What AND who we will miss as we leave Beautiful Germany......

Pumpkin Carving

YSA from all over Germany met in September

Young Single Adults (Jungealleinstehenderwachsene) which was our initial calling after leaving the Freiberg Temple.  We have learned to love each and everyone of them!  They have to be so very strong and stick together through thick and thin.  We love their kindness, testimonies, willingness to help, and their love of fun times!

Freiberg Temple

Frankfurt (Friedrichsdorf) Temple

Both of these Temples are now closed for renovation.  We love them both but are especially sad to be leaving Germany before the Freiberg Temple opens again in late spring or early summer.  We loved our time there and will always cherish memories of our new friends we found from Poland, Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic, Germany, and other countries.  What special members they are and so dedicated to serving their ancestors.  We also loved spending time with our friends in the Freiberg Ward (Gemeinde)

Members of the Michelstadt Branch - Christmas Party

We have so many pictures of our new friends who are part of all of the wards and branches we have been attending while on our mission.  This is just the most recent - from this past weekend which was our last day in Michelstadt.  Notice the American Football - a gift from Clog America when they came and performed last July.  It was fun to watch the children try to figure out how to "bounce" it.

All of the other missionaries serving with us here - old and young. We love them all and these pictures just represent a few of them.

The Tyler Horner Family (ReNae's Cousin, Keith's son) in their Halloween Costumes
Russian Nesting Dolls with their Painter!

Little 3-year from next door with the Sister Missionaries

Beautiful Scenery

Forest Walks

Half-timbered Buildings and Homes

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Spectacular Cathedrals and Churches

Castles and more Castles

Christmas Market in Freiberg 2014

ReNae at Michelstadt Christmas Market and a Pyramide

Christmas Markets (Weihnachten Markt)
Dale and two other senior missionaries "join" the singing
in Michelstadt

Bakeries (Backerei) and all the wonderful food here in Germany!

....BUT we are so excited to see our family and friends as we return from our mission on December 12!  We love you all! 

DARMSTADT AREA 

YOUNG SINGLE ADULTS

As most of you know, after we served in the Freiberg Temple for the first eight months of our mission, the temple was closed for renovation. We then received a second mission call. The main purpose of our second mission was to work with the Young Single Adults in the city of  Darmstadt. We also served in the mission office one day a week, and as Member Leadership Support in the Michelstadt Branch two days a week. As we near the end of our mission, we are looking back at some of our experiences with the Young Single Adults. The following pictures show some of our fun activities and the special youth we served.

This picture was typical of the meals we prepared for the Young Single Adults two times a week.  Across and next to Dale in the picture is a couple from the Darmstadt Ward, the Winstels, who are assigned to work with us in the YSA program.  They are responsible for Institute and cook every other week or so.  We have become very good friends.

After dinner at Family Home Evening in May, we enjoyed some fun group activities in the Darmstadt church grounds. We had a big family that night - and this was just part of them!

These single adults are still young at heart..

Some of us never grow up!

Some of our sweet girls making decorations for an activity 

This picture and the one below are shots from an Area youth conference the YSA sponsored in Darmstadt.  The theme was Lion King. There were about 300 Young Single Adults from all over Germany, Austria, and Switzerland attended.  Activities included dances, meals, workshops, a trip to the Frankfurt Temple, and physical activities.

We have grown to love these  faithful Young Single Adults

We also felt their love and appreciation for us.

We will never forget the beautiful Spirits they radiate.

These young adults have a very difficult challenge to find their future spouses from a limited number of members. That is one of the reasons for putting a great emphasis on their activities in their own area and across Germany and Europe.  Because they are taught to marry within our religion, some of them go to America to school or as Nannies where the pool of members is larger. However, not all of them can afford to leave home and pay out-of-state tuition in America. Because of their limited choices, most of them don't get married until they are in their late twenties or early thirties. We wish we could gather them up and take them all home with us. 

GERMAN CATHEDRALS AND CHURCHES

One of the Cathedrals in Nuernberg

We enjoy sharing the good news of the Gospel and serving the members in our mission very much, We also enjoy learning about the history of other churches in Germany, where a long and cherished history of Christian beliefs are deeply embedded. We try to understand how these churches worship and why they construct their churches in a manner unusual to ours. It appears that the more elaborate their construction and inner workings were, the more it showed their devotion to God. Their paintings, carvings and stone sculptures show that those who worked on them were among the utmost talented artisans of their day. The high, vaulted ceilings and columns leave our most modern architects in awe at how they could have possibly built them with their relatively limited, archaic methods and tools. Yet, some churches have stood proudly for over a  thousand years, toppled not by the passing of time, but by invasions and bombings from foreign invaders. Even though some were mostly destroyed, they have  been reconstructed out of respect for their treasured history. In this blog we are including pictures and videos of some of our favorite churches and cathedrals we have been privileged to visit. We have discovered that pictures don't do their beauty justice, but hope that one can at least get an idea of the majesty and reverence that their churches convey.

This rooster sitting on top of a lot of the churches in Germany is not simply a weather vane. We were told it was placed there to remind all the people that we should never deny Christ as Peter did.

ReNae has especially enjoyed seeing all the beautiful Organs in the churches.  The church in Freiberg has a Silbermann Organ (the third picture) which is one of the best in the world and was built in 1774.  We have enjoyed a few concerts as well.  However, none of these are as large as the Organs in Salt Lake City.

These are a variety of "pulpits" from various churches.  They are usually on the "side" of the congregation - not in the front.

The rest of the pictures are of some of the other parts of these beautiful churches.  We have many more, but hope you get a feel for the history behind these buildings and the people of Germany.

Thanksgiving Dessert Table in Freiberg last year

This blog post is going to be a little different because it is my intention (ReNae) to talk about cooking, shopping, and housekeeping here in Germany.  One important thing to remember is that when I am home in America, these tasks are not my favorite things to do.  I would much rather be working on some big project, directing or watching theater events, playing the piano, watching football, fishing, or enjoying my grand kids and family.   Now, it is my understanding that I am a pretty good cook and I don't hate it but....there are other things that I like better taking up my time.

With that said, let me talk about how things are different for me here!

When we arrived in Freiberg and got settled into our small apartment, one of the first things we had to do is go grocery shopping.  There was a neighborhood store, NETTO, only about 200 yards from where we lived by the Temple.  Talk about culture shock!  Of course the produce was recognizable, at least most of it, but reading those German labels was difficult!  Dale always goes shopping with me so that is helpful.

I was already starting to change my attitude.  It was strange, but I was pretty much loving cooking and shopping.  It became somewhat of a "puzzle" for me and I wanted to learn everything I could about German foods and cooking here.  After we were transferred to Darmstadt and working with the Young Single Adults, I knew why.  I cook a great deal, sometimes as much as 4-5 days of the week and for as many as 20-25 people.  I have learned so much and ready to try new things all the time.  Dale used to tease me about watching Food Network at home, but now he has enjoyed many meals that I initially learned about on Chopped, Rachel Ray, or other shows.  I actually know more food and cooking terms in German than Dale does!  I also make exceptionally good "Kase Kuchen" or Cheesecake from Quark - a dairy ingredient only found here and in other  European countries.

While we were still in Freiberg, I could send Dale for things we needed at the last minute which leads me to my story about Salsa. We decided we wanted to make Tacos because we had managed to find Tortillas.  I sent him to find anything that looked like Salsa.  He was gone quite a while and came home with a bottle of Zegeuner Sauce.  We opened it - smelled like Salsa, looked like Salsa - poured it in with the meat.   It tasted awesome and it made wonderful Sloppy Joes!  We use it all the time now for that purpose.  Oh - and we did eventually find Salsa.

I also just had to order a Slow Cooker from England (not available here in Germany) and, in fact, two of them.  I actually own 12 slow cookers in America - yup - I said 12!  That is a subject for another time but just to clarify, 7 of them are in buffet servers.  But after coming to Darmstadt, I got a very large one to use for the YSA Center.  One of the sweet members here that we work with was amazed that I would turn it on and leave home for the day!  She just could not believe it would work and not burn down the apartment building.  I have used them over and over again for the past 15 months.

Now that we have discussed cooking here are a few examples of how things are done differently here with regard to food and cleaning:

Apartment Kitchen in Freiberg

1. Most Germans who live in apartments, like us, have very small kitchens. Thus, they have very small refrigerators, and tiny or no freezers at all. Because of these small storage areas, they must go shopping at least every other day. There are bakeries on every corner, because they buy fresh baked goods pretty much every day. The breads and pastries are very tasty. Unfortunately for us, we have a hard time resisting them. They still have their traditional meat and vegetable shops as well and the fresh produce here is usually very good.

Typical  Produce Section in a Market

2. As you may know, Germans are famous for their drinking. They have large separate stores just to sell drinks. They sell everything from regular water to hard liquor.  I think it may be because they don't trust their tap water!

3. There are certain staples that I am used to cooking with in America that are simply not available here or extremely hard to find. Things like liquid vanilla, American brown sugar, pecans, and there is no cream-of-anything-soup in cans. However, I have learned to substitute and make do and in some cases, it is better.  I will certainly miss some of the great ingredients I have found here. 

4. GARBAGE COLLECTION!! This has been a learning curve for us. With 84 million people in an area the same size as Montana, they have obviously had to control their refuse. The stores hand out free garbage bags especially for plastics. We also have to separate paper, cans, compost, and glass. There are also collection areas for used clothing and shoes.  They have special city collections for old furniture and appliances. The bad thing is, they only pick up the garbage twice a month in the summer, and once a  month in the Winter. You have to admit though, they are more environmentally aware than we are in our smaller cities. 

Laundry Room in Freiberg

5.  In all three of our apartments we have had to do our laundry in another area of the building.  That is better than going to a Laundromat or something so I am not complaining.  However, it has been harder here in Darmstadt and our first apartment in Freiberg because the Laundry Rooms are in the basement and involve many stairs.  Also, the washers are much smaller and so we do more batches.  They are also programmed to save water and so the wash cycles are longer.  We are just grateful we have had dryers.  Most of the young missionaries only have washing machines. 

I could certainly go on for a long time, but the bottom line is this.  I have learned to love living here in Germany.  I have learned so much about myself and my ability to adapt.  I was very nervous about living in another country and had so many misconceptions in my mind.  Change is usually very difficult for me, but I get better at it everyday.  I am so grateful for the opportunity I have had of serving this mission with my wonderful husband.   We love the gospel and our testimonies have grown so much.  Heavenly Father has blessed us as we learn to love and serve the people here in this beautiful country.  We can all do hard things!

A PICTURE BLOG!!!!

Clog America in Darmstadt - July 9, 2015

Dale singing "The Beverly Hillbillies" Theme Song

The Darmstadt Clog America Performance Audience

Some of our Young Single Adults with Clog America

Looks Familiar!  Love Clog America Tours!

Our wonderful Clog America Friends and Director - Dwayne and Shawnda Bishop

Dale's Tomato Garden on our Balcony
"You can take Dale out of his garden,
but you can't take the garden out of Dale!"

 Bad Homburg White Tower

Marberg Allstadt Visit

Beautiful View from the Castle with the City and Church in the Bachground

The Castle and that is Cinderella's "red" slipper - the Grimm Brothers lived in this City for a time

 OUR MOSEL RIVER AND CASTLES VISIT 

The beautiful Burg Eltz

The City of Cochem - Waiting for the Bus to the Castle

View from the Cochem (Reichsburg) Castle - Notice the Vineyard on the hill side

Views of the incredible Mosel River from both directions

Special Friends and Missionaries in our German Life

Our Michelstadt Elders at a Member's Home for Dinner and Song

The Frankfurt Mission Office Missionaries

Good Friends - the Eglys - in Michelstadt

We wen up and out of a valley on a road similar to the switchbacks going to Big Lake in Sevier County - but paved and we were not in our ATV.  It was very narrow, but the view was spectacular when we reached the top.  We could not help but compare it to the journey of life.  Sometimes we are prompted to take a road that does not appear to lead anywhere promising, but when we arrive, it was worth the efforts we made.