NEAT AND TIDY

 This week, Sisters Craven and Brande pretty much turned the Public Affairs storage space in the basement into a work of art.  The shelves and file cabinets are completely alphabetized with all the old stuff tossed out and everything spic span and tidy. She has also gone completely through all the file cabinets in our office, throwing old stuff out, relabeling files and folders and making everything logical and orderly.  Tis a site to behold. I will take pictures.  They are planning an open house this week for the other members of our staff.  For my week, I did more Slovak Community Oral History indexing and have been reading President Hinckley’s book, Stand for Something.  The book has inspired me to be more diligent in honesty, civility, charity and forgiveness.  We stayed home yesterday (Saturday) as it was snowing and blowing, though we did trudge through the blizzard with our bags  to go grocery shopping.  The afternoon found me reading “The Deerslayer” by James Fenimore Cooper to Elaine, while she mended my pants.  Last night we helped with games at a stake YSA Valentines party (cute German kids!).  Not sure what we will find to do in the office this next week, but the weather appears headed for improvement which should be a great lift to our spirits.

Monster pretzels at the market

The old and the new in Frankfurt

When I get home I want to make a nifty tight German wood pile

Which village person is not like the others?

HAPPY VALENTINES!

Another week passes in Frankfurt.  There were a few days last week when Martin was pretty sure time had stopped, but low and behold it is Sunday again. Thank you daughters and grandchildren for the wonderful Valentines surprise.  Your heart attack made us cry and then when we went looking for you, it was clear you had gotten away and gone home again. The highlight of the week was Elaine as our gospel doctrine teacher today. She taught us an inspired lesson on the Holy Ghost.  We filed our tax return this weekend and will put the expected refund on our list of Tender Mercies - we must be desperate!

Hearts with hands, from the Wilson boys!

A dozen red roses from my sweetheart!

No, we really weren't in Rome this week.  However we saw an exhibit of architectural models made of cork - very realistic.

The Johannisburg Palace in Ashaffenburg - still in our winter uniforms, rain, rain and more rain!

Martin gets a kick out of the strange German signage.

IT'S FEBRUARY

View of the Neckar River from above the Heidelberg fortress.

With the Coppins, our counterparts in Solihull, England, on the road to Heidelberg fortress

On the old city wall in Rothenburg with our new intern from BYU, Taylor Street

Elder Pat and Sister Ann Coppin were here from the England Public Affairs Office this week to be trained in their public affairs duties.  They have been in England since late last year but this is the first they could come for training.  Our supervisor allowed them a “cultural day” at the end of the week so we took them to see Heidelberg and Rothenburg on Friday.  It was cold and snowy, but they enjoyed it and gave us a chance to practice getting around for when our children come for visits.  We had them to dinner today with the Brandes, along with our new BYU intern, Taylor Street and a recent young convert Alejandra Diaz.  Still cold here but the sun has shone pretty steadily the last 2 days and we have enjoyed that greatly.

The three Church employees for whom we work are all in Salt Lake this week at their annual training.  Gabi will present a workshop tomorrow to all the Area Directors of Public Affairs from around the world.  She will also present our 2012 Media Book to the Church's Public Affairs team in Salt Lake.  We're quite sure a copy will end up on the desk of President Monson.

TO SHOUT WITH THE TRUMP OF GOD

Hey just think next month is spring!  This week Martin spent time listening to recordings of members in Sheffield England who came from Slovakia and are joining the Church there in large numbers.  These recordings are part of the Family History’s Oral History project to capture voice records of members of the Church.  Before they are submitted, the recordings need to be indexed so researchers of the future will know what is on the recording and where on the recording key topics were shared.  Fun to hear the conversion stories as they are translated from Slovak to English by a young Czech missionary serving in England. Elaine distributed her first Europe Area Public Affairs Newsletter last week.  It was a work of art.  Let us know and we’ll send you a copy.  Yesterday we attended the baptism of Huifeng Li in the morning and in the afternoon went to Mainz to the Gutenberg printing museum. We learned all about the history of the famous bible and got to see one of the 42 remaining in existence.  There were 180 2-volume sets printed in the day circa 1450-ish.  

Startled tourists at Cathedral in Mainz

Huifeng Li, studying business in Frankfurt, finds the  Church  from  a street contact

City skyline from our balcony

Taunus "mountains" from our balcony in the 10 minutes of sunshine we've had in a month.

Jewish cemetery - also from our balcony