FSY, REWE, and U-Bahn

You can skip straight to the pictures if you want to.

Today is Tuesday.  We had several meetings today.  Missionaries and Area Managers are beginning to call and interact with us, so it keeps us busy.  We got home in time to take a nice hour long walk around the cemetery across the street and through parts of town that parallel the U-bahn (above ground train/trolly) near us. 

Recently, every time we go to the store we try to buy something we've never had before.  Today we stopped at the Market at the bottom of our apartment building and bought a few things.  The new thing we bought was red beets in a pouch.  We had them for dinner and they were okay.  I told Nancy they tasted like dirt without the grit.  

Today is Sunday.  We helped with a "For The Strength of Youth" (FSY) leadership conference that was held in Bad Homburg this weekend.  Youth leaders came from around Europe to participate in this three day event.  They took information, teeshirts, lanyards, bags, and other stuff home to their individual stakes and countries.  We helped mostly with set up and welcoming.  It was amazing to see about 150 leaders from Germany, Spain, France, Portugal, Finland, Italy, The Netherlands, Alpine, England, Scandinavia, and the UK get together in a common cause to help young people around Europe.  They will all return to their own countries to organize and run conferences in their own countries for the youth.  

We played pickleball on Friday for a couple of hours.  Nancy is really improving!!  

Saturday, we got up early to walk to the grocery store which is close to a mile away.  They don't give you shopping bags in Germany, so we have to take our own bags.  I put on my Osprey backpack to fill with groceries and carry home.  It worked fabulously.  We are getting much better and quicker at our shopping trips.  We are becoming more "grocery fluent" with every trip.  When the cashiers ask if we want our receipt, I no longer think they are threatening to call the police for my lack of understanding.  We are also figuring out the money. Hooray!

After our shopping trip, we did some more exploring on the U-Bahn (above ground public train system).  A young German girl who had lived in London and New York helped us buy the right tickets.  Then we rode to the town square in Historic Frankfurt.  We'd been there before, but not by ourselves, so it was a different experience.  We visited some tourist shops, then took a nice walk along the River Main.  We also stopped at a little cafe and had some hot chocolate and shared a pastry.  It was very relaxing.  Nancy and I have always thought it would be fun to go to a foreign place and just live real life for an extended period of time.  To get into the rhythm of a place and learn about the culture, language, and people in an authentic way.  This is a dream come true for us.  We are much more comfortable with the public transportation system which will be nice.  It's amazing how little things can boost a persons confidence so much.

We have met with a few of our missionaries online and they are wonderful.  They are engaged in doing good things and their wisdom and purposefulness is inspiring.  Our purpose is to lift, build, and support them, but so far, it's been a very two way proposition.  We continue to think about strategies that will help us increase awareness of the "Just Serve" movement in Europe.  We are trying to create relationships with other departments in the church so we can work together on moving forward.  Any ideas are gladly welcome.

Here are some pictures:

Hot Chocolate and Pastry in Historic Frankfurt

The U-Bahn station is to the right.

Walking to the REWE grocery store 

Resting her feet at the For the Strength of Youth Leadership Conference

The Hotel Maritim in Bad Homburg, Germany is where the FSY conference was held.  All the meals were catered and the presentation was very European.

Christian Ottiker and his fiancee' Daniella.  He is our boss at the office.

In one of the conference rooms.  Christian Ottiker, Nancy, and Me.

FSY Leadership Conference

Conference Room

Set up before arrival of participants

A walk in the cemetery

Any relationship to Mamo?  (Vera Hauser)

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