We continue to press forward - or as a good old Army boy would say - "we are leaning forward in the foxhole." I would explain that phrase but it was never explained to me. I think it is supposed to mean that even in a difficult situation you are pressing forward as much as is humanly possible. That is what we are trying to do! The persuit of German drivers licenses continues. After driving a long ways and getting our Utah drivers licenses officially translated into German we were ready for the next step. On post the folks told us what town we needed to take the translations to in order to get our drivers licenses. With the aid of our new state of the art GPS we headed out to conquer this task. The GPS was flawless in its navigation. Too bad that place only inspects cars and does not issue licenses. But the fellow there told us where to go to get our licenses - okay he told us it was on a street just before the traffic light. He didn't know the number and we had no idea what the street name was or how to tell the GPS where we wanted to go. But we started back-tracking and parked just before the traffic light. We did a practice run on the first building we went to. 'Wrong building but they did know where we were supposed to go. Upon reaching the correct building we attempted to get our licenses. 'Not going to happen yet! There are more hurdles to get over! We had to come back to Baumholder and go to the local courthouse. (Called a Rathaus - perhaps that is a good name too) Anyway, there we learned that we needed passport photos, an eye exam, and a first aid CPR class. A first aid class in German would not be too useful because we would only understand a few words. And if there was a test at the end I am afraid it would all be in vain. We next found that on post the Red Cross will be running a first aid class in a couple of weeks. That course is only $35 each. Now we understand that once you get a German drivers license it is good for life. I wonder if anyone's vision changes over a lifetime? And their appearance doesn't change over a lifetime? And I am certain that no one ever forgets any of their first aid training! Just a thought! So far we are in $150 for official translations and a lot of travel and visiting with folks. Passport photos, eye exams, and first aid classes are not going to stop us now. We are inching ever closer to having German drivers licenses! Finally the snow appeared again! Friday it started snowing like it meant business! We ended up with three inches of wet heavy snow and slush! Since then it has turned colder and there are those wheel busting blocks of snow and ice along the side of driveways and the road! (You know - the parts always pictured in the brochures about how much fun winter is!) I did get to use my new snow shovel! How cool is that! There are two parts to our assignment here. We are to be a resource for the members of the church here and to be ambassadors for the church and Jesus Christ. We try to be friendly and nice to everyone. We sometimes carry a plastic bag with us on our walks and pick up trash along the side of the road. There are a couple of areas that look better because we walked that way. Isn't that what life is all about - making those areas that you walk through better because you walked that way? We are are trying to do our best! Among the people here we feel we are as was said about Ammon and his brethren in Alma 27:4. We are "... among those whom they so dearly beloved, and among those who had so dearly beloved them - for they were treated as though they were angels sent from God ...". We dearly love and miss all of you back home but we also dearly love the people here. And certainly they have loved us! We pray for those here, those deployed and for all of you back home! May the merciful Father of us all bless and keep all! Elder and Sister Karn
(Some of you may be able to view this video and others may not. It is just a short movie of Elder Karn shoveling snow. If you can view the video you must be a computer geek. We can't do it and we put it on there!)
