Catching Up

Hi everybody! It's been awhile since we added to our blog. It hasn't been because of a lack of activity. In fact it's now a little intimidating (Ok a lot intimidating) to review all that's happened and try to catch up! Through the week we are still very busy working with the wonderful missionaries and Mission Presidents in the Europe Area. We receive blessings daily in this effort--both through frequent inspiration regarding how to help them, and by catching a little of their spirit and enthusiasm. On the weekends we continue to take a much needed break and visit some of the great places within striking distance of Frankfurt. You will see more of some of these places in the pictures that follow.

Also since our last posting, Mel took a surprise, quick trip back home to accompany a young missionary who was too ill to travel home on her own. Then in addition to all going on here, our family grew as we all welcomed Liam on March 3. Liam is Gena and Mike's first. Mom, baby and even Dad are doing fine. Our welcome had to be by Skype, phone, and email, but that helped us feel a part of things and our thoughts and prayers were and are definitely with the now expanded Lineweaver family.

On about one hour notice and without luggage - Melody had to rush to the Frankfurt airport to catch a plane to Bucharest, Romania to accompany the missionary mentioned above. Due to security problems several passengers missed the plane, including one Sister Taylor. During the 7 hour wait at the Frankfurt airport, Melody makes a new friend (no real surprise in that). This is Timo, who was also traveling to Romania.
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Arriving about 1 am ...Mel stayed overnight at the home of Mission Pres. and Sister Lundberg. Didn't really have time to see the sights this time...but will try to return to at least see the castle of Count Dracula!

Melody and traveling companion, Sora (Sister)Gibson loaded up for travel back to Frankfurt.

Mel in Paris! Not really... just passing through the Charles de Gaul airport on the way to US.

Neil Peterson surprises Mel with repairing the jeep (with only a few hours notice that she's coming to town). The heater working made a whirlwind trip much more comfortable - THANKS Neil & Sarah.

Eight wonderful women meet for dinner - an effort to keep Mel awake on her night of arrival!THANK YOU for being my friends.

The absolute highlight of the trip back to Utah was a meeting with niece, Sherry Henderson Fertig! We had lost contact for many years and Mel had searched for her and her brothers! It was a real tender mercy that this connection was made for the first time just a few weeks before Mel's surprise trip. So reconnecting, sharing genealogy and love was a real blessing. Looking forward to more of the same when we return in summer 2011!

Back in Frankfurt...the weather continued to be ...well, "winter". We can see one of the young Elders clearing the walkway between our offices and our church building. Gotta take care or all these Senior missionaries could slip and break something:)

These are the women of the Silipu family. They are from Peru. Mel and her friend Suzanne Dye have been helping Stacy, age 16, with her English. Mom, Clena and Auntie Illiana have now come to church with Stacy.

On the weekends that the weather is challenging we try to do something right in Frankfurt. This represents our trip to the Senckenberg Natural History Museum. It was a bit like the movie "Night at the Museum"

Once the weather improved we ventured to Rothenburg (pronounced Rottenberg).

Rothenburg is a magical medieval city. It has all the charm of a fairy tale.

We arrived in Rothenburg during the weekend of the International Wanderreunda (people who trek with walking sticks, etc.) There were people from as far as Australia and Asia.

While we were looking for a place to eat we happened upon the dining hall for the Wanderreunda. As you can see...A treking Grandma is swiggin back her beer and a Grandpa trekker watches the lively music (love the hat).

The city is actually called Rothenburg ob der Tauber (over the Tauber River).

It had great views from any vantage point.

One of the significant features is that this very old city still has it's original wall surrounding most of the city. If you go at night (summer) there is a night watchman tour. We were traveling with the Whiddens and all of us were excited to walk the wall and see the views from there.

A broader view of the city wall that we traveled. Lots of slots in the wall for the knights to defend the city by shooting arrows, etc. from the wall.

The architecture was so very visually satisfying! Look at all those pointy roofs on the half timber houses! Cathedral in the distance. So much to see here.

No this is not a recreated place like Disneyland...it's a real city where people still live. Grandma is wishing all little girls could come here...surely there is a princess in here somewhere!

The city is full of Knights and their memorabilia.

First on Gary's list was a visit to the Kriminalmuseum. (Medieval torture stuff!) Mel thought the best part was the weird window on the building.

As a former police officer it's only fitting that Gary try out the stocks.

There were many "masks of shame". If you acted like a pig you got a Pig head mask. This is the mask for a gossip...who sees all, hears all and then tells all. .

We plan to visit Rothenburg again in the warmer weather. It was a favorite place so far.

On another wintry weekend we stayed fairly close to home and went to Schwetzingen for the Ostererea show. (Fancy Easter Eggs) It was held in the summer residence (rustic palace, hunting lodge) of the Prince Elector. It wasn't all that rustic!

This is just one corner of their "back yard". It started snowing really hard so we plan to visit the gardens again in warmer weather.

AND we did see many lovely eggs. Not the most exciting weekend for our menfolk.

Here are our men gathered in a tight circle discussing the fine art of painted eggs! We did get a good meal near the schloss (castle).

Another WOW of a city was Trier! It was known anciently as the "2nd Rome". Today it is called "Germany's oldest city". (Pre roman/celtic) Most ruins are from Roman times. This is the city's main gate - Porta Nigra (referring to it's black stone)

Porta Nigra is really cool inside. Part of it was once turned into a chapel. But Napoleon restored that part back to it's original Roman glory.

There was so much to see. There are several Roman baths in town. Imperial and Barbara. They are some of the largest found in the Roman empire.

There was also a wonderful but more modern cathedral (only a few hundred years old)

Sometimes you just gotta stop and notice the details! Pretty much all the door handles in the Dom were of this hand. Didn't hear the significance but loved the details.

Well, that's a partial catch up, but no more time for now. We'll try to add more over the next few days before we get even further behind. We love you all!!

Weeks 5 thru 8

Welcome to weeks five through eight of our adventure in Germany. Above is our Bishop in the Frankfurt Hochst Ward. It really is a small world after all... it turns out that our Bishop Jorge Klebingat, a native German, was a good friend of our daughter Heidi's while at Ricks College in Idaho. He is head of European Church Distribution here in Frankfurt. He speaks excellent English and Russian, along with his native German.

Above are Melody's international shoppping buddies: (Left to Right) 80 year old East German, Elfie Herrman, Dutch born Canadian, Arendje Whidden and Finnish born Raija Maddock. We each must bring our own shopping bags since grocery stores typically do not provide them. You also are required to make a deposit to get a shopping cart.

Whenever one or more of the missionaries completes their assignment and goes home there is a party. (Gary is chatting with the McNamaras with the Madsens in the background.) Food is always good and Sister Gutherie writes personalized songs that detail the experiences of the person leaving. It will be fun to hear what details will be in our "farewell song" (although we aren't thinking too much about that yet).

This is a familiar site...Gary on the phone. We could have done a whole blog with photos of Gary here, there and everywhere - with the phone. He's talking to missionaries or their mission presidents in 16 different countries. This is the site most often seen by Mel who sits directly across the desk from Gary. We did hear the other day, however, that the Area Presidency is going to encourage more travel by the medical department out to missions. We may get to meet some of the people we talk to on the phone all the time.

Think of that Sesame Street Song: "Who are the people in your neighborhood..." Well, here is Roland who is known for his somewhat grumpy demeanor and failure to smile. We've actually gotten him to say, "Hello", use our names and smile!

Fortunately, Gabi works noon to closing and has a ready smile for all. She's shown a lot of interest in the dozen or so missionary couples who live in the building above the store. She has looked up things on the Internet about the church and asked for something to read about the church. She is very sweet and Melody is forging a genuine friendship with her.

Stacy Silipu was born in Peru but when her father died they were disinherited and moved to Germany where they had family. Stacy is a bright girl of 16 who wants to improve her English. Melody and Suzanne Dye meet with Stacy weekly to help.

This is amazing to us...dogs seem to be welcome in restaurants, shopping malls and above in the Jewish Museum.

Melody is attempting to read the Hebrew publication. We visited two Jewish museums. One focused on their survival of the holocaust the other on their culture over the ages. We learned that the European Jews were persecuted and required to wear a "mark" on their clothing as early as the 1300's. Bans were lifted and reinstated over many centuries.

In Cologne, Germany we visited the Roman/German museum. Many amazing Roman artifacts have been excavated within Germany. Cologne was at the far Northern extreme of the Roman empire in its glory days.

This is the most fantastic Gothic cathedral! This photo shows about half of it. We chose this photo because we could NOT find a place far enough back where you could fit the whole building into the frame. Nor could we see the top of the tallest spire! It was up into the clouds! The interior featured an unusual amount of stained glass. Our friends, The Whiddens, said that it was more impressive than Notre Dame which they saw in December. The construction of this cathedral spanned over 600 years.

Near the cathedral we visited the Nazi Gestapo headquarters (now called El De). We like this old photo of the young Nazi soldiers in front of the Cologne Cathedral (The same one in the earlier picture). It really brought history alive for us. We visited the actual Gestapo headquarters where they had kept things pretty much as they had been. There was a lot of writing on the walls of the cells that told the horrific story of those interrogated there.

The main reason a cathedral was built in Cologne was to house the relics of the Magi. It is believed that the bones (relics) of the wise men who visited Christ are held in this chest. Our guide informed us that modern scientific studies prove the relics to be from the correct time period, but whether these are the actual bones is still debated. Over the centuries many have made pilgrimages to Cologne to worship because of these relics. There was an early (pre-1200 AD) church on the site, but eventually, a better building befitting the special relics needed to be built. And it is grand!

Couldn't resist capturing Gary at the Roman/German museum wandering among artifacts doing an emergency counseling session. There is time to relax and recuperate on weekends, but the job involves being on call 24/7 and there are usually weekend and evening calls.

Mel is thinking about the name of this street: Willy Brandt. She thinks this is the German doctor who discovered a blood condition (slow clotting factor). She and a few of the kids have this factor. If you are interested, Google "pictures of Frankfurt". The down town, which we are in the middle of in this shot, is very impressive. Notice the weather. Got to go when we have the chance.

Where ever we go across the whole wide world...Gary can find a McDonalds! But it is sometimes necessary to pay extra for ketchup and the small size drinks provided are not refillable.

Until next time. Our love to all.

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.