We heard the music from down at the corner from our apartment. Elder Karn gave him some coins and took his picture. It was very "oompa" calliope!

We have had a great week to recover from our service project. It seemed like we needed a nap every day for a few days afterwards. Thank goodness for naps! But we are so grateful for the success of the project and all those who helped. It will probably always be a real highlight for our mission. Speaking of which, we are halfway.

Our "wounded warrior" has recovered well since he had surgery on his injured hand. As you may remember, he was shot in the hand in Afghanistan. On Monday he had surgery and they placed a metal plate over his wrist area to stabilize the shattered bones. He still has a lot of finger movement but his wrist is very limited. He looks great and has been released to outpatient status. He tells us he will fly back to his unit in Italy next Friday. It has been such a joy to visit with him.

Yesterday we were blessed with another grandchild! (no. 17 for Elder Karn and as we share no. 23 for both of us). His name is Robert (Robbie) Glen Wixom and he weighed in at 8 lb.s 14 oz., 21 inches long. He is good size at 2 weeks overdue! It was not like a library book that we didn't get back in time. He just kept growing! And little mom Linda had to have a C-section. We wish her the best. Becoming a mother is a real sacrifice! The happy parents are Russ and Linda Wixom of Federal Way, Washington. Congratulate us and them! We miss family very much. We knew when we decided to go on a mission that we would not see our grandchildren, including newborns, miss out on baptisms and birthdays, etc., and not be there for family crises. We hope you all know that is the greatest sacrifice for us to make. We would definitely love to be there for you all. Hopefully we can do some good here for those far from their loved ones too.

Other events of the week are 1. Elder Karn broke his tooth on a carrot. At least he was eating healthy! We have no dental insurance over here (it starts Oct. 1) so we will try our saddest faces when we see the German dentist. 2. They are changing mission cars on us again. They try to balance out the kilometers on all the cars to last the full lease. The cars are leased for 4 years or 65,000 km, whichever comes first, for 7000E. Amazing price. It will be fun to see if it is another red Corsa Opel. 3. Gas prices dropped to 1.45E per liter, which makes it approximately $8.70 per gallon. That is better than $10 per gallon. and 4. We found another delicious German food: cheese pretzels (Bretzels)!

Today at Sunday meetings we met an LDS reservist chaplain assigned to Landstuhl for four months. We are ecstatic! This will be great to work with him and the chaplaincy, especially after the very successful service project and the groundwork set in place by our former LDS chaplain, Erik Harp. Sometimes you just can't count all the blessings they come in so fast.

Have a great week!
Sister and Elder Karn