Live by the Sun - Love by the Moon: DAY 37 – Meeting Carlene's German friends

April 25 – Hanover...and the sun finally comes out for them, too!

My 4^th daughter, Carlene, served an LDS (“Mormon”) mission 8 years ago in the Hamburg-Hannover region. She was there for 18 months serving the people of Germany, teaching them about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and enjoying the wonderful Deutschland culture.

Hanover was founded in medieval times on the south bank of the river Leine Its original name Honovere may mean "high (river)bank".

Neues Rathaus - New Town Hall

One of Carlene's contacts in Hannover was the Kuhnert family. She had taught Michael who joined the LDS Church, and fellowshipped the rest of the family which included Janette (now 9 years old), Vivian, age 5, and Florian, age 8 months.

We grew to love these beautiful German children!

We were excited to meet them and to also get a glimpse of what Carlene learned to love and had so many memorable moments. Vicki had invited us to stay with them in their modest home, which we were thrilled about!

No worries Florian...I am a Grandma of 13 grandchildren!

Janette is such a great big sister at only 9 yrs. old

Isn't Vivian's room so cute?

Janette is proud to show off her cute room and she understands English quite well!

Grandpa Rich is enjoying the kids!

Looking at a picture of Carlene and Janette at 1 year old. This is a special photo in their living room.

Vicki picked us up at the station and was a bundle of energy and smiles. We enjoyed the rest of the day with her warm personality! I wanted to meet up, also, with a special older couple that Carlene had also taught. We called Jurgen and Christine Hartmann and they were so excited to see us.

Such a wonderful German couple

Vicki was such a sweetheart to take us to their lovely home. It turns out they were familiar with each other and had met several years previously. After talking awhile in my broken German and their broken English, they treated us to an “Hawaiian Pizza” sandwich as Carlene used to call it. (Carlene loved these little sandwiches).

"Hawaiian pizzas" - a nice brunch treat

The perfect hostess

Christine is showing Vicki and I her lovely treasures

They spoke of their fondness for Carlene and told us of her knocking at their door with another Sister missionary and introducing the gospel of Jesus Christ to them. They shared many special stories with us. One was about their grandson, Patrick, who was then 6 years old and how he adored Carlene. He would come over to their house and want to listen to Carlene's voice on the answering machine for months after Carlene had left the area. Evidently she had called and left a message on the phone which they saved for a long time. Then there was Christmas, which Carlene had also spoken about as Christine and Juergen had invited them over and presented the sister missionaries with presents and a wonderful holiday meal. Juergen spoke with tears in his eyes of his love for Carlene and for Christ.

Juergen reading a note from Sister Chadwick (Carlene)

The Hartmann's joined us as we decided to tour Hanover. They told us "we must have brought the sunshine from Greece to Germany in our pockets" because it was the first sunny day Hanover had seen in a long time!. First off, they took us to the Town Hall, an amazing building with a tower that went up to the top. It looked out over the whole city that was bombed in WWII.

The 5 of us on the steps of Town Hall

HELP! I'm caught and I can never get out (Dallin...do you think this is Aslan again?)

We took an old elevator up to the top and then walked several steps to a fantastic view of the city!

The following diaramas were so interesting showing the horrific thing WWII did for Hanover (wish you could see it closer - it was very well done!) Hanover was an important road junction, railhead, and production centre that was a target for strategic bombing during the war. The residential areas were also targeted and more than 6,000 people were killed in the Allied bombing raids.

More than 90% of the city centre was destroyed in 88 bombing raids 1945

Hanover TODAY

Many parts were never built back up, as a remembrance of the devastation.

The Aegidienkirche was not rebuilt and its ruins were kept as a WWII memorial.

Herrenhauser Garten was the next destination after Juergen bought us an ice cream cone. The gardens were absolutely beautiful and so much history!

My hair-do is just not quite the same as hers, is it?

Even though it was early spring and few flowers were blooming, it was such a lovely time walking with them and conversing about the LDS church, Carlene, and their wonderful city. We parted, after only knowing them for 7 hours, with smiles and tears and warm hugs which we shall never forget!