Young Adults in Berlin

Meet Elder and Sister Johnson from Huntington Beach, California.  They are the senior couple serving the Young Adults in Berlin.  Our assignment in Berlin was to help the Johnsons with the Young Adults.  Amazing is the only word to describe all they do for and with the Young Adults.  They cook, talk, teach, play games, and listen.   We had lots of fun sightseeing, cooking, going out to eat and laughing with the Johnsons.  He is a retired policeman from downtown LA and Deb was an OR nurse.

Monday Night is Family Home Evening with a lesson, games, and dinner.  Average attendance is around 10 Young Adults who do not have their own FHE at home.

 

Thursday night is Institute. At the Institute Open House over 50 Young Adults attended which is average attendance every week.  There are 3 institute classes taught-- followed by dinner.

They had never heard of celery stuffed with peanut butter.  One young man said, "Why would you put an unhealthy food with a healthy food."  

They love to come in to the kitchen to help.  They always do all the dishes and clean up.  They do not like ice in their water and are so appreciative of the food and social hours provided for them.

The Open House was held outside on the patio.  The Young Adults decorated and set up the event.  They roasted marshmallows, talked and ate.

Our last weekend with the Young Adults was very busy.  Thursday night before and after Institute they were busy getting ready for a big dance on Friday.  There was an LDS Soccer tournament on Saturday and Young Adults from Switzerland and the Netherlands were attending.  Some came to the dance.  Friday night was the dance and Sunday was Young Adult Sunday.  Once every other month they hold this event and it is just like a YA Ward.  Last Sunday there were over 80 YA attending.  We had a slight mishap in the kitchen--the chicken was not cooked--too much food in the oven so we had to fry them in the pan--enough for 80!  The kids scrubbed the pans that we charbroiled trying to cook all the chicken.  They are great.

What a fun time! We loved working with the YA--President Kosak said one of the most important roles we had as missionaries was to show how fun it is to be married!

The Light Side of Berlin

The bear has been a symbol for Berlin since at least 1709.  Since 1920 the bear has been the only symbol on the Berlin Coat of Arms.  In 2001 the art promoters decided to bring art to the city streets of Berlin.  They decided to use the bear,the symbol of Berlin, as the backdrop for the art work.  They had a bear art contest.  These bears are all over the city and lots of fun.

                                Upside down Picasso Bear and the City map bear.

The Berlin Bear hangs out at the Brandenburg Tür every Saturday.  Look who is in the background--Darth Vader--we heard that Darth Vader is a church member. The Berliner Bear
was left with a pass-a-long card after the picture.

How can you resist buying children books from this pixi elf?  Just the right size for your 2 year old to grab one or two.   There are book stores on almost every street and lots of these little Pixi bookholders.

 Ice Cream is "eis"--how can one resist?  There are lots of fun statues advertising and enticing one into their establishment.

Lego Discoveryland is underground--very expensive but looks fun.  This giant giraffe is their enticement!  It certain caught our eye!  I wonder how many legos make up this giraffe?

There are some interesting differences in what used to be East and West Berlin.  When the city was divided in 1949, the city water system was also divided.  The East Germans brought their steam heating pipes above ground.  They aren't ugly because they use bright pinkish purple and blue colors..  The pipes are still functioning today. .As the Berlin Wall went up, the underground network of water pipes was blocked with steel grates between east and west sides. These huge grates acted as collectors of garbage and served to prevent people from trying to escape to the west.  Here is what the pipes look like today.  They are seen only what used to be East Berlin but now are all over.

 The signals to walk or not walk across the street were different in East and West Berlin.  When the two cities combined, it seemed like most decisions for government etc.were patterned after West Berlin.  The East Berliners stood firm on their street lights.  They had these cute fat figures for walk and don't walk.  The ones on the west are thin and boring!  This cute little feller is finding his way into the West Berlin area where you can find both stop lights.  United We Stand--Divided We Fall. They are getting there!!!!!

One of favorite sights we found while riding the bus to the mission office.  Tom and I couldn't believe our eyes--Spiderman on the house.  On our way home, we jumped off the bus just to get this picture!

Our Apartment in Berlin

• 335 Clayalle, Berlin, Germany.  Our street was named after U.S. General Clay who was the initiator of the Berlin airlift in 1948-49 that saved all of Berlin from becoming communist.  This street is in the southwest area of Berlin which was the American section of West Berlin. The troops finally left in 1996.  They were here for 49 years to protect West Berlin from the Russians and German Communists.  Our apartment is the tan balcony directly above the words Sonnenstudio.  We think you can read German--what kind of studio is this?  We are directly across from a grocery store!

          Now we will take you on a tour of our cozy little apartment.

  

The entry way is our clothes closet, storage room, and eating area.

• This is Tom's first Berlin "Doner."  It is similar to a Greek Gyro.  The bathroom is directly across from the table.  The bathroom door opens out and if the table is touching the wall, the bathroom door clears the table by 1/4 inch. 

•  The bathroom/laundry room is 4 x 7 feet.  I think it is about the size of my closet at home.         The clothes washer is very small and can only hold 5 shirts at a time.

• The kitchen and stove are very small.  The kitchen is 9 ft. x 7 ft. with a big window.  The refrigerator has a small ice box which is 6 inches high by 16 inches long and only 11 inches deep.  We were able to find an ice tray which has made Tom very happy.  Germans do not use ice cubes!  The refrigerator is 23 inches high by 17 inches wide.  The size of the refrigerator keeps down electrical costs and keeps the markets busy everyday.

• This is our only counter space for preparing food. It is 2 ft x 2 ft.  The burners are solid--take a long time to heat up and a really long time to cool down.  There are no garbage disposals in Germany.

• We do not have a clothes dryer except this portable drying line.  Right now we put it on our balcony but when the weather changes we will have it in our apartment.  Tom loves his rough and scratchy towels!

• The beds in Germany are two twin beds pushed together.  (That's what we had at the hotel also)  The individual cover is a Federdecke encased in a sheet.  This is great--Mary Ann wraps up in her feather quilt and Tom sleeps with no covers.  This is the easiest bed I have ever made!  The two AP's picked out our purple flannel sheets and flowered cover!  The one from Switzerland knew exactly what to buy but the one from Utah kept asking the clerk for a queen sized cover--he was a little confused.  The bedroom is also the study and sitting room.

• We love to go jogging in the morning in Berlin.  This area is directly behind our house.  Berlin has many beautiful wooded areas and cobblestone streets and sidewalks. The main roads are asphalt.

•  To get to the forest where we jog, we have to run two blocks on cobblestone sidewalks and streets.  We haven't sprained our ankles yet.  Our jogging is early in the morning and we are the only people out in t-shirts while the others are walking and wearing coats.  We wear our name tags and have conversations with a few walkers.  We say "Guten Morgan" to everyone we meet.  This is a very non-German thing to do.  Germans walk pass each other, do not look at each other, and do not say a word.  When people do talk to us we hand out the pass-a-long card with the LDS German website on it.  We have found no one who wants to talk about religion YET!  The theme in our mission is fishing with NETS--the internet.  We find, we teach, we baptize, and we KEEP!

         This is the beautiful forest where we run.  We just returned from a rainy day in downtown Berlin.

MTC

MTC--we loved it especially our friends in our district.  They were all wonderful.  We survived the practice teaching--hopefully it prepared us for the future.  Elder Downs (2nd on the left) was our District Leader.  They are a great couple from Missouri.  They joined the church 6 weeks after getting married and moving to Louisiana.  They are headed to Sacramento to work with the Marshallese.  Next to them our the Muntizings.  He was born in Sweden, she was born in Peru and they met at BYU.  Sister Muntizing is full of passion and look out New Mexico--she will convert the entire state!
Our teacher is the oldest female granddaughter of the people that Russel M. Nelson gave the Book of Mormon to.  When they returned it in a week and thanked him and said it was a nice book--Elder Nelson said, "You didn't read it if you say it is a nice book."  Anyway they read it and their family is eternally grateful for his persistence in getting them to read the Book of Mormon.
The traditional MTC picture.

Our tutors, Lisa Jensen and Tasha Singer are two of our incredible German Tutors!  Thank you!!!