July 15, 2018

The Morning Breaks, The Shadows Flee

Hello, everyone.  We have just finished listening to the 89th anniversary broadcast of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  They are now beginning their ninetieth year having started broadcasting on July 15, 1929.  Hence the title of our weekly letter to you all which they sang then and today. As always, it has been a wonderful week full of many heartwarming experiences.   

Before getting into the particulars, let me digress for just a moment and say how much we enjoy the weekly letters from Elder Myles Parker, Elder Kyle Parker, Elder Timothy Parker and Sister Elle Broughton.  Collectively covering both hemispheres, half of them in the United States and the other half out of the United States and yet none of them called to share the Gospel in English! How inspiring their epistles are!  We have saved all of them in our files and they will be a rich legacy to remember and reflect on their experiences. I had to smile at Sister Broughton’s comments that she ate “live octopus” in her last letter even though the picture she sent reassured us that it wasn’t really alive when she ate it.  We went out to dinner last night at the Favola Italian Restaurant (Pizzeria) with Elder and Sister Linford, with whom we share our automobile, and I couldn’t help but try out the octopus when I saw it on the menu. I agree with Ellie that the taste was good though the texture was a little strange. I think it was because of the suction cups that were evident😊.

As baptistry coordinators, we tend to be a little freer in our assignments and hence are available to be helpers in lots of other areas. Grammy is often asked to supervise in the Celestial Room and we both are frequently involved in initiatories as well as on the veil at the end of endowment sessions. This past week we had the opportunity to lead two sessions which went well although last week we were also scheduled twice to lead sessions, at 11:30 both days. Both sessions were cancelled for lack of patrons. Those of you who have been endowed know that a prayer is offered, and it is always interesting to see how my grammar is occasionally subtlely corrected☹.

But back to the baptistry. This week we had a few groups here, but all were from Germany. We had people from Berlin, Munich, and several from Vienna that we remembered and that remembered us.  The Vienna group was particularly interesting because most that came to work in the baptistry were young adults. Their bishop and his wife were with them whom we remembered well, and we had opportunities to work with them in several areas in the temple.  Some of the groups were extremely well organized with lots of brethren to serve as witnesses, recorders and baptizers. They often brought many of their own names of deceased relatives who needed the work done. But others sometimes came in smaller groups hoping to get included into a baptismal group that was already scheduled and often there weren’t any. But if we could we scrambled a little to try and accommodate them. We have a daily plan that tells us what we should be doing when, and often when we try and get a baptism session going that isn’t scheduled it is interesting to see where we can pick up the needed people to move ahead. We had, at different times, a father, mother and two sons; two English speaking young women who were studying here in Germany but in a location we didn’t recognize; an African couple; and others who just appeared.

We were all geared up for a scheduled baptism for a group from Nuremberg that didn’t show up, but we had a few others mentioned above, just no assigned workers other than us. One brother was particularly memorable as he was sitting in a hallway outside our waiting room and before one enters the temple itself, dressed only in Levi’s and a work shirt. He was reading the scriptures, but I had to ask him if he was a member or just an investigator and was he interested in doing baptisms? His name was Brother Brandt and he indicated that he had done a baptismal session earlier that was coordinated by another missionary couple but was willing to do it all again. I asked him what priesthood he held, and he indicated he was a priest. He was in his late 20’s or early 30’s so we assumed he was a recent convert. I asked him if he had had the opportunity to perform any baptisms as the baptizer and he said no. He seemed a little hesitant, but I told him we could give him any training he lacked, and he’d had the opportunity to see several. As it turned out, he was baptized for about 10 individuals and then switched with his baptizer and performed 4 more on him as well as about 10 for our final sister who was the last in the group. I am sure he was very appreciative of the opportunity.

Usually, the temple president takes the opportunity to speak with all of the new groups as they begin a session, but it hadn’t happened this time and as we finished the confirmations with about 12 of us in the room, I took the opportunity to ask the group a few questions. What do we have to do to qualify to be baptized? What covenants do we make with God when we are baptized? I was pleased to see Bro. Brandt answering many of the questions and I felt he had been well trained by his missionaries. We talked about faith, repentance and the promise of receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost. We talked about the sacrament as a renewal of our baptismal covenants and I think it gave them all the opportunity to think a little bit deeper about what they had accomplished in their service. Brother Brandt later expressed how grateful he was for the new opportunities he had been offered and I think we were all similarly rewarded.

For our P-day activities this past week, we had planned a cruise on the Elbe River which runs through Dresden and on up to the Czech border. We weren’t going to go that far but had planned on sailing up to a beautiful castle at Pillnitz. But we have been having a bit of a drought here lately (not by Utah standards to any degree) but apparently the river was a bit low and we couldn’t sail up to the castle. But they did let us sail for an hour and a half up the river and back in what was described as a city-sail. It was pretty and gave us all the chance to take pictures of each other and the passing scenery. Here are the Linfords and two of our missionary sisters along with a typical view of some of the mansions along the riverside.

After we finished the cruise, we decided we would still drive up Castle Pillnitz. We knew the castle itself was closed on Mondays, but we wanted to walk around the gardens that surrounded it and enjoy the ambience. It turned out to be worth the trip. The fountains and pathways were beautiful. We were interested to see the history of the Elbe River floods of the past and went past one building where they showed the river heights at particular dates when it had flooded and which would have left us all 20 feet underwater where we stood.

 

Our final event of the week was a visit by the Utah Baroque Ensemble, a choir that apparently makes occasional excursions to Germany to promote their love of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach. They were around for about 10 days or so and invited us all to our local chapel next to the temple for a free concert. They sounded OK, but we decided we wanted to spend 8 Euros apiece the next night to hear them perform at the Freiberger Cathedral which we pictured several weeks ago. We were very impressed at how good they sounded with the great acoustics present in the cathedral and felt like we definitely got our moneys worth. Only one or two of the pieces were the same as the program the night before so it was a great experience. They had strings, a woodwind and an organist with them as well. Their organist had taught Sister Kathleen Lindsay how to play the organ and after the second concert was over, she was given the opportunity to ascend up into the high organ loft and try her hand at the pipes. This was sheer dedication as Kathleen usually takes the elevators around here, but she was devoted and climbed all the way up for the opportunity.  This is a picture taken at the chapel as photos weren’t allowed at the cathedral. That balding fellow in the striped shirt is our temple president with his wife sitting next to him.

    Mom: I certainly did immensely enjoy hearing this choir in the cathedral. The music being all very religious and focusing on Christ brought a reverent, holy feeling, resounding through the high domes. I would like to hear a religious Christmas concert there.

   It is fun on Mondays to go out and see a bit of Germany in one way or another, as we did the past week. I have never thought of Germany as lacking water, with the usual green meadows, forest and rivers everywhere. But it was evident in the river and on the castle grounds where brown spots had taken their toll. Even on the temple grounds I notice some dry brown areas. However, on Thursday we had a huge down pour that lasted all day and some into the next. It looks much better already. It is interesting that the rain is so cold you need jackets; nothing like our warm summer rain storms or cloud burst. I hope that it rained so hard up by Dresden.

    Boy, I am getting muscles on my muscles again as we have taken up coordinating the baptisms again. This week I didn’t always have as much help cleaning up in the dressing rooms and often had to heft heavy wet towels into the laundry chutes. But I don’t mind as it keeps me in shape. We just enjoy being with the youth and families, and even the single very older sister who wanted to be baptized for her sister and then complete the rest of the temple work all in one day. So, we help out and move things right along, so they can get to the next ordinance.

What I’m really going to miss is the sweet loving spirit that is evident throughout the temple as we all seek to help the patrons have good experiences. Some temples are more formal than ours, but the sweet peace and spirit is still present. Go to the temples.

 Love, Big Hugs, and Prayers,

Grammy, Grampa, Mom, Dad, Elder and Sister Parker