February 11, 2018

Hello to our family and friends!

Another amazing week is done and we’re still at it with vim and vigor. The notable event this week was transfer time for the Berlin Mission. Although our official presiding authority is President Erlacher, President of the temple, we are also included as missionaries of the Berlin Mission.  President Fingerle, the mission president apparently has a format where all the newly arriving missionaries begin as their first activity, a temple experience. We talked with one of the sisters who had just arrived, and she said her travel itinerary had been a departure from Salt Lake City with transfers in Chicago, Frankfurt and Dresden! After four different flights one can naturally expect a great deal of fatigue and jet lag as we well remember from just a month ago. (Amazing that we arrived here on the 13th just 29 days ago!) The President brilliantly has concluded that a good way to stave off jet lag is to begin with a baptism. All of the missionaries began their mission experience by being baptized for the dead. I’m sure that would help keep me a little more awake for the testimony conference that followed after traveling for a full day or so.

A few days later we had another large group of missionaries, this time, those that were departing.  Each of them participated in a full endowment session and we thought that was really a great way to end one’s mission experience. So one begins with a temple experience and ends 18-24 months later with another mission experience. We occasionally see missionaries who attend at other times if they are working nearby and apparently, they are allowed to do so once a month if they’re within range.

We began this week with a trip with two other missionary couples to the site where Germany was dedicated again for the preaching of the gospel. This was performed by then Elder Monson though the sign pictured names him as President Monson. He may have been the area president for Europe at that time as it all took place on April 27, 1975. The Freiberg Temple was first dedicated on June 29, 1985 while Freiberg was still a part of the “German Democratic Republic” or the DDR, commonly known by the rest of the world as East Germany. The first pictures show us walking down the path to the dedication site, past the large water tower in the vicinity and then a shot showing the water tower with the dedication sign on the wall. We’ve then included a close up of the sign noting the dedication and then a few pictures with Elder and Sister Moss, our next-door neighbors at the overlook site where one can see the city of Dresden and the Elbe River passing through.

We have still been given the assignment of veil coordinators. We have five sessions a day and last week we were responsible for two sessions, with another couple, the Bonners taking the other three.  This week we had the three and they had the two. We alternate 8 AM, 10:30 AM and 1 PM with the other couple getting the 9 AM and 11:30 PM sessions. Friday there is a 7 PM session and the coordinators who have the two sessions get that last one in the evening as their responsibility.

This was actually a pretty straightforward week as we didn’t have to struggle with Czech or Polish.  Everyone spoke either German or a few who preferred English, but it was much less hassle. We actually had one day where one sister preferred Spanish but a member of our temple presidency and his wife, the Wadosch’s, whom we knew in Vienna, volunteered to handle that language so it went pretty smoothly.

The other fun thing that happened was the two groups were visiting the temple that day. One came from Berlin but it had been enough years gone by that we didn’t recognize anyone from back in the 60’s. The other group, however, came from Vienna where we knew quite a few. Several were not only just visiting the temple but came as ordained temple workers. We knew quite well two young adults, Claire Schäffner and Balasz Kiss, who were often at the YA Center where we worked for a year and a half. They had a fireside one evening at the church on the temple grounds and we went over to get a few pictures. We often met Sister Schäffner as we were walking toward one of the elders’ apartments. She would be walking home from a school where she taught kindergarten. She is in the picture with the other sister whose name is Diana and we’ve forgotten her last name. Brother Kiss recognized us when he first came in but thought we had been missionaries in Hungary, his native country.  I reminded him that we had first met him in Vienna where he attended institute as a returned missionary. His English then was better than his German (and still is!) but his German is a lot better now than it was. His mother, also a member, had then been living in Wiener Neustadt, south of Vienna, but both are now living in Vienna. He’s the one with dark hair between the two of us in the other picture. 

It was quite rewarding to us that both are now set apart temple workers and we worked with both for the whole week. I had the chance to work Bro. Kiss on initiatory ordinances and just about have all of that mastered. One of our rapidly departing couples in just a few more weeks are the Fillmores. He has been a real asset to us because he can read Czech, Polish, Hungarian, Spanish and Russian and it cannot be emphasized enough what an asset that has been. So I decided while I had the opportunity, to learn to at least read Hungarian while I could spend some time with Bro. Kiss and he gave me a little help in learning to at least pronounce the Hungarian words, even if I didn’t fully understand them.  We have another sister here who is from Hungary and speaks quite excellent English and German and she has also offered to help now that Brother Kiss has returned to Vienna.

Yes, the work is sweet, and we enjoy working with all the temple workers and the patrons who come on a continual basis, sometimes every day. We are even learning many of their names, and they graciously greet us with a hug on each cheek. Still it is quite tiring to work 8 hours each and we come home feeling we need a short nap to refresh us, but sometimes a short walk is just as good. 

 

Mom: I think my German is getting better and then I don’t.  We always have someone translating in our meetings and I’ve tried it a few times with just one ear, but half the time I don’t feel like the translation is that great and I do better figuring it out on my own. There is so much to learn, and I am doing it a little at a time, even with trying to memorize the temple ordinances. 

Yesterday I was feeling a little homesick for some reason, but it seems that when that happens someone “Facetimes” me and all is well with our little missionary world. Love and pray for all of you on your missions and in everyone’s daily endeavors. 

 HUGS AND PRAYERS,
Mom, Dad, Grammy, Grampa, Elder and Sister Parker