Janu weary but maybe not

Winter has finally come to Hof.  We were told this is one of the coldest parts of Germany but this winter has been so mild we have ceased to believe.  Now we know.

We have had the opportunity in January to go to Freiberg for another couples conference, this time at the temple.  We enjoyed two full days of temple sessions and had meetings with the temple president and our mission president.  We also very nuch enjoyed socializing with other couples who are often facing the same challenges we are.

Temple president Husz and his wife are from Austria and have served willingly for many years in various capacities.  He spoke about the newly produced endowment presentation which we were privileged to view.
  The temple at night often gives some rather interesting photographing opportunities.  I took none of the above.  Someplace in my files I have another Angel Moroni shadow in the sky which is clearer but I don't have one of the mystic rays taken by another Elder.

We also enjoyed a lovely dinner out at a neat restaurant in Freiberg.  It is on a little pond which probably at one time was part of a moat around the walled city (that's speculation) but the windows behind are from the renovated castle which is now a mineral museum.  Freiberg was THE silver mining region from about the 900's on. We enjoyed this meal during our strict 'New Year's resolution' diet and survived.  We are happy to report we both have lost about 15 pounds and are still watching it.

Happy New Year

 At the branch Christmas party we were visited by the Weihnachtsmann (Christmas man) played by Elder Donner.  Although the traditions are a bit different the feeling of joy and celebration are the same.

 Except for the Charlie Brown tree in our little apartment.  We actually bought this tree live for last year and kept it alive for the whole year, although it's self image has changed.

Our last week of 2013 was event filled and the best part was that we were able to Skype with almost the whole family on their Christmas morning while the kids were opening presents.  It was almost like being there.  We are sorry Lisa missed out on this non-event.  That day we had a visit from one of our special friends from our last stay in Germany in Chemnitz.  David Preissler was one of our Young Adults at the center.  He and his family now live in Constanz, Germany near the Swiss border.  They had been in Chemnitz visiting family and called to stop here on their way home.  What a treat to meet his wife and play with their two littles
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 Then last Saturday we were given permission to travel out of our mission and visit the Kaulfersch family in Nördlingen.  We rented a car so as not to put mileage on the mission vehicle and Dave got to indulge his fast driving in Germany gene.  He didn't go over 100 mph though.

 We had met Herbert Kaulfersch when he came to the US on a teacher travel program and stayed with us for about a month.  That was in 1978. On our 2000 trip to Europe we visited him at his home.  We thoroughly enjoyed talking with his wife and young adult son.  They had lots of questions about Mormons and the US.  Arnika had a mental image of us living in the wilderness all alone but we were able to reassure her that we are not so isolated as she imagined.

Because our two Elders, Donner and Pollard, are going home soon, they have a third companion for this week to introduce him to the area. He arrived Monday and we had them all for Home Evening with Eva and Martha.

The very best part of Christmas is indeed friends, old and new.  We love them all and cherish the times when we are together.

For New Year's Eve we went to the Merkels who hosted all the missionaries in our branch (five at the moment) for fondue and Racklett. The latter consists of a warming appliance on the table where you can grill meat on top and warm veggies and a special Racklett cheese underneath.  That is in the backgound with the fondue in the foreground

 Then we sat around and sang songs while Elder Pollard played the guitar.  We discovered that the songs we know are so out of date!  We knew of the songs they were singing but didn't know the lyrics, songs from the 80's and 90's are old to them. 

Here is the Merkel family, or the Merkel girls and the Holy Ghost??


We left their home and took the three missionaries home by about 9:30.  Then we enjoyed the occasional loud bangs outside indicating the town was preparing for the annual 'war'.  The town itself does not do a firework display like in the US.  Instead everyone has their own show in the streets.  This means the whole town is exploding from dusk to dawn with the majority of the sparks between 11:30 and 1:00.  Here is a view out our window at dawn one morning this week and then here is the view around midnight.

More German Christmas

December is always a busy month.  We have had two big conferences in different cities.  We went to Berlin recently for a conference with part of the mission.  We were able to connect with some of the young missionaries who have served here in Hof;  Elders Holbein, Stuve and Anderson.

While there we did visit one of the many Berlin Christmas Markets but took no pictures.  All the bigger towns have several large markets which makes our little one in Hof seem insignificant.

               It is just one part of the main pedestrian walkway through the old city center. 
We also went to Dresden overnight for a missionary couples conference.  We met the 15 couples from the entire mission, including ones from the western portion whom we do not meet at the 1/2 mission conferences.  Our mission is too big to meet in any of the church buildings so the mission conferences are split into two meetings.  We met another couple, the Russells, whose children went to Jordan and who were both teachers in Jordan School District.  She was at Altaview and he taught middle school at Union among others. We also met the Mickelsons, former mission president in Russia somewhere.

This is not all of them.  Sister Russell is top left.

The second morning of this conference we drove to Radebeul and went to the place where then Apostle Monson rededicated East Germany.  It was quite cold and you can see how bundled everyone was. President Kosak explained how the blessing of the gospel came about for the saints in the East.  After many years they were finally able to have a patriarch, go to the temple and send and receive missionaries.

After that we went into Dresden for the Weihnachts markt.  Dresden has a middle ages markt in the stable area of the former kings,

They cut a potato into a spiral and then deep fry it.

The facade of the stable building.

Then we went into the regular market in the city.  It was very elaborately decorated but not crowded at noon when we were there.  We didn't spend too much time and were on our way for the two hour trip home.

This is a puppet theater

Nürnberg Weihnachtsmarkt

We had the opportunity to go with the Merkel family to the most famous Christmas Market in this area of Germany.  We drove for about an hour and half to Nürnberg south of Hof.  Sister Merkel drove.  We went on a Saturday which is the day all the tourists in the entire world go to this market.  Since there are still American military in the area we also heard more English than we have heard in a year just wandering through the crowd.

A Christmas Market is usually booths set up in the town square, in this case the old inner city area, for the month of December selling food and Christmas goodies.  This market was comprised of several themed markets.  The regular one, a children's one and a sister city one having booths from cities around the world; Shi Lanka, Brazil, Montenegro and many others including Atlanta Georgia. 

The Children's market had lots of rides and booths with toys as well as goodies to eat.  It made me glad, however, that I did not have a child with us.  The crowd was so compact that I would fear losing the child.  I only lost Dave twice.

  This is the regular market packed shoulder to shoulder with crazy shoppers.  A big part of any Christmas market is 'Gluhwein',  a warm mildly alcoholic drink which warms from the inside and outside and makes people stop in crowds near those booths.  The above is a "Where's Waldo".  Can you find Lynn?

 Lynn insisted on a Post Coach ride through the crowd.  They had two different coaches which were replicas of the ones used for many years taking people from town to town.

We loved the old inner city of Nürnberg and will go back on some sunny day before we leave Germany this time.  The buildings in this part of town are very charming and historic and quite a bit of the old wall still surrounds the inner town.

Christmas in Germany

The beginning of the Christmas season is marked by the opening of Weihnachtsmarkts, or Christmas markets in almost every town and village in the country, especially in the Erzegebirge region.  Here in Hof it is not so grand but we went with the Merkels to Annaberg for a meeting of a business group Brother Merkels belongs to, the BYU Management Society.  First we attended the Christmas market and heard the Annaberg ward choir sing in the rain and snow.  Annaberg is in the Erzegebirge or Ore Mountain region where a lot of the German traditions have their origin.  You can see the Christmas pyramid in the market and the booths with all the figures, nutcrackers and lace.

Another thing we really like from this Eastern Germany region are the Swipbogens in all the windows.  They do not decorate the outside like we do but every window has the lighted bow.  The symbol originally came from the arch where minors would hang their lanterns when they returned from underground.  When all the lamps were lit it meant everyone had returned safely.  The symbol evolved into a lighted arch with figures underneath, often of a minor and an angel but we have seen many variations of this form.

Later we went to the meeting which was a tour of a factory owned by members.  The factory makes high end hand made jewelry boxes and sells them world wide.  Several of the attendees were people we knew from our first mission over here so it was very nice to renew acquaintances.

Br. Sacher pointing, his dad next and Sister Sacher looking at the box.

November is all about EATING

Anna Weiss and friend

We were invited over to the Merkels home for a sushi evening where we made our own sushi.  They had invited other young couples, the Rupps and Anna Weiss and her boyfriend.  Here in Germany 'friend' usually means live in which is the case here.  Anna does my nails and is a very sweet lady but very German which means no marriage and kids later.  I have talked to her a bit about the church.  Carolin and Chris Rupp are the young couple whose wedding we attended in Butterwiesen last August.  He is not a member.   So this was a missionary opportunity dinner.  It was enjoyable but I still do not like sushi, especially home made!

On Sunday, November 24, we fed the missionaries at our apartment and since it was close to Thanksgiving we cooked a small turkey.  Elders Pollard and Donner will both go home shortly after Christmas.  At our regular district meeting in Plauen on Wednesday we got together for a little T-day dinner which was chicken, carrots, 'barnyard' potatoes, bread,  pumpkin pie and ice cream. On Thanksgiving day we went to Zwickau for our regular Thursday institute class and we fed them pasta, but Dave made a pumpkin pie from scratch for them just to celebrate.  This last Sunday all four of us missionaries were invited to the Hemmann home for dinner and they provided a meal of roast duck and chestnut stuffing with all the trimmings which was very like another Thanksgiving feast.  That included a yummy pumpkin soup and 'Stollen', a German traditional fancy Christmas bread.   Sister Hemmann told that on her mission her mother sent this to her in the US and she told her companion it was stolen.

That Sunday, the first in December, was the beginning of the Christmas season.  The Relief Society got together the Friday before to make advent wreaths.  This is a wreath for the table with four candles.  Traditionally one candle is lit each Sunday for the four Sundays before Christmas to mark the coming of the Christ Child.  I hung the wreath I made on our door.

Kersten Hemmann, Eva Schultze and Angelica Merkel

Damaris Grünbichler and Martha Ernst

And, of course, we had   "kaffee und küchen" afterward.  The kaffee is Pero but they call it coffee.