Highlights from December part 1

I thought I would share some of the highlights from this special month.
They celebrate here the four Sundays of Advent, the first two focusing on the coming of Christ the first time and the second two focusing on the second coming of Christ.  Each Sunday they light a candle in the Advent wreath or Adventskranz.  We had a beautiful event on the first Advent Sunday, December 3.  There is a choir from Switzerland of young adult members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints under age 30.  They are outstanding!  They performed two Christmas concerts and one was in a small village called Waldburg, 15 minutes from us.  Our Branch was responsible for finding the venue and advertising the event.  We have less than 30 active members, so I was worried about having a large enough audience to make it worth the 2+ hour drive the choir members would make that evening.  We were thrilled that about 130 people attended!  The Spirit of Christ filled the hall as they sang one gorgeous song after another and welcomed in the Christmas season.  We were excited to have less active members of the church and people not of our faith in attendance.  This is such a beautiful way to give people a positive impression of the members of our church.  As missionaries, we are grateful for events like this to help us share the gospel with others.

We attended the ward Christmas party held by the Dornbirn, Austria ward on December 16.  We have made many wonderful friends in that ward, so we are always excited to be invited to their events.  Their theme was "Let Him In".  They had a lovely program with members sharing scriptures about the Savior in different languages.  Most congregations have members from many different countries. We sang Christmas hymns between the parts. The new Bishop spoke as well.  Then the Primary children acted out the Nativity from the Bible.  Santa visited and gave each child a little gift.  We enjoyed a lovely pot luck dinner.  We have a new missionary in Dornbirn who just arrived the day before.  He is Elder Hilton from South Jordan, Utah.  We were excited to welcome him!

Elder Hilton and Elder Bushman

Merry Christmas!

Christmas 2017

Elder and Sister Lake

Wangenerstrasse 88/90

88212 Ravensburg

Deutschland

Merry Christmas to friends and family!

We want you all to know how much we miss you this Christmas season.  It is definitely different to experience Christmas so far away from family, friends and loved ones.  So please know how much we love each of you and that we think of you often.  We are doing well and getting into the Christmas Season here in Germany.  We have a little two-foot table-top Christmas tree which is festively decorated, a friend gave us an Advent Wreath, and we burn one of the four candles on each of the four Advent Sundays, and we have a little German Christmas decoration with candles in the window, received as a gift from family at home.  Each of these helps to bring the Christmas spirit into our home and lives.  We enjoy our occasional evening stroll through the Christkindlmarkt in the old city of Ravensburg, and love how the German people honor and celebrate their Christmas traditions.  We must add that we are enjoying the more simplified approach to Christmas this year.  Rather than the usual hustle and bustle, the shopping, traffic and the heavy emphasis on gifts, we are really trying to enjoy the simple beauty of this Christmas season in Germany.  Christmas appears less commercialized here and there seems to be less of an emphasis on the shopping and gifts, but we certainly feel the value placed on the gift of time, friendship and food. 

This season we are pondering on the Savior and His Gift to us, feeling tremendous gratitude to our Father in Heaven for his bounteous blessings, grateful for family and friends and striving this season to find ways to reach out and bless others in our expanding German circle of missionaries, friends and acquaintances (#Lighttheworld).  So, as we celebrate the Christmas season, we feel a profound measure of gratitude to a loving Heavenly Father who sent his Son to provide a way that we may each find our way home, and a reverent appreciation to our Savior Jesus Christ, who teaches us how to love and to live, and who was willing to submit to His Father’s will.  May we each strive this season and ever to follow Him, to be more loving, more helpful, more forgiving, more encouraging, more supportive and more patient with everyone we associate with, be it family, friends, co-workers or strangers.  Each of us carry our own insecurities, burdens and trials and how we all appreciate a kind word, a helping hand, a smile and the love of the Savior, often delivered to us through the hands of others.  To date, the primary thing we have learned on our mission (among so many lessons) is Gratitude to Heavenly Father.  Our eyes have been opened and we are so thankful and feel so blessed to have you as family and friends.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2018!

With Love,

Elder and Sister Lake

Branch Grill Fest

Our Branch had a fun Grill Fest in a place called Bad Saulgau in Baden-Wurttemberg on September 2.  It was a wonderful opportunity to gather in a casual setting and enjoy each other's company.  We had a great attendance and were blessed it didn't rain, although we had a pavilion just in case.  Everyone brought their own food to grill and some brought side dishes to share.  We had a central barbecue for all to share.  Some of us enjoyed playing on the grass after lunch.

The Stevens Family

Celia, Frauko, Jaane, Rachel, Levi Wijsbeek and friend 

Nicola, Vera Stevens, Juditha

Juditha and Roland Schilling

Reinhard Staubach and Vladimir Lange

Elder Hansen and Elder Lake

Manja Larcher, Elder Hansen, investigator, Elder Johnson

Sigmaringen Castle

This is a quick post of the beautiful Sigmaringen Castle in Singmaringen, Baden-Wurttemberg which is not too far from us.  We visited here the end of the summer.  The Hall of Weapons displays one of the largest private weapon collections in Europe from the Middle Ages to modern times, dating from the 14th century to the 20th century.  They also had shields and armor.  It was really quite fascinating!
Unfortunately, it is forbidden to take photos inside the castle.

Institute graduation and end of year celebration

Somehow I failed to post this event which took place many months ago.  But I want it in my story, so better late than never, right? Please bear with me!

Our Institute students in Dornbirn worked hard all year, so we wanted to reward them with a fun evening for the last class before Summer break.  Also, they all passed the test to pass the course, so Daniel Burri, from the church in Zurich, came to present awards to them.  He had to travel 2 hours each way, so we really appreciated his sacrifice.  He is a terrific man and also taught a great lesson to all of us that evening.  Our teacher, Gerda Stubbe, presented each student with a card and candy.  She gave us a lovely book on Germany.  She is extremely thoughtful.

We thought it would be fun to have an American barbecue.  Gerda had a small barbecue, so we held the event in her yard.  Bob was our Grillmeister, which was a challenge because the grill was only 2 feet high and all they had to turn the burgers was a pie server.  But he did a great job! (Except for the slices of pineapple that fell through the grill :) )  We served hamburgers (with all the toppings), tortilla chips and salsa, watermelon, grapes and soda.  Gerda made a big tossed green salad.  We grilled pineapple as well.  I think they all loved it!  Except for the chips and salsa.  They didn't quite get that.  This is something foreign to them.  They thought the salsa was a salad.  Even though I explained, most of the chips were left at the end of the evening. We had planned to have water balloon volleyball and badminton but there just wasn't time.  It threatened rain, but we were blessed that the rain didn't come till later.  We had 3 Young Single Adult age people come who hadn't taken the course, so that made it more fun.  One is not a member of the church and we really hope she will come again.

It's been a very special experience for us to become acquainted with all these outstanding YSA.  We are proud of them for their faithfulness and diligence.  They are a wonderful example for us.  It is challenging to be a young member of the church here.   One of our students just joined the church last fall.  His girlfriend, who is in our class, introduced him to the church.  She left in July on a mission to Canada.  Another of our students left on a mission to Spain in September.

Lunersee

We had a really wonderful District outing on August 1.  We drove to Dornbirn, Austria and then took our first train ride since arriving on the mission to Bludenz, Austria.

 We checked out the Milka chocolate factory outlet.

Now I can't say,
"I never saw a purple cow, I never hope to see one,
but I can tell you anyhow, I'd rather see than be one!"

Then we took a bus to Vandans where we hiked to the Lunersee.

 This is an incredibly gorgeous, very blue lake high in the mountains.  It took us about an hour and it was a very steep, difficult hike, but it was worth every step.  It was very windy that day but it kept us from feeling too hot.

 We were surprised to run into one of our YSA, Julia, from Dornbirn with her boyfriend from America.

 The Elders had fun getting in the ice cold water and competed to see who could stay the longest.

 We decided to take the tram down so we wouldn't miss our bus.  It was very fast!

By the time we got back home, it was dinner time.  We were grateful we had been invited to dinner by the Tonolis in our branch.  They prepared us two fabulous lasagnas with delicious sides. The Elders shared a spiritual activity after dinner.

 It was a very memorable day!

Heiligenberg Castle and Pfullendorf

The end of July, our dear friend, Connie, took us to see the Heiligenberg Castle.  This is the first castle we saw after arriving in Germany. Unfortunately for me, the tour was in German, but they had a written explanation in English for me to read.  It was forbidden to take pictures inside the castle so all the attached photos are on the outside. The castle was built in about 1250.  In 1516 Count Friedrich of Fuerstenberg inherited the castle and it is still owned and used by the family today.  There were so many beautiful and interesting things inside this ancient structure.  One of my favorite things was the enormous hall with paintings of the family members going clear back to the 1300's.  From this castle you can see the Allgaeu Alps, the Austrian Alps and the Swiss Alps.  It also over looks Lake Constance.  But on the day we were there, it was very cloudy and we couldn't see all these things.

Heiligenberg Castle

Inner court of castle

After visiting the castle, we went to the town of Pfullendorf.  This is a beautiful and very old city. They will be celebrating their 800 year birthday in 2020.  We went to see the oldest building in Southern Germany.  Originally, a wall surrounded the entire town.  Part of the wall is still visible by this building.  At one time, the only way to enter the town was through an arch, but as vehicles grew in size, it became necessary to remove a building by the arch to make it possible for large vehicles to enter.  You can tell the age of the town by the cobblestone streets.  We love and appreciate the history of this country.

Oldest building in Southern Germany.

Ornate church in Pfullendorf.

Entrance to the town.