Wednesday December 28
Lesson learned: DO NOT drop your car keys from a second floor window or balcony! Who knew, right!?? So, my dear Elder went outside and forgot his keys. He buzzed up and asked that I "throw" his keys down. "I'll just bring them to you" I sweetly said, although the idea of throwing them down was much more appealing and he knew it! "No,just throw them down" he said, not wanting to cause me any trouble as he is so wont to do. I obediently (wink) went to the balcony outside our living room and threw them to him. I didn't want them to land on his head since they were rather heavy and so I aimed for a bit in front of him, and indeed they missed his outstretched hands and landed with a clanging heavy sound on the pavement. "Oh my, I hope that didn't damage the key" I said with a feeling of horror. And off he went. Later, as we got into the car to run our errands, the car wouldn't start. After several calls to the mission office in Berlin and the Opal dealer we realized that indeed the keys were damaged! We felt like foolish children. The only spare key was in Berlin 3 hours away and the cheapest plan was for my dear Elder  to take the train (70 euros) round trip to the mission office to pick up the key. But he had the brilliant plan to call a member of the church who travels for his job and asked him. No, he wasn't traveling but his daughter was coming up from Berlin to visit on Friday and she would bring the key. Hooray! Expensive crisis diverted, although we will still have to have a new key made which will cost around $100. Ugh. Lesson learned. I hope to spare you that lesson...again, DO NOT DROP CAR KEY FROM HIGH PLACES!!

Thursday, Dec. 29, 2016
A day with the Strassenbahn(mass transit)  and adorable sisters

Today since our car key was unavailable, hence our car, we had to do our visiting on the mass transit which is just up the block from our apartment. The missionaries showed us how to get a day pass as it is cheaper and we embarked with our nervous selves for yet another new experience. We spent two hours visiting the three sisters all together and it took us five hours of traveling to do so. There are stops, there are waiting, there is walking then to find each person in these large apartment buildings. I have never seen so many apartment buildings!!
One of the sisters who is Sister Schlunz is 93 year old and the dearest thing. She speaks very slow German, which dear Elder enjoys and speaks no English but is so full of love I feel I can understand her. She said she prays for me every day! She served a mission in 1948 in Germany. I loved her apartment with pictures of her husband who died 18 years ago and treasures gathered from her long life. She lives very simply and comfortably. She had a little table set in front of the couch in the living room with small plates, two knives and a bowl of tangerines and apples. She said that she heard I don't eat sugar or fat:) (actually flour) and thus the fruit. What a dear. What a joy it was to visit with her and we wish we could have stayed longer but we were at the mercy of the strassenbahn and our next appointment. I was pretty cold and weary when we returned to our cozy apartment, but my heart was warm!

We had a lovely Christmas weekend. We ate some definite German meals at a couple of the branch members' homes and then went Christmas caroling. A good time was had by all and we were able to spend time with some lovely people and experience a little more of German culture. The people are so very sweet to us and there a re a few who speak English, but not very many!

It being the elders' Preparation Day the day after Christmas (senior couples can prepare any day they want to) we took them to the Baltic Sea Coast, about 15 minutes by car. It was windy and rainy on the way (gray skies and rain most all of the time here in the winter) but we did get a couple of hours of sun while we were walking around which was nice. The area was pretty full of people...all the tourist shops were closed because Germans celebrate the day after Christmas as a holiday as well. It  was good for me, so we just enjoyed the scenery and being out in the fresh air. The town was quite charming with cobblestone streets and homes and shops 4-500 years old; it truly feels like a step back in time although with all modern conveniences....well, pretty much..hard to find a public restroom and when you do, it usually costs 50 cents to use it!

Tuesday  Gentz and I decided to be big brave dogs and get on the train near our apartment to find a large department store; we know where it is, but have never gone by train. I am looking for a crock pot and a rice cooker..they are not very plentiful here in this area. Neither are large items of food; I do not know how the German saints do their food storage..you can buy flour one pound at a time and same with sugar. Needless to say, we go to the store quite often..good thing there are a couple within walking distance. 

Well we eventually made it on the train and realised we paid four dollars to go like a half a mile..we won't do that again and we walked back but at least we had the experience and know how to use it. Gentz has no problem asking questions when he doesn't understand something. His biggest problem over here is driving on these narrow narrow streets and trying to find parking on our street. There is very rarely a spot and when there is one it is way tiny. The mission office will pay for private parking so that is what we will do...there is a parking garage about ten minutes away. Still no crockpot or rice cooker so I will have to rely on Amazon I suppose:))

We are doing well and adjusting. I'm learning to rely on the Lord and my sweet husband more than I ever have in my life and that is a good thing. I am working on learning German, so hopefully in a few months I can at least ask a few questions. I am speaking in sacrament meeting this week, but Gentz will interpret for me. Usually during church, one of the elders interprets for me with headphones. There is another member, Vladimir from the Ukraine who comes with his two little girls and he doesn't speak German very well. Very few speak English; they say because this is East Germany..in the west more people speak English. Not what I thought, so I'll just have to stretch and grow which is good for the soul AND the brain cells:))

MAKING SCENTS of LIFE

December  2016

Just a few changes in the last two years and I will plan on making blog posts more regularly now! We moved up to Minnesota in August of 2014 into our delightful cabin, decided we could live there at least two years so in January of 2015, sold our sandusky home in Jacksonville and settled into the North Woods. We were able to pay off the cabin and declare ourselves debt free in Feb. of 2015. YAY!!

It was two years of service there in Aitkin, mn. How we came to love that area and all of those dear people in the church and the community! Gentz served as Branch president, I in the Relief Society and helping Mary McGee with her family history. We went to the St. Paul Temple regularly monthly taking members with us and the other times going alone. We traveled to see our kids quite a bit and with Scentsy. Gentz enjoyed long long walks in the woods.I stayed in doors probably more than I should have.  In May of 2016 we decided the time had come to serve a mission. We put our papers in and got the call to serve in the Berlin, Germany mission starting in February of 2017. Gentz was surprised and thrilled...i was thrilled but not at all surprised.

We had a wonderful family reunion in August with nephews and nieces coming from Utah and all of our children there. After they left Gentz, on one of his long walks in the woods and came back saying, "If family is our greatest joy...if we truly believe that, then we need to live near them." He didn't have to say that to me twice since I missed the kids and grandkids so much! Then after a few more days, we decided to put the cabin up for sale if indeed we were going to move near family after the mission..18 month mission by the way. So, we did and it had two offers in three days. 

Once we sold the house, we contacted the mission office to see if they would like us to come early. Yes, they answered quickly...how about january? We said sure. Then a couple of weeks later they called to see if we could come the first of December and we figured YOU BET! Let's get this show on the road!! So, we had Christmas with the kids the first week of December and headed out to the MTC December 9th. Our mission officially began December 12 with a few days at the mtc and then we landed in Berlin December 17 after one hour sleep on the international flight. We left for Rostock that next Sunday morning since we could hardly sleep anyway and made it in time to get our suitcases into our city apartment and go to church at the Branch where Gentz had been assigned to be Branch President. Oh, and did I mention we went ahead and bought a home in Jacksonville on Bellevue Drive? It's crazy I know but we fell in love with the house and the neighborhood and John and Lily are living in it while we are away.

So, now we are in Rostock, and the rest of these posts will have to do with life in Germany!

Where have I been?

April 19, 2014
I've been absent but want to come back! Fortunately my blog is kind and has not deserted me....There has been way too much to even go over of what has happened in the last two years so I will begin with what has happened in just the last four months of this year. In January, actually on my birthday January 5th, Gentz's dear mother Mary who was 92 passed peacefully into the next life. There was a terrific snowstorm that day,church was canceled and Gentz and I spent the day over at her house watching over her as she was on hospice and the time left was short. I read Winnie the Pooh to her, we played some music, we had a quiet sacred day. About 7:30 pm we decided to change her sheets and her as she had sweated out her t-shirt...after doing so and Gentz lovingly applying ointment to her back and talking gently to her she stopped breathing. Just like that. Her spirit left her body. We were very grateful to be there with her. What an extraordinary woman! How everyone loved her. We miss her. But she had a long life and was ready to go.

                                                                     Mary M. Franz
                                                                       1921-2014


                                    "If ever there is tomorrow when we're not together..
                                         ..there is something you must always remember. 
                                     You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, 
                                              and smarter than you think. 
                                       But the most important thing is, even if we're apart.
                                       .I'll always be with you." From Winnie the Pooh 

                                              Our last sisters' retreat..Dec. 2013. Minnesota

Our last Scentsy Incentive trip together. Whistler, B.C. Canada June 2013

                                             
Then just six weeks later on Feb. 19, I received a phone call from my younger sister Becki from Minnesota who had just received a cancer diagnosis...with disbelief in her voice she said: "I have cancer!" "Where?" I said.(Isn't that what we all say??)  "In the breast and it has metastasized to the liver and the bone." We knew at that point that it was very bad of course. Gentz and I made plans to get there as quickly as we could...we arrived on Friday, Feb. 21. Her son Peter was there..she didn't look well, but she could still communicate. Brekke and little Luci would be coming in from California on Sunday.

For the next week we watched her deteriorate like 5 years each day. Then on Saturday, March 1, just ten days after her diagnosis she slipped away...again, on hospice, in her home...all of us were there. Peter and I had been in the room with her...he left, I held her hand and encouraged her to go.

...just five minutes after her dear son left the room, she sweetly and softly stopped breathing. She entered that next room, that realm of spirits where Mother and Daddy were waiting to welcome their little girl home.

Gentz and I couldn't bring ourselves to leave the room until they had come to carry her gently out of the house. It felt so sacred...we felt truly altered from being there. How fragile our lives are! How grateful I am to know that she lives on and is not that far away and is so very happy and at peace!!

But I miss her...we live together in families in love and we weep when they die. I am still reeling from this as all who love her are. We can't believe it! How could this happen? She owned a Health Food Store,Grammas Pantry in Aitkin, MN, she ate organic all her life...she was young..only 59..she still had dream! How could this be??? But as we all know, cancer is random and none of us know when our time on earth will be up. I love her...I miss her and wasn't ready to let her go, but she lived her life fully the last year of her life. She only had to suffer with cancer for one week. She did it her way. Just like she would want. 

I will include in the next post two talks from her funeral because they describe perfectly Becki..one is from my son Gentzy, her nephew who aptly called her "A folk Hero" and the other one is from me.

 She loved her little Luci so much and she and Brekke were as close as a mother and daughter can be.

 She loved traveling with Pete as he worked on his different movie sets throughout the world I think this is Spain, but I'm not sure. Her plan was to walk that 60 mile walk in Spain when she turned 65..from the movie The Way..Via Del Santiago....Pete plans on doing that for her.

 This is in St. George from one of our sisters' retreats. We started getting together in 2011 after Mother died...how grateful I am that we did that..we had such fun together!

This was her last day in the hospital..Thursday...she came home on Hospice the next day. It was a peaceful day..she was able to talk a little bit, smile at her friends, sign some papers and here interacting a bit with Luci.

She lived her life with courage and passion.She never complained.She rose above difficulties, she worked hard, she loved hard and she died hard. She is such an example to me. I want to live my life more courageously!

Rebecca Lynn Jones

Oct. 12, 1954-March 1, 2014

"Alice laughed, "There's no use trying," she said, "One can't 

believe impossible things."  "I daresay you haven't had

much practice," said the Queen.

"When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why,

sometimes I believed as many as six impossible

things before breakfast." - Through the Looking Glass

And so, the beginning of 2014 I have said farewell to two women who have helped shape my life. Two women who I loved with all my heart. Two women who loved me and two women because of whom I will never be the same again, but better, kinder, braver and more adventurous!! Thank you dear Mary and darling Becki. You will continue to influence my life and the lives of so many others. 

OUT

I'm heading to a Job Fair this morning at Illinois College to set up a Scentsy booth. This is like my fourth year for doing this; doesn't seem like I ever get anything from it as they won't let you do cash and carry but it gets me OUT! Working from home I can get pretty just into being here and not even coming in contact with another breathing human being except for my husband and I don't count Facebook. So, off I go today, out among real people, smiling, laughing and schilling my wonderful product! There is no way around it...people energize me. This is good.

A Quiet Easter

What a mellow day! Church was great as always; Gentz enjoyed his He is Risen greeting and hoping for the answer he has always heard from his little mother Mary: He is risen indeed! We both sang in the choir today...two of my favorites: He is Risen and Christ the Lord is Risen today!

We had Jeremy, a young friend of ours from church who lives alone over for lunch; Gentz had made chicken and sweet potatoes and oat muffins. Then mother Mary came over and wanted to eat on our sunny front porch. I spent some time on the couch, visiting with Jeremy as best I could since he is deaf and I don't sign well, but we were having fun looking at some things on youtube and he introduced me to hula.com. John was around all day; the highlight of his day was my sharing my netflix password with him. So he has been catching up on episodes of Mad Men, whatever the heck that is!

We went to the cemetery as is our custom on Easter with the Easter lily that kari was so kind to send us. She is well aware of the family tradition. We put it at the head of our Jakob's grave with a little open plastic Easter egg that signifies the open tomb. Someday we know we will see our little boy again and his body will be whole and well because of the glorious resurrection. Gentz spoke a bit of how as he gets older, death doesn't seem to loom so forbidding as he contemplates the reunion with so many family members who have gone on ahead. Mother Mary of course agreed with that as she thought of Edgar...there she is 90 years old, all bent over, still loving life and I thought of how close death is to her now and that someday I will be in that same place that she is now. I heard it said by someone that even if we live to be 100 our lives our short, magnificent and messy! How true....I'm not sure how I got to be 61 years old so fast, and I hope the next thirty won't go as quickly as the last thirty did, but I know there are many good days ahead. So grateful for my family and God and Easter and days like today!

Then we finished off our little outing by going to Bryan Leonard's land where he is building a cabin...such a fun place!