Frankfurt

It was so great to finally get to a city where we recognized everything. It was nice just to get on a train and not have to think of when to get off. It all came back so quickly and I felt right at home. We met up with a few people that we knew and headed to the city. Pascal gave us the idea of climbing the stairs to the top of the cathedral. We all had never done it before so decided that was what we would do first. He had just enough time to say hi and bye and was on his way back home. We got one big group picture before he left.

Pascal, Me, Karin, and Sarah

Beautiful Frankfurt! So much of it was destroyed during the war that they had to rebuild a lot of it from the ground up. It is know as the "Little Manhattan" because it looks so much like New York, just a little smaller. This city holds a small part of my heart because I was here for so many days of my mission. 

If you look on this one you can see the small old city that they rebuilt with the skyline in the background.

From the top of the cathedral. It was a little windy.

Headed down the crazy stairs.

The view from the bottom.

Sarah Barton is one of my favorite people from my mission. She would come and teach with us whenever she could. She was so busy with school and work, but would always take time for missionary work. She is such a great example to me of going to work and forgetting yourself. She was preparing to go on a mission while I was there and got her call shortly after I got home to southern England. She got home a few months ago and is back going to school and working hard. It was fun to talk to her about her mission and share stories. She thanked me for my help in getting ready for her mission. She said we were examples to her and she would think while she was serving, "how did Sister Mortenson and Robison do that?"

These were not here while I was serving my mission, but they are now. The same tradition that we saw when we were in Koln.

Eating at a cafe with Karin. Such a cute place to relax and enjoy some time together. She is still very active in the church and even invites the missionaries over for dinner. She has a job at the airport now checking documents as people come and go in and out. So happy to hear that she is doing better than when I was there two years ago.

This is where we ate dinner at the Klitz's house. Such a cute couple! She is someone that Spencer helped get baptized when he was serving in Offenbach, which is right outside of Frankfurt. Her husband was not supportive at first of her joining the church, but finally decided if it would make her happy then he should let her do it. He loves talking to the missionaries and hopefully will join the church one day.

The next day we left really early to Friedrichsdorf. We met up with Nora very shortly because she had so much going on with school. She meets with the Sisters every once in awhile but isn't very active. It sounds like she goes through times where she goes and then she is inactive again. I just wish that she could find a good group of friends that would take her to church with them. It is so hard for the youth in Germany to stay active when everyone around them is drinking and smoking. All we can do is be good examples.

We had some extra time to kill so we went and took a nap at the temple. Such a peaceful place. The temple was closed the week we were there so we couldn't do a session. It was just fun to be there together as non missionaries and talk about our missions.

An amazing Italian restaurant in Friedrichsdorf really close to the temple. This is where we would always go after the temple session to get some lunch.  

Then it was time to meet up with the Cruz family. They just had another little baby boy named Nale. She is a member that is originally from Chile. Their first boy is named Milo and has autism and is blind. He is so sweet and innocent, but smart. He already can do times tables in his head and divide. Stuff that you don't usually learn until 3rd grade. I guess that after I left he kept calling all the sister missionaries Sister Mortenson and Lorena would have to say no that is sister.........  He was so excited for us to be there and kept showing us all his new tricks. Michael is a non member that goes to church every week to support Lorena. He wants to make the decision to become a member when he is ready. It was fun to catch up with them and learn what new things were happening. One of my favorite families that I met on my mission.  

We stayed the night with Anne Osterlough. She made us breakfast the next morning and we talked for awhile about what the mission is doing now and the changes they have made. She is working in the temple now, but still knows a lot about the mission because she just got released. We didn't have a lot of time to spend with her because we had more people that we wanted to visit. It was fun to see her for the time that we did though.

Bad Nauheim. One of the pretties cities that I served in on my mission.

We spend the whole day going around with Marfred Baron and his wife. They were such great tour guides. We went to one of their favorite German restaurants to eat. This is such a German thing, they weren't happy with the food so they told the waitress exactly what was wrong and what could have been better. Spencer and I both thought that it was great! Then we went to a cafe on the top of the mountain and it was too crowded for them and no one was helping us so we had to leave. We went and saw the house that they have been building and it looks very nice. He loves showing off his home because it has taken him so long  to get it to a place where he is happy with it. He is 60 and finally bought his first and only house. Then we headed to another cafe that was much better in their opinion. They were so funny the whole day. We got our dessert and had a nice conversation now that they were happy. We made it just in time to catch our train back to Frankfurt. 

We stayed with Sister Lemon. We took a picture together, but we promised her we wouldn't put it on the internet. We made dinner with her and listened to music. It was one of the most relaxing times are on our trip. This was our last stop before heading back to Utah. Such a fun trip with so many adventures that I will never forget. I love Europe! By the time day number 21 came along I was ready to be back in Utah where I would have my normal life. Enough of these crazy hostels and people. haha. Our plane was delayed an hour and a half, but we didn't have anything to get home to so it wasn't a huge deal. Aaron and Callie picked us up from the airport and took us to their house to get our car. We were back in America! It was fun to talk to Aaron about eastern Europe and Callie about their new daughter. Such a cute family. We will have to go and visit them when we can stay longer. We drove back to St. George and crashed there for the night before driving back to Salt Lake. That concludes all the posts for our trip. I am sure a lot of you are glad that it is over. I am so glad that we got to go on such a great trip and want to remember everything about it. Enjoy!