2nd Advent

Today is the day that the second candle will be lit. There are only two more advents before it is Christmas. The adults are complaining that there is not enough time to finish all there is to do. The children are anxious to light the other two candles. Yesterday was the St. Nikolas day(6th of December). We saw him in many different places, handing out oranges, candy and other small gifts.

Our Ward had the Christmas Party at one end of the Stake Center and the Young Single Adults had their Social at the Outreach Center - on the other end of the building.

It made it very convenient for St. Nikolas to visit both parties. The Young adults were told that the children were a lot better this past year and that the presents on Christmas Eve would reflect the bad behavior of some of the young adults.This past week we spent some time in Hamburg where the Mission had a Senior Missionary Conference. While in Hamburg we took some time out to visit the Hamburg Christmas Market. During our three hour visit we were only able to see part of what was to see. We were told to dress warm and that was for a good reason. We enjoyed walking from one place to another. The sounds, the sights and the smell of the various foods was like something out of a story book. Some of the food was just to irresistible and was it ever goooood.

On our way home we stopped and stayed with one of our friends in Bremen. We stayed overnight with the Pugmire Family. On the next day we visited the Bremen Christmas Market with them. The market was not as big, but the quality was even better than Hamburg. I don't know why it was exactly that we enjoyed these shopping trips so much. In part for me (Hugo) it had to be that we did not buy anything and for Anina it was just a warm up for next year when we will be getting ready to come home.

We have attached three pictures.

This picture shows all of the Senior Missionaries in the Hamburg Mission. The picture is taken at the Mission Home. Bottom Row from Left to Right : Elder and Sister Beazer, Elder and Sister Tingey, Elder and Sister Zander. Top Row from Left to right: Elder and Sister Duerksen, Sister Lutz, Elder and Sister Robb, Elder and Sister Diederich, President and Sister Thompson, Elder and Sister Randall, Elder and Sister Brink.

This picture is Anina with Sister Tingey and Sister Duerksen.

This last picture shows some of our Young Adults at our Christmas Social. Notice the young couple holding hands, they were just engaged last week.