June 24th-Home From Hungary

Dear Ones,

We are driving home from Banska Stiavnica, Slovakia. It is Sunday at 2:30pm and Georg(our GPS) says we have five hours to go before reaching Frankfurt. Dad is driving and I thought this would a be good use of my time to write the blog as I was unable to get it written last week. I hope this finds all of you doing well and have had a good Sunday and Weekend.

Two weeks ago, we were busy in the office preparing for this past week as we knew we would be out of town most of it. A Week ago today we had a lovely Sunday. Because it was Fathers Day, we went downtown Frankfurt after church and spent a couple of hours just walking along the Main. Down one side and up the other. It was a beautiful sunny day. It was just what Dad wanted to do and He needed to just relax. The Saturday before I attended a Stake Sisters conference, Reingard ask me to sing in a four some. It was simple. We sang it’s a small world. It was Ok. What we do for our friends ! After the event we drove to Rodenbach and took Reingard to dinner with us. William was out of town for most of the weekend.

Monday, we completed preparations for our trip to Hungary. Tuesday, we worked until noon, then off to the temple for the 1PM session, then home to change and pick up our bags and off to Pilsen, in the Czech Republic . It is the 4^th largest city in Czech and is the home of the Skoda Car Manufacturer and the world famous Pilsen Beer. We enjoyed our little walk in the old town and dinner. And No, we did not try the beer.

Wednesday , we drove to Budapest, Hungary. There to meet E/S Denise and Donna Smith. They are Wheel Chair specialists who came from Washington State to assess our NGO and help us with the new Wheelchair project we are beginning in Hungary. The church no longer just gives out the wheelchairs. Now, the church wants each wheelchair to be fitted personally to each receipient. It is the way it should be done. So, each organization which distributes these wheelchairs must now have trained individuals that are able to assess the individuals ability to function in a wheelchair effectively and then fit the chair to the individual This training is done by Therapist who come from the US. This will be a lot of work to organize and execute. So On Thursday we meet with MEOSZ, the organization we are working with. We spent the entire morning discussing the details of the new program then the four of us took Julia ( our contact person in the Organization) and our translator out to lunch. It was a good meeting. We also used the time to discuss the on going Food and Nutrition Project with our translator who is involved with this project. Our next step is to purchase fruit trees. We had a productive day. We returned to the hotel to work on emails and other business concer Then we went to see the Cathedral and Old Castle, now museum, on the Buda side of the Danube River. It was a good day.

This was a new site for us in Budapest. Along the Danube river for quite a distance, the bank was lined with these bronze shoes representing the 100,000 plus Jews who died in Nazi Concentration Camps between 1936 and 1945. What a sobering Memorial to these people. Lest we forget.

This was taken standing on the garden area surrounding the old government building on the Buda side of the River. We are looking at the new government building on the Pest side of the Danube

Friday, the four of us drove to Slovakia, Banska Stiavnica where our missionary couple assigned to Slovakia has organized a wheelchair training and distribution for this coming week. E/S Smith will be overseeing this and helping with this training.

This city is on the list of the UNESCO World History Sites. This city dates back to the Roman times. One of the Largest in that era of time. It is a mining community that was rich in Gold and Silver. The city is an intact medevil city with mines that run under the city and surrounding area. The first School of Mining was begun in this city in 1745 or so. This was the first school of Mining in the World.

On Friday we had a little time to explore the Mine Museum and take a tour of one of the Mines. It was fun. We had a great dinner of Goulash that was really good. We stayed in the Cosmopolitan Pension, built for a mine Administrator in the 17 Century. We enjoyed the ambiance. You can see us in our mining gear for the tour

Our visit there coincided with the annual Meeting of the Mine Guilds from all over Slovakia. So the place was packed with miners. Saturday morning, as we sat in the breakfast room being trained by the Smith’s we heard the Band for their annual parade. So we were able to see a little history in action. The Parade began with t

hese cut little children. The first group are the modern day miners. The second group in Black represent the garb of the Russian Miners, The early German miners wore White and the group with the black out fits represent the Slavic and Hu

ngarian miners. Bringing up the Rear are the cut little girls dancing and twirling in there native costumes. The parade continued with groups of miners and family members from Cities all over Europe.

Then, the rest of our missionary crew arrived and we drove to the School where the training is taking place on Monday. The crew consisted of, 4 couple missionaries from the surrounding area. We put together Rough Rider Wheelchairs and a good time was had by all.

On our return to the Hotel we decided to see one of the castles of this city so we just began to drive in the location we could see. One of the gentlemen who works for the NGO who was distributing the wheelchairs could see we were looking for something so we stopped to ask him directions. He not only took us there but made the Hike up to the Top. As It turned out this is a sacred Place to the Catholics. There are stations showing the life of the Savior with statues and Painting in shrine like buildings. It was lovely.

They all left to return to their various locations and 2 couples will return today. We would have liked to stay for the weeks training but we must get home today to prepare all that is needed for the end of the month and prepare for Heidi and Roberts Visit for which we are so excited.

Missionary Excursion to Burg Eltz and Reichsburg

Isn't this a pretty geranium

Dear All,
We have had a number of special experiences this week involving the priesthood and healings. Some have been quite phenomenal in the dramatic healing that has occured. We have seen the hand of the LOrd protecting some of our missionaries in their travels and the work they are doing. We have 1 couple that was told they would have to postpone there mission for 1 1/2 months while a visa was obtained. With a lot of prayer and work, and intervention by the Lord they entered the MTC on May 28th as originally scheduled. The visa situation is still being worked on and may take months to obtained, but they will be in country and trained by their predecessors. This is just one of the incidents we have witnessed recently with one of our missionaries.



Thursday was a national holiday and the office was close, but we went in and worked 5 hours anyway. In the afternoon we drove with another missionary couple to the city of Seligenstadt which is a beautiful old town not far distant from Frankfurt. I want to show you the May pole which stand in the city square. You can see Susan and Br. Wells looking at it. In medieval times these pole were very important, the common man was illiterate and couldn't read, but he would go to the town center and on the May Pole were attached emblems of the businesses in town, and he could see then the businesses in that town or village. In the far right is the village well (in this case the village fountain).
This old house help give this city it's name. The name of the city is Seligenstadt. Seligen is the German word for "to Bless". Above the 2nd floor window is written in old German the sentence Blessed is this city, my daughter was lost and I found her here. Hence the name "blessed city"


This Rose bush was in full bloom, with many pedals gently lying on the street in front of the house. The street was about 10 feet wide, but when the only traffic was foot or an occasional horse cart the size was sufficient.
I wanted to let you see the beautiful reflection of the building behind me in the window. This effect is possible because the glass is bubble shaped creating this kaleidoscope picture.

We had the opportunity to take a group of senior missionaries to the city of Cochem , and after some lunch we went across the Mosel River to the castle on the hill. Finding our way to the castle was an experience, because there where no signs showing the roads to take and the GPS's where on strike, but eventually we made it. Oma and I are responsible every month for some kind of cultural experience for the senior missionaries here in Frankfurt, and this month we choose the above castle (Reichsburg castle), and the Burg Eltz castle.

On the path to Burg Eltz castle. This castle has 80 Rooms with 40 Fireplaces, and is still inhabited by the family that owns it..
Burg Eltz is a lovely family owned and occupied castle for 750 years.
We hope you have a great week. We love you all,
Oma und Opa

Dear All,
We are sorry that we haven't written in a while, but the truth is we have been gone and very busy. Dick and Lucille cam for a visit which was wonderful for us and a partial walk back into their history for them. These visited German with their son Shaun back in 1983. We had a great time with them,but were very busy trying to be with them and also fulfill our responsibilities as missionaries. Many late hours for us and being good sports for them. I've given just a brief glimpse of some of the things we saw during their visit for a more through account you'll have to talk with Dick and Lucille. We were able to attend Church in both Munich and Berlin with them, and enjoy the Spirit each Sunday they were here. We afraid we wore them out, but as I said they were good sports. We were able to visit the southern German villages of Garmisch-Partenkirchen which are very beautiful . German's highest mountain the Zugspitz which has year around glacial skiing is there. The next weekend we were in Berlin which is an amazing city. You can spend weeks in Berlin and never go to the same place twice. On the way we slept in a Kloster ( a convent) never did that before!, and visited a castle where Martin Luther translated part of the Bible hiding there.
Following are a few pictures of some the places we visited.


Only 20-30 Kilometers from Frankfurt is the Roman ruins of Saalburg which was a Roman Citadel on the route from Rome to Cologne. It has been rebuilt, but the foundations of many building are still visible. This Citadel was built and inhabited about the time of Christ. Makes our 150-200 year old buildings seem pretty contemporary.
In the Mosel Valley is a beautiful castle (Burg Eltz) that has been inhabited for over 750 years, and owned by the same family for 850 years. Burg means fortress and Eltz is the name of the family that owns the castle. Part of the family still lives in the castle, I wonder what their electricity and heating bill is? and another question - who has to shovel the driveway?
Beautiful, well preserved visitors and castle.
The name of this church is Wieskirche which means church in the meadow, and that is exactly what it is. It is in the Village of Fuesson in the state of Bavaria. The story of this church and the crucifix in the church are very interesting, but too long for this brief blog. We were able to enjoy the beautiful music of a mass here.
As you see the interior is absolutely gorgeous and even though the church is out of the way it is visited by over a million visitors a year. If you have ever seen a picture book of Germany you have seen a picture of this church
This is the famous Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria in the area of Garmisch-Partenkirche which so influenced Walt Disney and which the Disneyland Castle is patterned after. In this castle is a mural in which we see a very similar scene in his film Bambi.
We tried to make the most of every day that Dick and Lucille were here in Germany.
The Pergamon is a museum in Berlin of antiquities and is amazing. This is an ancient Roman gate which was brought to this museum and reassembled. This whole museum was filled with such amazing things to see. This whole museum was dissembled during the war and hidden in a safe place otherwise it would have been destroyed, because Berlin was almost completely leveled in the war
Here is one of the gates to the city of Babylon which was dissembled brought to Berlin and reassembled in this museum.
Few Americans can visit Berlin without going to see Check Point Charlie. We were there before the wall came down, and passed through here with Dick,Lucille, and their son Shaun. This is basically all that remains of Check Point Charlie. There is a museum close by with a pictorial and written history of the check point
This bust of her mother in law was done by Vickie the wife of Frederick IV. As you can see she was a very talented artist. The paintings of her 9 children are fantastic. Vickie is the daughter of the famous Queen Victoria of England. This bust is in the following Palace.
This is the Palace of San Souci built be The Prussian Emperor Frederick the IV. It is in Potsdam about 30-45 Kilometers from Berlin. For whatever reason the Russians did not destroy it in the war. San Souci is french and means "without a care" This castle was built outside the city in a lovely rural setting. In the next picture you will get a better idea of the size of this place. The interior is as grandiose as the exterior is impressive. Royalty lived luxuriously and in a fairy land environment

AT the Palace of San Souci the back garden has 6 terraces each of vineyard leading down to a beautiful fountain. This picture was taken from the 2nd terrace. There are 4 more terraces of the same size as this below this terrace. That's a lot of grapes i.e. wine.
We enjoyed Dick's and Lucille's visit very much and showing theme what we could in 2 weeks and still working part time. We hope you are doing well and enjoying each day, once it is gone - it is gone and tomorrow is a new day and fresh start regardless of the day before.
We hope you are doing well ( and minding your P's and Q's),
Love,
John and Susan (Opa and Oma)

Our visit to Montenegro

We Flew into Podgorica, Montenegro on Saturday, May 5th in the late afternoon. Elder and Sister Brown picked us up and we went to the home of the Fowlers where we stayed. We were taken to dinner in a traditional Montenegrin restaurant. I had a lamb dish that I really enjoyed. Sunday, we attended church in the home of the Brown's. Attending were 6 Fowlers, 2 Browns, 2 Leonards, 2 fulltime missionaries and 1 investigator. I got to help with the children in Primary. It was delightful. There was a sweet feeling in the meetings. We had Sunday dinner at the Fowlers. Itwas great. Then we went to the site where the Brother Nelson dedicated the country of Montenegro. the site is an ancient Roman ruin dating back to about 300AD. We had a lesson on the churches history in Montenegro and then we read the dedicatory Prayer individually.
Here we are at the site. Us, Elder Craig and Sister Nancy Brown the missionaries and James and Michelle Fowler with Marlo, Teac,Ethand and Zoe behind her Dad. We were Grandparent for the few days were there and we had so much fun. We miss our Grandchildren terribly.
Here is a sample of the remains that are can be seen at the site. It is just so interesting to see History. We had a great experience. On monday morning we had an appointment with the Red Cross at a Roma Refugee Camp to see the results of a project done in December and January.
On Monday, May 7th we went to the monastery in one of the hills around the city. The monastery dates back to the 300AD time period. Here in the picture we see a structure of a building. As you enter the monastery you walk into a passageway hallowed out of rocks. Early Christians dug these passageways to hide from the Romans who were searching out and arresting the early Christians. We took no pictures inside out of respect. We had a personal tour of this place from Father Luka. He spoke perfect English and was so interesting to talk with. We spent 4 hours here in the afternoon. Father Luka is a Serb born in Croatia. He was educated at the University of Belgrade in Art History. He Played in a Rock Band in his College years. He became a Monk later in life.
Here we are in front of the entrance. The picture in the background is a tile mosaic. Fater Luka looks a lot like this
On Tuesday May 8th in the Afternoon we attended a Ceremony at the Red Cross in Podgorica to honor all those who helped with the Emergency Relief for the resident in the mountains who were trapped by the 4 meters of snow that feel in January and first part of February. The church was recognized as one of the major contributors to the Relief Effort. Here are the Browns and the Leonards with Susan Brown the US Ambassador to Montenegro.
Here are Elder and Sister Brown with the Certificate of Appreciation they recieved on behalf of L.D.S. Charities.
On the Left is the Apartment building that houses our Humanitarian Couple. In the center is the Montenegrin Orthodox church which has been under construction for years. It is a beautiful building. During Communism the people were not allowed to speak, think or do anything that was a religious nature. All the churches were closed and locked and left to deteriorate. They are warm good people who have deep spiritual feelings.
View of the Church from the Street.
This is the site of the First Baptism in Montenegro. Zoe Fowler was the first to be Baptized here in this beautiful river in the fall of 2011. Zoe, reported it was so cold and the current was strong but her Dad would not let her float away.Montenegro is a beautiful country. It now has its first missionaries and they are teaching 2 investigators. The Doors are opening for the Gospel.

A very busy 2 months

Dear All,
These past 2 months have been very busy with 10 to 11 hours days being the norm to include some Saturdays. So I have tried to pick a few high lights of what we have been doing.

In late March we held a conference for all the Humanitarianism Missionaries in the Europe area. We had 10 couples from 10 different countries attend. We were responsible for the everything in the conference from content to housing to food to transportation. It was a huge project, but very successful. The couples really enjoyed being together and they shared a lot with each other that they had learned. Each couple said the conference was helpful to them. We worked long and hard on this conference especially during the month of March, and its' success was greatly rewarding for us. It really was a good experience. for everyone, us included.

On one of our trips we returned home through Berchtesgaden, we happened to be there for Palm Sunday. This Sunday, Easter, and Christmas are the only Sundays that the churches are full, and they go to church in their native dress. They carry these beautifully decorated branches to church with colorful ribbons with them. I took this picture of a young couple as they were coming out of church. As you can see the tradition and the dress is very old, but the technology is new. We love Berchtesgaden and enjoy every time we can drive through it.

The end of March we returned to Budapest to represent the Church at a ceremony where the Church donated 500 wheelchairs to a non governmental organization for distribution to the people. The church is now the largest wheelchair distributor in the world. Since 2001 the Church has donated over 474,000 wheelchairs world wide, almost a 1000 in Hungary over the last 3 years. The Hungarian government is aware of all the humanitarian aid the church has provided their country, and has publicly expressed a very high opinion of the Church. They have commented on the family values of the Church, the Churches health code, the extended life expectancy of Church members, and the Church's moral stand and teachings.

This distribution of all these wheel chairs got the media's attention and they came to the ceremony. Here I am being interviewed by one of the 4 TV stations that came to the ceremony. They wanted to know why the Church was doing all this humanitarian aid for the people, I told them because the Church believes we should follow the teachings of Christ and help our fellow men. By the time the media was through they did an 8 minute program about the church, and interviewed some of the local leaders as well. The fellow by the interviewer is a member of the Church and my interpreter.

This is a picture taken at dusk (without a flash). It is called Hero Square, and the
have various kings between all these columns. Many of the leaders of the 1956 rebellion against the Soviets are buried here. This is in the beautiful city of Budapest, which was originally two cities separated by the Danube River.

This is King Stephan who is the patron saint of Hungary, Albania, Romania, Moldova, and probably other Balkan countries. He lived in the 11th century, and welded all these countries into 1 great empire. WW1 and WW2 both diminished the size of Hungary. This statue is in the castle compound in Budapest

In Moldova we visited a school and orphanage where the Church partnered with the US Army and another organization to remodel and upgrade the bathrooms in one of the dorms for the children. Children without parents or whose parents can not provide for them are put in an orphanage or a boarding school. The children are generally happy here because the have a roof over head and at least 1 good meal a day. Children with a learning disability or emotional difficulties are put in the back of the class if they do not disrupt. If disrupt they go into an institution,and that is where they spend the rest of their lives. This swan is made of small pieces of paper which have been folded and assembled together. There is no clue holding the swan together, it is how the small pieces are assembled that keeps it together. As you can imagine they are very time consuming and delicate to make.

This little guy has Leukemia and has been in the hospital for a while. The Church went into the hospital at the request of the social worker (one of the very few in the country) and refurbished an empty room with books and toys, murals on the wall, chairs and a table were provided for a play room for the children. Before the Church furnished this room the children would spend day after day with nothing to do but lay in their room. This little guy is stuck in his room because of his IV, but a coloring book has been brought in to him to make life a little easier. You can see they still use glass IV bottles.

I saw this ambulance at the hospital that we visited, and noticed that the gas cap is locked on with a paddle lock. The dishonesty in some of these east block countries makes living very difficult for the people, and you have to admire their efforts to be honest under very difficult circumstances. The general distrust of everybody and always expecting to be cheated was one of the side effects of 50 years of communist reign. In the USA if you want to be honest generally you can be that way with a minimum of effort.

We were in Albania with the Willis, and one of the projects they are working on is to help a Roma (gypsy) community to have employment and thereby to create a better life for themselves. This picture show 3 Roma men working at a recycling plant compressing and packaging old paper products. The Church purchased a commercial grade scale for them to weigh these big bales of paper so they will know the weigh and how much money to expect when they sell them.

Reingard and William Blacoe with us on Reingard's birthday.
Even though we have not written for a little while does not mean that we don't love you,we do!
Oma und Opa