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