STRANGE THINGS YOU DON'T GET TO SEE BACK HOME

There is a 90 acre cemetery near our offices where we go for  walks.  Quite a few headstones have  this sticker on them, notifying the family that if they don't pay their past due rental fee, their relative's bones will be removed and burned! In Germany it appears there is no certain rest for the dead.

 This week we continue to review photos and film footage taken by photographers across Europe. We are sorting these into files for each country so that they will have picture resources to use on their websites to accompany their news release stories.  Next we will go to the church website to search for pictures to augment a file we will eventually provide to each country.  We receive almost daily interesting multi-page articles from major media sites across Europe who are informing their readers about who these Mormons are that Mitt Romney belongs to.  Today we watched a recent excellent 8 minute British public television story from a reporter who had traveled to Utah to interview members, missionaries, welfare square managers and general authorities.  His concluding comment was "if the "end-of-days" comes, I want to be with the Mormons.”  We had a mid-week holiday this week commemorating the 1990 reunification of Germany.  It was a quiet day, no parades, flags or even people on the street. We used it to go for a bike ride around the 90 acre cemetery, a park and a huge gardening area near the offices.  We also participated in a 3-hour (not a typo my friend) German choir rehearsal for the Saints who will sing during President Monson’s visit on October 21^st.  We are singing his favorite songs, "Hark All Ye Nations" and "There is Sunshine In  My Soul Today" which are both great marching songs and a number from the old German hymn book that sounds like a polka with lots of eighth notes.  We have a couple more 2 hour practices before the meeting as these volks vant it to be perfeck!  Here are a few pictures for this week, whose theme is “Strange things you don’t get to see back home”

Cigarette vending machines on the sidewalk for easy access by all ages. Still a popular habit here.

Contact lenses without a prescription on the drug store shelf.

Ugliest wall sockets I have ever seen.

So called "Turk" piles, named by the missionaries, for the piles of recycle trash (?) made by the emigrants.  I am surprised the fastidious Germans would put up with this.

My favorite - notice how this toilet has a nifty shelf where things would normally be expected to drop into the water.  Good for people who want to review the final result of all their dietary choices and who enjoy cleaning the toilet every time they use it!!!