3 Extremely busy weeks

Dear all,

This has been an extremely busy 3 weeks.  This week we were again in the office trying to catch up on the work that has piled up since we left for Spain and Switzerland.  In Switzerland we didn't have the internet like we thought we would, it that put us way behind in our work.  We are working with our couples trying to help them finish the projects that they are doing in their respective countries, and to make sure we spend our budget wisely.  I got a call yesterday from a sister in Moldova crying because of the situation she had seen the day before.  This is the worse poverty she has seen, and it is breaking her heart.  I will try and come up with $5-6,000  to see if we can't help this home for abandoned children.  All these kids have a mental or physical handicap and have been just been abandoned by their parents.  In Communism days having a handicapped child was a real social stigma and therefore an embarrassment for the parents.  These kids were hidden away somewhere, and that attitude still persist today.  Anyway we will help these kids get some indoor plumbing hopeful before the winter get too bad.  In the office we have a meeting every week now to review and consider potential projects.  This will last for another 3-4 weeks, then we'll have to stop to close out the books for this year.

2 weeks ago we were in Bern Switzerland to see if its is feasible to hold a humanitarian conference there in April 2013.  I met with the temple president and cleared that we could use temple housing for 4 days.  The scheduled stake for that week is from close by, so few people will stay in the housing which makes it possible for us to reserve 16 rooms.   The next hurdle to overcome is the cost of getting the couples there, so one of the things we did was to investigate different types of public transportation from a distant airport to the city of Zollikofen.  The next hurdle will be the cost of food.  Switzerland is very expensive, so we are looking at a lot of self prepared meals.             

3 weeks ago we were in Spain.  We flew to Barcelona and the drove to Zaragoza.  We were there to see if there was something that the humanitarian services could do to help the branches there.  The city has about 25-30% unemployment, and since the building boom ended there is wide spread unemployment.  This is also affecting the Church there in Zaragoza.  We are trying to get the Church's employment specialists there is set up a program to help the people.  We also looked into helping the people possibly set up there on business.  I'm afraid this is going to be a long term problem because so many of the immigrating saints had no skills when they came. 

Here are a few of the pictures we took on our trips and 1 P-day.

This is the reason we came to Switzerland, to see if we could hold a Humanitarian conference here where are couples could go to the Temple as part of the conference.  We were able to attend 2 consecutive session and thoroughly enjoyed them.  The temple is very beautiful and peaceful inside.  I had a good visit with he temple president who is German, but also born in Switzerland.

This is one of the major streets in old Bern.  You can see one of the old gates into the city with its' magnificent clock.  The Swiss have no equal in clock/watch production and quality.  Einstein at one time lived on this street not far from where this picture was taken.

Bern is built on a penizula create by the Rhine River, and is very old.  You can see how water and waterways have influenced history.  When conquered it became an important Roman city with 30-50,000 inhabitants at one time.  The church in the picture is not the cathedral

This is one of the many bridges in Bern across the Rhine River.  You can see the river is low now and the Fall colors in the foliage.  It was beautiful that day.

We arrived late in the afternoon, and walked to the city square which was only 5-1- minute walk from our hotel.  This is the Cathedral and it is huge.  We walked inside and listen to a mass. we were hoping to hear the pipe organ play, but that was not part of the mass.  This cathedral is a part of the city's identity and all the citizens are attached to it.  It is massive inside and very spectacular, but not designed for reaching the one.

We took these next 3 pictures as we were driving back to our hotel after church.  Church was from 4-7 PM., and on the other side of the river from our hotel.  The branch is aver 40% African. 35% South American, and 25% Spanish.

This beautiful cathedral is huge as you can see, and is very imposing when you see it at night.  It is one of those "have to pull over and take" pictures shots.

We took this picture  of the Cathedral from across the river.  You can see the reflection of the cathedral in the river.

We took a day off to be with Susan's cousin Margaret Miller as she stopped over in Frankfurt on her way home from Baku Azerbaijan where she was visiting a daughter and her family.  We went to the medevil town of Miltenberg for 1/2 day and then took Margaret to Rothenburg the famous walled city.

This fountain has been used by the citizens of Miltenberg for 100's of years, and is not even in the town square, but very lovely nevertheless.  The red building in the back ground is a hotel and restaurant.

This is an example of the beautiful woodwork houses typical of a couple of centuries ago.  This obviously was a very wealthy merchants house with his business below.
Although it may appear that we have spent our time sightseeing that was not the case.  With the exception of Miltenberg pictures we were working and took pictures as we walked back to the hotel or  from the roof of the hotel in Spain.  In Switzerland we were staying in the temple patron housing, and took the picture as we walked to the temple.
We send our love to everyone,
Oma und Opa