Wonderful German Christmas Season

A transformation happened overnight yesterday. November 30th was like any other day. Then on Saturday, December the 1st, there were Christmas decorations everywhere, Christmas markets opened, Christmas events activities posted, and people were everywhere greeting everyone else with the Christmas spirit. It was the 1st day of Advent.

Last night we attended a Christmas concert at the ward building in Friedrichsdorf. Unbelievable.  The decorations in the chapel were absolutely beautiful and the choir sang a variety of Christmas songs in both English and German. We loved it.

Thong & the sister missionaries who taught him 

A couple of weeks back, Sister van Hoff and I had the opportunity to help the sister missionaries teach a young man from Vietnam. Yesterday he was baptized into the church. Here was a guy who had almost no understanding of God and now he not only understands who Heavenly Father is, he also has a testimony that this is Christ's church. He spoke at his baptism telling everyone how he was guided by the Spirit and felt the witness of the Holy Ghost letting him know that this is the Savior's church.

He asked me to be the spokesman to bestow the Gift of the Holy Ghost on him. What and honor that was. I wanted to pronounce his name correctly, so I kept asking him to say it over and over again. I was just not getting it right. Eventually I had an idea. I asked him to say his name twice while recording it on my phone. I practiced all evening and most of Sunday. I still don't think I said it correctly, but I'm sure I got pretty close.

After his baptism

He is so happy. I remember when we helped teach, he was somewhat expressionless. He is smiling nearly all the time now. Unfortunately, his smile was not captured in the photos.

Before the baptism, I went for one last ride on my bike. Riding a bike has been like a new world to me. Whenever I feel stressed or just need to relax, I get on the bike and ride. I have enjoyed seeing places in the area that I could not have seen by walking or driving a car. I will miss my bike, but I know someone who desperately needs it more than I do. Hopefully I will be able to get a bike when I return to the States. I just hope that the area I live in is suitable for riding. Mountainous areas would probably be too difficult for me.  Here is a link to my last bike ride here in Germany. I warn you, it is 5 minutes long.  https://youtu.be/nddBUoG6F-k

Earlier this week we did some gardening. We had a peace plant that grew more than we expected, so we split it up and planted several sections into different pots.

Having fun in the dirt

Our plan was to give out plants to others. In fact, Friday evening we gave out two of the seven repotted plants. Five more to go. It felt good to get our hands into dirt again.

I want to share one more thing. We have been talking about the technology groups we are forming here in Europe. To refresh your memory, the groups are formed of stake and district technology specialists from different stakes and districts in a geographic area. The organized groups have different communication channels to use for staying in touch and provide support when needed.

This past week we spoke with the facilitators overseeing the three pilot groups we used. Two of the three had almost no communication going on. The facilitators reported that they felt frustrated and that their groups were not functioning.

We reassured them that their groups were functioning just fine. If there are no problems, typically there will be no communication going on. We encouraged the facilitators to periodically send something out in their text group. This could be done monthly or every couple of months. The idea is to help the other members of the group to remember that they have a group to call on if an emergency arises.

The Hungary-Romania Technology Group was one of them that had no communication. We encouraged the facilitator to send out a message on his group text. His meeting was the last video-conference we had that evening. After we ended the meeting and put things away, we left the office to walk home to our apartment building. No sooner than we stepped out of the door, my cell phone began to ding over and over again.  I checked the phone to see what was going on. There was all sorts of texting going on back and forth with the Hungary-Romania TG. Of course, it was initiated with the facilitator. What a wonderful testimony that was. The Lord is truly blessing this program and it is wonderful to be able to see it happen.

We only have 4 months left. It may seem like a long time, but for us it is hardly enough time. There is still so much to do. Lord willing, we will be able to complete all that we want to accomplish.

We love you and pray for you.