OUR WEEK IN THE OFFICE
We had a productive week in the office finalizing Country Strategy plans for France, Germany, Austria, and Spain. This has involved many council meetings with our in-field couples and welfare and self-reliance managers. Our strategy is to have two areas of focus for our humanitarian work in each country so that we are not just reacting to requests. Four countries down, five more to go before the end of the year!
We are also working to close out and complete the paperwork for dozens of 2023 projects by the end of December.
We had meetings this week to glean best practices for emergency response, reviewing our experience with the flooding in Spain earlier this month.
We spend a fair amount of time each week talking to our infield couples in Spain and France. It is one of the most enjoyable things we do. They are remarkable people. We counsel together to help them develop meaningful projects which includes writing strong proposals that include ways to measure sustainability and the impact of each donation. We help them navigate the approval process which includes data entry, verifying financials, legal documents, and final reports for each project.
THANKSGIVING GATHERINGS
We were blessed to participate in two Thanksgiving celebrations this week. The first was on Monday night for Family Home Evening with the other couples we currently serve with in the office in Frankfurt. A delicious potluck dinner, an insta choir, and good company provided for a delightful evening.
The second was on Thanksgiving Day. The employees in our welfare & self-reliance office researched recipes and organized a potluck Thanksgiving lunch for our department. This thoughtfulness to the four American couples was much appreciated. Our international office staff come from the countries of the United States, Italy, Spain, Chile, Switzerland, Germany, and Portugal. We enjoyed the food so much we forgot to take a picture of the dear people we work with!
CHRISTMAS IS COMING
We walked into the office Monday morning to find that the halls had been decked in preparation for Christmas. Santa’s elves must have come in during the weekend!
On our Friday night date, we found a wonderful Italian restaurant not far from our apartment.
We enjoyed two more Christmas Markets on Saturday.
Offenbach Weihachtsmarkt
Bad Hamburg Weihachtsmarkt- magical location in the castle courtyard.
We enjoy driving through the countryside listening to our favorite German radio station. We call it um-papa music. Especially at this time of year, nothing brings the spirit of the season more than music.
December 1st, First Advent Sunday, marks the beginning of the Advent season, a time of preparation for the celebration of Christ’s birth at Christmas and the return of Christ at the Second Coming. The theme for the first week of advent is hope. We joined with our ward choir to sing in an Advent Concert on Saturday night. Choirs from different wards in our stake sang. We have very diverse congregations. We heard music in German, French, English, Portuguese, and Spanish. We are not sure how much help we provided as we struggled to pronounce the German words, but we enjoyed the spirit of raising our voices in praise to our Savior. The German people sing with gusto. It is a joy to be among them.
With love, Elder & Sister Lamb (aka Ed & Debbie, Mom & Dad, Pop Pop & Tu Tu)
Lambs in Central Europe 