Today is Halloween. Halloween has sort of caught on here in Germany. Marieanne Staubach is leaving on vacation to visit her daughter in Chile for a month so we had a little party. She is the person in the office that normally puts together these office celebrations. As the picture below shows she was pleasantly surprised. We got her a large bag to take on the airplane and then filled it with things that she might need. Included were a flashlight, dental floss, notebook, Kleenex, hand sanitizer, lotion, lip balm, herbal tea, and other things.

This is Sister and Elder Eyre. They are the Area Auditors--we are their assistant area auditors. They are our bosses! But they are, of course, very nice to us and we have done some fun things together.

The cold front has moved through and the weather is better. We took a walk on the outskirts of Friedrichsdorf. The fall colors are in full display. This is the part of Germany that typically escapes Rick Steves--and it is the part we love the most. Put yourself into these scenes and see if you just don't somehow feel better!

 As we came back into town I took this photo. The Friedrichsdorf Temple spire can be seen in the center of the photo above the blue guard rails. You can also see the top of our apartment to the right of the circle sign near the building on the right. This gives you an idea about how far it is from our house to the temple.

We had hoped to go to Rothenburg ob der Taube today. A cold front moved in and the temperature dropped sharply. Then the snow began to fall. Now there is a light snow over everything. We had arranged a "night watchman" tour tonight. That just did not seem like a good idea today, so I called our guide and he graciously agreed to let us cancel without paying. We walked downtown to get some shoe laces and it was so cold we decided that we had done the right thing when we chose not to go to Rothenburg. Anyway we are staying in our apartment and cleaning and taking care of things.

This photo is also taken from the patio on our apartment looking south west rather than south east. 

Henry is from Venezuela and works with us in the office. His wife just had a baby girl so they gave his some presents. These are children's word books so that he can learn German with his family--he speaks english and spanish.

 They dis sweeten the deal and also gave him a wad of cash. The expression on his face tells it all. He liked the money!

 Here is the office group that we work with. These are real fun people to work with.

Tonight the senior missionaries had an activity where we went from apartment to apartment. The first stop was the Leonard's apartment for salad. 

Next we stopped at Sister Fosters. Marilynn is enjoying her roses. 

The Last stop was desert at the Brand's. Here we had desert. It was an excellent activity where we got to know some of the other missionaries. 

This was the poppy cheesecake that I ate. Everything we ate was good. We brought the cheese cake from the lady that wants me to come back and take a picture of her daughter. 

These are official church photos of President Monson's visit to Germany. These pictures are all in Frankfurt's Century Hall. Of course, Marilynn made the front row singing in the Choir.

This was the scene inside the Hall. 

 This is Michael Kempener's family. He works in HR here in Frankfurt.

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 And finally, President Monson addressing the members of the Church in Frankfurt.

Ok, I just had to go back to Marburg. This event with Luther and Zwingli is kind of important. Below is a representation of that event. I went to google to find out more. Here are some things from Wikipedia. The Marburg Colloquy was a meeting at Marburg Castle, Marburg, Hesse, Germany which attempted to solve a dispute between Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli over the Real Presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper. It took place between 1 October and 4 October 1529. The leading Protestant reformers of the time attended at the behest of Philipp I of Hessen. Philipp's primary motivation for this conference was political; he wished to unite the Protestant states in political alliance, and to this end, religious harmony was an important consideration.

After the Diet of Speyer had confirmed the edict of Worms, Philipp I felt the need to reconcile the diverging views of Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli in order to develop a unified Protestant theology. Philipp hoped that rapport with Luther would lead to an alliance with Protestant princes and so strengthen his position against the Roman Catholic forces threatening him. Although the two prominent reformers, Luther and Zwingli, found a consensus on fourteen points, they kept differing on the last one pertaining to the Eucharist: Luther maintained that by Sacramental Union, the consecrated bread and wine in the Lord's Supper were united to the true body and blood of Christ for all communicants to eat and drink; whereas, Zwingli considered bread and wine only symbols of the body and blood of Christ. On this issue they parted without having reached an agreement.

Underlying this disagreement was their theology of Christ. Luther believed that the human body of Christ was ubiquitous (present in all places) and so present in the bread and wine. This was possible because the attributes of God infused Christ's human nature. Luther emphasized the oneness of Christ's person. Zwingli, who emphasized the distinction of the natures, believed that while Christ in his deity was omnipresent, Christ's human body could only be present in one place, that is, at the right hand of the Father. Because of the differences Luther initially refused to acknowledge Zwingli and his followers as Christians, though following the colloquy the two Reformers showed relatively more mutual respect in their writings.

At the later Diet of Augsburg the Zwinglians and Lutherans again explored the same territory as that covered in the Marburg Colloquy, and presented separate statements which showed the differences in opinion.

Zwingli responded by writing the Friendly Rejoinder and Rebuttal to the Sermon of the Eminent Martin Luther against the Fanatics. In his Friendly Exposition, written at the same time, Zwingli found The Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ to be "forgettable". Between these two works, Zwingli concluded that he had destroyed Luther's singular authority and replaced Luther's view on the Sacrament of the Altar with the correct one. Zwingli wrote that he was not placing reason over the Scriptures, but instead properly distinguishing between the human and divine natures of Christ. Since Christ's human nature could not participate in the omnipresent attribute of the divine nature, his body and blood could not be truly present in the bread and wine. Luther's characterization of him as placing reason over Scripture was therefore a straw-man argument.

Luther's custom of referring to those who opposed him in non-Christian terms in The Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ sounds unusual to modern ears and therefore merits discussion. However strange sounding today, this practice was consistent with what evangelicals at this early stage in the Reformation believed about the Reformation and the church. From 1520 and continuing through 1529, evangelicals thought the Reformation would unite rather than divide the church. Jews and misled Christians under Rome would convert to the true faith, while everyone else was a false Christian.

In Zwingli's view, Luther was only a Christian as any other and his talents as a theologian did not give him the right to make tyrannical judgments, for example, terming him a heretic, fanatic, and sacramentarian. Zwingli also rejected Luther's claim that the Swiss Reformers relied upon him in their preaching about Christ's death, claiming instead to follow Augustine and Erasmus. Although he admitted that Luther began the Reformation, he claimed that Luther was actually further behind him in the work of reforming. He considered Luther unscholarly and demanded that he retract his published views on the Lord's Supper going back 1519. Instead of condemning Luther, Zwingli found him in need of brotherly prayer.

I see the need for "prophetic voice" as opposed to logic and reason in this story.

Today is sunday and we had Thomas S. Monson here in Frankfurt this morning. Marilynn sang in a choir for the occasion. I went to the airport to pick up the Eyres. In the afternoon we drove up into the mountains north of Friedrichsdorf. They are called the "Taunus" mountains. They are more like hills if you come from Utah, but they are quite beautiful. Especially right now the trees are decked out in their fall colors. Here is Marilynn standing on a road into the forest. 

They had been logging in this area very recently. That turned out to be quite a bonus because the air was also filled with the scent of fresh cut lumber. Here I am in front of that fresh cut lumber.

 Here you can see the road we were walking on with lumber stacked on both sides.

Marilynn sat on a stump and I took her picture. The forest is wonderful. You can also imagine Hansel and Gretel or Little Red Riding Hood passing through these forrests.

 Here the sun is behind the trees making the scene magical.

One last shot of logs, trees, and leaves. Imagine the fresh cool autumn air filled with the  smell of fresh lumber.

We could see people everywhere in the forrest with either baskets or sacks gathering mushrooms. We boldly asked one woman if we could take a picture of their treasure. Here they are (she also had a bag full). She told us that one way they identify good mushrooms (as opposed to bad mushrooms--that I guess kill you) is by the red stem.

Today was Saturday and we were caught up on everything, so we started by going downtown to Friedrichsdorf to the farmers market. Here is an attractive display.

Marilynn bought a Poppy-seed cheese cake for the missionaries' dinner for family home evening from this lady. She said to come back next week to take a picture because her daughter would be there then--and she is younger and looks better. I told her she looked plenty good and took the picture.

Vendors in the weekly market just park their trucks in the middle of the street and sell their goods. By the way, this is the main street of downtown Friedrichsdorf. 

 After our trip to the market, we decided to drive north of Friedrichsdorf about 70km to the city of Marburg. This is me on the castle grounds on top of a hill. I am doing my best to give you the "auditor look".

 This is the view from the hill by the castle. The town below is Marburg, Germany. And yes, the steeple on the church is actually crooked.

 This is the arch going into the courtyard of the Marburg castle.

 This is the first big room as you enter the castle.

Below is a picture of an argument between Luther and Zwingli over the sacrament. In the town of Marburg in the early 1500's they were trying to decide if the sacrament actually became the blood and body of Christ (Luther's position) or if it was a representation of the blood and body of Christ (Zwingli's position). The never did agree!

Here is part of a medieval tapestry of the prodigal son that hangs on a wall in the museum section of the castle.

These are some of the weapons that are on display in the museum.

I don't know who this is supposed to represent. It is a carving of a priest asleep. Maybe this is what he did in church.

This is the keyboard from an old organ dating from the 1600's. I think they got mixed up with the black keys and the white keys.

Now we have a plate depicting a gleaner. Maybe this is Ruth.

We found this boar's head fountain to be very attractive. Would you like to drink out of a pig's mouth--or is that his snout!

This is the archway over the road as you leave the castle.

I love the patterns they make in the cobblestones. It is really a work of art the way they put down the pattern.

Here are some people enjoying some of the beautiful weather before winter sets in and it gets too cold. Marburg is a university town so there are students everywhere. In many ways Marburg resembles Heidelburg.

This is the Lahn river as it flows through the middle of Marburg.

This week we have food to talk about again.The first one is our favorite Sunday dinner. This features fresh carrots--the carrots are quite tasty. The comes the Basmati rice, topped of with baked salmon with Cajun and a twist of fresh lime. The drink is raspberry. Trust me on this one, it was real, real good.

 I thought I would show you some more about Kaiserschmarrn. Yes, we had it again. Actually, we will probably have it often while we are here. This time we added some raisins as you see below. This first photo shows the pan cooking the first side.

 When it comes time to turn it over it is too big to turn. So the solution is to cut it into 4 pieces and turn it over as shown below.

 Next you chop up the whole thing into random chunks and finish cooking. I like to go slow and cook it at a low heat so that it is golden brown.

 Then you put it on a plate and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

The final step is to cover every thing with apple sauce. Well, the real final step is to eat the whole thing. That is what we did

There was not much going on this week but this morning we went for a walk. Our church does not start until 2:00 PM so we have some time on Sunday. Besides that, we want to be more regular in our walking.

This first picture is from our balcony looking towards the temple spire, on the left. The beautiful house on the right is the home of the temple president.

As we walked we ran into Gabi (who is a part-time receptionist at the area office) so we walked with her for a while. She knew of some good paths that led out of town. 

Along the forest paths one can frequently find a bench to sit on. I did my best to look like I was seriously pondering the world (I wasn't trying to look grumpy).

There is plenty of rainfall in Germany. Marilynn wanted a picture of this moss covered stump.

 Further up the trail there were these logs--and they were also covered with moss.

 The Fall colors are showing. This tree brightens the whole neighborhood.

 If the tree isn't bright enough, you can paint you house a bright color!

 This is a picture of the temple spire through the trees.