15 - 21 Juni 2015

     Another busy week with missionaries. Nevertheless, my caseload has diminished somewhat this past week or two. Seven of my ten mission presidents are returning home July 1st, and they have been doing final interviews. This always means more work because missionaries feel a need to resolve all issues with their old president so they can kind of get a clean slate with the new one. So, I get several calls asking me to contact an elder or sister who is struggling with some issue or another.
     Tuesday evening we attended the Frankfurt Temple with other senior missionaries. We are trying to get in as many as we can before the temple is closed for renovation beginning on 7 September. It will be closed for the rest of our mission, and in the meantime we will have to drive 5-6 hours to the Bern (Zollikofen) Switzerland temple. The last time Elaine and I were there was in 1978 and before that was when I was a 20-year old missionary serving in the Berlin Mission.
     Wednesday we took a couple of hours and drove over to the Wiesbaden military complex to purchase a few items and some groceries from the commissary. On Thursday afternoon I participated in our monthly 1.5 hour conference call with the mental health department at church headquarters in SLC. We had AMHAs report from Russia, South Africa, South America, Philippines, Atlanta, Hong Kong, as well as ourselves in Europe. Two of my former colleagues from Provo Canyon School days are serving as AMHAs (Chile and Moscow). One just returned home today. The meetings aren't really that useful for us as AMHAs but it is helpful for headquarters to get reports from each of us.  I am averaging about 100 consultations a month with over 40 missionaries plus quite a few consults with mission presidents. My completion rate stays about equal with my new referral rate, but lately I've completed more than the new ones and my caseload has gone down.
     

Elaine and Wai Ling (LingLing)

Stephen and Wai Ling

Friday evening we went with the Newmans and the Bangerters out to a Thai restaurant nearby to celebrate Sister Newman's birthday. Saturday afternoon we drove over to the temple and picked up a young Chinese Sister who is from New Zealand who is staying with us for a couple of nights. She is a competitive fencer and travels all over the world training and competing. She has been in Hungary and came to Frankfurt with the Hungarian Saints to the temple. Her name is Wai Ling Chan and she's a really sweet girl. We've enjoyed having her visit.
     This week the stake presidency called two new senior missionary couples to support the Offenbach Branch. The Walkers and the Galbraiths came just last week and we are happy to have them in the branch. They will be a nice addition. The husbands served missions in Germany 50 years ago, but the wives don't speak.We said goodbye to more missionary couples this week who have finished their missions and are headed home. Always sad to say goodbye.
     They have asked us to switch offices. We've had a nice big office and they need more space for people, so we are moving into a much smaller office. It will be cozy but workable. We are planning a short trip the end of July to the Fussen area of southern Germany to see King Ludwig's castles an Schwangau and also Linderhof Palace. We are also going over to Oberammergau and also Garmisch area near the Austrian border to see the Alps. The nice thing is that our car has Bluetooth and I can have complete communication with missionaries and mission presidents while mobile. All our work is done by telephone, so, theoretically we could be traveling and sight-seeing all the time while doing our work. Of course, we would never do that, but the thought is tempting.

Elaborate headstone in Hauptfriedhof