Sept. 1-8, 2018

Summer is officially over for this area.  School for the children started on Monday.  The streets are filling with people and so many mothers with children and strollers.  The University does not start until the 25th of September so some of the Young Adults are still on holiday.

Monday is our District Meeting with 8 other Missionaries.  We drove to Schwenningen, about an hour away and always enjoy the drive and the meeting.  We fix lunch for everyone and it is always a good day.  It is about 60 km away, but on a very winding road up into the Black Forest.  It is not the autobahn!  I love to drive and I do most of the driving and Russ is the navigator - that means he puts the destination in the GPS and makes sure I follow the instructions.
All of Europe is doing a 21 Day Book of Mormon Challenge.  It is 21 days of questions that many people have asked and are looking for the answer.  We are on day 4 and it has been a wonderful learning experience for us as we have studied the scriptures and the General Conference addresses that explain it.  I would like to share a little of Day 1.  Is There A God?  Alma 22:1-26
"The most powerful being in the universe is the Father of your Spirit.  He knows you.  He loves you with a perfect love."  Elder Dieter Uchtdorf, You Matter to Him, Oct. 2011 Ensign
God said we are the reason He created the universe!
Paradox of man:  compared to God, man is nothing; yet we are everything to God.
YOU MATTER TO HIM
1.  God loves the humble and meek
2.  The Lord entrusts the gospel to be proclaimed by the weak and simple unto the ends of the world.
3.  No matter what - you are not invisible to Heavenly Father.  He loves you.
4.  What you see and experience now is not what forever will be.
I know I am a daughter of a Heavenly Father who loves me.  He sent His Son, Jesus Christ to atone for the sins, afflictions, illness, etc. of all mankind that we can return home to Him.  I would not be in Germany at this time if I did not know that truth and I could not be here doing what we are doing if I did not know that and feel of His love every day - even when it is hard.  I know that God in His greatness will consecrate my afflictions for my good.  When I look back on my life and see all that He has done with this girl from Idaho, "I Stand All Amazed."

  We have worked really hard this past week and I have cooked a lot.  We had people over 3 times last week.  We had dinner with 4 of the Young Adults and we had a family over for Family Home Evening.  A lot of people in Germany, especially the young people are Vegetarian so I am getting really good at salads and vegetables.  I had no idea two years ago when we changed our diet to help Russ with his diabetes that it would be a huge help to me serving a mission.  I was encouraged by many and especially James Borst to compile a recipe book of all my recipes.  I worked on it for about a year and promised him I would complete it before we left.  With the help of family, we were able to publish it in June.   Linda's Cookbook can be ordered at Lulu.com  (I am not looking for sales, just knew if I wrote about it someone would ask).  This is one of those times you look back and see the hand of the Lord in all that we do.  Nothing is by chance.  I am grateful I have a little knowledge and some great recipes that I can use when I need to feed people who don't eat meat.  My cinnamon rolls are becoming a favorite of the people and I have had a few requests.  So glad to have my new Bosch mixer to make them in.  I make bread a couple of times a week.  I am starting to really like all of the different flours that are available and how to use them.  Russ gets a lot of reading done while I cook.

P-Day!  We decided with all we have been doing it is time to travel out of Freiburg for P-Day.  Picture Time!

                                                                   Waiting for the Bus to Titisee.

 We went to Titisee (titty-zee).  It is a beautiful lake in the middle of the Black Forest.  We are just learning that the significance of the forest.  It is mystical, enchanting and the source of beautiful clocks, cakes and ham.
It was an hour bus ride and so nice to let someone else do the driving on the winding road.  It was a bus filled with older people and we are now in that group.  It is the beginning of the off season and so very nice to not have so many people in town.  The bus runs every 30 minutes and most of them were full.
We took the ferry boat around the lake. There are

 4 boats that run every 30 minutes and it is a beautiful ride.  It is only 5 Euro each and worth much more.  They have all kinds of water craft to rent.  You can rent for 7 Euro a paddle boat that seats 4 (the ones with the red top) or canoes or small power boats  and also these fun paddle boats that have slides on them to have fun out in the water.  There is camping on the far side of the lake and there were still a lot of campers.  There are hotels all along the water, a beautiful place to vacation.

 This is the boat we sailed on.  The Lake is very clear and they say it is clean enough to drink.  It has many fresh water fish including rainbow trout, perch, eel and many more.  It freezes in the Winter to 60 m thick and is used for ice skating, curling and other winter sports.  We will go back in the winter and check it out.  There is also a World Cup ski jump that was used in the Olympics many years ago.  It is still used for World Cup. 

 It was a beautiful day, but overcast early in the day.  I wish you could see, but that mountain to the right is the one I posted two weeks ago that we climbed on  and watched the paragliders. The pictures are looking down on this lake that we went to today.  

 This is a building with a working clock and movement with dancers and bird that actually work.  We looked at a lot of clocks.  There are so many kinds and they are all made in this region.  We will probably return before we come home so that we can bring one home with us.  We also went to a shop that has the original Black Forest ham. It is famous because of how it is smoked and cured.  We were deciding which piece of meat to purchase and the owner came up to us and asked if we would like a sample.  It was so good.  He asked where we were from.  We must have looked real American.  We told him we

 were from Texas and he liked us immediately.  He said he has friends in Texas - Palo Pinto and comes to visit them.  He said last year he came and bought a 1968 Mustang Shelby.  He said, "Come with me."  We followed him to the back of the store to his office.  He turned on his computer, and there was his white with blue stripe Mustang.  He shipped it to Germany and drives it here.  He loves it on the autobahn at 150+ speeds.  He likes to go to the Motor Speedway in Texas.  He treated us like his long lost friend.  So, we of course bought some ham and salami (some of the best we have every had) and pretzels.  He gave us a free bag (sells for 2 Euro) and we went on our way.  There were a lot of restaurants to choose from and the big thing here is a Cafe (they only serve drinks and ice cream).  We decided to eat at a local vendor and eat down on the beach.  Best decision.  We had a huge plate of fried potatoes and wurst.  It was so good and so inexpensive.  Just gave me more money to shop.

The picture above is for Emily.  One of the things of the forest is witches.  The stores had many displays like this of witches for sale.  There are lots of fairies and gnomes from the forest as well.

This is a picture out on the boat looking into the city.

I did a little reading before we went to know the best places to go and what to do.  There was a top 10 list.  The see (lake) was #1 and taking the boat ride.
#2 The clocks that are made in the area.  The are expensive and very fragile and many are now electric.
#3 The Black Forest Ham - experience above
#4 The famous Black Forest Cake.  I made this cake for Russ when he graduated from BYU with his Master's Degree.  It has always been one of his favorites.  To us it was a chocolate, cherry and cream cake.  I read that in the Black Forest the original is known for the wonderful cherry kirsche that the bottom layer is soaked in and also the cherries on top.  Many shops had them for sale.  We looked and decided we better wait to try.  We asked our Bishop's wife if they ate the cake and she said, "Oh no, not from the stores - we make it at home without the liquor." We stopped at the Gelato stand and got our favorite instead.  Probably had kirsche in it too-
                                                                we won't ask!

We had our first experience being invited to a sweet ladies home for lunch in true missionary fashion.  She is from Croatia and speaks a mixture of German and her native language.  She mixes in a few English words.  She lives by herself and has a married daughter that visits only occasionally.  We knew it would be an adventure.  She fixed us so much food.  She would not eat with us and expected us to eat all that she fixed.  We started with potato soup.  That would have been enough for me.  Then she brought us mashed potatoes and chicken - enough for 4 people.  She had a large (you can see it in the picture) plate of tomatoes and cucumbers in vinegar.  Well, Russ does not eat tomatoes so he said, you take those and I will eat the meat and potatoes.  She had large rolls and the plate of fruit.  Grapes and 6 plums.  She had 3 bottles of water and juice and ended with a chocolate roll cake.  I ate 3 plums and grapes, most of the tomatoes and cucumbers and two pieces of chocolate roll.  She kept saying she was sorry there was not more food but that she was not able to go to the store because of her health.  That was a Tender Mercy that there was not more food.  I kept telling Russ to tell her that we were not 19 year old boys with big appetites.  Russ only understood about every 5th word.  We would ask her questions and she did not understand him so she would just talk.  We finally looked at photos of her and her family.  I am sure she has an interesting story of leaving Croatia.  All of her family left about 18 years ago.  Her siblings all went to the United States.  She came to Germany.  When we left she made us take the leftover grapes and plums.  She wanted us to take all of the drinks and bread and we promised her we would come back and to save it for next time.  I am getting really good at smiling and hugging and that day eating.  She was so willing to do for us with so little.  It was hard for me to see the sacrifice.  She is so lonely and was so happy to have someone come and visit.  She is not a member of our Church but she loves the missionaries so she invites them to eat.

We had another Bar-b-q with the YSA out at the Garden.  This is the next door garden with lots of tomatoes and a fun area for their kids.  Everyone brings their own food to grill and it is so good.  We are getting really good at brats in the best brotchen (roll).
I know I write about a lot of food.  We decided to track our steps and miles today and we walked over 3 miles just visiting and getting to appointments.  That is with riding the tram the greater distances.  So, food is good at least once a day to help keep us going. 

Russ was asked to speak in church again this Sunday.  This will be his third time to speak in 7 weeks.  He told them he just spoke 3 weeks ago and they said, that's OK, we would like you to speak again.  I am glad it is him and not me.  I would like to give a talk, just not in German, yet.
We have had a great week as we have studied and also had people in our home.  We had our first experience of waiting for the train and being approached by someone because they recognized our name tags.   A beautiful older woman was waiting as well and she looked at us and said, "are you from Utah?"  She even spoke in English.  We said, we were from Texas but had family in Utah.  She said she was from Switzerland and left as a young women and went to find a better life in America.  She traveled to 35 States.  She met a good young man from Germany and married him.  She had 1 son and he has 3 passports.  US, German and Swiss.  That means a lot to these people.  They moved back to Germany in their older years.  She was so nice to us and we had a great conversation.  She was all dressed up to go to town for the evening.  It was nice to have a friendly face and conversation.
We would love you hear from you and to get updates on the happenings in our life.  Have a great week.
Viel Liebe,
The Grimmett's