Deutschland uber alles

Germany has always been close to my heart, but I’m not sure why. For some reason, every child in my family took German in high school. I won’t mention right now which of the six Mildenhalls won German Student of the Year TWO times in his career, but he (can’t be Charlotte) was also German Club President and German Honor Society President. My interest in Germany was fostered during this time, with the help of Frau Crooks and Kraftwerk.

Last week was the first time I have ever been there. Katie and I flew into Berlin and met one of my mission companions, Theo Jeremies at the airport. Sadly, our luggage did not wish to join in such reunions, as it took the first plane to South Africa (so much for the renown German organization skills, although we think it’s the fault of the Dutch).

He drove us from Berlin to Leipzig, where 2 other mission friends live. Kraftwerk sang of the joy found on the autobahn, and any car enthusiast knows it’s where all cars belong. However, instead of fun and high speeds, all we had was traffic and construction. Despite this and the heavy rain, my spirits were not dampened (Kt was hungry after 3 hours in the car).

We met up with Roma Veykum and his wife in their apartment and it was so good to see him and meet her. Part of the greatness of this trip was that I felt like I was in Russia again, what with the Russian food and East German city. Katie felt like I do all the time in Italy since everything was in Russian or German (although Roma’s wife Anya, speaks English very well, much to Katie’s delight). We ate lunch at their place (Shi and plov….yum), and then just talked about things. We walked around the city that night and saw some cool places, such as the churches where JS Bach would play during his life.

The next day we went to the Zoo, and we had a good time. Katie liked the monkeys (explaining her marriage to me?) and the snakes. That night we enjoyed some authentic German food, and played UNO (Katie learned how to say red, green, blue, yellow, and “I lost again?” in Russian).

Sunday we went to church (they have their own building…btw, Saxony used to have the highest concentration of LDS members outside the US before WWII). We came home from church and our bag had arrived from Cape Town. We then walked to some monuments with the Kux’s (also served in my mission) and played some more UNO that night.



We drove Monday morning back to Berlin. Roma’s brother gave us a tour of the main sights in Germany while trying to find our bus stop. Katie and I had a few hours to look around Berlin and enjoy some Kebab and Wurst. Luckily, we all (including our bag) made it back in one piece. Auf wiedersehen Deutschland, du bist toll.