Pirmasens

This was my Dad's apartment in Pirmasens.  He was in this area twice.  Once he was the Branch President and was called in to clean up the records of the members in the area.  Pirmasens had army presence too.  The bottom of this building was a little neighborhood store.  Now it's a center... but my brain is tired.  I thought it was for Arabic speakers, but the guy Seth was talking with was speaking Turkish.... so I'm not sure.  We stopped to take pictures of the building and the guy hanging around the door looked really intimidated and went inside.  When he came back out, Seth talked to him and he acted a lot friendlier.  As we were walking around, there were anti immigrant posters up and down the street and a rally in a town center.  No wonder we made the guy nervous. 

 

This was the Catholic church that Dad went to Mass at with his good friend, Martha.  She was a convert.  His first in Germany I think. 

Pirmasens is known for it's shoe factories.  They also have a shoe museum.

Dad's companion fell in love with a nurse from Pirmasens.  He kept getting "sick" so that he could see her.  After his mission, he came back and asked her to marry him.  She told him that he'd only marry someone rich.  He came and robbed this bank.  The newspaper said "Mormon Missionary Robs Bank".  That pretty much killed the missionary work in the area.

This is Martha's house.  Growing up, this is the one mission story that I heard lots of. In the MTC Dad had a dream.  He was walking down a cute German street and in the window was a lady with her head out the window looking anxious.  Well, his companion picked him up from the train station, dropped off his bags and ran to an appointment.  They walked up the street from his dream, he recognized the lady from his dream, and his companion turned right into her house.  Months later, she told him her half of the dream.  Apparently she had a dream of him and heard a voice that told her that she needed to listen to this man and that he would tell her the truth.  She died a long time ago and had wanted to leave this house to my dad.  He told her not to deed it to him and it got passed down to a nephew... While we were taking pictures this couple comes home.  Turns out that the nephew is this man's brother. 

This was the old church building.... now a pub.

This was where Dad remembers coming to open air markets. 

We ate in a little café right next to the Catholic church

This was the absolute best Turkish food that I think I had during our whole trip.  Sooooo good!  This was also the place that my Dad fell in love with the Astrix and Obelix comics.

I loved the rooftop of the hotel.  It was so fun hanging out up there and watching the sunset over the city.

This was the school where my Dad and his companion were asked to come take part of a multi denominational day.  They talked to the high school students about the lds faith.