News From Germany!

This week we finally got some news from our mission in Germany. We now know that we will be working in the Family History Support Office in Bad Homburg (Ober-Ertenbach), Germany. It is very close to Frankfurt, Germany and is part of the European Central Area, which may just be called the European area now. They tell us that we will have access to a car there and asked for copies of our drivers licenses, which we sent. Grant also sent a copy of his old German driver's license which he still had. We sent all this digitally and quickly received back information that his driver's license is STILL VALID! After 45 years, his German driver's license is still good. How about that! However, they also asked if Pat would apply for a driver's license. Then we found out that gasoline costs $9.00 a gallon! Ugh! So, it looks like we may not use the car exclusively. Besides, it will be very good for us to walk or take public transportation, of which Germany has excellent services and it is always on time, they tell us.

We were told that we will be working in an office where they mostly speak English, but tell us it would be good to know some German phrases. Pat still wants to learn German very well and so Grant and Pat plan to attend a German-speaking unit near by, instead of the Frankfurt International Ward, as most couples do. We plan to become immersed in the language as much as we can.

We also got a long list of clothing, materials and things we should bring, and we recently found out that we are only allowed one 50 lbs. bag to check and one 40 lb. carry-on for each passenger. If we need to take extra stuff, it will cost $50. a bag. Oh my! Now what do we do?! I guess pay extra.

We were also told we might need to stay in the MTC for 3 or 4 weeks in order to give them time to procure an apartment for us in Germany. So, it will give us more time for training and they are already setting us up for training in the Main Family History Library in Salt Lake City. So we will be very busy. Our son, Jacob, who lives in the Salt Lake Valley is lending us one of his cars for the time we are there, so it shall be a great help. We are very grateful to our daughter, Susan and our son, Jacob, who will be helping us there in Utah and Salt Lake valleys. On Wed. August 20, we leave Ohio. Time is counting down very quickly.