Sunday, March 16, 2014

Trees, sights, and visits

Some of our visits lately have brought interesting results. As usual, we take a few pictures along the way, so there are several pictures of the sights, mostly odd tree pictures, but they help add to the flavor of the experience here.

We have one family we have been working with, visiting, etc. since we have been here. A brief summary is that we first contacted one member lady about a year ago and she suggested we visit her mother who lived in a sort-of retirement center. In the process, we requested the membership records of the mother. She ( the mother) was an active member years ago in Nord-Rhein/Westfalen (where I served my mission 43 years ago), but for various reasons stopped attending. We have since had wonderful visits with her, occasionally accompanied by her daughter. On our last visit, she asked me to say a few words at the burial of a near relative. This took place last Friday at the Heiligenberg Friedwald (literally "peace forest") where they bury ash urns among the trees. I quoted a few scriptures and said a prayer for them. Afterwards, the husband of the daughter asked me what it would take to become a Mormon. Today (Sunday) the daughter and her mother, along with a granddaughter, attended church with us (the first time in decades for them). It was a wonderful experience and they really connected well with the members.

Some of these pictures were taken as we were in the area visiting them.

This is a lake near the Salem Schloss (Castle)

The apple orchards are dormant, but you can see how they are very closely trimmed and kept at a uniform height and spacing. They really produce a lot of apples here. At this time of year they look pretty rough.

a hazy sunset

some freshly tilled earth and a line of trees between fields

An unusual evergreen tree. It doesn't have needles, but blades of a sort (closeup below)


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