Report from the Front

My bed.

My front door, second from left

Liebe Freunde,

Well, it's 11:00 p.m. and it looks like I've had most of my night's sleep since I came home and fell into bed at 6:30 p.m. I got up from my bed to check the clock in the kitchen and laughed out loud to see it was only 11:00 p.m.

But I did get the wireless connected by chance in the night last night, so here we are. Doing work.

Yesterday morning I went to German church in town by the area offices. Two wards meet there, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. They were very nice to me. The two sisters who live next door to me here go there, so it worked out perfectly to ride in with them. Lots of other people go to the international ward out in Offenbach but I want the German. It was wonderful to see them field a reasonable choir, have some regular sized deacons at the sacrament table, and a fairly young bishop who is really terrific. He gave a good talk (his German was a bit fast for me) and he taught the Gospel Doctrine lesson which was not too fast for me. The stake president's wife translated for everyone who wanted the English. But I toughed it out. I'll never get the German again unless I work at it.

In that ward, and the director of the choir is a woman whom I knew 43 years ago as a 10-year-old girl in Ravensburg, Germany. Gisela Klein. I had alerted her that I was coming, but she was so happy to see me it was amazing.

A senior couple had me over for Swedish salmon, meatballs, and the equivalent of cranberry sauce. It tasted terrific for Sunday dinner. They are missing Sweden. All of this a bit daunting just as they were getting comfortable with their temple recorder job at the Swedish Temple. Now the language is all different as well as the job.

I've met about 25 other senior people who work here in the offices, the test will be trying to remember their names. Real work starts this morning, Monday. We have a devotional at 9:00 a.m. at the church, then everyone goes to the office building next door to work. My office---makeshift at best---is in the basement of the church where they may expand to another ward someday. I get the clerk's office next to what would be the bishop's office. We'll see how long this works. My colleague works outof his apartment in the high rise building next door. But my apartment is 15 minutes away in a village called Bad Vilbel, so I can't work from here, though it's charming.

I already burned out my little converter trying to dry my hair yesterday morning. But someone found some hair dryers and curling irons in their apartment that fit the plugs normally. They have another set that also fits the plugs in England. Phew!

Last night I prayed in German. Out loud. That's the first time I felt like doing that in about 35 years. Something about struggling to use the right word makes each word and its meaning so valuable.

I love being here. Rainy, chilly, red-roofed Germany. I keep wishing I could show my grandchildren.

The Gospel is true. Seid brav! Ich liebe Euch!

Schwester Hanson