THE BALD EAGLE HAS LANDED!

We arrived without incident in Frankfurt, Germany on Tuesday, 20 January 2015 at 7:45 a.m. Elder and Sister Jacques, who we are replacing, met us at the airport with Dr. and Sister Greenwood. We knew the Jacques during our mission in Hawaii (2007-2009). He taught at BYU-Idaho for many years. It has been a whirlwind of activity since landing. Trying to get caught up from jet lag, but still waking up at 1 a.m. bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. The many senior couples here have welcomed us with open arms. They are so kind and good. Our apartment is Porthstrasse 11, apartment 7-4, right next door to the area offices and the Frankfurt stake center. Sister Biddulph and I work together in the same office and we actually enjoy working together-our children will find that hard to believe. I do the telephone calls and working directly with the missionaries and mission presidents, and Elaine does reports, correspondence, and keeps information updated. Thursday I had four calls and Friday had six calls. Each call averages 45 - 60 minutes in length. I do a lot of listening and trying to help the missionaries work through their issues. The key is to empower them to make their own discoveries and determinations. These are great young people and it is a joy to work with them. The mission presidents also seem really fine. Currently I have 9 missions under my responsibility: Belgium/Netherlands, Cape Verde Praia (off coast of Portugal), Denmark/Copenhagen, France Lyon, France Paris, Portugal Lisbon, Spain Barcelona, Spain Madrid, Spain Malaga, and Spain MTC. This might change as other AMHAs have suggested that we take some of the German-speaking missions. We are allowed to travel within 500 miles of Frankfurt on our time off. This includes: Berlin, Hamburg, Prague, top part of Italy, western part of Austria, Paris, upper part of Switzerland, Northern Germany (Kiel, Lubeck, Schleswig-Holstein), and Netherlands. We can't quite get over to England where Brad and Marie Parkinson are working at the London Temple. Sunday morning (today), our first day attending the International Ward, the stake president assigned us and one other couple and a single sister to the Offenbach Zweig (branch) to help the struggling branch to grow. We were assigned because of our familiarity with the German language. The branch has had baptisms but the retention rate is low. We are happy for this opportunity to rub elbows with the German saints in this little needy branch and to love and serve them. It also gives us a chance to do more with the German language and be involved directly with the missionary work. I am becoming a little more comfortable with the language, but I have forgotten so much from my young missionary days in Berlin and have so much to learn. I understand most signs and items in a store, but putting together a correct sentence or phrase is more challenging, except for basic, simple things.