May 19-25, 2019

April Showers bring May Flowers seems to have stuck in April.  We continue to have lots of rainy days and we are almost to the end of May.  I know many of you have had more rain than you would like and are looking forward to a better June.  We cannot complain about the temperatures though and know that summer will be here soon and we will be wishing for the rainy days of May.  Zurich Switzerland seems to be a lot like Seattle Washington - it is always grey and always raining.  We had to drive in the rain again to Zone Conference and that is always an adventure.  It is very stressful on the highway on a good day and the rain makes it even harder.  I had already mapped out a new route for our return trip so we would not have to drive in the 5:00 traffic out of Zurich.  It was so beautiful and no traffic on the back roads back to Germany.  It was raining the whole way, but it was a much nicer drive than fighting traffic in the rain.  I think we will use that route from now on.

As I mentioned last week, I have done a lot of cooking this past week.  I was feeling a little overwhelmed with all of the preparations.  I was expecting about 8 for dinner on Sunday.  I fixed breakfast casserole with a berry waffle stack and a fruit plate.  None of our Young Adults decided to come and so we invited a man from Nigeria who was visiting Church today.  We had a delightful visit with him as he told us a little bit about his story. 
I taught the Sunday School class in English for the people who the Missionaries had invited to come to church and do not speak German.  We had three visitors, two missionaries and Russ and I.  It was wonderful.  I was so grateful for the opportunity to teach - even if I did not have prior notice.  One man said he would come back next week if he could here more of my teaching.  The parable of the laborers in the vineyard was well received.  I just got them all involved and participating and it was great.

It was a nice Sunday and it had been a busy weekend, so we decided to take a walk in a park to unwind from the day and gear up for Zone Conference on Monday.  It was so beautiful with all of the flowers coming to full bloom.  The trees are so nice and so many different kinds.  There are some really interesting pine trees.

 I took a picture of this one because it is so different.  It is called Andentanne from Chile, Patagonien.  Notice the second picture that shows the branches up close.  You do not want to tangle with this tree.

This is the view from the park up the mountain.  This is a restaurant with a cable ride to get to it.  The sky was beautiful as another storm was moving in.

We got the car loaded so we could get an early start on Monday morning for Zurich.  The Elders were running late and then one Elder needed to pick up his suit pants at the Church.  We went to get them and they were not there so we had to go to the Bishop's house.  That is not an easy drive down the street.  It took us 45 minutes extra for the errand and that was just the beginning of an interesting day.  We received a call from one of the other Senior Missionary Couples that they had locked their car in the garage and did not have a key to unlock the garage.  They had 1/3 of the food for the conference.  Somehow I knew it was going to be an interesting day.  We did not arrive until minutes before the conference started.  We had to miss the morning meetings to prep for lunch and hope and pray the other food would arrive.  Prayers were answered, a locksmith came and they were able to make the 2 1/2 hour drive and get there just before noon.  We were able to put it all together and serve lunch almost on time.  The lunch turned out great!  Meatball sandwiches, pasta salads, chips and cookies.  We also made snack sacks for them to take for the drive home. 
Pres. Brown, our Mission President gave a wonderful presentation on Matthew 26.  This is the last week of the life of Jesus.  He shared the song that was sung at the last supper and also at Gethsemane is found in Psalm 113-118.  I learned so much and am so grateful to have been able to end the day with these teachings of Jesus Christ.  He ended with:
Trust that:  Jesus Loves You
Trust that:  He chooses to forget what you have repented of
Thank Him for what He has done for you.

Tuesday P-Day was a much needed rest.  It was a very rainy day and so we decided to stay in and build this puzzle of Hallstat Austria.  We bought the puzzle on our trip to Ravensburg at their museum shop.  We almost completed it in one day.  On Wednesday we had a teaching appointment at our home and  Christina arrived about 30 minutes before the missionaries and so we completed the puzzle while we waited.  She was awesome and really enjoyed getting to help.

We have friends, John and Denise visiting from home (Texas, Utah) this next week.  They will arrive on Sunday and we are looking forward to showing them the sights and sounds of Freiburg and The Black Forest. 

We spent Saturday checking out places to take them and planning our days.  We had to try out some restaurants and the witch of the forest was watching over us as we sampled our first authentic Black Forest Cake.  It was as good as everyone said it would be.  We will be back!

It was so fun to receive a wedding announcement this week from Natalie, our language coach in Utah.  We are so happy for her - this will be a wonderful week as she is married in the Bountiful Utah Temple.  We love her and are so grateful for the help and support she gave us as we prepared to come to Germany. 

We continue to learn and grow from this experience.   The trials bring blessings and the blessings prepare us for another trial.  We love the people and the beauty that is all around us.  I am truly grateful for this opportunity and the experiences that we are having.
Viel Liebe,
The Grimmett's

May 12-18, 2019

I think the best preparation I had for serving this mission was working for the Church Educational System at The Arlington TX Institute.  I certainly learned how to cook for the Young Adults and for some reason that seems to be my lot in life!  I really miss teaching the Adult Religion Class and being taught by Bro. Richins at Thursday night Institute class.  After studying the Come Follow Me lesson a few weeks ago in Luke 10:38-42 about Mary and Martha and again last week about their brother Lazarus, I have thought a lot about what I am doing.  I seem to be like Martha, careful and troubled about many things and doing a good job at cooking and organizing and providing food for a lot of people.  I also want to choose what is most needful and to be helping people to Come Unto Christ.  I keep being told that what I am doing is the most needful thing right now for those I am serving.  I know I take for granted the gifts I have been blessed with to serve other people and to "feed them" physically and spiritually.  I guess it has just been a week of a lot of cooking and these are just thoughts at the end of the week looking back on what has been accomplished.  I would like to be out visiting the sick, lonely, lost and to find those who are seeking a better way.  Some weeks just get loaded down with the more mundane things of life.

We have had a busy and enjoyable week continuing to see new places and also spending time with our young Elder's. 

With Russ' birthday last Friday and Elder Janousek's this Friday, I fixed a nice dinner on Sunday to celebrate.  We thought we would have about 8 for lunch and then several cancelled on Sunday morning so we just had the two Elder's.  It was nice getting to know our new Elder Letort from France.  They loved the Apricot glazed chicken with rice, glazed carrots, homemade bread, German potato salad with greens and cheesecake for Birthday cake.  With all of the cooking I was doing, we decided to buy the cheesecake from a local vendor that just does cheesecake.  It was amazing and only $8 Euro for the whole cake that served 8.  The Elder's were glad they didn't have to share with others and could have as much as they wanted!

We were invited to our Bishop's home for Sunday evening dinner.  They had friends visiting from Kauai Hawaii and wanted us to come and speak English with them to help the conversation at dinner.  They served a traditional German dinner with roast pork, potatoes, red cabbage and lots of wonderful juices to drink.  We ended the meal with this dish of homemade ice cream.  It was a delightful evening and we made new friends with The Grahams, who own a scuba diving business in the Islands.


Tuesday P-Day we went on an adventure.  The Black Forest just gets more beautiful. We went to Donaueschingen (the origin of the Donau or Danube Rivers) 

 It begins with this little spring of water.  It flows from here to this outlet marked by the stone gazebo.  It is located in the center of this town and next to the Schloss Donauquelle (castle) owned by the Furstenberg Family and one of the top Breweries in Germany. 

This is a beautiful park just outside of the castle and we had a delightful walk through the park. More pictures below.

This shows the route of the river starting where we are and going through Austria, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania and ending at the Baltic Sea.

Schloss Donauguelle

 It was fun to see the baby swans and how protective the parents were.  These Swans were very big and beautiful.
We ended our short visit with a stop at their local eis shop (gelato shop)  Russ got this amazing chocolate spaghetti eis and yes, it tasted as good as it looks!

The drive to get there was wonderful. 

 We were on top of a mountain looking out over to the next valley.  This is a hotel out in the middle of nowhere in a gorgeous setting.  Mostly hikers and hunters stay there.

This was a dam that had a unique building design.












We were also looking for places to go for District P-day in a few weeks.  We are always looking for places and things we can take the missionaries to see and do.  They like to hike when it is good weather so we went to check out some places.  We went to what is called the Grand Canyon of Germany.  Not like in Arizona with red rock formations, but a deep canyon with water and water falls.  We took the short hike of 2 kilo. but there is a 2 1/2 hour hike that takes you to the waterfalls that would be nice for the young missionaries to take. It was so nice to just drive and stop at things that looked interesting and to not be on a schedule to have to be somewhere.  We really enjoyed the day and the new things that we saw.

 Wednesday was another cooking day for Institute.  Penne Pasta casserole with roasted vegetables (they actually ate all of the vegetables) salad, bread and dessert.  A good feast for our wonderful Young Adults.  They enjoy being together and we are very fortunate to have a wonderful building that they meet in - a nice gathering place. 

Note the tray of Easter treats next to the dessert.  They looked so good that I bought them.  Wrong.  I took them and asked the kids if they knew what they were and if they liked them.  They all started laughing.  One young man said

his grandmother bought them every year and gave them to them for Easter.  They said they are horrible and made better decorations than treats.  They are very hard and the jelly beans are just hard sugar.  I don't think I will save them for decorations next year.  So many treats look so good, but don't have much taste.  They liked the lemon bars and chocolate cookies.






Thursdays are always a nice day when we visit Amira.  We shared with her the message for this week on Matthew 19-20, Mark 10 and Luke 18.  "Whatever the Lord asks us to do, acting on His answer will always require that we trust Him more than our own righteousness and that we receive the kingdom of God as a little child."  We talked about the Rich young ruler who asked the question of Christ, "What shall I do that I may inherit Eternal Life?"  He was a good man who loved Christ and recognized Him for who he was.  He knew and lived the commandments.  Jesus loved him and answered, "sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; come follow me."  The young man could not do that.  I then had to ask myself what can I do to prepare to ask the Lord what I lack and to accept His answer.  Amira cannot serve in ways she would like to or thinks she should, but she serves so many in her love and determination to live life as long as she has it.  She serves others by allowing them to come and serve her.

One last food story.  Friday was Elder Janousek's birthday so we took the Elder's out for dinner.  He said he liked Indian or Oriental food.  We took them to our favorite Indian restaurant.

Oh my goodness, I ordered the special of the day and it was amazing.  It was like a sampler of 3 sauces with rice, salad, naan bread with two dips and dessert.  I shared it with everyone there was so much to eat.  The Elder's went through 3 trays of rice - they can eat a lot of food!

It has been a week of food.  We have walked a lot this week and will need to continue walking after this week of food.  We planted 18 tomato plants at the volunteer garden on Friday.  A total of 60 plants were planted by the volunteers.  Nettles and sheep manure were put in the holes and then the plants.  They really have an amazing system of natural gardening and it is so fun to see the progress each week.  Looking forward to a great harvest.

We will be feeding the Young Adults on Sunday for lunch and we have Zone Conference on Monday so Saturday was a very busy day of shopping and cooking.
We enjoyed the morning organ concert, had a nice walk in the city center and then shopping and cooking.  It is hard to have Monday Zone Conference when you have to shop on Saturday and store all of the food until Monday to take to Zurich, but so far we have managed.  I am already looking forward to Tuesday P-day to catch up and maybe get some rest.
Russ gets a lot of reading and study done while I cook.  He gets a little bored and so we ended the day with a nice walk in a light rain just to get some fresh air and exercise.

It is nice to hear about all of the end of school year activities and accomplishments.  Dance recitals, band concerts, ROTC awards, field days, swim team, youth activities and more from our grandchildren, friends and cousins.  I can't believe another school year is almost over.  Thank  you to all of my teacher friends who have made a difference this year in someones life and also has survived another year.  Enjoy your summer - We would love it if summer plans included a trip to Southern Germany!

Recipe of the week:

Apricot Chicken
4-6 boneless skinless chicken breasts (whole or cut into strips)
8 oz. bottle Russian or French dressing
1 cup apricot jam
1 packet dry onion soup mix
Rice, for serving

Place the chicken breasts into a casserole dish (13x9 in.)
Mix the dressing, jam and dry onion soup mix together.
Pour the dressing mix over the top of the chicken.
Bake at 350* for 45 min. or until chicken is done.
Serve over rice.

Glazed Carrots
2 lbs. carrots, sliced thin in rounds          Cook 5-6 min in salted water till soft.  Drain.
Salt
2 Tbl. butter                                              Add:  butter, honey and lemon juice to pan.
2 Tbl. honey                                              Cook 5 min. to glaze.
1 Tbl. lemon juice
pepper                                                        Season with salt, pepper and parsley
parsley

May 6-11, 2019 Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all of the women in my life.  You are all daughters of a Heavenly Father who loves you.  You have been given a divine nature and destiny.  Every women has been given the gift to nurture others.  I appreciate each one of you for who you are.  You each shine in your own different and colorful way.  Isn't it wonderful that we are all different?  We each have so much to offer others in our own ways.  Glory in who YOU are.  You Are Enough.  You be You!  Continue to let your light shine so that others may see.  Tell another woman how much you love and admire her today.

We started the week at District Council and a surprise for Elder Grimmett.

Russ turned 69 this week and the missionaries were so excited to celebrate with him.  They planned a surprise and the Sister's baked him a chocolate cake.  You don't just buy a cake mix here and whip up a cake.  It was a huge effort for them to get it made.  They did a great job - it tasted wonderful.  The Elder's came by on his birthday and delivered his favorite mint chocolates and carrot juice - we are still trying to figure out if the carrot juice is a joke or if they really like it and wanted to share their healthy snack!

 This week was transfer week.

It was a very sad Wednesday as we said goodbye at the train station to Elder Robertson.  He is from Declo, Idaho and we loved serving with him.  He has been assigned to serve in Salzburg as the Zone Leader.  We will always have a special place in our hearts for him.
This was at 7:00 AM - It was worth the sacrifice.






The Black Forest Mall is having a special Lego Display this month.  It is really awesome to see.

 These are famous buildings from around the world.  There was a very large Dutch windmill and many other structures.  I know my grandsons would love seeing this.  There was a great Star Wars Display.

The paintings were some of my favorites.  These pictures are all made out of Lego pieces.  The original painting is in the corner and then how the artist made it out of Lego.  Amazing!






We welcomed our new Elder Letort on Wednesday evening.  He only has two transfers left and then will return home to France.  His grandparents only live about an hour away and he is a little worried they will come and try to visit him.  He is happy to be in Freiburg and we are looking forward to getting to know him.  We cooked on Wednesday night for Institute so he got a warm food welcome.  I made chicken tortellini soup and he said it was the best soup he had ever had.  I think we will get along just fine!

 I have had two ribs locked up in my back for the past two weeks.  I have had one adjustment and 3 physical therapy sessions.  It is getting better, but I am not yet 100%.  It is better when I am moving than sitting, so the work goes on.

We volunteer every Friday at the Robert Bosch College garden.  We planted 150 potato seeds
 - Russ dug the trenches and I planted.  I am not sure how good it was for my back, but it was a great afternoon in the dirt.  They are amazed at how hard and quick we work.  They keep telling us to slow down and enjoy.  A great way for Russ to spend his Birthday and to show how young and healthy he is!  

 This is the completed potato patch.  We dug, set out the potatoes and then went back and covered each potato individually making little mounds.  I sure hope the Idaho in us helps these grow good!  The big plants next to the potatoes are artichokes.  They are huge.  The garden is wonderful and full of some many different plants.  We removed spinach and lambs lettuce and weeded in the onion patch.  We end with everyone gathering for herb tea and snacks from the garden.  We are getting to know the other local volunteers and look forward to more days at the garden.

 This is in a little building in the garden that is the water house.  They actually generate electricity with hydro power.  There is a river that runs through the property and this power house sits next to it and pumps the water and then generates electricity.  The man who runs it is 85 years old and is limited in the number of days he comes.  I loved the power line and lineman inside the building.  It was built in the late 1800's.
This is a very self sustaining property.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

We tried to get reservations for dinner and called about 5 places and they were all booked with weddings.  We knew Saturday would even be busier and most places are closed on Mondays. 

 We decided to go on another adventure and called a place about 30 minutes North of us in the Black Forest.  The little burg was getting ready for a big festival on Saturday and Sunday.  It was very quaint.  Yes, Elder Grimmett is saying, "what are you doing taking pictures, we are late for our reservation!"  I loved the fun buildings and had to have a few pictures.

We arrived, so he could relax and smile.  The restaurant did not disappoint.  We use Yelp to help us find good places in cities we have not been in.  This was listed as the best in the area for Schnitzel.  It was wonderful and a very nice little gasthaus (restaurant) with wonderful service.  It was a beautiful drive to get there and we loved that it was not a packed busy place that we could just enjoy celebrating.

This week was more of a regroup week after being gone and getting ready for the days ahead.  Planning, shopping and cooking seemed to be the main things this week.  We will have a group for Sunday dinner so I spent most of Saturday cooking and preparing.  I am grateful to be here and to be able to serve others.  I have thought about my mother a lot today and I am so grateful for her love and example throughout my life.  I know she is near and continues to help and bless me as I face each day of challenges and learning.  She is my example of true beauty - knowing that she was a daughter of God, always serving others, full of charity, hard working, letting the light within her shine even amid the darkness of pain and suffering, loving and compassionate.  She saw the good in others and helped them see it in themselves through her love.

May is proving to be a crazy weather month.  We have had warm, cold, sunny, rainy, snowy, and windy - sometimes all in the same day.  We know that many of you have also had a lot of weather to deal with.  We hope for sunny days ahead.

Viel Liebe!
The Grimmett's

April 28- May 4, 2019 Neuschwanstein and other castles

Neuschwanstein Castle - Germany

This has been an amazing week.  I hope you are ready for a picture show.  This is the castle that Disney based their castle on and made world famous.  It is a fairy tale and did not disappoint.  More on castles later in the blog.

Lahr Branch Building 3rd Floor

We spent last Sunday in the Lahr Branch and Elder Grimmett was asked to give a talk in Church.  He just gave the talk that he had given the week before in Freiburg and did a great job.  They had a pot luck dinner after Church and it was really nice being with the people.  It is so fun to experience new foods and get to feel the German culture a little better.  They love salads and especially their quark salad (it is a cream with fruit sauces) and they make huge bowls of it.  I took a bow tie chicken pasta salad and a rhubarb, apple, strawberry cobbler.  It was so good and they really enjoyed it.  I think our Elder Robertson ate 1/4 of the pan.

Monday we were off to Singen for District Council.  It continues to be a beautiful drive, especially as we are seeing it in the Spring for the first time.

So Wednesday was a National Holiday - Labor Day and May Day.  Everything was closed.  Tuesday night the Church had a May Day Dance to celebrate Spring. It was fun to again see how the Germans celebrate.  We had great food and a nice time at the party.  

Wednesday started our great adventure to Senior Missionary Conference in Fussen Germany.
This picture is along the way and shows the beautiful dandelion fields and the clouds from the moisture coming out of the ground and a warm day.  It was beautiful to see.  We drove to Konstanz on the Bodensee (large lake where the Rhine River begins and flows out of to continue on down the way)  to meet up with another missionary couple.  We were going to visit Insel Mainau a family owned Island that is a beautiful garden paradise.

 Entrance to Mainau.  This sunflower is made of mostly pansies with tulips and hyacinths all around.  The tulips are the most beautiful I have every seen.  There were all of the tulips in the groomed beds and then over 1 million bulbs in the wild areas. 

 This is a peacock in all her glory.

 The Ducks were so cute and amazing in their detail and so many different flowers.

 The orchid garden opened on Monday and there were over 3,000 orchid plants on display.  I have never seen so many and so many varieties.  I have a hard time growing one plant and these were every color and so many different kinds.  Orchids are not grown out in the full sun but in the protected atrium with diffused light and out of the elements.

This is one of the wild tulip fields.  They looked like famous paintings and so colorful.  They came in shapes and sizes I had never seen for a tulip.  They will only last a few more weeks and then they will be gone for the season.  The roses are right behind them and will be worth going back to see.  We bought a season pass so that we can go back and see the different seasons.  It was an absolutely delightful day.

We continued on and arrived at our Hotel just outside of Fussen in Halblech-Buching Germany.  It is at the base of a mountain on one side with a lake on the other.  A beautiful setting for a conference with a wonderful room to stay in.
We started Thursday morning with a trip to Oberammergau.

It is home of the Passion Play.  It is held every 10 years.  Hundreds of years ago the city had the plague and the people prayed to be spared.  They vowed if they were they would give thanks by putting on this play every 10 years.  It has been held every ten years since and can only have local townspeople in the performance.  It is sold out for every performance and it runs from April to October.  They have built a beautiful theatre for the play and it brings in a lot of tourism.

 The town is know for its artists and craftsman.  There is a wood carving/sculpture school in the city - the only one considered authentic.  There are so many wood shops with amazing carvings and sculptures.  I could not believe how beautiful the Nativity pieces were.  The smallest piece started at $100 per piece.  It was nice to look at.  They will not even let you take pictures.  They are also known for their painted buildings.  This is the story of Cinderella.  There is also Little Red Riding Hood, and other tales.

 Humpty Dumpty!

Elder Grimmett looking good!

 This was the dome of the Catholic Church in the center of town.  It is one of the most beautiful I have been in.  It was so light and open.  The paintings were very nice and a different style than I had seen before.

 I always like to take pictures of the organs.  I love the different organs and would love to hear them played in the different churches.  This was very different with the white and pink coloring.

 We we were told we needed to go to the Monastery and Kloster on the edge of town.  It was massive.  It was built in 1330 in its original form and added to in 1744 to its current size.  It is a full working facility with large buildings for housing on both sides of the walkway.  It was double in size to the downtown church and again, absolutely stunning. 

 It was massive and again bright with the lights, windows and white and pink coloring.  It is very different from the Church in Freiburg that is so large and dark with stained glass windows and very dark woods and carvings.

This is the organ in this  Church.









Thursday at 3:00 the Conference begins.  It is so wonderful being with the 13 Senior Missionary Couples who serve in the Alpine German Speaking mission.  We are so blessed to be able to be here and serve with such wonderful people.  We don't get to see them very often and so this is a wonderful time to be together in learning, sharing and enjoying the beautiful surroundings.  Meetings, a nice Dinner and back to meetings made for a very long day.  We finished about 9:30 and everyone retired to their rooms to get ready for Friday.
We had been assigned to be a presenter at the Conference.  We had the topic, "How to make the most of our Time" while we are here serving a mission.  I was a little nervous that the presentation we had put together would be OK.  I spent 8 hours last week putting together a power point with information I had collected from the other missionaries and pictures.  Our morning started with President Brown, our mission president and his brother who was visiting from Wyoming singing Amazing Grace.  It was the most beautiful I have ever heard it sung.  President talked about the history of the song and how it was written by a man who finally accepted Christ in his life and wrote the song. He shared how important Grace is in our lives.  It was very touching and really set the tone for the rest of the day.  We were next on the agenda and WOW, what a tough act to follow.  Russ started our presentation with a quote from Lord of the Rings that was perfect for our topic on making the most of our time.  We then shared the Presentation and it went so good.  I was so grateful all of the electronics worked and the presentation went so good.  We received many comments and appreciation for so much work that went into it.  The morning just continued to be so inspirational with the other presentations.  We ended with a question and answer period that we could ask President Brown any questions we had.  It is always a great sharing time.

At noon we were off for another great adventure-Nueschwanstein & Hohenschwangau castles.
I won't go into the history of the castles except to say that Hohenschwangau castle was built in the 1300's and was occupied by the Royal familes until about 1921.  King Ludwig II was raised in the castle with his parents and 1 brother.  When he became King in the 1830's he had Neuschwanstein built higher on the hill.  He died in his 40's, never married and did not live to see the castle completely finished.  

 The family castle, the smaller of the two was the favorite to see.  You could just feel the history and elegance of what took place there.  It was restored by King Ludwig I and the paintings and furniture was from the 1800's and the Romantic Period.  During the Napolean Wars, the French occupied the castle and took everything including the large massive beams in the ceilings.  So it was restored and new paintings and furnishings were brought in and are on display at this time.  It was so beautiful.  No photo's are allowed in either of the castles, so only outside pictures can be shown.
When Ludwig II died unexpectedly at 42 and the next heir was an Uncle things changed and also things were politically changing in Germany.  In 1921 the castles were closed for personal living and opened to the public and have been ever since.  Walt Disney used the castle as a model for his fairy tale castle and made these castles World famous and visited by over 1 million people each year. 

 We had beautiful weather all week and then the rain was moving in.  We were so grateful it rained all night and stopped for us to go see the castles.  It would not have been possible in the rain.  We walked 15,900 steps, 6.4 miles and 44 flights of stairs.  It was very steep and the altitude was very hard for me to breath.  We made it and it was worth it.  If I come again I will pay to ride the horse drawn carriages to the castles!

 Our Mission President and Sister Brown.  We are so fortunate to have them with us today and love them and appreciate their guidance and influence in our lives.

 We  walked to this bridge and took the pictures below from the bridge.  It was a very steep climb.

Swans are the theme of both castles.  They are found in much of the artwork and sculptures.  Many of the paintings are from the plays and musical works of Wagner and others of that time period.  Wagner spent time at the castle as a guest and also composed some of his music while at the castle visiting. 
We were more than exhausted when we returned, just in time for a delicious dinner buffet of wonderful German foods.  It was a real treat.
We ended the night with a final class on dealing with Mental Health with Sister Thayne, the Area Mental Health Therapist for our Mission.
We have meetings until Noon on Saturday and then we are back on the road home.  There is no rest for the weary as we will be feeding the YSA Dinner on Sunday and off to Schwenningen for District Council on Monday and another lunch to fix.  I have so loved this week and am sorry to have it come to a close.  Wonderful memories and friendships made.  Today was transfer calls and we found out we are loosing Elder Robertson to Salzburg.  We are so sorry he will be leaving.  We have really enjoyed serving with him.  I asked what he wanted for his last District Council lunch and he asked for enchiladas - so I will be making chicken enchiladas for Monday.

 We stopped at one last Church on our way out of Fussen on Saturday.  This is Wieskirche:  a beautiful oval, rococo Pilgrimage Church built in the 1740's.  It is about 20 minutes out of the city in the middle of rolling hills and filled with dandelions and lots of cows.  You have to park and walk down this road to get to the Church.  When we arrived, they were not allowing visitors because there was a wedding taking place inside.  A lady came and let us in and we were able to look through glass doors and see the beauty of this Church.  It was so cold inside, the bride had to put on a sweater over her dress to stay warm.

 It is still amazing to me how they built these Churches so far away and so magnificent.  As we were leaving, a little German band was getting ready to play as the bride and groom came out of the Church.  It was fun to hear and see.  We could not believe how many tour buses there were for the people to see the church. 

 This is the inside of the Church and it was very beautiful.  The newer Churches are much brighter and vibrant colors.  This is almost 300 years old and the colors are amazing.

German version of bluebonnets - dandelion fields!

 The fields are so pretty.  We loved driving in the countryside and seeing so many flowers.  We drove home in the rain most of the day and as we got closer to home it turned into an all out Spring Snow Storm.  Actually more snow in the valley than we had had all Winter.  It was actually very pretty with the vibrant green fields.  We hope the vineyards and orchards are OK.  It has turned very cold.

  Coming through the canyon into the City. 
We had a wonderful week.  It was hard to say good bye to all of the friends we made at the conference.  A new missionary couple from Switzerland invited us to stay in their home when we go to do Inspections next month.  It is so nice to meet new people and to make new friends. 

We are so grateful for our family and for the love and support they give us.  We appreciate our friends and neighbors who take the time to read and share in our adventures and encourage us in all that we are doing. 
We are so blessed to be living here and serving and having the experiences with so many people.  Life is good.
Viel Liebe,
The Grimmett's