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