October 28, 2018

Are There Enough Farewells Going On?

I guess it’s not too surprising on October 28 to find out that the summer is over and cold weather has arrived. We’ve really had a very lovely fall season with reasonable temperatures but that all seems to be over now, and it was even predicted that it might snow today. It hasn’t yet but as we walked to church (only a 60 second walk) it did seem like there was a bit of frost in the air.

Speaking of church, we had our Primary program today which was truly excellent. Our Primary is fairly small, and we had perhaps 12 or 13 kids participating but they sang a dozen songs which they all had well-memorized as well as each of them participated in a few remarks which they had also learned and it was truly lovely.  Our Primary pianist has been sister Ann Moss, who accompanied the children throughout the program. She and her husband are finishing up their missions and departing for home near Rexburg, Idaho this Wednesday morning. What a Halloween event! Both had the opportunity to bear their testimonies at the end of the program today and Sister Moss even did it in German, which she doesn’t usually speak.

We’re also losing the Bonners from Midway this coming Saturday and the Ashby’s from Draper in a little over 2 weeks.  Without these three couples out of our seven, work in the temple is really going to be a challenge. Ashbys leave on the 16th and we are apparently receiving the Stapleys on the 19th, so we’ll really only be down two for a couple of weeks. Then in late November we are receiving a missionary couple, the Fiedler’s, from Berlin and things will be a little closer to normal. I’m sure by Thanksgiving we will have plenty to be thankful for again as our numbers return to near normal. We do have several other temple workers from our local region who are there pretty regularly including Brothers Wengert, Kux, and Hans as well as numerous sisters, Sisters Brosch, Hartz, Riedel, and 2 sister Jaehns. I mention their names primarily for our records as we review all of this in the future.

We had a formal farewell dinner last night for the three couples departing soon and all fourteen of us went to a pretty little restaurant known as “ Zur Orgelpfeife” which we organized but which all 14 of us attended. The name means “At the Organpipes” and is decorated throughout with numerous pipes retrieved from various organs. Unfortunately, none of them are attached to a keyboard anymore even though we tried to convince our waitress that it would be really nice to arrange a little music over a speaker system.  Ah, well.

 

 

The sociability and food were great. Just about everyone is visible in the first two pictures but unfortunately, the organ pipes aren’t. This evening, in the third picture, we got together again with the Mosses, Bonners and Linfords with whom we share our car and had a little more intimate farewell with those leaving this week. Apparently, the Bonners have scheduled yet another get-together for tomorrow night with all 7 couples again, so the sociability never seems to end.

Naturally, the big event of the coming week will be installing our new temple presidency. Tuesday night, all of the temple workers are holding a farewell party for the Erlachers and Wagners which will be held in our ward house. The Erlachers have been here for several years, not just as the President and Matron but formerly also as a counselor and assistant matron. They have moved out of the President’s home next to our apartment and have been living where formerly President and Sister Wadosch were living. They have been on a three-month sabbatical which included their training time in Salt Lake City as they prepare to be our next temple president and matron. Again, he was stake president in Vienna prior to our serving there but we worked a lot with Sister Wadosch who was on our Institute Council. We haven’t seen them back yet but assume they’ll be moving back in within the next two or three days. The other counselor and assistant matron, President and Sister Wagner are already packing up. They live about 45 minutes away from Freiberg but will be getting new callings, we’re sure, in their home ward. As part of the business today they released Bro. Dzierzon as Sunday School president and his wife as one of the Relief Society teachers as they will both be installed in the new temple presidency. They live very close and will not be moving into the temple apartments, so we’ll end up with a vacant place for a while until a new couple are called to serve. Our other new counselor and his wife, the Bartches, are coming from Berlin. They’ll get one of the two vacant apartments and we’ll be ready to go again as November rolls in. That will leave us as the senior missionary couple for a short while. We still haven’t gotten the details but there are a few hints that they might be releasing us around the 8th or 9th of January which is now just a little over 2 months away!

So, a lot of personnel changes. As far as the past week went, it was also quite special as the visiting group came from the Vienna 4th Ward. That was the ward we were actually assigned to when we served there and is the international, English-speaking ward in the Vienna Stake. There were very many old friends we were able to greet and reminisce with and it proved to be a very busy week. We were not involved, but the busiest was the baptistry as they had an average of three sessions a day with about 20 or 30 young people who were steadily serving. In addition to them we had four or five new endowments during the week as well as about five sealings for couples and families, all of which were of course very special. One sealing we have been anticipating for quite some time were the Lipke’s about whom we spoke a few months back. They had indicated to us that they planned on being sealed in December at the time of their wedding anniversary. But I guess they decided they wanted President Erlacher to perform the sealing before his release and so that was accomplished at the end of yesterday’s activities with virtually all of the missionaries in attendance. It was very sweet to see them make their eternal covenants. Her parents are not members but waited in the waiting room and helped take pictures afterwards to commemorate the event.

The rest of the week was also very busy with several endowment sessions filling all of the seats and extra chairs placed in the aisles. We found we were also dealing with Hungarians, Czechs, and even Spanish-speakers which kept us on our toes to make sure everyone was helped using the right language. We commented to one of our Viennese acquaintances that we found the work in the temple much more physically demanding than was ever the case while serving with them as young adult reps in Vienna.

Mom: It seems that the past couple of weeks in the temple have been very active. I think many members have come to spend their last time with this presidency,  Erlachers and Wagners, as both weeks we have had members from Austria and this week, especially from Vienna. It’s always fun to welcome members who we knew back in our other mission, even some of the parents of our young adults. It’s fun to watch all the sisters who sit waiting in the foyer, as they are all busy reading the Book of Mormon.(Interesting, Faithful)  But there were two very special times. One was being able to witness the sweet, sealing of the young couple, that Dad referred to in his letter. They were the same family that I wrote of watching in the celestial room, standing in front of the eternal mirrors. Now, they have all been brought together for eternity. The senior missionary couples have become like grandparents to them. The other special time was the primary program in sacrament meeting today. What sweet joy it brings to your heart to  watch these beautiful children speak and sing about Jesus. It makes me think about all of my grandchildren and how much I miss them all. Well, it won’t be too long before we will be back home, only a little over two months.

    Be faithful, be true. We love you all with prayers and hugs, Grammy, Grampa, Mom, Dad, Elder and Sister Parker