I wonder if a seer stone would help?
Another special week has passed as we continue to do our best to fill the assignments the Lord has given us. This was our second week in a row with saints from Hungary and we understand there will yet be another third week coming up. It has given me a chance to improve my pronunciation of Hungarian or Magyar as they say it. Several months ago, I mentioned that we received a visit from a young adult we had known in Vienna who originated from Hungary and he sat down with me and helped me learn a few of the words and how to say them. Then that was repeated by our lovely Sister Dospil who speaks three languages pretty fluently, her native Hungarian, English (she lived in England for several years) as well, of course, German. We knew her son a little bit when we worked in Vienna which is their current home, but she has been working here as a temple missionary for the past several months and has helped me as well to learn to speak the language a little bit. I have a card to read as we work on the veil and I’m always humbled as they pass through and give me a smile which acknowledges their patience with me and my efforts. So anytime there are Hungarians in a session, I am now the one the coordinators pick to help them hear things in their own language. I also have the responsibility to translate German into English for our morning devotionals as well as now in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday. I had to smile as Sister Dospil was asked to translate our morning proceedings into Hungarian for the several temple workers who were present. I get to speak quietly into a microphone which they pick up on earphones they wear, however Sister Dospil stood up next to the person speaking and translated sentence by sentence. When she first stood up to translate a German brother’s spiritual thought into Hungarian, she started out saying it again in Hungarian which gave us all a good chuckle. At any rate, while she was translating into German, I had then to translate what was being said in German into English. The hymns we sing are not translated but they do have several hymnals in the various languages that attend, and they always pick songs that are found in both books. The melodies are the same, but the words are different. We blend pretty well. It will be nice when the church has reorganized all the hymnbooks, as they recently announced, such that all the hymns will be uniform and numbered the same in all languages!
I had a special opportunity in translating this Sunday to see the talk that was being given in advance because your mother/Grammy was asked to give a talk and it was decided she could do it in German. Her topic was “Being a Friend” and much of what she said was first written in German. She talked about how happy she was to be here in Freiberg and the many friends she had found. She said she always felt very well in the branch, except when she had to speak. She had a few good things that are worth passing on. “Aren’t we something less than a friend if we have the gospel of Jesus Christ and are unwilling to share it by word and example with a family, a member, neighbor, or the stranger? Aren’t we something less than a friend if we have a testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ and are unwilling to share it?” “President Abraham Lincoln was once criticized for his attitude toward his enemies. ‘Why do you try to make friends of them?’ asked an associate. "You should try to destroy them. Am I not destroying my enemies," Lincoln gently replied, "when I make them my friends?" Someone has said, “A friend is a person who is willing to take me the way I am. Accepting this as one definition of the word, may I quickly suggest that we are something less than a real friend it we leave a person the same way we find him.” Talking about the experience of Peter and John as they approached the beggar at the Gate Beautiful in Jerusalem as reported in Acts 3:6-7. “And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up.” Peter was a friend. He told the beggar, “Rise and walk; I’m going to help you.” We too must take the friend by the hand until he sees and find that he has enough strength to go on his own. Is it not appropriate to conclude that Peter was willing to take the friend the way he was but left him improved? She was asked to give a 5-minute talk, but I think it went for almost 10 minutes. The members indicated they really liked what she had to say.
This week was the annual city celebration here in Freiberg, kind of like the Highland Fling at home. They call it the Stadtbergfest Freiberg. We went up to the city center on Saturday with the Lindsay’s to check things out. There was a very loud band playing which we didn’t find too impressive for our kind of music, but we did find a good place to eat which was broadcasting the current game of the World Cup which is a really big deal here in Germany. I guess Germany is hanging in there but one of our temple visitors this week, not local, said very few people in their ward were at church as everyone was at home watching the game last Sunday. I guess we have to teach them how to hit record for later viewing. We did enjoy a squad of men dressed up in fancy uniforms walking around with a young fellow in their midst. See the photo below along with one of Sister Dospil before she left.
Thought we’d also include two other pictures. One is found on most of the police cars we see around here—“Gute Jobs” If anyone is looking for a new job as a policeman, they’re hiring. I think Brian is probably happy as a new member of the SLCPD. The other is a recent picture we had taken at the farewell for Sister Dospil which shows each of the temple missionary couples as well as the temple presidency. Left to right, the Thornocks, Lindsays, Ashbys, Mosses, Sister Dospil wedged in there with the Parkers, the presidency—Wagners, Wadosches (the newly named next president), Erlachers and the Linfords.
MOM: This week has brought a little change in the weather. We have gone from hot in the 80”s to very cool down in the 50’s and up to the lower 60’s. Aaaaah it is great. I can take this summer weather if it keeps coming this way. It was also a little sad this week as Sister Dospil’s chronic illness in her lungs has been getting worse and she decided she had to go back to Vienna and to see her Pulmonologist. She will be sorely missed as she is very dear to all of us. Thank goodness for FaceBook, where we can stay connected. When you spend every day with the same people they become family, especially when you live most of the time in the temple.
I heard a great quote in Sunday school class when we talked about Hanna spending so much time petitioning the Lord in the Temple. It’s from Elder John A. Widtsoe.
“I believe that the busy person … who has his worries and troubles, can solve his problems better and more quickly in the house of the Lord than anywhere else. If he will do the temple work for himself and for his dead, he will confer a mighty blessing upon those who have gone before and…a blessing will come to him, for at the most unexpected moments, in or out of the temple will come to him, as a revelation, the solution of the problems that vex his life. That is the gift that comes to those who enter the temple properly.”
Love the pictures of your fun summer activities, maybe when you all get together you can find some time to go to the temple, especially to do baptisms for the dead with the teenagers or almost teenagers. Keep the pictures coming.
Hugs and Prayers,
Grammy, Grampa, Mom, Dad, Elder and Sister Parker
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