Hof adventures and surprises

On November 11 I had a doctors appointment before a scheduled surgery on my right shoulder.  When we came home we were unable to enter any of the streets around our apartment building.  The grey map shows our attempted route home.  The little x's are the streets blocked off and the dots are where I finally got out and moved a cone to get to our parking lot behind our house.  After we got home we walked to the next corner where all the excitement was occurring.  There was a fire in a Diakonie, which is a state sponsored home run by the Lutheran Church for people who have no income or home.  One of the fire fighters said they often have fires at this location.  Dave spent a bit of time taking pictures.

The fire department for this town of about 44,000 is very modern as you can see.  Note the fire hydrant coming out of the street. We never did see any smoke or flames so they were very effective and prompt.  Since this town has a history of some major conflagrations, the latest in 1823, that is a very good thing.

Then on November 14 I had outpatient surgery on my shoulder for what they thought was a torn tendon but when they got inside they saw that the injury was so old they could not do anything to repair it.  We have no idea when this happened.  So now I have to work really hard to get back the mobility I had before the surgery.  I am guiltily enjoying not going to so many meetings and staying home recuperating.  I start  Physical Therapy tomorrow and plan to cook for institute tomorrow evening with the help of my good husband who will cook the chili and cornbread and all I have to do is get it on the table.

When Dave came home today from District Conference he noticed this newspaper in the hall of our building.  The caption only mentions that the picture is from the USA. We know more!

chicken calzone

We just got some more Berlin pictures from the other missionary couples.  The first is a specially made calzone at the Italian restaurant.  They didn't usually make calzonies so I guess the chef got creative.

The second is the group of couples we were with.  The Andrus's on the right, serving in Leipzig and the Tenney's on the left, serving in Dresden.  At big conferences like this the host ward always prepares a meal.  This time for over 160 missionaries. 

 We also found out it was President Kosak's birthday so I went (privately) before the conference began and sang him the special "But you didn't die this year, I guess that's good enough" song.

You can tell he has a sense of humor.  Or maybe my release papers are in the mail.

Berlin Museums

When we lived in Berlin one of our favorite things was visiting the incredible museums they have.  I had always been frustrated not being allowed into East Berlin at the time to see the even more famous museums there.  On our first Berlin mission we did get a chance to see museum island, five museums in the city center and this time I just had to go again. 

Most people will recognize this Queen Nefertiti bust made about 1300 years before Christ's birth.  The Germans were very successful archeologists in the late 1800's and early 1900's and amassed an incredible collection from the mid east. They are currently renovating the museums to include an architectural setting more in tune with the ancient time periods from ancient Egypt like this necklace and the bust. 

And then on to Greece and Rome...

and even further back to Mesopotamia ... and many others.

Two of the most impressive acquisitions are the Ishtar Gate and the Pergamon Alter.  Impressive for two reasons: the sheer size of the piece and that they actually moved it and rebuilt it.

This is a postcard from the museum showing the full Gate.  You can't really get this picture without people so below is the view we see and giving you an idea of the monumental size of the thing.  Even more impressive is to realize that it was one of the lesser gates into the city of Babylon.

The Pergamon Alter was from the city of Pergamon in the area now in Turkey and built in about 200 BC uncovered by a German archeologist in the late 1800's.

This postcard picture again does not give a real idea of the mass of the thing.  With people in the picture you can get more of an idea.  Can you find Waldo?

I think what strikes me most about seeing things made by man so long ago is our modern arrogance thinking that WE are the only ones who create amazing things.  Children of God, from Adam on, have been as amazing, creative, wonderful and yes, petty and arrogant as we all are now.  This earth life is pretty much the same no matter what time period or where you live.  The same test is presented to all of us.   Our challenge is to live the best we can and let our light shine.

Berlin

On October 31, Halloween, we had a mission conference in Berlin with Elder Kearan and Elder Fingerli from the Europe Area Presidency.  It was a great conference and we enjoyed every minute of it.  We drove up a day early so we could enjoy some of the things we remember from when we lived in Berlin as a young married couple.  We took Elders Pollard and Donner with us and they stayed with some Berlin Elders while we stayed in the Berlin Mark Hotel quite near the Gedenkneskirche. This is a big cathedral which was bombed during the war and they have left it as a memorial.  The white around it is a temporary scaffolding as they are doing something with it now.

We enjoyed visiting with some other mission couples at the hotel also.  One evening as we walked out to eat we were greeted by an Italian waiter from a restaurant who saw our badges and was excited to meet some Mormons.  He was an inactive brother so we gave his name as a referral to the local missionaries.

Another of the things we remember is the former American Military Post.  Above is the base theater, the Outpost, which is now a museum about the Allies and the Berlin Wall.  The second picture is the former Berlin Brigade Headquarters evidently still in American control (note the flag) but I have no idea in what capacity.  It must be a secure facility because of all the fencing and ugly additions.  Times have changed.

 We always try to find the apartment building where we lived when Lyric was born.  The window with the flowers was part of our apartment which we shared with the landlord, Herr Thomas.  It was green then too almost 50 years ago.

Last time we were in Berlin we accidentally found the Zehlendorf Standesamt building where we were married in 1966.  It is just around the corner from the apartment building where we lived but when we lived there I did not know that.  Berlin is a big noisy city with many many things to do, but I am quite content living here in Hof for the time being. 

Elsterberg

Fall is definitely here and is very colorful.  I watched the city workers remove the layers of leaves from the park next door and regretted not having a better picture. 

This lovely tree is near the Merkel's home.  Does anyone know what kind it is and if it would grow in Idaho?

This is the street in front of our house and you can see some of the colorful trees in the park.  A few days after I took the picture I noticed that about half of these trees were gone.  They thinned their forest but there were still plenty left.  We live in the turquoise colored apartment building.

We used a P-day the week of my birthday, October 26, to visit some castle ruins in a town near here called Elsterberg.  They were preparing for a Halloween event in the ruins.  I think that would have been fun.

Looking from the castle ruins over the little town, one can see how crowded medieval towns would have been and how fires could have so often decimated entire villages.

One the way back from Elsterberg we wanted to see the Glötschtalbrücke which was near there.  This is a railroad bridge going over a valley.  It is very impressive because it is huge.  Our 'Navi' did her best to get us there but unfortunately there was an umleitung (detour) which the Navi knew nothing about.  Dave does not give up so we found another way, through a farmer's field.  The bridge is made up of a aeries of arches.  Here you can only see the top two rows.

Quite an impressive bit of old engineering.  Almost as good as the bridge in Chemnitz where they build a new freeway bridge UNDER an existing old brick bridge.

Living in the Western U.S. we lack the concept of OLD and rebuilding or renovating the way they do here.

Aaron's visit

As senior missionaries we are able to have family visits.  Aaron had work conferences in Brussels and Frankfurt and was able to get two days at the end of his trip to spend with us.  YEAH!

He arrived Wednesday evening and we walked round Hof for a bit but mostly enjoyed just talking to each other.  We do miss our kids and seeing the Grands and it is always good to get current updates.

This picture is taken by a rather comical fountain in the old market place in Hof.  It was really striking to note how much more these two men are looking alike. 

 The day Aaron visited was a German holiday celebrating the unification after the wall came down and Russia withdrew from managing East Germany.  We live near a tiny village nicknamed "Little Berlin" because it, as well as Berlin, was divided by the wall.  This town has no more than about 20 homes but the wall went right through the middle of it.  It now houses quite a nice museum chronicling that period in history.  There were many people there that day but most spent their time in the massive beer hall (tent) put up for the occasion rather than in the museum.

Fortress Rosenburg

 The next day we visited the towns of Kulmbach and the castle and museums at Plassenburg and then Kronach and the fort of Rosenburg.  There are earlier posts on this blog about those places.

Plassenburg Castle

Two days was not enough but we will take all the visiting time we can with our family...

Missionary work and other stuff

 Today we drove to Chemnitz for another Zone Training meeting.  We enjoy these days but are glad to return to our area after the almost 3 hour meeting.  The young Elders are good teachers and really try to motivate each other but most of the training does not really apply to our assignment.

We also have weekly district meetings in Plauen with missionaries from Hof, Plauen and Zwickau attending.  This group was the one before the last transfer.  Our DL is in the rear middle, Elder Lichner from Germany, who has since finished his mission, then returned to Zwickau to go to University so is now in our institute group.

After the last tranfer we are now working with  Elder Pollard on the left from San Diego and Elder Donner from Texas.  They are both NOT looking forward to another German winter.  As you can see, the leaves are telling us winter is coming.

 Elder Anderson worked in Hof for a long time.  This is what happened to him shortly after he left to serve in Goerlitz.

Most of our work in Hof is reactivation.  Here Dave is having fun with Brother Rechner who has not come to church for about 20 years.  Part of the reason is he now lives most of the year in the Cook Islands.

We visit weekly with two sisters who have started to come to church since we have been here.  Sister Ernst loves to feed the missionaries and then the Elders give her a gospel message. 

We hold a 'home evening' on Monday nights with our two activated sisters and the missionaries.  We take turns giving the lesson after a meal.  The missionaries then go out to work and we play games with the sisters. 

Occasionally we have a district sport day.  This was earlier in the summer in Plauen.

Now for some other stuff.  We really enjoy the unusual things we sometimes see over here.  This loaf of bread was for sale at the 'Harvest Festival" in Hof which was more like a large yard sale except for the professional traveling vendors that we find at all the festivals.  This vendor markets his bread as being baked in a wood oven.

The Harvest Festival also had displays from various groups in town like the fire department.  Their truck is a little more modern that the one we use at home, but it looks like the firefighters are about the same.

And, lastly, here is a balloon animal I really liked at the mall in Plauen that we visited after district conference one time.  They had several other balloon displays as well which were very imaginative and creative.