A Few of Our New Friends

We have made many friends.

This is Natalya Bogden. She is from the Ukraine. She invited us to her house the very first Sunday we were here. She speaks only Russian and German. After church we went with her and her Russian mother (who only speaks Russian) to her home. We walked through a big beautiful park across from the church as she carried on a one sided conversation in German. We smiled laughed and hugged each other. We then got on a tram and went across the Elbe River to the other side of the city. We learned a lot about getting on and off and stabilizing our selves on the trams. We didn't move fast enough getting off and had to get off at the next stop and catch another one back. We lost our balance as the tram started , one of us went down and the other one lost her purse, scriptures and books. We finally got to the apartment building and had to go up 6 flights of stairs to her home. She fed us a Russian lunch of Borscht and some kind of a meat patty with some fresh peppers and cucumbers. This is the only place we have had fresh, raw vegetables. They do not generally serve them at meal time. Natalya's 18 year old son arrived and realized that we were not communicating very well. He did some interpreting for us and wondered how we had been together all day with out a common language. Hugs and smiles go a long way.


This is Antje Urban. She is on the JAE (Young Single Adult) student council. She has been our guardian angel. She was at the train to meet us when we arrived in Dresden and has been taking care of us ever since. She is a convert who was able to attend four years at BYU Idaho, graduated and worked a year in South Carolina. Her English is perfect. We are in the beautiful park across from the church.


This couple is very dear to our hearts. Marco and Selina Schulze were next to invite us for dinner. They are newly married and both served a mission in Greece. They speak English fairly well, in fact he is our interpreter for Sacrament Meetings. He has helped us in other places too. He told us his family knew President Monson and President Uchtdorf and they had entertained them in their home. Come to find out his grandfather was mentioned several times in President Monson's book "Faith Rewarded". This book tells about the faith of the Eastern German saints during the time they were behind the Iron Curtain, under Russian rule. He is 5th generation Mormon. These two have given us special attention.


This little family invited us to dinner the week that Sister Gill was ill. Sister Wells went by herself. Mateusz Turek, his wife Adrienne and 3 year old Miriana were delightful. He is from Poland and she is German. They met at a singles grand activity in Gorlitz, a city half in Poland and half in Germany. Their common language was English until he learned German. This little one can communicate in German and Polish. We had a Hungarian Goulash that he made. It was really tasty.


Here is Heidrun Lehnert . She is newly baptized. She was the first to talk to us and interpret for us when we arrived at our new ward. She is single and lives with her 9 year old son, Paul. He reminds me of my 9 year old grandson. You will see him later. She is musical and can play the piano, flute and accordion. I love her German folk music. I went to her home to give a new member lesson with the sister missionaries. The Lehnerts do not have much but she served a simple, delicious soup full of vegetables. Sister Gill did not go because she was still getting over her illness. We will go together this week.