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.
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