Happy Mother's Day!
Let’s begin the letter today with wonderful expressions of love, gratitude and high esteem for Ruth Ann, Laurel, Diane, Kate, Marilyn, Allison, Heidi, Mindy, Kathy, Ruslana, Trisha, Mako, Rachel, Emily, Katie, Ora, Sharon, Joyce, Nancy, Brenda, Maridel and any other mothers in the extended family that may happen to read this. That’s a wonderful score of mothers (Ok, one mother-to-be) whose influence and love we have all felt in so many ways. We had the opportunity to celebrate Mother’s Day also here in Germany. It was extra special because we had stake conference last week, as we reported on getting a new stake presidency, but that meant that today was also Fast Day. One of our temple missionary sisters studied German in college and has served as the English translator in our Sunday meetings. Her husband called me up this morning and asked if I would be willing to do the translation, so she could have a Mother’s Day break and I agreed. It’s one thing to translate briefly every morning in our temple prayer meetings because I tend to understand most of what’s going to be said there by the temple presidency or the various spiritual thoughts that are offered, but it was much more of a challenge to translate the many testimonies that were born today. We did have three brethren who bore their testimonies but at least double that many were by sisters, all of them mothers who so ideally represented all that we hold dear in the maternal influences that surround us.
They told us we would stop five minutes early in order to prepare for a special Sunday School program that would be offered by the Primary in lieu of a regular Sacrament Meeting program but we had to finish in time to make room for the ward that follows us. I still attempted to translate for all the kids that had part on the program but it was really tough as they were often giving poems or spoke so softly that it was difficult to hear. Nonetheless, as you can imagine, the Spirit came through strongly and most of the songs were memorable favorites, even if sung in German. At the end, beautiful flowers were passed out to all of the sisters present in recognition of how special they are in our lives.
We had a very special week for lots of other reasons as well. Now that we’ve become the baptism coordinators, sharing that responsibility with the Lindsay’s, it seems that much of the time we are free to be assigned to other tasks within the temple. We do a lot of initiatories and twice this past week we were asked to lead an endowment session. That seems to be a wonderful challenge as a prayer is offered and repeated by others and they all seem to be very tolerant when the grammar isn’t really right on. But notwithstanding, we did have lots of baptisms to perform this week because it was a national holiday here in Germany.
As with many of the European holidays, many seem to have their roots back in Catholicism and this past Thursday was “Christihimmelfahrt” or Christ’s Ascension to Heaven. We actually have a lovely picture in our chapel where we hold our morning prayer meetings that represents that event. Many of you may have seen it, demonstrating two angels appearing to the eleven apostles and telling them that Christ will some day return as they have seen Him go, ascending into heaven. Brother Lindsay actually gave the spiritual thought that day and made reference to the picture, talking about a donkey who stands behind the group, the only one in the picture who doesn’t appear to be very enthusiastic. He suggested that we all try not to be like that donkey but be energized by the spirit in the work that we perform.
But I digress. Because of the holiday, the kids were out of school and we had a large group of youth come from Leipzig to perform baptisms for the dead. They did two or three sessions a day and we were always assigned to the middle session which meant that we did three sessions and the Lindsay’s did three. That was the reason we had extra time to work in other areas. But as it turned out we did two other special sessions that weren’t scheduled. It really demonstrated the willingness of our temple presidency to be as flexible as possible and help out where possible. The first was a young unendowed couple trying to get his grandparents work started. We were able to get the grandmother done while the husband waited with two young children. When she finished and was able to tend the children, the youth group had finished. One of the leaders volunteered to change and baptized the husband in a special opportunity just for him. It was a neat example of service to others. The second was an elderly sister named Hinterhauser which means “backyard” in a rough translation. Her parents had passed on and she was there hoping to get their work done. She desired to do the ordinance for her mother and we were later able to get one of the Leipzig young men to do the baptism for her father while she was present. We saw her for another couple of days as she completed all the rest of the remaining ordinances and sensed how much it meant to her. On another day we had two other new members present, neither one of them yet endowed but with names of their family members who they desired to represent. Neither one of them knew how to get their names ready for the work and one of the members of our temple presidency, Pres. Wadosch, whom we had known in Vienna, made it his special task to get the names through the various hurdles so they could at least be initiated. One of the new converts, Sister Tsheka, who came from Albania, volunteered to be baptized for others while the name was being worked on. She came back twice during the week to help out with the groups of young people. The other was a brother out of an area known as Tubingen. He was a native African and it took longer to get his names ready, but it was all completed within 24 hours.
We have heard it often said by our temple presidency in our prayer meetings, how important it is to make sure that we are gracious and helpful to the patrons who come. We must be forgiving and patient with special circumstances and try our best to assure that all have the spiritual experience they are entitled to in the temple. I think this week we were able to participate in every temple ordinance from baptisms and initiatories, through endowment and even sealing sessions. It’s a wonderful opportunity that we will long remember.
A little sidelight that we’ve also enjoyed is our neighborhood. The temple is surrounded by lovely homes and we often go walking down the streets enjoying their yards and flowers, especially in the springtime as all the buds are blooming. Our living room window looks out directly on the back yard of a family we assume are grandparents and they frequently have their grandchildren over playing. They have a trampoline and as they laugh and giggle, it makes us feel right at home to hear them with our window open. Here’s Grammy sitting at our dinner table with a view toward the backyard quite near and a closer up picture of the kids as I stood a little closer to the fence.
I’ve mentioned the Lindsay’s quite a few times, our co-coordinators with the baptisms. Sister Lindsay is the one who sang with Aunt Kate in the Tab Choir. She decided she wanted to teach the sisters how to cook rouladen or beef rolls German-style and had them all over with their ingredients to learn the recipe. Then she had us all over in their tiny apartment to feast on the results with each bringing other parts of the meal. There was even another couple there who were visiting the temple that she had met and invited them to come. They had been in Frankfurt and were doing family history research and fit right in.
Here you see Grammy, Sister Moss (whose husband took the picture), Grampa, Sister Ashby, Sister Dospil (our Hungarian sister who is trilingual in English, German and Hungarian), the family history couple and Sister Lindsay.
MOM: It has been a great week. Becoming acquainted with so many lovely people while serving them in the temple. I took one young woman, who for the first time was doing work for her ancestors, through the different ordinances. She had red hair, rosy cheeks, and such a sweet countenance, we connected right off. She so reminded me of our family. Then while doing baptism groups from Leipzig, we met two sisters and a younger brother of one of our former missionaries in Vienna, Samuel Jakobi. They are also cousins to Markus’ wife, Cathleen. Yes, that small world thing again. It will be amazing when we get to heaven and realize how many people we are really connected to.
This week we had the opportunity to do sealings, I for the first time. I took all the names we had among which was a family that I had found on line since we’ve been here. The sealer was jumping back and forth between couples and children when the thought came to me that we were sealing these particular children to their parents, but the parents hadn’t yet been sealed themselves. I felt someone was giving me that thought, so I expressed it to the sealer, who said he felt the same thing. The card was in the stack of couples. As we were sealed for this wife and husband, I felt such joy and rejoicing. It brought tears to my eyes and to some others who were present. What a great blessing to be able to do this work for our ancestors. We don’t often get to do our own names as we are busy helping others, which we are more than happy to do.
Yesterday, we were invited, along with all the other temple missionaries, out to our Branch President’s home. He is married to an American girl, who is of German ancestry, but who came from Illinois and was called to a German mission. They have 5 children, including red-haired boy twins and 1 daughter. They live out in the countryside, with a beautiful backyard, including a climbing tree, small bridge, a fountain and a lot of green grass. They also have a small stone barbeque where Pres. Dzierzon roasted kabobs, wieners or brats, and small hamburgers. We brought along salads and desserts. It was so fun to be with the children who speak both German and English fluently, plus a mixture of both, which their mom says comes out of her. Truly, “the soul is healed by children,” even if they are not your own. These children were delightful and acted just like children can only act. They filled my soul with sweet childish ways, even the helping and teasing. I certainly miss all my grandchildren all over the world.
Again, we wish all the wonderful mothers in our lives a HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY, one you are enjoying or have enjoyed. It’s all about love. We are also praying for Markus’ son, Ferdinand, who was seriously injured in a falling accident. We invite you to add your prayers on his behalf and for the comfort of his parents.
Hugs, Love, and Prayers for all of you.
Grammy, Grampa,
Mom, Dad,
Elder & Sister Parker
