Good-bye Sister Keyser and Thanksgiving

Sister Keyser has been the mental health advisor for the Frankfurt Mission.  She is a wonderful lady loved by everyone and will be missed by us all.  We had a luncheon with all the sister Missionaries and the wives of the area presidency at Sunflower restaurant, a beautiful garden store with a restaurant in the middle.  It was a lovely event that Janet Nelson organized.

Pretty Mona Bateson and her wonderful decorating talent made our Thanksgiving event for the mission so pretty!

 I was part of a wonderful six lady committee headed by Anita Canfield to put together a Thanksgiving dinner for our mission.  We met approximately 4 times to give assignments out and follow thru with Anita's ideas to make a wonderful Thanksgiving for everyone.  It turned out beautiful!

 This is Anita Canfield...a dear friend and fellow missionary.  She works with Refugee Aid and Humanitarian dept. in the church.  She is from San Clemente California.

 From left to right, Marlene Lindsay, assistant zone leader who works with Self Reliance, Carol Nelson, wife of one of our mission doctors, Dani Garrett, our zone leader and works with LDS family services and Pamela Done, the wife of another mission doctor.  Such wonderful ladies.

 And we are all ready for our 80 guests...........

 I think it came out quite nice.....

 Our center table where we put the main dishes.

 Mona Bateson and Pamela Done

 A lot of work and a lot of planning and wonderful woman to work with......it was a huge success and everyone had a wonderful time.  And now we move into the Holiday Season.........

Friends Serving in Ghana West Africa

When we left on our mission, the first week is spent in the MTC (mission training center) at BYU in Provo.  Because we are all there for 8 hours a day for an entire week, we become really close with others that are setting out to serve in all parts of the world.  These people, the Wakild's became our fast new friends!  He has been called to serve in Ghana, West Africa as an attorney for the OGC (office of General Counsel) just as Tony but in Germany.  Before we were called to Germany, we were asked if we would consider Ghana but I just didn't think I could do it.  We were then called to Frankfurt Germany.  But, when we got to the MTC, we met the couple that were willing to serve in Ghana and quickly became great friends.  I so admire their ability to serve where ever they were called.  Linda and Chris are having a wonderful time serving in Accra Ghana.  She is a school teacher and has been able to use her skills to teach children in Africa.  She is so suited for this mission.  I admire them both.  We just received an email from them, telling us all about their service there.  It is so wonderful to have this experience and meet all these wonderful people.  Even though we are giving service, it feels as though we are the ones being so blessed.

 Tony and Chris saying our good byes at the SLC airport.

 They arrived in Ghana and this picture shows the building (2nd floor) where they meet for church.

 A typical neighborhood in Ghana.  Apparently there is a lot of poverty.

We look so forward to meeting up with the Wakild's after we get back to America in January of 2019.  We will have many stories to share with each other.

Another week in the mission.........

Each Wednesday we have a Book of Mormon discussion for an hour at lunch time.  We really enjoy this time because it is low key and just a good discussion.  We all take turns leading the discussion and we all participate.  We serve with some wonderful people.  These people were doctors, lawyers, dentists, presidents of huge companies like McDonald Douglas in California, professors at major universities and other professions.  Such a wonderful, talented group of people we get to associate with.  We feel so blessed to be able to have this wonderful experiences.

 This is a picture from the Netherlands and although I haven't been there YET, I took this to show to Debbie (sister) because she is coming in April and I want to go there!

 On Sunday, if it's nice outside, Tony and I like to take a walk.  This is called the green gerdle, it's a pathway that surrounds Frankfurt and it's beautiful

 I look at these pictures of the two of us and I realize that we are getting old.  When did this happen, it was just "yesterday" that we were teenagers!

 I had to include this picture because it has been a very difficult week for Kerianne who had to put her little dog, Oliver down because he has been very ill.  She had the most difficult week.  After two weeks, she had been volunteering at an dog adoption kennel and took a real liking to this dog named Jaycee.  I called the kennel and asked the employee about the dog and then texted all the kids and asked if they would like to give in to help adopt this dog for Kerianne as a surprise...they all jumped at the idea right away!  My heart was so full.  I have great kids and they love their sister!  I was on facetime with her when the employee handed her a sheet of paper that I had emailed explaining how much we all loved her and that we had bought Jaycee for her and it listed all her family members.....all thirteen of us.. She dropped to the ground and cried.   I feel so much better knowing she has her to look after and love.

 I was walking home from the physical therapist office this day (I fell off my bike and broke my thumb) and I thought this was just beautiful with all the leaves falling to the ground.  Fall is so beautiful here.  It reminds me a lot of the East Coast of America.  I used to love the fall with all the different colors and the anticipation of all the holidays coming soon.

Good Bye Proctor's - Zone Leaders

Peggy and Paul Proctor left for home in St. George Utah.  We will miss them so much.  They have been so good to us.  They were the first faces we saw when we arrived here in Frankfurt.  They picked us up at the airport, took us to our apartment, took us to the bank to show us how to get money, took us shopping at Rewe (grocery store) and  organized a group to accompany us to dinner at a near by mall called "Skyline" Mall where we actually had Chipollte! It made me feel right at home!  They planned "movie" nite for us all and had shelves put up in our apartment for more storage in the kitchen.  They kept tabs on all 22 sets of senior missionaries and did such a great job.  We miss them!  They also trained me to take over one of their jobs which was  gathering messages from the General Authorities in Europe to write articles for the church publication of the Liahona.  I remind the general authority of their assignment and when I get it, I have to re-format it with end notes and make sure all the punctuation and grammar is correct.  Then, I send it off to translation where the article is translated into 23 languages.  Once I receive them all back in the various languages, I forward them on to publishing where they are re-checked and sent to Salt Lake City for final publication.  

This picture below is Peggy saying good bye to us all.  We miss your sweet personality Peggy!

 Paul Proctor saying good bye....we have all loved him!  What a nice man and friend!

 This is our apartment building......we are on the 9th floor.  They count the first floor as "0" so we are actually on the 10th floor, #9-7 Porthstrasse

 ...Til we meet again!  ....  We will visit them when we get home!  Good bye dear friends ..... for now.

Elder Ballard Visit to Europe

Elder Ballard of the Twelve Apostles came to Frankfurt.  He traveled without his wife because she is ill.  We heard him speak twice.  He counseled us to watch for miracles and to help bring others to Christ.  It was nice to be so up close and personal with an apostle.  These men are so incredibly busy and at their ages it has to be rough.  Elder Ballard is 89 years old.

Young missionaries working in Frankfurt - We love visiting with these young people from all over the world, far away from their families- who serve for two years.

 Waiting for Elder Ballard to speak

 This was a meeting for all church employees and Sr. Missionaries .... waiting to hear Elder Ballard.  In the front right are our good friends, the Rich's, Ruth and Tom from Sandy Utah.  We work with all these people here in the Frankfurt office and the office in Bad Hamburg.

 Elder Ballard on left and the area President, President Johnson on Right.

 Elder Whitney Clayton spoke to us also......he was traveling with Elder Ballard.

 Waving good bye to us all and he came right over and shook my hand.  I admire these men so much for their counsel to us, their stamina and their conviction and dedication to the Lord.

 Elder Ballard saying good bye as he heads to the airport for Switzerland.  This is our office building with our apartment building in the background.

Another trip to Ruedesheim, a ride up the Rhein with a stop in Bacharach

Another fun weekend with the Canfield's.  The weather was going to be nice on Saturday, unusually warm, so we decided to drive 45 minutes up to Ruedesheim and take the river cruise.  What a fun day we had!

There has been so much going on in the mission these past few weeks, a nice Saturday up the Rhein was perfect!  I am on the "Thanksgiving" committee for our Mission Thanksgiving dinner.  They always try and make the holidays nice for us because we are all away from our families.  There are six of us on the committee and we have split up the duties and are busy getting decorations and food and sign ups for our holiday dinner.

We have also been so busy with our work, Tony working with the young missionaries and making sure they are "legally" in their countries.  The Europe area has strict compliance laws that must be obeyed so he is really busy with missionary visa's and also with contract work.  I am still doing the work for the finance department and it keeps me busy.  

We have had to say good bye to some really good friends we have made here in the mission, as their time came to go home.  The Swensens, Hackings, Proctors, Kirks, and more that will be leaving in the next few weeks.  We are so sad when these great people leave us.  The Proctor's were our Zone Leaders.  They took care of any problems we have with our cars, apartment, getting us registered as residence, and so forth.  They also set up a "movie" nite and dinner's out with other senior missionaries.  They have been gone a week now and are so missed by us all!  But, this is what it's like to be on a mission, people come and go all the time.  We have just gotten new couples, the Yosts, Nelsons, Lindsey's and Skouby's.  We've been able to have them over for dinner and tried to make them feel welcome because we remember how lost you feel when you first get here.  They are wonderful people and I am sure we will be good friends.

 This picture below is of a river cruise ship.....going down the Rhein River.

On the river cruise 

Another castle along the Rhein

Love this town of Bacharach with it's leaning buildings

Tony's found a new girlfriend!  Kinda cute!

Just love this pictures of the buildings that look like they are ginger bread houses ready to fall.

Tony doing his part to help hold up the building

Flowers

And more flowers........Everywhere you look there are flowers!

Me and my honey.....having the time of our lives together!

the Canfields, Steve and Anita.....have become fantastic friends

Did I mention the flowers!

.....More FLOWERS

We took a path up to the vineyards....just beautiful

Climbed up to this bell tower and looked down at the village of Bacharach.

Bacharach

I love this little outdoor cafe....they are everywhere

Tony and Steve being sillly

Sue and Anita

My honey

Love this picture of the village

just passing another village along the Rhein

The Canfields, Steve and Anita