Weeks 3 & 4 Germany

Welcome to weeks 3 & 4 in our lives here in Frankfurt...Melody has been busy "nesting" and making our home more attractive. A little bit of color, rearranging and some shelving make our once impossible little kitchen quite workable. (Gary will expect better meals now!)

Gary leaves for work (all the way across the parking lot!) at or before 7 am while it is still fairly dark. The missionaries he works with are up early. You can see from the number of lights already on that Gary's not the only one "up at at it"!

Last Saturday, the Whiddens called as we were tying on our scarves for a trek downtown. So, instead we headed for the quaint university town of Marburg.

Throughout Europe there are still plenty of specialty stores. The bakery, the shoemaker and the all important "brush store". Some of the little brushes had smiley faces on them.

Here we are are on a typical street in Marburg. We love the narrow pedestrian-only streets.



Our friends, the Whiddons are just ahead of us on this downhill slippery walkway.

The following week we head off for a Senior Missionary outing to the Deutches Ledermuseum (The Leather Museum) in Offenback. It turned out to be more than shoes and purses.

We pose in front of a fiersome dragon made of leather.

Native American art in Germany? Go figure! Gary acting as docent and

explaining to Brother Fankhauser the meaning of life.

We continue to try to meet new people who might be interested in learning about the church. This guy was a bit stiff necked and hard headed.

It was interesting to learn that the gold leafing was affixed to books and

other leather objects with egg white.

Here we learn the origin of the unicorn. It was a Norseman who found a long (very long) tooth from an ancient large fish. When he returned the story mutated until, as the legend goes, it had been found on a mystical animal.

The designer, Louis Vitton, got his start in creating a great travel trunk.

He soon created many other leather pieces.

Melody is intent on getting the right view of these leather crests.

We end our 4th week with a trek into downtown Frankfurt. Melody has been dying

to get a photo of this great ancient tower justaposed with the modern skyskrapers.

We usually don't have the camera or it's dark out.

Till next time...

Weeks 1 and 2

Our view...

Two weeks out and we are feeling more adjusted to our new home and assignment. We've discovered that it doesn't snow that much in Frankfurt, but obviously from the picture, you can see that it does happen. This shot is looking out our apartment window at the Europe Area Headquarters, where we and a number of other employees and missionaries have offices. You can also see the back of one of the chapels in Frankfurt with two folks heading in for Church just to the left of the office building. (We don't have a very big trek to church no matter the weather conditions.) Two wards meet in this building with ours being one of them. Church is from 2 to 5. Small parking lot so no overlap is possible. Gary didn't pass out last Sunday! No more problems of any kind. Had to be just a fluke from the high blood pressure medicine.

This picture was taken 9:30 pm New Year's Eve. We did have a little work to do New Year's Eve. Melody is actually working, not a staged shot, but Waldo is missing. Gary actually doesn't spend a whole lot of time at the desk. He has a headset and tends to walk around when talking to missionaries.

New Year's Eve wasn't all work. We were invited to watch fireworks from another missionary's apartment. This couple (Whiddens) are from Canada and serve as the other Mental Health Advisors. They have a seventh floor apartment facing downtown. Perfect view of fireworks. The spread shown is proof that we won't starve in Germany.

Great picture huh? This was a futile attempt to capture the amazing fireworks which were of a kind and intensity totally new to us. Apparently, it's a German thing. All over Germany they go all out with private fireworks. Not the public ones we are used to, but thousands of individual displays all around from every nook and cranny. These weren't sparklers or the fireworks we get in Utah, but full out rockets shooting off everywhere. Noise, smoke and color. Quite spectacular, and also quite impossible to describe. Guess you will just have to come over and see for yourself next New Year.

This is one of our investigators. We met her at the z00 last Saturday. It doesn't seem to bother her that we don't speak German. Actually, Melody does have a person from the grocery store close to us who could be coming to Church with us one day. Virtually all of our time is spent working with missionaries, but that hasn't kept Melody (Gary is a little more shy) to reach out to people and make friends of as many locals as possible.

This was also taken on our day at the zoo. If we look cold, we were. A little below freezing. Typical for this time of year, but it won't last. We have promises from everyone that Germany and the surrounding areas are absolutely beautiful in the Spring, Summer and Fall. Note the hat on Elder Taylor. Again, it's a German thing. (Melody really likes hats:)

So how do we spend our time? Gary is basically full time talking to missionaries and Mission Presidents all day and sometimes into the evening. He was worried that this would get boring and stressful, but so far, it is very fulfilling. It's obvious that the Lord's missionaries are very special to Him. Great blessings come to them and to those who work with them. Melody makes appointments, does medication checks with missionaries, and handles a lot of the necessary paperwork. There is a little time left over for her to shop & make our apartment cute, and spend time with other missionaries and locals. Weekends are ours to use as we see fit and it should be possible to take extended weekends every once in awhile. It seems like the missionaries who have been here a while have all seen a great deal of Germany on their weekends. We have a cell phone for the emergencies and plan to venture further once the weather improves.