The last 2 days of the convention were amazing. We peaked at over 36,000 in attendance in Frankfurt, and almost 225,000 at all conventions tied in! There were almost 300 baptized, and about 400 missionaries present for the convention.

Ally & Spencer were recognized by a picture that her friends from South Africa had texted to their friends attending the convention. Vanessa ran in to a sister she worked with in Tuxedo. And Spence met a brother from Lebanon that knows the brother in Virginia teaching him Arabic! It truly is a close-knit organization.

We had a dinner at a local German restaurant last night, and then back to the hotel. Then an early start for today, the last day of the convention. The session itself was truly encouraging, but the love of the friends was almost overwhelming. People really enjoyed greeting one another, and exchanging gifts with total strangers. When the session was over the applause went on for 20 minutes while people unfurled banners, waved their hands and umbrellas/fans/handkerchiefs, etc... it was an awesome end to a great convention. You can see some of the banners in the pictures.

After the visiting finally ended, we met up with Jason and Amy Maxwell and went across the  Rhein river to Mainz for dinner. The area has a much smaller "Old German" feel to it, and we found a nice Greek restaurant. After ice cream on the way back to the station and about a 40 minute train ride back to Frankfurt, we parted ways and caught our tram for the 10 minute trip back to the hotel.

Tomorrow is Rhein river cruising and the Assembly Hall visit for the day, and entertainment with the friends in the evening...

(In addition to uploading new pictures, I also changed the arrangement of the Picture Album so that there's a separate section for each update... plus I trimmed down the number of images some. I'll create a more complete one when I get home.)