Saturday afternoon, after the craft fair, we headed off to Dornbirn, Austria. This is the town where Chris and his family attended church when they lived here back in the 80’s and early 90’s. They were celebrating 50 years of them being a ward, and we thought it was perfect timing for John and Angie’s visit. The time it took to get there, however, was not perfect. Normally it would be a 1.5 hour drive. But there was that rain I mentioned, which caused a few small accidents, and generally slower traffic. So although we had planned to go through Eichberg (the village where they lived) and Appenzell on the way to Dornbirn, we ended up just going straight to the church. Because we had already been driving for 2.5 hours, and frankly, we were done. Or rather, straight to Austria. John and Angie drove to the church, we stopped at a grocery store to pick a few essentials, like Mozartkugeln. The real ones, not the nasty imitations they sell in Germany and Switzerland. The “echte” that are only made and sold in Austria. The little balls of golden goodness that can get my children to do just about anything hard or unpleasant that needs to be done. Mmmmhhhhhmmmmm.
Then we headed over to the chapel to join the party. They were showing a film of an interview with a now deceased older member of the ward, as she reminisced about her conversion and some of the activities they had done. It was very nice, and the children actually sat and listened to it, even though they had already been sitting in the car for so long. Then they asked Opa and Oma to speak, and the kids thought that was pretty cool. “People know Oma and Opa here?”
Then there was a fun slideshow with lots of photos former ward members had sent in from far and wide. The kids loved trying to spot all their Charles relatives in the photos as they flashed on the screen. Papa sure looks a lot different! 🙂 And then we sang a few hymns from the old German songbook, and went on to the next part of the party, Food! The sisters in the ward had set up a huge table full of all kinds of delicious goodies that the kids were more than happy to eat up. We stayed there talking and eating for much longer than we should have, as the kids needed to get home and get to bed, but it was so nice seeing everybody.
Chris’ good friend, also named Christian, and his wife and family recently moved back to Austria, and we hadn’t seen them since our last trip to Provo, 3 years ago. So I talked with her for quite a while, such a good lady. I wish they lived closer, we would definitely hang out all the time. 🙂 Sarah was very excited to get a personal interview with the writer/director of her favorite movie of all time, The Errand of Angels. (That would be Christian. I can also highly recommend One Good Man, his most recent film. Another one about Joseph and Emma will be coming out very soon. We will buy it sight unseen, his other movies are that good.) Very kind of him to take time to talk with her and answer all her questions.
Chris also met a sister he served with in the Dusseldorf mission, and her husband. They chatted for quite a while, catching up everything that had happened in their lives since then. But then it was really time to go. We rounded up the kids, said our goodbyes, made promises to get together soon, and headed home. John and Angie ended up staying longer, chatting with everyone, and didn’t get home until way, way past their bedtime. 🙂 But it was so worth it. Thank you, Dornbirn, for such a lovely evening.