However, they first had to go to the civil office and be married civilly. Here in Germany the marriages are legal only when performed by government officials, so they first went to the "Rathaus" (City Council House) in Friedrichsdorf (the city where the temple is located) for a civil marriage ceremony. (In New Zealand the law is that a marriage won't be recognized unless the ceremony is "public" where anyone can attend, so they have to do the same thing there.) We first saw them come out of the Rathouse, and they had normal German activities there, then they walked to the temple for the sealing. A couple of hours later we saw them come out of the temple. Both the bride and the groom are from large families, and there was not room for us to go inside. But we could serve the cookies, and take pictures.
Notice below Elder Howlett is waiting for them to come out of the civil office. He is sitting in front of a lawn filled with crocuses. Here in Germany they plant Crocuses in the lawns and the flowers come up first before it is time to cut the grass. It is such a beautiful spring welcoming.
A tradition that they have here in Germany is when the couple comes out of the civil office both the bride and groom begin cutting a huge heart out of a sheet.
When they have finished cutting it out, the outside borders of the sheet are held up and the new couple step through the heart-shaped hole into a new life together. Whether it is a local, a country wide, or just a German LDS tradition, we don’t know, but it was very fun to see it.
The bride is a young German who works in our office. Her name was Mariella Zickler. She and her new husband, Stephan Schultze, both served missions in Austria, but they didn't really become aquainted until they had both been home for a few years. They are very spiritual members who should be very happy. 
In this picture we can see several German FamilySearch Support missionaries who came to our office for a special 3 day training seminar. Grant had to give a 2 hour lesson to them about Indexing. He was told to make it more advanced, and in German. He was able to teach a bit about how the computer works and how it can create and use indexes to almost instantly find information that has been fed in correctly.
Later we went with the group to dinner at a very nice restaurant. Here in Germany dinners at restaurants are very important social affairs and they last for hours.
On the Saturday after the wedding and seminar we had another dinner at our house, this time with our English Sunday School class. At the beginning of the year they asked us to provide a Sunday School class in English. We have had 5 regular members, Elder Harold and Sister Ima Jean Oaks (Cousins of the Apostle and the member of the Seventy), Sister Betty Stoker and Pat & Grant. However there have been several visitors, and for several weeks two Italian sisters have joined us, so we invited them too, along with Sister Stoker’s companions.
A couple of weeks later these two Italian sisters, Silvia Benuzzi and Claudia Pereyra invited Grant and Pat to their apartment for dinner. Silvia and Claudia are in business together, hiring out their services to help organize T.V. and movie advertizing and public affairs for businesses and organizations. They are here for about six months for a special project with the Europe Area Public Affairs Department of the church.
They are extremely good at what they do and have managed projects all over the world, including the world Olympics in Salt Lake City and China. Silvia speaks at least 5 languages fluently—Italian, English, German, Spanish and French—and is aquainted with more. Claudia was born in Argentina and speaks Spanish and Italian fluently and she understands English well but doesn't speak much. Their minds are always racing with ideas about how presentations could be made.
Our dinner that night began with an appetizer of tortilla chips and salsa. Then they served a very delicious pasta with zucchini. They said there would be more, but we thought it would just be salad and dessert. Well, then they brought out the baked savory chicken and carrots and potatoes. After that came the salad with dessert following. Boy, did we have a feast. We were stuffed! The rest of the evening we enjoyed talking with them about all kinds of things. They are very knowledgeable on so many topics. Claudia doesn’t speak English very well, so she would rattle off something in Spanish and Silvia would translate it for us. But it was a very fun evening. It has been great to get to know them. They both are careful to follow the spirit. They had a big project almost put together for India, but then stopped because the Spirit told them to. At the time the event was to have taken place, there were political uprisings in that part of India that would have caused the event to fail.
On March 29, we got a chance to spend 2 ½ hours with our son, Mark, as he had a 3 hour layover in Frankfurt on his way to India to teach training sessions for Microsoft consultants there. It was such fun visiting with him and feeling close to some family again.
He also brought us a hand crank popcorn popper from a Cabela’s store in Texas. Thanks to Karen for the idea. How fun to receive this and be able to make our Sunday evening Howlett treat easier on our glass-top stove. Mark will be stopping back here in Frankfurt for two days on his way home to Texas. We will have more on that visit later.
Spring has come to Germany.
Grant and Pat made a couple of different outings and walked around the Kurparks in Bad Homburg and Bad Vilbel. A Kurpark is a restfull and relaxing place that was used for curing people of their illnesses, sort of like a health resort. They are built where there are natural mineral springs that are beneficial both for bathing and for drinking. Now, in some of the places, they bottle and sell the water, and it is available throughout Europe. Bad Vilbel has really good mineral water for that. It tastes like Alka Seltzer, and there are several bottling plants that distribute it. The beautiful parks are peaceful places of rest and relaxation with many interesting sites in them.
Here in this picture you can see a statue in the Bad Homburg Kurpark called the Goddess of Healing. She is resting, too! In a different direction one can see men playing games of chess.
Chess is one of the most international of games. There were some really experienced players here at five open-air tables. One can also see the blossoming trees in the background.
In this picture one can see a large building in the background that was built in the name of Kaiser Wilhelm I. It was probably a type of hospital or rest home in the beginning, but has since found use in other civic ways.
Many years ago this and other health resorts were found in most of the cities that have "Bad" as part of their name, such as Bad Homburg or Bad Vilbel. The word "Bad" means a bath or to bathe in healing mineral waters. Even though most of the cities do not have operating kurparks as health resorts now, the still use the park land for walking, riding bicycles or strolling, or just sitting and visiting. They are well-kept community parks now. It is so nice to visit these Kurparks and enjoy the beauty of them, especially in the spring.
Another day, Grant and Pat went to the Bad Vilbel Kurpark and enjoyed walking around the smaller but very enjoyable park. The fountain and park benches were very restful. Many other people and birds were enjoying the park too.
Even Mr. and Mrs. Mallard duck were taking a rest in the grass near us. They sat there resting for quite a while as we were sitting on a nearby bench. Soon they flew off, and we left too.
Back home in our apartment, as shown in the picture below, we can see out of our bathroom window that spring has come to our back yard, too. It has been a wonderful change to see the winter end and the plants come to life again.
Isn’t it wonderful to have the world of nature wake up and show the new beginnings of life, as the Lord, Jesus Christ did for all of us through the Resurrection? How blessed we are.
1 comment:
Beautiful pictures in this post! Spring is such a wonderous time! Glad you got to spend time with Mark! Happy popping!
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