different about Darmstadt is that we understand the language a little better. In Freiberg we had several friends who spoke English and we were grateful we could communicate with them and they could translate for us.  Also, because Eastern Germany was under Russian rule for all those years, the schools were forced to teach Russian instead of English as a second language. Here in this part of Germany, the parents and children were taught English in school. As a result, more people here in the West speak some English and some very well. 

We've noticed that it is a very prestigious thing to be able to speak English well. We see a lot of English words on tee shirts, businesses, bill boards and newspapers. The Germans also contract a lot of business with America.The members have been encouraged to learn English because they say, "It is the language of the church". Job opportunities greatly increase here if you know English. It's quite entertaining to watch us speaking with the members. We speak German to them because we want to learn German, and they speak English to us because they want to learn English. Go figure.......

We are responsible for feeding the youth two nights a week.  We are learning to prepare big meals on a tight budget. So far no one has complained and the food seems to disappear.

The area is beautiful and Spring is just around the corner. We have a forest across the street from our apartment that invites us to take a walk almost every day.  Our apartment is nice and we are learning to live in a building with three other apartments very close to us. We are very comfortable here and glad we live outside of the city in a smaller area called Mühltal-Trautheim.

Our Apartment is on the second floor

 We've also been given the assignment of Car Fleet Managers for the whole Frankfurt Mission. That requires us to travel to Frankfurt quite often to the mission office. That is a real challenge to make sure all new missionaries obtain their driver's licenses, keep track of fleet finances, handle accidents and tickets and inspect the cars on a regular basis. We also inspect the missionary apartments from time to time to make sure their needs are taken care of and no mold is growing on their socks. 

As you can see, all of these assignments keep us very busy and time is flying by. We are now half-way through our mission and we wonder where the time went.

We were able to travel a little bit more before we left Freiberg and also just yesterday here in this area.  We love those Castles, Museums, Churches and Palaces.

Morritzburg Palace by Dresden - Beautiful but cold day!

We walked from Germany to Poland over this Bridge in Görlitz

A Beautiful and Unique Church in Luban, Poland

Frankenstein Restaurant - Dinner Theater held here around Halloween

Frankenstein Castle Ruins which may have inspired Mary Shelley's Novel
This is only about 20 minutes from where we live now

Visited the Robert Schumann Home Museum in Zwickau, Germany
He was a famous composer as was his wife Clara

TWO MISSIONS IN ONE

We have been assigned to serve in Darmstadt, Germany with the Young Single Adult Outreach Program.  We will leave Freiberg for our new calling on February 19.  We are excited to get another opportunity to work with Young Adults again.

We will be about 30 minutes south of Frankfurt and about 45 minutes from the Temple in Friedrichsdorf.  We are happy and look forward to serving in a different capacity.  Not everyone gets "two missions in one".  We feel blessed.

We have a few more reasons to be happy to go to Frankfurt.  One reason is because we will be close to these people - My cousin's son and his family.  They were able to come to Freiberg to go to the Temple and we were able to spend a couple of evenings with them.  It was really fun and it gave us a first opportunity to eat at the McDonalds here in the area. We really enjoyed getting to know them better and their cute girls.

Another reason we are excited to serve in the Frankfurt area is because Clog America is coming to participate in the 50th Anniversary of the Folklore-Festival Bitburg here in Germany this coming July.  The group will have a few days in Frankfurt before heading to the Festival and we hope to see everyone and possibly schedule some kind of performance for them through the YSA program.  Dale, Shauna, and David have all participated with Clog America in this Festival when they toured with Clog America.  Fun times!  We hope we will be able to arrange our schedule to include some time with them.

Clog America 2011

TEMPLE CLOSING FOR RENOVATION

What a beautiful, busy, spiritual, and awesome experience it has been working in this pioneer Temple in Freiberg.  Yes, it is definitely a "pioneer" Temple because these people were the pioneers during those hard times after WWII.  We have been blessed to meet many of the leaders here who are still living and were instrumental in the Temple coming to East Germany.  What a blessing it has been to this area and all of the other countries in the temple district.  We have learned to love and admire these people for their dedication.  We will miss them all so much.  Here are pictures of just a few of them...  there are many more!

WEATHER

It has come to our attention that the weather in Utah has been really warm for this time of year.  So we thought we would share a few pictures of what the weather has been like here.

View over the Valley from Augustusburg

Here on the Temple Grounds

Entrance to the Augustusburg Castle

It is still winter!  From what we have been told, it is quite a bit colder and definitely more snow than usual.  We are not surprised because we know "snow" follows ReNae where ever she goes.  What is different here is that it is so humid that there is more "ice" every where and it is difficult to even walk sometimes.  If the wind is blowing at all, it is pretty much frigid.  It is suppose to warm up a little bit next week and we are looking forward to that for sure!

So because of the bad weather we have not been able to travel much, but here is a picture of the slippers we got to wear over our shoes on this beautiful old wood floor in the Great Hall of the Albrechtsburg Castle in Meissen.  This was our third visit to Meissen because we really love this castle and the church.  This room is huge and the statues are probably 7-8 feet tall.