The Best Christmas Ever

This has been a very different December for us. No gift buying or exchanging of presents, no family gatherings, no birthday celebration, no anniversary celebration, and yet, we can truthfully say that it has been the Best Christmas Season Ever! We have been able to totally focus on the greatest gift the world has ever received; the birth and life of the Savior and we have been able to celebrate this in the most wonderful of ways. One of my favorite ways was to go caroling several times. The first time Michael and I and six of the most wonderful young missionaries we have ever had the privilege of knowing went caroling to some members. Two of them reside in rest homes. This rest home was beautiful and bright and festively decorated.The rooms were very lovely but the inhabitants were alone and lonely. As we sang we saw their faces light up, especially as we sang Silent Night in very sweet four part harmony. After we left them, the missionaries told us that that was the happiest they had ever seen them. We were asked at one point by another resident there to come downstairs to a commons area and sing for more people that were gathered there. We experienced the same result. All this while walking down old cobble stoned streets lined with beautiful old buildings, crossing a beautiful river over an quaint little bridge and passing huge towering cathedrals and churches. It was like walking through a picture postcard.We then walked over to some other members' apartments and sang for them. At one we sang in a little alcove on the street and attracted several passers-by that stopped to enjoy the beautiful carols. To me, this felt like the essence of Christmas- singing beautiful songs that proclaim the love our Heavenly Father has for all of His children that He manifested by sending His Son to the earth to bring us all light and truth and the way back home. Two nights ago we went caroling again in the Christkindlesmarkt. Many people stopped to listen and we were able to hand out lots of "Er ist das Geschenk" or "He is the Gift" cards, some Joy to the World DVDs and invitations to come to our ward Christmas Devotional on December 24. One lady that said she would come, actually did. The only problem was that she got the wrong time. The devotional was at 3 PM and she showed up at 5 PM. Unfortunately for her, Michael and I were the only ones in the building at that time. Everyone else had already gone home. Our building here is three stories. The administrative offices are on the top floor, the chapel and main street entrance are on the main floor and the Institute rooms and our office are on the bottom level.So we were downstairs calling home and catching up on our blog and emails when the bell to the front door rang. We looked at each other and tried to decide what to do. We speak very little German and were here all alone. I was all for ignoring it but Elder Hart rushed upstairs to answer the door. After a few minutes he came running back to our little office and asked me to quick come upstairs as he needs me to translate for him. What??? Me???? Really??? Reluctantly I headed upstairs to find this sweet little German lady standing in the entry. She spoke NO English so we had to try and communicate in German. All I could really understand was that she had come to attend a church service at 5 pm. I tried to tell her that it had been held at 3 pm and that it was all over. It was like she didn't believe me. Maybe it was my atrocious German that she really couldn't believe. I don't know. I was able to tell her that there would be another church service here on Sunday at 9:30 AM that we would love to have her attend. She just sat there looking at me. I didn't know what else to say.  Eventually I was able to ask her to write down her name and number and promised her (I think) that we would have a German speaking missionary contact her. She finally seemed satisfied with that. We got her info and bid her a fond farewell. It is SO frustrating to not be able to speak German so we have made plans to spend much more time studying it.

This is a picture of half of our caroling group. I think Michael and three other elders were off speaking with some church members that we saw at the Markt.
Many have asked for pictures so I will just randomly post some that I think you all might enjoy.

The famous Gold Tower. Legend goes that if you spin the brass ring attached to the front of it your wish will come true. These are all taken in the old city of Nurnberg where the Christkindlesmarkt is held. Most of it was destroyed during WWII and rebuilt afterwards to look like it used to.

Christkindlesmarkt. The Gold Tower in the background.

Eating my favorite food there. Bratwurst and Nurnbergers.

What to choose...... I'll take two of the gingerbread ponies, please.

Me at the Gold Tower, channeling Sister Sarah (from Guys and Dolls, if you missed the reference). This was our meeting place for an evening of caroling with the young elders and sisters.

Lots of beautiful Christmas decorations to buy. I didn't buy any as we won't have any way to get them home:-( Notice the cobble stone streets. Very charming to look at but murder on your feet after about 45 minutes of walking on them.

Some more of our caroling group. The elders just met one of their trainers/companions that had returned home from his mission, but just happened to be back visiting at the exact same time we were at the Christkindlesmarkt. They were in 7th Heaven. Can you guess which one is the "returnee"?

For our Zone Meeting a couple of days ago we acted out the Nativity. Some of the costumes were a little um...sketchy.

Our Christmas Eve celebration....PB&J for me, fried egg sandwich for Elder Hart. Just so you don't feel too sorry for us, we did get invited to a member's home but declined as we wanted to spend our evening calling our children from the church.

The day after Christmas we prepared a breakfast at the church for the JAEs in our ward.

A lovely river we cross every time we go into the Old City,

Last night we went out to dinner with our missionaries and an investigator who is scheduled to be baptized January 7. We went to an Indian Restaurant where we were able to introduce a whole new generation to the delights of Indian food. They all loved it!

Flat Stanley accompanied us everywhere we went. This is a famous cathedral in the Old City.

We cross over this beautiful little river every time we go into the Old City. Picture Postcard perfect.

It snowed today for the first time since we have been in Germany. This is the garden right outside our living room window.

A beautiful Nurnberg sunset.

Just singin' and dancin' in the rain.

So many Brots, so little time......

Sorry everything is so jumbled up, but that's kind of how we roll these days. I've been trying for days to update this blog but things just seem to conspire against me doing it. It's late but we're alone at the church so I just went for it. We love you all♥
Elder and Sister Hart

Feeling so blessed

We just finished our week and a half at the MTC (Missionary Training Center) in Provo, Utah and words cannot describe how wonderful it was to be there. We were there with 1300 other missionaries, "Junior" and "Senior", as we are called:-) At one of our devotionals we took a minute to look out into the audience from the bottom floor up into the bleachers filled with missionaries going into every corner of the world and then contemplated the fact that every single one of us was filled with the same desire; to invite others to come unto Christ. We all deeply love Him and desire to share that love with everyone. His gospel is for all.
To say that our trip to Germany was stressful would be an understatement. There were so many hurdles. We needed to be at the entrance of the MTC to be picked up at 5:30 AM with our suitcases all packed and weighed and dropped off the night before. I think we got about four hours of sleep that night. But... We made it. We were shuttled up to the SLC Airport and arrived with plenty of time to spare. Our suitcases all passed muster. Thst was a big stresser. Our flight to Doetroit was fine, only 3 1/2 hours with a three hour layover. The flight to Germany was another thing entirely. I now know why several people suggested taking a Valium or some other kind of relaxer to cut down the stress level. We should have taken their advice. It was an eight hour flight due to arrive at 1:00 AM our time. Our Delta airplane was configured with two seats on the left, three in the middle and two on the right. We were in the two seats on the left. There was about one inch of legroom between our knees and the seats in front of us.We knew we needed to get some sleep as we were going to be picked up at airport by our mission president and his wife at 9:30 AM German time (1:00 AM our time!) and driven to the mission home in Frankfurt to receive our assignment and orientations of all kinds. All this on about four hours of sleep in the last two days😳 Anyway, I think one of the flight attendants noticed that I was about ready to crawl out of my skin and invited me to go to the back of the plane where there was an empty two seater. I gladly took her up on it. As I walked down the aisle I saw all these people stretched out on the three seater sections sound asleep. I must admit I was a bit envious. Unfortunately neither of us was able to sleep.
We finally landed and were able to be reunited with all of our suitcases intact. We figured out how to procure a luggage tote (no easy feat) for our four 50 pound suitcases, two packed to capacity carry-ons, one giant purse and one very heavy man purse. We cleared Customs with no sweat and made it out to the main terminal where we to be picked up by Presdent and Sister Stoddard.  Our drive to the mission home gave us great heart palpitations! The city is huge and the streets are like mazes. We were so happy to be passengers instead of drivers.
Upon our arrival we got got our mission assignment. We will be in Nürnberg working with the Young Single Adults and Institute support in all eight of the cities in our district, probably a Stake assignment for Michael, and anything the Bishop would like us to help out with in his ward. Looks like I will be doing quite a bit of cooking. I cook a dinner for the Nürnberg Institute once a week and take dinner twice a month to two other Institutes that we visit. We will also attend and support the singles FHE group here in Nürnberg. 
After our meeting and orientation with Pres. Stoddard we were given the keys to our mission car where we were to drive to Mainz for two days of a Senior Couples Conference. Yikes😳 Remember I mentioned the maze like streets? Unbelievable. We did receive a portable GPS for our car and don't know how we would get around without it. Even Michael, with his built in navigational sense, cannot figure out where N,  S, E and W are😁 We arrived at the B & B Hotel the afternoon before the Conference began and we're finally able to take about a two hour nap. No bed has ever felt better. There were two other couples that arrived early and the called and asked if we wanted to go to the Mainz Christmas Market. But of course! I don't even have enough words to describe how wonderful these are. Let's just say that if you love Christmas decorations you would be in hig heaven. Plus they have marvelous food. I had my first famed Bratwurst. To say it was delicious would be an understatement. It was one of the best foods I have ever had in my life😋It was on a delicious roll with a delicious mustard.
I'm going to post this even though I haven't caught up with where we are because we have to leave the church, the only place we have Internet access so far. We want to get wifi in our apartment but apparently it's quite a lengthy process😕
We love being here and the people we have met here so far are marvelous! We love the gospel.