Mai 23, 2010 Venturing further out on our own

This has been a full day today. Elder Walters and I debated about what to do, and we wanted to venture further out than Konstablerwaca and the Willy Brandy Ctr. We saw more high end fashion places so of course I took pictures of that for Rachel. We went to the Hauptbahnhof which is the main railway station and boy is it. The hugest place I have ever seen, all steel and there is at least 24 trains going in and out to all places in Europe. At least we know how to get there. It seems like every time we venture out and Gene is some where else a vagrant person always asks me for money. This particular day it was a guy who said he had aids, I think he was more intoxicated. I told him I didn't speak German so he started speaking English. I said I didn't have any money and he looked at my missionary name tag and said oh I thought your church believed in helping others. What could I say, except I am sorry. The people asking for money here are not homeless they just go down to the plaza and beg for money. They are dressed better than I am. It's just a con I think. Well that goes with the big city. Anyway after taking a few pictures there we saw a touring bus and we were able to get on. The bus was one of those double decker open roof ones and it was great for taking pictures of those huge new buildings. The neatest thing happened while we were on the tour, all the bells in the city rang in unison for about 15 min. They only do that 4 times a year, and this is one of those holidays. It is called Whit (vit) Monday the day of Penticost or when the Holy Ghost came down as cloven tongues of fire on the apostles.

It was great talking to Dawn and Rachel on skype. We finally got our internet in. Can't seem to get a hold of Kim. Hope she isn't lost some where in Big Bear. We are trying to find some cool places to take Mazzy and her friend when they come to Germany in July.

We just got some bad news at church today. Dr. and Sister Dye who are a missionary couple here in Frankfurt were out riding there bikes yesterday and she had a stroke and fell off of her bike and hit her head. She is in a coma now, they said it did not look good for her. Her daughter from California is flying in to be with her. We are praying for her, please do the same there. The ironic part of this whole thing is that they were going to take us to see the Palmerngartens yesterday and they called and said they were going to cancel because they loved riding bikes and it was the first sunny day to do that. I wish they had taken us instead, maybe she would not have had the stroke, but then again maybe she would have been driving and we would have had an accident. You never know what is going to happen in your lives. That is why it is always good to be prepared.

We went to another ward today. It is German speaking also but they have interpreters not the liahona. I really like it better but Gene says he wants to stay in the German speaking ward. What to do. They really need help in the ward we went to today with people playing and leading the music. I lead the music today, so I felt like I was needed there. The problem is, the songs are all in German and I have to look at how the music is written to figure out the name of the song. It's a fun game I play. Actually I like singing the hymns more in German. For our homecoming I want the Penrod family and Mazzy to sing a hymn in German, so pick one out now and I'll send you the song in German. That gives you all plenty of time to practice.

The weather is turning warm now, thank heavens, they say it will get up to the 90's and no one has air conditioning. There is a constant breeze here. Well have a good week if we do anything fun will blog it.

labels for pictures: Sis Osterloh (German sister missionary, Main train station, many churches around., Market place, High rises, Alte Oper (Opra house, Mosaic in underground train station, Main River. Natural History museum)