das Ende

The last weeks of the mission are a blur.  We moved to Friedricksdorf so improvements could be made to our apartment before the Burts arrived. What a beautiful town, right next to forests and farmland. This is Gicklesberg, a nearby hill covered in cairns.

I saw this happy German on our last day. One of the few leiderhosens I saw.

Besides the beauty of Frankfurt,

we will miss our friends. Here's the zone as we left it

We grew closest to the AMA/AMHA team. Cranes (in UK), Biddulphs, Piepgrasses, Jackie Hawkins, Hackings and of course, Janice.

 Many people we will probably not see again. The wonderful Fafflock family:

the Berkhans

Elder Tim Dyches and his wife Jill. He supervised our team and Rand and he loved chatting about everything on their minds.

Sister Bakker and other young missionaries who will go their way upon their return. But there's always facebook for tracking them.

and speaking of Facebook, that's how Megan Hodun found us. She and Arvid joined us for one of our last Frankfurt dinners.

Selfless, hard-working, faithful mission presidents and wives (Daytons from Spain Barcelona Mission)

stake members and others who completed an amazing refugee service project.

Undoubtedly we will see the sweet Kennedy family again

and lastly our great friends, the Pelucchis and Janice (her family visited). 

Some friendships will continue on.

The sun sets over Frankfurt

18 month mission completed - victory!

Überreste

Leftover photos:

Janice had Sisters Bakker, Parker and us over for pizza one Monday.  We played our Loaded Questions game afterwards (including church questions such as "After your mission, what calling do you want?" or "What hymn helps you get through life?"). The girls liked it so much that they borrowed it for their zone meeting. Unfortunately they left it at the ward and somehow it was gone when they returned to look for it.  BUT blessing in disguise. As they dejectedly got on the train to their apartment, they met a woman who was interested in their gospel message... for her daughter.

Long story short, the daughter, Johanna, was baptized! Thanks to our Loaded Questions game... indirectly.  (Sister Bakker, Johann and Sister Brough)

Alex, Claudia, Katharina Faflock and Claudia's mother, who was visiting. They are THE NICEST neighbors. Alex is from Serbia and sells antiques (their home is full of them). Claudia teaches elementary school. Katharina, 16, attends a Christian school and let me correct her English paper.  Most of our mission they lived right next to us but recently moved to the 12th floor penthouse. 

They invited us for Easter dinner. 

What better place for Easter decorations than next to tombstones!

Liz Edmunds, The Food Nanny, and Steve invited us to dinner. Her favorite phrase is "It's to die for!"  And her dinner definitely was!

Here's her show

Happy Fool's Day was low key - I put saran wrap on the toilet.  When I returned from the office, Rand had done this.  Only works in a shelf toilet!

I also told the kids and a few other people that I had won a lottery and didn't know whether to keep it and/or tell Rand because he doesn't approve of gambling.  Hardly anybody fell for it.

This year's Primary class (6-year-olds)  has two Spanish speakers, one only-French (fun for me).  We read and mark a Book of Mormon scripture each week in their own copies. Here they are looking like missionaries. (better Rand and me because oftentimes we're too tired to read our scriptures at night.) 

Google Translate doesn't work perfectly.  I didn't order the "messy business" hamburger.

Speaking of, here's a sketch you might like:

Studio C's Google Translate

Frohe Weihnachten

German traditions include the Nativity,

advent calendars (chocolate is certainly our preference but they also sell advent calendars with cosmetics, toys and beer that you can enjoy for 24 days)

visits from friends (Ashley Wilkinson and our former student ward member, Megan Hodun),

Frankfurt's Christmas Market, 

including Potato Pancakes, 

 (clever decorations at My Zeil. See the deer jumping into the "inward trumpet formed deformation" - architectural term for a funnel to the sky) 

Ward Christmas Party included sweet Primary Nativity scene. 

 Brother Tom gave us tickets to "Dickens' By Candlelight" at the International Theater.  Wonderful performance including mostly American actors. (we were early for a change)

Rachel and her girls sent us this personalized decoration, including "Love, Bella", "We miss you" etc written on the stars. I put it up for a good 3 months.

One day we were Facetiming with Condies and our neighbors, the Larsens, visited and performed Christmas carols on their instruments.  Wow how they've grown!

Was Geht Ab? (what's up)

So what's going on in Frankfurt?

Discovering the unexpected is so fun in a new city.  We rode our bikes to the Goethe University and happened across  "The Body of Knowledge" sculpture by Spaniard Jaume Plensa.

It's the same sculpture that Nick enjoyed in Zaragoza, Spain on his mission. There it's called "El Alma del Ebro"   They called it "Letter Man". It represents cells of the human body which is over 60% water. The white letters and hollow structure "invite the viewer to look inside and reflect on the relationship between human beings and water." 

The September Blood Moon showed up here like everywhere else.

Harvest time.  People live in high rises so there are communal gardens (Schrebergärtens) all over Frankfurt.

Learn about Schrebergärtens here

Grape-growing has gone on at Lohrberg since the 9th century. Some of these grapes make Frankfurt apfelwein.

Here's the tombstone graveyard where they toss them after the 15 to 30 year expiration of "owning a grave".  If a family is unable or unavailable to renew the lease, the grave’s contents are removed and the grave site reverts to state ownership and may be reused.

Schultütes for sale.  When children set off for their first day in school upon entering first grade, their parents and/or grandparents present them with a big cardboard cone, prettily decorated and filled with toys, candies, school supplies, and various other goodies. That's one German tradition I may take with us to the US.

We love our ward.  Last night they put on an "International Evening" where members from thirteen countries put out displays of food, videos, crafts, costumes, games and more. Amazing and eye-opening about how we're having a once-in-a-lifetime experience here.  This is the Italian group - notice Silvia with the red, white and green fingernails.  (She and I do CSM work together.)

The senior missionaries know how to have fun too. We had a Book of Mormon Mystery night. The Greenwoods adapted it to modern times and five tables tried to solve the murder mystery.  These are the maids - pretty good for women who brought everything they own in two suitcases, eh? (Sisters Matheson, Saunders, Hanks, Riggs, Bausman)

The day after I returned from Nick's graduation, Rand presented a "Seniors and Exercise" speech to some temple missionaries. As the meeting started, we realized that we were being welcomed and singing in German. Rand had an elder translate for him, thinking it would be faster but realized his German was better than the brother. Then the sister who was translating for the French missionaries had to leave early so guess who was left - yes, me. Pretty hilarious with a jet-lagged brain and 38-year-old French. Yea for body language.

This is most of our medical team celebrating Dale Greenwood's and Gordon Smith's birthdays. We have become very close as we pray for, discuss and sometimes weep about sick missionaries.

(Biddulphs, Smiths, Rand, Greenwoods, Hawkins. Purdy absent)

Oktoberfest is over and it's only October 10th

So did you know Oktoberfest begins in September and lasts until the first weekend in October? 

Now you do.

We didn't go to the festivities but we saw lots of preparations for it. Germans need to have lederhosen, a dirndl...   

...and blue and white decorations, heart cookies, beer steins, and costumed cows?

Instead of going to the beer fest, we went to the 25th anniversary of German Reunification. It was held in downtown Frankfurt.

A great party with music, performances, historic displays and food

giant pretzels