Lonnie and Bob in Europe: Merry Christmas!

Dear Loved Ones:

We got an early Christmas gift this year--our fifteenth grandchild! Little Elizabeth came to Earth to live with Josh and Sarah’s family on December 10^th. What a joy! We were blessed last summer with two handsome grandsons. Felix came to James and Kirsten’s family and Matthew to Christian and Natalie’s. We are looking forward to March when another new grandson will join John and Nikki’s family. The Bradley family is growing, and we adore all of our grandchildren!

We feel that our family is receiving blessings as we serve our mission in Germany. Kate was just offered a seat in the Physician Assistant’s School at University of California at Davis. Josh and Michael are enjoying their practices in Salt Lake City—Josh at Salt Lake Clinic in ear, nose, and throat and Michael at Hoopes Vision Center, doing cornea work. Christian and James are both working for the same DC area company, telecommuting from home with computer engineering work. John is enjoying his financial management work in Kansas City. Paul is going to college and just got promoted to a new position in his company teaching rehab classes. All of our children and grandchildren are being blessed with health, safety, and happiness, which is our prayer every day.

We are very busy with our missionary service here in Frankfurt. Reuben has been working to catch up on all of the Church employees’ year-end needs. He gets phone messages or emails at all hours with a request to get something done immediately. But we are happy to have the opportunity to serve the Lord in our mission work here. We have met wonderful people and have had opportunities to help new friends see the truth of the Gospel.

There are two area Church offices in the Frankfurt vicinity. The one where Reuben works is about 75 yards from our apartment building. Sometimes with the wind blowing, we get cold just walking from one building to the next. Reuben has been working primarily with real estate transactions and construction in the Europe Area, which consists of 41 countries, ranging from Greenland to Cape Verde, to Moldova, to Finland, and all between. He works with an attorney, Dave Colton, with whom he went to Law School and also worked with at Van Cott Bagley for his first six years there. What a small world! Dave and his wife, Julie, have become some of our best friends. In the legal office here, there are three paralegals and three other staff people. We’ve come to know them well and have had them over to our apartment for crepes. They are wonderful people, and we love them.

Lonnie is volunteering at two different schools. She goes to the Kindergarten (ages 3-6) two days a week and teaches English to seven and eight year old children at the neighborhood elementary school on Fridays. She is able to do some writing and entered a playwriting contest about The Brothers Grimm. The play will be produced here in Frankfurt next fall. She has met with the theater company several times, and it has been fun to associate with them. We are having them over for crepes after Christmas. They invited us to see their Improv Theater and a play, Dickens by Candlelight. It was very creative, so we’re looking forward to a fun production of Lonnie’s play, A Grimm Tale.

Frankfurt is a city that is a mix of old and new with many apartment buildings rising high into the sky. Ours is twelve stories tall, and we are grateful to be on the ninth floor to enjoy watching the birds fly around, the trees change colors, and the storms blow in and out. The weather is very dramatic here and changes on a whim. We have central heating, but that means that we turn the knobs on the radiators to try to control the temperature in the rooms and then open the windows. We have a refrigerator that is much smaller than we are used to. The freezer has three small drawers. If we are both in the kitchen at the same time, we literally have to squeeze past one another. We can never open the cupboards or refrigerator when both of us are in the kitchen. Interestingly, there is no brown sugar in Germany, but the bread and yogurt are heavenly. Fresh eggs are truly fresh.

Germany is a country full of Christmas fun this time of year. We have enjoyed two big Christmas Markets, called Weihnachtmarkts--one in Frankfurt and one in Nürnberg. The markets are overflowing with lights and color and every imaginable Christmas decoration available to mankind. It is almost overwhelming. There is lots of good food—bratwurst, Nutella crepes, marzipan candy, giant heart cookies, and a hot apple “punch” that seems to make the Germans laugh a lot. We have enjoyed putting up a few Christmas decorations in our apartment to make it feel more homey. We have a very large Christmas tree this year that we found up in the closet. It is about 15 inches tall and sits on our dining table.

Our hearts are with our family and friends this time of year. We are so grateful that we have been blessed with such dear and wonderful parents, children, grandchildren, siblings, and friends. Being away from family at Christmas time is hard. As we are anticipating some lonely moments over the holidays, we are planning lots of parties and activities with other missionary couples, such as having a Christmas Eve party to watch It’s a Wonderful Life while munching on marzipan chocolate bars and other yummy German treats. We are also inviting friends and missionaries over to enjoy crepes and baked apples. We have been playing Christmas songs, and Lonnie has been singing in the Regional Christmas Choir.

At this season of the year, we are particularly grateful for the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ, for the Atonement, and for the restoration of the Gospel. We are reminded every day of the blessings of the Savior in our lives and the tender mercies of our Father in Heaven. By the end of the month, we will have read the Book of Mormon through since the beginning of September. We are growing. We are learning to rely on Him, and we are grateful for the rich blessings which our Heavenly Father is providing for us. We know that the Church is growing in Europe. We know that God lives, that Jesus is his Son, and the Christ. We know that Joseph Smith was the young boy whom God chose to restore the Church, the ordinances, and the Priesthood to the Earth.

We love you, and each of you are tucked into our hearts and our prayers. We wish you a Merry Christmas and a joyous New year!

Lonnie and Reuben (Bob)

Please stay in touch with us:

Our address:

Bob and Lonnie Bradley

Europe Area Office of General Counsel

Porthstrasse 5-7

D-60435 Frankfurt am Main

Germany

Phone:

801-272-6044

Remember the 8 hour time difference.