Dear Family,
Where did this last week go? It just whirled by! We had Monday through Wednesday to get ready for our busy weekend, and these days were certainly needed!
Thursday we met at 8:00 a.m. here in Friedrichsdorf with one of our AAAs who was on his way back to Salzburg, Austria, and called to see if he could meet with us. He does the audits in Cyprus for us because there really aren't enough Priesthood Holders there to do them. His name is Elder Mazl--what a kind, gentleman he is. He and his wife live part of the year in Austria and part in Cyprus. It just amazes me how much people all over the world give of their time and effort to help build up the kingdom.
Then, after the meeting, we left for our Area Audit Committee Meeting in Frankfurt. We made it just in time, but fortunately, we had our presentation on a thumb drive, our agendas printed off, and our handouts ready to go. The meeting lasted nearly an hour and a half, and we felt much better about this meeting than the one we had about three days after we first arrived here in Germany. This is the meeting we have with the Area Presidency First Counselor, Elder Sabin, and the other people who are heads of finance and defalcations here in Europe Area.
After our meeting, we quickly went back to our apartment and finished the final packing and were ready when the taxi came to pick us and Kiever, our analyst who speaks Spanish (but from Portugal), and took us all to the airport, where we left for Madrid. Wouldn't you know it--the plane was late getting in, so instead of arriving in Madrid about 8:15 p.m. (with the meeting starting at 8:30, by the time Kiever got the car rented and we got to the church, it was after 9 p.m. Gpa George and I were nervous wrecks thinking we were going to be so late, but Kiever was so calm and said that sometimes meetings start at 11:00 p.m. because the Spaniards work until late and are used to having meetings start late.
When we opened the door of the bishop's office, I will never ever forget that sight! There were 12 beautiful smiles and happy eyes ready to welcome us! They were all so excited to learn and be taught about financial policies and auditing with so many questions, that we didn't finish until after midnight! They were such humble men who had such a desire to learn and serve the Lord in their callings!
We were so impressed with their organized books that we told them we wanted a pic of them with their beautiful records!
We were on such a high after this meeting, but very tired, so we went to sleep pretty quickly after we got back to the hotel.
When we got up on Saturday, we thought, we'll just hang out here in the apartment because we were pretty tired after such a busy week, but after we got a few things done, we thought, "No, we made a goal to see something new on every one of our P-Days on Saturday." So, we took off for Worms, Germany. What a name! This town was famous in the 1500s when Martin Luther wrote his rebellion papers against the Catholic Church and defended his writings there.
We walked the cobble-stone streets, visited the cathedral of St. Peter, the Jewish Courtyard (the Syagogue was closed today), and since it was so cold, we had to stop for some excellent hot chocolate.
Sunday, our church starts at 9:00 a.m., so it has been so nice to have that extra time in the day. After eating lunch, we had our "Come Follow Me," lesson. Gpa George and I take turns each Sunday preparing the lesson. We love the lessons and you can really study more in depth what you ordinarily don't get that much chance to do. 
Monday, today we are back at work getting ready for our training trip and auditing in Belgium, Rotterdam, and Amsterdam that we will be doing this weekend. We are really excited to go to these places with our AAA who lives in Belgium. We will be driving over--it takes about 5 hrs to get to Antwerp, Belgium. While the men are doing some training, his wife and I are going to attend The Hague Temple, which should be a wonderful experience. Then, they will join us after the training. We will start driving home on Monday.
This week we were so saddened to hear of another death of a spouse--my cousin, Christine, who is Blair's age, I believe, and her husband who is a doctor and a Stake Patriarch in Idaho Falls, were in Cancun, when he had a heart attack and died in the ambulance. How sorrowful that must have been to have to come back home with him in a casket. It breaks my heart! I know how stressful life can be and how we many times take out our frustrations on our spouses, but this just further reminds me of how suddenly we can be separated, and we just don't want regrets for not always building up our spouse or being as kind as we should be. I feel certain that neither Norm and Wendy Maxfield nor Mark and Christine Peterson had any regrets. I never saw anything but respect shown to one another.
Have a great week! We LOVE you all! Thanks again for all your LOVE and encouragement!
Love, Gma Laura
PS I inadvertently left our grandson, Kade, off the birthday greetings last week! We are so proud of this young man who just turned 20 years old on January 14th in Ecuador where he is serving his two-year mission. Whether he is doing a service project (that might involve pigs!), passing out information about the Savior in the blistering heart with worn-out shoes, feeling the success of having baptisms, or taking responsibilities in leadership positions, this young man does it willingly with that giant smile and great attitude! We surely LOVE him!
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