The above three photos include a family home evening at the IOC with a family and the young single adults playing the "shoe game". The next is of the "Porta Nigra" gate at the city of Trier. It was built by the Romans 2000 years ago without any mortar between the stones. It is massive and impressive. The last is of us, also at Trier, this time at the Roman baths. What a beautiful day!
If you ever doubted the old saying about the sun always shining on some folks let me remove all questions in your mind. For two weeks we have had the best weather Germany has ever seen. It has been 70 to 80 degrees and sunny every day! So that proves that the sun always shines on that girl Pam! Well at least it did for two weeks and that must be some kind of a record in Germany. And just to let you know that we don't spend all of our days basking in the sun and relaxing let me tell you about today. We are invited to attend all of the ward conferences in the stake because of our responsibilities with the Young Single Adults. The ward that was having ward conference today starts their regular block of meetings at 0900. That's not bad but the first meeting today was scheduled for 0700. And the unit is over an hour away. So when you program in the get ready time we set the cell phone alarm for 0438. The super waker-upper alarm was set for 0440. (The object is to wake up on the quiet cell phone alarm and stop the ear shattering killer alarm from ever happening. And I "got 'er done" this morning.) So we bolted out of bed, raced through the bathroom routine, gobbled down a quick breakfast, and rocketed down the road! (Those are all things that Pam hates to hear and even more - hates to do.) And then walked calmly and serenely into the meeting five minutes before it started. How cool was that? Ya' gotta' love it when a plan comes together! Then eight and a half hours after breakfast we were ready for a nice lunch.
The work has been going well with some successes (which are always nice to have). We have met with all three senior chaplains in this area and they have all been very helpful. Some have been reported to have been less than cooperative in the past. But we seem to have found favor in their eyes and so we will try very hard to keep the ship steady on that course.
This past week the attendance of the Young Single Adults has been super. There have been great numbers and they have brought friends with them. The only scarey thing about that is when you have such a high you just hope to keep rolling faster and higher and that seems a little tough to do. We'll keep working hard, praying hard and hopefully it will continue to get even better.
I know this seems like a never ending story with me but I just want to say again what wonderful young people we have out in front defending freedom. The military folks and their families are some of the best folks to be found any where. What a debt of gratitude and respect they are owed. I sincerely hope our nation never holds anything back from caring for these folks. They earn every good thing they could possibly receive. We are humbled to call them our friends and even more humbled to be called their friends. May the Lord bless and keep them!
Best regards, Elder (and Sister) Karn
