After work today Gene hurried to the Hauptbahnhof to meet Bruce Boston., a friend from Vista who is now taking Gene's place in the High Priest group. They came back to the apartment to pick me up and drop off his luggage. He and Gene watched the planes go in and out from our 11th story window. Bruce thought it was quite the view. We decided to take him back to the Romerberg and the Dom Romer church, the oldest part of Frankfurt and walk along the Main River. I know he was impressed with the slower pace of life here and the expansive streets. They are beautiful.
We went through the Dom Romer Church, walked along the Main River and had a tasty gelato. Our favorite is Zitron (Lemon) and I think Bruce got a Hazelnut cone. I failed to mention to you that Germany is all things Hazelnut. Their are millions of Hazelnut trees here. They line the roads and parks. They have a beautiful bloom to them and now they are forming the nuts. Can't wait to see where all the nuts drop when it is time. Do people collect them or do you just step on them? We shall see. You know Nutella is made out of Hazelnuts, I guess everyone likes it.
Remember me saying that we do have spiritual experiences even though our job is working in a warehouse? While waiting for Gene and Bruce to tour the highest escalator I sat on a bench along the Zeil walk way. A lady approached me asking me to help her. I looked at her and saw right away that she was not homeless. She had a nice suit on with a nice handbag too. She spoke no English. Why do they all speak German when they need help. I guess the spirit speaks all languages. Back to the story, I listened and I figured out that she was talking about being in terrific pain all the time. She thought it was because she doesn't follow the Holy Spirit. She said her mother who has been dead for 20 years was telling her to find the truth. She is Catholic but says she does not feel anything when she goes to church, that is why God is punishing her by making her have terrific pain. It sounded like she had Rheumatoid Arthritus. I kept try to converse with her. I told her I was a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ and could find someone to talk to her in German if she wanted me to. I told her we could help her to find that peace that she was looking for. This is all in my broken German. Finally Gene and Bruce came back and relieved me of my task. Bruce helped out a lot by speaking a little German. At least what he could remember from serving a mission in Switzerland. The lady gave me her telephone number and we parted ways. (Since I won't be writing my blog on Sunday I thought I will tell you that Sunday we saw her at church. I suggested the Sister Missionaries would be best to teach her and they agreed. I feel so good inside to know Heavenly Father trusted me enough to tell this lady that I could help her. Thank you again.
The next day we took off work to take Bruce on a cruise down the Rhein River. He said it was unbelievable to see all this beautiful scenery at once. We took a short trip through Rudesheim before the tour began. As you can see by the pictures, the streets are very narrow and have lots of interesting shops here. One particular shop is called Katy Wahlfahrt. I guess they are only in a few townes in Germany. They specialize in anything American Women would find collectable worthy. It is out of this world. The amount of wood carving done for this shop. I guess I know where to go for ornaments this year, get ready girls for a special one this year.
After the tour down the Rhein Gene and Bruce toured the Burg Rheinfels castle. I opted not to do that one again. Gene will also have to take Maz when she comes, because I am still exhausted from the first time up to the top. I only posted pictures of things I did not post last time and those showing Bruce and Gene wandering around. If you're not interested in seeing Bruce or Gene, now is the time to stop looking but then you will miss some good pictures.
Gene wanted the Quorum to know that Bruce wore him out wanting to see everything. We only took one day off from work so Bruce was on his own the 24th. He opted for Limberg. We advised him to go there as we loved everything about it. When he go home that night he said it was well worth the trip. On Friday Bruce left for Ramstien Air Force Base to catch a flight to the US but we hear after the fact that he will be stuck there until Sunday. While he is there he will be finding the places Richard Stange mentioned in his e-mail. You know Richard lived there for several years with his family at the base while his father was in the military. No wonder he loves this place. Maybe we will see him and his family next year.
