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