This is me with our Christmas tree on the U-bahn.  Which is the local train system we use to get around.  It is similar to trax, but way faster, and underground some of the time.

This is a Giant Christmas Pyramid like the Nativity scenes they make here in Germany.  It is in Heidelberg by the Christmas Market.

More Pictures II!

More pictures!

Street Contacting, First Snow and Frankfurt Temple!

Hello, Everyone! Yes, in case you were worried, we are still alive. There has been so much that has gone on in the last week, and I've tried to write about it three times already, but each time I write the title, I lose all concentration, and end up staring at the screen blankly until I give up and do something else.

But not this time!!!

So, three weeks ago I promised the sister missionaries here that we would help them street contact. Every Tuesday they set up a poster-stand in the middle of the main Fussgaengerzone in Stuttgart, and try to make contacts with all the people that are walking by. 

Two weeks ago I forgot I was supposed to help them. 

But last week we didn't forget! We showed up at 10:30 a.m, just like they told us to! Unfortunately, Sister Seidel had food poisoning from eating left-out tuna salad the night before, and so the sisters weren't there. Silly sisters!! So Graydon and I hung out with the two Elder-companionships. This means that we asked them how to contact people, and then walked away into the crowd together, and tried it. I learned two important things about us:

Graydon is so good at starting conversations!

I am terrible at starting conversations, but am a little more capable when it comes to explaining why we're there after the initial contact. 

We make a great companionship! Graydon had to leave at about 11:30, but before he did, we'd placed our first Book of Mormon! And I guess he left the Spirit with me or something, because shortly after he left I placed the second one! I think the Elders were thinking "WHAT is going ON over there?!" We were pretty much on fire. Now it's just up to us to pray that 1) They actually open the Book and read it, and 2) Their hearts are open to feel the healing power of the Spirit that resides therein.

Then the shadow of first-contacting talent that Graydon had left evaporated, and I spent until about 12:30 trying to talk to people who were too busy, or simply talking to thin air. With one exception: Two men from Africa came walking by, and I started talking, and they stopped walking (the first and best sign!)! Then an Elder came over (trying to steal the limelight, of course! :) It's okay, I can share the victory. Since it has nothing to do with me, anyways...), and we found out they liked English better! And the Elder, who was for the international (English-speaking) ward, got their contact information, and they agreed to have him drop by! Nice. I love this work!

I was freezing by the time it was over, however, and didn't thaw until I got home after my chem class. I got home at around 4.

I'm trying to think about all the rest of the awesome things that happened on Wednesday and Thursday. I can't remember them...but we did get Ratatouille in the mail!

On Friday I had to go to the University Vaihingen Campus (there are two in Stuttgart, one in the middle of the city and one on the outskirts--Vaihingen is on the outskirts) to attempt to take a test for the second time. It didn't work, but something beautiful happened as I was walking to the train to go home! First I will mention the cool-but-not-quite-beautiful thing: I saw our friend Paulius (the one I gave the first Lithuanian BoM to)! As I was talking to him the real beautiful thing happened: SNOW! We haven't seen snow at all here up to this time! And then all the flakes started falling, and I was so excited to buy a couple of donuts and some hot chocolate and meet Graydon at his train! Which I did.

I got to his platform half an hour early. It's cold here. And I sat outside because I'd also gone grocery shopping and didn't want the meat getting too warm. It wasn't too bad, though; I ate a couple of oranges while I waited. But then the train was thirty minutes late. The second thirty minutes is actually when I ate the second orange. And I was listening to War of the Worlds. But when the train finally arrived, my sweetheart didn't step off of it! So, I headed home trying to balance two cups of hot chocolate and a 3 kg bag of oranges on the train, and was a little worried. 

Luckily, Graydon was there when I got off the train at the stop by our apartment. He'd actually caught an earlier train that had also been late, and that's how we missed each other. It was fortunate that it had snowed on him, too--the snow stopped when I got closer to the city. He thought about getting donuts and chocolate, but it was good he didn't, because I already had. :) We enjoyed that little tradition together. And then ate little bite size frozen pizzas and chicken wings, because I'd been craving meat-stuffs. 

The night before we didn't have meat, so I almost cleaned the peanut-butter jar out. It was an okay-alternative.

Anyhow, when we'd gotten home the George's had called and left a message, wondering if we'd like to travel with them to the Frankfurt Temple on Saturday! They weren't 100% sure there'd be room, but it turned out there was. They have a van that they drove us up with. It was nice to spend time with them!

But I'm getting ahead of myself. The night before, even though we were happy it had actually snowed, none of it stuck! The next morning at 5:30 when we left to catch the trains to make it to Vaihingen by 6:30, there was snow on the ground! I was so excited! We crunched all the way to the train, and then all the way to the George's. I love the smell, sound and feel of the snow in the morning! In spite of this, we were both cold. :) It was colder than it has been since we've been here! 

So we drove with Jen, Andrew, and their little, darling boy Davin to Frankfurt. The temple was beautiful, but it was even colder in Frankfurt than Stuttgart! This was due to a pretty heavy wind that blew the cold right through you. Inside the temple wasn't cold, though. It was nice. And we enjoyed listening to all the German. 

On our way home, Jen and Andrew saw a castle up on the hillside, and said "Let's go see it!" So they pulled out their handy-dandy GPS, looked up the castle, and we drove up to it! It was really awesome. Unlike some/most castles with which you have to pay to go inside, this was a ruin, so we were at liberty to walk right in, and look around! It was really cool! Some of the places were reinforced--because it is a ruin, but there were actually only a few doors that were locked & a few places we couldn't check out. I think it's the first time I've really felt a dream coming true since I've been in Germany. I mean--I've ALWAYS wanted to run around in a castle that was thousands of years old at my own liberty! The only thing was that I'd read a book about a ruin that had only become a ruin because it was haunted...so I kept getting the creeps. But it was so cool!

The wind was also very strong, and very cold at the castle. We were able to climb the two tallest towers, one all the way to the top and the other almost-so. In the one that was open all the way to the top, you could see forever, and the wind was so strong if you faced it directly you could hardly take in breath. It made me fee like I was in Lord of the Rings or something cliche-romantic like that. I could just imagine looked over that valley a few thousand years ago when there weren't smokestacks or refineries in the distance, and the possible danger of an army coming to attack. Just the fact that you could see 360 degrees around was a great protection, not to mention the 3 walls around the castle itself. Graydon and I had a great time being adventurers, and poor Graydon's fingers were freezing by the end from taking pictures (my camera died). 

So, we made it home and ordered two pizzas (we miss american pizza!), the watched a movie. I pooped out half way through the movie. Graydon stayed up for the big game, and came to bed distraught. I comforted him half-awake. He felt better the next day when he'd come up with clever come-backs for anyone who addressed him about it and had talked to his fellow Y fans in church. He makes me so happy inside!

Well, that's basically everything. The pictures in this post don't look very nice, but they're there! I'll try and post some more of the castle, too. 

PS There are a few videos and all the pictures posted on facebook. So, if you can find someone with an account, go on and check it out!

Pictures that belong below. :D

This is a picture of the bear in the bear pit. I'm afraid it will have to suffice. It is on it's haunches now, waiting for a delectable cherry tomato to come flying down.

It's an old bear. But beautiful!

(above) This is the Bern Temple. This picture is part of a series that will be added on facebook. Stay tuned...

And DIE WASCHMASCHINE!!! And of course the kitchen is a mess!

My apologies, everyone!

I am very sorry I have not written in a very long time, everyone. It's just been one of those things, you know!

To start this I would like to tell everyone that is sitting in snow that I can hear a lawnmower right now. That sound should be reserved for summer. I miss snow! 

And another thing to make up for my not posting anything at all: a video!

I'm sorry everyone, I think the video is too big for this. I will find a way to make up for it. Please look for the video on my facebook account!

So this is in Bern, Switzerland! It is called Baerengraben--bearpits. Unfortunately, there is only one bear right now. And the pit is not a very healthy-looking one, though there are rocks and stuff. Fortunately they already have the plans for a new, spacious, happy bear pit that runs along the river--they will actually divert part of the river into the pit. It will also have a walkway with plexiglass so people can see in on the bears--it looks like more are in the planning.

And this isn't a new thing, either. As Graydon states, one of the reasons Bern is named that has to do with the fact that they've always had bears in the middle of the city--kind of like how Sky View used to have a bobcat. It sounds like they've upgraded (and probably moved) the bear pits a few times before. 

We love this movie because it shows the bear. You can see how the bear walks over to people who have food, and then sits on it's haunches, and catches the food with it's mouth. Pretty domesticated, and entirely undomesticated. I hope not many people from Bern try to visit Yellowstone! :) I was surprised to see people feeding it at first (they were feeding it french-fries when we got there), but found out later that you could by little bags of food-tomatoes, apple slices, grapes and things-to feed to the bear. There was also a security guard who would stop people from feeding it other things. Like french fries (okay, I was pretty disgusted about that).

Another good thing: We have a washing machine! I will post a picture of the kitchen + washing machine. It gets stuck on one cycle, but we got it for only 90 Euro (a steal for a washing machine--I never knew they were so expensive!). I was complaining at a dinner last Sunday night where there were us, two Elders, two sisters, and the missionary couple, all invited to a friend's house--Enriqo? I'm not sure how to spell it. Anyways, Sister Duke (who is from Cache Valley with her husband!) gave us a number to contact, then Elder Norris (who got transfered today :( ) called them for us (they only speak German). And they had one, and brought it by on Monday! Patrick McGaffin and our friend Bertram helped me carry it upstairs, since Graydon had to be at school, and we played some Canasta while we waited and had some leftover lasagna from the night before.

Oh, yes! On this past Sunday, it was our turn to feed the missionaries! We invited the sisters and the Elders, and Patrick and our neighbors upstairs! We made a HUGE lasagna and two small ones. And it fed everyone + leftovers! I had lasagna the next day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!

I forgot to tell you why we were even in Bern! Our friends John and Betty invited us to go down with them to the temple! After a few months, it was so much like going home--I miss that place so much! We stayed in a guest house--sort of like a youth hostel-- and ate breakfast/walked across the street to the temple the next day! It was really cool to stay at the guest house. There was a ward up from Italy (I really think there's a reason there will be a temple in Rome!), and it was so cool to be there with them! Even though we couldn't really communicate with each other, we knew we loved one another and that was enough. It was really special. 

We also found a distribution center, where we bought a German triple combination, German preach my gospel (and almost one in English--of the three we have together, none of them made it in the suitcase! Rats.), and a small German hymnbook. 

The temple was amazing, as usual. Since there were so many english speakers, the session was done in English. But everyone else there were not English speakers! It even seemed like there was more french than English, even though Bern is in the German part of Switzerland! Gee-whiz. It was really special!

But it's time for me to go get ready for school now. And make sure the washing machine goes to the next cycle. Remember: We love you all!!!