1933-06-05: I have a harder time writing English than you can imagine.

Flensburg, Südermarkt 4 - IV

June 5/ 33

Dear Mother and Dad,

Having just got back from a picnic I am too tired to do anything but write. Today has been a holiday her in Germany so we took advantage of the fact and took our Sunday School on an outing. There were about fifty of us altogether and we spent a day of playing in one of these so-called woods of this part of the country. I believe I have lived through more holidays since the first of the year than we have the whole year around at home. They celebrate everything from the first day of spring to Groundhog day here in Germany. And do they celebrate!!! If there is anything that is characteristic of the German people it is show-off. They dress up like a new church and strut down the street like a peacock. That is, on holidays.

It might interest you to know that it is now exactly nine-thirty in the PM and I have just turned the light on. The days are getting longer and longer as they are also becoming a bit warmer. It won't be long until I'll be back to where I started from; a year ago July 6. Twas on this date that I landed in Europe, or Bremen. We have a brother missionary visiting us now for a couple of days who has been released and is on his way home. He has been sitting telling us what sort of a fellow he was before he came on a mission, which a fellow has to compare with the impression one gets of him now. Believe me, if this next year and a half makes as much change in me as this vergangenen year, I'll be coming home quite a different guy than when I left. When these missionaries come through and make a stop off I have found it very interesting to delve into their personal affairs betreffs their character before coming on a mission and upon leaving to go home. Aside from that it sort 'o makes a fellow think of home and wonder what has changed there relative to friends and conditions at home.

We held a missionary meeting here in Flensburg this week instead of Kiel. The District Presidents as also the missionaries in the neighboring branches of the district came up and have remained here for the past three days. It certainly seems good to get together with the boys after having been tied down to a lot of work. Saturday, after our meeting was over with, we got together and visited the marine school and grounds here in Flesnsburg. It was very interesting in that we got to see machinery and models of ships of the past and present.

By the way, thanks for the extra five dollars that came this month. I have been trying to save about fifteen marks a month for future use when I get ready to come home but it seems to be a hopeless task. These old marks roll out of a fellows pockets like sand in a rat hole. The dollar was quite low this time. I only got RM 3.55 as compared to RM 4.21 on the dollar as it was before the dollar started to drop. The dollar lately has been going up a bit. Hoffentlich bleibt es so. I have a harder time writing English than you can imagine.

Just how is everything getting along around the store and the Crandall home?? Earl wrote me a letter which I received a couple days ago and he speaks in terms of a regular doctor and business man.

Well, it is getting late so I'm going to turn in,

Love,

Clarence