Holidays

Our Christmas tree

The sister missionaries came for Christmas dinner. Nothing fancy but they were mostly here so they could Skype/Hangout with their families on our laptops - very fun! Looks like two dinner guests is our limit.

Snow and a day of sunshine!

Missionaries having a snowball fight on pday

Keeping with tradition, we went to a movie at the Wiesbaden military base with Sharon Greenwood. Do you remember when movie theaters were this big?  They even started with everyone standing for the Star Bangled Banner. Yea America!

 The girls sent this of their unplanned matching scarves.  Love them!

 Dave continued his masterful White Elephant art of Nick, "Whistler's Father."

Elise, Ted and Julian in McCall.  Always prepared in case Julian gets hungry. :)

A bad odor in our bathroom (it wasn't just from the shelf toilet) evolved into a full-blown leak from upstairs. Since Germany shuts down for two weeks, we don't expect resolution for awhile. Makes for really cold bathroom stops since we're keeping the window open most of the time.

Some of the elders joined a lot of us senior missionaries for New Year's Eve. Aren't they a wonderful-looking group? 

Crazy fireworks in the streets. We had a great view from the Bangerters' 10th floor balcony.

Happy 2015!

Freiberg

Went on a three-day outing to Freiberg, thanks to our well-traveled friends, Brenda and Ron Jacques. They knew President and Sister Kosack in Latvia on their first mission. The Kosacks are mission presidents in the Berlin mission and invited Jacques and a few other Frankfurt seniors to join their Berlin senior missionary retreat. What a treat!

 We loved the Freiberg temple and city,

Here's where we stayed, where temple patrons bunk when they come from far away (4 hours for us)

President and Sister Kosack gave us a very inspirational peptalk about being senior missionaries. I like this quote:

They also shared their experience of growing up in Eastern Germany - fascinating. Were they joking when they said that the Polish translation of "Come Come Ye Saints" says "Not so bad" instead of "All is well"? Sometimes that's all one can say and be honest.

On the way back to Frankfurt, we visited the open air museum at Moedlareuth, also called Little Berlin. It's a small village that was divided by the Iron Curtain in 1952. The town has kept portions of the wall and other paraphernalia (trucks, tanks, etc) for a very visual representation of life in East and West Germany. Rand was a great tour guide with his knowledge of history and German.

More about Moedlareuth

Vielen dank an Condies

    I have been amiss in not recognizing who is back home holding things together, calling us when we receive mail, sending us a copy of our marriage license (why would Germany care about that but they do?), petting and walking Millie, housing and feeding our children over the Christmas holidays, shoveling our walks, and so on. All this from my wonderful older sister who I admired and followed around as we were growing up.
    Cheri and John have been house hunting in SLC for years without success so staying at our house was a step to facilitate looking from Utah instead of Idaho. At least that's what they say. So until they find something, they're taking better care of our house than we did. Thank you very much! We love you more than we can say.

In appreciation, I made them a little video:

Thank you Condies!

Merry Christmas/Happy New Year.

Germans can be creative too. We buy some of these things, especially the Maggi mixes.

Clever clerks

Staying busy

Sister Enger's culture class had a surprise last week. Rand made the first craft of his life. It was a beaded star. Neither one of us made a masterpiece - Rand's holding the teacher's.

A little skiff of snow

 We turned on the TV once and saw something familiar

We went to the Alte Oper with the medical and mental health team. They're amazing people who care much about the European missionaries.

Here's a video of some of the

performers

More walks in the cemetery. This was a recent gravesite.

Ate dinner with the Fiels. Cravens took these photos and left them in the apartment - nice!

The highlight of the week was caroling on the Zeil with some ward members. It's a 14-year old tradition. Passerbys would take pictures, listen and some even sang with us. One German couple was very friendly with Rand and me and invited us to their apartment which isn't too far from us.

Went to a zone conference in Offenbach. Rand's great at finding our way on public transport since it wasn't our day for the car.

Our loved ones are staying busy where they are too - Julian's not quite sure about this Santa stuff.

Afton and her shark-fin hair in our basement. 

Adjustment

Going on a mission before Christmas is not smart. Everything reminds me of home and that families try to be together for this holiday. When I see children dressed up for a Nativity, I think of Rachel and Dave's cute daughters and how I'm missing seeing them dress up in Elizabeth's nativity costumes. Or that I could be babysitting while she scrambles around preparing a magical Christmas for their new family. And all the babies! I see a boy at church starting to walk and think of Julian. Or a ponytailed girl and wish I could hold Afton. Not to mention hug our own kids. Almost all of them are together in SLC this week (Ted's doing interviews) and I'm not there.

As each of our children left on their missions, I wondered why the church encourages families to be together and then rips them away from each other. But I see the faith, independence and growth they developed over their 18 or 24 months away. And what would I do without Rand here with me and Facetime? I am staying busy and will eventually adjust. Mentally I know it's good... but hard.

So again I read "he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me" Matthew10:37.  And "For he shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways" Psalms 91:11, praying that our children will be watched over in our absence. And lastly a verse that another woman in Frankfurt mentioned "... for I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." Philippians 4:11

On the rainy days I think of Mia's favorite Annie song "Tomorrow" and realize that although the sun may not come out in Frankfurt tomorrow, it's shining somewhere. And as we sing of the Savior, I know that He is always near me, even when family and friends aren't.

Merry Christmas videos

We feel the importance of proclaiming our faith in Jesus Christ especially at Christmas time. We love Him and worship Him. 

He Is The Gift video

and another video:

Angels We Have Heard On High