A Different Week

This week has been a little different. We have finished the formal training program that we linked with on the Internet. The last of it was a real live test with real patrons having real problems.

We were told that we would have another meeting on the Internet this week in which we would be told how our service would proceed from here on out. Before the meeting, however, the administrator here told us that we would not be working with that group, and he asked us not to participate in that meeting. Had we had time we might at least have listened in to find out how things would have proceeded, but we had a conflicting meeting here to attend so we couldn't.

Now we are waiting until next week when we will be given our directions in a meeting to be held here. In the mean-time, we have been doing some indexing of records in a variety of types, and we've been studying the book we got to help us learn to read the old handwriting. So we "are not unbusy," just not busy doing what our training classes taught us to do.

One day this week provided some variety. Another couple had some car trouble last week, and they had to have their car towed in for repair. They were near Mannheim at the time and had to come home on a train. When they got word that the repairs were complete, we were asked by our supervisor to drive them to Mannheim and be sure they got their car. It took a few hours, but we enjoy being together with the other couple, and the break was pleasant. Since Mannheim is just a few miles from Heidelberg we took much the same route as we had taken in our own trip, and it was surprising how different the drive was. Weather had changed, and had we tried to see any sights that day we would have been very much disappointed. We were grateful we had made our trip when we did.

We probably won't be traveling much any more this year except for more training with the German handwriting. But it is November, and the holiday season is already getting underway. Advents Callendars will be made in one of the youth group meetings this next week, and Choirs are starting to practice. We have learned of a couple of public activities in Frankfurt - One is an open market Christmas display that will be very fun to see, and the other will be a time of peeling bells. There are ten churches in one area that combined have 50 bells, and there are two hours scheduled between our Thanksgiving day and New Years when they will ring all 50 of them together. The bells we heard in Heidelberg were so beautiful, we are planning to try to be there to hear these here in Frankfurt.

Thanks to those who found pictures of the monument to our blacksmith ancestor. We loaded them on my computer at work and did a little touch-up work on them to take out some spots that were in the scans. Then I printed each one and took them to Mr. Schäffer as a gift, explaining that I wanted him to know that we honored him for his honest and valuable work. He was delighted with our interest and effort.

The night after we got word of the results of the American elections, Sr Howlett and I were reading the last chapter in First Nephi in our German study session. That is a very comforting chapter when you analyze it carefully as we were doing. We recommend that all re-read the promises made to the Gentiles as well as other peoples in that chapter. It certainly lightened the load from our minds that had built up as we heard of the directions chosen by so many American voters.