Love is in the Air

I really love the month of February. Maybe it has something to do with my last name ❤️ How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

On February 7th, our daughter Elizabeth's and son-in-law Kurt's triplets, Kai, Chase and Kate Hanson, were baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Sadly, we were unable to be in attendance but were able to send a little video talk on the Gift of the Holy Ghost that was shown at their baptism. We love them dearly♥

Valentine's Day was sort of like Christmas was....... mostly unobserved in the traditional way. There were no flowers, no candy, no cards and no romantic dinner out on the town. Since M and I are somewhat joined at the hip these days, there is no way to go out alone and purchase little tokens of love and appreciation, although I did wake up to this on my iPad the morning of:-)

From my forever sweetheart

However, just like Christmas, I think it will prove to be the best Valentine's Day ever! It was the baptism day of two wonderful people that we love very much- Precious and Mohammad.We have been privileged to help teach Precious and she has been like a flower opening up to the light of the gospel. When the elders first started teaching her, she and her husband were on two different wave lengths as far as religion was concerned and she was not supportive of his beliefs. He joined the church about 20 years ago but had been inactive until recently. He told her that he had always retained a belief in Jesus Christ and in the restored gospel and now wanted to return to church. Soon after we were invited by the elders to join them in teaching her and we have seen such a wonderful change come over her and them as a couple. They are so happy together and couldn't wait for her baptism and then trip a year from now to the Frankfurt Temple to be sealed together for time and all eternity. I have observed that for the two of them there exists no "Great and Spacious Building" to pull them away from the gospel path (I Nephi 8). They have pure and simple testimony of their Savior and Redeemer and they only desire to keep the commandments so that they can show their love to Him and their Father in Heaven. Pure faith and testimony are the most important things to them in this life.

Precious and Brother Adamu on her baptism day

 Mohammad is a young man from Afghanistan. Like so many, he left his country in search of work opportunities and safety. The rest of his family is still in Afghanistan. We have seen the same change come over him. Where there was darkness and not much hope, there is now light and happiness and hope for his future. I feel so sad for the many people that come here to work and have to leave their families behind. I can't even imagine having to do that. Learning that they have a Father in Heaven that loves them and is always there for them helps ease their loneliness. We have been teaching him English, which has proved to be a very interesting experience, to say the least. I speak very little German, which he speaks, and he speaks no English. Communication takes place mostly in sign language;-) Jane Moffitt (who teaches ESL), where are you when I most need you?

Mohammad, Precious, Brother Adamu and the two elders that taught them.

February is a big birthday month in our family. We wish very Happy Birthdays to our sweet granddaughter, Halle Miller, who turned 12 on February 12th and  left Primary to enter Young Women, to one of our four favorite sons-in-law, Jake Beaman who turned an undisclosed age on February 21st and received a most amazing birthday gift (about which I will talk a bit later), to our handsome and sporty grandson, Hinckley Miller, who turned 14 on February 23rd and is now a Teacher in the Aaronic Priesthood, and to my dear mother, Doris Powelson Sonners, born on February 26th. Although she is no longer living here on the earth I feel her presence often in my life and try to be as valiant a disciple of Jesus Christ as she was♥

Mother as a sweet young girl♥

My mother and her eternal Valentine

On February 19th, about midnight Nurnberg time, a brand new love entered our lives. Little Dylan Beaman was born to our daughter Erin and husband Jake. He weighed in at a hefty 9 pounds and was 19 1/2" long. Missing his birth was one of the most difficult things we've had to face thus far on our mission. How I wish we could have been there! He will be over a year old before we get to see him. We are so grateful for Facetime, Skype, Dropbox and the internet that help keep us somewhat connected and able to see the faces and hear the voices of those we hold dear♥

 On February 28th we have the upcoming baptism of another young man for whom we feel a great deal of love, Chris. He is an amazing young man. He has been meeting with the missionaries on and off for the last six months, but didn't really want to give up partying with his friends or change his lifestyle. Life was for fun.When we first met him we didn't hold out much hope for him really wanting to change his ways, but he had such an engaging and endearing quality about him that we couldn't help but love him. He started coming back to Institute after we got here and that's how we got to know him. I'm not quite sure when or how he decided to change his life, but he did. He is no longer the person he was previously. The gospel of Jesus Christ can do that, and every time we see it happen it is like witnessing a miracle. He was lovable and gregarious before but now he just radiates light and happiness. He is a nursing student with a very busy and rigorous schedule but he comes to all of his meetings, has taken his eyebrow stud out and even talks about wanting to serve a mission. He wants to serve in any way he can♥

I love the availability of beautiful flowers here in Germany. For instance, at any market one can buy a beautiful  bouquet of live flowers for only a couple of Euro. The tulips and orchids are my favorites. We received these beautiful orchids from a friend here for our anniversary on December 22nd, and they are still beautifully blooming two months later. We always have a vase of tulips on our dining table brightening up our somewhat gloomy apartment. These are a little over the hill but still bring a smile to my face.

Orchids in winter

Beautiful Tulpen

We were visiting the Feucht Ward last week. My husband is the High Counselor assigned to that ward. I was absolutely mesmerized by this little girl sitting in front of us knitting. She had five or six needles going at once as she was knitting these socks! She is only 10 years old. After the meeting I asked her mother about how she learned to do this. She said that she has knitting classes at the school she attends. All the boys and girls learn to knit from first grade on. She has been knitting for four years! This picture is especially for our granddaughter Ava, who wants to learn how to knit so much. Every time I come to visit her she asks me to show her how. She tells me her stitches won't stay on the needles; a result I'm sure of my inadequate instruction :-(

Notice all the needles and different colors of yarn.

A sweet event happens in our ward building about once a month. A very nice man in the ward, not a member of the Church by the way, comes to the building and gives free haircuts to all the missionaries and anyone else who happens to come by. Elder Hart decided to take him up on his offer. He does a much better job that I do. The elders wanted to take a picture of him so I let them have my camera. I couldn't figure out why they were taking so many pictures of him. Turns out they weren't. Debbie, you gave some advice the other day to never let the Young Women borrow your iPhone because they will take endless selfies. Apparently young men will do the same thing. This is just one of 20 pictures they took. Silly boys.

 Of course, our life here is not all ♥s, rainbows, flowers and sunshine. Into every life a little rain must fall, right? Still on my list of all things awful are dealing with the garbage, dealing with the Visa Office, trying to find parking, trying to learn and understand German and trying to get our apartment updated, dejunked and remodeled. The last one sounds fun, huh? If I were at home, it would be. However....... there is the language barrier that makes it almost impossible to communicate. We have been working with one of the native German counselors in the Frankfurt Mission Presidency. He is the dearest of men and I adore him, but I know he is probably wondering every day how he got the misfortune of having to deal with these Americans that speak such limited German. He has spent hours with us. Unfortunately he lives way north of us in Frankfurt so most of our communication has to be by email. Here is what one of his last letters to us looks like. I get a headache and my eyes start to cross just looking at it. He wants us to make all these decisions about what we want in our new kitchen but I don't know the price perimeters, how to find anything that he wants us to look at, or really even know what he wants us to decide. I keep telling him I would be very happy with whatever he picks out, and I would! Anything new and clean and bright and shiny would be wonderful, but I don't think he believes me. I gave a few opinions on some colors and cabinets and fixtures and other things I liked the one time we went with him to Ikea to look and my tastes were apparently far above our budget. I had no way of knowing what the budget was or how much things cost and didn't mean to seem so exorbitant in my tastes. "All white", I said to him yesterday. Everything in white would be fine with me, hoping that that would put an end to things, but no, he said, that would be too boring. Ach, du meine Gute! So today, M and I have to make another trip to Ikea to pick out countertops and drawer pulls and handles. I am praying that this will put an end to the decisions. I copied this onto Google Translate and got my laughs for the month with the translation they provided.

We still don't have our Visas :-(   We have made four trips to the Visa Office, each time with more paperwork to fill out. Of course, with each new round of requirements comes hours of trying to translate exactly they want. We finally had to call the Mission Office with our lack of results and they said they would get the church legal department on the case. It really shouldn't be this difficult to get a Visa. I am so glad it is out of our hands now.

We love being here and serving the Lord, even with all our frustrations. Soon they will all be figured out and taken care of and we can focus more on what we want to really accomplish here.
We love you all and appreciate so much your love and support.

Elder and Sister Hart♥