Day 4

This day was Sunday, a much needed day of rest after Paris. My mom and her missionary companion, Sister Hansen, drove us around a bit. They live in a suburb of Frankfurt called Bad Vilbel, this is their city hall. Cute, huh?

Then we drove out a bit and passed a large flower garden where there were flowers growing and you could go pick the ones you wanted and put some money in the box on the honor system. That is one thing about Europe, there are flower shops everywhere: in the train station, the metro, on the side of the road, you can buy them in all of the little grocery stores. They definitely appreciate beauty.

On to the Frankfurt temple. It's small and simple but in a beautiful area, far outside of the actual city. After the temple we went to see her offices and then to church. The thing that impressed me the most about church was the group of little old ladies. Think about what they have seen in their life time! The rise and fall of Hitler, the building and destroying of the Berlin wall, and here they are, still at church. They were beautiful. Second most impressive were the number of people who could speak fluent English! Several of them have been educated in the U.S. but most of them realized they needed to learn English as the common language in Europe. My mom said when she goes to conferences that include young adults from different countries, they use English. It makes me want to at least learn French and teach the kids, too.

The senior missionaries had a get together that evening, their stake president spoke. He was born and raised in Frankfurt but went to school in Colorado, where he met is wife. He went on to get a masters degree in chemical engineering and is working on a fiber that is as light and thin as a spiders web but will protect like Kevlar. Amazing. Anyway, about 10 years ago, he and his wife moved back to Germany with their four kids and the wife didn't speak any German. Neither did the kids. Now they are all fluent. Amazing.