Going to see Schwester Elfrieda Thibaut, we would go through Austria (Oestereich) cross the Salzach River and be in Burghausen.  The castle was built around the bend of the river to protect the Salt shipments from the Salzburg salt mines.  It was the gold of the area.  As one crossed the river there is a tree stuck right in the center of the bridge. It is the Grenze (or border) marker between the countries of Oestereich and Deutschland.  The best pictures of the castle are on the Austrian side of the river, as when you drive around it, it is literally on top of you. 

South end of castle

End turret.  You can drive around this end.

The Castle covers the whole hill

Icon at end of church you can see in the picture.  This was a walled city.  The first pictures are from the town square.

This was another church.  All are Catholic.

Somewhere I have a statue of a boy riding a bike, so it had to be withing the last 100 years or so.
These were taken in the town square, from a little restaurant across the way.  Since I am having problems loading pictures.  I guess I will add a little to the blog before I sign off today.

Part of the success of the JAE is when they meet and marry.  So we have two girls in our JAE engaged, and a possible third.  The first two are Austrians, Rahel who is marrying the young man who baptized her four years ago.  I guess they met in the temple when she took her endowments out.  The second is Mariam, an newly returned missionary.  One of the missionaries from Cologne, Germany asked if she would write his mother.  So she did.  When he went home 6 months ago he started to write her.  By time she came home, and she really wasn't happy to be ending her mission, there were thoughts exchanged that meant it was now time to get serious.  We met the young man today, with a very smiling and happy Mariam holding his hand.  He seemed just as content.  They were engaged last Thursday.  She told us before hand that she was hoping for an August wedding.  And then there is Geegi, our darling Mongolian convert of about 3 years.  She came to Austria to go to school and has stayed.

Sister Gertrude Roth

Mission blog  June 2, 2012

It is amazing where life choices, particularly when we are young, takes us.  We have been visiting a very sweet almost 80 years old, lady Elfrieda Thibaut.  She shares my birthday August 5.  She was never able to have children.  She chose a good man but not a member of the church and with no desire to go.  So she fell into inactivity.  When he died she moved to Freilassing, Germany as it was cheaper to live.  She is very weak and stuggles with health issues.  She spends a lot of lonely hours.  She looks so forward to our visits.  There are two others who visit her about once a week.  She really is a cute tiny lady.  I think she loves seeing Elder Storrer as he makes her laugh and she forgets her troubles.

This afternoon we were invited to visit with Sister Gertrude Rot.  A very lovely 83 year old lady.  She lost her husband at a very young age leaving her a widow with two young sons to raise.  At that time she made a 15 km trip, by bike carrying her two young sons to church, twice every Sunday.  That meant that she rode 60 km every Sunday rain or shine or snow.  We have heard her oldest son Stephan express his fond memories of the Freilassing Chapel.  Today she has two very active sons.  One is on our stake high council, and the other is just completing a mission the 30^th of this month, as mission president in Bulgaria.  She has two grandsons who are serving as Bishop and Branch President.  All of her married children and grandchildren have temple marriages.  Julia, one of our JAE is 28 and would love to be married, but she is keeping her standards high rather than marry outside of the church, or unworthily.

As she expressed this afternoon.  “I don’t judge anyone else, I just know that I wanted the best for my boys and I worked hard to provide a living for them.  I could have married again, but I was not going to marry someone who might not love my boys and have their best interests at heart.  I feel that I have been greatly blessed and rewarded for my choices and endeavors.  Others that I know made different choices and things were and are different for them.  I only know that I believe my choices were right for me and my family.

Mission Blog.  June 9, 2012

Today we did a 125 km run in one direction.  It was actually 249 km round trip, including finding a home in the mountain village of Mauterndorf, Austria.  We were looking for a couple and their two children.  A few years back there was a branch of the church in St. Johannes of Pongau.  It took in the area of St Michaels of Lungau and Mauterndorf.  They incorporated it into the Salzburg ward.  Now so few of them attend church.  It is so far for them to come.  I remember living in Montana 80 miles from our branch.  We were allowed a little dependent Sunday school.  My family were the only active members at that time.  We had a young sister with her little boy who came, for a little while and then they moved.  There was a mother and three children.  At first they tried to be active, but the mother had some moral issues and so the family fell into inactivity.  But Dad and Mom were very faithful.  Even after Rod and I graduated and went to Ricks College, they faithfully held church each Sunday.  Occasionally they would have a visitor from out of town.  They also saw a couple of baptisms.  Today there is a little branch there.

So we went to visit Brother Josef and Sister Hazel Rose Lankmeyer.  Very sweet and enduring couple.  We arrived in a downpour.  He apologized for not being prepared for us, but we had not even a phone number to call them so it was go and find and pray that they would be receptive.  Though Hazel was not feeling good and actually had to get up, they were very anxious to meet with us.  What a joy it was to sit in their tiny apartment and feel their wonderful and welcoming spirit.  We had not talked long when Hazel announced she would speak in English.  Being a girl from Northern England, English was of course her native language.  She was wheelchair bound, being born crippled.  She introduced herself by telling her story and how she had found the church.

She was the fifth child and born 18 years after her oldest sister.  She had lost a brother at the age of 16, but the children were all born years apart.  Her mother had some serious problems.  She didn’t say it was diabetes, but it sounded like it as the third and fourth children were born extra large.  When she became pregnant with Rose the doctor advised her to get an abortion.  He told her that neither she or the child would survive. If the child did it would be handicapped for life.  She chose to have her child and literally went to death’s door to have her.  Rose was born crippled.

Her parents were of the Church of England, though they never took their children to church.  When Rose was a 13 year old student she was asked if she believed in God.   She told them, “No, she didn’t believe in God.”  No one had ever even talked to her about God before.  Then she became curious and started to study and read about God.  She decided that she did believe in God, But she felt that her parent’s church didn’t fit what she thought it should be.  So she started looking at other religions.  She started writing as a penpal with a girl in Scotland.  This girl introduced her to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  With further study she felt it was what she was looking for.  Her parents had no problem with her attending until she asked if she could be baptized.   So she obeyed them, but continued to attend church.

Then she started a correspondence with Josef in Austria.  Then she decided that she wanted to meet him.  So she came to Austria and met him.  They fell in love and married.  What a treasure he is.  He is so sweet and tender with her, and you could see how much she adores him.  She started to talk to him about the church.  He became a serious investigator.  When he wanted to baptized his mother was so opposed to it, that he waited until they were married and had moved to another town, Mauterndorf.  He was baptized and ordained a Priest that very Sunday.  The next Sunday he baptized her.  A year later they were sealed in the Bern temple.  

We asked if we could visit them once a month.  They said, “Yes.”  Then she mentioned that the last Bishop, Bishop Zickbaur felt they could have the sacrament when missionaries ever came.  She asked us to please check with Bishop Schubert to see if they could partake of it when we came.  They admitted that they had the trays and cups when it was available.  Talk about faithful.  He also has some health issues related to the work he did, so they certainly qualify.  We just were spiritually excited to see the joy of the faithful to know that they have not been forgotten. 

It was a very rainy day and so I had left the camera in the car.  But now that we have their phone number and can give them warning, so they are more prepared, I plan on capturing their picture the next time.  Also we are planning a message to take to them.  Sister Lankmayer is a published writer, this also includes a statement she wrote for the Liahona in about 2001.

This is one of my favorites taken in the upper Koenigsee.  We have others that shows the full mountains reflection in this lake.  Elder Storrer  took this one.  We are struggling with both the moisture in the air and possibly camera shutter problems.  However, this is one that I intend to frame.

Norm climbing stairs to a couples mountain home.  They were a lovely couple and kept Elder Storrer talking for about 2 hours as they had so many questions about the church.  We actually went to their home for another purpose, but left them with a pamphlet to attend this and next weeks church for a missionary Sunday.’

This is the picture of that cabin that hangs on my wall at home.  Actually it is probably rebuilt.  I found where a hunter's cabin has been there for hundreds of yearsl

We went to Koenigsee in Germany on a Pday and took a boat up to see the upper Koenigsee.

It is hard to get good pictures when the moisture content in the air is 100% even when it isn’t raining.  It is so misty.  If we hadn’t of spent time up above, we may have captured a similar picture with the sun rays on the cabin.  But by time we got back it had set behind the mountains.

This is one of my favorites taken in the upper Koenigsee.  We have others that shows the full mountains reflection in this lake.  Elder Storrer  took this one.  We are struggling with both the moisture in the air and possibly camera shutter problems.  However, this is one that I intend to frame.  (By time I got this into Google Chrome and able to post, we know it was definitely a slow shutter.  When we first arrived there was a brother so intrigued with our camera.  We had forgotten about Jason, our grandson.  Josef is in his 50s, a convert and never been married.  He is just like Jason.  Within seconds he had changed all of the wonderful settings that Dietr had done for us like turning off the flash so it would not work, taking off the anti shake, and slowing the shutter down.  I have used the DVD's and with a help of a few friends we got the flash working properly, after we lost some great pictures in the Salt Mines, JAE all blurred, and washed out colors.  We got the anti shake back, Finally by skyping Dietr helped us get the shutter speed back  He loves our camera but absolutely no one is allowed to touch it but us, except to take a picture and he would not be one of them.  Great guy and we love him but our camera is definitely off limits to him.

Tomorrow is Feb 29^th, leap year!!!!

Still haven’t got the internet up, but other things are beginning to go.  Have tracked with the Elders and Norm was elated when we tracked out a wonderful and very talented young man.  So he was elated about that one success. 

The snow is melted and the rains have begun.  Last Friday was a warm clear beautiful day.  We had to shed the very heavy polyester decka on the bed.  The lighter ones were gross.  They had never been aired out.  We put them out to air for two or three days.  So we went over to IKEA (our apartment is decorated with IKEA) and for 20 euros apiece (about 22-23 dollars a piece) we purchased two twin size and some coverlets.  We look European, but they are light and airy and wonderfully comfortable.  We have beds (twins, crammed together) created by Brother Malzl) which are very comfortable.  We ended up with two fridges, one is large—for Europe.  So we are getting the apartment the way we like.

We have family home evening at our apartment.  Our JAE president is one of the only young who attend, and or Geegi, a beautiful young woman from Mongolia, and convert to the church.  She wants to go to BYU badly and is working on her English. Elder Storrer is starting to teach her tonight.  I have talked to her about the ESL program at the Y.  Any takers out there to sponsor her and help her if she can get to the US.  She is a quiet reserved and beautiful person inside and out.    It has been suggested that we look more to the older single adults for family homevening.  And then concentrate our Institute and activities around the younger single adults.

We also are meeting and learning about 28-29 year old women who no longer attend Institute.  But they are very active in the church.  They are trying to fulfill their lives with travel.  The problem is no husband material here.  Men in the church are so scarce.  They have their spiritual priorities straight.  One actually teaches the early morning seminary.  Both are beautiful women.  Then we have the younger ones submitting themselves to temptation by going to bars and dancehalls to dance.  One young woman’s sister at 21 met and moved in with a young man.  Now she says she won’t go to church because she feels that she is being judged.  (Sorry but that is transferring her bad decisions to others because of her own feelings of guilt.)  We are working with a young woman from England who did the same thing.  Her father warned her that he would be sending contact information to her ward here in Salzburg, so that we could get in touch with her.  Recently a sibling had a temple marriage.  So she is from an active family.  She will talk to Norm and is very friendly, but only on the phone.  He told her that he would be contacting her every month.  She was not discouraging.  I think she enjoys talking to someone in English.  And anyone who knows Norm, knows that he is easy to talk to and certainly doesn’t come across as judgmental.

Today we had district meeting and Brother Roth (one of the brother Roths) spoke for 3 hours, after feeding us a marvelous breakfast spread.)  He literally is the world’s best planner.  He travels the world.  He was even involved in the early planning stages of the Utah Olympics.

Mission blog  April 9  Pday activity was to chaperone the Elders and Sisters to the Salt mines.  They have been in existence since the Celtics in about 500 BC started to work them.  They ceased working them in 1989 when they decided that the operation was to expensive to make a profit.  They went from actually mining it like coal to soaking it and extracting it out, where the water was then evaporated.  It was a fun excursion.  First they give you a jacket and pants to wear to protect your clothing.  We rode on a long 5 piece train.  It is an engine and four long connected about 10 inch wide rods.  Then we went through a very long tunnel until we were down in the mine.  It never was very high.  We eventually took two long, slippery slide rides, where you have to hold your legs up.  They had videos set up where they speak in German and translated in Italian and English, because that is the languages represented in our group.  We ran out of time and so plan on going back to see the Celtic village and the “Silent Night” museum.

Actually we were trying to get back to Salzburg and Neumarkt for appointments.  So we left and headed back for the Postbus to pick us up.  However, we ended up waiting for 1 ½ hours.  So we had plenty of time to go through the village and see the museum.  So it was a bit of a bummer.  We plan on going back though We had the missionaries and Rosie (Our investigator) for Easter dinner.  She is the one headed to Serbia.  Her husband is all ready there.  She is the one who requested help getting clothing together.  She asked if there was a DVD of the restoration in Hungrian or Serbian.  Preferably Serbian as she is anxious to show it to her relatives.  So we are working on it.

Salt Miner, probably 500 BC

Salt Mine carings

Sisters Holmstead and Sister Hoffman, in the beautiful coveralls we put on
Good reason as the legs were covered with the pink and brown salts.

Between the carvings, they did a historical video with subtitles
in Italian, French and English

Man made salt wall with lights in it. it.

Proof I was really here

Typical miner

The Archbishop (prince) who controlled the Salt Mines

Our ride into and out of the caves

Typical salt mining tools

The Lankmayers in Mauterndorf

Mission Blog.  June 9, 2012

Today we did a 122 km run in one direction.  It was actually 249 km round trip, including finding a home in the mountain village of Mauterndorf, Austria.  We were looking for a couple and their two children.  A few years back there was a branch of the church in St. Johannes of Pongau.  It took in the area of St Michaels of Lungau and Mauterndorf.  They incorporated it into the Salzburg ward.  Now so few of them attend church.  It is so far for them to come.  I remember living in Montana 80 miles from our branch.  We were allowed a little dependent Sundayschool.  My family were the only active members at that time.  We had a young sister with her little boy who came, for a little while and then they moved.  There was a mother and three children.  At first they tried to be active, but the mother had some moral issues and so the family fell into inactivity.  But Dad and Mom were very faithful.  Even after Rod and I graduated and went to Ricks College, they faithfully held church each Sunday.  Occasionally they would have a visitor from out of town.  They also saw a couple of baptisms.  Today there is a little branch there.

So we went to visit Brother Josef and Sister Hazel Rose Lankmeyer.  Very sweet and enduring couple.  We arrived in a downpour.  He apologized for not being prepared for us, but we had not even a phone number to call them so it was go and find and pray that they would be receptive.  Though Hazel was not feeling good and actually had to get up, they were very anxious to meet with us.  What a joy it was to sit in their tiny apartment and feel their wonderful and welcoming spirit.  We had not talked long when Hazel announced she would speak in English.  Being a girl from Northern England, her English was of course her native language.  She was wheelchair bound, being born crippled.  She introduced herself by telling her story and how she had found the church.

She was the fifth child and born 18 years after her oldest sister.  She had lost a brother at the age of 16, but the children were all born years apart.  Her mother had some serious problems.  She didn’t say it was diabetes, but it sounded like it as the third and fourth children were born extra large.  When she became pregnant with Rose the doctor advised her to get an abortion.  He told her that neither she or the child would survive, but if the child did it would be handicapped for life.  She chose to have her child and literally went to death’s door to have her.  Rose was born crippled.

Her parents were of the Church of England, though they never took their children to church.  When Rose a 13 year old student when she was asked if she believed in God.   She told them, “No, she didn’t believe in God.”  No one had ever even talked to her about God before.  Then she became curious and started to study and read about God.  She decided that she did believe in God, But she felt that her parent’s church didn’t fit what she thought it should be.  So she started looking at other religions.  She started a penpal with a girl in Scotland.  This girl introduced her to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  With further study she felt it was what she was looking for.  Her parents had no problem with her attending until she asked if she could be baptized.   So she obeyed them, but continued to attend church.

Then she started a correspondence with Josef in Austria. She decided that she wanted to meet him.  So she came to Austria and met him.  They fell in love and married.  She started to talk to him about the church.  He became a serious investigator.  When he wanted to baptized his mother was so opposed to it, that he waited until they were married and had moved to another town, Mauterndorf.  He was baptized and ordained a Priest that very Sunday.  The next Sunday he baptized her.  A year later they were sealed in the Bern temple. 

We asked if we could visit them once a month.  They said, “Yes.”  Elder Storrer asked if there was something we could do for them.  She asked us to please check with Bishop Schubert to see if they could partake of the sacrament when we came.    Talk about faithful.  He also has some health issues related to the work he did, so they certainly qualify.  We just were spiritually excited to see the joy of the faithful to know that they have not been forgotten. 

It was a very rainy day and so I had left the camera in the car.  But now that we have their phone number and can give them warning, so they are more prepared, I plan on capturing their picture the next time.  Also we are planning a message to take to them.  Sister Lankmayer is a published writer, this also includes a statement she wrote for the Liahona in about 2001.

Because of the drenching rain, we actually are going to do a picture taking thing next time.  It took us a bit to find them, including asking a lot of people.  The houses are not in any numerical order so it was talking to the Gas station attendent, the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker, until we got into the right area of town.  A sweet lady protecting herself with an umbrella knew them well, and since we finally were within acouple of streets directed us to them.  Now the catch is if we can wind into that neighborhood again to the right house.

The town is very old, and there were some old quaint buildings.  One had a date of 1916 on it and probably one of the newer ones. 

Old building in Mauterndorf,  There are even others that are  older

Schloss near Moosham, Austria on way to visit LankMayers.
(Misty and we had a person mess with our camera shutter.
Thank you Dietr for helping us get it fixed.
No one, absolutely no one is allowed to touch our camera
We lost great pictures in the salt mines as he had also turned off our
flash and we are too slow on the tech uptake to fix it ourselves.

Mission blog  June 2, 2012

It is amazing where life choices, particularly when we are young, takes us.  We have been visiting a very sweet almost 80 years old, lady Elfrieda Thibaut.  She shares my birthday August 5.  She was never able to have children.  She chose a good man but not a member of the church and with no desire to go.  So she fell into inactivity.  When he died she moved to Freilassing, Germany as it was cheaper to live.  She is very weak and struggles with health issues.  She spends a lot of lonely hours.  She looks so forward to our visits.  There are two others who visit her about once a week.  She really is a cute tiny lady.  I think she loves seeing Elder Storrer as he makes her laugh and she forgets her troubles.

This afternoon we were invited to visit with Sister Gertrude Roth.  A very lovely 83 year old lady.  She lost her husband at a very young age leaving her a widow with two young sons to raise.  At that time she made a 15 km trip, by bike carrying her two young sons to church, twice every Sunday.  That meant that she rode 60 km every Sunday rain or shine or snow.  We have heard her oldest son Stephan express his fond memories of the Freilassing Chapel.  Today she has two very active sons.  One is on our stake high council, and the other is just completing a mission the 30^th of this month, as mission president in Bulgaria.  She has two grandsons who are serving as Bishop and Branch President.  All of her married children and grandchildren have temple marriages.  Julia, one of our JAE is 28 and would love to be married, but she is keeping her standards high rather than marry outside of the church, or unworthily.

  As Sister Roth expressed this afternoon.  “I don’t judge anyone else, I just know that I wanted the best for my boys and I worked hard to provide a living for them.  I could have married again, but I was not going to marry someone who might not love my boys and have their best interests at heart. Besides I am already sealed to one man. I feel that I have been greatly blessed and rewarded for my choices and endeavors.  Others that I know made different choices and things were and are different for them.  I only know that I believe my choices were right for me and my family.

 Sister Elfrieda Thibaut

Sister Gertrud Roth