Haircut

Can you tell by her expression that she isn't very happy with the haircut? Funny girl... I think it looks great!

so today we're going to go INSIDE the castle!!!! i'm WAY excited! there are only like 3 weeks left of this cycle and then we get transfer calls! we think that president will make a LOT of changes because he's going home after this next transfer so then when the new president comes he wont have as much work to do with regards to transferring people. i'm kind of nervous and excited... i dont want to leave heidelberg! but i kind of need to so i can learn and grow more. so we'll see.

after next week i probably wouldn't send anything to my apartment... just because i dont know if i'm leaving heidelberg or not. i'll keep you updated. we dont have transfer calls until saturday june 14th, so just keep that in mind.

Castle Pictures

Rachel's apartment is on the left. She is VERY close to the castle!

Notes to Friends

meg: thanks for emailing me!! i'm working on a tape for you right now and i should be finished soon and then i'll send it off! good luck with finals!! i'll be praying extra hard for you!! love you!!!! ♥ (This is from last week's e-mail.)

Christi: thanks for your letter! it was so good to hear from you!! as you can probably tell i'm loving it here in germany! i'm glad that you can check my blog... i feel bad about not writing people back but its SO expensive for me to send normal letters to the states... so i hope this is alright! you are more than welcome to email me too if its easier for you! ♥

Thanks girls for keeping in touch with Rachel. I know it means so much to her!

Updates

Rachel was able to send last week's e-mail today. I guess she had too many pictures attached and that's why the e-mail didn't send the first time.

last week we walked up to the castle! we didnt go inside because we didnt have enough time but we can walk around it for free all you want! so i took some pictures. man it is BEAUTIFUL here! i never want to leave heidelberg! i dont remember if i've told you but there is a song called I Left My Heart in Heidelberg... my heart totally belongs to heidelberg! its so beautiful!!!! the weather has been awesome! last week it was SO hot but its been cooling down a bit which is nice.

i'm getting my hair cut today! i'm chopping it and i'm really excited about it. theres a guy in the american ward who's really good at cutting hair and he cuts the missionary's hair for free :) so i'm excited... no worries i'll take pictures!

well we've offically given Kai to the american elders... I'm SO SAD! but it went amazingly well... so he met with them at the church on saturday night and they had a great lesson about prayer and finding answers and they committed him to start praying! he came to FHE last night and wondered why we werent there so we booked it over to the church to see him for a bit. hes really investigating the church for the right reasons. he said that he was sad that we werent going to be teaching him anymore but that we'd see eachother at soccer and stuff. Heavenly Father really answered our prayers on that one. Kai is so cool and understanding with everything... its such a miracle! i'm SO excited to see the progress that he makes with the elders. we've become such good friends! when we're both back in the states i'm totally going to stay friends with him!!!

it was interesting we were talking with elder eddy on the phone on saturday after their meeting with Kai and he said that there's a reason why sister ranzenberger and i were sent here... Kai knew who the missionaries were, he had seen elders and one of his best friends is a member. but for some reason he decided to meet with US. we've taken him from just wanting to know a little about the church, to really wanting to find out if it's true. i'm SO glad we found Kai. and even if he doesnt get baptized i'm so glad i know him and that we've become friends...but he will get baptized :) haha

Confession...

I have to confess. I did the unthinkable...

the bad thing parents of missionaries are NOT supposed to do...

I called Rachel.

I have her phone number from Mother's Day.

I called to tell her we didn't get an e-mail today.

I wanted to be sure she was ok.

I had thought of a million things that could be wrong...

I was worried... very, very worried...

We talked for less than 30 seconds.

She's fine.

She says she sent an e-mail and doesn't know what happened.

There... I feel better... but I still want my e-mail! ♥

I've been thinking too...

If this was some kind of spiritual test for me to see if I could endure the hardship

of not hearing from Rachel for two weeks...

If this was my test of obedience to mission rules...

I've failed.

I admit it.

I know of parents who don't get letters from their missionaries

for weeks on end and they endure... they faithfully wait...

Not me.

I might be a failure... but at least I know she's ok.

Books

Rachel sent photos of these two books. The one on the left is cute because he grandpa's name is "Jim Knopf". The one on the right was one of her favorite books and she must have thought it was cool to find it in German.

Bad news... no letter from Rachel today - only photos.

I'm sad... I'm guessing there was trouble with the e-mail.

The Neckarwiesse

This is a picture of Rachel on her last P-Day at the Neckarwiesse. I think that means "lawn on the Neckar River".

Rachel has a new e-mail address. She would love it if her friends would e-mail her maybe once a week. She can't reply via e-mail... but she really wants to hear from you. Her e-mail is:

tanzenrach22@googlemail.com - It's german for "dancing rach".

She bought a new camera today and promises to send more pictures!

Happy Mother's Day!

My Mother's Day gift this morning was to talk with Rachel for 2 hours! Can I just say how absolutely amazing it was!! She sounds good... she's happy... she likes being there... she says Germany is soooooo beautiful.

Here are a few fun things that I wanted to share:

Rachel has discovered German ice cream. There's a little shop near their apartment. Her favorite flavor is one that isn't found in America but is called "cookies".

European girls don't usually play soccer. But the missionaries play every Saturday down by the river. They invite young adults they meet during the week to play with them. People are always surprised that Rachel and her companion play too.

Everyone rides bikes - even the really old people. Rachel and her companion have started riding their bikes, but it hurts Rachel's knee. (Old problem that I was hoping wouldn't bother her...)

There are 3 sets of missionaries that serve in Heidelberg. Two are assigned to the German ward and one is assigned to the English ward. Rachel attends the German ward.

Here the members of our church feed the missionaries dinner every night of the week. Rachel has been in Germany for 6 weeks and has only been fed by members 3 times.

The weather has turned very warm. They like to go talk to people at the park by the river. The problem is... people at the park just take off their clothes and lay around in their underwear to tan. Rachel said it's a little disturbing and so they won't be hanging around there quite so much.

Each morning Rachel and her companion do 30 minutes of exercise. They usually go walking. Recently they found a new path and so they decided to see where it took them. After about 10 minutes of walking they realized they were at the castle. So cool! She's planning to go actually visit the castle soon and will send pictures.

Ten Good Years...

I'm very sorry to say... our van has died. The reason I'm mentioning this on Rachel's blog is because this is the car she drove at college. So some of you reading this blog may remember the red van. It lived a long and happy life and gave us many wonderful memories and family vacations. It will be missed. (This is not an actual picture of our van... but it looked like this... only ours had a lot more dents, scratches and scrapes.)

Missionaries Are Happy People

I'm not sure why these missionaries are "jumping for joy"...

but they do look very happy!

These pictures are taken in front of the church building

where Rachel attends.

Rachel and her companion with

Elder Hopkins and Elder Braithwaite.

(Elder Braithwaite is from Utah and knows our family there.)

Great Photos

Rachel and her companion ride "the bann" often.

This cute book says "Mein Freund Knopf"

which translates to "My Friend Button".

The reason she took this photo is because my maiden name is "Knopf". ♥

Always Wait For the Little Green Man!

oh my gosh the most HORRIBLE thing happened yesterday. so sister ranzenberger and i were on our way home. we had just gotten off a bus at Bismarckplatz and we were going to walk home down Hauptstrasse and stop at our favorite icecream place on our way.

so we had to wait at a light at bismarckplatz. so we were waiting for the little green man to turn green so we could cross the street. there were a lot of people there as usual because its a busy area.

so we're waiting and this lady runs across the street because she wants to catch her bus. and she gets hit by a car!!!!!!!!!! no joke she starts running across the street, the car sees her and slams on the breaks and she keeps running and gets hit! i swear i thought i was going to see blood and guts everywhere!! i saw her get hit but then i shut my eyes and didnt see her hit the ground.

but then she gets up and starts heading over to her bus still! i think she was not really there to begin with, like i think she was handycapped. but these people were helping her up and like, no stay here you just got hit by a car. but she refused and ran off to her bus!

i hope everything is ok and that shes not totally hurt but we have no idea. and the poor man who hit her...it was not his fault because she had the red light and his light was green. i felt SO bad for him!! but he called the police and people stayed to be witnesses. we left and got our icecream but we were pretty shaken up. i mean i saw a women actually get hit by a car! so always wait for the little green man to tell you that you can cross the street!!!!!!! or you could get hit by a car!

Frau Kästle Update

(This is a picture of Rachel's companion pushing Frau Kastle.)

frau kästle didnt come to church but we went over on friday like normal and she was like in tears. her wheelchair broke so (i guess its like automatic or something) so she had to push herself everywhere and her arm hurt SO bad. so when we got there she asked if we would push her around town to run her errands. of course we did poor thing! she had tears in her eyes and said "i thank God that you came today" and she didnt yell at us at all! she lives in a small town called Mauer. its BEAUTIFUL! and it was a beautiful sunny day. it took us like 3 hours but it was worth it to help her out. ♥

Happy Birthday to Me!

I got a package from Rachel today - on my actual birthday!

Good timing sweetie!

And... that girl knows her mother... she sent chocolate!

♥ European chocolate! ♥

She also sent a great letter and some tourist info from places near her -

places that she sees daily.

Here is what she says about the chocolate:

"Each week I buy a different one.

I haven't found one that's like amazing yet,

but this one is my favorite so far.

I'm still looking."

I can't wait for her e-mail tomorrow.

Where In the World is Heidelberg??

Heidelberg is in the southwest area of Germany. You'll see it above the "Black Forest" and below Mannheim.

Interesting facts about Heidelberg:

Population 139,941
Approximately 1 in 5 of the population are students.
Approximately 3.3 million visitors pass through Heidelberg every year.

Rachel has mentioned that there are a lot of college students and tourists.

Heidelberg has been called a "beautiful and quaint town" which "to many represents quintessential Germany." Heidelberg has a famous castle, and an "old European feel" because of its "medieval courtyards and narrow, cobbled streets."

I think Rachel needs to send more photos! ♥

Hearts

I realize that I'm not up on all the latest technical stuff ...

but I just learned how to make "hearts".

See... ♥ ♥ ♥

I think this is the coolest thing! My young friend Lisa taught me how!

I ♥ Rachel
I ♥ Rachel
I ♥ Rachel

I guess I'm easily amused...