We have completed our third week! I had to reread our entry from last week so as not to repeat things we’ve already said. It’s amazing, still, how much there is to do and even though we’ve kind of learned the ropes, it seems there are always a few curves they toss at us to keep us humble.
Our Polish brothers and sisters left at the end of last week and were replaced with a contingent from the Czech Republic. They were here all week from Tuesday through Saturday. We got pretty familiar with everyone who spoke Czech and learned quickly who could speak anything else. Few were proficient in German but there were some who were pretty good at English. Leading the group seemed to be Brother Canek (pronounced Chaneck) and his wife Sister Cankova (pronounced Chankova). We learned quickly that even though married, they had unique endings to their names. Brother Canek was currently serving as a stake patriarch and had previously been a stake president. We were grateful we’d spent a couple of days in Prague when we left Vienna in 2015 but I don’t think we’d made any attempts at learning the language.
It turned out that our two brethren who could speak a little Polish were also our go-to’s when we needed Czech. Whereas last week we had been assigned to three endowment sessions daily for our responsibility, the other couple taking two, this week we had it easy with only two sessions and the other couple got the three. That should have given us a little more free time but it turns out they kept us pretty busy in between sessions on a variety of other tasks. They had assigned us time to study at the end of the day following our last session, but I don’t think we were able to take advantage of it with other things to do. I ended up serving on the veil three or four times on sessions we weren’t coordinating and several times helped with initiatories. That’s still my biggest hang-up as I haven’t been able to memorize things in German very well and only got a portion of them learned in English in our four days at Mt. Timpanogos Temple.
Perhaps the biggest frustration of the week was yesterday on one session which had participants speaking German, Portuguese, Czech and English. It’s not just a matter of people helping at the veil who speak those languages but also figuring out who goes where once you’ve got them assigned. We have learned that if you really don’t speak a language you just get a language card and do the best you can. That would have been the case for one Hungarian brother that came through but I had been told he understood German. He didn’t and ended up probably not understanding much that was said.
The other new thing is that we had “late service” and “early service” on Friday and Saturday. Friday is the one day of the week they have an evening session, so you’re really not done until after 9 PM and then have to close up the temple and turn off all the interior lights. That’s usually when we’re trying to get to bed so we can get up at 5 AM. But the early service means you have to be there before 6 to open everything up so you’re at least up by 4:30 and it ended up a very short night.
Mom: As hard as it is to get up early, it is kind of fun or a better word would be interesting to be in the temple before anyone else. Yesterday morning as we came down stairs to the beginning of the temple tunnel hallway, we met a family that had just come inside. There were about five of them, 3 adults and 2 young people, still in their coats and hats, excited to get started for the day. They had driven for 5 hours to get to the temple and wanted to change clothes and start with baptisms. Then when we got up stairs to the foyer we found, waiting at the door another group of people who wanted to come in somewhere and to change their clothes. They also had driven a long way thru the early morning hours and hadn’t wanted to dress in church clothes. Among them were two people for new endowments. We could only let them into the pre-foyer, but the President and his wife came to the temple about 6:10am and were able to send them downstairs to change by the temple hostel rooms. Interesting how the Lord provides. When we are alone in the temple early or late, a certain amount of awe comes over me as I help take care of the special needs that are required. I think back on those people in the Old Testament who were called to administrate and to take care of the temple. I think about Samuel and also, about Simeon and Anna, all temple workers with special blessings. I feel many of those spiritual blessings too, and feel it is a great privilege to work here, to be part of the Lord’s faithful.
We woke up this morning to a snowfall last night. See the first picture. It was Fast Day so we could sleep in and skip breakfast, but it was really pretty outside with a whitish fog that really looked good on a temple! The other pictures I’ve included, as I went outside after our meeting included the entire temple presidency walking up to our apartment building where they all live. That’s President Wagner on the left, President Erlacher in the middle and President Wadosch on the right. Also included are pictures of our Herberg or hostel and the chapel right next door where the Freiberg 2nd Branch meets.
Love you all,
Elder and Sister Parker, Mom and Dad, Grampa and Grammy
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