KATJE AND HER FAMILY VISIT

Dear Family,

It has been busy here.  We have had several visits from old friends and missionaries.

Katje Muench Davidson came by with husband Daniel and their three children.  Daniel works for the defense department and is a linguist speaking Russian, Chek, and German.  Their kids are bilingual; Katje speaks to her children in German, Daniel speaks to the children in English and they are quite fluent in both.  Mark Twain said that "German was easy, children can speak it and dogs understand it!" It was fun to see them again.Their oldest daughter, Talita, speaks to me in German and English to Mom.  Katje and Dan save Russian when they do not want the kids to understand.

Katje has quite a history.  She came from East Germany as a high school exchange student to a great family in Springville, UT. When she returned to Germany, she joined the church and came to the US to study at BYU.  When I received the mission call to the Munich Germany- Austrian mission, the missionary department supplied language tutors.  I asked for a native speaker and they assigned Katje to do some brushing up.  Even though German was spoken in my home growing up and I had served in  the  the Swiss Austrian mission, it had been 46 years since I spoke German very much.  Kept up the reading but had little opportunity to speak.  So every working day, we had a Sprachstunde or an hour doing conversational German. She also helped Larry Manwaring who was assigned to the Frankfurt mission.

She was called to the Moscow, Russia, mission and served a good mission.  Here she is with an investigator in Moscow, Russia.

When she was released in 2005, She and her mother stopped in at the mission home in Munich.  Her mother, Marita Muench,  lives in Howersverda, Germany and we had a great visit in Munich.

On returning home, she went to BYU and met Daniel Davidson who had also been a missionary in Moscow but they did not know each other that much.  One thing and another and there were wedding bells.

Here we are with Katje and David at their reception.  I was so embarrassed that I missed the sealing as it was at 7:30 AM in the Salt Lake Temple and I think I was still operating on European time.

Well it has been great to observe all this over the last few years.  When we went over to Germany for Steffi Meyne's wedding, we spent time with Katje's mother and
I even gave a fireside in the Cottbus ward in German. Sis. Muench drove us down to Dresden and she knew every single location of the speeding cameras so we did not get geblitzed

When we count our blessings, we are grateful for  all the wonderful people we have met over the years.  This Davidson couple is great!

Love, Mom and Dad