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