Week 4 Summary - Strasbourg Cathedral Pictures

Wow!  It is hard to believe we've been here a month!  The time is going very quickly.  Between work,  learning French, buying food, church, soccer and feeding the missionaries, the days go very quick!

This week we started off on Monday with a family home evening on giving everyone in the family responsibilities to teach Ahmed the new member discussions.

At work, we spent a lot of time working on marketing and corporate strategy.  Our 2 engineers are headed over here from California in the next two weeks.  It will be good to all be in one place and really start making a lot of traction on the business.  We continue to have lots of good meetings with people like Deloitte, Kneip, Deutsche Bank, etc.

Tuesday we had the missionaries over.  They were trying to figure out who was going to get transferred.  Two of the missionaries have already been here 5 months so they were sure they getting an email.  But it turned out to be Elder Toscano that is onto Belgium.

We had a good time with Elders Toscano and Gutelius.  Gutelius has an amazing life story.  He's lived in Peru, Japan and Orem.  He looks Peruvian Japanese.  Pretty cool!  He loves soccer and his Dad is becoming more active in the church because of his missionary service.  They've been VERY helpful with our french lessons and interacting with the kids.

Wednesday the kids threw paper airplanes out the Window.  One time Jake said throw it, but a cop drove by as Spencer threw it. Luckily he didn't stop!

Thursday we had another pair of missionaries come over Andrino and Watts.  Kim has done a great job cooking the dinners!  Ahmed also came and afterwards we taught him the first new member discussion, which is basically a review of the first few discussions.  The kids did a great job baring their testimonies and teaching Ahmed about the plan of salvation, the restoration of the gospel, the need for prophets and why the gospel can help you in your daily life.  Ahmed bore a very strong testimony that he prayed 5 times a day for years as a Muslim and God didn't reveal anything to him.

3 days after he met the missionaries he had 3 dreams in the same night where he was told that Ahmed you are on the right path by a man dressed in white.  He is such a great kid.  He's really struggling with his Iranian and Iraqi roommates that like to smoke inside his apartment.  They share the same room and he doesn't smoke.  It really bothers him and they got into a huge fight this week.  Luckily he was able to move downstairs.  His big problem is that as a refugee he cannot leave Luxembourg.  He is only 18, so he needs his high school diploma.  He won't get recognized by the state until he gets a full time job, which he can't get without a diploma.  He's two years away from a diploma so he's got a hard road ahead.  We are hoping that we can help him this year and get him on a mission.  Once that happens it would be great if he could get to the states.  He is an amazing runner.  I think he could totally get a scholarship at the Y running cross country.  He's built like a runner and he loves to run and run and run.  We are really enjoying getting to know him and help him learn the basics of the gospel.  However, I think he ends up teaching us more than we're teaching him.

Friday, Sam and I drove out to Frankfurt to meet with Deutsche Bank.  It was a pretty drive.  Up high in the foothills we ran into snow.  It was nice to get back to Luxembourg.  Luxembourg is a really nice place.  Friday night the kids went to Seminary and mutual.  Kim went to activity days as she has a new calling.  It was all in French, so she didn't help much!  ;)  I put Ashton to bed and then studied some French.  The kids have all been sick this week.  Ashton got it pretty bad, so we're glad to see him on the mend.

Today Jake and I had a great morning playing soccer.  We played a nepalese team.  At first we got smoked, but some Portuguese guys came and helped secure our defense.  Once that happened we started scoring goals.  I wish I had a picture of the goal I got.  Paul sent a long pass down, I beat the defender, got close to the goal and then hit is over his head.  It his the top crossbar and went in.  I also had the winning assist to another Portuguese guy so we beat them.  We're all pretty dang sore after running on a full field.

We rushed home, got changed and headed to Strasbourg for a stake priesthood meeting.  The whole family went. We dropped them off in the city center and then the boys and I attended the meeting.  They had a interpreter, but we didn't put the headphones in as we are really trying to learn French.  Our bishop spoke and talked about our lifelong pursuit as priesthood holders is to put off the natural man.  I got the gist of the talk, but not much more.  We are still months from really understanding.  Right now we are just catching words and trying to put it all together. French is definitely harder than I expected.  The combination of it not sounding the way we would expect it to sound when you read it and the different grammar is difficult for all of us.  Jake is probably the furthest ahead.  He's catching on quick!

Strasbourg is in France and part of our Nancy stake.  It is a really, really pretty city with lots of old looking French buildings.  The most amazing part of Strasbourg is the cathedral.  It is absolutely huge, gothic and very beautiful.  Spencer couldn't believe his eyes.  We were glad he was there as he was pretty sick this morning and almost stayed home.

We went inside and were amazed at how big it is and the beautiful stained glass windows.  Pope John Paul the II performed mass there in 1988. I'm sure that is a big honor for a cathedral to have the Pope come.  We also saw the amazing astronomical clock.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strasbourg_clock

It was totally awesome and kept track of the sunrise, sunset, planets, time, etc.  Very, very cool! Every few minutes someone has to put .20 euros in or the lights turn off.  It was hilarious to hear the moan every time the lights would turn off.   A really nice lady from Oxford took our picture.

We also decided to pay 20 euros and hike up to the top of the Cathedral.  It was amazing that they let you up there.  We hiked up a rock spiral staircase that seemed to go up forever.  The views just kept getting better and better.  The first things we saw were the flying buttresses.  Then we started to get views of the city. Eventually we made it to the top.  The city was absolutely beautiful.  We'd love to go back there and spend some time visiting other places.  On top we saw the old mechanisms for ringing the bells. They were huge!  By the time we got back down it was dark and the cathedral was all lit up.  The catholics definitely know how to build awesome churches.  This was was started in 1013.  Amazing.

After that we walked around, got some sandwiches and visited the Apple store.  Jake said there is a documentary on this store as it is one of the newest in the world.  We found out that all of the crepe stands close at dusk, so we were frustrated that we couldn't find crepes for the kids.

However, we also had a flambé.  We were told that Strasbourg is famous for that type of food.  It is basically bread, with potato and cheese.  Very delicious!

We just got back tonight at 9:00.  Luxembourg is very quiet on the weekends, so it was nice to come home.

We still don't know anything about the school.  We've paid for the online private school and hope that by Monday we have a decision.  We've involved the counsel general, the department of commerce, etc. who are all influential in getting us here.  So we're hoping that their influence will help us get a decision by Monday.  We need a decision Monday because that is the last day we can get a refund.  I really don't want to get ugly American on them and lawyer up because this is such a small community.  But I will if I have to...

One last thing, they can't predict the weather here at all.  This week it was supposed to snow all week and it barely even rained.  Most of the time it just mists here, sort of like Seattle.  It did get colder this week, but not horrible.  Looks like winter has been mild here and back home.  With the terrible snow conditions in SLC we feel bad for all of you snow lovers.  I'm sure there will be water restrictions in Utah if this doesn't turn around quickly.

We are pretty excited to move to the barn this Friday.  We're hoping that we can finally unpack our suitcases and have it feel more like a permanent home.  My other goal this week is to find a car to buy.  We'll look for something small with 6 seats.  We've seen that you really don't want a big car in Europe.  I'm also glad to report that I put diesel in the car when we filled up this morning.  It runs much better with the correct fuel!

Click here for Week 4 pictures - The cathedral pictures are awesome!