Hallo to all as they say here. It is hard to believe we will shortly be finishing our time here in Frankfurt, Germany. We have had some wonderful experiences as we have come to know Germany, its people and the many friends and members of the church here. Here are a few pictures and thoughts from the last couple of months (it really has been a long time since we updated our blog).

Here you see some of our Primary activities. We have been teaching various age groups for the last year and here is a little sharing time activity. Looks like kids all over the world doesn't it. Some of the children in the Primary are bilingual while others speak only german. We always have a little adventure in class depending on who is there that day and the mix of german and english in class.

This is the cathedral in Worms where Martin Luther's trial was held and he was excommunicated from the Catholic church. A fairly significant event, especially in light of all that has happened since that time. It is a beautiful cathedral and sits near the center of the city. Worms was a hotbed of political and religious activity for many years. Many cities in Germany have themed statues all over in the city. Worms has a lot of small dragons spread throughout the city.

Some of our responsibilities during our time here have been to open and close missionary apartments. This has given us a chance to see all of the cities in the Frankfurt mission in which missionaries reside. Recently, as we were opening a new apartment, we had some very interesting weather and this is a picture of the effects of an ice storm as we were doing our chores. The frozen branches and limbs of trees and other shrubbery were beautiful, although it was a little slippery at times on the road.

Around this pool and fountain were some very interesting metal sculptures indicating how money is exchanged from one person to another. It was a bunch of men in various positions indicating how money can move quickly when there is theivery involved. As we were trying to figure out the order of the metal sculptures, this lady took off her shoes and climbed into the pool and started retrieving all of the coins from the pool. Money does move quickly given the right circumstances.

It is time to post this to the blog. We will be seeing many of you in the coming weeks. Thanks for your support and encouragement as we have been here in Germany. It has truly been a delightful and wonderful experience for us. Thanks to all who have made it so.

Weihnachten has now come and gone. We have been enjoying a few days of slowing down as we were up to our ears in getting things done before Christmas. As you can see the Weihnachtsmarkt were in full swing and they are a lot of fun to see and look around. Lots of food to eat and fun things you would like to purchase. Pumpkin cream soup and dampfnudeln with vanilla sauce are among our favorites. We'll try for a couple more pictures of these markets.

Ginny found a new friend who was interested in giving her a ride but he wanted a carrot and some hay first.

These are balls made of dough strips and are covered with cinammon, sugar, chocolate, fruit toppings and a bunch of other really good and tasty delights. Try taking a bite,they will make you want more.

The Klein family invited us along with a couple of senior sisters to their home for Christmas Eve. This is the evening on which presents are delivered by St. Nicklaus and it is also a time for talking about the true meaning of Christmas before presents are opened. It was a very delightful evening and St. Nicklaus found us here.
This is a life sized choir carved from wood which was located at one of the Weihnachtsmarkt we visited. We kind of felt as stiff as these folks as we sang christmas carols at the Friedrichsdorf temple on December 20th. The temperature was -15 degrees centigrade and we sang for those who visited the temple grounds that evening. It was a lot of fun, eventually we did get warm and we had a chance to think over the events we celebrate this time of year. The birth of the Savior, the gospel which he brought and was later restored along with his atoning sacrifice for all of us remind us of why we are spending this time here in Germany. We give thanks for His birth and know we have the opportunity to return to be with Him as well as with all of those whom we love.

We thought you might like to see a picture of our ward. This also is our Stake Center. We have all the modern conveniences here and the best part is, it is only a few steps away from our apartment. The outreach center is attached to the building in the back. There is hardly any parking for the ward so most of the time members have to park on the street or over at the Area Offices. Many members do not have cars so they ride the bus or the U-bahn. They are very faithful.

We wake up to beautiful sunrises that are unbelieveable. It is a great way to start the day. By the time we get into the office it is usually overcast. The fall season is awesome here in Germany. The colors have been incredible.

Everywhere you go we are reminded of the beauties Heavenly Father has created. We are now looking forward to Thanksgiving and have grateful hearts that we are able to be here in Germany serving the Lord. We have so many blessings, among those we treasure the most is our family that we miss so much.

We had fun decorating a pumpkin and filled it with carmel popcorn and took it over to our Mission President and his family. They work so hard helping the missionaries we thought this might give them something to enjoy and laugh about.

It won't be long and the Weihnachtsmarkts will be in full swing. The first day of advent, which is November 28 will be the beginning of the Christmas season.

Hallo to all, as they say here. We've been crazy busy here as Ginny has taken on the additional responsibilities of financial secretary until a replacement arrives. This has been a lot of work for her but she seems to be handling it quite well. Since we last checked in we have also had the chance to see and experience quite a few things here in the mission area.

As you can see we have the opportunity to have some of the missionaries over for dinner occassionally which is a lot of fun for us to get to know them better and share their missionary experiences.

This is a picture of those attending our weekly staff meeting. President and Sister Ninow are in the middle along with some senior missionaries and the assistants to the president along with the elders who keep the computers running when older minds can't quite get the grasp of new technology.

This is a picture of a wonderful castle overlooking the Mosel River in Cochem. It was originally built in the 1100's and fell into disrepair along with some unhappy encounters with the French in the 1600's. It was restored according to its original plans in the 1800's and is a great reminder of happenings in medieval history.

This is inside some man made caves in a mountain near Homburg. Starting in the 1200's a fortress was built on top of a hill with mining of sand under the fortress. Over the next few hundred years, the mining of the sand in the mountain encompassed twelve levels of mining tunnels and taking out the soft sands used in the making of clear glass. The mining wa abandoned in the 1700's and the fortress on top became a ruin. In the early 1930's the mining caves were resdiscovered by children playing in the area. During World War II the caves were used to shelter people in the area during bombing raids in this area. They were able to shelter between 5 and 6,000 people at one time for up to ten days.

Let's conlude with the brief story of Emma. Emma is in her mid 30's and was born in Bolivia. In her 20's she went to Italy for about five years and then came to Germany for some additional schooling and work. Occassionally we have the opportunity of going with the missionaries to teach and work with their investigators. We were asked by the missionaries to go with them while they worked with Emma. The elders "found" her at the streetcar stop near their apartment and her apartment. This was located near the ward in Frankfurt and provided the opportunity to teach her in the ward building. Emma accepted the gospel quickly and in spite of language difficulties, at times, she came to treasure her new found understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ. She was baptized about a month after meeting the missionaries and is very happy in her ward activities. The road home may be circuitous but the end of the trip is always worth the drive.

We enjoyed a morning at the Frankfurt Temple with Kim and Michele when they came to visit us this month. We spent every minute we could on weekends showing them as many beautiful places that we had time for. They came to a baptism with us of a sweet sister from Boliva that just joined the church. We tried to let them feel of the spirit these German people bring. The church is growing here and it is wonderful to see the missionaries get so excited about teaching the gospel to those who have been prepared to receive this glad message.

This picture is of the Jewish cemetery close to our apartment. It is situated next to the German cemetery where we have visited many times and find it very interesting. They are not supposed to put flowers on the graves but instead put small stones on the grave that represent a memory of a visit to the grave.

Just a sampling of the beautiful flowers that are still blooming along the quaint streets of some of the villages we drive through on our way to do apartment inspections. We are still amazed by the care the people of Germany take to keep their surroundings looking clean and neat.

We loved having the girls with us to share this wonderful experience we are having here in Germany. We feel we are very blessed to be here.

It's been quite a while since we did some work here. Kind of busy but hopefully we can show a few things about life here today. We keep on the run and we have been glad to have visitors. visitors are always welcome. This is a picture of of Rick and EllaRene as they are coming out of the Air Moldova terminal here in Frankfurt. As you can guess it is a little ways out and I think they might be a little behind on their payments to the airport authority. It was great to have them visit.

We're not sure what happened to them here but they seem to be a little under the weather or just plain tired from too much running around as they are trying to find their way home from a place where they couldn't understand much of the signage.

If you look closely at this picture or click on it and it becomes larger, you may be able to identify Garth "Potter" in the background. He has put a spell on the girl in the picture as he attempts to practice some of his wizardry.

Below are some pictures of a places we visited last week which are in Weinheim. They had a wedding set in the castel halls and it was quite a setup. The grounds around the castle park were very well done.

Last week a young man named Pascal was baptized in Frankfurt. He was first met by the missionaries 17 years ago and had some lessons from them. He decided to quit the discussions and continued on a life doing things which are very typical of many young men in Germany. He found after 17 years that this was not bringing happiness to his life and he remembered the feelings he had when he had spoken with the missionaries years ago. He wondered how he might find them again. Two days later two sister missionaries knocked on his door and he was very happy to see them and invited them to teach him the gospel. He was baptized about a month after meeting the missionaries and we had a chance to be a part of some discussions with him. You never know the impact or the timing of the efforts made by the missionaries as they labor hard to find those who are prepared to receive the gospel. The work continues forward and we are enjoying our time doing things we have been asked to do.

It's spargel (asparagus) season and this is a metal sculpture which depicts a little girl with her dog who has come to the local farmers market to buy some spargel for her family. Much of the spargel here is white and grows underground in very neatly arranged rows.

We went to the Schwetzingen Palace with its wonderful gardens last weekend. The palace gardens were designed many years ago and cover almost 100 acres. A lot of the trees have been sculptured to look like the ones in this picture and were planted with a long distance future over a hundred years ago.

This is a replica of a turkish mosque which occupies quite a few acres in these gardens. Since they cannot have any graven images on display, there are some wonderful sayings which are shown throughout in arabic and german. The outside is pink but the inside is covered with blue and yellow designs.

This is Elder Curtis who lives in the Colonial Hills Ward and has been adopted into the "gully gang" which is a couple of generations older than he. He has accepted to provide some youth and vigor to the aging warriors. He is one of our favorite missionaries. Despite some physical challenges, he is out working hard everyday. This is looking towards downtown Frankfurt and was taken from our apartment balcony.