Dear Family,Wow! Where do I start! It seems like life has just been a blur these last couple of weeks! However, slowly, but surely, we are getting settled in to our new life here in Frankfurt. Some of you may still wonder how all this happened.
The cut-through path we walked so many times to go to the Area Office, the bridge, the little store to get Coke Zeros, and the place where I got my hair done.
Lunch with the Russia Moscow Mission President and his wife--Pres. and Sister McGhie
I will just say it right now--there is no way we could have left without the help of Kyle's workers at Jeunesse--they helped us pack, helped us get to the airport, and shipped everything we couldn't get in the suitcases. We really are going to miss these wonderful people--Vlad and Yuriy.
And we were off! How do you say "Good-bye" to a country and people you have learned to love so much! We will definitely miss so many things about Russia--this past year has been an unbelievable adventure that we will never forget!
We arrived here in Frankfurt, Germany, this past Monday.
The wonderful Senior Missionaries who picked us up at the airport.
The Area Office in Friedrichdorf--a satellite office of the main office in Frankfurt.
George and me with Jeanclaude Van Tonder, who we will work very closely with while here in Germany.
This wonderful man was the bishop of our ward (for only one week while we were there) and, also, an analyst in our office. He is such a sweet, humble, man who was just called as the new temple recording secretary for the Italy Rome Temple. He and his wife were going to be moving in a couple of weeks, so we had a little going away party for them in a Chinese restaurant close by the office.
We only knew for sure about 10 days before we had to be moved. It was pretty shocking, but in Russia, you never are quite sure from day to day the new rules you will need to abide by! What basically for the reason was this:
Russia is VERY strict on the privacy laws--hence the fact that we were all kicked off familysearch several months ago, with all those called to be part of that program released of those callings, and all computers taken out of the churches except for the absolute necessary ones for the day to day operation of the church, but absolutely no one in Russia could access it. In fact, if you typed into the family history website, it would come up with, "FORBIDDEN!" Also, as you know, we could never wear our missionary badges except for inside the church, nor could we talk to anyone about the church except to casually mention that we were volunteers for our church in Russia.
Anyway, just before we went on our Visa trip which is required every 90 days to renew our Visas, we heard that the Area Presidency and the Director of Temporal Affairs in Moscow felt the need due to the Privacy Laws mandated, that a Russian would need to be the Area Auditor for Russia and all reports for finances would need to stay within the country, perhaps even going back to paper and pencil. In the meantime, there was the question, "What to do with Elder and Sister Copeland?" Just about two days before this decision was made, the Area Auditor for the Europe Area with headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, notified the Church Auditing Department that he found out he could NOT return to his position after he had gone home for surgery the month before. Consequently, with that position open, it was a perfect fit for us to be transferred over there to take his place. When we returned from our Visa trip, we fast and furiously had to finish all the projects we had with different people, Gpa George had to train the Russian Auditor, and then pack up our apartment and be on the plane in a week's time. There was so much to do, but we were able to accomplish it, with the Lord's help for sure! We left Russia on Monday, September 17, 2018.
So, we are now living in Frankfurt and will be here for the rest of our mission. I believe, right now, our release date is August 18, 2019, so it is like we are having two separate missions. Amazing!
We now have a car--we are like 16-year-olds with a new drivers' license. In a new country with different driving rules and speed traps and cameras everywhere, we are nervous wrecks driving! Hopefully, that will get easier because we are certainly enjoying being in a car again after so many metros, buses, and taxis!
We are still trying to get settled because we have so much work to do at the office to make up for the month they had no one and just for getting to know the new way things are done here! Wednesday, we leave for Madrid, Spain, for a conference there. (Funny how we had never been to Madrid, now we will have visited it twice in one month!) What they do in this Area is have conferences where they bring several countries in since this is such a big area--from Iceland to the British Isles to mainland Europe--everything over to where our Europe East Area started. After this mission, we will have covered the entire European Area, for sure!
We are getting more comfortable in our apartment, now that we have moved out literally tons of stuff--just stuff from it. When you have a tiny apartment like this, you just can't have so much STUFF!!!
I am a good de-clutterer and am getting better all the time after moving so many different times in my life! We are now on the 4th floor of our apartment building instead of the 18th like we were in Moscow. We are in a tiny little town called Fredrichsdorf (about 20 minutes from Frankfurt), so actually the Frankfort Temple is in Fredrichsdorf.
The temple is still a long way from being renovated. I'm sure it won't be done before we go home in August, which is sad because it is literally five minutes from where we live.
We are about ten minutes from work, and I go into work every single day from 9:00 to 5:00, just like it is an office job again! We have about ten assistants there in the office who help with the giant area that is covered. Luckily, we have Italian speakers, German, Portuguese, Spanish, you name it, to help with the 58 AAAs in this Area. Gpa George went from having 3 AAAs in Eastern Europe, to 58 in Europe. Amazing!
Whenever we go to the lunchroom, we pass the Angel Moroni--he is in this large box! As you can read on the sign, This particular one needs refurbishing. It was on the Hague Temple from 2002 to 2015.We actually get to attend the International Ward and listen to church in English! It has actually been so wonderful! This is the chapel, which is right next to the Area Office in downtown Frankfurt.
Well, I'll close for now. I will have to start writing on Sunday because I won't have any time on Monday anymore. We only have Saturdays as our P-days, but we want to use those days for adventures! Hah!
So proud of all of you and how hard you are working in your work, school, and just lives in general. Thanks for the great family that you are who are so supportive! We LOVE you all so much. I'll send some pics when I get home from church.
Love,Gma Laura
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