We are sorry about the delay but we are just now finally sitting back and catching our breath. The move went well. We have a nice apartment and everything is put away. We have more space but less rooms. Figure that one out. And yesterday the brilliant and patient Elder Karn connected up our Vonage phone (801-476-4206) so we can call home again. It took many many tries to outsmart the German DSL service here (which was also difficult to get going) to allow the connection. We have no "techno geeks" to help us through this stuff. It must have been a techno angel answering a prayer, that is for sure!
Our new assignment keeps us mostly gone from our apartment. We are at the Institute Outreach Center 5 evenings a week. The young single adults, with whom we work, will make us young and energetic however. We have Family Home Evening with a meal (we both will cook) on Mondays, Institute (Old Testament studies) and a meal on Tuesdays, Wednesday night is open for anything, Thursdays we are closed for P-Day (preparation, and "play" for senior couples), Fridays is movies/game night, and Saturdays is BBQ (Summer!) and movies also. Sometimes we have meetings on Thursday evenings. Sundays we will be finding people. This past week has just flown by because we have been busy trying to figure out how to do this job. Our attendance has been low compared to the possible clientel and this is really where our work will be - in the "search and rescue" mode. Sister Karn finally figured out how to get into the official website to update it:
http://www.lds.org/institutes
Go to Germany, then Servicemens Kaiserslautern to see the IOC information.
Elder Karn was called as a high councilman in the Kaiserslautern Military Stake. For those of you unfamiliar with this, he will be responsible in encouraging the wards and branches (parishes or congregations)within the stake (large region covering 7 different parishes) to help find the young single adults (ages 18-30). This is the age when sometimes the young people fall away from the Church as they are usually away from home and family and "rules". They often come back, but not after they have some regrets. We want to help them have no regrets, find good friends, and have wholesome activities for them to enjoy. And also, the largest growth in the Church in central Europe is among this age group. Perhaps you can see the vision in establishing these Institute Outreach Centers. There are 19 in the central Europe area and just 4 in our mission. However, we have the one and only IOC that is strictly English and for the US Military and their dependents in that age range. The small German branch used to meet with us and perhaps they will re-join us. All in all, it is a challenge, believe us. We just found out that the military stake overlays another German stake. That is very different.
We will hit our 6 month mark on Tuesday. Now we have just a year to go. Hang on families! Don't forget us! We think of you every day.
We will take some photos of the center and add them next time. Our new address is:
Bruce R. Karn
Box R
PSC 2 Box 11916
APO AE 09012
Our German address is: (faster but a little more money)
Fabrikstrasse 15A
66849 Landstuhl
GERMANY
Elder Karn is in his 4th meeting this evening. When he comes home we are going to "kick back" for a couple of hours. Tomorrow we have an appointment with a local bank to see if they will let us open an account. We have found that if you don't have your "salary" automatically deposited they don't want your business. Baumholder was much easier. But, that bank doesn't have a branch here. Fortunately our German driver's licenses are good for all of Germany.
Take care all.
Love,
Elder and Sister Karn
