Frankfurt Temple and Old n New Friends

Dear families and friends,

 

Hello from the tropics where it is so warm that we can't feel excitement about the coming of Christmas yet!  Our computer weather report shows very cold weather in the Utah area. 

 

We have had two big happenings:  Germany for a week, and a tour group yesterday.

 

Germany was wonderful, and all of our flights were on time (unheard of!, but prayers are answered!)  It was COOL so we borrowed winter coats and scarves from the directors of the conference.  All the other countries represented were in their winter season already:  Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Albania, Moldova, and Slovakia.  There were colored leaves on the ground!  We miss autumn.  

Our lodgings were right on the temple grounds:  the church, the temple, distribution center, and a large building made up of bedrooms/bathrooms like in a hotel, with a tunnel entry from our housing to the temple.  We also spent a day in the city of Frankfurt, touring beautiful cathedrals and city buildings, shopping in big stores that have everything (we found some cranberries for our Thanksgiving dinner).  We ate in very tasty restaurants every night in the little town of Friedrichsdorf, the town where the temple is located, like a suburb of Frankfurt.  For church we went to the International ward which has an English session, and we met an elder who is a good friend of one of the sister missionaries here in CV, so he sent a letter to her with us.  It was so refreshing to sing English hymns and understand all of the speakers and lessons. 

 

One night at dinner someone at our table mentioned gardening, and we said that CV does not have good soil.  The elder and his wife sitting across from us said that where they came from in MINNESOTA, the dirt was very rich.  I asked them where they were from, and it was ANOKA.  My hometown.  They had been there for 20 years, so they knew all the people that I remember.  How fun!!

 

Our return flights were pretty much on time, except for the Lisbon airport where we got lost and it was very huge.  We also only had a short time between flights.  We walked as fast as possible down innumerable aisles to get where we thought we should be, but ended up in a long line at Passport Control.  I couldn't stand it, was almost frantic with worry about missing the flight, so Larry talked to a worker who helped us go right to the head passport man and get us through with no lines.  We just barely made the flight, but we did make it.  It was like one of those dreams where you are moving fast but not getting anywhere you want to be and time is running out.  We got to one of the islands here at 2 a.m. and went to a hotel until 6:30 a.m.. then flew home to here, and spent most of that Monday sleeping!

 

Yesterday we hosted a tour group of Larry's former Brazilian missionaries who were on a cruise ship from Rome to Brazil, with a stopover of 6 hours in Mindelo.  So we set up buses and tour guides, and even attended a beautiful baptism of a young man from our Outreach group.  We went to the beach, and some went shopping, and at the close of the tour, we took them back to the ship (there were 60 in the group) and got to see how big it was.  It would dwarf the Titanic.  Space for 4000 passengers and at least 10 layers of upper decks.  We had 1/2 hour till they would sail, so we hurried to our house and went up on the roof and watched it go.  A beautiful and inspiring sight.

 

This coming weekend we are travelling to one of the southern islands called Fogo, meaning "fire", since it is a volcano (it actually had a eruption in the mid 1990s--no disasters.)   We are going to train a new missionary couple from Chile in the work of Outreach, and also will get to tour the island.  Then we will fly to Praia on the main island for a day and get to tour the wilderness areas and the mountains.  So we are keeping busy.

 

Better close for this letter now.  We love each one of you so much and pray for you all every day.

 

Love always, Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, Elder and Sister

 

More pictures of the Frankfurt Temple below...

Thanksgiving and Tender Mercies

Dear families and friends,

 

Almost Thanksgiving?  Yes, and we will be hosting a traditional dinner for 16 plus missionaries us on that day.  They help with the food.  It is so nice to have them here; it keeps us and them from getting too lonely on this family holiday.  Here is a turkey photo for you--these wild turkeys crossed the mountain road where we were traveling in Santo Antao last month.  "It is good luck if a turkey crosses your path; it is even better luck if his tail feathers are spread."

We will be leaving for Germany on Tuesday evening, arriving on Wednesday at noon, stopping in Lisbon for a couple of hours.  We have waited many months for this special trip and now it is here--the time has gone so fast!  We won't be taking our computer and won't have much free time to use someone else's there, so we won't be able to respond to any emails right away.

 

What are your plans for Thanksgiving?  Matt, please let us know where you will be for that day.  Hopefully, Sherrie can get my medicine to you and the instructions for sending it (which I will tell her). 

 

Today we had a tender mercy.  We were given some like-new white shirts and ties by one of the couple missionaries who visited here from Germany.  We wanted to share them with the branches here to give to new members.  So today we went to sacrament meeting at the other chapel across town and took the 5 shirts and ties to give to the branch president there.  He told us that just that morning, four investigators who are going to be baptized next Saturday were asking if there was any way they could each get a shirt and tie so they can help with the sacrament.  (They are marvelous young men, roommates at the local university, and all 4 of them received the missionary lessons and were converted!).  The president said that "our timing" in bringing the shirts and ties today was just right.

 

We also were able to help three sets of elders.  One set had an extra bed frame in their house and an extra refrigerator, things they did not want to keep, since they would be moving out of their apartment soon.  So we volunteered to find a pickup truck and driver to move those items for them--another set of elders needed a frig since theirs was not keeping things cold, so we gave them the newer, better frig.  And the next set of elders did not have a bed frame for one of their mattresses, the elder had been sleeping on the mattress on the floor (against mission rules because of many insects, some of them BIG.)  So they got the bed frame, and everyone is supplied now!

 

All of the missionaries in the mission are rejoicing for the mission nurse who went home in August.  She will be getting married on Nov. 20 in the Twin Falls, Idaho temple.  She is a widow, and her fiancee is a widower (a fine Church member and leader in the Church).  Since her late husband was not a Church member, she had never been sealed to anyone, or her children either, and now those blessings will come to her.  She was my special good friend here, and the missionaries all loved her too.  She and he had known each other for many years.

 

We just do whatever needs to be done, and whatever we can think of to help the people and the missionaries here.  All is well, our daily activities continue to be much the same, and we are happy and fulfilled.

 

We are watching emails closely for news of Grandma Sanchez.  Thank you to all of you for your prayers for her.

 

Love always,

 

Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, Elder and Sister