04-05 Mar 2011 Date Night & Jessica's Birthday

The following pictures were taken during the last two days. The blog will follow.




These are of Jessica's back yard. House next door has moss on the roof. Elder Walters wanted you to be aware of that.













They had a great spread. Picture of the Swedish fish casserole. That included eggs, shrimp, cucumbers, lochs and tuna salad.











These are all pictures of Jessica the birthday girl.

























These are pictures of the group. They all work at the Distribution Center for the church. The little girl is Jessica's sister and the other children are from the couples who came to the party.





























These are pics of the new furnaces and copper pipes that have been installed at the fix up house. Picture of the food storage room and the remnants of the old fireplace that Elder Walters tore down so they could install the pipes for heating. In Germany they heat with hot water.




























Not much going on this week end except a couple of social events. I finally got a date night with my companion. I have to admit, before I came on the mission, I was addicted to movies at a real theater with buttery popcorn and a drink in my hand. It was so bad, I even did three in one day, by myself. Since being on my mission I find that movies are just a diversion not the end all of everything. But I have to admit this last Friday was a pleasant surprise when Elder Walters said he would go see "True Grit" with me. They have one theater in Frankfurt that runs original movies which means they are in English. I was surprised. It took us 15 minutes of walking up three flights of stars, then back down and finally finding the theater. No name of show being played, just a number. And yes, we did get our popcorn, only minus the butter and salt. Tasted all right since that was the first time we had popcorn here too. For those who have not seen True Grit, It was a pretty good movie, I see why Jeff Bridges and his leading lady were up for awards at the Oscars. I guess this is going to be the first of many to come, since I do love movies but I will limit myself to a couple a month.

Speaking of movies, this Wednesday the girls from work plus Gene and another husband will be going first, to Kentucky Fried Chicken for dinner and then over to the Cinestar in Frankfurt to see "The Kings Speach". I know that got Best Picture so we are looking forward to that. Also we received an email from Salt Lake that on April 8th they will be showing the new movie, "Joseph Smith and the Gold Plates". They will have one showing in English with German subtitles. I had no idea there was such a movie and I am doubly surprised that it is being played in Germany at a real theater. Look for it, I am sure it will being playing in your neck of the woods. We are looking forward to that.

Saturday was a full day. We spent the first part at the fix up house. I took a few pictures to show that they have been putting the heat in the upstairs. Had another great meal of rice, carrots and fish along with great German Rye bread for lunch. Then we went to Friedberg to shop for a good bakery cake and some cute scarves for Jessica, the birthday girl. Jessica is a co worker at the Distribution Center. She is 22 years old and has already received her Mission Call to the Visitors center in Washington DC. Since she already knows how to speak German, English and French, I hope they will let her learn Spanish. She is a very loving girl, she reminds me of my own daughters. She will be leaving in April. Tonight she had a birthday party at her house. We were able to meet her parents who are great people. Her father was a Bishop at one time and served his mission to the Toronto, Canada Mission. Her mother is French and served her mission in the Alberta, Calgary Mission. We really enjoyed talking to them. Another co-worker Ruth Fahl brought her husband Axle nd children and another couple Thomas and Anika were from Sweden. It was just a really enjoyable evening just talking to one another. The food was also great. I have to interject that Anika brought a traditional dish that she said came from Sweden. They do eat a lot of fish there so that was the mainstay. Basically you cut the crusts off the bread layer it in a pan with tuna salad that you make before hand with onions, dill, mayonaise pickles and small cut up tomatoes. On the top of that you cover with a small amount of mayonaise all over so that you can stack the following foods all around it. Cut up veggies of your choice and hard boiled eggs cut in long ways slices, lochs and shrimp. It stood about 4-5 inches high. Great dish to take to a luncheon. We left about 2200 hours and felt we had made some really good friends.