Frohe Weihnachten from the Saunders

                   ....... FROHE WEIHNACHTEN  from Elder Keith and Sister Judy Saunders...

The Christmas tree isn't in our living room in Sandy, but then neither are we.

There's no snow on the ground. We haven't made gingerbread houses or Christmas cookies.

No TV........so we haven't seen Rudolph or Frosty.  BUT....

We feel the Christmas Spirit and want to send our warmest wishes to our family and friends.

We feel so blessed to have received the real Gift of Christmas.  Celebrating our Savior's birth and knowing He is the reason for the season has played a bigger part in our lives this year.  Being in Germany, and so far from home, has given us more time to reflect on what is really important in our lives.  You and your happiness are on our minds.  May we all allow the real Gift of Christmas to influence and bless our lives is our Christmas wish for all.

        This is the Nativity Scene at the Frankfurt Temple.  Very simple and simply beautiful.

Love to all,

Elder and Sister Saunders

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas......in Germany!

Welcome to our front door.  When you move into an apartment , you "inherit" whatever is there.  We weren't lucky enough to find any Christmas decoration, but with a 2 euro wreath ( from my favorite store,  Woolworth's ) and some Pass-Along cards....we're in business!

I am hoping to get some great nativity scenes while here....But this one, though beautiful , is a little too big.  We went to Wiesbaden with two missionaries couples to see the Christmas Market.  It was quite the experience .  We got there about 3 pm and by the time we left at 5, half of Germany had joined us!

There are lots of booths with all kinds of wares, food, and drinks.  Many people go just for the food.

I was interested in nativites and got  couple of small ones.  

I really need to edit pictures Keith takes of me!  He said, "that's a good one".....wrong!

Pay back time!!

This is the first two-tiers carousel I've seen.  So festive and cute.  I'm sure my grandkids would go for the top tier!  

We saw St. Nicolas and is he a little different here .  Kids are a little bit afraid of him because he carries a burlap big to put naughty children in!  No mobs of children waiting on line to see him.  These little ones were very cautious.....and he gave them a little toy.  They must have been good boys and girls!

Our first Christmas Market was fun.  It wasn't very cold.  Lights, music, "stuff"......put us in the Christmas spirit.

Elder S would be happy if this was our only Christmas Market....it won't be!

We then went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner.  We had gone there once before and were anxious to go again.  Mexican food isn't widely available here, so when the missionaries find a good place, word spreads fast.  A young man, who was picking up take out, noticed our name tags, said hello, went out to his car and sent his wife in to meet us.  Her parents were here on their mission until last month....we knew them, and it was so fun to meet their daughter and hear how they are doing "back home".

Today was Fast Sunday.  It was a spiritual high for us.  This ward is filled with truly wonderful people.  Their testimonies touched our hearts.  A new  missionary couple came up to us and introduced themselves as Greg and Lorraine Dahl's friends.  They had served in the same inner city mission.

It's a small world!  We've been here long enough to see couples come and go quite regularly now.  We also met Sister Sorenson from Sandy.  She went to Jordan and " knew of" some of the kids from our home ward. She graduated in June.

Busy week ahead with our monthly Area Audit Committee Meeting on Thursday.  We have a new Assistant Area Auditor coming to train this week, too.  The way the church wants to do things now is to have the new assistant auditors come to us for training, instead of us going to them.  So Keith is busy with lots on his plate.  

Hope this finds you well and happy......we are!

Orientation Lesson.......November 30, 2014

This is to get you oriented as to where we live and go to church.  Here is Elder Saunders coming out of our apartment on November 30th.  I heard him singing "Happy Birthday" to someone.

You can tell it's getting colder now that December is coming.

Here he comes in our little Toyota Versa.  Our apt. Is on the fifth floor, but we get off

on the fourth floor because the second floor is really the first floor......it's a German thing.  Our apt. Is on the other side of the building, and our little balcony is on the west.

As if the streets aren't narrow enough, notice the tree IN the street.

Here we are in Frankfurt......20 minutes later.  The church is behind me.  Keith stayed in the same spot and I moved to show you the rest of the area.  I walked forward about 20 steps to the front of the Europe Area Office 

building.

Wish Emilee were here to tell me how to delete the blurry one!  I walked about 20 steps and turned to face Elder Saunders, and now you can see where the majority of the senior missionary couples live.  It is nice for them to live so close to their offices.  We live about 8 minutes away from our office.

Here's my sweet little Mia on the November page of our calendar........November 30th marked our fifth month milestone.  The days go by rather slowly, but all of a sudden another month has passed.

Hope you'll check in for more of our adventures in Germany.  Bye for now!

(How'd I do, Emmy !)