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.

We haven't dropped off the end of the earth. We are keeping busy and loving all of the things we have to do that bring us home tired every night. We have especially enjoyed having some visitors from home. Here's a few pictures of things we did and saw. These are three 'wanderers' in front of their Uncle Charley. They didn't know there was royalty in the family line. We're not sure if Neptune is royalty but he is looking regal with some of his subjects. I think we caught the royal family in front of their House of Parlaiment when they thought the camera was turned off. Naughty!!

How's this for a photo shoot in the flower patch!!! Not bad for someone who is about to lose their braces. Oh happy day!! Just in case anyone is wondering, the translation of the street sign above this good looking group is 'The Road to Hell'. Just in case you were wondering. What did they do on this trip? Anyway they did end up in the right place and the picture in the center is on the Frankfurt temple grounds where they must have gone to take care of some of the matters left from the picture on the right. Garth and Cortney will have to wait to be spotlighted on the next blog as their pictures didn't make it on the flash drive this time. Isn't it great that old people can get some things right and then have no idea how technology works five minutes later!?

A quick story that lets you know what investigators think of the missionaries who teach them the gospel. Two missionaries went to an appointment and the people weren't home so they decided they would do a little finding time on the street outside the apartment house. They rounded the corner from the front door of the apartment house and started talking to a lady on the street. She wanted to hear more so they began teaching her over the next ten days. They took her to church on Fast Sunday and when she saw the members bearing their testimonies, she went up and bore hers also. She included the line that she was grateful for the two young 'prophets' who had found her and were teaching her the gospel. Life is good and we are enjoying the work we are doing.

You might think this is a field of dandelions but actually there are fields of these flowers all over Germany. We have been told the flower is used to make some sort of oil, even in perfume. It just is such a beautiful sight over the rolling hills. This is one of the reasons both of us have had some allergie problems. The blossoms on the trees are so beautiful. These purple flowers are wysteria and grow around the building here. They must love the rain and the humidity. We haven't had a lot of sunny days but it is getting warmer. April has been just beautiful. We see all kinds of flowering trees from our balcony.

On our way to the Zone Conferences we get a chance to enjoy the countryside and all it's beauty.

This picture was taken at Eastertime. Lots of pink and white blossoms. A lot of the cars are covered with the yellow dust that is in the air from the pollen. This is a great time of year to be here in Frankfurt. The beauty far outweighs the sneezing and itchy eyes.

Garth and Cortney came for a visit in April. We sure had a lot of fun with them. It was great to see family and have them in our home for a few days.

Love Those Castles!!

Last Saturday was Ginny's birthday so our neighbors, the Cutlers, told her they would take her anywhere in the mission she would like to go to see what she wanted to see. She decided she wanted to see the castle at Marksburg. It's about an hour and a half drive from Frankfurt and is a knights castle that was never destroyed by Napolean or the French. Along the drive up the Rhein there were a bunch of other castles to see. Here's a few pictures of a really fun drive. Some of them we were riding in the car so they are a little crazy.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, enjoy your reading. The work goes on and the gospel is true. We are enjoying our work and the association with the missionaries.

We haven't disappeared. Maybe you thought so but we have just been running our heads off the last few weeks. When we moved into the apartment where we are living we knew the furnishings would someday go to the sister who had lived here before us. In Germany, when you rent an apartment it is completely empty. There are fixtures in the bathroom but no lights, no kitchen cabinetry, and in some cases, no flooring. A true blank. The sister who lived here finished her mission but her new place wasn't yet ready for her to move into. She has been living with relatives and friends for a while. Her apartment was finally ready and so we took everything to her. That included the light fixtures, but not the flooring. We bought the kitchen cabinetry as she would have new where she was moving. We did have a bed but no other furniture. Interesting few days until we could scrounge a couch, a table and some chairs and some lights. I was a little concerned about installing the lights but it went okay and I was only shocked once (it was a good one). The next week was the first week of the cycle which means getting new missionaries, transferring those that need transferring and then sending home those finishing their missionaries. 18 new missionaries arrived on Tuesday and 22 went home on Thursday. Wednesday is transfer day which means about half of the missionaries were affected. On Wednesday, all the public transportation workers went on strike which means we had no public transportation to get missionaries from one place to another. That was a really interesting day. We really watched the hand of the Lord help get everything done that needed to be done that day. We have been called as Primary workers. Ginny is thrilled that both members of our class speak english. She'll get more from Primary than from being in the other meetings even with translation. The kids understand most of our english and sometimes we talk german. Maybe it is just a good mix of both and it works. In February they celebrate Karnival here (Fasching to those who may remember) so the Primary had a party a couple of weeks ago. Here's some pictures of the party. The Primary isn't very big but they are a lot of fun.

Vincent is the one in the Tigger outfit (he has a Tigger hat also). He might be three or so. When he was told he was really cute, he said, "I'm not cute, I'm Tigger". Kids are the same everywhere and we are having a lot of fun in the Primary. It's tough learning all the songs in german, though.

Ever Changing but also Never Changing

Hello to all. Our assignments in the office are everchanging. From one cycle to the next, we have new things to do. We keep some of the old, get something new and adjust to whatever we are asked to do. The following picture shows us with our new (to us) trusty "milk truck". We've been assigned to figure out what is happening with the apartments in the mission. This will take some figuring out as there are about 85 of them. Some of them have been rented for many years while others are just newly acquired. We will be visiting all of these apartments as quickly as we can to try and get a reading on what needs to be done. We have visited about half of the apartments and we think they should be classified according to the three degrees of glory and outer darkness. There are a few which might qualify for the celestial category and there are a few more which could easily qualify for outer darkness. Most seem to fit somewhere in the terestrial and telestial. It is fun to go and see how the missionaries really live. Sometimes they know we are coming and sometimes it is a surprise. The surprise visits seem to elicit the most response based on whether or not Ginny feels any smiley faces have been earned or if they should just empty the place using a fire hose and start over again. We have a GPS device that can speak to us in a variety of languages and her (Dorothy is her name, as in the Wizard of Oz) favorite saying seems to be, "Please make a U turn at the earliest possible moment". We recently had a chance to spend a couple of hours in the city of Aschaffenburg. It is really a very picturesque city. This is a picture of the palace there.

It is filled with a lot of pictures, statues and other memorabilia of the various persons who have lived here over the last 1000 years. Not too old for here, but really old for most of the U.S. There are really a lot of historical artifacts in this castle that is really more like a huge palace than a fortressed castle (It does have a moat around it but there is no longer water to keep out the invaders). The picture below is of the Frankfurt skyline at night taken from the balcony of our apartment. We thought this was a fun picture and illustrates there is a very modern part of this country that is continually building for the future. During the last few weeks we have also had some time to visit Michelstadt, a very picturesque city about an hour's drive from Frankfurt. The following picture is of the city hall.

The ground level is really an open area with the offices over this open area. The open area contained a scale to weigh all kinds of things traded in the town square as well as a linen press, which was used to straighten out a number of items made out of linen.

To the left (I hope) you see a painting of Puss 'n Boots which has been done on the side of one of the houses in this city. A number of the houses in this area have paintings of various fairy tale characters painted on them and it is probably good for the tourist trade. The village is very beautiful and the date on the town hall is 1484. The original town hall (built before this one) is still standing but doesn't have as much character as does its replacement. The work of the Lord continues to go forward here. December was one of the best months of the year for baptisms. It is fun to see things happening in places that have not had baptisms for quite a few years. The missionaries work hard and are meeting some wonderful people that are looking for the truth and a purpose in their lives. We enjoy doing our part to help this all happen.