January 28, 2018

                There are several highlights to report about our second full week in Freiberg. The first item that has really had an impression on us is how very strenuous it is to work full time in a small temple. We have a total of five missionary couples here and certainly there are a variety of other called temple workers who are present each day, but their assignments seem a little hit and miss. We start out each day at 7 AM with a prayer meeting of the entire temple staff. Each day one member of the temple presidency is assigned for the overall leadership responsibility and each of us picks up our daily work schedule as we arrive. There are naturally assignments for the baptistry, for initiatory ordinances, for sealings and for the endowment sessions. A couple is assigned to lead each session and we have two endowment rooms in the temple since the recent expansion was completed. There are five sessions a day at 8, 9, 10:30, 11:30 and 1PM with an additional 7 PM session scheduled on Friday night. These run from Tuesday through Saturday pretty much as the rest of the temples in the church are scheduled.  

For this past week, one couple pretty much took care of the baptisms as they took place and that was pretty much their only regular assignment. Another couple is assigned responsibility for the initiatory ordinances. Two couples are assigned the endowment sessions as “veil coordinators” and their responsibility is to be responsible for making sure that everyone is in place for the hour and a half or so that it takes to complete a session.  That turned out to be our assignment with another couple for this past week. We had three sessions a day and the other couple took two. That means we were in charge of the 8, 10:30 and 1 PM session and the other couple were responsible for the 9 and 11:30 sessions. Another brother and sister are assigned to actually lead the session itself. So, each day we had to first find out if enough people were present to actually conduct a session and if so make the determination that it would be held by pushing a button in the endowment room. For the half hour prior to the beginning of the session we had to make sure someone was available to assign names of the deceased to the patrons and assure that we had at least five brothers and five sisters in the session for the prayer offering.  Several times that was not the case and we then had to recruit available workers to join the prayer at the proper time. We had to select the witness couple. Another responsibility was to determine which languages were being used by the attendees. 

This week we had three brothers from Poland, none of whom spoke German. One spoke English and was set apart as a temple worker. One of our temple missionaries has learned enough Polish to handle assignments at the veil and the temple recorder, an employed brother, could also handle Polish. There were probably 8 or 9 times during the week when we had to make sure that we had people both in front and behind the veil who could handle that language. We also had one day where we had two French speaking sisters, one day with a Spanish speaking sister and multiple times with people who requested English. 

That was the easiest to handle! Then we had to have someone who could participate in a demonstration at the veil and then decide how many veil workers we needed at the end of the session both in front of and behind the veil. Each appreciated having a card to handle whatever language was needed going through and the veil coordinators told everyone when and where they were needed, and which language would be required for their position.

                There was maybe a half hour during each session where one might have a little free time and in those slots, we found it was necessary to grab lunch, do our laundry or memorize things we hadn’t yet learned in German. I think I’m actually going to lose weight on this mission! We’ve still got some time to see if we want to try and learn another language. Our Polish brethren have left and apparently this week they’re expecting a group from the Czech Republic. We generally are done by about 3 in the afternoon but by then it’s been a good 8 hours of steady running around to make sure everyone is in place. We expect to be taught other responsibilities in the coming weeks regarding the baptistry and the initiatories. 

We did have two interesting assignments this week. The first was to actually lead the Friday evening session, something neither one of us had ever done. As it turned out it was the biggest session we experienced throughout the past two weeks with one extra chair being brought in for the brethren and only one empty chair for the sisters. The other new assignment was to speak in Sacrament Meeting today! They really only wanted some comments to introduce ourselves and bear our testimonies, but we did it in German and I was proud of Mom for doing it very well. She also had the assignment to teach the Gospel Doctrine class in Sunday School to those speaking English but impressed everyone that she was technologically proficient by downloading some videos from lds.org and showing them on her laptop.

Of course, today is her birthday. As we got ready to leave for church and opened our door for the first time, there were four gifts from several of our colleagues, cards from the temple presidency and an invitation to join 11 of us in total for a birthday dinner tomorrow night at a local restaurant they all recommend. We really have developed excellent relationships with the other missionaries, the temple presidency and several of the local temple workers who are there frequently. It’s a delightful spirit present amongst us all and because we work together every day, the relationships are much deeper than they were in Vienna where we only saw the other seniors at Zone Conferences or other big mission events. 



I have included a few pictures showing Mom’s birthday gifts and various angles that demonstrate our huge apartment. Our beds are right adjacent to our dining area which is right next to our sitting area which is right next to our kitchen. When the temple president said our kitchen at home might be as large or larger than our entire apartment, he was pretty accurate!

Thursday after we finished our assignment one of the brothers drove us up to the city hall where we attempted to finally get officially registered. It was so crowded they informed us we’d never get through the line before they were going to be closing for the day and suggested we come back on Saturday morning. They managed to get by without us for about an hour as the temple matron, Sister Erlacher, drove us up and picked us up again after we got done. It’s about a half hour walk one way so we appreciated the lift and now we are officially registered. Our visa applications come up within the next 3-4 weeks and then we’re set for the long haul. 

Mom: It’s hard to believe we have only been here 2 weeks. With our early and long days, it does seem a lot longer and this week we had what is called “früh dienst” and “spät dienst” or early and late service, where we open up the temple, turning on all the lights etc. and just get things ready for the day. So then, we get up at 4:30 and begin the day. It makes 5:00 AM not feel so bad. Anyway, we’re learning how most things function in the temple and how the Lord helps everything come together. There is no slouching. You just jump right in and do whatever is asked or expected. At the same time, we have really come to appreciate and love our fellow workers and our temple presidency, all who jump in to help when necessary. It was sweet this morning to find birthday surprises right at our door. Such sweet sisters. Loved Facetiming with Tim the day before his MTC mission. Been thinking about you all.
              

LOVE, 
Elder and Sister Parker, 
Mom and Dad, Grammy and Grampa

January 21, 2018

Our first week serving in the Freiberg Temple is now complete and it has been an amazing experience. The first real adjustment began as we finished our first weekend here, got through our first P day and then went to work. Let me back up and talk about our first P day to begin with. The other temple missionaries have been extraordinarily helpful in getting us oriented to what’s happening. We really haven’t had much opportunity to familiarize ourselves with the city at all but our next-door neighbors, Elder and Sister Moss, offered to take us around the city in their car and show us what was what. They did take us by the city hall to show us where we have to register and this was a bit of a surprise because we were informed we would not have to apply for a visa. Not true. We have informed our daughter, Emily that we need a copy of our marriage certificate and have another week to register which is waiting for the temple recorder to get back from a short skiing vacation. He was apparently in church today so we should be able to get things going there quickly.  Then we had the chance to stock up a bit more on foodstuffs at a bigger grocery store than the one within easy walking distance and stocked our larder up a bit better. It turns out the Mosses are good friends with the Kinghorns who we met toward the end of our mission to Vienna so it’s a small world. 

The next big adjustment was changing our daily lifestyles. We needed to get to bed by 9:00 as opposed to our usual 11:00 or later in order to get up by 5:00 and be to the temple for the daily devotional by 7:00. Somehow with jet lag thrown in we were both waking up at 2 or 3 in the morning and by the time we were done at the temple, usually by 3 or so in the afternoon, we were thoroughly exhausted. There was lots to learn and especially German phrases to memorize and there just didn’t seem to be time to sit down and memorize much. All of the ordinance cards available are guarded very closely and I had a brother really get after me once for leaving a card for a short moment while I was pursuing someone to work in one of the booths. I was informed never to leave the cards where they might walk off unexpectedly and have hopefully learned my lesson.

Most of our assignments this week have involved working at the veil or organizing endowment sessions and we have been assigned doing demonstrations, presenting and receiving and especially making sure that enough workers were available. We had a Russian speaking couple for a couple of days and one of our brethren can handle Russian pretty well. I had situations where I was doing German, Russian and even Spanish which is more languages than I was prepared to handle but it seemed to come off OK. Our main assignment for Friday and Saturday was to learn the duties of “endowment coordinators” and I got involved as well in helping with the sealing rooms, augmenting prayer circles when there weren’t enough brethren and serving at the recommend desk. Mom helped with initiatories. Neither one of us have yet been exposed to the baptistry and it seems we still have lots to learn and memorize. One request that took me by surprise was to help with the visit of one of the counselors in the area presidency. He was here for a couple of days to assess how well we were functioning and had scheduled a meeting with the sealers. He doesn’t speak German, but his English is OK and his primary language is Spanish. I was asked by the temple president to translate the meeting into English for him and then translate his remarks into German as he spoke to the group. I guess the gift of tongues was at work though I don’t think I did that great, but he was very gracious in thanking me for my efforts. This next week we’re going to be initiated into what is called the “late service” and the “early service”, closing up after everything is done for the day, and opening up in the morning before everyone else arrives.  It doesn’t make sense to me, but the latter follows the former meaning one gets home late one evening and then starts early the next day.  I guess it will all come in time.

We had a lot of missionaries this week and apparently those who work in the area are allowed to go monthly or any time one of their new converts is going to the temple. Next week we apparently have a group coming from the Czech Republic. Everyone seems to feel they are a good group and often bring their own workers with them. I guess we’ll see how it goes. The temple presidency has been very helpful and encouraging. We served as a witness couple once and it sounds like I may be asked to lead a session this next week. We’ll see how that goes. 

We have loved associating with the other missionaries. One couple, the Bonners, invited us to go out with them to a restaurant for dinner, known as the Organ Pipe. The food was delicious. Today we were invited to Sunday dinner by the Ashbys. He is an architect and has been involved with helping design up to 25 different temples. His wife was a German language student and speaks the language extremely well. She and I attended the German Sunday School class while her husband and Mom attended the available English class. We just got another invitation to join a group for pudding tonight but had to decline as we had only been home for about 15 minutes.

Tomorrow is a day off and we may get someone to take us up to get some photos for our visas which we were informed by the church we wouldn’t need, but apparently we definitely do.

         Mom: Can’t believe we are into our second week. The time goes by quickly, but not if you know what I mean. Training is some what limited here as workers are needed badly and so you are jumped into the work immediately. It is stressful learning the ins and outs of managing the temple and then mostly in German, but the English-speaking sisters have done very well in memorizing the ordinance in German over a number of months. What we actually have here is a 5-day work period, working from 7am until 3pm, with additional evening time on Friday from 6pm to 9:30 +. A 7 hour a day work week doesn’t leave much time on week days for extra- curricular activities and we need to go to bed early so that we can be up by 5am. I should be changed into an early bird by the time our mission ends. I love all the temple sisters and brothers. They are sweet and helpful. It’s good to be challenged and to keep learning.

          We love all your Posts, so keep them coming. 

LOVE and HUGS, 

Elder & Sister Parker, Mom, Dad, Grammy and Grampa. 

Revitalization of "It's a Besonderes Life"

Hello Family and Friends,

Saying farewell to some of the grandchildren

     It's been 26 months since the last installment of "It's a Besonderes Life" but we are back out in the field again, this time doing a temple mission in Freiberg, Germany. We started our preparations back in April of 2017 getting our mission papers ready and going through the required physical examinations. Because of our age and my problems with high blood pressure and diabetes as a past history, I was required to take a stress EKG where they put you on a treadmill and have you work out a bit during the exam. I flunked and had to be evaluated by a cardiologist. That resulted in a coronary artery angiogram that revealed I was a heart attack waiting to happen! The operation revealed I had three different coronary arteries that were about 85 to 90 percent occluded. I hadn't had any symptoms at all and figured I was in pretty good shape compared to my paternal ancestors.  My grandfather died of heart disease in his early 50's, my father 10 years later at the age of 63 and so my goal had been to make it at least to 73. I have always considered it a great blessing to have decided on serving another mission at the age of 72 as I might have fulfilled my expectations and not have been around much longer. But the cardiologist put some arterial wideners in my heart vessels, called stents, and I hope I'm good for a few years more. He wants me on blood thinners for a year which will be up this coming May. 

     So our papers went in and we received our call to our desired temple in Freiberg at the end of June, indicating we would start in early January, almost six months away!  Meanwhile, Mom in her workup was discovered to have a herniated disc in her neck vertebrae risking the possibility of slipping badly and paralyzing her from the neck down. That required surgery to slip the disc out and replace it with an artificial substitute, locking it in  place with a small metal retainer.  During that workup she also complained of pain in her left hand and was discovered to have a carpal tunnel syndrome which also needed surgery. I was having a little blurriness in my vision and my long time ophthalmologist was closing his practice and moving to Maine. So he referred me to a corneal specialist who noted I had a few "nodules" in my eyes along with something a little worse in the left eye which required a same day surgery.  He wanted me off my blood thinners to do the procedure for just five days but I didn't think the cardiologist would buy that until at least six months had gone by. So that procedure was performed on December 21st and turned out to leave me more visually impaired than when we started, at least temporarily.  I'm doing OK but my last visit was 4 days into the mission and I'll need to get some new glasses eventually somewhere here in Germany.  No wonder the Lord gave us six months to get ready!!

     Working with the bishop and our stake president we received a call to meet with the Mt. Timpanogos Temple President who set us apart on the spot to work as temple ordinance workers there every Friday for 4 weeks. Our mentor turned out to be Ralph Kmetzsch, Steve's brother. He gave us assignments each day as to where we would work. This was old stuff for Mom who had been an ordinance worker for 8 years and even a shift coordinator for awhile but I was the novice and spent some time witnessing baptisms and then an hour or so of study each day so I could participate in presenting and receiving at the veil as well as working in the new name issue booth. We even went over once to study many of the ordinances in German to give us a little advance preparation for what we'd be doing in Freiberg. 

     We had our farewell on New Years Eve and I had a hard time reading my notes on a three page talk I'd prepared. So I expanded the size of the print to a six page talk and then found it wasn't that easy to ready on Sunday morning so I temporarily quadrupled the print size to a 24 page talk!  But my grandson Tim administered to me with Benj offering the prayer and I found I could read the six page talk just fine when the time came. The following week, on the 7th of January, Fast Day, our Stake, President, Tyler Sheffield, came to our home and met with us and the local family for almost an hour in our setting apart appointment. He spent some time talking with the children and getting several expressions of faith and even a testimony or two from the grandchildren before setting us apart with the Melchizedek Priesthood sons also standing in the circle. It was a very special experience and we were grateful so many could be in attendance.

with grandson Tim after the blessing

 The next evening we reported to the Radisson Hotel for four nights while we underwent special training for 24 of us who were called as full time temple missionaries.  We weren't sure what to expect but it really was very special.  A couple from the Temple Department had been in contact with us preparing our travel itineraries, airplane tickets, shuttle to the airport, etc and they helped run the special training CD's the church has prepared for all temple ordinance workers. Our sessions were conducted with President and Sister Alldrege, at one time President and Matron of the Salt Lake Temple and who had also served as mission president in London, England.  We were asked to bring our own temple names if possible and Alicia Braegger, Aunt Sharon's daughter, graciously supplied us with 10 names each.

     Our first day we discussed the initiatory ordinances performed in the temple, providing great insight and meaning into what is accomplished. It was very interesting to see how the church is emphasizing making temple work an uplifting experience for patrons, encouraging workers to be friendly and helpful and minimizing problems with things that previously might have been somewhat nitpicky with some issues.  We then had the opportunity to actually go through initiatory ordinances and consider their significance after what we had learned.  The second day focused on the endowment itself.  Many of the missionaries, like mom, had previously been temple workers themselves and there were great contributions as people discussed the experiences they had had.  There were many recommendations that resulted, again trying to minimize concerns, answer potential problems that might arise and make the whole experience as meaningful as possible. Then we attended a typical live session, no films used and it was pointed out that the Salt Lake Temple utilizes only one language, English.  If you don't understand English, utilize one of the other nearby temples of which, of course, there are many.We both participated in the prayer circle and enjoyed some reverent conversation in the celestial room where we had the opportunity of visiting the actual sealing room where we were married and sealed.  We remember the spot where the Savior appeared to President Lorenzo Snow just outside the celestial room which I may have pointed out to any of you, who have attended the Salt Lake Temple at any time in the past.

     Thursday, our third day, we had the opportunity of discussing the sealing ordinances and their significance and especially how to handle ordinances where living children were being sealed to their parents. Of course its difficult to go into much detail because of the sacred nature of everything we talked about but it was extremely inspiring to talk about them in that setting. All of our sessions other than actually participating in the ordinances took place in the chapel just beyond the main recommend desk. That used to be the gathering and waiting area in days gone by but it has been outfitted with retractable screens for the training DVD's we watched.  We only took up about three or four rows so it was very roomy but had the opportunity to sing hymns and we had special visitors who spoke to us as well from the temple department and a brother from the Quorum of the Seventy.  Thursday was a very special day because after our instruction they took us on a bit of a tour through the baptistry and then divided us up into various sealing rooms. We were privileged to utilize a room we had never seen which is located behind the celestial room. We walked through the old sealing office which used to be open and accessible but isn't any longer.  We walked behind the two sealing rooms which bracket the Holy of Holys, one of which being our sealing room and then went further to a sealing room located on the east side of the temple directly between the two main doors that face the big fountain. There we had the opportunity to complete the names we had been working on though we still have several that we will complete here in Freiberg. Following our sealing session we were all taken up to the big Assembly Room on the fifth floor where we had never been since we were young missionaries.  We were privileged to sit on the east side of the room behind the four levels of podiums for the Melchizedek Priesthood where another wonderful question and answer session was held. 

Upon our completion of the training we had the opportunity of attending the viewing for President Monson.  It was just a little after three in the afternoon and although it was steady, the flow was very organized and it only took us about ten minutes to pay our respects to our beloved prophet. We had held onto our car during the week and left immediately for my last appointment with the ophthalmologist. Then we went back home,picked p a few items and left some others and Emily drove us back to the hotel to make our final preparations for departure. My car had previously been dispensed to Jeffrey at BYU-Idaho and we left Mom's car for use by Aaron this time around.  A shuttle picked us up just prior to the start of President Monson's funeral and dropped us off at the airport where our four pieces of checked luggage, with a little shuffling around ended up weighing 201 pounds which they let us get away with  without having to pay anything extra!  Our flight on Delta took about 10 hours, leaving at 2 PM and arriving in Amsterdam around midnight MST but 8 AM there. The plane had only 2 empty seats, one of which was right next to me. I thanked the Lord many times for such a blessing!

'We were impressed that the Amsterdam airport essentially ran on the English language with all of the attendants speaking very proficiently, all the signs basically being in English and passport control being very efficient and quick.  We had about a four hour layover and then just an hour and a half flight on KLM to Dresden.  I think we had only picked up maybe a couple of hours sleep in the 16 hours it took to make the complete trip and we arrived and were picked up by our temple president, Gunther Erlacher and his wife. They showed us to our apartment in the temple hostel on a floor utilized by several other temple missionaries. His two counselors are quite near us, one right across the hall and the other, the Wadosch's, whom we knew well while in Vienna, just down the hall. They gave us a few hours to unpack and get settled and then invited us to dinner with the entire temple presidency at the Erlacher's apartment.The temple daily devotional starts Tuesday morning at 7 AM and Pres. Erlacher asked if I would provide a short 3 minute spiritual thought. The new First Presidency won't be announced until 5 PM our time that day but I think I might talk a bit about my association with our uncle-in-law! By the time we were finished we were more than ready to get some real sleep.  Church started at 9 AM and we felt somewhat refreshed by then though still recovering from serious jet lag. Relief Society and Priesthood were both in German. It turns out they had an English speaking Sunday School class which mom attended with several of the other missionaries but I stuck it out with the German speaking class. The grocery store is within a very short walking distance and we were taken over there Saturday night to pick up a few items with one of the missionary couples taking us in their car on Monday to get better stocked up. We're here and ready to go and it sounds like we might be assigned right off the top to be endowment coordinators. Hopefully we'll be shown the general layout of the temple which has two endowment rooms and five sessions daily starting at 8 AM on Tuesday. 

Mom: The temple training sessions were very sweet and spiritually powerful and I wished it could last longer. The church leaders are working very hard to make the temple experience very loving and up lifting for every individual, helping them to feel the love of the Savior in his house.

 We love all the senior temple missionaries, who have been very welcoming, helpful and kind. We look forward to working with them. I am a little concerned that they have no real training in the temple and that we will be jumped right in to working with the German and other languages. But we trust that the Lord will provide the way. Going to church on Sunday was enjoyable, the German was easier to understand than Vienna, and the saints were very friendly. It will take a bit to settle in but I think this will be a great experience. We have had to speak German right off and I'm surprised at how much is still in my head. Also everyone is very patient.

We miss you all, but are glad to hear that Noah's eyes are doing better. 

Hugs and Prayers, Elder and Sister Parker, Mom and Dad, Grammy and Grampa