Christmas 2014 !!

 On December 19th all of us Graz District Missionaries and some of our YSAs went Christmas caroling through the old town decorated walking streets of Graz. Elder Mitchell and Sister Pentz are not pictured because they are handing out "ER IST DAS GESCHENK" cards. (HE IS THE GIFT) And Elder Tew took the picture.  Alot of people gathered to listen and it was a great time to let people know who we are and that Jesus Christ truly is the Gift to the World.

 I snapped this pic quickly as we were singing.

 This is a Christmas Market up on top of Schlossberg in the old theater.

 We bought some hot apple/orange punch to warm us, and take home the metal souvineer mugs.

 Another Christmas Market at Hauptplatz. the main city square.

Elder Tew and I have been helping Sister Bishop and Sister Pentz teach and help this sweet Karin Bauer come back to the Church. She was baptized about 21 years ago but has been totally less active for alot of that time when her husband left her. She moved to the Graz area 6 years ago and just got in contact with us missionaries.  We had her records but couldn't find her because she moved from the address listed. She got the phone number of our Sisters from a friend in Salzburg. She is a single mom with 6 daughters but only the youngest two are still at home. The girls have no interest yet. They are ages 19 and 15 and we are hoping they will want to join us for our visits. 

 We are in the apartment of Ketty and Hannas. They invited the missionaries and some friends over for dinner and a Christmas program. We showed the "Joy To The World" DVD and had a great discussion when the question was asked "so what is the difference between your church and the Catholic Church??" What a great question!

 This is the lovely dinner Ketty fixed. She is from Peru.

 Great friends the Lex family. Norbert and Heika (our new Relief Society President) and two of their daughters, Svea and Siri. Siri is one of our YSAs but will be getting married in June.

 December 21st and all the Advent Candles are lit for the 4th Sunday before Christmas.

This is our cute young friend Aigerim who came to visit us for a couple of days right before Christmas. She studies in Vienna and came so we could show her Graz. We had a great time. She still hasn't been beptized yet because she is waiting for her mother to come from her home in Kazakhstan to be with her. Aigerim calls herself a Mormon anyway.

 I thought it would be interesting for you to see the upside down trees in the daylight.

 Such a beautiful painted building that everyone loves.

 Of course we took her up to the top of the K&O store to the glass platform to see the city views.

Aigerim took this pic of us.

 This pic is for our grand kids who love to build with legos! We thought you would like to see this Lego Santa in the K&O store.

 And...this display of wild animals for our animal lovers.

 Of course we hiked up the Schlossberg so Aigerim could see the views from there. Graz is full of red roofs which is somewhat unique to Austria.

 Our beautiful Rathaus (city hall) at Hauptplaz.

 The clock tower we love so much.

 More Christmas Markets.

 We happened to be here for this gorgeous sky at dusk.

It doesn't get any better than this.

The city hall with the ever changing Christmas lighting.

More of the lit trees.

A lovely nativity scene.

Now we have another version of the Nativity hand made by an Austrian seamstress and purchased by our good friends Klaus and Laurel pictured below. Normally the Austrians do not put the baby Jesus in the manger until Christmas Eve when the Christ Kind or Christ Child comes but Laurel let me take this pic earlier.

We love being with this great couple sharing ideas and fellowshipping. Klaus is suffering from a very difficult health issue and when we come to play games and laugh, it takes his mind off from it all. Laurel is a member of the Church and an American so they come to Utah every year to visit her family and travel. We are hoping they will be able to stay with us some of the time. Klaus comes to Sacrament meetings to sit with Laurel but with his strong Catholic roots, it is difficult for him to embrace the Gopsel that his wife loves so much. She would love for him to get baptized and he enjoys our church but... maybe over time.. We know from the scripture in Ether 12:6 "ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith." He is going through a tough trial and we are praying for them.

Christmas Eve! This is part of our group that enjoyed the evening with us at the church. I made sure that we had enough food and Rick provided the program down in our YSA room afterward.

Some had to leave and others came. We had four non-member friends with us (three are pictured here) and it was fabulous. Sister Pentz led us in singing Christmas songs after Elder Tew showed a part of "Joy To The World" and teaching about the Gifts of the Savior.  And then...we enjoyed more dessert!!! Bro. Haas (middle in red sweater) had not celebrated Christmas in ten years since his wife died. He was teary eyed most of the night and said he will hold this night in his heart the rest of his life. What a gift to us! A treasured memory for us all as we focused on our Savior's love.   

These...treasures are from Mabel and family for our Christmas. Love, love, love the pic she drew of us potato Grandparents!! And Grandpa Tew even has LEGS!! The earings even blink which I wore the next day for our young missionaries.

We had a waffle night for these great missionaries and they were able to Skype home to their families using our two devices and the computer at the church. They finally all worked. Yay!! We love them so much! We also played some great ping pong.

This special couple are Robert and Edith Seitz who invited all the District missionaries over for dinner on Dec. 26th. They also have a great conversion story and have been faithful servants of the Lord ever since 1991 when they were baptized. We don't know them well because they help out the struggling Branch in Bruck and are there every Sunday as Leadership. Several of the strong Graz members are doing that.

Years ago they bought this large table just so they could accomodate all the missionaries for dinner appointments and member families. 

Yummy desserts. Three different kinds dished up for us. Thank goodness my companion can eat his and some of mine also!  After being physically fed, we all shared our testimony and feelings which was a wonderful spiritual feast!

These fun Sisters and Elders gave us this beautiful plant in appreciation for what we do for them. (We cried)

Beautiful Sunday morning after Christmas. First snow storm of the year for us. Then Rick went out to shovel!!

When we were buying these Good Luck pigs as a gift, we met Vici behind the counter. She heard our English and started talking to us. She knows English, French and some Russian as well as her native German. When Elder Tew told her why we were in Austria. she asked what the difference was between our church and others. Yay!! Great times!! She gave us her email and the next day on our way to visit Karin Bauer with the Sisters, we bought Vici a sandwich and introduced her to them. She gave the Sisters her phone number and they are meeting with next week!  Missionary work is great sharing the Gospel and the joy it brings! 

Sister Karin Bauer that same day. Good times again!

Karin lives out in the country and such a nice drive.

We had to stop and snap this lovely hamlet on the hill.

Our New Year's Eve spent as missionaries playing 5 Crowns and Farkle with treats! But before that Elder Tew took me out for a Chinese dinner. It was about the only resturant open and was great!

Then Elder Tew and I drove around the city to see the lights again.

And we came home to be surprized by all the fireworks going off in our neighborhood. This pic is looking from our apartment down the street. HAPPY NEW YEAR!! It is now 2015!!!

DECEMBER in GRAZ 2014!!

 December means Christmas! We love December!! This is the tiny tree we have here in our apartment. I will show you more of our decorations later in the post. 

 This is after our first FHE for the month. You can see the Elders, Bernhard Kober, and Ben. We are hoping Ben will be ready to be baptized soon. He is alot of fun and he loves being a part of our YSA group.

 Sister Pentz, Lisa, Sister Bishop, Hayli and Sophia.

 Dominic and Haiko. Both Sophia and Haiko are new friends investigating our Church.

 Fun game!! On the front of our paper was a name of a famous character or person that we had to ask questions to find out who it was. We couldn't see the name we had but everyone else could.  It was a thumbs up!! It was a new experience for Haiko. (everything in the church is)

 We always enjoy our Missionary District meetings on Tuesdays. The missionaries are great teachers.

 I do alot of the cooking in our apartment for the YSAs, esp. the desserts. These are cherry squares.

 After Institute night I had to snap this picture.  Some had already left . Five in this pic are nonmembers. We love em!!

 Looks like Christmas! This is the advent wreath that Sara Luschin bought for her Grandma's living room table. The tradition for Austrians is to light a candle  each Sunday before Christmas for the four weeks.

 We visit Sister Luschin on a regular basis. It is also great when Sara can be there also. Sara is a nurse and has to work alot.

 Angel cookies from sweet Sister Gabi Korak in the ward. She made an angel for all the primary children and missionaries.

 Our small Christmas village that we bought. We are taking these home with us.

 Two candles are lit on our wreath so far. We bought this small wooden tree also.Don't worry, even though it looks like the candle is right under the tree and will ignite any second, it is really not that close.  I love the lighting in this picture.

 We were able to get a DVD player for Bro. Haas for an early Christmas present.  Elder Tew got it all hooked up to a bigger TV that someone gave him. His eyes are so bad now that he cannot read anymore or write but he can watch DVDs and we got him some nice Church DVDs to help him. He was so grateful and has such a great testimony. He is a strong member of the Church and does all he can to invite others to Christ.

 This is probably the strangest fruit ever! It is a Kiwano melon. You can see that it is small with semi sharp spikes. Ouch. We had to try it just for fun. I think it is from Egypt. Check it out on google.

 Well, that was a waste of 2.50 euros. Horrible! No taste and slimy seeds with yucky juice. But it was an experience for sure.

 But.. this is still our favorite. The Kaki persimmon. And... we also love the pomelo.

 These are some other treats we had to try. The rice cake smothered with dark chocolate is a fav of mine, Marzipan Stollen with thick powdered sugar, very good also! 

 Christmas in Graz! We love all the lights and decorations here in Graz down the streets.

 The Rathouse (City Hall) and the real freshly cut tree. The colorful projection lights with different designs every few minutes are interesting, like a changing advents calendar.

 Amazing street performers- enjoy being there for the last of one of his songs below:

 We love all hanging Christmas trees strung on wires across the streets. We still wonder how they do all that.

 I will post about the Christmas markets in my next December posting.

 The beautiful Alps on our way to Salzburg for Zone Conference.

 A fabulous Conference with two zones of missionaries.

 The Wades and Parkers. 

 We are with Elder Plumb and the Smiths. Elder Plumb was transferred from Graz to Salzburg where the Smiths are.

 We love being missionaries!!

 Later that night the Wades and us met up with the Smiths and some of their YSAs, at the Salzburg Christkindl Markt (Christ child market).

 We stayed over night at this great little Bed and Breakfast. This cute lady is such a nice owner and hostess.

 Fun pic walking back from breakfast.

 Getting ready to check out.

 Ward Christmas Program and Social.

 Brother and Sister Ollendorff

 December 13 was also our annual Family Christmas Party. This year it was hosted at Bryan's house. They had us on Skype and also Brady's family in Anchorage at the same time. Wow, crazy!! We were on the big screen. Thanks guys!

 Elder Sajin Lex, the Bishop's oldest son, returned from his mission in Romania this week. He will be a great asset to the ward and to our YSA group. I wanted a pic with his hat on also but he removed it too quickly. Doesn't he look great in his traditional clothes? He said he plans to wear them every Sunday.

 Our apartment window with our Christmas star!

 This is George on the right. He is another investigator that was approached by the Sisters and decided to come and check out what we are all about. He is 20 years old and from Nigeria. He has quite a story.

 George had such a great time with our group playing some indoor hocky.

 Our new District!! We welcomed Elder Pyle(back left) and Elder Wasden(3rd from left). Elder Oviatt our new DL is the back right. Elder Tew is trying to match the sisters by crossing his left leg!? 

To end this post, here is a Skype pic of our baby Jack. Kristy has him looking at the screen at us which is fastinating to him. We are those funny people that cannot pick him up yet but who love him soooo much.