Our Last Austrian Christmas!

 This is our last Christmas in Austria!  Our mission is 23 months!  Where have the past 16 months gone?  

We are delighting in the Alpine snow!  We also appreciated performing together some lovely Christmas pieces on violin and piano in our branch and also at Zone Conference in Salzburg!  We enjoyed  performing Christmas carols for members in their  homes and a care center. Especially memorable was hearing inspirational messages from our dear Prophet Russell M. Nelson.  

In the middle of December we traveled for a week around Germany with Scott and Meretta Barnes.  They are very dear friends of ours.  The Barnes are also senior missionaries in the Alpine German Speaking Mission. 

The highlight of our travels together was attending the temple in Freiburg Germany.  How we miss attending temples often!  Here in Austria, the closest temples to us are the Swiss Temple and the Freiburg Temple, which are both six hours away.  It is not fast or reasonable in price to travel to worship in these wonderful temples but we are so very thankful and blessed to be able to do so!  What a blessing to serve in Temples around the world and at home.  We are ever grateful and humbled by this wonderful privilege.  

In 1987, we actually visited the Freiburg Temple when it was still in East Germany.  At that time were on an International Tour with the Utah Symphony.  What a thrill to see the additions and improvements that have taken place over the past 35 years!

The temples all have housing available for the temple patrons that is very cost effective.  In US dollars, it is about $8.00 per person per night!  Almost unbelievable!  We appreciated it very much.

In the temple we saw some very dear friends from the Graz Ward who are serving in the Freiburg Temple.  Robert and Edith Saitz have been serving temple missions for the past ten years.  They have been taking turns serving in the Frankfurt and Freiburg temples.  They are converts who are so devoted and love the Lord with all their hearts.  What a strength they are to all who know them.  They are sweet friends to me and Judd.  We are so thankful to be collecting friends.  Each relationship is so precious to us.

 We attended Weihnachtsmarkts (Christmas Markets)  in Praag (Czech Republic) and Dresden Germany.  The Dresden Markt is considered one of the best in Europe.  It was enchanting!