2008 December Doings

One of the assignments that came to us toward the end of 08 was a special project relating to Family History Micorfilms. When two "Areas" of the Church in Europe were combined, they wanted such things as the Distribution Centers and the Microfilme Operations Centers for the two areas combined into the ones here in Frankfurt.
Everything was shipped from the former locations to Frankfurt, and because of special needs they asked Br. & Sr. Howlett to get all of the microfilms put away here in our center. The young lady in charge of the area was leaving church employment, and it had to be done quickly.
We processed over 6,000 rolls of microfilm in about one week.
Each of the rolls of film had to be unpacked from pallets, and we put them in tubs positioned so the bar codes on each box could be scanned. Sr. Howlett did most of the scanning, but this picture shows the young lady that was leaving doing it. The computer then selected a place in the storage drawers for them to be stored, and we put them away. November ended without really convincing us that it was winter, but some of the scenery pretty soon made it clear that Christmas was coming. It seemed to be too warm, until all of a sudden it got cold. As the shortest day of the year arrived we didn't even see any daylight in the sky until just before 08:00 AM, and it was dark by 05:00 PM. This picture shows one of the outstanding Christmas tree displays. We could see it from about 3 miles away. Looking in another direction we could see the high-rise buildings of Frankfurt. This picture, taken on one of the clear, cold nights after a snow storm gives a little idea how close Frankfurt is to where we travel each day.
One of the Changes that took place in this time was that we began wearing heavier clothing. It had been common for the three missionary sisters to comment about how they were all dressed alike. We three Elders decided we needed a picture of our "Matchy-Matchy." The three are Elder Lund from Cache County Utah on the left, Elder Call from Oregon in the middle, and Elder Howlett.
Christmas in Germany couldn't include any visits to family members this year, but we did have times together with some of our new friends. One lady invited us to her home for an evening of sociality, and these pictures were taken inside her home. You will seldom find a people more skilled at decorating (and advertising) than the Germans. The next picture shows her table set for cookies and tea. Among the German mothers, the Christmas time is one of the busiest of the year as there is always baking of cookies, cakes (of the fruit and nut bread varieties), etc.
This visit was the trigger that got us thinking we needed to share some cookies with our neighbors, and that led to a call for help on recipes. Thanks to those who helped us out. We made quite a mess in the house as we worked on the cookis and banana bread projects. Elder Howlett shelled all the nuts, mashed the bananas, and ate a lot of cookie dough. Sr. Howlett did most of the rest. The day we planned to take a plate of cookies (along with our greeting and a copy of the "Joy to the World" DVD to Mr. Schaefer, we found out he had gone to the hospital with a problem related to previous "six bypass surgery". Brother and Sister Lund accepted the invitation to go to the hospital with us to deliver our wishes, not only for Christmas, but also for his recovery.
Our ward had a Christmas party that we enjoyed. Members of the ward come from 22 nations, so they discussed traditions from several of these lands.
On Christmas Eve, we would have liked to go caroling, but that isn't widely accepted here, so we spent the evening with the Tabernacle choir, (DVD and CDs) and scripture reading. Christmas day we had a dinner with quite a large group of senior missionaries couples and single sisters. This group represented a wide diversity in backgrounds too, so it was fun to have several hours to socialize. One of the Sisters used to sing in the Tabernacle Choir. She was single for a while, and her current husband saw her on TV during conference and felt he should find out who she was. (She was sitting right behind the podium, so was visible a lot of the time. They told quite a story of a romance that blossomed in a strange way over great distances. They were introduced through a mutual friend. There are quite a large number of the Senior couples that are here with second spouses.
We had another gathering of Senior Couples on New Years Eve. Both of these gatherings were at the appartment of the Single Sisters in Friedricksdorf close to the temple. Several of the couples left quite early, so we were the last to leave at 20 minutes to New Year. We were able to get home just about midnight, to find out that the big party was all around us. Every direction we looked we could see fireworks shooting up into the air. There seemed to be a wall of fireworks in the air in every direction about a block away. There were some closer, and in the morning I went outside for just a short time and picked up a big handfull of the sticks that were tied to bottle rockets. The display was constant, loud, and colorful, and it lasted a full 20 minutes before it started to slow down at all. It didn't stop completely for close to an hour. Unfortunately our digital camera couldn't capture any of that. Sr. Howlett tried to take a picture of it, but all you could see was the smoke.
Christmas and New Years are both long holidays in Germany, so we had most of five days when we didn't have to go to the office. We took part of one day to go with some of the other Senior Missionaries to visit one of the main castles in the area - Aschaffenburg. Actually, it was over in the state of Bavaria, but that is only a half an hour from here. The castle was one of those that the famous King Ludwig of Bayern (Bavaria) lived in. He is well known for his castles. He built several himself, including one in Muenchen (Munich) that was patterned after Versaille, and another that is the original of the Disney castle that is called Neuschwanstein. , However, the Aschaffenburg castle was there a long time before King Ludwig came to be the one to live in it. The community first became an important center in Germany before 900 AD, when two aristocrats from different areas married and made this town one of the most powerful of the old ducheys. During the era of reformation, it was the seat of Catholic bishops, one of whom was Luther's bitterest opponent. Of course the 30 years war had its effect on this castle, because the inhabitants were not only political rulers but also arch bishops with much to lose as the protestants left the church.
The present castle was started around 1300. It was built in several installments, but from the very beginning it included the tower that served as a prison. That is the big square tower with the smallest door in the picture above. Sounds like Rapunzel! These pictures were taken from inside the courtyard inside the square castle. There are towers at each corner, but the prison tower is not one of them, and it stands almost twice as tall.
The castle was rebuilt several times after wars, including the Second World War that left it a burned out shell. Because this castle is so important in German history, they took most of the furnishings out and stored them elsewhere, so much that is now inside is original. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures inside. The castle is right on the banks of the Main river, and was positioned so they could control all river traffic. They got a good share of their wealth by taxing the river traffic. Unfortunately, those were days of extreme class distinction with the aristocrats having unbelievable wealth and the common people living in total poverty. The aristocrats side of the story is told in the history books, but they were not the real Germans, whose lives we get a glimpse of only in the fairy tales that were told mostly from their point of view. The Grimm Brothers collected their fairy tales from the area between here, Aschafenburg, and Heidelberg. They were linguists studying language change, and they collected the fairy tales because they had been repeated so much they were still being retold in the language of more than a century earlier. Grimm's law is a very famous statement (among linguists) telling how languages change over time.
The last picture is of one of the corner towers. If you look carefully you can see that quite a number of different sized bells are visible. They are tuned, so that they can play melodies on them. While we were waiting outside, we heard such a melody that lasted a minute or so. There is also such a carillon in Michelstadt and in downtown Frankfurt, but we haven't yet heard those.