President and Sister Hammon in the Germany Frankfurt Mission

We had a fun time celebrating Dan’s birthday last week.  After our bakery goods breakfast and a missionary meeting we drove into the city where we did a Hop On Hop Off tour and learned a lot about the city. Birthday Breakfast with German Baked Goods   Hop On Hop Off Tour Dan's Birthday Dinner We have beautiful skyscrapers.  The architecture reminds me of the beautiful architecture of Chicago. There are also two very interesting things about them.  They are all tall and not very big around and their windows all open!  The reason being...German law requires that all office space have natural light and also that there is fresh air ventilation.  Go figure.   The work never stops on the mission.  So this week after interviewing some missionaries we decided to eat out.  We heard about a restaurant that overlooked an airport and thought we would give it a try.  Well it was a tiny regional airport in an out-of-the-way place and when we got there they weren't serving dinner yet, so we o

  Dan served his mission in Germany until October 1980.  It is now 40 years later October 2020.  We thought it would be fun to take a photo in front of the same building in the same pose.  Just a different companion (who he has been with for one long transfer of 39 years!). The was the location of the mission office where he served -- Ditmarstraße 9.  It is right around the corner from where we currently live in Frankfurt.  

Facebook Service Projects We had been together in the city of Hagen for about three months when it seemed like  missionary work was slowing down. We were running out of ideas of what we could do here to continue the work. As we were discussing this subject as a companionship, we felt inspired by the Rise & Reach initiative and came up with the idea to serve the people in our area. We felt good about it but were not exactly sure how to start. We took some pictures from a service project that we had done and posted them in several Facebook groups such as "Werdohler Help Werdohler" or "Herdecke Helping Neighbors." We said that we were doing volunteer work and would love to help people with their garden or house. The group members reacted positively towards our initiative. Some said it was really nice that young men like us would have the desire to serve this way. The people that we helped started asking us, "Why are you doing this?" We just replied that w

Sarah Frei, the younger sister of one of our missionaries, is recovering from a serious car accident that occurred July 30.  She has been a great inspiration to many, including our missionaries here in Germany.  The first link is a newscast about her. "Clearfield teen inspires others while recovering from car crash" https://youtu.be/V0-B2eSX348 This second link shows a video that we, as a mission, made for her. https://drive.google.com/file/d/13c1UBLqfk_MXLFtRvCV3IK6hOxroSGYU/view?usp=sharing

Letter to my friends, I am so sorry not to have communicated earlier.  I knew it would be busy, but I had no idea how busy it would be.  We have heard several times that becoming a mission president is like jumping on a speeding train.  I have decided that isn’t what it is like.  It’s like being hit by a speeding train.  There are so many moving parts and you are a vital part of each one.  Another good analogy we heard was it was like being in the ocean during a storm.  You just get that breath of fresh air and get slammed down as another wave slams you down 20 feet deep.  Last week I had a maximum of 6 hours of sleep each night and on 2 nights I had 4 hours.  Things keep coming up that you weren’t expecting that require immediate attention.  Yesterday, we got up at 3 am yesterday to say good-bye to 5 missionaries at the airport.  We took another sister to the airport at 7:30 am and then another this morning at 5 am.  I am always tired, but it has been fascinating to see that I always

 Friends, I just shared these stories with a very close friend and I just felt I should share them will my other close friends.  These are a few of the tender mercies or miracles I have witnessed in the past few days.  I always love hearing stories like these and the missionaries have already shared many others.  These are ones that I have witnessed personally. - How about a 21 year old Sister American Missionary who had hearing problems before her mission.  She wears hearing aids but depends on reading lips to help her understand.  The German’s don’t move their lips like Americans and therefore her first 6 weeks here were very difficult and she didn’t know how she could ever learn German.  At 6 weeks, she suddenly could understand and speak German.  Sadly, her hearing has worsened during her mission but this is the amazing part, when she is sitting in Zone Conference, if a person speaks English, her native language, she has to look at them to read their lips in order to understand.  I