My Cup Overfloweth

Weeks and months fly by. When I last blogged we were at the halfway mark of the mission. Now, six months later, we are at our 5/6 mark. If I don't get on the ball with updating this blog we will be home!

Fall is just glorious in Germany. Trees were all their flaming glory. Lots of yellow, almost no red. There was some kind of creeping vine that covers many walls with red leaves, but that was it

September was another busy month. We were able to teach and visit many people.One of our favorite people to visit is Sister Harrar, a dear sister from South Africa. It's so nice to converse in English and understand every word. On one visit she prepared us a proper English Tea.When we walked in I about swooned. Everything so beautifully set and prepared. I thought how much my sister Sandee would have enjoyed being there. One of the teas she offered us was a South African tea called Rooibush, or red bush. It was so delicious, as were the delightful cakes.

Beautiful china and place settings.

Scrumptious cakes.

Sister Harrar and I.

One task I don't enjoy  is apartment checks. Every 4 months we go to each of six missionary apartments in our zone to check on cleanliness, and see that everything is in good working order, and make any needed repairs. Anything beyond simple repairs, we take pictures and send them to the Mission Home in Frankfurt and they take corrective action. Since we no longer can drive Elder Hart must tote a big heavy bag of tools and parts on the train that might be needed.
On one of our Preparation days we did something fun. We went to the Deutsche Bahn (German Train) Museum here is Nurnberg. M loved it. What is it about guys and wheels? We kept thinking how much all of our grandsons would have enjoyed it. There were enough miniature trains and cars to fulfill any boy's fantasies.

I think I'm in love♥

Really old engine.

I think I can drive this thing.

10 Electric trains all running at the same time! This is about 1/4 of the whole setup. German engineering is amazing!

Every 6 weeks we have "Transfer Calls" on Saturday morning. A mission-wide phone call announces all missionary transfers. Always lots of cheers and surprises, and occasional tears. We try to make it fun by having a breakfast for them at the church. Our district (6 Elders and Sisters) along with a few other missionaries in surrounding areas attend. I made a French Toast Casserole with blueberries and different types of juices and fruit.

Some of these will be going away in a few days

Eat fast! "The Call" comes in 10 minutes!

Yum! French Toast Casserole. A Missionary Fave!

The last Sunday in September we had our first "Gemeinde Essen", or Ward Meal, after the 3 hour church block. We have been lobbying hard for this for a long time. Our ward members are so spread out we don't have many ward activities. There are not many opportunities to socialize and get to know each other better. It was so much fun...lots of wonderful German dishes. Let's keep this going Nurnberg Ward!

Our ward members really know how to cook!

Yummy!

Afterwards we traveled over to the Minerts for a Home Teaching visit. Brother Minert is an Amercian living here with his German wife and three adorable children.They are one of a few members of our ward that live in a real house in a regular neighborhood. They have a big backyard with a barbeque, swimming pool and trampoline. Very....American

On the first weekend in October  we were blessed to be able to watch much of the General Conference of our Church (held twice a year in Salt Lake City) at our ward building. In between Conference sessions on Saturday one of the sisters in our ward always prepares a meal for all the missionaries. She also prepares lunches after all the Zone conferences. Done it for the last 40 years! She is a real-life angel.

On October 10 we traveled up to the quaint Stadt/city of Lohr. It lays claim to be the home of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. We met seven other senior missionary couples there. We took a tour of  Snow White's castle and had traditional German lunch together. Great time to catch up with dear friends

"I show you as you really are."

How can you not love an Elk?

Lunch Menu....Don't eat too much!

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

We met Brad Kirk's (Good friends in our home town, Clovis California) brother and sister-in-law for the first time. They work in the Frankfurt Mission Office.

Here's some of the best people on earth!

Lohr Castle

Who's the fairest of them all?

 On October 18 we held our second JAE ("Young Single Adult") Super-Sunday. These amazing youth (18-30 years) conducted all the meetings, gave all the talks lessons and music, prepared and passed the Sacrament. A yummy dinner followed everything. We feed these kids ALL THE TIME! They love to eat! And they can eat a lot! And we love to feed them.

Lunch time. Somebody is excited.

More hungry people

Our Facebook post asks: Where will you be at 9:30 AM on October 18? (Sleeping in, of course. Because our Super-sunday meetings don't start until 1:00 PM! Hurray!)

Here's our wonderful kids. And adult leaders. We love them all!

Priesthood lesson

Dinner of course. It's what we do!

A few of the young men waiting for lunch.

Halloween fun at Institute.Several of our members and investigators from China, Africa and even Germany had never carved pumpkins. But they got right into it.

Future surgeons maybe?

Waiting for inspiration

Favorite part? Scooping out the innards, of course.

No comment.

Best in Show

Pretty scary!

We have enjoyed working with our two Zone Leaders, Elder Ninow and Elder Taylor. They had two things in common- cars and cooking. They made us a delicious meal one evening of Cafe Rio Pulled Pork Burritos and chili lime rice. Talented Elders!

Cafe Rio time.

It's as good as it looks!

 Stake Conference was held in two sessions on Sunday in the Erlangen LDS chapel. One in the morning for German speakers and one in the afternoon for English speakers. The preceding conference in May was held in a rented hall in the city, which was big enough to accommodate all the members of the Stake, but cost a lot of money to rent.The two session conference worked out well. Best attendance ever. In between the two sessions we were asked to put on a lunch (yep!) for all the YSAs in the Stake.

LOTS of people to feed.

You get a smile with your food.

On November 19 we met our friends, the Johnsons, another Senior Missionary couple serving as Military Relations Specialists in Grafenwohr, and traveled with them to Flossenburg, Bavaria to visit the former labor/concentration camp. Tens of thousands perished here. We wondered if we really wanted to see any of these facilities, but the Johnsons talked us into it. Our visit was sad and sobering, but yet there was also a feeling of reverence...hard to explain. The Germans have done well in being honest about their past. While at the camp we saw several classes of school children being guided through the exhibits and learning about the dreadful history there.  It was a dark, dreary and rainy day when we visited and matched our spirits.

In the center of the camp

SS Officers quarters

N

To the Crematorium

Memorial building with binders full of names, and histories and places of origin of each of the prisoners

Showers

From the Crematorium

Jewish Memorial

November- a month of Thanksgiving. Been out almost a year! We cannot express how thankful we are that we have been able to serve a mission here in Germany. We have met so many wonderful people and have been able to see the gospel of Jesus Christ blessing and changing so many lives.  We never imagined that we would have the privilege of teaching so much. We are grateful that our health has been good, maybe even improved since being here.

We are grateful for our family at home. We love them and miss them so much but are happy to know that they are living good lives, and that our married children are teaching their children to know and love the Lord. We have faith that all will be well until we return home.

We were so happy that most of our children and their families were able to gather for Thanksgiving at our home in Clovis. It made our hearts happy to see them gathered there in the home that we love so much, and having fun together. We also had a wonderful Thanksgiving here in Germany. Our dear Sister Preiss and Sister Ochs, insisted on preparing a big traditional American feast for all the missionaries and also our investigators and new members. I made American pumpkin pies and dressing. I love cooking for Thanksgiving so this was really fun for me.

We are thankful for...good food!

Stuffing, turkey and gravy...Just like home!

It was as good as it looks.

Pies♥

Our fabulous cook and dear friend Sister Preiss and her husband.

Mixed reactions from Germans tasting their first American Root Beer. Some loved it, others thought it tasted like mouth wash. How do you get Root Beer in Germany? It's not easy, but miracles still happen.

Another one of our dear cooks and her hubby.

After dinner, Sister Preiss asked the missionaries to sing an "American Thanksgiving song". Couldn't really think of one, so they sang "Proud To Be An American". Well, that works. Note the red, white and blue table decor.

We actually ended up having two Thanksgivings, which was fine with us. We were invited over to the Minerts again, along with our Bishop and his family to enjoy a second traditional American Thanksgiving since Brother Minert is an American. I again made pumpkin pies and dressing. Two Thanksgivings...now that's something to be thankful for! Afterwards we went for a walk in their woods near their home.

We had time to reflect on our blessings...so many things to be grateful for. God has been so good to us.

Beautifully set and loaded Thanksgiving table.

Two Minert kids on a huge log pile.

More kids on logs.

Weird mushrooms.

Minerts and Langes♥

To close this long rambling post...some fun pictures.

You can buy beautiful flowers and floral arrangements here for a fraction of the cost in the States.

Because elders and sister missionaries cannot be alone together in a building :-)

Beethoven's winter digs. Hopefully they'll let him out in the spring.

"Bring Him Home."    Germans love American films.

Bad hair day artwork in Cadolzburg.

Lovely music fountain in lovely Cadolzburg

How could you not want to ride on a tram like this?

Kinder transport. Sometimes life can be so boring.

Waiting for a train in the middle of nowhere.

Waiting for a bus.

Still waiting. We do a lot of waiting.

This is how mail is delivered in Germany. The mail delivery people use these bikes get to much of the inner city.

Welcome to our apartment. Now wipe your feet!

Long stemmed rose in our apartment lobby.

You've got to park your dog someplace.

Just for Vicki.

My doctor collects frogs.

My reward for surviving a blood draw. I was brave.

Birthdays and other special occasions we have missed:

September 21-Happy Birthday to my brother Scott
October 3- Happy Birthday to our son David
October 14- Happy Birthday to my dad and sister Sandee
October 14- Happy 9th Anniversary to our daughter Susie and son-in-law Christian
November 3- Happy Birthday to our daughter Elizabeth
November 17- Happy 5th Birthday to our granddaughter Charlotte Grace
November 20- Happy 3rd Birthday to our granddaughter Quinn Erin

We leave our testimony to all the God is our Heavenly Father, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He is the Savior and Redeemer of the World. As we move toward the Christmas season we give thanks for the His miraculous birth and transcendent life.

We are grateful to carry His name with us as we serve here in Beautiful Germany! For any who want to learn more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, please go to mormon.org, or lds.org. These are wonderful websites with uplifting thoughts and answers to questions about God and our purpose here on earth.