The Deutschland Daily

You probably don't remember the blog I did of our last few days in Würzburg, but I ended it with a sunset from the back window of our apartment there. We had such an incredible view, both of our beautiful little dorf, the church tower, the castle, and the sky--it was really hard to leave! And then....this is what we came to! A dirty ol' cluster of buildings with metal roofs and garbage and clutter--oh what a difference--Welcome to Wien, I thought!!

The really funny part, though, is that for the first three or four nights, we had wind that knocked the acorns off the trees and made the loudest bangs and clangs and hammering sounds--it took us a few hours to figure out what war we were a part of, but then we began to enjoy it!

This is the front view from our current apartment. Welcome to the big city! It is very convenient, though, as the gal who cuts both Hank's and my hair has her shop directly across the street, and she's done hair for the missionaries for years. She's good! You can see her shop on the far right. Of course, we also have to enjoy the graffiti (grafitti? graffitti?), but it's so rampant that we don't even think of trying to eradicate it with our own cans of white paint!

This picture demonstrates how well people parallel park here. They're really amazing, 'cause they usually only have a few minutes before they'll get blared at by a passing strassenbahn or an unhappy driver who doesn't want to wait the minute and a half it takes for someone to park. However,.....sometimes things get a little squishy. This isn't even as bad (or close) as some get. We saw one frustrated soul call the police one day 'cause he couldn't get his car out, but after awhile he just gave up and took the bahn.

This is one of our walking paths, and we totally enjoy it. It's usually windy and cold right now, but you can see we had a beautiful day on this day! This is part of the Donau (or Danube) River. It's called the Donau Kanal, and it is a great place to walk, run, cycle, or walk your dog(s)! There's an upper trail closer to the road and a lower trail right along the river itself. We walk part of this to get to church, which only takes us about 15 minutes.

This is part of the U-bahn (or underground train) system. Their public transportation here is unbeatable, and we're really spoiled. You can get anywhere you need to go in Wien by train, trolley, or bus.

This is looking one direction inside the U-bahn...

This looks the other way...Note the head of the dog down a car or two. It reminds us of our very first U-bahn ride when we arrived in Wien. We were heading to a General Conference session one Sunday morning at 10:30 a.m., and for some reason, we were the ONLY ones on the bahn except for a dog way down the cars from us. We couldn't see its owner, just the rear of the dog. I couldn't get my camera out of my purse quickly enough to snap a picture, but just imagine a totally empty U-bahn with this dog patiently waiting for its stop. It was so fun. Of course, we eventually saw the owner (and the dog) get off together a few stops down the line, but we've never encountered another experience with no one on the bahn but us and a dog. Wish I could have recorded it.

The pooch has now turned around and is ready for departure at his stop.

Wien is full of beautiful carriages pulled by fancy horses. It costs 40€ per person to take a ride around the city, but it would be fun. The Gills, who preceded us at the Center, said it was a must-do, but I think we'll save our 40€ for a bus tour around the city. It's only 20€ per person, and that sounds a lot better, and we can hop on and hop off the bus anytime we'd like for pictures or going inside, etc.

We thought this was quite unique. That is an actual piece of sod that the store owner has placed in front of his shop as a "rug" of sorts, I guess. I'd like to know how long such a thing lasts!

This picture made me laugh harder than anything yet, but at the same time I was terrified!! The ad with the girl in it was placed just outside our Center, and it was so horribly immodest and suggestive that it really bothered us.... So, one day I was cooking in the kitchen and wondered what Hank was up to, and I found him in the main "dining"/"lounging" room of the Center with a paint brush and bucket in his hand. I didn't think much about it at the time, as I figured he was doing some touch-ups on some banged up corners, etc., in the building.

However, as we walked up the street to buy some bread for lunch, Hank asked if I noticed anything different, and all of a sudden I saw that the girl had a new "nighty" on!!!!! A white nighty!! I nearly died. In broad daylight, Hank had painted over her skimpies!!! He did such a good job--it was really great, but I could just see him being picked up and jailed for defacing property! No sirens, though, so we breathed a little easier. Two days later, though, we found the company had re-pasted two of the strips of the original ad back up, leaving our little babe totally skimpy again. Too bad, I thought, but at least the police didn't come. Well, two hours later, I look out the window and saw that she was painted AGAIN! In broad daylight again!! I was sure we were in trouble this time, but no sirens, not flashing lights. However, two or three days later, a totally new ad was put up advertising some sports event, so our dilemma was solved!

These next pictures will kind of show you our Center. On Tuesdays every week, we have two different districts meet in the building for their district meetings. These elders had been to the opera (La Boheme) the night before and had all bought bow ties for the event! You can see why we love our elders!

This is our district (with some interloper in the background--I don't know who)! The tall redhead is our district leader now--he's from Dresden, Germany and is great. I've just never been able to catch him with his eyes open, and I've tried a dozen times!!

And now you can meet some of our young single adults. This is a Friday night group who are enjoying making faces on their waffles. Waffles is the all-time favorite dessert for a Friday--I have to really beg to make anything different! You can see five different nationalities represented here: From left to right, we have Kersten, an Austrian, Tao, a Chinese, Tessy from Nigeria, Tibor from Austria, Marco from the Philippines, and Tukeem, who is really from the U.S., but whose mother and father are Jamaican.

A typical Monday after family home evening. Board games, pool, fussball, darts, just chatting and hanging out...

More board games...

These guys decided to have a "Vikings" night, and it was hilarious. The three girls in the background are BYU students, the young men are a mix of BYU and our YSAs.

The point of this "event" is to have the underneath men walk forward on their hands and knees and see which of the top men can hang on the longest. ??? That's what they did!

This event tested your skill at starting at the top of the table, going underneath and regaining the top without touching the floor. This guy didn't make it! Neither did any of the others the entire night except...

This elder...

He made it over the top and now has to crawl along the bottom and get back on top...which he does!

I just call this event "grab the shoe." The Viking has to crawl in between the arms of the enemy to try to grab the shoe which is on the floor

He has made it up and over the first barrier of arms and is heading down for the shoe...

Grabbed the shoe and now has to crawl over the opposite barrier of arms...

Success! Didn't touch the floor once but nearly killed the two guys who were holding him!

This activity was an after-home-evening activity as well. Hank divided the kids into four groups, and each group was given a large garbage bag filled with the same objects. They were then to design an outfit for one person in their group. Totally creative, totally fun...

This guy is wearing pants made from toilet paper held together by duct tape. Ingenious.

I loved the topknot of this gal, made from a paper cup, toilet paper and duct tape.

A picture of all four contestants. I think they are all winners!

Don't you?

Just a fashion statement in dress design... (Sergio, an investigator from Spain, is looking on.)

Back to regular activities...

Chatting...the gal on the far right is from Russia.

This trio are the Huber kids, playing a game of darts. They are probably our most faithful attendees, great kids. The one on the right has filled a mission, the middle one will leave in about a year (he's only 17), and their sister keeps them in line.

Elder Lund keeping tabs...

Our two greatest helps---Sister Chun (age 78, if you can believe it) and Sis. Achiu (age 72). They work like trojans and bring more love in the door than you can imagine. They teach our advanced English class. Sis. Achiu is an English teacher by profession, so we certainly take advantage of her! These sisters teach the gospel beautifully in every lesson, reading from Ether to talk about America being a promised land, giving each class member their own Book of Mormon so they can practice their English and read, using articles from the Ensign to teach a concept, and just good, basic English. The sisters also taught the hula one night!! It was a hoot seeing these men willing to dance the hula to please the sisters. They also sing, oftentimes accompanied by Sis. Chun's ukelele. The class members love the sisters so much, because the sisters love them so much!!

A pair of elders teach the beginners, and another pair of elders teach a beginning German class. These are held each Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.

This is one of our advanced students (Hamid). The sisters told a story about the Clark Family, and they asked Hamid to illustrate it for us. He's an artist by profession (and is a millionaire as well). All of our students are Iranian/Armenian who are here in Wien waiting for visas to gain entrance into the U.S. Very bright, very kind, very fun, very polite, very gracious.

This man brings his son each week. Isn't he beautiful??

The whole class (with a couple missing). We lose some every once in awhile when their visas come through, and they have learned to love Sis. Chun and Achiu so much that they always come back to give them hugs and kisses and words of appreciation. Really wonderful people.

This is an institute class. You can see Bro. Gill in the back. There is an average attendance of 45 to 50 in class. We have Pearl of Great Price in German, Book of Mormon in German, and Church History in English.

And this is wonderful Eva Marie Kemendecs. She is the epitome of service. She comes every Wednesday and cooks for the young people after institute. She already has a full-time job tending kids during the day, so instead of feeding the YSAs before institute, they have class first and then eat, giving Eva time to get things completely ready.

The amazing thing about Eva is that she cooks for almost every activity or retreat the YSAs have. There's a four-day retreat starting Tuesday, and she and the Huber kids' dad will cook for the whole group. They are coming in from all over Europe, and I have no idea how many they will provide for. This includes breakfasts, dinners, and treats. Eva is generous beyond belief with her talents. I just love her.

This is a typical meal of hers--a huge tub of potato salad, and home made schnitzel, which she slices herself, breads, and then cooks.

This is a typical salad bar that she provides. They don't mix their vegies like we do. There's a bowl of lettuce, one of tomatoes, and one of cucumbers (she also adds shredded carrots sometimes).

And here is Tao again. He is studying quantum physics here in Wien. He will graduate in four months and then hopes to get an assistantship teaching while he pursues his doctorate. If he can get an assistantship, he will marry his fiance at that time. He is a long-time investigator.

Anyhow, Tao invited us to his apartment for dinner, a REAL Chinese dinner! He asked if we liked fish, and I frankly told him that it wasn't our favorite food, but we would eat it if it were cooked! Well, his English isn't quite as good as his German or his Chinese, I guess, 'cause this is the meal he prepared...

He certainly served it in a beautiful manner, and he is also just a gracious, pleasant fellow. From top right (clockwise), we have raw tuna and another raw fish, sliced; large shrimp, seaweed, a tuber/tofu salad, and a whole, cooked fish. To the left on the green bench is rice. He also served fish soup and a special green tea which his parents send him because it is so much better than anything here!!

This cooked fish had an amazingly good flavor, but I couldn't quite bring myself to handle the raw fish. I hope so much that I didn't offend him, because he had worked so hard.

Seaweed...

And the raw shrimp.

Well, on that happy note, we'll call it a day and tell all of you that we love you and think of you and remember you in our prayers. We are so blessed!