Spring Comes to Germany

All Nature is Coming to Life Again

Spring has come to Germany in the last two weeks.  It has been a joyous unfolding of beauty and life.

View of Frankfurt from our balcony

Just days ago it was cold and dreary here after months of biting wind and dark days.  Then it all changed almost overnight.  The bird song, brilliant green and the smell of flowers everywhere has lifted our hearts.

The blooming canola fields are everywhere just outside the city.

Wildflowers carpet the ground.

View from a timber house in Hessen Park.  The construction is careful and beautiful.

Easter egg garland on the fountain in Rothenberg

Lilacs at Braunfels Castle

The cathedral at Metzlar overlooking the Lahn River

A blooming chestnut tree by the Lahn River

The dramatic spring change reminded us of these words of Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin:

"I think of how dark that Friday was when Christ was lifted up on the cross....It was a Friday filled with devastating, consuming sorrow...I think that of all the days since the beginning of this world's history, that Friday was the darkest.  But the despair did not linger because on Sunday, the resurrected Lord burst the bonds of death.  He ascended from the grave and appeared gloriously triumphant as the Savior of all mankind.

And in an instant the eyes that had been filled with ever-flowing tears dried.  The lips that had whispered prayers of distress and grief now filled the air with wondrous praise, for the Christ, the Son of the living God, stood before them as proof that death is merely the beginning of a new and wondrous existence.

Each of us will have our own Fridays--those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces....But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death--Sunday will come.  

May we understand and live in thanksgiving for the priceless gifts that come to us as sons and daughter of a loving Heavenly Father and for the promise of that bright day when we shall all rise triumphant from the grave...No matter how dark our Friday, Sunday will come."

Stake conference was on April 15th and the leaves and blossoms were coming out. Conference was held at the Darmstadt chapel and we sang with the piano that was moved by Elder Uchtdorf by "lifting where you stand".

It was cloudy and overcast when we arrived, but during the conference the sun broke through and it was a beautiful blue-sky day.