A Week in Germany

May 5-9, 2025
A week of training at the Area Office in Germany.

We stayed in the nearby village of Oberursele

In this traditional Gästehaus (guesthouse)

Oberursele contrasted with the new home 
of the Church's Europe Central Area in Frankfurt.

We met with Christian Fingerle, the Church History Area Manager,

for orientation to our assignments.

Unforuntately the Frankfurt temple was closed this week,
but we drove by in nearby Friedrichsdorf.

Elder & Sister Doug and Venise Eddy are the experts in Church History
who provided supplies and training during our week in Frankfurt.
Also we discovered a connection: they were originally from Ventura County, California
where they went to High School with Jonathan's cousins Terry & Bob Johns.

And another missionary from Oregon!
Elder Antone Gatherum (at the right) is from the Corvallis Stake 

and arrived a week before we did. 

One of the church history missionaries had assembled this collection
of historical items about the church's growth in Europe

Close-up of the bottom shelf of the display with
German stamps showing Pres David O McKay

Jonathan remembers enough German to get around,
but Beverly is having trouble picking it up . . .

Maybe because the words are so long, as on this truck:

I m m o b i l i e n d i e n s t l e i s t u n g e n ?

More views of the picturesque  Oberursele Altstadt (Old Town)

CHURCH HISTORY MOMENT

Tragic story:

When we visited, the Church's Europe Central Area office in Frankfurt was commemorating the 100th anniversary of Helmuth Hübener's birth. Hübener was a Latter-day Saint who spoke out against Hitler and as a result was executed by the Nazis. He was only 17 when he was tried for treason and sentenced to death, the youngest person to be convicted by the Hitler regime. His story has been told by two movies, and is documented in the church's Global Histories.

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