A Warm Week in Frankfurt And Step Forward in Macedonia

Dear ones,
We hope all of you that went to Snowbird had a great time. We were thinking of you all week. We have had a good week here in Frankfurt. Dad had a cold last weekend but is now feeling much better. We took it easy this week and it was good. We have had several bike rides this week to include one to pick blackberries. We have eaten alot and made a cobbler we will enjoy for Sunday Dinner. We have enjoyed our garden on the balcony. It has been warm but nice. This coming week will give us temperatures in the 100F degrees. But it does cool down in the evening and with a fan it is not too bad. You can see Dad with his giant tomatoe plant. We have enjoyed the tomatoes greatly and the wonderful fresh fruit of the season.

Look at the size of this Tomato Plant. It is almost as tall as Dad.

Here is more of the balcony Garden and Below is our beautiful Geraniums. They have really done well.In the office this week,we have been busy preparing for our trip to Bosnia this coming Thursday. We have enjoyed working with our couples. We are doing a lot of training on the phone both financial and with CHaS( Church Humanitarian System Computer program with which we track all humanitarin work ) We have had a great red letter day on Friday. Our couple in Skopje, Macedonia recieved their residence visa. This has taken two years. The first couple who opened Macedonia did not obtain a Visa thier entire mission. They lived between Macedonia and Kosovo their entire mission as they had Visitor Visas which would only allow them to live in the country 90 days then 90 days out. Our new couple, had to go to Detroit to get the paper work needed to achieve this. But it is done and a big milestone has been overcome so that the work of the Church can now begin to go forward. The young missionaries will have their completed paperwork soon so they too will be able to teach the gospel openly.
Our couple in Bosnia has finally begun to get things settled. We are grateful. It has really been a struggle for them. Sister Winters wrote of thier many set backs and problem,"We must put our hand in the Lords, rollup our sleeves and go to work" We are grateful to serve with these valiant missionaries. We are greatful to serve Our Heavenly Father and have the privilege to help in this great work. The Gospel in going forward to all those who were denied the privlege to worship, pray or even speak of God.
Saturday morning we decided to go to Point Alpha just outside of Fulda. Point Alpha was the check point to Keep the Soviets Out of Western Germany after WWII. American troops, The Black Horse Division patroled this area from 1950 to 1989 when the wall fell. I am Standing on the top of the cement Tower that our soldiers guarded. Just below this plateform was the office where communications from the Soviets were intercepted and passed on to Command Headquarters.Here is Dad, Standing in the East DDR. You can see the Tower in the Back ground. We toured the compound with its barricks. One is now used for a restaurant and one is now a museum. We enjoyed seeing the reilics, vehicles, uniforms, weapons, pictures etc and reading the history of the Cold War. We then walked down the cement road that lined the cement fence on the DDR side. We then viewed the musem representing the DDR side . How can human beings treat each other as these did. But as we have studied the Book of Mormon this year, I have gained some new insites. I have seen again who historical events and happenings today demontrate how Satan is trying to rule with Blood and Horror on the Earth.

Here is a view of Point Alpha from the East German side. Dogs were used to patrol the area. A four foot cement fense was placed in a ditch so vehicles could not be driven into the area. The wire fence was 3 meters high made of heavy metal mesh. Then beyond the fence was no mans land. It is always so sobering to see the reality of the past. Those who got out were so blessed. We who have enjoyed freedom all of our lives have no idea what it would be like to live your life in such a restricted environment.

Mespelbrunn Castle

Saturday, August 11th, Dad was ill with a nasty summer cold. We had planned to go with Elder and Sister Wells for a little outing to celebrate our newly assigned vehicle. We now have an assigned car that we share with the Wells. It is great to have the the ability to just get up and go if we want. We do not have to plan everything and go to the great lengths to get a car every time there is a need. Great Blessing for the remainder of our mission.
Anyway, With Dad ill, the Wells invited me to go along while Dad rested at the Apartment. We had a lovey time visiting Mespelbrunn Water Castle. Then we had lunch in an open air restaurant in the village of Mespelbrunn. It is really helpful to have a P-Day activity. It is restful and renewing. Gail and Gwain Wells are from Provo. They are wonderful people. We enjoy their friendship very much. Gwain is a Child Psychologist who was the Department Head at BYU for some years. We are grateful for all the wonderful couple missionaries who have blessed our lives. We have alot of measuring up to do.

We love all of you and thank you all for your love and support.
Oma and Opa Leonard

Training in Slovakia

Dear All,
We hope you have had a good week, and those of you that are at Snowbird have a safe and fun week. We returned last Mon. night from a few days in Slovakia training the Coopers who just arrived in country the end of June. In the office we have been very busy trying to catch up on all the administrative stuff we have to do. To top it off our boss John Mulligan will be gone the next two weeks on vacation and marrying off his youngest son. So we have been really busy with long days.


Lynn and Gorden Cooper just arrived in Slovakia replacing Carol and John Stiles. They come form Boise Idaho both were teachers, she has a music focus, and he is math. They are wonderful down to earth people. We flew to Slovakia to train them, and it went very well. They were very receptive to suggestion and correction, and will carry on the work in Slovakia in a great manner.
This is us with Robert and Ria Van Dallem Ria is Slovakian, but lived 19 years in California. She and Robert married after his 1st wife died of cancer. Ria and Robert's first wife were very good firends, but she didn't know him particularly. Several years after her death Robert's 2 daughters got Robert and Ria together. He is Dutch by birth, but has lived in Slovakia for a long time. 5 months after he was baptized he was called to be branch president. They are a wonderful couple.
In the picture are Susan, Ria (a contraction for Maria), Sister and Elder Cooper, Stephan, Katka, and Maria. Stephan and Maria are married and Katka is their only child. Katka is disabled and can only walk while holding on to something. Some 13 years ago Maria started an organization to help handicapped children because there was nothing in her area to help her daughter. Today she is one of the best if not the best know NGO in eastern Slovakia. Everybody knows and respects her for what she has done to help others. Our Humanitarian couples stated working with her some5-6 years ago, and during that time she has come to really accept the Church for doing good without an alternative motive. She is quite vocal in giving the Church credit for the help it is giving the people, and it bothers her when the people don't acknowledge the Church as the source of help. Both She and Katka have had a priesthood blessing to help them. Last Sat. we had lunch with them, and I was asked to say a blessing on the food. I in turn asked Ria our interpreter to say the blessing because she could say it in Slovak and Maria and her family could understand what was being said. Maria called Ria Sat. night crying she said that Stephan was really touched by the blessing and that they were drawing closer together as a couple because of the Church. We are convinced that if there were a church unit closer to them they would attened church. Maria and possibly also Stephan instinctively knows that there is a God, but living in a communistic country they were never taught anything about God, but I think there is a longing for a relationship with God.
We were also in Sobrance, Slovakia talking with the director and his staff of a hospital (the only hospital in the region) that services 25000 people. We are here in the ICU talking with him and the head nurse (in blue) they are asking the Church to provide funds to buy a special bed with monitors that they need to help stabilize a patient so they can be transported to a larger city with tertiary care hospital. Of all their needs they rank this bed as the most important. Maria also strongly supporting this request ahead of her own request. These people are very grateful for what the Church has already done for the people in their region of Slovakia. The hard point for them to grasp and to accept is that someone is willing to help someone else without expecting something in return. To give as the Savior gave is something they have neither seen nor known. When there are enough missionaries that they can be assigned to this area, they will be warmly welcomed by the people because of all the good the humanitarian missionaries have done.
Here ie a picture of Helene with an 86 year old patient in one of the new beds the Church provided to a nursing home. This bed is quite adjustable and very helpful to prevent bed sores. The good side rails prevent the patients, those that can move, from rolling out of bed, . Helene has been the director of this nursing home for four years now and is very dedicated to helping these older peolple and trying to improve their quality of life. She has a staff of 12 which provides 24/7 coverage for the 12 patients. As you would expect there is a waiting list to get into here, some die before their number comes up. Helene is a mortal angel.
This is an example of the old beds that the patients have been using for the last 40 years. The are not adjustable and moving or rotating a patient is very difficult for both the patient and the staff.

The Church is doing a lot of work to help the Roma (gypsy) communities throughout eastern Europe. Many communities are build up on the outskirts of town on land where the Roma just squat and the city lets them live there. This is typical Roma housing, packed close together and made of anything that can be carried off and used to make a wall or roof. In the summer when it is very hot, it is not so bad, but in the winter when it is very cold it can be terrible. We are working to try and get them into better housing, but one of the problems is the Gypies don't take care of anything,and thus it deteriants quickly. Therefore nobody is willing to rent to a gypsy. Amother problem is that the government pays money for each child you have and for a certain period after the baby is born,. They call this maternity leave money, and you get it whether you had a job or not. Thus there is a high birthrate among the gypies. It is quite typical for a gypsy girl to start having babies in her early or mid teens. Thus you have babies having babies which affects the bodies of both mother and child. On the plane home I read the story of a 74 yr. old lady with a great great grand child. This lady is typical of the gypies of her day, they can neither read or write.
This building (a four plex) is definitely on the higher end of living accomodations. These are 2 girls of a family doing the wash. The washing machine is in front of them and is very small. This building is a four plex with one window in each unit, you can see the doors of both units on this side of the building. These girls belong to a family of 9 children all living and sleeping in 1 room. They rotate who sleeps on a bed and who sleeps on the floor. The mother of all these children is in her early 30's, but looks mid to late 40's. We are partnering with agencies that are trying to bring about changes with the youth. Many want to work, but there is such a social stigma against Rome (gypsies) that it is hard to get someone to hire them and give them a chance. In the larger cities it is easier to get a job, but still it is difficult. WE are working to give the young people a chance to learn marketable skills, rather that just begging or going through the trash looking for plastic bottles to recycle.
This is a statue that show the development of the city coat of arms for the city of Kosice. However the city is several 100 years older than when this coat of arms was created. The first was designed in 1369. You can see it as the small plague on the far left. There were 2 other additions , the last being in 1453 almost a 100 years later. Slovaks are proud of their national heritage.
Kosice is an old city and at one time a very important trade city being on the intersection of two important trade routes. This lovely little church is in the town city at the end of one of the town parks. Behind it you can see the steeple of the cathedral, which I believe is the farthest eastern Catholic cathedral in Europe. Unlike most Balkan countries Slovakia is predominately Catholic -about 90% or more. Most of the other countries are Orthodox and Muslim
We took our bigger suitcase this trip so that we could take a crock pot to sister Cooper. She needs one for some of the young adult and branch functions in Kosice, and in a suitcase was the best way to get it there. The branch is quite small, but is very loving, and the feeling of love is very evident. Small units are typically very close, and we were certainly welcomed back with open arms. to Kosice.
We hope you have had a good week, and a successful week.
Love Oma und Opa

Training New Couples in Novi sad, Serbia and Skopje, Macedonia

Dear ones,
We have had a busy two weeks in Serbia, Macedonia and at the office. We have had a wonderful time meeting our new couples and training and learning from them. We left on July 16th and returned on July 23rd. then spent the remainder of this week catching up at the Office. Saturday we took a Senior Sister Missionary to Schweinfurt to see the post her husband (now deceased) had been stationed at as a young GI.. We had a delightful day with her seeing the p0st and walking around the city of Schweinfurt. The pictures that follow are from our recent trip to Serbia and Macedonia.

We traveled to Novi Sad, Serbia on July 16, 2012. We flew into Beograd (Belgrade) rented a car to travel the 1 1/2hours north to the city. We stayed at the Best Western, President Hotel. We had 2 and a half days to train the Maughans. A great couple. We had dinner the first night in downtown Novi Sad at a Doner Kabob restaurant. We spent Tuesday and Wednesday working. With a little break here and there.
Here we are at the open market with the Maughans carrying our treasure of fruits and vegetables for our lunch and dinner. The couples were so good to prepare meals at home. We had wonderful fresh watermelon, raspberries, peaches and tomatoes and cucumbers to name but a few.


Here is the Plate of Raspeberries we ate for a snack as we trained in the afternoon. 2.2 pounds of Raspberries cost about $3.50. Oh, they were yummy!!!!! It has been said that the Balkan countries were the bread basket of eastern Europe. The ground is so fertile and the produce so good and prolific. We left Novi Sad on thursday morning. It took us about seven hours to drive to Macedonia. We enjoyed the beautiful country side. We arrived in Skopje about 5 pm. I had really worried about crossing the borders but all went well. We stayed at the Karpos Hotel. Named for a Macedonian Military leader. We were picked up by Elder and
Sister Anderson for dinner and our training began on Friday. The Andersons are a great couple. We can see that the Lord is directing this church. You can see how these missionaries talents and abilities are just what is needed. On Saturday afternoon we had the time to do a little sight seeing. Here is a little of what we experienced.


Here is the Site where Elder Russell M. Nelson gave dedicator prayer to open the country of Macedonia for Missionary work in 2010. Elder and Sister Wondra attended along with several other Senior Missionaries.
Here are the Andersons and us at the site of the Dedicatory pray for Macedonia. The First missionaries were Humanitarian. Elder and Sister Juncker. There are now two proselyting Elders and Elder and Sister Anderson are the second Humanitarian Missionaries to serve in this country. Elder Adams was sent to Macedonia from Serbia. He had no knowledge of the Macedonian Language. He could not actively proselyte. He walked the streets learning the language which in a 4 month period he could speak quite fluently. This young man has a gift for languages as he also speaks, Russian and Serbian. His companian came from Albania. Two great young men. Just this past two weeks the opportunity to teach an investigator has come and in another week they will be able to proselyte officially. A miracle in itself. The Junckers worked 23 months loving and serving the people, the Anderson,s in their short time in Macedonia have also been instrumental in the process of gaining official recognition for the Church in Macedonia and to obtain a visa from the government.Here is downtown Skopje. The statue is of Alexander the Great who was a Macedonian. The people call this statue "the man on the horse". On the Hill you see The largest Cross in the world. At night it is lite. The orthodox church of Macedonia erected this to let the Muslim poplutation know that the Christians had an important presence. There is a large Albanian presence in Macedonia also.




Here we are in downtown Skopje on Saturday afternoon. We went to the museum of Military History. Learned a lot about Macedonia. The republic of Macedonia was created in 1991 so it is about 20 years old. It has been part of Greece, Albania,Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria. And of course it was part of the old Yugoslavia.
Sunday we attended Church at home of our Humanitarian couple. There were 17 people who attended church and out of these 17 there were 8 different languages represented. We had two investigators and a family of 6 from the Embassy who are leaving to go to Ottawa. Elder Anderson did a great job conducting the meetings as the new branch President. There was a wonderful spirit in the meeting. Beautiful testimonies were expressed.
After eating dinner with the Anderson's , we drove back to Serbia to Beograd this time to Stay the night at the Zira Hotel before flying home to Frankfurt on Monday.
We loved being with these great couples. We are so grateful to see the Hand of the Lord as these countries are being opened up for the gospel to be taught. There are many waiting for the news of the Gospel. What great sacrifices these pioneers are and will make to accept the truth and be baptized. Then to go forth. Many will lose family and friends and even jobs. But the blessings that await them will be worth every sacrifice.
We love you. We want you to know how blessed we are for the great sacrifices that were made by our ancestors so that we can enjoy the great blessings of this gospel. What a privilege it is to be a Missionary. Each one of you are so special to us. Please take care of yourselves and each other.
Love,
Oma and Opa

Heidi and Roberts visit

Dear All,
We have had a very busy few weeks, and the rest of the Summer will be just a busy, but we have really enjoyed the visitors we have had, and the time we have been able to spend with them. We wanted to share in a small way our visit with Robert and Heidi with you.

Here is Susan Robert and Heidi in the beautiful gardens of the Palace or Rezidence in Wurzburg. While in Germany Robert got to be in a place, a fortress, and a castle. The gardens are kept beautiful all year long, even in the winter they are kept beautiful

Robert and Heidi standing by the door to our old meeting house on Domikanergasse. Heidi recognized it right away.

This is the elementary school that Heidi, Holly, and Owen attended in Wurzburg. The whole area of Leighton Barracks has now been given to the Universityof Wurzburg which is slowly converting the housing to student housing and using some of the classrooms for university classes.

This is a picture of Wurzburg from the MarienBerg Fortress showing the city center and the Main river in the foreground

This is the Rathaus (city Hall) of the famous walled city Rothenburg on the Taube. If you look at the lower left hand corner you can see Robert (red shirt) wondering why all these people were sitting on the steps (tired feet is the answer)

We spent part of a day in Rothenburg on the Taube. This is the famous corner house which is the most photographed house in Germany. Easy to understand why. For a time in the med evil period this was a very important trade city and very wealthy. Today it is again becoming very wealthy thanks to tourist, and it is very interesting to visit and to see.

This picture was taken from the inner courtyard of the Hohenzollern castle, one of the most beautifully preserved castle in Germany

This picture of the Hohenzollern castle was taken from about 5KM away and gives you an idea for how large this place was. It was restored to this state in the middle 1800's. The first mention of a fortress on this site was about 1280 AD

At the Hohenzollern castle the day we were there, there was a Porsche tractor display. Owen this picture is for you it would probably plow your field in a 1/3 the time.

The day we visited the Eagles nest it was in the clouds so the kids really couldn't see the spectacular view from there. This picture was taken from down in the valley as the clouds started to dissipate.

This beautiful sunset was taken at Koenigs See at about 10:00 PM. Koenigs See is just 5 KM from Berchtesgaden and about 8KM from the B and B where we stayed. We saw some unbelievable scenery as we drove here in the German Alps

This picture gives you a feel for the size of the Salzburg fortress. This picture was taken just a block or two from the Salzburg meeting house. Salzburg is a beautiful city, that was not damaged in the war.

This is the back of the house used in the musical Sound of Music. However this is not the real Van Trapp home in Salzburg

You can see both the fortress and the house where part of the Sound of Music was filmed

Although the temple was closed for the summer cleaning we still had a lovely tour of the temple grounds. The temple reopened the day after Robert and Heidi left for Spain.

We had a wonderful time with the kids and drove about 2200 Kilometers in 4 days and the saw a lot as you can see.
We hope your week has been a good as ours with the kids was,
Love Oma und Opa

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.