27 October 2012

Hi,

This morning we woke up to snow (not much yet) on the ground!  And it's still coming down.  It's likely to keep snowing thru the weekend.  We have a big YSA weekend at the center.  Last night we had a movie night with the film, The Ultimate Gift.  Had a great message, which we discussed in groups afterwards and then reported to the main group.  Today is a service project, plus your Mom is making chicken carbonara for about 35-40 people.  Tomorrow, Sunday, rather than attending their own home wards, the singles will gather at the institute for their own singles ward.  Mom will be teaching Rel. Sociey in English, and I will be teaching priesthood, in German.  That should be interesting.

We are hurrying to get over to the institute this a.m. to put finishing touches on our lessons and to cut up the chicken, wash the lettuce, and get the linguini cooked ahead of time.  Dinner is at 6 pm, but there's a lot to do beforehand, such as decorating the tables with gourds, pumpkins, and fall leaves, which your mom has been collecting the past weeks.  Should be just like home.  Also she has committed to prepare Thanksgiving dinner for 24 single young missionaries on the Monday before Thanksgiving, their P-day.  Transfers occur on Thanksgiving Day, so an earlier date is necessary.  She has already been advised that one of the YSA gals from the millitary ward has purchased 2 frozen turkeys from the Commissary for her to use that day.  Your mom is really finding her niche here at the Center.  Everyone loves her and her cooking.  It's a job to try to keep up with her.

We send our love and hope you are happy and working hard to make life wonderful for you and yours.  We miss you terribly and can't wait to see you whenever it is possible.  Now that we have internet in the apartment, we'll soon be able to skype and use our Vonage account.  We still need to get wi-fi working to be able to use Vonage.  That will have to wait until after this big weekend.

Lots of love,

Mom & Dad

24 October, 2012

Here are some photos from Germany:


Mom and Dad with Dad's sister, Becky



Ate apple strudel and watched the Glockenspiel

Famous Glockenspiel

Old and New Council Chambers

Old Rauthaus (council chamber) with famous Glockenspiel



Ceiling of a famous Hofbrauhaus (beer hall)





Family in Munchen to hear President Monson's speech

More photos to come from Becky and Steve's visit with Mom and Dad.

18-19 October 2012

Dear Family and All,

The weather here is amazing right now!  We had a few extra minutes yesterday before we met with the Elders and Stefan, so I said let's just drive and see where we end up. We got clear to the top of one of the hills surrounding Stuttgart and it turned out to be quite an exclusive area with beautiful homes and views of the city. It is called Killesberg. We even toured the home of Theodor Heuss, the first National President of Germany. He was elected in the early 1960's.  It is a very simple home and has been turned into a museum. 

Monument in Killesberg

We drove a little further and came to an area of parks, jogging trails and a massive tower made of stone all looking out over the city. The fall colors were beautiful so we took some pictures before heading back to the Institute. 



Fall in Stuttgart



We had another great meeting with Stefan and he shared a little of the process he had gone through for a number of years investigating many different churches.  He told of how he had an experience feeling the influence of the Holy Ghost some time before but he didn't know what it was. He said that now he knows that it was the Holy Ghost.  He just soaks up everything the missionaries tell him.  There is usually another member at these meetings as well. This time it was Danny Breuer.  He also happens to be the president of the YSA Council.  He is 27, a returned missionary from England and a great young man.  He needs an amazing wife.  Anyway, he challenged Stefan to read the Book of Mormon from cover to cover.  Then we all bore testimony about reading the Book of Mormon everyday.  We even pulled up Pres. Benson's talk in 1988 about flooding the earth with the Book of Mormon.  It was. A great meeting! 



Stefan at his baptism with his mother and sister



Today we revisited a missionary apartment and measured for a new oven.  Then we had to go back home because I forgot my missionary badge and Dad forgot some papers we needed. Then it was off to another city to visit another missionary apartment. We ended up being 15 min late because we couldn't find a place to park. Then we went to the apartment with their number but it was the wrong one. There just happen to be 2 apartments next door to each other with the same address. Things are numbered really weird here!  Anyway, the Elders had fixed lunch for us. So we ate before we did the inspection. It was the cleanest apartment yet.  Good job Elder Strickland and Elder Hustead( who happens to be from St. George).

We had a little break and then on to meet Sr. Moser, our new home teaching assignment from our Bishop. She is about 53 and has many serious health problems. She has been less active for many years and the Bishop wants us to teach her the missionary lessons.  Her mother is an active member of our ward and was there to let us in today.  Sabina has seizures , diabetes and a number of other problems. We had a nice visit and will probably try to see her every week. 

Tomorrow we are off to Ulm to visit another apartment.  



Italian Restaurant in Ulm



Then we will drive on to Munich and do a little sightseeing for the rest of the day. Saturday, President Monson will be there to speak to the Saints of the area. The tickets were very hard for the mission president to get for all the missionaries. Ours are for standing room only unless there end up being a few empty seats somewhere.  One bishop in our stake is sending all the Primary children ages 8 to 12.  The parents can't even go, only the primary teachers. I feel a little guilty taking the room that someone else could use since I have seen Pres. Monson a number of times.  He even came to our ward building once for Marge Christensen's funeral and since Dad was the Bishop, he got to sit right next to him.  Anyway, the tickets for the meeting were very hard to get because they couldn't find a bigger building for the meeting. Everyone is very excited that Pres.Monson is coming to Germany.  He will be speaking in Frankfurt on Sunday and that meeting will be broadcast to several ward buildings in our stake. In fact the broadcast will be the only meeting in our stake on Sunday morning.  So we will get to. Hear the prophet speak twice.

Well, I had better sign off and get home to pack. We have to be up early in the morning and be on our way. 

We love and miss you all,

Elder and Sister Benson

10 October 2012

Dear Y'all,
Greetings from Stuttgart.  Yesterday was a crazy day.  I decided to make cinnamon twists for all the elders in our zone.  We had a three hour zone training meeting scheduled for 1-4:00.  I knew we would have to get an early start so we got to the institute about 11:30. It's hard cooking in a new kitchen when you don't know where things are or if they even have what you need.  But I got the dough mixed by 12:45 and set it out to rise. The building was cold so I knew it would take a long time. Then I was asked to play the piano for the meeting. I had to make sure I could play the songs they chose and then practice them a few times. When we took a break about 2:15 the dough was ready to roll out.

 Their cookie sheets here are sort of like broiler pans in our ovens without the top portion. They actually slide in the oven as a rack would. By the time I got 50 cinnamon twists set to rise I decided to make the glaze so it would be ready. My intentions of getting back up to the meeting never worked out. By 3:15 or so I had to start baking the rolls and even with 2 ovens, it took till 4:00 to get them all baked.  In fact I left the last pan cooking while I raced up to play the closing song(this is a three story chapel and the meetings were on the third floor) . Anyway, 24 missionaries devoured those rolls in about 5 min.  Then we took pictures of our district because tomorrow(Thurs.) is transfer day.



Elders in our district



Sisters in thour zone

By 4:30 we were in a meeting with Stefan and at 5:30 the JAEs started to arrive for institute. We had purchased food earlier in the morning for them to make sandwiches in an electric sandwich maker.    The ward Relief Societies used to cook for them on institute night, but it is hard to cook for 5-35 people. They never knew how many would. Be there to eat. Then we had institute from 7-8:45.   And then more of the young adults came to the kitchen to eat. By 10:30 we finally had the kitchen clean and were on our way home.   Tuesday's are just a marathon. It's a little busier than I like to be but so far our bodies haven't given out.

Anyway, all Is good in Stuttgart.  Becky and Steve will be here tomorrow night and leave on Friday afternoon. It will be great to see them.  Andrew left today for the US and Miriam flies out tonight or tomorrow with the children on "space available" on a military transport plane. Andrew must fly on a commercial plane. Military regulations! 

President Monson Will be in Munich the end of this month.  Pres. Miles really had to fight for them but he got tickets for all the missionaries in the Munich, Stuttgart and one other zone for the meeting. We will probably be required to take the train.  It would be nice if we could have driven the car and we could have seen some sights along the way. I'm sure we will have time to see Munich at another time, though. The missionary work goes on! 

Stefan's baptism will be on Saturday morning. Dad has been asked to speak. We have to leave right after and race back to the institute for some training for the Young Adults. 

We miss you all.  We hope Kate got our birthday message we sent her. If not then HAPPY BIRTHDAY to little Miss Kate Marie. 

Our love, 
Grandma and Grandpa Benson

08 October, 2012

Dear family and friends,

One of our best friends since we arrived in Stuttgart has become our GPS system. We bought it from our predecessors and it has been a life saver.  However, the other day we were on our way to a new area and we lost our satellite signal for about 4 min.  We had no idea where we were supposed to be going.  It was a little scary. There are also a lot of tunnels here through the mountains. We don't get signals in the tunnels either but it's hard to get lost in a tunnel. There are also lots of cameras to catch speeders, no right turns on red lights, and yellow lights before the light turns green as well as before it turns red.  They do drive fast on the autobahn but we don't even try to keep up with the fast lane.  We decided before we got to Germany that we would not travel in that lane.  Our little Opel would never be able to keep up with all Mercedes. By the way,  Stuttgart is the home of the Mercedes.  It is also where Mr. Bosch (Bosch mixers and other appliances) is from.  There are Bosch buildings everywhere. 

We enjoyed Conference this weekend, even though the sessions were at odd hours. Sat. at 3:30pm. was the rebroadcast of the Relief Society meeting.  Then from 6-8:00 in the evening we watched the live broadcast of the Sat. Morning session.  Sunday morning at 11:00 was the rebroadcast of Priesthood meeting.  Miriam and I watched it in the Relief Society room.  At  1:00 we ate lunch that we brought in the kitchen of the stake center. Then from 2-4:00 we watched the Sat. Afternoon session.  From 5:30 to6:00 we saw the Choir broadcast live, followed by the Sunday morning session live.  We finally got to go home at 8:00PM. With travel time we had been at church for 10 hours. It was quite a day.  A lot of people watch on the Internet but we decided to go to the stake center.  The other full time missionaries were all there as well. English was in the chapel, German in the cultural hall and Spanish in another room.  

In front of the church

Dad is falling asleep. It is 11:20 here. I guess we will go home.  We wanted to Skype Kate for her birthday but we couldn't get it to work. 

We love you all! 

 Love, Elder and Sister Benson

05 October 2012

Hello from Stuttgart! 

The weather has been beautiful here. We had one chilly, rainy day this week but today was really beautiful. Andrew and Miriam are leaving Germany next week.  Miriam has offered to give us all kinds of things. Today she and Andrew showed up with a couch that someone gave them when they came here 6 months ago. The sectional sofa in our apartment was pretty old.  One of our newly adopted Young Adults had told the Blodgetts to trash everything in the old apartment and get new things for the new apartment. They did get rid of some things but not the sofa. Dad found 2 families in our building who wanted the sofa. I felt bad we didn't have something for each of them. Patrick had volunteered to help us any time we needed anything.  He served a mission in the States and comes from a great family here. He asked a nonmember friend from school if he would like to help do a service for some people from his church.  The friend agreed and they moved the old couch last night.  We gave them each a copy of Natalie and Paul's CD for helping us out. Andrew didn't think they could get their big sofa up the 5 flights of stairs to our apartment, but Miriam is very persistent.  They were soaked with perspiration by the time they got up the stairs but we almost didn't make the corner into our apartment.  Where we're all our sons who know how to move furniture when we needed them!  Anyway, with much patience and a little hole in the upholstery( it won't show) we made it. It is really comfy.  We will be able to curl up on that big red couch in the evenings when we are worn out from partying with the Young Adults.  Thanks again Andrew and Miriam! 

At church with Andrew and Miriam and their family.

We took them out to lunch for some real Schwabian food.  Dad had a string of little bratwurst and sauerkraut.  I had Schwabian stew with spaetzele.  Andrew had roast pork with some different spaetzele.  And I don't even know what Miriam's was called. Anyway, we were really full by the time we finished. We had walked down about 70 stairs from the institute building where we parked and maybe a mile total to the restaurant.

Stuttgart is built in a little valley and on the sides of the hills all around. Dad read in a article that there are over 600 sets of stairs in the city. There aren't so many bicycles here because it is too hilly.  Most of the streets are very steep and narrow and winding. I'm glad Dad is doing all the driving. Some of the streets would be pretty wide if they didn't have streetcar or train tracks down the middle. They are everywhere and with the trains and buses they can get you pretty much everywhere you need to go.

Tonight we went back over to the area that the Blodgetts lived in. There were people everywhere, shopping, waiting for buses, eating out in the little cafes and restaurants. There were lots of Turkish Muslims, women with their heads covered,some pushing strollers with babies. I think there are some Italians and even some Greeks as well. Dad dropped me off at a little outdoor market area while he went to park the car.  As I was looking at some fruit, the proprietor asked me a question- in German of course. It was sink or swim. I asked him in German if he spoke English and he said no. So I asked him how much the watermelon was- in German, mind you.  I understood his answer, but I didn't know how to ask the next question.  So I just looked around and finally Dad got there.  I even went into the banhof yesterday by myself while Dad waited in the car. We needed some cash out of the cash machine and that was a little scary for me.  But I think I am getting less apprehensive about being by myself for a few minutes. I am realizing that I can communicate a little bit in German or a mix of English and German. Most of the Institute kids speak English, but a lot of the shop keepers are foreigners and they may speak German but no English.  

Well, I haven't told you about checking out the missionaries apartments.  We have 5 apartments that we are to keep track of and visit every 6 weeks, hopefully before transfer day.  We have done three this week.  It has made me even more grateful for our nice apartment. The mission is trying to update the apartments a little bit.  Some of these places have been lived in by missionaries for over 30 years. Two of them don't have working ovens.  There are a few other problems, but we are going to try to help facilitate getting some things fixed.    

Stefan is on track for his baptism.  We met with him and the missionaries again this week. After, he wanted to know about how to get online to do family history.  He thought you had to have a member ID number to guest to the information online. I showed him how he could access a lot of things without a number and he was excited!  I read him the scripture in Malachi about turning the hearts of the children to their fathers and explained that what he was feeling was a fulfillment of that prophecy. I think the Elders are going to tell him more about temple work this week.

 Dad gave a pass-a-long card to the fellow that helped move our couch yesterday.  Tonight a Muslim fellow who was sitting close to us as we ate at an outdoor fast food place asked what church we belonged to.  Dad talked to him for 5 min or so  and gave him a card as well.  We are going to go back there next Friday and take  Book of Mormon for him.  He has a cousin who is a Jehovah Witness and he thought we might belong to that church.  Anyway, we will try to find him again.  His relative owns the "Doener" hole in the wall place where we were eating.  I have to go now.  It is after 10:00 and we are still at the institute.  Tomorrow is Conference.  We will be going to the stake center to watch some of the sessions.

 Love to you all!

 Mom and Dad