Weekend with the Bausmans

The Bausmans from Idaho are senior missionaries here like us and retired military people to boot!  Sister B and I worked it out so that the two of us had medical appointments at the same time at Ramstein AFB.  Therefore, since it is almost a two-hour drive away, both of us couples took the day off and headed there on a Friday morning.  We lucked out with our drive because just a few hours later, this is what we would have faced had we still have been on the road!

We had an enjoyable afternoon watching the movie, "Eddie the Eagle," and then exiting a second movie that turned out to be R, not PG-13, as labeled.  That's OK.  Lunch at the Food Court, shopping at the PX and numerous vendors, and dinner at Chili's
made for a great "American Experience"!

One really fun surprise was that we ran into our dear military friends, Jr. and Theresa Hoopes, whom we knew in Tokyo and with whom we've reconnected here in Germany.  Earlier this summer we had been invited to attend the Frankfurt temple with them when their daughter, Terry, was leaving on her mission and son, Derek, had just returned home from his. And since then,
we've run into them a few times.  Awesome family!!!

Driving home Saturday we took one of those "brown historical sign" detours and headed to an unknown landmark.  It turned out to be a church in Partenheim, which was rather old--
almost 600 years, to be exact!

 

On the grounds of the church was a war memorial with names listed for both WWI and WWII.  It was very depressing to see the long list of names of so many who lost their lives from such a small village!  Elders G & B, Viet Nam veterans, posed appropriately in front of the war memorial.

Imagine this one village losing 27 soldiers during WWI!

Across the street from the church was the schloss (castle).  Note the arrow slits or "loops" in the wall used for shooting arrows or firing guns at the enemy!

Note how the plaster over the bricks & stones has worn away through the centuries.

 Side view of the schloss

The front view shows that this was a fairly simple "castle" built long, long ago.

Cute little cottage right across from the schloss.

From Partenheim we decided to take another detour and stop in Mainz, a city close to Frankfurt. 

And, boy, did we have the pleasant surprise of discovering an amazing cathedral
so close to "home"!

 The foundation stone for the St. Martin's Cathedral (or Mainz Cathedral) was laid in 975, modelling it after St. Peter’s in Rome.  The new building did not, however, survive the day of its consecration in August 1009 – a fire destroyed the edifice and it was not possible to use the cathedral again until 1036.  Seven coronations of kings took place in this Cathedral over the course of centuries.  We began our tour of the cathedral by walking around the cloister.

The hallways were lined with centuries' old medieval statues and worn carvings, 

some rather strange!

 

 

And the pavement was lined with the tombs/gravestones of its former residents!

The cloister, itself, was beautiful with the red stone,
beautiful carved arches, and green foliage.

Numerous carvings lined the walls of the cloister. 

This sculpture was fashioned after the famous Pieta in Rome by Michelangelo.

The cathedral is one of Europe's largest--so big there is a choir loft at each end.

Along the sides of the main chapel were numerous smaller chapels,
each with their unique altar piece.

  

 

We were all so impressed with the size and beauty of this building built almost one thousand years ago!  Here we're at the side of the west choir area, and to the left is the baptismal font.

   Below the windows along both sides of the nave were beautiful paintings
depicting the life of Christ.

As we walked outside, Elder G and I were in for yet another surprise.  Right across from the cathedral on the town square is the Gutenberg Museum, housing, of course, one of the Gutenberg Bibles!  We definitely agreed to make a return trip to Mainz--for both an informative tour of the cathedral in English and a tour of the Gutenberg Museum as well! 

Assignment: Croatia

The last week of February found Elder G and me accompanying our Director, Gabi Sirtl , and two associates, Dinis Adriano and Rita Somfai, to the mission headquarters of the Adriatic North Mission in Zagreb, Croatia.  President and Sister Grant met us at the airport before noon and kept us on the road until almost 10 p.m. that night!  They wanted us to get a "feel" for the beautiful countryside of Croatia, one of five countries making up their mission.  The five countries are Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia.

 We drove for almost two hours while Sister Grant passed up the makings of a yummy lunch from the back third seat of the mission SUV.  We arrived at the seacoast town of Pula and were thrilled to see one of the world's 6th best-preserved Roman coliseums!
It was begun around 27 BC  and finished about 46 A.D.

The smoothness of these stone pavers gave us a good idea of how old and worn things were.

 It was so amazingly well-preserved for being 2,000 years old!

We wondered if these stone bleachers were the only seating

 or whether there had also been wooden benches long ago deteriorated.

  We ran into a couple from Turkey who agreed to take our picture.

Possible lion's entrance?

And one bad lion!

 I loved the weathered look of the stones!

And underneath--in the "basement"--were these awesome jugs.

They looked too heavy to lift, let alone carry when full of water!

 The President had wanted to take us on a boat ride, but they were closed for the day.  This is a picture of a picture so I can appreciate what the area looked like on a good day from above.  

Note the coliseum at the bottom of the picture.  Croatia is said to have over 11,000 islands!

We left Pula and headed back towards the Mission Home.  

On the way we passed beautiful Opatija, a seaside resort city. 

President Grant did his best to find us a restaurant there on the water!

  

 This particular restaurant featured a buffet at 6 p.m., so we willingly visited a half hour in anticipation of a most wonderful dinner, including fresh fish from the Adriatic Sea!
Afterwards, we drove to Zagreb, arriving around 9:30 p.m.

  

Saturday found Gabi presenting training to President Grant, his five Public Affairs council members, two young sister missionaries, and three sets of senior missionaries.  It was pretty much a non-stop day with training going from morning to night.  Gabi was amazing, and everyone participated so well.  One of our main discussions was on encouraging the membership to be more pro-active on the Internet so that positive stories about the Church will eventually replace the negative ones, which have been known to scare away potential investigators.
President Grant, too, demonstrated his great skills as a mission president when he shared a lot of success the mission has been experiencing lately.  One project is that he currently has two young sister missionaries assigned to populating the Internet with positive articles.  Since doing so the past three months, the mission's baptism rate has been increasing!.

We had a lovely dinner right across the street at a wonderful steak house.  Afterwards, Gabi and we returned for a two-hour Webex regarding another assignment, the Freiberg Temple Rededication coming up in August.  And Dinis and Rita did an in-depth two-hour training on the
Internet with the two young sister missionaries.

Sunday morning we went to the Zagreb branch for church.  It is a beautiful building and houses the 40 or so members very well!  It was built in 2009, I believe.  Gabi spoke in Sacrament meeting and encouraged the members to be good missionaries via the Internet.  Church membership in the whole mission is about 1200 with average Sunday attendance of 250 in the 18 branches! There are about 70 missionaries and 17 senior couples serving in the five countries.

After the three-hour block, we had one final meeting with most of our group and shared our thoughts about the training.  Sister Grant had prepared one more wonderful meal for us all--awesome soups and bread--and we were then ready to head back to the airport.

On the way, we stopped by the mission office.  Actually, before 2009 it was also the Zagreb chapel.  Back in 1985 Kresimir Cosic bought the second floor of this building for the Church.  It was then that the Church was able to apply to Yugoslavia to be officially recognized as a church. (You had to own property first in order to do so!)  Years later Yugoslavia would be divided into many countries, with this property now being in Zagreb, Croatia.

 

It's in this very room where President Monson dedicated the land of Yugoslavia to the preaching of the gospel in 1985.  Since this could not be done outside in public in Communist-controlled Yugoslavia, they opened all the windows wide, feeling a nice cool breeze and hearing the chirping of the birds in the park across the street.  They said it was as close as they could get to 

"high on a mountain top..."

Sister Grant took us through the various rooms, 

pointing out what used to be the chapel and various other rooms.

Here was the library of books and pamphlets printed in five different languages!

I just love these old "furnaces."  

Although these are still found in almost every room, they are no longer used.

The biggest surprise was going into the cleaning supplies room containing brooms, mops, a sink, and a door with a coat hanging on it.  Upon opening that door I was totally surprised to find a baptismal font! Apparently, in the early days of the Church there, baptisms were rather discrete!

I thought it was very touching--to see the level of workmanship that went into this
beautiful, sacred font.  No longer in use, drywall now covers the viewing area.

From there we headed to the airport, arriving back in Frankfurt around 7:30 p.m.  It is amazing to reflect upon all training, knowledge, skills, and friendships that were shared in just those three days.  Croatia, the Adriatic North Mission, and President and Sister Grant

 will certainly be dear to our hearts from now on.