Sunday, March 17, 2013

LIFE IN FRANKFURT, GERMANY

Our blog has shown our travels and fun BUT...we actually LIVE and WORK on our mission!!!! So we thought we'd share some of our daily activities...and the people who make our work enjoyable!!!  This is our office in Bad Homburg, in the village of Ober Erlanbach.  Located here is Finance, Fleet, MSR (Membership, Statistical Reports) Purchasing, Auditing, ITS (Information Technical Services) and the Distribution Warehouse which is used for shipping church materials and supplies all over the world (the only one outside of Salt Lake).



Here is Paul's desk and him hard at work...he actually knows how to use that computer!!!!

Bev works with Magnolia Froehlich...better known as Maggie!!!  She is the administrator of the church credit cards for the Europe Area and so darling and absolutely hysterically funny.  We laugh all day.  We have a beautiful view and our lovely office is in between  the Finance Manager (from Spain) and the Area Controller (from the US)

Our "Team" is shown here at our Halloween party...we do have fun and love our friends.  They are from Germany, UK, Italy, Ireland, and of course us from the US-we  love all the accents!  With no costume supplies, we came as chefs with homemade paper hats.

Here is the gang at Paul's birthday celebration!



This is a picture of Ober Erlanbach from a distance...such a lovely village:


Last fall, the sugar beets were harvested and then left in big piles by the road.  There is a tremendous amount of agriculture here with a views of downtown Frankfurt in the background.

Mailmen deliver the mail by bike!!!


Now you get to see what you've all been waiting for...our apartment.  
Here is the outside..and it really doesn't look as good as this picture!
We live on the fourth floor, but in Germany the ground floor is "0".

We do have a pleasant view from our balcony.


Here is the bathroom before the washer and dryer were moved in:

And now after the addition of the washer and dryer:


It is VERY cozy and very AQUA...but we are grateful
 to have a washer and dryer in our apartment!!!
German apartments come without kitchens or light fixtures so the church
 had to install a new  IKEA kitchen.  It is light and bright although 
no disposal or dishwasher.  I do love having new appliances! It is actually 
larger that many Sr. missionary couples' kitchens!!! 

Here is our living room:

The couch is a hide-a-bed so that is great...and we got to choose a new rug.


We hook our computer up to the TV and watch shows!


These pieces provide a lot of storage. 
Here is our IKEA bedroom:


German apartments do NOT come with closets so they have to be purchased and  moved in.


We do have a study, and we moved in an additional closet in that room which provides much needed storage for coats, cleaning supplies,  acts as our food pantry.
The Frankfurt Temple is 5 minutes from our apartment and  is very beautiful!!

Frankfurt Germany Mormon Temple

Well, there you have it...we actually are comfortable and our apartment is probably one of the nicer ones in the Frankfurt Area Mission.  We are coming home on April 23rd. and look forward to living in our home once again.  Between now and then we will be traveling to Switzerland, Belgium, The Netherlands, Stockholm, Sweden and Berlin.