Thanksgiving over and Christmas Begins

Thanksgiving was celebrated by us here in a fun time with our Senior missionary friends.
Germans don´t have a day set aside for Thanksgiving, but since most of our senior missionaries are from America, we all celebrated on the traditional American day. We had a real turkey dinner with all the trimmings (all planned potluck) and we got to bake one of the turkeys this time. It was wonderful to have the aroma of the turkey baking all day in our apartment. We had nearly 40 senior missionaries there, couples and single sisters.

Then on Saturday, 28 Nov 2009 we got a group of six senior missionaries together and went on the streetcar down to the Frankfurt Christmas Market where we walked around to see the tempporary shops and across the pedestrian bridge over the Main River, to listen to all those fifty bells ringing from 10 churches again. These were signaling the First Advent coming the next day, Sunday 29 Nov. The bells were wonderful, and it was fun to share the experience with some missionary friends. In Germany and most of Europe they celebrate Christmas with what they call the four advent Sundays - the four Sundays before Christmas. Most families have a Christmas wreath which they place in a prominant spot in the home and which has 4 candles and other small decorations on it. The first Advent Sunday they light one candle and see it burn for a while then blow it out. On the second Advent Sunday they light two candles, the third Sunday three candles and the Sunday just before Christmas they light all four candles. Most people have family or friends over for the Advent celebration. Last year we spent one of those days with a family in our ward. They served us dinner, then we spent the rest of the day in conversation - mainly about missionary experiences. You can see here, in our home, the Advent candles, some small candles a friend gave us for each day of the month of December and other candles all lit up. In many Christian churches they have rituals, readings, and special colors celebrating the Advent days signaling the first coming of Christ as a baby and to prepare for His second coming. It is gratifying to us to find the majority of the people involved in these Christian events without any complainers trying to stop it. We do things differently in different cultures, but in tthe church we celebrate his birth, life and atonement and the future throughout the whole month of December, in fact all year.

The use of Christmas trees is very popular here, as it is in the U.S. and the U.K. The past tradition was for one or both parents to decorate the tree on Christmas Eve then invite the children in to read the Christmas story together sing carols, have supper then open presents. In modern Germany there are a lot of temporary yards selling Christmas trees. We don´t know know how soon they decorate the tree in their homes, but we have seen many Germans buying real trees throughout December. Artificial trees are not seen very much here, at least we haven´t seen them for sale anywhere. However, we were very fortunate to inherit the use of a decorated 2 ft. artificial Christmas tree from another Missionary couple who went home mid-December. It is beautiful in our front window where its colorful lights shine out for all to see. We also bought a special candle lantern for Grant's birthday in December, and it also gives an inviting glow to add to our lovely lights in our front window.

With the coming of December this year many of our Senior missionaries were scheduled to go home. We had six senior missionary couples and two sister missionaries that have left now. It seemed like a huge exodus of many of our choice friends and servants of the Lord. One of the couples was the other Senior missionary couple working in our office with us. Elder Gerald and Sister Eldona Call were great mentors for us and they were also great friends. Here you see them taking part in an office luncheon in their honor. They were involved in taking care of the computers, monitors, printers and microfilm readers for the Family History Centers (FHCs) in Europe Central area. Three work days before they left our director finally decided to have them train us in what they do so we could do that job in addition to our own work until another missionary couple can come and take their place. We aren´t sure when that will be, maybe two or three months and it will probably be a German couple. Anyway we had quite a scramble trying to write down and learn enough of their jobs so we could do them. We are picking up where they left off and hopefully we will be able to do the work all right, but we will surely miss the Calls, their work and their friendship. They have gone home to Oregon where all of their 9 children and 29 grandchildren have gathered to welcome them home and have Christmas together. Elder Call jokingly said maybe they would extend their mission a bit to miss the chaos of the big family gathering. Here is a picture of them at the airport. He looks very concerned, doesn´t he? We are sure they are loving the reunion. Our office is very lonely right now with everyone going home for Christmas break. We have been playing Christmas music for a several days now. It is beautiful, and keeps it from being too quiet. Perhaps we may take some time off too. We do need to take a computer up to Bonn in Northern Germany, so it may be a good trip to take. It has started snowing now, so traveling may not be enjoyable, but it is beautiful. Merry Christmas all!!