Was Geht Ab? (what's up)

So what's going on in Frankfurt?

Discovering the unexpected is so fun in a new city.  We rode our bikes to the Goethe University and happened across  "The Body of Knowledge" sculpture by Spaniard Jaume Plensa.

It's the same sculpture that Nick enjoyed in Zaragoza, Spain on his mission. There it's called "El Alma del Ebro"   They called it "Letter Man". It represents cells of the human body which is over 60% water. The white letters and hollow structure "invite the viewer to look inside and reflect on the relationship between human beings and water." 

The September Blood Moon showed up here like everywhere else.

Harvest time.  People live in high rises so there are communal gardens (Schrebergärtens) all over Frankfurt.

Learn about Schrebergärtens here

Grape-growing has gone on at Lohrberg since the 9th century. Some of these grapes make Frankfurt apfelwein.

Here's the tombstone graveyard where they toss them after the 15 to 30 year expiration of "owning a grave".  If a family is unable or unavailable to renew the lease, the grave’s contents are removed and the grave site reverts to state ownership and may be reused.

Schultütes for sale.  When children set off for their first day in school upon entering first grade, their parents and/or grandparents present them with a big cardboard cone, prettily decorated and filled with toys, candies, school supplies, and various other goodies. That's one German tradition I may take with us to the US.

We love our ward.  Last night they put on an "International Evening" where members from thirteen countries put out displays of food, videos, crafts, costumes, games and more. Amazing and eye-opening about how we're having a once-in-a-lifetime experience here.  This is the Italian group - notice Silvia with the red, white and green fingernails.  (She and I do CSM work together.)

The senior missionaries know how to have fun too. We had a Book of Mormon Mystery night. The Greenwoods adapted it to modern times and five tables tried to solve the murder mystery.  These are the maids - pretty good for women who brought everything they own in two suitcases, eh? (Sisters Matheson, Saunders, Hanks, Riggs, Bausman)

The day after I returned from Nick's graduation, Rand presented a "Seniors and Exercise" speech to some temple missionaries. As the meeting started, we realized that we were being welcomed and singing in German. Rand had an elder translate for him, thinking it would be faster but realized his German was better than the brother. Then the sister who was translating for the French missionaries had to leave early so guess who was left - yes, me. Pretty hilarious with a jet-lagged brain and 38-year-old French. Yea for body language.

This is most of our medical team celebrating Dale Greenwood's and Gordon Smith's birthdays. We have become very close as we pray for, discuss and sometimes weep about sick missionaries.

(Biddulphs, Smiths, Rand, Greenwoods, Hawkins. Purdy absent)

What kind of a mission is this?

To be honest, this "mission" is more like a job than a typical mission. It has taken me awhile to understand that but I'm learning to appreciate that any contribution we make to helping missionaries do well is worthwhile, even if we're not the ones out teaching and serving others.

There are many others who do this type of work in the area office. There are volunteer attorneys, real estate experts, couples over public affairs, humanitarian projects, family services, young single adults, self-reliance. And that's just in our office. There's a financial office with "missionaries" and of course, a family history center and temple which are partially staffed with missionaries. Here's a picture taken Sunday when Elder Hallstrom spoke to us. Surrounding him and his wife is the Area Presidency - Texeiras, Kearons and Dyches. The rest is our new senior social group. (We're on the far right). 

So here's our office where we go most days.  (That's Frank helping set up our computers). 

Rand's main responsibility is to advise and consult with mission presidents' wives or nurses about the young and old missionaries' health concerns.  He writes no prescriptions and only makes suggestions about treatment, including seeing a doctor. Rand's on call 24 hours a day. In our assigned missions there are about 3000 missionaries serving in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, one mission in Spain, Belgium, Netherlands, Poland, Finland, Norway, Sweden and France. There's a non-English-speaking nurse in one of the French missions so I get to help Rand with her. He also reviews and passes off the health histories on missionary applications from those countries. There are also meetings to attend, reports to fill-out, notes to make and follow-ups with sick missionaries. 

The main medical issues in order are orthopedics, gastrointestinal, psychiatric (there are three mental health advisors), trauma/accidents, neurological, infectious disease, dermatology, and ear/nose/throat It's gratifying because he explains things well and is a great resource for making decisions. He is enjoying the relationships he's developing with mission presidents and their wives. They are remarkable and show their love of the Lord through this huge service. The challenges of the job are not being able to get the health information other than by second hand reports, trying to understand what's going on long-distance, and not being able to make decisions about treatment. He is an advisor and not a care-giver or decision-maker.

I'm Rand's "lovely assistant". This is what several of us wives whose husbands have a job and we come along for the ride call ourselves. This picture shows some of us doing a project - Debbie Riggs and Marsha Castleton's husbands are in the Office of General Counsel, Sharon Greenwood and I are the doctors' wives. Marsha is also the Frankfurt mission's nurse so we helped her make packets for the missionaries one day in our office.

I finally found a job last week helping track service missionaries in the Europe area. These are young and older church members who want to volunteer for the church but aren't serving missions. It's a computer job but fun to work with Silvia from Italy, Olinda from Portugal and Coraline from France.

Which reminds me of our international ward. There are members from 42 countries and we come together on Sunday mornings to worship the Savior. We always have visitors; in fact Sunday a Ryser family from Switzerland showed up!

So that's why most of our posts are about eating or trips. What we do during the week isn't that picturesque.

Drei

When we talked to Maggie and Al last week, Al boldly asked "So what do you do all day?"

In the office we've been known to:
- field questions about missionaries' health, answer emails, phone calls, make notes of what was discussed with whom, fill out reports
- review health histories on missionary applications
- update lists of medications in various European countries and other one-time projects
- go to meetings, devotionals, study group, culture class

Obviously this is an internet photo because we have yet to see this much blue sky. Although one day the sun shined for a few hours.  Deserving of a picture:

Outside the office, we spend our time:

- finding a way to keep our shelf toilet from smelling. Any suggestions? I thought Germans were good an engineering. This one is a big mistake.

- figuring out Germany's recycling system

- We also buy groceries, cleaning supplies, etc. which takes forever. Good thing Rand can translate. One store is for us seniors - they have magnifiers on their grocery carts

- try not to miss a store's opening hours. Is this Spain and they have siestas?

- bump into a cute elder whose sister we know - Yea Diederichs! 

- happen upon Alois Alzheimer's grave  at the cemetery
   The Cravens planted Forget-Me-Not's at the grave. :)

- take a city tour

- and answer more phone calls because missionaries don't just get sick during office hours.

Does it sound like we're not doing a lot? Well we're not young missionaries anymore so this is plenty for us!

Good thing I took pictures because the first week was a blur

Here are some photos and captions thus far.

Missionaries love to get together. The Johansens fed us in grand style the first day we were in Frankfurt. How fun that Rand and I knew both Julie and Armand in our college years. Here are just a few of the other amazingly skilled, talented, faithful couples - 

we're humbled and honored to be here with them.

Greenwoods are next to us - our kind, patient, wise mentors who share the AMA assignment for the other half of Europe. Harrisons do real estate and natural resources in Europe, Hawkins help with Mental Health (she) and auditing (he), Smiths (see below), and Julie (Area Presidency office). Frankfurt is the European center for the church.

 All of the senior couples have an office. The Fiels help with Public Affairs 

(does this look familiar, Cravens?)

Rand's and my office. I tried to give one of the four monitors back but they said I'd need it. 

Max is a wonderful IT guy who helped us get set up.  (Now if I can remember how to use PCs instead of Macs.)

The Greenwoods have this sign on their wall. Dale took it to Iraq when he was stationed there.

We're recognizing it applies in Frankfurt as well.

Sister Enger teaches a German culture class every week. 

 The cemetery is the best place to jog. Except when I get lost and run 6 miles just to get out and back to the apartment. It's huge!

The office had a Christmas party including authentic German Wienerschnitzel, rot kohl, kloese, spetzle, brot...

Thanks, Tom and Shirley, for the shopping bag. The stores charge if you don't bring yours.

Frankfurt Temple with the Smiths - another incredible couple. He is the In Field Representative who handles anything that 30 mission presidents throw at him. Talk about stress.

 People come from all over the world to Germany's Christmas markets.

Yesterday there was some blue sky!

Here's how you can reach us. 

Or just email  2Rysers@gmail.com