Girls Camp Ward Hopping in Germany

This is M&M here and I am going to tell you about my experience at Girls Camp in Germany. We had to pack up for girls camp a day earlier so we were all busy and bustling around on Monday.

On Tuesday, Big Sis and I woke up around 4 and got ready for the day. We left the house and drove to the place where our drivers were going to pick us up. We got there early and waited around for everyone to get there. After we saw everyone and found our drivers, we said our goodbyes to Dad and got ready to leave. Me and Big Sis were in separate cars, so after we said prayers, we separated and met up with our driver and our other car mates. I was driving with 3 other girls and our driver was Sister Andrews. The other girls in the car were Taya, Lilly, and Machelle. They were in the Ramstien 2nd ward and we were supposed to be in the K-Town one but they had no room. It was fun all the same. We all had a fun time talking, watching movies, playing games, sharing candy, and doing fun stuff on the 6 hour car ride to the camp site. After the 6 hour car ride was over, we got to the beautiful camp site with the most perfect view of the Bulgarian Alps. It was a nice cool day with a slight/huge chance of rain at night. So after we got to camp, we unpacked and got the tents all set up. After the campsite was all set up, we went to the meeting house and got paired up in our groups. Once again, Big Sis and I were in different groups. I was in the light blue group and Big Sis was in the purple group. After we were all paired up with our groups we got our schedules and went to our stations. We were able to have scripture time and we just socialized in the area, It was really nice. When it was dinner time, we had great food. There was actual kitchens so the food was super good. After dinner, the kitchen people made us all brownies and they were so good! I loved hanging around with friends and eating sweets. There was an actually bathroom and showers here. The bad thing was that it was like a 5 minute walk from the camp site so that was a little annoying. But, it was still nice to be in a normal shower while camping! After I was all ready for bed, I wen to sleep in my tent with my friends.

 On the first day at camp, we got ready for the day and ate breakfast. It was annoying again to walk around while it was still dark just to get to the bathrooms. We had some great breakfast and sense I was going to the ropes course, I got to pack a yummy lunch!  The light blue group was scheduled to go to the ropes course that day, so I got to go to the ropes course a little after breakfast. It had a 100% chance of rain that day, so I got to climb trees and do obstical courses in the POURING rain. After about 6 courses, I was freezing and sopping wet. I ate lunch with my friends and after everyone was done with the course, we went back to the campsite. We got back, the other girls were doing stations so I was able to go do archery. It was not as awesome as I thought because we just got to do it once then had to switch and wait like 10 minutes to do another turn. It was fun all the same. We finished stations and then ended the day with a delicious dinner and a devotional. The desert was really good too. I met a girl named Brooklyn and she was super nice. after we were done with our dinner, we loved to help in the kitchens for some reason. I weirdly loved doing the dishes there because the sinks were super big and we got happy hippos when we were done, (I didn't do it for the hippos, I loved the feeling after) It was fun helping. We all ate then washed up. I went to sleep a little sore from the ropes course.

On the second day at camp, it was more sunny. The girls that went to the ropes course this day were more lucky then we were. They got sun while we got rain. Oh well, at least we know we did good on the slippery wood! After the other girls left, we did scripture study in the field. I was able to get a personal progress thing done to. The weather was better and the mountains were so gorgeous! It was so peaceful as I read my scriptures. After we were done, we did stations. I went to the sling shot station. It was really fun. We tried to hit the tin cans and pie pans that hung from trees for practice. Some girls just hit every one! It was super hard. I barely hit any and that was ok. After, we had free time. Some girls went to the commissary because it was near our site. They brought back food and stuff. I didn't go with them.  I stayed at the campsite with almost half of the girls and I played with duck-tape. I made some purses with them and they were fun. After the other group came back, we went to a swimming pool. There was slides and a giant tall diving boards! It was so much fun playing in the water with all of my friends. There were so many slides and I loved going on the steep one because your insides squirmed when you dropped. The super high diving board was also fun. It felt like you left your stomach up when you dived and it hurt your feet when you hit because it was super high. We played for a while then left back to camp for dinner. We had a great devotional and it was a great dinner this night too. After we were all washed up again, we went to sleep.

On the third day of camp, it was super nice weather. We got all ready and had an amazing breakfast again. We did a early morning devotional and scripture study. We did a service project a little after. We made some owl pillows for the hospital and we made some morse code bracelets for us. It was super fun and this took up most of the morning. We also went on a hike through a ravine and it was super cool. There was water everywhere and we walked through some caves and went through a forest. It was a lot of fun. After lunch, we did second stations and I went to the Red Cross one with my group and we learned some fun stuff. We were able to go to the last station for the day and make popcorn and muffins inside of orange peels over a fire! It was fun! The leaders did some fun stuff  every night where you guess the number of candies in a certain jar and you win it if you guess the closest number. I never won one and neither did Big Sis, but it was still great guessing.  I had a great time in the kitchens too. I was able to do dishes and help cut stuff too like veggies and help with the desert a bit. We went outside and had some root-beer floats! It was great! I went to bed excited for what the next day would bring.

On the fourth and final day at camp, we treasured the day more then anything. Scripture time was super spiritual and the devotional was super great. We practices our skits this day too. We did a skit with our ward and it was super fun! Because I was in the Ramstein 2nd camp but was also in the K-Town ward,  I was in both skits and we did a TV channel change for K-Town skit and we did a dating show thing for Ramstein 2nd. We did the skits after dinner and it was so much fun watching the other skits! I also was able to stay up also with my friends in my tent and one of them bought food and candy so we had fun playing games and talking and eating yummy sweets. I woke up a little bit later after I fell asleep and felt sick but I guess that one was on me. After, I was able to get back to sleep.

On the last and final day, we packed up the campsite and said goodbyes. It was sad leaving but it was a super great experience. We got in the cars and we set off on the 7 hour drive back. I talked with friends and our driver was so AWESOME and let us get a sweet for the trip from the commissary. I got Hersheys kisses. It was super great and enjoyable. I made so many great friends here and I can't wait to go next year! Every day, we had spiritual thoughts and it was super comforting! I had an amazing experience at camp and I felt the spirit so strongly that week. I can't wait to come back!

Hi there. This is Big sis and I'm going to tell you all about my adventure at the Germany girls camp.
So, since we had only just moved to Germany a few weeks earlier, and only attended church twice, I literally knew nobody. We had been attending the Kaiserslautern church, our real ward, but at camp, we stayed with the Ramstein 2nd ward.

Day 1: So since I was with a different ward, I got to ride up to Garmish with some new people. I rode with a girl named Angel, her mom. and a girl my age, Lydia. Since the car ride up to the mountains was 6 hours, we had lots of time to talk to each other. In almost no time I had a new friends. When we entered the mountain range, my first thought was, "I have got to come back here with my family!" It was so beautiful. And even though it was summer time, there were snow caps on the mountains and if you looked hard enough, you could see huge waterfall that fell down the sides of a few bare mountains. When we arrived at camp I met the camp leader, Sister Redd. She is super nice. We got into our tent groups and set up. Since our ward was one of the last ones to get everyone up to the camp site, we didn't have much time to set before we set up onto our first activity. We quickly put on our swim suits and the leaders drove us to an amazing water park. It had slides, huge pools, inflatables, and super tall diving boards. While swimming with Lydia, I met Michele. She is super nice and I hung out with the two of them. They are such wonderful girls. After arriving at the pool I then realised how many girls were here. I was super used to seeing the very tiny group of 30 girls in Korea, but here, there was at least 75-150 girls (not including the leaders). It was insane! We played at the water park for abut 2 hours then went back to camp and finished setting up. My tent mates are Vivian and Michele. I was super happy about that. M&M seemed to have already found at least 4 new friends. I was super happy for her. After our ward set up, we went to the huge meeting house for everyone. We ate all of our meals there. We have dinner and a little devotional given by a few leaders. After we have dessert, cinnamon rolls, we head back to the camp. After having a fun talk arounds the fire everyone went off to bed. It was a great start to the week.

Day 2: It was about 3 am when I felt a little nudge. I really didn't think much about it, but then I got the feeling to wake up, so I did. Poor Michele was crying and didn't look very well. So, at 3 am, we set off to bathroom. We both thought that she was sick. So I stayed with her for about an hour and half. Eventually, a leader that took a bathroom break said that she would help Michele. So I got back to bed for about 30 minutes before daylight broke through the tent. Michele was okay, but she said that cinnamon rolls did jack her up, so yeah. M&M and her group that she was part of set off to the ropes course. I forgot to mention, even tough we are in tent groups and ward groups, we are also put into groups depending on our age. She was in a blue group and I was in the purple group. So her and about 5 other younger age groups went to the ropes course. Us older groups stayed behind and learned how to make fires (with very interesting materials such as batteries and stuff) and did archery. It was pouring rain and so the archery adventure was really interesting. One girls arrow did a flip in mid-air. That was super funny. It was really hard to shoot in freezing cold rain and with a wet bow. That was the weirdest yet most fun archery lesson I have ever had. I felt really bad for M&M and her friends because they were going on the ropes course in the rain. After the lessons and activities, we had lunch and then ward time. Here, I met all the rest of the girls in the Ramstein ward. We played a whole bunch of super fun games such as "steal the clothes pins (that were attached to you), Mafia, Hot potato, and had fun with duck tape. I'd say that I had more fun getting to know the girls and playing games with them more than anything else. M&M got back. She said that she had loads of fun, even in the rain. Then after dinner, it stopped raining so we did the activity singing trees. Each of the 6 wards gathered around their own tree and sang the song that their wards were assigned. We sang "We will do what we believe" (at least that what I think the song title is) and listened to the other wards songs. It was super fun doing that. Afterwards, our ward gathered around the fire and played some active games. That was loads of fun. I had such a great day.

Day 3: Today's wake up call was the most funny. Our YCL stood outside all the tents and started to sing "Rise and Shine" super loud in order to wake us all up. Haha. After eating breakfast and making lunches for the day, all of the older girls groups, including me, got assigned to cars. Our leaders car wouldn't turn on, see me and few other girls that were in the car got to squish into another car with loads of other people. It was a quick drive up to the ropes course. We arrive there and the sun is shining and the weather is perfect. Much better weather then yesterday. We all get on the equipment and learn how to close all the safety harnesses and stuff, then we're set loose. There were a whole bunch of courses, about 15, and I wanted to go on as many as possible. I stuck around with a girl named Crystalena, which I met from the Kaiserslautern ward, and so me, her and a few other girls from K-town go on a whole bunch of courses. My favorite one was a course that had a zip line that raced across a lake. It was super high and super long. Down side was that you had to us a leather glove on your hand to stop yourself, so stopping was a bit nerve racking. We didn't get to go on all the courses because about half way through, we got stuck behind 4 leaders that were afraid of heights and  had a lot of difficulty get through, so we got massively held up on that course. We ate lunch when everyone finished getting off the courses, and then drove back to the camp site. Slight set back, our leader took a wrong turn and so we didn't arrive to the campsite for another hour. I didn't even realised it, but the leader said that me, and literally everyone else fell asleep in the car. Super funny. I do have to say, rope courses really drains you after a while. Eventually, we got back to camp and it was scripture reading time. We had the option to go wandering around in the forest, so me and about 5 other girls went into forest to read our scriptures. That was a lot of fun and super peaceful. After a while of that, we all head to the meeting hall for the service project. The project was to make stuffed animal/pillow owls for kids in Children hospitals. The project was so much fun and all of the owls turned out super cute. After dinner, we headed back to camp, but while we were preparing our skits the leaders from K-town asked if we wanted to help with their skit in their wards. Since that was our actual ward, we went over there and took part in the super funny skit there. It got really late after that and so we hung out with K-town for a little bit longer, then headed 30 feet back over to Ramstein 2. What a super fun day. My arms and shoulders are definitely going to be very sore tomorrow!

Day 4: It  was extremely cold last night. When I packed my bag, I packed some fuzzy pants and even though mom said I wouldn't need it, I brought it anyways, and I am super glad I did because without them, I would have been freezing overnight. Today is the hike day, so after breakfast, we made all sorts of snacks, then headed off for the hike. The car ride was super long, like an hour. We parked at this old olympic ski jumping area that was used during movies. It was a pretty cool place to start the hike. We walked along a long road for a while then started to trek up the mountain side. We stopped at a lake to cool off and eat lunch. When we started off back down the mouton I couldn't find my group anywhere, so I stayed with sister Redd and two other YCL girls there were also in my group that got left behind too. Our group of 5 set off towards the end of the hiking group of 100 girls and took our dear sweet time to get to the end destination of the hike, an underground river. We stayed behind and took loads of pictures, and I'm glad that we did. We wandered through the tunnels until we popped out at the end and headed back to the cars. I finally met up with my group and then we loaded back into the cars, and headed back to camp. We couldn't do much because the hike was faster than planned, so we tried to do activities while battling the massive amounts of rain for a few hours. We have dinner and do testimony meeting. After that, everyone presents their skits. It is super funny to see all the different skits and stuff. When everybody finished, we had dessert, then went back to our camps for ward testimony meeting. After that we all get situated and got to bed. Once again, most girls are pulling an all nighter, but not me!

Day 5: Today is the last day. We wake up, have breakfast, then break down camp. Breaking down camp is always so much faster then setting up, so we were down in about an hour. We go to the meeting house and make our lunches for the road, and then we do ward awards ceremony. K-town was going to do theirs the next week end, and Ramstein did theirs today. Weirdly, me and M&M took part in both of them for some reason. In Ramstein I got marbles because they said that even though I was left behind by my group, I just kept on rolling along the hike. Later on in the week, K-town gave the award of party-hopper because I was always running between both camps in order to take part in both of their activities. Anyways, we got all of our bags into the cars and drove back to where we set off the first day. What a fun adventure. Just one day after I got back from camp, I went to FSY. This was my first adventure in Germany, and I have to say that it was the best time ever.

The Amazing Lund Miracle

About a year ago, Mandy Lund reached out to me on Facebook Messenger, telling me she found the perfect house for us and asked when we were coming to Germany.  Unfortunately our timing was off and we weren’t slated to move for another year and Germany wasn’t a for sure deal.  Fast forward a year, and I reach out to Mandy and tell her we are moving to Germany for sure and we will be there in July.  She tells me that about the time that we are coming, they will be moving out of their house and back to the states.   She didn’t know if they would be gone yet when we arrived and we might miss each other by just a few days.

I was sad that I would be missing them.  I was hoping that the timing would work so we could see them.  Mandy was a dear friend while we lived in San Antonio and we parted on shaky ground, so I was desperately hopping to be able to see her, give her a hug and apologize for being a dummy head.  

Heavenly Father definitely has a plan, and when we arrived, the Lunds were not only still in their house, but they didn’t have a time frame that they would be out yet.  The amazing Lunds brought us food the night we arrived in TLF from the airport.  It was filled with everything we could possibly need.  

Little A was so excited to see them because in San Antonio she and Pyper had been absolutely amazing friends.  We looked back at our Shutterfly books together and I pointed out the Lunds and reminded all the kids who the Lunds were.  When they saw them, even though we were all tired, we were all excited to see them.

The Amazing Lund Miracle was a plan that God laid out way back in San Antonio.  We were good friend then, and luckily didn’t loose touch.  I needed to right a wrong, and they still had not received orders to move.  We were house hunting trying to find a good home to fit our family.  Mandy asked their landlord if they would accept our dog and was told he would.  We went to the Lund’s house and had dinner and hung out at the lake behind their house. We had an amazing afternoon.  Kevin and I fell in love with the house, but since they did not have orders to move, we didn’t want to commit to a house that we didn’t know when we could move in.  

Kevin and I went house hunting all over the Kaiserslautern area in Germany.  We went to so many houses.  German houses are so strange!  I tell you what, you haven’t seen a quirky house until you walk into the houses here. Most houses are built straight up with only a few rooms per floor and have the craziest and creepiest and unsafe stairways.  The stairs usually are like floating spiral staircases.  The houses here are also very old and musky.  One house we went to was like a scary house from a Stephen King movie, with a locked basement door and old furnace heater and all.  

None of the houses we went into felt right, but every time we walked into the Lund’s house, we always felt like we were home.  We ended up spending more and more time with the Lund’s.  We went to the Lake together, had dinner together, and let the kids play outside for hours together.  As Kevin was getting checked into the base and started working, I was able to take the kids out of our little TLF apartment and spent almost every day in a huge house with an even bigger backyard with amazing friends.  The kids jumped on the trampoline, swung on the swing set, climbed trees, played in the treehouse, and zipped down the zipline in the backyard.

The kids had so much fun playing in the fresh beautiful German air with the Lunds.  They spend many hours in the sand box creating villages, roads, castles and creations.  After playing in the sandbox, we would start a fire in the fire pit and we would all roast marshmallows.

But the fun didn't end there! On days when it was just too hot outside, all the kids painted and had craft time together and watched movies on the wall with the projector.

The fun continued with water gun fights and water fun in the back yard.  They also had an endless supply of ice cream and Italian ice because it was just so hot on some days.   It was one of our best and most active summers.

Right behind the Lund’s house is this gorgeous and amazing forest.  We took walks in the forest and let the kids run free in nature.  The views were simply breathtaking and it was so nice to be breathing fresh air. Right before the trailhead is a large statue of Jesus being crucified.  It was so cute when Moster saw the statue, he run up to it and pointed and loudly explained, "I found Jesus".  I would definitely agree, we have found and see his miracles in our life each and every day here with the Lunds.

We also went geocaching a few times with the kids. They had a blast finding the hidden treasures.  Mandy and Eric showed us all around the woods.

Blackberried are everywhere in Germany right now.  The kids loved finding the wild blackberry bushes and eating them right off the thorny bushes.  Pyper and the boys helped show my kids where they were and how to pick them.  

Eric and Kevin also had some time to hang out.  Eric took Kevin on a bike ride through the woods to the nearby castle.  They enjoyed a morning ride up to the ruins.  

The Lunds were so amazing to let us crash at their house every day.  Mandy and I would talk all day and just genuinely enjoy each other’s company.  Mandy said the miracle was both ways, because her kids were having a very hard time with this move, and by having my kids over to play, they would play and forget about their fears of moving.  The kids uplifted one another and made each other smile.  

Mandy took this time to introduce me to Germany.  She took me to the local grocery store and helped me find the good foods to buy. She watched our kids while we went to IKEA.  Eric was amazing and helped Kevin figure out the financing part of Euros, he showed Kevin where the post office was and helped him with work.  

Mandy and Eric also took us around to their favorite places in Landstuhl.  They introduced us to Dolmities, the local gelato shop in town.

The gelato was super delicious and the kids absolutely loved it. They showed us where to park and how to get to the main stores in Landstuhl.

Right behind the Lund's house is a beautiful Lake called Baronloch. We spent so many days there just letting the kids swim, run around, cool off, splash, and catch salamanders.

The kids looked forward to the lake every time we went.  There was an ice cream truck that always parked in the Parking lot and the kids loved the 1 Euro cones.

The miracle continues, as Kevin and I just fall in love with the house.  We feel this is where we should be while living here in Germany. We decide that we need to wait for the house.  We tell the Lunds and the owners that we would like to take the house when the Lunds move.  From the moment we decided we wanted the house, the hand of the Lord could be seen so clearly.  We fasted on Sunday that they would get their orders, and the next day, Eric received the needed paperwork.  We had to be out of our TLF in 3 weeks, and it was almost to the day that the Lunds had their household good picked up.  They were able to clean the house, and we were able to have our household goods delivered the very next day.  We were even able to get our closets, microwave, washer, dryer and fridge delivered the next day too.  Not to mention we got the internet connected the day we moved in, which in Germany it usually takes forever to get your internet connected.  We were so blessed and miracles continued to happen.  

After we moved in, the Lunds were catching a flight 3 days later, so they became our basement dwellers, as we all called them and laughed about.  They stayed in the basement while we moved our stuff in and tried to unpack. 

Mandy and Eric told us during dinner one night that from the moment they found out they were moving and we were arriving, they felt such a strong impression that they needed to hold the house for us.  Mandy told me that a few people wanted to move in, but she told them it was already taken.  She also shared with me that she felt so strongly that the timing with their late paperwork happened so everything could work out the way it did.  I am so grateful for this miracle.

The Lunds were a miracle because they helped us settle into Germany.  They helped us make this transition seamlessly smooth.  They were a miracle because our kids had instant playmates and they made and rekindled life long friends.  They were a miracle because Heavenly Father made sure our paths crossed again so Mandy and I could solidify our friendship and I could make things right.  We love the Lunds and are forever grateful for their friendship, time, example and faith.

Germany TLA Living

After landing in Germany, we got some burner phone cards and were met by Kevin's sponsor and already in the car in less then an hour after departing the plane.  This was so much faster and better than landing in Korea.  We had so much in-processing when we landed in Korea that we about lost all the kids to meltdowns of fatigue and pure tiredness.  This was a completely different experience.  We walked right through as if we already lived here, it was wonderful.  It was in the middle of the day, so we didn't have a problem staying awake as we drove to Ramstein-Miesenbach, where our interim TLA was.  When we went to book a room onbase at Ramstein, they didn't have anything available until 7 days after we arrived, so we had to find an off base approved TLA to stay in for a week.  We found one only about 15 minutes from the base in Ramstein-Miesenbach.  It was a cute three bedroom apartment in a cute blue house.

Kevin's sponsor got us a welcome basket along with some food.  We were also blessed to have friends from San Antonio here also, the Lunds, who brought us a few days worth of groceries and dinner from PF Changs for the night.  We visited with them for a while, ate dinner then sent our exhausted kids to bed.  Germany has these AMAZING window coverings called rolladens that cover the windows completely on the outside.  It was pure darkness, which was perfect because it didn't get dark until after 11pm.  We all slept great and woke up at a normal hour ready to explore Germany.

Our first stop was at the base so we could start in-processing.  We had fun exploring the base and getting into the DBIDS so we could have base access.  Ramstein is so huge compared to Osan!

Living in Germany is so hard without a car.  Holy Cow.  The kids and I were stuck at TLA all day, luckily Kevin was able to catch a ride to work with either Erick Lund or with his sponsor.  The week passed pretty slow with only Netflix and colouring pages to keep us company.  But passed it did.  Kevin was able to pick up his car that we bought in Germany, and we moved into the TLA on base at Ramstein.  This apartment was more dog friendly and much bigger then our TLA off base.  There were so many breakable things in the TLA off base that I was worried Monster would break something I would have to pay for it.  We also went from a three bedroom apartment to a four bedroom apartment, so that was nice.  Plus we were on base so we were much closer to everything we needed to in-process and to Kevin's work.  We originally were in the top floor of the apartments, but we were only there for one day, because we found out a first floor apartment was coming available the next day, so we moved to room 111 on the bottom floor.  This was to be our home for the next month.  

Big Sis and M&M shared a room, Little A had her own room and Monster had his own room.  Sadly, on base did not have rolladens, so the sun kept waking Monster up super early in the morning.  That was why he needed his own room, so he didn't wake Little A up.  Little A is not a happy morning little gal, she's a huge grump if she doesn't get enough sleep.

We had a good sized kitchen with all the necessities that we needed to cook and make meals.  The apartment also came with a huge kennel, so Bailey was able to have everything she needed.  She loved running around the house, but since we were on the first floor, she had to be in the kennel when we left so she wouldn't run out if housekeeping came.  TLA on base was super frustrating.  One of the house cleaners kept stealing from us.  First I noticed our Bose bluetooth speaker was missing.  Then my running watch went missing.  Our room safe was broken, so we weren't able to lock anything away.  It was frustrating and nerve-racking to leave the apartment.  I left a note for housekeeping asking to return the speaker and luckily the next day they returned it.  I never got my running watch back, and that was super frustrating.  

Since we only had the stuff we brought with us on the plane and the boxes we mailed to ourselves, there wasn't much that the kids could do during this summer break.  We went to the park down the road a lot, and did some exploring, but they were still bored.  Luckily, Aunt Lisa sent a package with activities for the kids and crayons and colouring books.  It was fun getting a care package.