It has been a wonderful holiday week both at the outset as well as throughout the rest of the week. It is truly being impressed upon us how short our time is getting as so much of our normal work week has been replaced by the celebrations going on.
Let’s start back a week ago as we left Freiberg after church and getting all packed up to spend 4 days and 3 nights with Markus and Cathleen Wiese at their home in Freiberg. We arrived in the late afternoon of the 23rd and were again placed in the master bedroom of their home. They have expanded a bit since we were there in 2014 with extra bedrooms. Their oldest son Ferdinand, 19, who spent a year with Robert and Kyndel Marcroft as a foreign exchange student, still lives in their home, speaks excellent English and is doing quite well since his accident. Their next daughter, Leonie, 18, spent a year as a foreign exchange student in Japan and presumptively speaks Japanese but was thrilled to try out her English while she was there. It was very good. She lives in her own apartment but occasionally will spend a night at the family homestead and was there most of the time we were. Their youngest, Heinrich, 16, was an amazing helper and was active in cooking, cleaning up and just helping out. Although we spoke German a lot, a great deal of the conversation took place in English. Markus’ father was also there from his home in Wolgast and participated in most of the meals and partying that went on. Markus’ brother Stefan lives next door and the father spent some time with them as well.
There was a lot of wonderful conversation that went on, so much so that we never got to one of their traditions which was to watch The Grinch which they only have in English. I had been given a couple of interesting stories by one of our local temple workers here in Freiberg that I took along and read, one of which was about twins still in the womb making some analogous comments that we might make about whether there is really life after birth. Monday, Christmas Eve, was spent with more conversation and we also helped to decorate the Christmas tree. Many of you have apparently seen the Facebook post that Markus placed showing us doing all of that. We had a delicious breakfast and lunch which was the main meal and consisted of quail (pictured below) as well as venison which Markus himself had shot and prepared. We then went to the Lutheran church for their Christmas Eve service where we viewed a presentation which included young adults and a theme of how we should look out for all those we meet and help minister to their needs. Sound familiar? We then returned home for a wonderful Abendbrot prior to the Christmas Eve festivities. Everyone got out their musical instruments with Cathleen and Markus on the violin and cello, singing Christmas carols and reading more stories.
Then the special chair was set up in the center of the room next to the tree and a gift was selected from under the tree. The recipient sat on the chair, opened their present and then selected another gift and was replaced by the person opening that one. This went on for a couple of hours. We gave the Wiese family the game of Telestrations which we had a fun time with the next day. We actually gave them two games so there would be enough to go around for both Markus’ and Stefan’s families. In turn we received a tin of Leipzig chocolates, homemade wurst, homemade baked apple marmalade, a lovely apron stating “Bake the World a Better Place”, lovely smelling bath soap, a book about the “Saga of Saxony”, next year’s calendar that Markus always gives us every year consisting of pictures of the past year and two more wonderful Christmas stockings that are even more decorative than the ones they gave us in 2014.
The traditional Christmas for them really takes place on Christmas Eve but there was still much more to go. We received wonderful breakfasts each morning, generally being allowed to sleep in until 9 AM and meals consisted of other specialties such as rabbit. Festivities on the 25th were at Stefan’s next door, the middle picture above, and then with the Jentzsch’s, Cathleen’s parents in the third picture above, on the 26th. We have gotten to know Cathleen’s father well as he has been our temple engineer, pictured in front of the white door above. However, he is retiring at the end of the year, in 2 days, and is talking about possibly going on a mission with his wife. Also pictured bending over near the piano is Grandma Richter who, with her husband was very instrumental in helping get the Freiberg Temple built and running and who used to get a birthday card from President Monson every year. We see her often in the temple, a very sweet lady.
Let’s start back a week ago as we left Freiberg after church and getting all packed up to spend 4 days and 3 nights with Markus and Cathleen Wiese at their home in Freiberg. We arrived in the late afternoon of the 23rd and were again placed in the master bedroom of their home. They have expanded a bit since we were there in 2014 with extra bedrooms. Their oldest son Ferdinand, 19, who spent a year with Robert and Kyndel Marcroft as a foreign exchange student, still lives in their home, speaks excellent English and is doing quite well since his accident. Their next daughter, Leonie, 18, spent a year as a foreign exchange student in Japan and presumptively speaks Japanese but was thrilled to try out her English while she was there. It was very good. She lives in her own apartment but occasionally will spend a night at the family homestead and was there most of the time we were. Their youngest, Heinrich, 16, was an amazing helper and was active in cooking, cleaning up and just helping out. Although we spoke German a lot, a great deal of the conversation took place in English. Markus’ father was also there from his home in Wolgast and participated in most of the meals and partying that went on. Markus’ brother Stefan lives next door and the father spent some time with them as well.
There was a lot of wonderful conversation that went on, so much so that we never got to one of their traditions which was to watch The Grinch which they only have in English. I had been given a couple of interesting stories by one of our local temple workers here in Freiberg that I took along and read, one of which was about twins still in the womb making some analogous comments that we might make about whether there is really life after birth. Monday, Christmas Eve, was spent with more conversation and we also helped to decorate the Christmas tree. Many of you have apparently seen the Facebook post that Markus placed showing us doing all of that. We had a delicious breakfast and lunch which was the main meal and consisted of quail (pictured below) as well as venison which Markus himself had shot and prepared. We then went to the Lutheran church for their Christmas Eve service where we viewed a presentation which included young adults and a theme of how we should look out for all those we meet and help minister to their needs. Sound familiar? We then returned home for a wonderful Abendbrot prior to the Christmas Eve festivities. Everyone got out their musical instruments with Cathleen and Markus on the violin and cello, singing Christmas carols and reading more stories.
Then the special chair was set up in the center of the room next to the tree and a gift was selected from under the tree. The recipient sat on the chair, opened their present and then selected another gift and was replaced by the person opening that one. This went on for a couple of hours. We gave the Wiese family the game of Telestrations which we had a fun time with the next day. We actually gave them two games so there would be enough to go around for both Markus’ and Stefan’s families. In turn we received a tin of Leipzig chocolates, homemade wurst, homemade baked apple marmalade, a lovely apron stating “Bake the World a Better Place”, lovely smelling bath soap, a book about the “Saga of Saxony”, next year’s calendar that Markus always gives us every year consisting of pictures of the past year and two more wonderful Christmas stockings that are even more decorative than the ones they gave us in 2014.
The traditional Christmas for them really takes place on Christmas Eve but there was still much more to go. We received wonderful breakfasts each morning, generally being allowed to sleep in until 9 AM and meals consisted of other specialties such as rabbit. Festivities on the 25th were at Stefan’s next door, the middle picture above, and then with the Jentzsch’s, Cathleen’s parents in the third picture above, on the 26th. We have gotten to know Cathleen’s father well as he has been our temple engineer, pictured in front of the white door above. However, he is retiring at the end of the year, in 2 days, and is talking about possibly going on a mission with his wife. Also pictured bending over near the piano is Grandma Richter who, with her husband was very instrumental in helping get the Freiberg Temple built and running and who used to get a birthday card from President Monson every year. We see her often in the temple, a very sweet lady.
We came home straight from the Jentzsch’s and picked up our duties in the temple on Thursday morning with a wonderful group of people that we know well from the Czech Republic. We were truly impressed with how well organized they were. We participated and helped with baptisms, initiatory ordinances and a number of endowment sessions. Unfortunately, I don’t think we were very good at mastering the Czech language, but they had a number of set apart temple workers to help out where our talents were wanting.
The week ended today with yours truly being asked to speak in Sacrament Meeting about the spiritual highlights of my life. The general theme was an end of the year summary of what we have learned in the past and I spoke for 10-12 minutes on things like my own baptism, the spiritual impressions I had upon meeting my wife, and the first truly spiritual experience I remember riding the Streetcar #55 through Ernst Reuter Platz and reading Mark E Peterson’s pamphlet on “Which Church is Right?” I talked about the spiritual experiences of delivering 7800 babies and the special experiences of having our own 10. I talked about meeting with Elders Nelson and Oaks and discussing church teachings about stillborn babies and the fact that I had two stillborn brothers. It was often difficult for me to keep talking as I was so spiritually caught up in what I was saying and many indicated afterwards that they appreciated the things that I talked about.
Lots of things still happening over the next couple of days and this coming week appears to be the last one in which we will be assigned to work. We have to deregister next week and will likely not have anything to do on the Tuesday before we leave other than perhaps complete a few of our leftover ordinances. I still have 7 sons that need to be sealed to their parents and one endowment not yet completed that perhaps can be finished on that last day. We’ll see how it all goes.
The week ended today with yours truly being asked to speak in Sacrament Meeting about the spiritual highlights of my life. The general theme was an end of the year summary of what we have learned in the past and I spoke for 10-12 minutes on things like my own baptism, the spiritual impressions I had upon meeting my wife, and the first truly spiritual experience I remember riding the Streetcar #55 through Ernst Reuter Platz and reading Mark E Peterson’s pamphlet on “Which Church is Right?” I talked about the spiritual experiences of delivering 7800 babies and the special experiences of having our own 10. I talked about meeting with Elders Nelson and Oaks and discussing church teachings about stillborn babies and the fact that I had two stillborn brothers. It was often difficult for me to keep talking as I was so spiritually caught up in what I was saying and many indicated afterwards that they appreciated the things that I talked about.
Lots of things still happening over the next couple of days and this coming week appears to be the last one in which we will be assigned to work. We have to deregister next week and will likely not have anything to do on the Tuesday before we leave other than perhaps complete a few of our leftover ordinances. I still have 7 sons that need to be sealed to their parents and one endowment not yet completed that perhaps can be finished on that last day. We’ll see how it all goes.
Mom: It was wonderful to spend the 4th Sunday Advents and the Christmas days with Markus, Cathleen and their family. We all feel like one big extended family and we appreciate them for taking us in and letting us be a part of the family festivities. It helped us not miss home so much. It looks like you’ve had a lot more snow than us, but we did have our beautiful snow storm about a week and a half ago and drove through some beautiful snowy forests. I expect we’ll find more snow in the coming January at home.
The three days we spent in the temple were sweet, very busy and not so busy. As Grampa said the Czechs were here and were delightful to accommodate. A lot of them do speak a little English, so we can communicate with those who don’t as to how to work in the temple. These people have a wonderful spirit about them as they seek to be truly faithful in serving the Lord. One young couple was allowed a few special moments in the Celestial room as the young man asked the young woman to marry him. The next couple of days wherever they went, you could see this special little sparkle about them. I was kept busy at the veils with Czechish, Russian, English and also some German and at the initiatories when I had so many patrons but so few workers. Some how it always seemed to work out just right. We always seem tired, but the temple experiences are sweet and spiritual.
It is hard to believe that our time is so short, and so filled with last time activities. We’re trying not to get over excited about seeing everyone again.
The three days we spent in the temple were sweet, very busy and not so busy. As Grampa said the Czechs were here and were delightful to accommodate. A lot of them do speak a little English, so we can communicate with those who don’t as to how to work in the temple. These people have a wonderful spirit about them as they seek to be truly faithful in serving the Lord. One young couple was allowed a few special moments in the Celestial room as the young man asked the young woman to marry him. The next couple of days wherever they went, you could see this special little sparkle about them. I was kept busy at the veils with Czechish, Russian, English and also some German and at the initiatories when I had so many patrons but so few workers. Some how it always seemed to work out just right. We always seem tired, but the temple experiences are sweet and spiritual.
It is hard to believe that our time is so short, and so filled with last time activities. We’re trying not to get over excited about seeing everyone again.
Still sending our love, prayers and hugs,
Grammy, Grampa, Mom, Dad, Elder and Sister Parker
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