May 20, 2018

The Silver City of Freiberg

We’re finally tuning in to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir broadcast which is broadcast live on the internet every Sunday. For us it’s at 5:30 PM as we get ready for our evening Sunday dinner. What we always enjoy is the hour before where past songs are aired, and we can always look for people we know who may not be in the choir anymore. It’s not that uncommon to see Kate although it’s a little tougher to spot Laurel. Once in a great while we can see Jessica and once we even saw Sam. More commonly now we see Kathleen Lindsay, our neighbor across the hall who was a good friend to Kate. It always brings a special spirit into our apartment as we enjoy the Sabbath.

As we continue our assignments as coordinators of the baptistry, it has been very interesting to deal with some of the other people who have signed up. We became used to the youth groups who would come by, usually quite well organized with enough people on hand to provide not only baptizers but also the necessary witnesses. We figure that to baptize a brother requires at least 4 priesthood holders consisting of 2 witnesses, the baptizer and the one to be baptized. It has really helped to have the Aaronic Priesthood priests now authorized to provide these services. Still it has been very rewarding to have others come who would like to be involved, even some of them pushing our age. We had a Sister Pirklbauer recently who indicated she would be happy to be baptized for any other persons who needed the work done but was particularly interested in the one name she had brought who was a close relative. Before the day was over she had been baptized, confirmed, done the initiatory work, and I even had the chance to take her through the veil at the end of the day. She was here this week for a couple of days and went out of her way to thank us as she left for the service we were happy to provide.

Yesterday we had an interesting group arrive. Really it was three different groups who all came in at the same time but didn’t know each previously. One brother and his wife came in with another couple who hadn’t had a lot of temple experience. While the wife and the other couple were getting ready, the husband was picking up two elders at the train station with whom they had made an appointment. We also had a brother and sister in their 20’s who had brought several family names and the group was expanded by the granddaughter of our temple president who also brought in four names to do. In addition, we had the names of about 30 or 40 other people that some of the temple workers or other patrons had left to have performed. The trick was to keep everything organized so we got the right patrons connected to the people whose names they had brought. I generally serve as the recorder to get everything properly documented and Mom generally has the responsibility to make sure that we didn’t miss anyone if two cards were inadvertently stuck together. She also provides towels to those who are exiting the font, gets the name cards to the confirmation room and then gets them to the office where the truly official recording takes place. It’s very easy for the whole procedure, which is very repetitive, to become monotonous if one isn’t careful. So I was particularly moved by a brother this past week, Brother Pettir, who came in with just three others, all young adults, and one of them only recently ordained a priest. Brother Pettir performed several baptisms and I was truly moved to see how each baptism was conducted with reverence and the proper spirit, recognizing that many of the deceased might well be present, participating in the ordinance. He accomplished this 30 or 40 times and each time the spirit was very pronounced and present. I had had the chance earlier in the week to do some baptisms when no one else was available and I think I will remember this great example in the future.

We noticed in the Church News yesterday that our new temple president has been named, scheduled to be set apart this October. President and Sister Wadosch, whom we knew in Vienna and currently a counselor in the presidency will take over the reins. We understand that they will be released from the current presidency for about three months before they are installed. It’s our understanding that the call was probably made while the general authorities were here for stake conference two weeks ago and we did notice that they were in the temple following that. President Wadosch has been a branch president, bishop and stake president and his wife met with us in Vienna every week as she served on the Institute Counsel. They are currently living in a small apartment just like ours and will no doubt enjoy moving into the president’s home which is much larger with room to accommodate guests and other family members. We didn’t realize it but our current president was a counselor to the previous temple president and was also here during the entire time the temple was being renovated during 2015-16. So his service has extended over 7 years. The change will provide some good continuity, but it will also be interesting to see what things they may want to change.

Brother Linford, a recent addition to our temple missionary staff and the one with whom we are sharing our car, has been called to be the assistant temple recorder. His wife has the assignment to prepare our daily work plans which tell us what to do and when throughout the day. In our prayer meeting this past week one of the topics discussed was the role each of us has as a recorder as we make our small red check marks on the ordinance cards as each one is completed. Attention was given to Section 127:5-9 and 128:1-10+.  We gave this quite a bit of thought and I leave it to those of you who might be interested to read these scriptures and ponder them.

I guess the interesting sight-seeing event of the week took place last Monday when the all of the temple missionaries and 2 of the temple presidency and their wives went on an excursion to appreciate the historical/business side of the city of Freiberg. One of our temple workers is married to a good man who has not joined the church but was at one time directly involved in the mining industry here in the city. Freiberg is known as the Silver City and was at one time a rich resource for that commodity. The mining industry was very extensive and he pointed out to us the nature of the many water works and ditches that enabled the ore to brought to the surface through water wheels and then drained off to rivers and streams. Although we thought we might get down into the mines, that wasn’t the case. But we did get an extensive walk through beautiful forests along streams and concourses and see a variety of tunnels, some of them with conduits known as “light-holes” providing light and air to sites up to 50 or 60 yards deep.

Here we are at the beginning of our adventure with 4 of the pictured cars carrying our group. You can see the big walls surrounding an area and across the street we could at least feel the cool breeze coming up from a mined off shaft. Here we are with President and Sister Erlacher.

Here are a few representative samples of the walks, streams and ditches we walked along as well as a few signs describing things to look at.

   

Here is a picture of the system and tunnel entrance right beside this particular diagram

We had a wonderful time and in spite of not getting inside a mine, our guide couple hosted the entire group of 18 of us to a wonderful lunch near the end of our tour. We had walked for about an hour from where our cars were parked and so after lunch we got to walk the hour back, enjoying the beautiful sights all over again.

One of the other things we have really enjoyed as our weather has warmed up are the beautiful flowering shrubs everywhere.  There is one particular bush that shows up in multiple colors. Here are just a few examples.

And lastly, this one right outside our apartment window:

  

If you look closely up in the right corner you can spot the trampoline we showed you last week.

      MOM: What Dad, Grampa didn’t mention about our adventure guides was that the temple sister is 78 yrs old and her husband is 83. Sister Hartz is a small, solidly put together, spry, little pack of energy. She was bouncing all over our path like a little mountain goat and leading out, at not a slow pace. A delightful sister to work with in the temple. It is not surprising to know that none of us seniors think we are old, even if others think so. Our next adventure is supposed to be an hour bike ride along the Elba river. We are all trying to stay in shape by walking every day and wearing are “Fitbits” to count the steps, even while we work in the temple.

    The best part of the week for me was doing older adult baptisms, a few even in their 70’s. It takes a bit of gumption for some of these adults to do their own baptisms, but where we don’t have regular baptisms on a daily basis, except when scheduled, they need to take care of it themselves. They want their names to be ready for other ordinances, so they decide to do it themselves. Truly the spirit is beautiful because they are so in tune with the ancestors they are doing the work for and coming out of the water they seem so invigorated with spiritual energy. It was also sweet to see Grampa baptizing one of these older sisters as we had to provide a special time just for her and no other men were available. Life in the temple is sweet even when we’re tired. I hope you all take time to be there as often as you can.

        Hugs and Prayers, love

Grammy, Grampa,

Mom, Dad,

Elder and Sister Parker