A new bed and new friends

Opening the package and putting the bed together.

The decke is now bigger than the bed, but so warmmm

We have also added a printer thanks to the CES director.

After getting permission from the Mission office, who agreed we should be able to close our bedroom door, we shopped and purchased a queen size bed to match the very nice furniture in the apartment.  Then we discovered how expensive a mattress and the mattress supports would be.  The other very nice bed will go to another mission apartment for another couple.  We had to rearrange the furniture to accommodate the printer that Marc Shutze brought to us to help us in teaching our institute classes.  This Thursday will be our first time teaching so everyone wish us luck.

Last week we had the opportunity to visit with several members.  We spent a very pleasant evening with the Hemann family who live out of town.  Dave and Herr Hemann found much in common.  They talked about guns and stuff for quite awhile.  He is not a member but comes to church.  We also visited with him for a short time in his second hand book store in the "old Town".  I had fun with Hellen who is 7.  They have two other very nice children.

Then we spent some time with an inactive member who was very receptive.  He has some health problems to overcome.  Another day we visited with another family who also have three kids.  Their 7 year old son, Vincent, had a new Christmas toy helicopter he was flying in the room.  It was really cool.  He could fly it off the coffee table and then land it if he was careful.  Mostly it crashed but I was impressed that it was sturdy enough not to break with the abuse it got.  Maybe I will have to get one of them for my 'kid'.

Sunday we had two different dinner appointments..(bad on the diet).  We ate "Racklett" with the Merkel family.  That is somewhat like a fondue in that everyone cooks their own special little pan of cheese over selected foods such as pineapple, ham, mushrooms, mini onions or whatever.  Hope that gives you the idea.  We thought about buying one of the special electric pans for it but we wouldn't be able to get the special cheese nor could we plug it in there with the correct wattage.

Today we drove out to a very tiny old farm village to meet with another member.  We had a delightful time visiting in this old home.  It was build in the late 1700's and Br Hermann's wife's family has lived there for a long time.  Her mother lives downstairs and they live upstairs.  It is heated by wood which he cuts in the neighboring forest.  In the downstairs entry there is an old big oven in the wall, which no longer works, but it used to be for cooking cakes for the village.  The village had perhaps 50 to 80 homes most of which were connected forming a long wall with the farm buildings in the rear. Some houses on the edge of the village were newer but all of them around the tiny church and central square area were definitely OLD.

The church in Roppisch

The main street with the houses forming a wall.  We visited in the barely visible dark gray one past the yellow one.

The big doors open to the inner courtyards which often had much older looking buildings behind.

This old barn connected to a house was along the main street into town.

This should give you an idea of the construction and the age of the buildings.

Another view of the house connected to the old barn and the size of the main road into town.