Wartburg Castle

Also in Eisenach was the the Wartburg Castle where Elizabeth Thuringia, a Hungarian princess married to a German nobleman started one of the first hospitals in Europe to care for the poor and the needy in the 13th century.  This is the same castle were Martin Luther lived when he translated the Bible into the German language.  

We enjoyed a full day visiting the museum and the castle and concluded our evening with a nice "German" dinner at the local "Bach" Restaurant.  After an enjoyable meal we drove the two hours back to Frankfurt after a full and an enjoyable day learning some of the history of these prominent people in German history.  

Model of the Castle

Elisabeth and  Louis IV slept in the same bed even as infants

They have graduations here

Hammering his 95 theses on the door of the church

Martin Luther's desk

Quite the view

"I promise you that, with increased attendance in the temples of our God, you shall received increased personal revelation to bless your life as you bless those who have died."  Ezra Taft Benson, April General Conference 1987, "The Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants

Bachhaus in Eisenach

Saturday morning, June 29th we drove about two hours to the town of Eisenach, Germany.  There we visited the birth place of Johann Sebastian Bach, one of the world's great composers and the Bach House Museum which was very interesting, in fact it was more interesting than we had originally thought.  The museum was "interactive" in that you could listen to Bach's music on headphones, in swinging chairs and also hear his music played by a local musician on the original instruments used in Bach's lifetime.  

We thought of you Bonnie

"We get nearer to the Lord through music than perhaps any other thing except prayer."  J. Reuben Clark,  Conference Report October 1936

Training our New Couple in Serbia

On July 18, 2019 we flew to Belgrade, Serbia to train our new couple - Elder John and Sister Debra Benich from Centerville, UT.

The airport luggage carousel was quite interesting.  The luggage came and went out of the trunk of a car.  The Benich car was unavailable, so we took a shuttle/taxi to our hotel and there met the Benich's who had walked over to our hotel.  We then all walked back to their apartment to begin our training.

Remember Sister Becky Craven's General Conference talk in April 2019: "Careful versus Casual"?  The one about the train engineer "who did not even try to swerve out of the way to miss a car on the railroad track!".   That train engineer is our very own Elder John Benich.  Sister Craven is the Benich's neighbour.  And yes, it is a true story.
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When we train our humanitarian missionary couples we teach them how to use the Church Humanitarian System (CHaS) database as well how to use the Area's financial reporting system.  Since the Benich's car was not available, we walked everywhere we went.

We spent nearly all day Wednesday working on the computers.  Wednesday was also Elder Benich's birthday so we went out to dinner at a local restaurant.  We had a lovely table outside; we had just received our food and had a picture taken when it began to rain.  The rain would have been okay as we were covered, but then it started to rain really hard.  Followed by hail - hail the size of marbles.  We moved inside to eat our food.  We finished off our meal with birthday cake.   We then made a mad dash across the street to our hotel as it was still raining, just not as hard.

Thursday the car was back so after some more training we decided to make a trial run to the airport.  Just as we were leaving the airport we must have made a wrong turn.  Next thing we knew we were headed to Croatia.  That would not have been too bad, but we experienced another thunderstorm.  This time there was no hail, but it rained hard enough that we had to pull over and wait for it to let up.  We were then able to get off the toll road and go back the other way to Belgrade.  

Friday morning the Benich's picked us from our hotel and we drove to an (Adventist Development and Relief Association) ADRA community center where a humanitarian project is underway.  This community center serves the refugees in Serbia.  We met with the director and his staff and checked our the facilities and visited with some of the  children.  We did take a picture of the work being done with the funds donated by LDS Charities.  We also thought the decorations outside their building were very unique.

This is all made out of bottle tops

Shower and Toilet Facilities

Balcony

Steps

The whole building

After our visit to Adra's Community Center, we made our way to the airport.  Our flight was about a hour late leaving, but uneventful.  Once we  arrived at the Frankfurt airport and collected our bags, we caught the trains.  One from the airport and another one from the main train station. arriving home in time to go to bed.

"Stick to your task 'til it sticks to you; Beginners are many, but enders are few."  Thomas S. Monson

Exploring Germany on the U-bahn

Frankfurt has a good local transportation system.  We like to use the trains when we go into town as the parking situation is less than ideal.  On Saturday June 15th we bought a group pass which allows up to 5 people to travel all day anywhere the a local train or bus goes.  The trains are relatively new, clean and keep an accurate schedule.  This was a fun activity and helped us learn how to get around and transfer from one train or bus line to another.  Public transportation is a very good way to go if your are traveling around in many of the cities of Europe.  We ate lunch at a nice German restaurant near the old town center.  It was an relatively inexpensive and fun day activity.

Giant Ampelmann Statue - the Striding Man
25 Jahre Deutsch Einheit - 25 year of German Unity 

Hammering Man

Upcoming shows

For those who can't live without here in Europe

The American Store in Skyline Mall

A underground stop?

"The word of God, as found in the living scriptures, in the words of living prophets, and in personal revelation, has the power to fortify the Saints and arm them with the Spirit so they can resist evil, hold fast to the good, and find joy in this life."  Ezra Taft Benson