Hallo to all, as they say here. We've been crazy busy here as Ginny has taken on the additional responsibilities of financial secretary until a replacement arrives. This has been a lot of work for her but she seems to be handling it quite well. Since we last checked in we have also had the chance to see and experience quite a few things here in the mission area.

As you can see we have the opportunity to have some of the missionaries over for dinner occassionally which is a lot of fun for us to get to know them better and share their missionary experiences.

This is a picture of those attending our weekly staff meeting. President and Sister Ninow are in the middle along with some senior missionaries and the assistants to the president along with the elders who keep the computers running when older minds can't quite get the grasp of new technology.

This is a picture of a wonderful castle overlooking the Mosel River in Cochem. It was originally built in the 1100's and fell into disrepair along with some unhappy encounters with the French in the 1600's. It was restored according to its original plans in the 1800's and is a great reminder of happenings in medieval history.

This is inside some man made caves in a mountain near Homburg. Starting in the 1200's a fortress was built on top of a hill with mining of sand under the fortress. Over the next few hundred years, the mining of the sand in the mountain encompassed twelve levels of mining tunnels and taking out the soft sands used in the making of clear glass. The mining wa abandoned in the 1700's and the fortress on top became a ruin. In the early 1930's the mining caves were resdiscovered by children playing in the area. During World War II the caves were used to shelter people in the area during bombing raids in this area. They were able to shelter between 5 and 6,000 people at one time for up to ten days.

Let's conlude with the brief story of Emma. Emma is in her mid 30's and was born in Bolivia. In her 20's she went to Italy for about five years and then came to Germany for some additional schooling and work. Occassionally we have the opportunity of going with the missionaries to teach and work with their investigators. We were asked by the missionaries to go with them while they worked with Emma. The elders "found" her at the streetcar stop near their apartment and her apartment. This was located near the ward in Frankfurt and provided the opportunity to teach her in the ward building. Emma accepted the gospel quickly and in spite of language difficulties, at times, she came to treasure her new found understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ. She was baptized about a month after meeting the missionaries and is very happy in her ward activities. The road home may be circuitous but the end of the trip is always worth the drive.