Luncheon with the Finance Department

Once in a while the Finance department which is in Bad Homburg (about 20 minute drive from Frankfurt) has a department luncheon and they always make sure they invite me.  I work for Jeanclaude Von Tonder who is the head of the department.  I monitor and do the spread sheet for all the Priesthood travel throughout the Europe Area.  This picture is me sitting next to Julie and David Monson who have become my friends.  Julie and I can't stop talking....we have fun together. 

Even tho I work at the OGC offices in Frankfurt, I have to travel to Bad Homburg about once a month to give in my reports.  I usually try and bring them cookies - which they really love.  They are wonderful people and always make me feel so welcomed.  

 People are on holiday so only a small handful of us were at the luncheon.  On left - Jeanclaude from Africa, JJ-from Spain and Jeff Verness-from Germany who is actually a in medical school but working in the finance dept. part time while he attends the univsersity.

 From left, Eric - from France, Nico - from Italy (also our Bishop) and Sergio from Poland.

Family Home Evening - Windecken tour

The senior missionaries take turns preparing for our "Family Home Evening" which is just an excuse for us all to have an evening together doing some sort of activity and then having refreshments at the close.  It was our turn to decide what to do on our chosen date.  We asked a church employee Ralf Grunke who at one time was on the city council of Windecken, Nidderau to take us on a tour and give us the history of Windecken.  It was fascinating, he did such a good job and we all had a great time and dinner at a little restaurant at the close.

The picture below is Ralf giving us a little bit of the history of Windecken.  It is now a Protestant community.  The neighboring community is Catholic and to this day, they do not communicate with each other because of their differences in belief.  You would think that after WWII some of these hard feelings about religious freedom and differences of opinions would be buried but apparently they still exist.

 Listening intently as we stand on the bridge of a small river

 This picture below is the original Protestant church from the 13th century

 Just look at these beautiful half timbered homes, as we walked by we could see the slope of some of them that gave the appearance that they may be falling down but apparently they don't and the people that live in these are required to maintain the historic architecture of the buildings and it is extremely costly!  Also notice the cobblestone streets which are a pain to walk on!

 We stopped here because this was a main market in Windecken during the war.  Hitler came and took this store over, removing the owners and sending them to concentration camps.  Hitler used this building for offices during the war.

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This is the owner of the market - Salli Reichenberg, he made it to America while his wife died in Auschwitz along with one son and the other son died at Buchenwald concentration camp.  He did not "leave" his family, they were separated never to see each other again.

 These "stepping stones" are all over Frankfurt and all the "dorfs" - villages showing and honoring those that lost their homes, their lives in WWII because of Hitler's regime 

 This store on the left is the home of the famous Lindt family that originally lived in the city.  Their grandson left the city and moved to Switzerland where he discovered chocolate.  He was an apprentice for his grandparents at the candy shop where he was in charge for the evening to shut off the mixers of the chocolate at a certain time.  He forgot and the mixers ran all night, making a wonderfully smooth chocolate that became the famous Lindt chocolate which became one of the most famous chocolates in the world.  

 When homes became too small for the family, they removed the roof, added another floor and put the roof back on top - here is an example of that process.

 This is the old town hall that now serves as a library

 Another example of adding on to the "top" floor to make room for more children

 I took this picture to show the leaning of the homes, they appear to be leaning all different directions.

 On of my favorite pictures of our mission, this is just about all of the senior missionaries we work with.  Some work in the family history archives, some in legal offices, some in welfare and some in finance as I do.  It is a honor to work with such wonderful people. We have made absolutely many wonderful wonderful friends and fond memories!

 This is the present Jewish center that was burned down during WWII and after they burned it down, they went to the Jewish Rabi and handed him the bill!

                                                  

 This is the remainder of the wall that surrounded the city of Windecken.  Most cities had a wall around it during medieval times but this wall had a gate that divided the Jews from the rest of the town and they had a curfew where the gate was closed every evening to separate the Jews from the rest of the village.  

 The inner castle gate is the most prominent remaining part of the Windecken Castle.  The castle is now used as a place for the towns dementia/alzheimer patients, sort of like a nursing home but only during the daytime....they do not sleep over night.

 The tower of the castle which housed supposed "witches" who were tortured and some were burned at the stake.  This was before the "Salem" witch trials of Massachusetts .

 Dinner after the tour of Windecken, Monson's, Harrison's, Call's, Yost's, Carroll's and Goodall's.

 Thornock's and Witt's

 Bateson's, Fager's, Smith's, and the Grunke's

 Done's, Nelson's, Dewey's and Johnson's

 The Carroll's and Yost's

 It was a wonderful activity and everyone enjoyed it.  This picture below is of our chapel - I love all the flowers.....

 Tony going to exercise at Fitness First - a fitness club that he joined when we first got to Frankfurt.  He usually rides his bike, even in the snow and cold weather.

 Our neighbor took a picture of the front of our home since we've been gone to show me how much the plants have grown.  Kerianne is taking care of our yard and doing a great job keeping the weeds at bay.

 Paula Call who's husband works for the OGC, me, Pamela Done and Carol Nelson who are both the Doctor's wives.  Pamela Done and her husband Stephen leave to go home in just two months.  They will be missed.  I've enjoyed getting to know them.  

The work in the mission continues and we are extremely busy each day.  When ever we can, after work, we walk to Eis Christina's which is a Gelato shop about 2 miles from our apartment.  It's the best gelato around and a great walk thru Frankfurt.  It's one of our favorite things to do.  We continue with our greeting of new missionaries which seems like almost each week.  Someone is always heading home and new missionaries are arriving.  In the past few weeks, we've had the Orlowski's leave, the Rich's leave, the Thornock's arrived along with the Smith's.  We will soon have the Garrett's, the Bateson's and the Peery's leaving which means a group of new missionaries arriving.  We just got word that there is a request to fill our spot come this December.  We are down to 5 months 3 weeks left.  Where has the time gone?  We also heard from church headquarters in SLC that they are making our plane reservations for our return on December 18th.  It just seems unreal.  All the experiences we've had and are still having will leave a special spot in our hearts always. 

Prague - Czech Republic

We had planned a trip to the Czech Republic with friends the Lindsay's and the Yost's.  Lindsay's head up the Welfare dept. of the Europe area of the church and the Yost's are over all mission presidents in the Europe Area.  We love these friends and consider them such dear friends.

The Yost's were the mission Presidents in Prague 7 years ago so they knew the area well and were our tour guides.  Czech Republic is a landlocked country with Germany on the West, Austria on the South, Slovakia to the East, and Poland to the Northeast.  It is a welfare state with a European Social model.  Meaning, the government pays for healthcare and tuition free university educations.  It is one of the most "non-religious" countries in the world.  When the communist regime collapsed and market economy was introduced in 1993 Czechoslovakia was peacefully dissolved and the constituent states became the independent states of the Czech Republic and Slovakia.  The Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999 and the EU in 2004.  For 41 years Czechoslovakia was a communist state within the Eastern Bloc.

The architecture was just stunning in Prague.

This building on the right was a beautiful Jewish home that was taken from the family during the war and the family (to this day!) are still trying to reclaim it!

 This below is a picture from the internet.  We ate lunch right there at this cafe at the right under the awnings - this is the town square of old town.

 Elder Yost telling us a story at lunch

 St. Vitus Catholic Cathedral, just beautiful - Tony climbed the tower-spiral stairs all the way to the top.......dizzy!  The cathedral is a great example of Gothic Architecture and is the largest and most important church in the country.  It is owned by the Czech government and is part of the Prague Castle complex and houses tombs of many Bohemian Kings and Holy Roman Emperors.  Although most people in the Czech Republic are today Atheists, this was once a very prominent Catholic Country.

 Marching to the state building for the changing of the guards

 Look at this guy in the square!  So clever!  There are a lot of people doing all kinds of strange things to have people donate money for their living expenses - this is their job.  We have seen this type of thing all over Europe.  They usually set up to play instruments or dress oddly, or sing songs but this was the most imaginative we've seen.

 We parked in a parking lot that we did not know was private and had a "boot" put on the van.  It was a $4000 crowns penalty (about $200 dollars) but they lowered the charge to $50....this is Elder Yost and Elder Lindsay paying the charge (you are required to pay right then and there!)  They could have charged us any amount and we would have to pay them.  We were lucky.

Look at the trees and how beautiful it is!

 We had a wonderful lunch in a "mexican" restaurant!  Best meal I've had in Europe since I've been here!  It was wonderful!  Needless to say, I'm not a fan of European food!

Tony in the town of Karlstejn ..... language is really different! Pronounced Karlstein.  Beautiful little town with a beautiful castle but we did not go inside.  We had lunch and planned on leaving until we realized we had a "boot" on our car for not parking in a legal place......who knew!

 Susie Yost trying to get the peacock to raise it's beautiful feathers....

 Wonderful lunch with Marlene Lindsay and Susie Yost

 Lindsay's, and Yost's and myself in middle

 Lindsay's, Yosts, and Tony (notice how Tony and Fred are both on their toes!)

 The Subway system in all of Europe are just amazing

These statues are a Memorial to the Victims of Communism.  The depict the decline of man under communism.  This is the work of Czech sculptor Olbram Zoubek.  It shows the bronzed figures descending a flight of stairs.  The statues appear more decayed the further away they are from you - losing limbs and their bodies breaking open.  When you reach the top, all that is left is 1/2 of a foot.  Very moving.

 We were there for the changing of the guard.

These guys don't move an inch!

 Government Palace - changing of the guard.

 Tony and I always looking for a laugh

 Czech Money $1000 = $100

 Czech Republic is beautiful.....it was really chilly for June, sweater weather or light jacket

 We were stopped by these two young woman who recognized our missionary badges they were traveling thru Prague, they are decorators for the LDS Temples.  They are working on the Frankfurt Temple which is being renovated.  They choose all the furniture and lighting....what a cool job!  They ended up spending about 45 minutes with us.  One is from Washington DC and the other is from Idaho.

 We went down this little street called Golden Lane in Prague with really little homes that are now little shops.  This gives us an idea of how people lived during the medieval period.   These homes were built at the end of the 15th century.  The emperor Rudolf II wanted his marksmen to live close by so he let them build these small homes for them and their families.  They are made of stone, mud and wood.    After 1657 marksmen were not needed any longer and more people of other occupations came to live there.  One of the famous inhabitants of this street was a famous writer Kranz Kafka in house #22 or a prophetess Madame de Thebes, who was killed by the Gestapo in the war because she foretold the end of Nazism.

 A window in one of the little shops - and of course, everything is blue....which I love.

 A door to no where..............

 As we were walking we noticed a couple eating dinner on their (porch), roof.  It looks like it may be a restaurant but this was the only table.

 Just strolling....Marlene Lindsay and Susie Yost with Tony, Fred and Jim behind them

 The Charles Bridge is a historic bridge that crosses the Vltava river in Prague.  Its construction started in 1357 under the auspices of King Charles IV and finished in the beginning of the 15th century.

 Jim Lindsay has a wonderful hobby.....photography - and everywhere we go together you can find him taking all kinds of shots.  These two are two special friends we've been close to while we have been here in Frankfurt.

 The Yost's have quickly become dear friends.  They lived in Prague 7 years ago for three years as they watched over the young missionaries so far from home.  They were fantastic tour guides!

 I just loved this blue and yellow apartment building.....and Marlene Lindsay just happen to be walking by as I shot this photo.

 

 The square was very crowded

 We have gotten used to traveling everywhere by train.

 Each city we visit always has a horse and buggy ride