Mission or Vacation?

Judging from the pictures you see on our blog you might wonder if we are really on a mission or just on an 18 month long adventure where we go sightseeing wearing missionary name tags.  As we have mentioned before, the larger part of our missionary assignment is Monday through Friday, 8 to 5.  Other than a weekly devotional meeting that takes place on Monday mornings, our day consists of walking over to the office building from our apartment and going to work in the area office. (The operative word in missionary-work is "work".)

 

Our walk to the office might take 5 minutes tops, depending on how long we have to wait for the elevator (we live on the 10th floor).  Once we are in the office, we log into our computers, read our emails, make and answer phone calls and attend meetings.  Every other week we have a humanitarian project review and approval meeting referred to as an Area Humanitarian Committee Meeting.  Those who attend this meeting are ourselves, Elder and Sister Davis (Area Welfare Specialists for Refugees), Chrisitan Otter (Welfare Self Reliance Department Manager), Gilles Francois (Humanitarian Project Manager), Celia Diez (Welfare Self Reliance Administrative Assistant) and Hannah Ashby (our intern).  This meeting is where we discuss the projects which the humanitarian couples in the Europe Area have submitted for approval.  When the meeting is over we go to work notifying the various missionary couples if their projects have been approved and what they might need to do to implement their projects.

The rest of the days and weeks consist of supporting our humanitarian missionary couples (we have 15).  Susan's support could be making sure the accounting codes are put into the finance system properly and approving their expense reports.  She also must assemble and distribute a monthly newsletter which shares what each of the couples have done in the past month.  She also contacts the new couples that have been called and prepares numerous things to take when we go to train the couple after they arrive in their specific country of service.  She also plays detective - finding the missing transactions so the couples do not become out of compliance and get their credit card suspended.

Gary's day is working with the couples so that the projects they submit get approved.  He asks the hard questions and then helps the couples to write the information into the request so that the project has the best chance of approval.  The biggest part of our day is spent in solving problems.  For instance, a new couple has arrived in country - no missionary name badges and missing 3 suitcases, or the couple has to pay for a humanitarian project related expense with their church issued credit card and the transaction is declined.  We try to help them solve their challenges. Much of the work is simply letting them know we are there for them.

Each month we conduct Zoom Video Calls (similar to Skype) with our couples.  We like to connect three couples at a time because we find the couples can and do offer solutions to each other's challenges and problems.

We also travel to the different humanitarian missionary couples and provide on site training.  Sometimes we use Uno cards to teach various "color-coded" Humanitarian Principles.  In the picture below we taught these principles to our management team - Christian, Gilles, and Celia - an assignment from Sister Sharon Eubank.   

In addition to our mission call assignment we have an additional assignment from the Senior Missionary Zone Leaders.  We help coordinate the Senior Missionary Family Home Evenings.  Our duties are to schedule the lesson presenters, coordinate the refreshments, and schedule potluck dinners for departing missionaries.  The picture below shows one of the potluck dinners.  Family Home Evenings are held twice each month.  In our Welfare office we also help celebrate staff member birthdays.

So we actually do "work" during the week - but the on the weekends, especially on Saturdays we try to go somewhere and learn about Germany.  The country is the size of Montana and has a population of 83,500,000.  There are so many little towns and hundreds of castles that need to be explored.  When we were preparing to go to New Zealand on our previous mission, Elder Glen L. Rudd told us to not be "knuckleheads" and sit in our apartment.  "Go out on the weekends; see and learn about the country."  We are following his counsel.  Now the big question - Where should we go next weekend?

"The ways in which couples can serve are virtually limitless,  From mission office support and leadership training to family history, temple work and humanitarian service - there is an opportunity to use almost any skill or talent with which the Lord has blessed you."  Robert D. Hales, Couple Missionaries:  A Time to Serve, April General Conference 2001

Our Adventures Begin - Exploring Germany

Before we went to New Zealand on our last mission, we visited with Elder Glen Rudd several times.  Each time he told us to go out and see the country - "Don't be a knucklehead and sit in your apartment - go  places and do things, you may never get a chance to go back again."  We followed Elder Rudd's advice while in New Zealand and continue to follow that advice while here in Germany.  

Saturday morning, March 3rd, Elder and Sister Davis joined us to explore the town of Marburg, about an hour's drive from Frankfurt.  We drove on the autobahn, took the exit to Marburg and proceeded to find a parking place.  Once that was accomplished, the adventure began.

Here we go

This is one of the first sights we saw -

Throughout the city they had cast iron replicas of the the buildings. 

Our destination was St. Elizabeth's church and a nearby castle.  We followed the signs that said "Schloss" which is a German term for a prominent building - like a castle.  This turned out to be quite the hike (all up hill).  But it was well worth it.  When we got to the top, the church was closed.  But we loved the view.  

View of Marburg

We made the trek back down - lots of steps and cobblestone walks.  When we got down the hill, the town was celebrating Flaching and Karneval, both events happening prior to Ash Wednesday.  The soldiers, dressed in 18th century uniforms kept coming in and out of the town hall.  We need to learn more German so we can understand more about these holidays and traditions.

This is a drinking fountain

Not sure what the shoe represents

In the Centar

We ate lunch in the Barfus (Barefoot) Cafe.  It was delicious.  Forgot to take a picture till we had started dessert - a nutella crepe.  But here it is.  

It was very good

We left Marburg and ventured down the road to Limburg.  Here we visited the Limburg Cathedral.  All these places require going up, up, up.  Usually when we get there - we discover there is another way which we could have driven to save walking so far - but, it is good exercise.  We passed several interesting things on the way up and of course on the way back down.  

The Cathedral itself was very fascinating.  It was hard to get a good picture of it - so we also took a picture of a replica inside. Here we had another breath-taking view.  Once back down the hill, we wandered around and found a bakery.  The pastries were delicious.  Each city has a "centar" where there is shopping for both the local people and visitors.  After we finished wandering around Limburg we got back into our car and drove back to Frankfurt and our apartment.

Cathedral

Inside the Cathedral

Spectacular view

Still at the top, the great view was just around the corner on the left

A different view of the Cathedral.  Where is Gary?  Getting the car.

The detail is unbelievable

In Limbug Centar - bakery is just to the left

"We take photos as a return ticket to a moment otherwise gone."

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