July 22, 2018

Temple Shoes, Barbecues and other Miracles

It has been a truly wonderful week. As our title suggests, it has been full of outdoor dinner invitations as well as an interesting report on a couple of miracles that were reported to us. We were favored with visits from the Czech saints this past week and are looking forward to a visit from many of our friends from Vienna next week. I don’t think we ever reported on one family that we met in Vienna who were here a couple of weeks ago. Richard and “Baggi” are wonderful supporters of the missionary effort and invited us with several other missionaries to their home for special occasions.  We spent time with them for a great Thanksgiving dinner with about six or eight other missionaries and were invited several times to share their generosity. “Baggi”’s name is difficult to spell and pronounce as she comes from Mongolia, so she told us to call her by that name. She is his second wife and is about 25 years younger than him. He is an attorney and told us how he had been all over the world in his career. When we attempted to find a major city anywhere that he hadn’t been in, we were unable to do it. He is now virtually blind, and this was their first trip to Freiberg since we have been here. Interestingly, the Linford’s with whom we share our car, were also at one time serving in Mongolia and it turns out they were able to connect with mutual friends they both knew. It was a wonderful reunion and I had the pleasure of helping him into one of the endowment sessions where two brethren seated on either side of him volunteered to assist him during the presentation.

But back to the Czech saints. We have gotten to know Brother and Sister Canek and Cankova. The women in the Czech Republic always had the “ova” to their husband’s names. Pronounced Tschanek and Tschankova, I received the opportunity to start reading Czech like I tried to do with Hungarian a month or so back. It’s giving me a bit of a reputation to help out with these interesting languages when people present at the end of an endowment session. I’m sure they smile a lot at my poor pronunciation, but I get the impression they appreciate the attempt. As I have now done it several times, I think I’m saying things a little bit better. The gift of tongues comes through once in a while.  Brother Linford and I were working together on one presentation where we did Czech, German and English all in one session. I’m still humble as I was working in front on one session and the German brother who was working behind told me later that he had everything memorized in German, English, Spanish and Italian. I have found I can do better in Spanish than either Czech or Hungarian because it’s easier to read but haven’t had the opportunity to try it in Italian yet. Six months or so and we’ll have a temple ready to go in Rome!

So now for another attempt to stay on track. Sister Cankova was assigned the spiritual thought yesterday morning at our prayer meeting prior to their leaving for home later in the day. She talked about an experience she had had years ago while they were working as full-time temple missionaries just as we are now. She reported that she was having severe difficulties with her feet because of the white shoes she had been asked to wear in the temple. They just didn’t fit properly and were really giving her problems. She had made several attempts to replace them with a better fitting pair and just had not been successful. They had prayed earnestly and even fasted to see if the Lord could help them with solving her problem. In a corridor leading past our freezers and to the back driveway stands a small table which has been designated as a castoff place for materials and objects that people are leaving behind when they leave their assignments. We occasionally had found boxes of cereal or other foods there as other missionaries have left. With no one scheduled to leave, Sister Cankova noticed a pair of white temple shoes on the table as she was going out to do some shopping. She checked them out and realized they were a perfect fit for her.  “When I come back, if they are still there, I’m going to claim them!” They were, and she did and she still feels it was a direct answer from the Lord to her earnest prayers. We’re not precisely sure but we think Bro. Canek is serving as a stake president in the Czech Republic. They are a wonderful couple who return every two months or so to do temple work.

Last Wednesday, we were invited by our temple recorder, Brother Schönherr, to a backyard BBQ.  His home is immediately behind the temple apartments where we all live and he is our newly called Elders Quorum President, having previously served as the High Priest Group Leader. It was a wonderful opportunity to socialize with all of the temple missionaries as well as the temple presidency and their wives. It is interesting to see how tight-knit the members are here. One of the old temple presidents, now a sealer is Brother Apel.  His daughter is pictured above in the kitchen, Bro. Schönherr’s wife. Her sister is our Relief Society President, Sister Fröbel who is also our Friseur or beautician. His son, previously in the stake presidency, is also the one who rents us our car.  They are all wonderful people.

The fourth picture above shows Brother Michel and Sister Catharina Lipke with a story about the second miracle.They are both students in Medical Informatics and his studies got in the way of his being able to serve a mission. We met them both as they have been in the baptistry several times. She was baptized just a little over a year ago and was now ready to complete all of the other temple ordinances. That took place Saturday morning. Thursday night, her father-in-law had invited us to an open house Saturday afternoon to celebrate the event and we later found out that all the missionaries, the temple presidency and a few of their neighbors were also invited. The address we were invited to is located in a small village nearby known as Kleinwaltersdorf, perhaps 5-10 minutes away. As we had a chance to visit with the family when we arrived, we discovered that the house on the property had been built in 1870! We discovered that the whole family actually lives in the town of Ham, near Dortmund which we drove through in March between Frankfurt and Cologne. They had been looking for an opportunity to purchase a home near the Freiberg Temple and there were two listed, to be sold at auction. They went to the first auction and found about 20 groups in attendance. It eventually sold at a price that was way beyond their resources. Somewhat crestfallen they attended the second auction which had about the same number of people present. But interestingly, there were several pieces of land being auctioned off. They saw a few people there who were obviously “cowboys” and were interested in buying available pastures and lands for their livestock.  By the end of the auction everyone else had purchased what they wanted and left, and they were the only ones left to bid on the house they were interested in. And it ended up being available for about half the suggested list price.  They considered it a true miracle and were please to make the purchase of a home that was perfect for their needs. They drive over about 2 or 3 times a month for several days each, which is why we saw them often in the temple and they work on the home whenever they come. Of great interest is that Brother Lipke was just called as the Bishop of his Ham Ward about 4 weeks ago. He is a wonderful dedicated brother and feels that he can fulfil his new calling while they are still fixing up the home.  They are making good progress but still have a long way to go before it will be ready. Their plan will be to make it into a type of additional rental offering for visitors as it has enough room for them to live in and also have several other rooms. Michel and Catharina were married last December. They will return to the temple often but have planned to be sealed around the time of or on their anniversary.





Above is the layout for the second barbecue and a group picture of the family and invited visitors. About the only thing left to talk about is our last Monday P-day activity. It turned out to be one of the highlights of all the places we have visited. You may remember a while back when we visited the Saxony Switzerland National Park and the Bastei rocks that reminded us of Bryce Canyon with trees and lots of greenery. Visible from there was an old venerable fortress dating back into the 1300’s though renovated several times since, known as Königstein. In the area are three very large stone mountains, the largest of which became the site for the Königstein fortress. We took over a hundred photos of the scenery in the area and cannot truly do it justice but will send along a few pictures to give you a little bit of an idea. 

The first here is a model of the whole fortress followed by a shot of the nearby Elbe River and another but smaller version of the stone upon which this fortress was built.



Next is a shot through one of the turret windows at the third stone mountain, (remember we are on the highest of the three) as well as the church steeple which you might be able to pick out on the model. Lots of pictures to show you when we get home.

Well, we’re just a little bit over half way through out mission. We’re looking forward to Amy’s talk in Sacrament Meeting today as the newest of our young women and have been enjoying the broadcast of the Tab Choir’s Pioneer Day concert celebrating Rogers and Hammerstein.

      Mom: I am really grateful that Dad or Grampa loves writing our blog letters. I just don’t have the energy to write so much, but this was a very full week of baptisms and new adventures. I’ll just share one special moment of the week. Off and on we, sisters are assigned to the celestial room, and Saturday, I was assigned for a period of time. It happened to be the time the newly endowed came into the room with their families, one of which was the family, described above. I watched them gather in one corner, on all the chairs available. The new endowed included the son going on a mission and the wife of the other brother. Also, with them were the father, mother, sister and her husband, and the sister missionary, who had worked with the wife in giving her the missionary discussions. They quietly talked about the special things going on in the temple, as they enjoyed the special sacredness of the occasion. There was so much joy and love on their faces, it radiated around the room. The father then had them gather close together in front of the eternal view in the mirrors. For a few moments they rejoiced, with smiles and love at this eternal family. It is a picture I’ll never forget. It was a blessing to share in this eternal moment of families. 

Love you all, as part of our big, eternal family, hugs and prayers,
Grammy, Grampa, mom, Dad, Elder and Sister Parker