Medieval Festival at Ronneburg 9-24-11

We had a very busy week, so on Saturday, we headed off to Ronneburg for their Medieval Festival at the castle. lt was unbelievable and put the Utah Arts Festival to shame. lt had jugglers, artists demonstrating their work, great food, merry-go-round rides, and a whole kid's yard filled with jousting, and medieval fun. The locals were decked out in medieval costumes, and everyone seemed to be having a great time. We had a delicious, large crepe filled with marzipan and Nutella.  A peacock stood guard over the festivities and didn't leave his post all afternoon. 

Here are pictures of the view from the castle (built in the mid-1200's), a bagpipe performance, a woman spinning wool, a torture stretching machine, indoor plumbing in the castle, Lonnie in costume, the peacock, the knight in armor, and the medieval merry-go-round. There are a lot of festivals in the summer and fall in Germany. They are so much fun, so we're trying to hit as many as we can before winter sets in. Of course, then there are the Christmas Festivals. Germany loves their festivals. What fun!

ESPECIALLY FOR KIDS!  A Merry-Go-Round! Want a ride?

Some Fun News From Bob

Before we left Utah for this wonderful adventure, Lonnie was searching the web for interesting things to do in Frankfurt and the surrounding areas.  Being the writer she is, she came upon a post about a theater company in Frankfurt which was  having a playwriting competition.  The plays were to be about the Grimm Brothers or their tales.  The contest was related to the bicentennial celebration of the first publication of their fairy tales.

The plays could be written in either English or in German.  Since her German wasn’t so hot at that point, she was thinking in English.  She thought about it on the very long flight over. When we got here, she started learning more about the Grimm Brothers and their fairy tales.  She was learning so much that I was wondering if she was going to write some kind of a thesis about the Grimm Brothers. Instead, she wrote a play that incorporated their real life story with the tale of Hansel and Gretel.

The deadline for submitting the play was about six weeks after we got here.  She submitted the play and relaxed from her writing and moved on to making a quilt with mementos of the different place we had visited.  This last week, she got an email from the theater company informing her that her play had won the competition!  The play will be produced in the fall of 2012.  It will be fun to see it on stage.  Hooray for my beautiful, bright, and talented wife!

ESPECIALLY FOR KIDS! This is a park on top of a bridge that goes over the freeway!

Bob's Birthday

Today is Bob's birthday, and we are really celebrating here in Germany. He had mango oatmeal for breakfast, a wonderful lunch out at an Indian Restaurant with the legal department, and a birthday party in the evening with several of our missionary couple friends. We had chocolate cake with real European chocolate on top, served with vanilla ice cream, and carrot cake, served with coconut ice cream. Bob loved his phone calls and messages of love. What a happy day. You don't turn 70 every day, you know. And isn't he a handsome guy? Doesn't looks a day over 69!

Lonnie's Devotional Talk 9-19-11

Always Remember Him

Lonnie Bradley

When you are in a hurry, do you ever hop in your car and drive away. And then you hear that familiar ding-ding-ding  sound that is your cue to buckle up? You  forgot to fasten your seatbelt. How do we forget? It’s something we know that we need to do, and we snap it on every day. But we all get distracted and forget. I did that just yesterday.

Each week, we bow our heads and participate in the most important ordinance of our meetings—the Sacrament. We renew our baptismal promises to God to take Christ’s name upon us, to keep His commandments, and in both prayers, to always remember Him. In turn, He promises us that  if we will do these things, we will always have the Lord’s spirit to be with us. This is the gospel in its simplicity.

Today I would like to talk about that word, “always.” It’s the word that makes this promise so tricky. How do we always remember him?  How long are we able to remember Him after partaking of the Sacrament? Do we get through the Sacrament ? The Sacrament Meeting? Through all of Sunday? Through Monday?  Through an entire week? It is difficult to always remember Him.

President Monson’s recent  homage to September 11,  published in the Washington Post, addressed this issue of our forgetfulness: He wrote: “Our Father’s commitment to us, His children, is unwavering. Whether  it is the best of times or the worst, He is with us. But we are less faithful than He is. If there is a spiritual lesson to be learned from our experience of that fateful day, it may be that we owe to God the same faithfulness that  He gives to us. We should strive for steadiness, and for a commitment to God that does not ebb and flow with the years or the crises of our lives.” He added, “But we are forgetful.”

Is there a way that we can be less forgetful and have more steadiness and commitment? What  distracts us from always remembering our Savior, Jesus Christ?

Our busy lives, the things of the world, our negative thoughts, our discouragements, our fears, our lusts,  our anger, our shame, our pride? It is the natural man in us, described in Mosiah 3:19, that gets in our way.

How can we remember our Savior--always? Maybe we need reminders or cues.

Having worked in advertising, I know that advertisers are very skilled at making people remember their ads. They know that  if they put catchy music to words and visuals and repeat them over and over again in jingles, that we are likely to remember their product.

Let’s see how true this is. For those of you familiar with American advertising Jingles, finish the last words to these jingles:

M'm M'm Good That’s why ?(Campbell's Soups are m’m m’m good) (1935)

I Wish I Were an ? (Oscar Mayer Weiner" (1963) )

You deserve a break today at ? (McDonald’s) 1974)

Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun with ? (double mint, double mint, double mint gum" (Wrigley's Doublemint Gum, 1986)

Maybe we need to take a tip from advertisers and find a cue that will stick in our minds to always remember Jesus. For me it is music. I enjoy collecting and singing traditional gospel songs, and as the lyrics drift into my mind day and night, they are my cues to more often remember our Savior.

These are a few lyrics from one song that I love:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus

Look full in his wonderful face

And the things of Earth will grow strangely dim

In the light of his Glory and Grace.

“Look full in his wonderful face.” Isn’t this why we are here on Earth, to prepare ourselves with charity for that very moment. In Moroni 7:48 we read, “when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see Him as he is.

I love our Savior, Jesus Christ.

I have a firm testimony that he chose to do his Father’s will.

He created our beautiful Earth.

He gave all glory to His Father.

He volunteered to be our Savior and atone for our sins.

He lived a sinless life of service on Earth to be an example to us so that we may know how to live our lives.

He suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane to take upon him all of our sins, if we will repent.

He willingly died for us and was resurrected that we too might have eternal life.

He will plead to the Father for us.

And He will come again in power and glory.

Should we not remember Him every moment of every day?

Taking the Sacrament each week is a blessing. It is an opportunity for us, as we repent, to have all of our sins washed away. Heavenly Father’s promise  to us is that we will ALWAYS have His spirit to be with us—there’s that word again, ALWAYS . If we do our part, God does His. As President Monson said, “we owe to God the same faithfulness that He gives to us.”

In Mosiah 5:12, we read (and please listen for the word, always):

I would that ye should remember to retain the name written always in your heart that ye are not found on the left hand of God.

So I invite you today to choose a cue that works for you--one that will help you remember our Savior. It could be something as simple as every time you touch a door, you remember Jesus. I have been known to write a J on my hand. You might find a hymn, or even a little song as simple as Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam to hum as a cue to always remember Him.  As for me I will continue with my cue of making a “joyful noise” unto the Lord and buckle up for spiritual safety.

Men are, that they might have joy. (2 Nephi 2:25) This is God’s plan. It is my testimony that when we always remember Him and we have His Spirit to be with us, that we are joyful.

I say these things, in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. 

Volunteering at the Evangelische Nazarethgemeinde Kindergarten

I feel fortunate to have been invited as a volunteer at the Evangelische Nazarethgemeinde Kindergarten. I had to apply and try out to become a volunteer, as volunteering is not something that German schools are too familiar with. I love the school. It is for children ages 3-6, and they all intermingle. It is such a wonderful learning environment. What I love about it is that it incorporates the open classroom philosophy in which children have the freedom to explore their own areas of learning in centers of their own choosing. They can stay in one room all day long, if they like, or all week long as they explore their interests and work at their own pace; or they may ask their teacher if they can go to a different room to explore something new. The children amaze me in how long they are able to hold their attention on their self-chosen tasks. There is very little teacher instruction given, although they group for art activities. The teachers do not present "lessons" as such, but offer support and encouragement to the children as they explore. They mostly observe, praise, and encourage.They are very tolerant and loving to the children, and the children are very loving with one another and their teachers and quite kind and careful with each other.

There are seven teachers and seven classrooms.The teachers rotate to different classrooms every eight weeks. Each Tuesday, all the teachers spend from 2:00 to 6:00 in a planning meeting while the parents watch the children. Each classroom is set up as a specific learning environment. There are two art rooms, one upstairs and one downstairs. The upstairs room also doubles as the gathering room to check children into school. Another room is for building, construction, puzzles, and take apart, and it doubles as the story room later in the afternoon. There is another room with round tables that doubles for the library, music, and snack area when needed. There is a big gymnasium with lots of large motor equipment, and it is very loud with lots of happy children. There is a lot of physical hugging and play, especially among the boys.

The playhouse room is very large with real beds. It doubles as the rest time room. At rest time, it's interesting that even children at four years of age are undressed, diapered, and tucked into bed with their own pacifiers. They go to sleep in the dark with the door closed. When they wake up, they are changed and dressed by their teachers.Yet many of these same children, who wake up with binkies in their mouths, ride to school on their own two-wheelers. There are no tricycles at the school, but the younger children bring their little two-wheelers without pedals that they push along with their feet to learn how to balance. There is no designated bike path on the playground. They just ride around being careful not to run over anyone. The children are given great freedom in playing on their wonderful playground. Their agility is excellent for their ages, and as one teacher explained, "Physical activity is very important for brain development." The teachers trust that the children will play well with one another, no matter how adventurous they are being, even climbing up the slide on top of one another while trying to push giant building blocks up into the tree house fort. There is very little intervention by teachers or time out. The children enjoy coming to them for an occasional hug or conversation. I even got a hug from one little boy as I left the school.

Here is a funny story. A little three-year-old boy came up to me with a question in German. I looked at his sweet face blankly, and he repeated himself. Then he repeated himself a little louder, and then very loudly. I guess he thought that I was deaf, because I couldn't answer him. I finally said, "Ich spreche English," and he rolled his eyes and walked off. The children are working with me to teach me German, and I am so appreciative. Now I have a great desire to learn the German language so that I can communicate with these darling children. I am happy to have the opportunity to serve in this environment and grateful to have been accepted as a volunteer at this lovely school.

Here are some photos:

ESPECIALLY FOR KIDS! A Beautiful Garden Slug From Hessen

ESPECIALLY FOR KIDS! Chickens in Germany at Hessen Park

Our Apartment in Frankfurt

We enjoy living on the Ninth Floor, experiencing the weather change from day to day and sometimes hour to hour, seeing the trees blowing in the wind and changing colors, and watching the birds fly by. Here are some photos of our apartment. We love it!

For My Artist Friends--Beautiful Gallery in Bad Wimpfen

Especially for Kids--Block Jugglers in Bad Wimpfen

Especially for Kids--Jugglers in Bad Wimpfen

Especially For Kids! Renaissance Fair in Bad Wimpfen!

Monthly Schedule

Bob and I are busy with many activities during the month. Here is an example of how we have been spending our time:
Monday through Friday, Bob puts in about 55 hours a week doing legal work at the office.
On Mondays, we go to an inspiring Devotional at 9:00 A.M. In the evening, we often have home evening discussions with other couples in one of our apartments.
On Tuesdays, we go to our German Class at 4:30. One Tuesday a month is Sisters' Night Out. In August we did line dancing, followed by refreshments.
On Wednesday, we occasionally have zone conference all day long or a guest speaker.
There are usually not too many activities on Thursday, but soon we will begin our Interdenominational Choir practices for our Christmas Concert.
On Friday evenings, once a month we go to the Temple. Otherwise, we enjoy getting together with other couples in our apartment house and play games or go out to dinner.
On Saturdays, we either join in on one of the missionary outings or tours, or we hop in the car, often with another couple, and head off for some wonderful place to explore such as this castle in Heidelberg. We walk a lot and come home with tired feet, but happy.
On Sundays, we are grateful for the day of rest. We go to church for three hours and sometimes have a fireside or are invited to dinner at a friend's home.
Missionary couples work hard and play hard. There's a lot of comaraderie and friendship. There never seems to be a dull moment, and we are loving our work and our play here. Missions are great, and we're glad to be here in beautiful Germany!