July 8, 2018

Who is the most published of all German Authors?

We’ve had a pretty quiet week as things go. We had no big groups here from other countries though we did have several smaller groups from around the temple including one group that came from Berlin and its surroundings. I spoke to one brother who lives in Neukölln and told him that I had served there three different times; once as a junior companion-my first area, then again as a senior companion, and finally as a district leader. I even remembered my addresses and he remembered the chapel that was once there but since has been sold and moved to a different location. We did have a lot of live ordinances with a couple of young elders awaiting their opportunities to serve, one going to Novosibirsk which includes Siberia, and the other to Ukraine.  There were also a few sealings of young couples being sealed for time and all eternity and they usually brought quite a few attendees. But otherwise things were definitely down. We were assigned twice to lead our 11:30 endowment sessions and both days they were cancelled for lack of attendees. We did have two other chances, however, to lead sessions and they both went well. We had one scheduled baptism that we coordinated and another, that although scheduled actually took place later than we anticipated and for which we had to do a little scrambling to get enough workers so it could take place. There was a group of Spanish-speaking elders who are assigned to the Berlin Mission but definitely carry out their work in Spanish. Several members from their branch were also here, so having demonstrated my skills in Hungarian, I told them to read Spanish was a cinch and they gave me a card to read on the veil. I had one session where I did three languages—German, English and Spanish. It keeps your brain clear and active.

The big extracurricular activity of the week was an invitation by President and Sister Wagner, one of the counselors and matrons in the temple presidency, to attend a special event at their home which is located about an hour away. They invited us to attend the museum of the most published German writer of all time who was born in their city of Hohenstein-Erstthal. Anyone care to guess who that was? If I gave you a clue that he wrote about the American West and the great Indian Winnetou, or that one of his famous books was known as the Treasure of the Silver Sea, does that help? They even made films of his books and stories back in the 50’s and 60’s, and one of them even starred an American actor though they were all in German. If you’re still in the dark as I was, his name was Karl May and he is as well known here as Mark Twain or James Fenimore Cooper are in the states. He never visited the West though five years before his death he did get to visit New York. He even made a few comments about the Mormons and we happened to note this announcement posted on a fence at the museum about an upcoming lecture in September which promised to clear up Karl May’s fiction vs the reality about these strange people. Note the picture of the temple. None of the temple presidency recognized the name of the man giving the lecture. We thought it might be interesting to attend and make sure they really were clearing up any misstatements. We got a picture of all of us at the sample teepee erected outside the museum.

 

After that we took a brief trip to a famous raceway here in Germany, the Sachsenring or Saxon Ring, that vies with the Indy 500 in the states, that’s also located nearby and then went to the Wagner’s home for a yummy dinner.  As you can see, it was mostly the brethren who were interested in the raceway though we all enjoyed the delicious meal that was offered.

Here we are all assembled again at one of the best meals we’ve enjoyed while here in this amazing land.

A few were taking pictures but that’s Bro. Lindsay to our right, Sister Ashley to our left, the Mosses, Thornocks, Linfords and to their left, the Wadosches (our next temple president and matron), then in the white blouse Sister Wagner and her husband bracketing one of their daughters-in-law who was a big contributor, and finally Sister and President Erlacher, our current president and matron.

Hope you’re all enjoying the summer get-together.  We’ve enjoyed all the pictures and an occasional Facetime or two.

Mom: As your father or Grampa says there has not been much going on this week. Spanish was the extra language in the temple and I helped three sisters go through, but I spoke not a word of it. Somehow, we all manage to communicate, anyway.

    I loved all the pictures of the family get- together and seeing everyone in the back yard. Still need to work on getting a backyard patio. I’ve seen some fun backyards over here, especially Pres. and Sister Wagner’s. “Oh, meine Gute”, they have a small outdoor train set up with tracks and stations, and it is lots of fun to run. It stays out in all kinds of weather, (rain & snow), except for the train cars themselves, which they carry in and out. I think we should try and set something up, but it can wait until I get home.

 

    Lately, I’ve been reading the pearl of Great Price in the temple and found a new scripture I like to ponder and will memorize. I’ll share it with you. It will be awesome to see it fulfilled.  Joseph Smith Matthew 1:26: “For as the light of morning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, and covereth the whole earth, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.”

     Enjoy your fun times together, we miss being there with you, but we try to have some fun adventures too. Give each other a hug for me,

Love and Prayer, always,

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