Happy 2nd Advent!

Happy 2nd Advent to one and all! We are really into the Christmas season now in a big way. For years we have loved the tradition of hanging up Advents calendars and each day from the 1st through the 25th. of opening that day’s special tag to see what surprise awaits. Most of our grandchildren remember the Advents Christmas tree which we hang up in the kitchen and each day place a special figure on the tree leading up to the special angel at the top of the tree on the 24th. But I guess we really need to be in Europe to actually set up our Advents wreath, light the appropriate number of candles and enjoy the season and the great Spirit that goes along with it. It seems we have received several gifts at our doorstep this past week of goodies, home baked cookies and other remembrances from other temple missionaries, temple patrons and members of the temple presidency. Some of these are depicted around our 2nd Advents wreath below such as the cute little paper Christmas tree with a lit candle beneath, the nutcracker which was filled with cookies and the little lighted bottle which came with a delicious package of nuts. We spent this past week really celebrating the season, starting with a special presentation at the Dresden Opera House of the Nutcracker Ballet which was very well done with a lot of young dancers portraying the children at Herr Drosselmeyer’s home. The Christmas tree grew a bit, but we thought that Ballet West did a much better job in the productions we have attended several times there. They didn’t allow pictures to be taken during the performance, but I did catch a shot of the concert hall where it was performed.

Then two days later we went to the local concert house here in Freiberg whereBeethoven’s Ninth Symphony was presented. I memorized the Ode to Joy by Schiller many years ago and it has always been one of my favorites. At both events, we accompanied the Lindsays who have a much nicer car than ours and even went to a beautifully decorated restaurant in Dresden prior to the ballet. But the real high point of the week was a superb Christmas Advents program shown in the third picture and put on by the Freiberg Branch/Ward yesterday evening. The program was entitled “Das ist Weihnachten für Mich.” or “This is Christmas for Me.” It was essentially put on by our Branch President’s family, the Dzierzons and they had apparently been working on it since September. They are very musically talented and President Dzierzon sings a beautiful tenor. But he also led a wonderful choir of Primary kids out of both wards. A group of young men and women also participated in a choir but what was really special was that Grandpa and Grandma Dzierzon were celebrating the season with their grandchildren in a living room set up at the front of the chapel. Grandpa Dzierzon is sitting in the chair at the right, his wife is clad in black in the center and our Branch President is directing the choir on the left. They had about four of their grandchildren ranging in age from 4-11 who had parts in the program and the 11-year-old sang a wonderful solo as did his father. Grandpa and Grandma are special to us because they’re in our new temple presidency. But the thing that really brought it all together was a wonderful audio-visual program they had prepared to accompany the singers with pictures projected behind them at the front of the chapel. We thought it was a wonderful highlight to the season and very spiritually done emphasizing the birth of the Savior and its significance in each of our lives.

Unbeknownst to us in advance was a beautiful prelude performance by Sister Lindsay playing a very special version of Silent Night which had glorious piano runs and which is a tradition for her at Christmastime. She was accompanied by a wonderful violinist from Switzerland and it wasn’t until after the program, as we were congratulating them and thanking them for their contribution on the program that we learned that Sister Lindsay had been praying for a violinist to accompany her. Sure enough, that week, our lovely Swiss sister appeared at the temple, accompanying a friend who was taking out her first endowment. While she was working in the baptistry, Sister Lindsay learned of her talents only on Thursday, two days before the program. Together it was a wonderful performance obviously the result of heartfelt prayer.

We didn’t have much time last week to talk about one little trip we made to a nearby castle in the town of Kriebstein. It turns out it was closed for the entire month of December but we thought it was pretty enough to visit being just 30 minutes away. As we arrived we could see it through the barren trees that would have prevented a view just a few weeks ago. But it was a very pretty environment and typical of the things that surround us here in Saxony. Below you can see the beautiful little waterfall and river than runs by it along with a picture of Grammy just a little farther away. And then we thought the next picture was fun, just across the street.  

We also visited a fun furniture house, the largest in the whole state here where they had a huge room full of moving toy trains. And guess what we found, finally: a manger scene! Unfortunately, it wasn’t for sale. (:

Our temple work has been interesting this past week as many of our normal patrons are caught up in the season and there weren’t as many  attendees as we’re used to. We have a daily plan that lists out our responsibilities over the day with each person taking up a row. The whole bottom of the plan was completely empty which meant we had to do a little innovation to find workers to help us with our assignments. Because we’re currently assigned to the initiatory ordinances it takes at least two workers to officiate for one patron and three can take care of either two or three patrons at the same time. The sisters seem to do pretty well in covering their assignments but it’s a bit harder with the brethren who have the sole responsibility for witnessing at baptisms, baptizing and confirming,  and working behind the veil. I found that I was assigned workers for the first shift at 8:00 in the morning but seldom anyone else for the other sessions at 11:00 and 1PM. Still, when I had someone who had a few names they needed to do, I was always able to find someone who could volunteer 15 or 20 minutes to help out. I was asked to help out in the baptistry and twice got to help out with sealings. We have had several of our own family names to do but didn’t get many opportunities to do them personally. But this week was great as I had the opportunity to take care of about 17 sons being sealed to their parents, many of whom have been sitting in our files for a few months. Grammy and I even had the chance to take care of 4 or 5 couple sealings at one session. I’m now left with only 5 endowments to take care of and may have to pass them to others if the opportunity doesn’t present itself.

I’ve had to smile a little bit as we have been involved in the initiatory ordinances which specifically blesses the health of our bodies. As I was kneeling at the altar doing sealings, my knees started feeling my weight a bit more than I have remembered in the past. As I thought about our initiatories, I remembered that we pay attention to the legs and feet and after the sealings I thought it might be nice to include the knees as well! The initiatories mention some of the most significant blessings we receive in the temple and despite repetitions over and over again, I never seem to get tired of reflecting on what special blessings are mentioned thereby. Apparently, according to my understanding, the ordinances performed in the Kirtland Temple may have only been what we now recognize as the initiatories, as the endowment ordinances as we now recognize them were not revealed until preparations were begun for the Nauvoo Temple. Nonetheless, they all represented an endowment from on high. They are all very sacred and it’s a real blessing to be involved with them on a daily basis.

I have thought about the covenants that we make when we are baptized and which I often discuss with the patrons who come to be baptized for the dead. They are not mentioned at all in the baptismal prayers but when I mention that we hear about them almost every week, most realize that they are mentioned in the sacrament prayers. I have reflected often on how difficult it can be to remember Him always (translated in German as “think about Him always”) and have appreciated how much easier that is to do while working every day in the temple. It has been a special experience that will perpetuate itself long after we have been released.

Speaking of that, after pestering the church travel office for almost a month, they finally communicated to us our flight plans home, corrected from leaving from Berlin and now officially having us departing from Dresden exactly one month from today, on January 9. We leave here at 10:50 AM and arrive in Salt Lake City the same day at 8:09 PM on United Airlines flight 5625  (operated by SkyWest doing business as United Express). We’ll be flying through Frankfurt and then coming in from Denver on the last leg of the flight. On our return from Vienna we had a big delay in Denver which caused us to miss our scheduled flight but this time we have about 2 hours and 40 minutes to get through customs so hopefully we’ll be on time. It’s been kind of fun to contemplate this, our last month. I have enough medication to last me until we leave but the bottles get emptier and emptier and I have exactly enough blood sugar test strips to use the last one on our day of departure. It’s easy to see exactly how many days we have left as I use one each morning. The schedule makes it look like we’re only underway for 9 hours and 19 minutes, a piece of cake, right? But after we add in our 8-hour time difference, I guess it’ll be about 17+ hours.  Still not too bad but we’ll get there at 4:09 AM on the 10th, German time. Hopefully we’ll get a little sack time on the way.

Mom: It is so delightful to be here in Germany at Christmas time. In every little town and city is a Weinachtsmarkt, another name for the Christkindlmarkt. As we were up in Dresden for the Nutcracker, we were able to visit the Markt at night with all its lights and festivities. Even when its cold outside its still fun to walk through all the little booths and see what they are offering. I hope to visit  a few more before we get to Christmas. But the best thing by far has been and will be this wonderful musical presentation of the birth of Christ by our Branch and Ward. The light and spirit were so strong that you could almost touch it. I certainly do love the Christmas music and activities, but it does make missing the family harder. There are so many sweet, family memories.

We’re hoping the temple work will still be continued adequately through the season. As the weather gets bad, it is not a great time for traveling to the temple from the outer edges of our temple district. Like Grampa has said, even our local members are a bit caught up in the season. We’ll see what happens in the next couple of weeks, somehow things always seem to work out.

      The weather predicts snow the next few days, so I’m hoping for it. It’s better than icy rain. Take time to enjoy the season and send pictures. We’re wishing you a Merry and Blessed Season.

Love, Hugs and Prayers,

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