All throughout our mission we have had to say good-bye to so many wonderful friends but we know we will see them again. The Lear's have been good friends and we look forward to visiting them in Park City and their 2nd home in New Port Beach California. They left a few months ago and we have missed them. We look forward to being together on the "other side of the pond" soon after the holidays. This was our last zone conference when they were asked to say a few words about their mission before they head home. They were in charge of organizing and capturing the histories of people in the Europe Area who are members of the church. They interviewed, recorded and captured pictures of these people and their stories of their conversions and lives while living in the Europe Area. It was a fascinating mission and they have so many wonderful stories of survival and inspirational lives. The collected and documented documents and stories of people who lived thru WWII in communist East Germany/Poland and other countries and how they lived their religion and attended church meetings while being ruled under communist laws. I love listening to their stories as they traveled all over the European area interviewing a collecting stories.
Sister Skoubye and Sister Harrison (who has since gone home) entertained us with a beautiful Violin piece during our Zone Conference. Sister Lindsay is at the piano.
We have been so fortunate to have General Authorities here that meet with us frequently and speak at our meetings. This is Elder De Fao who spoke to us at our Zone Conference.
Setting up for our Zone Conference luncheon. This is Sister Call and Sister Witt. Sister Call has taken over my responsibilities with the Finance Dept. and Sister Witt works in the Church Archives where we get all the information for Ancestry.com and Family Search.
Dear Friends, Gary Johnson and the Thornocks.
There is always that "all hands on deck" feeling when missionaries are around. We were setting up for the Zone Conference luncheon.
Sister's Harrison and van Hoff. Sister van Hoff is our zone leader. Campbell Harrison is from Denver and Diane van Hoff is from South Carolina.
Sweet Sister Marlene Lindsay always has a smile on her face. She was in charge of decorating for the luncheon.
Just love these ladies and dear friends. What a privilege it has been to serve with them. Julia Skoubye and Kay Johnson
Sister's Yost, Swingholm and Smith and of course Elder Goodall
Our last zone picture. Oh how we love all these wonderful people who have given up their lives, families and grandchildren plus the comforts of home ..... to be here and serve for 18-23 months!
Time for a little Football! BYU was playing so a few of us got together to watch the game at the Johnson's apartment. The Meirs and the Munz's who all serve in the Frankfurt Mission and not the Area Mission. Love these people, although we don't have a lot of time to see them.
Our kitchen at Porthstrasse 11
Elder De Fao speaking with Tony in our office.....Visa Matters
We decided we really needed to go to the WWII Bastogne Belgium 101st Airborne Museum. When we got there, we quickly realized that Bastogne is not an ordinary town. The United State Army Brigadier general, McAuliffe commanded the 101st Airborne division at Bastogne during WWII. His statue/bust is at the intersection of the more familiarly French, Rue de Neufchateau and Rue desEcoles. (I failed to take a picture of it!) Right in the middle of the square is an M4A3 Sherman tank from 72 years earlier.
Cute Kay Johnson.....waiting as we bought tickets to the Museum
Everywhere we went there were things - statues and odd stuff made out of tanks, guns and metal from the war.
The Americans have left their mark above Bastogne in the form of the American Liberators Memorial. We visited the Museum just behind this memorial. The museum tells the entire history of the Second World War from the Eastern Front to the Pacific. The second half of the entire museum is dedicated to the siege and Battle of the Bulge. We listened to the tour which was from four different perspectives. From an American "airborner", a German Lieutenant, who has fought previously on the Eastern front, a woman from the local resistance movement and a young boy from a nearby village who seeks refuge in Bastogne. It was very clever to hear these different perspectives as we walked thru looking at photos and relics from the war with headsets on listening to the four view points. The primary objective was to show us the reality of history and human suffering.
This picture below is the memorial. And, of course I had to take a picture of Texas and Utah right next to each other.......
After the
museum we had lunch at this restaurant on the corner. Kay and Gary loved the oysters in their shells - I even ate one (didn't like it) We have enjoyed our travels with our fellow senior missionaries and will miss out weekend outings with them!
Below, breakfast at the hotel with the Johnson's
This is a sweet family from our Ward that invited us over for dinner. Gille Francois and his wife and their lovely four children. Loresa is from Russia and speaks English, Russian, and German and Gilles is from France and speaks French, German,,English and Greek. All the kids (except the baby) speak three languages. They speak French to their father, Russian to their mother, English to each other and it is just amazing to listen to them. Their English is perfect. Most of the children here in Germany speak "at least" two languages.
Saying good bye for the evening and a huge thank you. As we left the three boys shook our hands. Such well behaved children. Truly impressive.
One of our favorite things to do here in Frankfurt during the Spring and Summer is to visit Eis Christina's. It's a little more than a mile one way, which we always walked to.....and especially when they had Schoconuggat on the menu (our favorite). They close for the winter and this was the last day so we went down and told them all goodbye as we will not being seeing them in the Spring. Tony knew them all by name!
Although we have been to Rothenburg "5" times we decided to take some of the couples who have not been there to see one of the nicest medieval towns in Germany and one not to be missed. The city has a walkable city wall that is fun to walk around and see the city from a different viewpoint.
This picture is me and Sister Fager who's husband is an attorney and also works in the OGC with Tony. They are delightful people who we have grown to love.
All twelve of us arrived and after parking we headed into the city behind the wall at the back of this picture.
From 1274 to 1803 Rothenburg was a imperial city. After the siege of 1631 during the Thirty Years War, the city lost much importance. Rothenburg was a major tourist destination before the Second World War. After destruction in WWII most buildings were rebuilt true to the original.
Town square with the Call's, Dr. Koegler and Tony
Sister Koegler and Sister Fager in the town square
Johnson's and Koeglers infront of one of the MANY harming shops in Rothenburg
Walker's, Goodall's and Call's
The wall around the city. Shortly before the end of WWII, on March 31, 1945 about 45% of Rothenburg was damaged or destroyed by the attack of the US Air Force's Bombardment Group. The bombardment was an oil storage which could not be attacked because of "nebulization", so that Rothenburg-although without military significance - was attacked as a replacement target. The American pilots said they had no idea which city of culture they were bombing. After the war, the Americans participated with donations to the reconstruction, as the donor panels on the battlement still prove. Along the wall - you can see where people donated a stone with the family's name on it to help re-build the city.
The Johnson's
The Call's
Who put me in charge of this group anyway!
Sister's Fager, Johnson, Goodall, Walker, Call and Koegler
Our time is about at an end and we will be happy to reunite with our family and grandchildren but we will miss this and look so fondly back at all of our memories!
Our group
Walking along the wall that surrounds the city
When ever a missionary couple leaves the mission for home, we have a wonderful luncheon for them just before our Book of Mormon class on Wednesday's.
This luncheon was for Campbell and John Harrison who leave for Denver Colorado. They will be missed. They were in charge of area records preservation. They preserved and sent to SLC 85,000,000 records......a lot of work they accomplished!
Below is a sweet picture of Sister Skoubye, Johnson and Thornock (photo bombing done by Sister Copeland).....I took their picture because it appeared as tho' they had all planned on wearing the same color this day!
The food is pot luck and we always end up with great food choices
Sister Dewey and Sister Lindsay - dear friends
Mental Health Missionaries - The Deweys (left) and the Swingholm's
John and Campbell Harrison who will be leaving us (on the left)
Oh how we love our Aussie friends - the Carroll's from Australia
The Harrison's receiving their memory book that we all wrote in
Tony is the leader of our discussion
This is a picture from our living room one morning....it's fall
One of the things we have enjoyed while we've been here is our stoles in the cemetery
Our walk thru the cemetery with the Lindsays and Jensens
Tony and Steve Maines (Director of Temporal Affairs) for the church have become great friends.
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