John & Leesa Dupree--Alpine German-speaking Mission

      One of the fun aspects (and there are many of those) of our mission is our new responsibility to feed about 15 Junge Erwachsenen (Young Adults) who take part in weekly Church Institute classes on Wednesday evenings. Last week I chronicled their first experience with Chicago-style Stuffed Pizza, and this week, we came up with an all-American dinnertime standard, Sloppy Joes, with (KFC knockoff recipe) cole slaw. These college-age German youth come to the Church building on Wednesday evenings, receive instruction for about 75 minutes, then thunder down to the kitchen/game room for some eats. We really enjoy the opportunity to feed these kids, and at this early stage, it's a bit of a challenge to find the proper ingredients to essentially American dishes.     Tonight was something of a going-away party for Ashley Alves (girl in back hoisting a Sloppy Joe, with glasses and cornrows), who will soon be going off to University. She has been a terrific leader for ...

 It's been a big first week in Germany! To recap, we flew into Munich last Tuesday afternoon, had a terrific interview and dinner with President Naatjes, slept in a wonderful bed-and-breakfast, went to our first zone conference, drove from Munich to Freiburg, our new city, got introduced at the Institute, moved into our new home for the year, went to our first Ward Council (where every single soul is committed to blessing lives), went to a Youth Game Night activity, and went to our first Sunday at Church (at which there was a convert baptism), attended our first Missionary District Council.      Then, almost (it felt to us) like an afterthought, our District Leader said, "Would you like to go with us to the Temple tomorrow?"      "Are you kidding? YEAH!!" Both Leesa and I have a history of close misses with the Swiss Temple in the suburb of Bern called Zollikofen. My last zone conference as a missionary was at the chapel right next door (Joseph P. Wirt...

      We spent an intense two weeks in Provo, getting lectured and trained on a lot of different subjects, in and around visiting relatives and friends. We finished our classes on Friday, March 10th, and had the entire weekend to hang around Provo, wrapping up laundry and other mundane activities before flying out Monday afternoon.      For those who have never been to the Salt Lake airport, it is HUGE. You walk a LOT. It's like Bugs Bunny popping up in the desert, thinking he's at Miami Beach. It's just a long, long way to the water. It has moving sidewalks to help out, but it is a very long hike to get to your terminal. Our flight at 4:30 p.m. took us to San Francisco, where we had a few hours to cool our heels before our 9:30 flight direct to Munich.     From the point of view of an older couple, I should add at this point that paying the extra for business class definitely has its advantages. We got to wait in United's Polaris Lounge (they hav...

 It's been a big weekend. Friday night we were given an open house by Kirsten and Carl Henderson, and Earle and Valerie Anderson. A bunch of ward members came out to wish us well, and we had a wonderful time.      Next night we had dinner at the Andersons' with our dinner group, followed by our ward's White Elephant Gift Exchange, which as always, was a hoot. I wound up with a porcelain statue of a Chinese man with a long ponytail. My gift was a Torta Nera (black pie), an Italian chocolate pie and a gift certificate. A little history is in order here. Most years at this event I have donated a special dinner certificate entitling the bearer to a nice meal at our house. Thing is, Clay Jackson (shown here with bride Nancy) always seemed to wind up with it. What can I say; Clay and Nancy like my cooking. So with this year's certificate, something needed to be done. It read: This certificate entitles the bearer to a dinner for six at Ruth's Chris Steak House. Dinner to b...