Sunday, December 29, 2013

AND SO IT IS CHRISTMAS


Always hard to be away from home at Christmas time.  We were glad Spence and Xan found family to be with in the East.  Though we missed being with our loved ones, we received the second best thing as each of children shared their testimonies with us, which is the greatest gift any parent could desire.

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Christmas Eve with convert Huifeng Li and fellow missionaries the Harrisons and Smiths.

We tried as best we could to replicate the Craven family Christmas Eve traditions.  We invited some senior missionaries and Hiufeng Li, a recent convert to Elaine's clam chowder dinner. We took turns sharing what we were most thankful for this past year and then lit the candle fastened to our plate.  We had a meager "talent show" afterward with songs and stories and then sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and had some birthday cake.  Li thought that was pretty strange, but joined in, singing in his native tongue.

Feeling very loved as loved ones remembered us far away at Christmas.

Christmas day was a brunch with the area missionaries at the ward and then catching up with our kids and their families as they arose on Christmas morning 8 hours later.

Former South German Missionaries Elders Kimball and Pferdner who commented on the great influence President Fetzer had in their lives.  The woman in the background is a member here from Eagle Mountain Utah with her husband and 2 children for the skeleton world cup competitions in Europe then they go straight on to the Olympics in February (She would have to crash to not qualify.  She's fourth in the world right now. Watch for her in Russia, Noel Pace.)


A sunrise that made the downtown buildings look on fire.

Our dear zone leaders who work tirelessly for all the senior missionaries here in Frankfurt

Making the youth center at the church look as much like home as possible for the Christmas Brunch

Hot chocolate bar with real M & Ms from the States

Food, food and more food
The area office is effectively closed between December 23 and January 5th as all the employees take their final holiday of the year.  The Wise Men don't make it to Jerusalem until Three Kings day on January 6th, so most Germans try to stay home until then as well. We go in the office  to answer emails from our public affairs directors about preparing the 2014 plans and budgets which are due January 1st.  We also finished editing and uploading 120 photos to the Norway Newsroom library from our trip to Oslo earlier this month. It has also been nice to have some quiet time to prepare our sacrament meeting talks for Dec 29 - speaking on subject of a "New Year and New Beginnings".

Sunday, December 22, 2013

FOURTH ADVENT OF CHRISTMAS

Saturday evening we  rode rode the train with the Harrisons downtown to hear the St Petersburg Boys Choir.  The high ceiling St Bartholomew's cathedral has perfect acoustics for their angelic voices. The Harrisons were mission presidents in Russia so Sister Harrison has the perfect coat for cold winter nights in Germany.
 

St. Petersburg Boys choir at St. Bartholomew's Cathedral in Frankfurt
Today in Primary, Sister Craven organized the children to present the nativity story, complete with costumes and a manager.  The children were very attentive and loved to each have a part in the story.  Joseph is a blind boy so his staff was a very authentic prop.  Well done, Sister Craven,

Getting ready for the Primary Christmas Pageant


If you are on PC, there is a video of the pageant below.  If you are on an Apple it is blank here :(


Darling children on a Holy Night






This week we got to know the new Infield Representative Elder Smith and his wife (left) and the new Area Exec Sec Elder Johansen and his wife (center) Elder Smith was a mission president in the Philipines and the Johansens were mission presidents in Norway.







7:30 am view from our balcony on shortest day of the year - 21 Dec 2013








Sunday, December 15, 2013

BAD WIMPFEN

 This week it was a birthday party for Sister Kagel and a goodbye party for Casmin Giles, our BYU intern, who returned home yesterday.



Again this year the area senior missionaries picked four families in our ward to do the "12 Days of Christmas" for this week.  Elaine had the job of making assignments, collecting presents and delivering to all the families.  She is a great organizer!  We weren't in our Frankfurt Ward last week and everyone in primary today could not stop telling her how much she was missed as the music leader.  She will be hard to replace.













This weekend's outing was an overnighter with 3 other couples to the Christmas Market in Bad Wimpfen and Heidelburg about 2 hours south of Frankfurt.
















The funnest part of the trip was dinner in the gasthaus in Bad Wimpfen where we spent the night, swaying, clapping, yodeling and singing with the dinner crowd who came to hear a real accordian, guitar oompa band play and sing for about three hours.  We saw a bit of German culture that could not be replicated, but made us vow to meet up at Snowbird for Octoberfest in 2015 when everyone is home.  We are here with Dan and Ann Eyre (auditors), Steve and Lorraine Swift(attorney), and Clyda and Mike Harrison (real estate)
Young street artists at the Christmas market


Nativity scene that is part of the city's Christmas decorations

World's largest candle powered Christmas pyramid
Our missionary activity this week was to go with one of our YSA kids, Raymond Kistos from the Republic of the Congo to visit a less active YSA and invite him to the First Presidency Christmas devotional.  Bienvenu was a French speaker and so he and Raymond could converse en Francais.  We let him know he was loved and missed and offered to pick him up, but did not see success today.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

NANOOK OF THE NORTH



 One of the highlights of this last week had to be  Elaine's mini-choir singing for our area Christmas devotional.  We sang an arrangement of "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night" with a lovely piano accompaniment by Elder Harrison and a flute obligato by Sister Kearon, our area presidency counselor's wife. Front row Sisters Harrison, Craven, Ezard and Wing.  Back row Elders Craven, (sister) Stay, Stay and Wing.  Entertainment for the dinner following were five talent acts put on by the employees in a Germany's Got Talent show.  We were amazed they actually voted and awarded places from 1st clear to 5th.  Wonder if anyone will volunteer next year.

The highest (and coincidentally the lowest) light of the week was our weekend Public Affairs assignment in Oslo, Norway.  Highest light for the marvelous experience and lowest light for how low in the sky the sun shines there this time of year and how short a time it shines when it finally breaks the horizon. Our assignment was to take pictures for the Norway Newsroom and to take pictures and write a article to report on the Church's popular community Christmas concert celebration.  (see article below)

 Brother Oystein Amundsen hosted us for tour of Oslo on Saturday,  Next to the ward house is a memorial to a man who operated a green house and trucking business here during the Nazi occupation.  What he really was doing was smuggling out Jews and others wanted by the Nazis.  He would hide them in the green house and truck them out to Sweden in the night - until he was caught and executed in 1944 at age 38.  Interesting they chose the Old Testament symbol of the Melchezidek Priesthood for the shape of the monument.

 Norway is home to only about 4.5 million persons, - 600,000 in Oslo.  The city is nestled down at the bottom of the mountains next to a beautiful fjord.  The country is rich from oil and natural gas development in the North Sea, and the standard of living is high, but with that comes 20 minute cab rides that cost $200 and chocolate bars for $6.

 Elaine loved the ski jump on the hilltop above the town.  No snow here today though, just absolutely frigid temps and a breeze that cut right though. The big jumping competition was going on in Lillehammer further north.

 This is  the famous Opera House designed to look like an iceberg coming out of the ocean on the fjord and yes that is salt water and yes it is freezing and yes it was sooo cold.  Some Norwegians had actually put on hats but we think they were saving their big coats for more serious temps to come. Ironically though the sun comes up at 10 and sets at 3 pm (this near the shortest day of the year), when it is up it is directly in your face the whole time as it only gets about 3 feet above the horizon in a more or less a 4 hour sunrise turning to sunset with no day in between.

Here is a picture of the Jul i Toner Christmas production at the Romerike chapel that included members as well as musicians from the community in a high quality symphonic and vocal feast.  This night about 450 were in the audience, about half were Church members.


Greeters at the concert were dressed in traditional Norwegian outfits and fed us wonderful warm rolls afterward.


Christmas Concert Warms Hearts on a Cold Night in Norway
Outside, the first snows of winter fell in the frosty December night air.  Festive candles cheerfully lit a snowy walkway to the Romerike chapel doors.  Inside, hearts were warmed by song and music that thrilled the soul of a grateful audience and welcomed the Christmas spirit.  This festive celebration was the last evening of a three-night music concert series, the idea for which started three years ago as a way to build bridges of trust and friendship between members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the local community during the Christmas season. 

This year’s concert was hosted by the Church and featured the Lillestrøm City orchestra, a 60 member choir and special guest vocal and instrumental soloists.  The choir was made of church members as well as members of local choirs, music organizations and music schools.  Practices for the event began last summer and required members of the Church to travel, some from as far as eight hours away, to meet in periodic intensive practice sessions. 

On this night, approximately 450 persons filled the chapel to capacity to enjoy professional quality voice and instrumental soloists and the choir. The choir was accompanied by a 15-member symphony orchestra and by the 35 member Lillestrøm brass orchestra which also presented its own musical arrangements to celebrate the Christmas season. 

At the conclusion of this year’s concert, attendees were overjoyed at having been part of a marvelous celebration of Christ’s birth and its organizers were already thinking about ways to make the spirit of the production available to an even wider audience next year. 

Concert sponsors recognize and honor the artistic talents of each participant and especially the production and directorship skills of the husband and wife team of Sven-Eric and Marie Lundkvist who were the inspiration and force to bring this celebration from idea to reality.  Our sincere thanks and appreciation to these good people for their talented service.

Sunday, December 1, 2013

THANKSGIVING AND THE FIRST ADVENT OF CHRISTMAS



Lighting of the Christmas tree in Frankfurt's old town center
Our little missionary group braved the cold to welcome in Christmas season in Germany.

The tree lighting was preceded by a children's choir on stage in the town square.
A brass ensemble played from the roof top of the cathedral to serenade the Christmas throng
This All-Things-Meat kiosk was very artistic but otherwise very unChristmassy.
The area missionaries enjoyed a perfectly American Thanksgiving dinner in the cultural hall on Thursday.
Someone even smuggled pumpkin pie across the border!








Sign-up sheets for Elaine's 12 Days of Christmas service project.
Senior missionaries, ex-patriot employees and young missionaries.
Seems like our group changes every other week with all the  comings and goings.
We saved the least talent for last.  "If You Chance to Meet a Frown" sung with stockings over the head and with tugging on either top or bottom at the appropriate moment to produce the correct facial expression. Try it!
We came home from Thanksgiving dinner, got out the humble  Christmas box, turned on Christmas music and decorated our cozy Porthstrasse apartment. See amazing animation below.



















Sunday, November 24, 2013

LDStein?

  Last week was Elaine's highly acclaimed Primary program and the children sang their hearts out for her.  We are so impressed with how good these children are at being reverent and trying their best even after long hours at church.  The generations just keep getting better.  Elaine was pleased to be done with the program as she was starting to have nightmares about it - but all turned out well.

We received this beautiful Thanksgiving Turkey from the Wilson's in the mail this week and it was just in time for Primary Song time today.  The children got to write what they were thankful for on a feather and pick the song they wanted to sing. Thanks Wilsons for sharing what you are thankful for and for blessing us.  We are thankful for you!


Besides our day job, the most fun thing we got to do this week was have some wonderful people over to dinner today.  Sister Ezard on the left is a new senior missionary in the area presidency office.  She is German but speaks perfect English as she lived in England and worked for an American company for years.  A remarkable, faithful, talented Latter-day Saint, like all the senior missionaries here. In the middle are Pamela Lemon and her finance Mimo.  Pamela has been very sick and in the hospital for a couple of months.  We are celebrating her coming out party.  Mimo came to  Germany about 24 years ago from Morocco and is Muslim.  Elaine and I home teach Pamela and we were so glad they were able to come to dinner with us today.      

This week our Saturday outing was to a quaint little German village named  Idstein.  The name seemed a little odd because when written on the signs or as part of store names it looked (at least to me) like "LDStein".  And then what do you know, we found this Angel Moroni weather vane and knew this was fertile ground for sharing our message.
                                                                                                                                                                                         

My mind starting thinking, how could we recreate some of this fun building art work in Midway.  Maybe we could carve up some of the timber posts on the front covered walkway.  Wouldn't that be fun, but are we brave enough?








 The village tour brochure explains that the unique shape of this "crooked house" was caused by a"building deficiency".  And you thought they did it on purpose.  Funny though, it probably raised the tourist value of this street 10 fold.



We could tell the town took great pride in the city.  So old and so well maintained, with beautiful colors and decor.  Can you believe the flowers in the window boxes on November 23?


Well, isn't that a coincidence?  We seem to be wearing the very same clothes we have had on for the past 25 weekend outings in a row.




This is the Witch's Tower which the brochure says (and only says) has nothing to do with the infamous witch trials of the 1700s.  The tower was first built circa 1200.



We were totally taken back by the rich treasure of medieval art on the walls and ceiling of this cathedral which was nondescript white stucco on the outside.


 The end