First Days in the Land of My Ancestors

     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 have an agreement with Lufthansa, our airline), sitting in comfortable chairs, and it included a buffet for dinner.

    We chose business class because we wanted at least the chance to get some honest-to-goodness sleep. I cannot sleep in an upright chair, so we felt it was a good investment, and from the way things played out, we were right. During an 11-hour flight, we probably slept about six of them, and that paid dividends on the other end, believe me.

 

    Of course, the thing that causes jet lag is the confusion we give to our body clocks. After taking off about 10 p.m. in San Francisco, we landed in Munich at about 8:30 a.m. Pacific time. Problem was, we were now in Munich, where it was 4:30 p.m. But because we were able to sleep on the plane, we were pretty functional for the rest of the evening, until about 9 p.m., when both of our antiquated bodies said, "Awright, enough's enough. You can do what you like, but we're shutting down."

    We pretty much breezed through customs and baggage claim (Four huge suitcases and three carryons), and we were met by Elders Neuenschwander and Christensen, who drove us in a big van (we needed ALL the luggage space) to the mission home. 

    We were greeted with a lot of love and acceptance by the other senior missionary couples, the Tews and the Dickens, and by our new President and his wife, Scott and Jodi Naatjes, from Minnesota. In fact, they took us to dinner at a very nice Italian restaurant before handing us the keys to a nearly-new Hyundai I30. (Pres. and Sister Naatjes are 2nd and 3rd from right)

    Rules for senior missionaries differ greatly from the younger folks, which is to say, quoting Pres. Naatjes, "You don't have any." He looked me straight in the eye. "If you want to go to Paris, go ahead and go!" And with a final plug for business class, everybody present remarked at how functional we were, at least until 9. 

    We found our hotel, actually a small bed-and-breakfast (called a "pension," (pen-zee-OWN))on a side street, and crashed. The middle-aged proprietor, Bianca, welcomed us heartily. We then crashed, in my case for two hours. Then the jet lag kicked in. At 1:30, I was wide awake, so I checked in with each of the kids, letting them know we'd arrived safely. I finally got back to sleep at 2:30, and slept until six.

    Bianca set us a sumptuous breakfast in a glass-enclosed garden room:

    Pastries, croissants, fresh pineapple (in March!), cheeses, prosciutto, juices, hot chocolate, plus a hot omelette, jams, jellies, honey, it went on forever. We couldn't eat half of what she offered us.

    We attended a zone conference in Augsburg, and then kind of knuckleballed our way to Freiburg, our assigned city for the next year. My family has a history with Freiburg. My great-grandparents on my mother's side, Max and Augusta Kuechlin, immigrated to Los Angeles from a nearby dorf (village) called Wolfenweiler. It's about 4km away from where I'm sitting right now.

    Freiburg is located in the lower left corner of Germany, very near both France and Switzerland.

    We stayed awake and alert all day, then jet lag caught up with us again today. We were awake at 6 and had a video call from Lori, Johnny, and Jen. It was glorious to check in with them! Then I went back to bed and slept until TWO. We met with both pairs of missionaries, two sisters and two Elders, and also the 2nd counselor in the bishopric. And then we did our first grocery shop, a small foray into a neighborhood market across the street. Just enough for dinner tonight (bratwurst and mustard on fresh rolls) and breakfast tomorrow (Yogurt and Birchermuesli (an amped-up granola).

 

      When compared with the places we lived in during our 70s missions, we now live in a virtual palace. Underground assigned parking, elevator, bedroom, office, two full baths, kitchen, living room, washer, dryer, dishwasher, we've pretty much fallen on our feet here.

    And the Elders gave us a nice greeting in the form of a "heart attack" on our front door. A better mission situation could scarcely be imagined. We are going to love our year here!