This week we are sponsoring a fabulous contest!! Correctly guess the meaning of the sign shown above and we will prominently display your name on our website along with the all the myriads of incorrect guesses. No fair cheating by googling "goofy German traffic signs".
If the sign above just seems too baffling, you are invited to enter a guess in the consolation prize contest:
We bid farewell to our friends, the Bradleys, Monday night as
they had us to dinner one last time before heading back to Holladay. They have been a wonderful example of
missionaries who have created their own mission and done much good. One of their stories will appear in the
Ensign sometime in the future and involves the conversion of a woman here in
Germany due to a Book of Mormon containing Jack Ashton’s testimony. Lonnie introduced us at dinner to another
cute family they have been fellowshipping which she has turned over to us.
Starting next term Elaine will be taking over for Lonnie Bradley
teaching English in a neighborhood elementary school one afternoon a week. One of the mom’s will assist and it is her
family we will continue to fellowship.
We’ve been told that the Church is good at inviting others
into our circle. We invite to Church,
to Ward parties, to hear the missionaries.
But we fall short when it comes to joining others’ circles in the
community. So Elaine is excited our boss is
allowing her to spend one afternoon a week out in a community circle.
Friday was official “clean out the office” day for the entire
Europe Area Office. The employees on all
four floors came in dress down clothing and started making room for the new
year by dumping old files and shredding old documents. In the Public Affairs Office we pulled out
about five years of old Christmas cards ( hundreds of leftover cards) and
offered them to missionaries, employees, bishops and other departments. Only a few made it to the dumpster. We also shared cases of old Tab Choir
Christmas CDs after convincing our boss that Angela Landsbury wasn’t doing any
good sitting in the basement. The kids
in the ward and the missionaries passed out about 75 CDs as they caroled
downtown for their mutual activity.
The highlight of the week was…drum roll….Elaine gave away her
first Book of Mormon! Friday afternoon
we drove to Nürnberg where Reinhold and Connie Fetzer live. Nürnberg hosts the largest Christmas market
in Germany. Booths, carnival rides, food
vendors and musicians filled the streets and town square. In this mob of people we met Reinhold and Connie
and it was hugs all around as we felt an instant bond. We visited over hot chocolate, arranging to
meet the next morning for breakfast in their home. After breakfast we talked genealogy and gave them a copy of the Book of Mormon along with some Tabernacle Choir CDs
(they had never heard of the choir), a calendar of Utah and some Fetzer shirts
and ball caps. They are a darling couple
who speak very good English, are interested in genealogy and are very
friendly. This relationship will continue
as they have invited us back to Rothenburg where his parents live on their farm
and we have invited them to learn to water ski in Utah.
Saturday afternoon we visited a museum at Hitler’s old rally
grounds that told the story of the rise of the Nazi Party to power and ended with the Nurnberg
trials in 1945. Hitler had a big following in Nurnberg early in his rise. We learned he seized power by violently
crushing any opposition or opposing political party and the people were glad to
let him do it as he was bringing respectability, self esteem and pride back to
the German people after their embarrassing and crushing defeat in WW1. He tricked them until they had given up all
their freedoms or ability to oppose. Good history lesson for those that just studied accounting in college.
