Stephen and Elaine Biddulph

22-29 MARCH 2015

It is raining as I sit in our apartment and look out upon Frankfurt, Germany. I have a phone call with a sister missionary in 45 minutes in Spain, otherwise, we have a bit of a rest on this Sabbath. We had a busy morning. Elaine and I both spoke in sacrament meeting today. One of our speakers was sick and I volunteered us. Elaine spoke with an interpreter (Sister Ezard who is German but has lived in England for 33 years). I wrote and delivered my own talk in German. The branch president was sick today, so, I had much fore-preparation to get the meetings organized, presided at the meetings, and gave a talk. Everything fortunately went well. We were happy to see Herr Schilds attend meeting for the second week in a row. He is being taught by the missionaries, and he and I have developed a good relationship. Next Tuesday I am going over to Offenbach to again meet with him, the missionaries, and one of our members.
This past week has been a typical one. I had about 20 missionaries that I spoke with during the week. It seemed slow, and I made the mistake of saying to Elaine, "business seems to have slowed down." Unfortunate thing to say. Within 3 hours we were deluged with 6 new missionary problems from mission presidents--all depression, anxiety, or adjustment problems--asking for immediate assistance. One missionary has high-functioning Asperger's disorder. Others have various things worrying or stressing them out. So, Friday I was on the phone from 7:15 in the morning until 5 p.m. We took a couple of walks on Saturday to unwind and decompress.

Devil Squirrel

A favorite walking spot is the huge cemetery across the street. I've included some more photos of it. This cemetery is like walking through a lush forest; lots of birds and devilish-looking red squirrels

that have little tufts of fur on their heads that look like horns. The headstones are much larger than in the USA and many of the older ones are truly impressive memorials. One part of the cemetery contains a monument to those fallen in World War 2 from Frankfurt. A large memorial with the image of a fallen soldier with Nazi helmet is quite interesting. The fallen soldier headstones are small (compared to others) and quite ugly--made out of coarse cement. Most of the inscriptions are hard to read.
On Friday evening we went with 2 other senior couples to a Chinese restaurant. Nice to socialize. Several of the senior couples leave this spring or early summer. We will miss them. They have become good friends. However, we learned that the couple coming to replace the Harrisons, who work in the real estate office, are none other than Elaine's first cousin and his wife. Those of you in Utah might know her as the "Food Nanny" on BYU TV. We look forward to conference. Won't be able to see all live sessions because of time differences, but we'll see it online.
It is a little hard for me here because I'm such a naturally friendly and outgoing personality, and I want to look at, smile at, and say hello to most everyone I see. The German folk, at least in these parts, are not that way. They do not make eye contact, they do not smile, they act as if they expect you to mug them at any moment, and when you say hello to them, they seldom respond. I've been told it is just the German way. They are somewhat fearful and suspicious, but it is true that once you make friends with them they are typically kind and generous people. It is breaking through that hard outer shell. I am astounded by the number of people that smoke, particularly young men and women. I am also saddened by the amount of graffiti around. Every wall, every building, in fact, anything that stands still for more than 1 hour has graffiti plastered on it. Actually, some of the graffiti is a work of art, but it surely defaces things.