TRAINING IN FRANKFURT

Last week we got a telephone call from Jean Pierre Massela, our supervisor in the Family History Department in France. He has a new project that he wants us to begin for him. This required a quick trip to Frankfurt, Germany, for training and receiving a new computer and software system. President Woodland, the Mission President of the Belgium/Netherlands Mission gave us special permission to go. It is outside of our mission boundaries, and unless special permission is given from the Mission President, we would not have been allowed to go.

We left at 6:00 a.m., arrived in Frankfurt around 11:30 a.m., received a quick 2-hour training session, packed up the new computer system, left Frankfurt at 2:00 p.m. and arrived back in Mons at 7:30 p.m. It was a very quick trip, but it was the only time that all parties could get together at the same time. Jean Pierre had to come up from Paris to Mons on the train. He then drove us in our car since he had been there before and basically knew the way. There is a distribution center and office for the Genealogical Society of Utah outside of Frankfurt and the men who invented this software work there. Monday was the only day that the head man was going to be there to explain things to us.

An interesting side note, it looks like the man we are going to be working with via telephone and email is the father of one of the missionaries we knew in Bordeaux. Small world, huh?

It was fun to get to see a different part of Europe, but impossible to take much in with that quick of a trip. We tried to take a few photos out of the window of the moving car, but that was difficult. Here is a short overview of what we saw.

The country is very similar to that of Belgium and France,

with lots of farm land, forests and generally beautiful scenery.
Most of the sunflowers have all gone to seed, except for this small crop next to the road on the outskirts of Frankfurt. For a while there were huge fields of green, then they turned yellow when the sunflowers appeared, and now most of the fields are black with just the seeds showing. There are pretty purple flowers in the foreground of this picture but they are hard to see.
Part of the country we passed through had at one time been filled with volcanoes. There were dozens of dome-shaped hills like this one, which we understand were once volcanoes.And just like most of Europe, there are very quaint houses everywhere.

It appears that that part of Germany is more industrial than Belgium or France. We got a fun picture of this factory making clouds.

Most of Europe use a variety of methods to produce energy. We have seen nuclear plants quite often as we have traveled around.In contrast to these nuclear plants, we also saw many "fields" of windmills.
(Note the GPS in the window. We couldn't have made it without it, but it had issues at one point and we had to stop to get a map until it was straightened out. Of well, it seems nothing is perfect.)
These windmills almost seem like something out of a science fiction movie when you come upon one looming over the tall trees.
Among all the German things we saw, we also came across this "American" standby side by side with the European.
We walked into this gas station convenience store and right by the doorway were 3 slot machines. JoAnn asked Arnold if we were back home. Jean Pierre told us that gambling was legal in German. Who knew?
The Germans also have some very unique cows.

We drove past the Frankfurt Temple, but did not have time to stop. Since it is out of our mission boundaries, we probably will not be able to return, but may get a chance to visit The Hague Temple in Holland.
We will do another blog regarding our new assignment as soon as we are up and running with it. Hopefully, that will be next week or so.