BUSY TIMES IN 
THE FRANKFURT MISSION

Heidelberg Castle

Time is really flying by now because we are so busy!  It is hard to believe that we have less than 8 months left.  We are enjoying our time here and having some wonderful experiences.  As a matter of fact, just as I started to type here today, a young man we met on one of our walks in the Forest called us back.  He is with a youth group out of South Africa who is here in the Darmstadt area bringing "Faith, Hope, and Love" to the young people through a Christian organization.  Dale just had the distinct feeling we should talk to him and sure enough - he spoke English and no German.  He is a dancer with this group and so we were able to talk about Clog America coming in July and about his group.  He took our number and said he would have his leader call us.  We really never expected to hear from him - but he called today, not even his leader.  We have no idea how this will turn out, but it is so important that all of us continue to listen to the Spirit and then act.

Walking in the Forest

We are still doing a great deal of cooking but then some weeks we have no cooking - or very little because of the YSA schedule.  We spend at least one day a week in Frankfurt working in the office and we usually have lunch all together and all of us bring something.   We also check 11 young missionary apartments, some as much as 1 1/2 hours away.  We enjoy meeting the missionaries and seeing new areas of this beautiful country.  It is almost like we are having three different missions now - Temple, YSA, and Office.  We have also done a little proselyting and it is awesome that we get to experience so many different areas of service.

A few of the YSA (JAE in German) in our area as well as the missionaries

About a week ago we were able to spend a Friday in Frankfurt in a Seminar with Elder Bednar.  What a wonderful experience to be taught by an Apostle of the Lord.  Our young missionaries are going to be using iPads soon and the Seminar was about teaching and serving in the Digital Age.  Nothing was said about the iPad itself but the about teaching the gospel using a new tool and using it "safely".  

We were also able to help with the food that day by helping prepare 270 sack lunches for the missionaries and some of the food for Elder Bednar and other guests.

Before the Elder Bednar Conference - The missionaries from our District

One of the highlights of April was our Senior Zone Conference which was held in Rothenburg an der Tauber - the best preserved medieval city in Europe.  We stopped there briefly during our Europe trip in 2005 and stated that we hoped we could return someday.  Well, check another item off the bucket list!  We actually stayed the night in a Castle outside of Rothenburg called Colmberg and then we traveled into the city.  The conference itself was also wonderful, getting to know the other couples in our mission and learning from our wonderful mission president and others.  

View of the Neckar River and Old Bridge from the Heidelberg Castle

Famous entrance to Rothenburg an der Taube

I WONDER.....

ReNae and I currently reside on the outskirts of Darmstadt, Germany next to a forest. We try to go for a daily walk to fulfill our mission assignment to “Exercise at least 30 minutes a day.” Sometimes I wander off the beaten path and go exploring. As I walk through the denser parts of the forest, I notice several large crater-like holes in the ground, which seem to be there for no apparent purpose. As I consider what the reason might be, I believe they may be remains from 70 years ago when Darmstadt was bombed by the Allied Forces.

I have read about the history of Darmstadt during the war and discovered that this city had been bombed several times. There wasn't a lot of industry going on here, but it was bombed mainly as a distraction. When bombs started dropping here, enemy planes would fly from other cities to intercept the bombers, leaving their own cities vulnerable for a second wave to come in and bomb more important facilities. Ironically, the most devastating raid took place 9-11-1944.

As I wander through the trees, I visualize the 110,00 inhabitants fleeing from their roofless, burning homes into the forest to get away from the bombings. Because most of the air raids were done at night time, I assume some of the bombs missed their targets and landed in the forest. Thus, the big holes in the ground. I find a half-broken, red crayon void of its paper wrapping in the middle of nowhere, and wonder if it had belonged to a frightened child hiding, and trying to distract herself from the terrible destruction. I find an old shovel and wonder if it might have been used to dig roots for food or to dig graves for the 13,500 villagers who died during the raids. I see a herd of wild pigs suddenly explode from the undergrowth, and wonder if they might have been a source of food for the starving, fleeing, refugees, who maybe found a rifle from a dead soldier and hunted game with it. I look up at the towering, patriarchal pines and wonder how many trees caught and still hold the festering shrapnel from exploding bombs and artillery. I wonder what other war-time relics, and even perhaps bodies, still lie buried beneath the 70 years of fallen leaves, who, like giant forgiving snow flakes, attempt to cover the scars of the past...

The Bombing of Darmstadt - September 11, 1944

                               

The same area of Darmstadt today

It is a German Tradition to hang (not hide) colored eggs
from the trees at Easter Time

Michelstadt  - about 30 minutes from our Apartment
Elder Christenson and Elder Tripp with ReNae

WELCOME TO DARMSTADT!

Our First Day in the Frankfurt Mission with President and Sister Stoddard

We miss being in the temple every day and the spirit that resides there, but changes have a way of  keeping you on your toes. We are grateful for the opportunity to work with the Young Single Adult program. We loved the Freiberg Ward and miss our dear friends there.  Thankfully, the youth here in this area are also great and the members of the ward are very friendly and accepting, too. 

Something different about Darmstadt is that we understand the language a little better. In Freiberg we had several friends who spoke English and we were grateful we could communicate with them and they could translate for us.  Also, because Eastern Germany was under Russian rule for all those years, the schools were forced to teach Russian instead of English as a second language. Here in this part of Germany, the parents and children were taught English in school. As a result, more people here in the West speak some English and some very well. 

We've noticed that it is a very prestigious thing to be able to speak English well. We see a lot of English words on tee shirts, businesses, bill boards and newspapers. The Germans also contract a lot of business with America.The members have been encouraged to learn English because they say, "It is the language of the church". Job opportunities greatly increase here if you know English. It's quite entertaining to watch us speaking with the members. We speak German to them because we want to learn German, and they speak English to us because they want to learn English. Go figure.......

We are responsible for feeding the youth two nights a week.  We are learning to prepare big meals on a tight budget. So far no one has complained and the food seems to disappear.

The area is beautiful and Spring is just around the corner. We have a forest across the street from our apartment that invites us to take a walk almost every day.  Our apartment is nice and we are learning to live in a building with three other apartments very close to us. We are very comfortable here and glad we live outside of the city in a smaller area called Mühltal-Trautheim.

Our Apartment is on the second floor

 We've also been given the assignment of Car Fleet Managers for the whole Frankfurt Mission. That requires us to travel to Frankfurt quite often to the mission office. That is a real challenge to make sure all new missionaries obtain their driver's licenses, keep track of fleet finances, handle accidents and tickets and inspect the cars on a regular basis. We also inspect the missionary apartments from time to time to make sure their needs are taken care of and no mold is growing on their socks. 

As you can see, all of these assignments keep us very busy and time is flying by. We are now half-way through our mission and we wonder where the time went.

We were able to travel a little bit more before we left Freiberg and also just yesterday here in this area.  We love those Castles, Museums, Churches and Palaces.

Morritzburg Palace by Dresden - Beautiful but cold day!

We walked from Germany to Poland over this Bridge in Görlitz

A Beautiful and Unique Church in Luban, Poland

Frankenstein Restaurant - Dinner Theater held here around Halloween

Frankenstein Castle Ruins which may have inspired Mary Shelley's Novel
This is only about 20 minutes from where we live now

Visited the Robert Schumann Home Museum in Zwickau, Germany
He was a famous composer as was his wife Clara

TWO MISSIONS IN ONE

We have been assigned to serve in Darmstadt, Germany with the Young Single Adult Outreach Program.  We will leave Freiberg for our new calling on February 19.  We are excited to get another opportunity to work with Young Adults again.

We will be about 30 minutes south of Frankfurt and about 45 minutes from the Temple in Friedrichsdorf.  We are happy and look forward to serving in a different capacity.  Not everyone gets "two missions in one".  We feel blessed.

We have a few more reasons to be happy to go to Frankfurt.  One reason is because we will be close to these people - My cousin's son and his family.  They were able to come to Freiberg to go to the Temple and we were able to spend a couple of evenings with them.  It was really fun and it gave us a first opportunity to eat at the McDonalds here in the area. We really enjoyed getting to know them better and their cute girls.

Another reason we are excited to serve in the Frankfurt area is because Clog America is coming to participate in the 50th Anniversary of the Folklore-Festival Bitburg here in Germany this coming July.  The group will have a few days in Frankfurt before heading to the Festival and we hope to see everyone and possibly schedule some kind of performance for them through the YSA program.  Dale, Shauna, and David have all participated with Clog America in this Festival when they toured with Clog America.  Fun times!  We hope we will be able to arrange our schedule to include some time with them.

Clog America 2011

TEMPLE CLOSING FOR RENOVATION

What a beautiful, busy, spiritual, and awesome experience it has been working in this pioneer Temple in Freiberg.  Yes, it is definitely a "pioneer" Temple because these people were the pioneers during those hard times after WWII.  We have been blessed to meet many of the leaders here who are still living and were instrumental in the Temple coming to East Germany.  What a blessing it has been to this area and all of the other countries in the temple district.  We have learned to love and admire these people for their dedication.  We will miss them all so much.  Here are pictures of just a few of them...  there are many more!

WEATHER

It has come to our attention that the weather in Utah has been really warm for this time of year.  So we thought we would share a few pictures of what the weather has been like here.

View over the Valley from Augustusburg

Here on the Temple Grounds

Entrance to the Augustusburg Castle

It is still winter!  From what we have been told, it is quite a bit colder and definitely more snow than usual.  We are not surprised because we know "snow" follows ReNae where ever she goes.  What is different here is that it is so humid that there is more "ice" every where and it is difficult to even walk sometimes.  If the wind is blowing at all, it is pretty much frigid.  It is suppose to warm up a little bit next week and we are looking forward to that for sure!

So because of the bad weather we have not been able to travel much, but here is a picture of the slippers we got to wear over our shoes on this beautiful old wood floor in the Great Hall of the Albrechtsburg Castle in Meissen.  This was our third visit to Meissen because we really love this castle and the church.  This room is huge and the statues are probably 7-8 feet tall.  

Typical Wood Ornament

LIFE CAN CHANGE QUICKLY

It has been a whole month since we posted and we really do have a very good reason.  At our Christmas Party on December 11 (see photo below), it was announced that the Temple here in Freiberg would be closing for renovations February 9 and would re-open in May 2016.   We had heard rumors to this effect since we arrived in June, but we were still completely shocked.  We couldn't believe that we would only have two months left here.  We have learned to love the area, the people, the saints, and especially this beautiful pioneer temple.  It is truly a pioneer temple because it was built behind the Iron Curtain and continues to inspire all of us.  

If you haven't had a real good opportunity to read about the Freiberg Germany Temple,  you might enjoy reading and I would refer you to http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/freiberg. There are also many books written about it and other articles on the Internet.  President Monson and President Uchtdorf both speak of it often.  We have been privileged to meet several of the early leaders of the Church and Temple Presidents who are still living. These people are so dedicated and a great example of endurance and love.  We will be sad to leave but happy for these special members.

We have been reassigned to serve in the Frankfurt Germany Mission to activate and strengthen the Young Single Adults.   Our service will begin soon after the closing of the Temple.  We do not have very many details right now, but should know more soon.  Another couple have also received this same reassignment and another couple will be serving in the Frankfurt Temple.  We all are sad that we will not have this "temple family" we have enjoyed here, but know that it will be another uplifting experience for all of us.  Two other couples will be going home as their mission service time will be completed in February. Our last couple, who arrived three weeks ago, have not been reassigned yet. We are extremely grateful for the time we have been able to spend here in this part of Europe.  We have so many wonderful memories and will cherish them always.

Now - on to other news - especially about how special our Christmas Time (Weihnachts Fest) was here in Freiberg.   What a busy and eventful month!  It almost felt like December in Central Valley and Sevier County because we were so busy.

The Ward Choir sang twice during the month.  The first time was for a Ward Program that was a little like our Christmas Program at home for the children of the Ward.  Dale and I sang in the choir and I played for the Primary to sing. I wish I had pictures because it was a very unique experience. They had two older brethren who portrayed “Luke” and “Nephi” discussing the events of Christ's birth in period costume and then there were the usual songs, video, and narration. BUT the fun started when “Luke” and “Nephi” handed out candy and a gift to each family with children under 12. They called up the “Kinder” from each family to receive the gifts. It was so fun to watch – and the benefit for us is that we finally connected children to families!

The second Choir performance was for Sacrament Meeting the Sunday before Weihnacht.  We are so going to miss this choir here in Freiberg. The men in this ward just love to sing! It is amazing!  I suspect we might be in a smaller ward or branch next Christmas time and then we will be home for Christmas.

We are still the Social Directors so we were in charge of the many activities for the missionaries during December.  We had a lot of fun times together, including time spent together during the Holidays when there were only four couples still here as some live close or have family members close and left to be with their own families.

December 24 (Christmas Eve – or Holy Night) was a really awesome day. Midday we were invited to the Bobinger home along with the other missionaries and the young missionaries. Their home is in Grossschirma about 10 minutes from Freiberg. It was a great meal in a  beautiful home.  After the luncheon, there was a special meeting for the Ward at 3:30 PM. I played for a family of children to sing and also lead the congregational hymns. It was really very special.

At the home of our friends, the Bobingers, on Christmas Eve

Christmas Day Brunch with Hans and Lyn Frohlich

Christmas Day Brunch with the Gublers and the Jones

We will finish up our time here in Freiberg with very mixed emotions.  It will be a very busy January, which isn't usually the case here.  But with the Temple closing, we are expecting many wonderful members to come enjoy serving in this beautiful setting.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Frohe Weihnacht!

I suppose December would be a good time to explain some of the German Christmas traditions we're experiencing here. On December 6th they have a tradition that if your put your shoes out in front of your door at night, and if you have been a good little boy or girl, that Sankt Nicholaus (Saint Nicholas) will put goodies in your shoes. So, as instructed by our temple presidency, ReNae and I  put our shoes out by our door and sure enough, the next morning he left us goodies!!! 

Then, on Christmas Eve the Weihnachts Man (Santa Clause) comes to fill stockings hung "By the chimney with care" while the children are anxiously waiting in their bedrooms. Then they open all their presents Christmas Eve. After the presents are opened they wait until midnight when the Christ Child comes to their home, representing the greatest of all gifts. (We could maybe take a lesson from this midnight welcoming-of-Christ.)

Then December 25 and 26 are holidays when friends and families come together for food and visiting and drinking. They do a lot of drinking here during any holiday and in between.

Our apartment is too small for a regular tree, so we decided to decorate our window seals with traditional German things - including an Schwibbogen on the right and the tree is a form of the same thing.  

The dishtowels are a gift from our friend Sue Schroyer.  



We are getting together as temple missionaries on Christmas for a dinner and we'll try to help each other from getting too home sick. We actually do get feeling somewhat like a family here, though. We spend 8 hours a day with each other and you do indeed get quite close. But, then again, our families are irreplaceable. We also sing in the ward choir and get to learn all the traditional, American, religious, Christmas songs (and some others) with foreign words. That is really interesting and different!

They have a great big display called a Weihnachts Markt (Christmas Market). It is located in the center of town and reminds me of our 4th of July booths. It is fun to walk around and taste the different Christmas traditional foods and listen to the music and tempt ourselves with all the crafted items.

A very tall Traditional Christmas Pyramide

One of the many booths at the Christmas Market

It is cold here but it is still fun to walk through the Market

A 1/2 meter long Bratwurst!

We have bin hier about six months now, and feel ve ar gettink pretty used tu sinks hier. Sum of se peoples in our familie haf sed dat since ve got hier in Jermany, dat our English hat bin schlipn a leetel. We haf twyed to imers ouselfs in dis languish, und ve don't tink it haf hat a lot of affects on our schpeeking oder schpellink. Vat du u sink?

View of the Elbe River from the Koenigstein Fortress

Today we traveled east for a little more than an hour to Koenigstein Fortress.  Wow!  This is one of the almost 100 pictures we took.  It was a little cold today and overcast, so it is hard to imagine how beautiful it would be on a clear day in the spring or fall.  The workers were preparing for big Christmas Market there so the area was full of workers, but we still enjoyed it very much.

This past week at the temple we had patrons from Hungary and Poland, as well as all of our German friends. It is always exciting to have more than two languages.  These Saints are so dedicated and fill the Temple everyday. I have made good friends with a sister from Hungary who is a Temple Worker. She doesn't speak English and I don't speak Hungarian but we can still communicate. It is probably pretty funny to watch us! Occasionally we get a “translator” to help us - I am so grateful for all of the translators who come to the Temple!  Many of them actually work for the Church and they speak excellent English.

A new missionary couple arrived on Friday – Kent and Janice Jones – from Colorado. They are very prepared and have been serving in the Denver Temple for three years. They will be a great asset to the Temple. He was a high school Music Teacher and plays the organ and piano and loves to sing. We are looking forward to getting to know them better.

Last Saturday we decided to go back to Dippoldiswalde and go to the Museum. It was actually a leather-making museum, but it also had great Christmas displays including some things we hadn't seen before. It was interesting and fun. We then decided to go to the town Markt and maybe go to the Castle Museum – but it was going to close in about 45 minutes so we didn't go. However, the Church is right next to it and we began to hear Messiah music – awesome – and went to investigate. Sure enough, there was a full Handel's Messiah performance scheduled that evening. The orchestra was from Dresden and the Choir was the Dippoldiswalde Kirche Choir. They were rehearsing some of the numbers. We were contemplating staying, but it would have been pretty late because it was the complete work – 2.5 hours worth – so we just listened for a minute and then headed home. Maybe next November......

Display in the Dippoldiswalde Museum

Dippoldiswalde Kirche

This past Sunday was the Primary Program for Sacrament Meeting. I cannot explain in words how watching these precious children touches my heart.  All the familiar melodies only sung with big voices by young German saints.  A cute little 3 or 4 year old girl sang the first verse of A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief – Acapella!  It was amazing.  I was blessed to accompany a few of the songs for them.

Speaking of Christmas, it is celebrated here in Germany in a BIG way!  I look forward to posting here on our blog as we enter the Holiday Season!     

Koenigstein Forstress