November 18, 2018

Baptisms and Confirmations Start the Process of Salvation

Well, we are now down to less than two months left on this mission and even though that’s still a little bit of time away, it seems that everything we do seems to reflect on how short the time is becoming.  When we arrived, we attempted to get a lot of our supplies set up so they’d be good for a year. That’s not too tough for clothing and things than really don’t get used up for many things, especially medications that we both take, they do have a tendency to get lower and lower.  I was taking a few meds that only needed to go for a few months and so they ran out fast. I’m now down to just 4 medications that I take daily and their containers are getting lower and lower, a very visual demonstration that our time is running out. I have a tendency when we travel to save up on the soaps and shampoos from various hotels that we haven’t used when we leave and the shampoos all ran out long ago. But I probably had 20 or 30 small bars of soap that I actually brought with me and we’re now on the very last one which won’t last out more than a final week. Sigh. I guess I’ll actually have to go out and buy a bar! My white ties are getting just a bit worn around the tips but I think I can encourage them to hang in there for the last two months.

This week it was the Czechoslovakians who were our visitors. Most of them we have gotten to know quite well but now that we’re assigned to the baptistry, it seems that we hadn’t had a lot of experience with them in that department. Many of the groups that come have registered well in advance and have all of the necessary positions assigned and ready to go. Most of the time, it’s the youth who are being baptized and their names all get filled out on the available forms. For groups really well organized, there are also brethren and sisters assigned to be recorders, baptizers, witnesses and confirmers and all we have to do is supervise a bit and make sure the dressing rooms are cleaned up when they’re finished. But every so often, I think language difficulties play a role, they simply appear to perform the ordinances and it’s a real scramble to get everything organized. We have to write the names of those who will be representing the deceased on little slips of paper so the baptizer can  read them on the TV screen and recite their names before performing the ordinance. Invariably, when a group is here, there are always others who would like to join in and they are always welcome but occasionally we’re dealing with more than one or two languages and so we have to be certain that the baptizer can read Czech as well as German or occasionally English and that gets to be lots of fun. I have sat in on numerous Czech confirmations with the responsibility to change the name of the person being confirmed.  Even though the prayer is written down in front of me, Czech has no easy-to-figure-out pronunciation guide and I have to really be paying attention to change the name card if I can figure out when the actual name is being pronounced. The Spirit is there and things usually work out pretty well.

Yesterday was a very interesting day as four different baptismal groups were scheduled to appear. The first was a Czech group that we had worked with during the week and we knew them pretty well, but they had no assigned witnesses and not enough priesthood holders to confirm while the baptisms were still going on. We got done barely in time to greet the next group, a father, mother and two teenage children. We had to find two witnesses and an extra brother to help with confirmations, but it wasn’t as hard as the day before when a father and mother appeared with two daughters. Our good assistant, Bro. Linford, with whom we share our car, volunteered to be the extra baptist, so the father could baptize his wife and two daughters, and then in turn was baptized by Bro. Linford. We were able to find two brethren to be witnesses and kept one to help with the confirmations.  It all went smoothly. But yesterday, as soon as we finished with the family, we had to be ready for the next group who came in a bus from the Berlin Stake. They were well organized and we simply had to greet them and give them a little support with their baptismal clothing.

The last group came right on the heels from the Berlin group, from a city known as Coburg. Apparently, they had been disappointed on their last visit a few months ago that the temple was not heavily supplied with names. Most of our temple ordinance cards may only have three or four names each and they felt a little shortchanged after having travelled for several hours to get here.  So this time they came really prepared with 15-25 names each to do and a few extra people joined in because we were organized and read to go. All in all, it was a wonderful day, all 4 groups felt rewarded and each even received a little message from a member of the temple presidency before beginning their service. We had had breakfast, as usual, at around 6:30 that morning and by the time we had any respite at all, it was the end of our usual day at 3 PM. It keeps us trim and fit. Have we mentioned before that temple service is more strenuous than we anticipated?

Next week promises to be a little easier as no groups are scheduled for the entire week. We’ll wait and see. We are planning on a Thanksgiving celebration tomorrow, our only day off for the week but it should be special with everyone contributing something to the feast.

We very much enjoy getting the emails from Myles, Kyle and Tim each week as well as our grand-niece Elle Broughton who’s speaking Spanish down in Alabama. You guys are always in our prayers and we love hearing about your experiences. We’re losing Sister Strong today, a sister missionary who has been here in our branch about six months but leaves for home tomorrow. She gave a wonderful departure testimony today in sacrament meeting as well as sang a lovely solo for our musical number. We also greeted the Stapleys, our new next-door neighbors, who arrived yesterday. He served in Hamburg in the early 70’s and has a pretty good German. His wife has been learning German for the past 3-6 months, so we’ll see how she does. They are welcome arrivals while we’re down three couples. The Fiedlers arrive next week, a senior couple from Berlin, and that will pretty much bring us back to full speed. That makes us the senior Senior couple now until we leave in January.

Cold weather has finally arrived. We had a few temps in the high 30’s all last week but the fountains in front of the temple we’re still going strong. Yesterday the frost hit strong and we noted the fountains have finally been turned off. It’s predicted we’ll get snow most of next week but so far nothing has developed to bring out the shovels. We did note a snow shovel has been placed strategically by the front door into our apartment house so we’ll see.

We had the opportunity of going to dinner a while back at a restaurant owned by a member of our branch. We had never been there before but there were six of us there and he really fussed over us with a delightful meal. I think we’ll have to frequent his place more often. However, although he is located right next to the St. Petri Church very near to the central square in Freiburg, we just had never taken the occasion to walk down a narrow street and look at it up close.  We were informed that it originally dated back into the 1100’s but has been restored several times having been burned down at least three times.  

Its steeple is the highest in the city and we were told that it’s permissible to walk all the way up it’s entire 230 meters—that’s only 2 ½ footballs fields! We tried it out last Monday and felt rewarded to have a personal guide escort us. He spoke a pretty heavy Platt German, so I only understood about half of what he said (Mom said she only got about a third of it) but it was well worth the climb. Above are a few shots of what we saw. The first picture of the exterior shows a balcony way up high below the bells that we were allowed to walk upon. The next picture is a shot from that balcony looking down upon the white city hall or Rathaus which has had scaffolding around it all year until this month when it finally came down. The last shot out one of the windows demonstrates that they’re already celebrating the Christmas season here and we’re looking forward to the special Christmas market that will be set up this next week in the square by the Rathaus.

Mom: Working in the baptistry is enjoyable as there is usually time to talk with the various patrons as I fit them for baptismal clothing and have them help with the clean up and handing out towels. I had to smile as one young lady clearly let me know that she was the “Betreurerin” or ministering sister for her group. I was glad she was excited to hand out towels. The sweet times are when I observe the mothers get tears in their eyes, as they watch the fathers baptizing their son or daughter who has just turned 12, coming to the temple for the first time. Other times are observing very spiritual moments as someone older is being baptized for their, mother, sister, brother or grandparents. Then you know that these spirits, who have passed on, are present to witness the ordinance being performed for them. It seems a joy to work anywhere in the temple. It is a wonderful privilege to feel the presence of the Spirit of the Lord and the spirits of our ancestors. They feel such joy and gladness. This week, I also had a sweet experience as I did some initiatories for a couple of Parker family names. Then, I took the names personally to have them scanned and stamped. Afterwards I felt as though someone was saying, “thank you,  thank you for doing my work. It was a feeling that just stayed with me for quite a while afterwards.

  Since tomorrow is our Thanksgiving, I’ll say “Happy Thanksgiving” to you all. We’re grateful for all of you and the opportunity to serve the Lord. May you find your own way to serve Him.

Love, Hugs, and prayers,

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

November 11, 2018

Leaves Down, Temple Workers Down But Poles Up

Another busy week has flown by, this time with temple visitors out of Poland, Leipzig, Annaberg and Freiberg with the last three all German cities.The last two are within our stake boundaries and it just so happens that this weekend is stake conference, perfectly matching our home stake in Highland which also has stake conference today.

Perhaps I’ll start with stake conference because it’s fresh in my mind. This was the first stake conference since our new stake presidency was installed 6 months ago and they were the primary speakers as we had no general authority reps. Highland, we noted had Elder Robert Gay from the Presidency of the Seventies as well as a special Saturday night presentation to the Priests and Laurels offered by Elder David Bednar. I’ll bet that was special as we remember his visit to our mission when we were serving in Vienna.

The Saturday evening session was more like a Saturday afternoon session which started at 4 PM. Our stake center is in Dresden, about 45 minutes away and there is a great deal of street construction going on there, (as there was 6 months ago but it’s worse now.) They recommended we all get there an hour early as the stake center only has parking places for about 10-12 cars and everyone else parks on a big street on which the church is located.  Because of the construction it was predicted that we might have to walk a while to arrive there, so they recommended we try and get there by 3 PM. That was pretty tough for the temple workers as our last session starts at 1 PM, goes about an hour and a half plus time to work everyone through their ordinances and get them home which usually lasts about another 45 minutes or until 3:15.  I’ll go into more detail about our specific assignment below but suffice it to say that we decided, along with only one other couple, to make the attempt to catch as much of the session as we could. We left about 3:25 which was really making good time and arrived about 4:15. We lucked out with an open parking spot on the street only about 5 minutes away and came in, having missed the first two speakers, one of whom was Sister Dzierzon, one of our new temple matrons who was being released as the stake primary president. Just beginning to speak as we arrived was President Wadosch, our new temple president and previous counselor in the temple presidency as well as a previous stake president in Vienna.  But the rest of the meeting was worth the effort and they featured a lovely stake choir that had practiced well.

Today, with no departure delays, we got away around 8:00, arrived there about 8:45 and found a spot again within about a 5-minute walk and so had plenty of time to visit with the various members, missionaries and many we knew from their temple visits. They had a youth/young adult choir practicing in the chapel and wouldn’t let anyone in to listen, even though we could hear the choir easily through the curtain dividers to the cultural hall. But we decided we’d sit in the cultural hall anyway and had a whole row of 10 of us which pretty much makes up all of the temple missionaries. The talks were all wonderful and the entire stake presidency provided the concluding talks which were pretty easy to understand, especially because I didn’t have to worry about translating them, my usual assignment in the ward sacrament meeting. They did have two different translations available, however, for those who didn’t speak German and a few people took advantage of the headsets provided. They spent about 10 minutes on releases and confirmations of various stake officers, of which there were many, one of which was a member of our branch presidency who was called as a high councilor, so I guess we’ll expect some changes there next Sunday. After the meeting a young sister noticed the badge which I wear on my lapel indicating I had served in the Alpine German Speaking Mission. Apparently, she had served at about the same time but because she was a European citizen, she spent a great deal of her mission in Switzerland which doesn’t allow “foreign” missionaries in to preach and proselytize. I didn’t recognize her, but Mom thought she remembered her from a mission conference or two.

So back to the rest of the week. Although we started at the end of last week, this was our first full week back in the baptistry and it was very busy as well as interesting. Our first group on Tuesday came up from Stuttgart and were extremely well organized. They had a group of about 20 people with their own researched names, witnesses to serve at the baptistry, brethren to serve at confirmations and our only responsibilities were just to get them into baptismal clothing, show them where everything was and help them get all the people needing baptisms and confirmations accommodated. The rest of the week was made quite interesting because of the involvement of our Polish brothers and sisters. We think there is probably a basic communication barrier in speaking with people whose primary language isn’t German because although they are very faithful, they usually don’t present with a nice list of baptists, baptizees, witnesses etc. and so we have to work hard to put it all together when they get there. While eating lunch on Wednesday, we got a phone call that two people were there wondering if they could do some baptisms. So we responded quickly and by the time others recognized that we were setting up, the group expanded to about 8 or 10. We did have the baptismal and confirmation prayers available in Polish and proceeded to do a number of people whose names they had brought with them. This same process happened another two or three times and we got to know the Polish members pretty well.

I had gotten a reputation for being able to perform on the veil in Hungarian, Spanish and Italian so the coordinators made the assumption that I might be able to do it in Polish as well. The first time they asked me it was a very sudden request and I hadn’t even had a chance to look over the language cards before I was serving at the veil and the Polish members were very gracious as I shook their hands later. They may have understood what I was trying to say but as far as I was concerned, “it was Greek to me!” A portion of what we say is repeated back to us and it always seemed very different to listen to what they said to what I had said to them😊. I helped with several score of Polish confirmations as well and in spite of the fact that I could read along with the brother who was confirming, I still don’t think I could have even come close to pronouncing things the way he did.

With our numbers down by two couples, things were very busy this week and if we were found even trying to rest up, we were recruited to help wherever we were needed which seemed to be everywhere! I ended up working on the veil doing Polish 4 times, English and German at the same session and we really felt multi-lingual. This Tuesday we lose the Ashbys and replacements don’t come until the week after that so it’s not going to get better very quickly. This next week we get the Czechs who are old friends and I don’t think I have any reputation for being able to speak Czechish!

Our last baptismal group for the week was yesterday afternoon starting at 1:00 and was the group referenced above that was our last prior to trying to get away for the Saturday session of stake conference. They came from the Warsaw Poland Mission, they did have a prepared list of people who would be baptizers and baptizees, and as we looked the list over, it was obvious that these people had English sounding names. As it turned out, they were all Americans or English with two exceptions, one Polish and the other Russian, but these last two did speak pretty good English. So we had a delightful time performing baptisms and confirmations and the Bishop who accompanied the group was pretty good with his Polish which we used on those two.

The temple president always likes to speak with each new baptismal group and his English is pretty good, so he spoke with the group before we got started. Afterwards, they frequently all wait in the baptistry area until everyone has completed all of their ordinances and it’s a time when I frequently take the opportunity to speak with them about some of the symbolism of baptism, the covenants we make and how we renew those covenants when we partake of the sacrament. We speak of the symbolism of being buried and then brought forth, of being cleansed and purified and the preceding requirements of faith and baptism prior to baptism with the following promise of receiving the Holy Ghost which each had reviewed several times. Even though we were in a bit of a hurry, I don’t think they sensed it and many expressed appreciation for being able to talk about things while they were still in the temple.

        Mom: I always enjoy stake conference, the Saturday evening meeting and the Sunday morning meeting. There is usually a spirit of expectation, among the members, that we will receive spiritual upliftment and support for trying to be faithful in our daily lives. This conference was full of testimonies telling of the love and ever-present hand of the Savior in our lives. I just feel so much love and goodness coming from all the families and members. I also loved the youth choir and was delighted that I recognized so many of them from helping them in the baptistry this week and some returned the recognition with greeting. It’s sweet that, even, little children will shake your hand and say, “Guten Tag.” Here in our meetings the choir will sing a pre-meeting song and a post meeting song, after the prayer is said. The post song was “Hallelujah” the popular song from “Shrek” but with words about Christ. They sang it with great enthusiasm and I loved it.

Autumn came slowly here in Freiberg and is slowly coming to a close.  Many leaves have fallen but still there are leaves on some trees that have taken longer to change. It is “Herrlich” or glorious and I love walking out in front of the temple, the streets around the temple, and driving into the countryside and into the little villages where it is still beautiful. It’s like being in the canyons everywhere. I could be exaggerating but truly it has been and still is a beautiful autumn. Hope it holds until Thanksgiving, but it is getting a bit colder. It seems Utah is all ready into the cold, so stay warm.

Above is a view of our temple grounds, Grammy wandering in all the leaves, and Grampa thankful he doesn’t have to rake them all up. Look how varied the trees are in the last picture.

Love you all, may you all feel the love of the Savior in your lives.

Hugs and Prayers,

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

November 4, 2018

Farewells and New Beginnings

As we predicted, our past week has been full of reorganization and change. Even though we had already said goodbye to the Mosses and Bonners as well as the Ashbys on Saturday evening, another dinner was organized on Monday night for the Bonners and Mosses and attended by us and the Linfords.

 

Then Tuesday night was a very special farewell dinner for President and Sister Erlacher and his counselor, President Wagner with his wife. This event was held at the church and not only the temple missionaries but also all of the local temple workers and staff were invited.  A special power point presentation was prepared by Sister Lindsay, seated behind her husband at the left in the second picture which included pictures of the temple workers and their families along with special music and given to the Erlachers as a departing gift. 4 of the 7 couples sat together that night including the Ashbys and Mosses on the right. Included as our third picture are the entire presidency and the six missionary couples as we existed at the beginning of the week, dressed in our whites and ready to serve.

Wednesday, the 31st, was the last day of the old presidency and both Tuesday and Wednesday were very busy at the temple. We felt it was probably a dual response to President Nelson’s encouragement at General Conference to arrange one’s time to spend more of it at the temple, as well as many there to wish the outgoing presidency well and express their love to them. It was also Halloween which we discovered is also celebrated by the Germans. We decided just to take a little walk through our adjoining neighborhood and sure enough, saw many families out with their children doing some trick or treating. We enjoyed the many photos posted by the family showing our grandchildren doing the same thing.  We also had the opportunity earlier that day to welcome back our new temple president and matron, the Wadosches, along with the just arrived new first counselor and his wife, President and Sister Bartsch. They live reasonably close, in Berlin, but will be living just down the hall from us. The other counsellor and his wife, President and Sister Dzierzon, are already members of the Freiberg Branch and he has been serving as a sealer for quite some time. They will remain in their own home and not move into the apartments with the rest of us. So it was a big day of anticipation, waiting for the first of the month the next day.

November first saw not only the new presidency take charge, but we also got our new assignments for the next month. We are back in the baptistry again and was it ever busy! Most of the holidays here in Europe originate with religious events and although we tend to think about Halloween, the protestant Germans celebrate Reformation Day and it was a real holiday with all of the stores closed. With no one needing to work, it seems like everyone came to the temple. We were still coordinating the endowment sessions on Wednesday, but we were setting up extra chairs in the rooms and striving to find 12 different brethren to cover all of our veils. That wasn’t always easy as we had to pull them away from their other assignments which were also busy.

One event Wednesday was kind of interesting. It was the last day for the Lindsays in the baptistry and quite some time ago they had purchased tickets to attend a performance of the Messiah in Leipzig. They were doing the whole thing and it started at 5 PM. Sister Lindsay, a previous Tabernacle Choir member, loved the Messiah and was really looking forward to it. It takes about 45 minutes to drive to Leipzig which meant they needed to get away by 3:30 or 4:00 at the latest. Normally the baptistry is finished by around 2:30 or 3 but on Wednesday they had a late session scheduled which started around 2 PM. There was no way they were going to make their scheduled performance but we were done in plenty of time so told them we would take over so they could get out of there. We did, and they got away in plenty of time to make it. They were very gracious and helped us out the next day by arriving for a very early group at 6:30 AM which allowed us to sleep in until our normal prayer meeting at 7 AM and we then took over our normal assignment at 7:30.  So it was a very gracious opportunity to help each other out and we all felt rewarded and blessed.

So, again, Thursday the 1st turned out to not only be the first day of the new presidency but it was also a Catholic holiday, celebrated in Austria as All Saints Day and it seemed like we had lots of people celebrating that holiday by also coming to the temple to serve. We had groups out of Stuttgart (which is Germany) but also many familiar faces who were here from Vienna. We loved seeing them all and even though it was busy, it was a wonderful week. The new temple counsellors are being trained in their responsibilities and it will probably take them a while to get a bit of competence and familiarity with all that must take place. We always get pretty comfortable if we are presented with complicated situations by just turning it over to a member of the presidency, but everyone is now in a learning and training mode, so it keeps us all on our toes.

The Mosses took off on Wednesday morning with President Erlacher driving them to the airport as one of the last of his official functions. Saturday, the Bonners left and so we are down four couples which put a little stress on completing all of our assignments. The middle of next week, the Ashbys depart and we’ll be down for about a week until our new couple, the Stapleys, arrive. And then it will be another two weeks before our last couple, the Fiedlers, who live in Berlin, arrive. Hopefully, if all of the holidays are now finished, it won’t be quite as busy until we’re back up to full strength. But we’re absolutely certain that the Lord will provide, and we’ll make it through no matter what!  We feel like we had two fast days this week, today being our normal Fast Day but Thursday we were scheduled so tightly between the baptistry sessions that there really wasn’t any time for lunch. We’d finish one group and the next was waiting and ready to go. On the other hand, I only lost 5 pounds this week which really wasn’t that bad!

One final thing to mention. Our day off on Monday, we decided to follow up on a recommendation from the Linfords and check out a cemetery associated with a church near the old city wall that was unique for some really old graves.

We have truly enjoyed our time here in Freiberg and it has been especially significant to us as we say goodbye to old friends and welcome new ones. There is such a great feeling of love and kindness amongst the workers and patrons here that it just can’t compare with our other assignments.

    Mom: There just isn’t much to add to this week’s letter. Grampa has really covered the ins and outs of running the temple, of saying goodbyes with we’ll really miss you and looking forward to making new friendships. Needless to say, we were extremely busy and sometimes a bit stressed, but the patrons rarely ever saw it. They come for the peace, comfort and uplifting spirit which they receive. We, however, are like the swan’s gliding gracefully through the water, all the while paddling their feet like crazy. It is so wonderful to be part of the great work of the Lord’s church where ever you serve. It is so fun to see just about every sister sitting in the lobby or foyer reading the Book of Mormon, some even with pencils, if they have their own books. I sense this excitement, and enthusiasm for the new programs and for seeking to be closer to the Lord and the influence of the Spirit. What a great time to be a member of the church. We are like one huge family, here to help each other back to heaven, to our Heavenly Father.

     I hope you feel Heavenly Father’s blessings pouring down on you.

Love, prayers and hugs,

Grammy, Grampa,

Mom, Dad,

Elder and Sister Parker

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

October 21, 2018

Missionary Opportunities Abound

What an incredibly interesting week we have had. We had no particular group that was being represented but the sessions were very large and busy. Actually, there were a number of sisters who came toward the end of the week from the Berlin Relief Society, but in general, we felt it a probable response to President Nelson’s admonition that we prioritize our schedules in order to be able to spend more time attending the temple. While there was good activity in the baptistry, initiatories and sealings it seemed like the emphasis was being placed on completing endowments. It was quite noteworthy that almost all week the brethren were outnumbering the sisters, but Friday night and Saturday all that changed as Berlin arrived and the brethren’s numbers were totally overwhelmed. Our single biggest session that we have experienced in the 9 months we’ve been here took place on Saturday’s 10:30 session with 24 sisters and 23 brethren. Our rooms are normally able to handle 19 of both so we had to set up 5 extra chairs in the aisles and in spots normally reserved for wheel chairs and 4 extra for the brethren. As a general rule, the sessions leaders handle all of the ordinances where we typically have two workers in each session in the states. But this gave us the opportunity to assign a second brother and sister temple worker to help move things along more efficiently. It was actually very heartwarming to participate in such great work for so many people.

One of the things that has been impressed upon us by many of the local members, is the relative drought we are experiencing here in Germany. Although everything to us seems nice and lovely and green, apparently the water supply is dwindling. We were told today that our nearest river, the Elbe, is so low that a person could walk across it without going underwater. It is really having an effect on river traffic, so we’ll see if this is one of the signs of the times. Speaking of droughts, we had the opportunity to go with several of our fellow missionaries to hear Mendelssohn’s Elijah Oratorio performed by an orchestra based down the road in Chemnitz but a chorus  that originates around here. It was all sung in German, but they had a great program with all of the words printed out, reviewing in detail the whole story of Elijah and the drought brought about for three years, his interesting confrontation with the priests of Baal and his being taken care of by the widow, whose son he raised from the dead. When it came to the part where the prophecy is made that he will return to turn the hearts of the children to their fathers lest the whole earth be wasted with a curse, it was all I could do to refrain from telling the lady sitting next to me that that prophecy has been fulfilled! The concert was performed in an old church that was heavily damaged during the war but has since been restored but never used again as a church. Here is a picture taken as the chorus was beginning to file in.

The next picture was just an interesting shot of the temple one night when, despite the drought, everything was very misty and foggy, and I thought the lights were quite pretty.

Today, President and Sister Erlacher gave their departing talks in sacrament meeting as they will be released a week from Wednesday. It was wonderful to hear their reports and I especially enjoyed President Erlacher’s remarks as he did a beautiful summary of the significance of the temple ordinances as they pertain to our individual lives and the principles of the Gospel.

 

The other great event of the week was the arrival of Scott and Cathy Smith and Mike and Jesse Schoenfeld from our home ward. They came in late Saturday night to the train station here in Freiberg, coming from Munich and had less than 36 hours to stay with us before leaving on Monday morning for Leipzig and other destinations. We got the help of Bro. Moss to pick them up at the train station as our car only holds a max of 4 people and is pretty limited as to luggage carrying as well. They were supposed to come in about 11PM but had apparently a number of changes, moving from train to bus and back to train again. The final result, however, was to arrive thirty minutes sooner which we all appreciated. We set them up with rooms in our temple hostel and they were able to participate in our Sunday meetings. It was fun to be able to translate for them in Sacrament Meeting and I even provided them a little translation help in Priesthood meeting. Whereas I usually attend the German Sunday School class while Rusty goes to the English-speaking class (she has the responsibility of selecting the weekly teachers), I elected to join them all in the English class . Then we invited the Lindsays to join us for our Sunday dinner as they had connections to both families, some of which were only discovered as the conversations went on. I never knew that Scott had received a master’s degree in public health and that was an area Gordon Lindsay had worked in. They knew many of the same people who had helped train them or had worked with them.

We decided that the best activity for our Sunday afternoon would be to make a visit to the site where Elder Monson, in 1975, had rededicated East Germany. I took along a copy of his dedication prayer and the Lindsays accompanied us. It was our fourth visit there and previously we have always been the only ones present so we anticipated a time of peace and reverence as we reviewed the prayer that had been given. But when we arrived there turned out to be a fair number of young adults who were enjoying the view and looked to be a bit of a rowdy group. We noticed that the sign previously posted commemorating the event had been removed since our last visit, we’re not sure by whom. So, we went ahead and took a picture near the entry gate to the area and then decided that it would probably be OK if we asked the others if they wouldn’t mind moving aside for a bit while we took a picture in front of the area with a view overlooking the city.

They turned out to be very gracious and even offered to take the pictures for us, so all of the group could be included. From that point on everyone became very friendly and we got into three or four little discussion groups. Mike and I started talking to a very nice young man who came from New Zealand and had actually been on a few missions for his church. His girlfriend, who was German but spoke excellent English, was in a separate discussion with Scott and Rusty. The Lindsays were carrying on another discussion and we all really got into missionary work in a big way. I talked to our fellow and asked him how he had met his girl friend and he indicated that he had met her in Thailand while he was serving there. She was coming out of a restroom just as a very poisonous snake slithered across her path. He called it a “cowkiller,” but he warned her to be careful and they got into a conversation that became very extended as they developed a friendship. Both were very warm and friendly but upon my questioning, apparently not yet married. It gave us the opportunity to talk about our mission, the purpose of temples, and the opportunity to be married eternally!

That was pretty easy as it all took place in English. The next fellow I talked with, though, was definitely German and claimed he was an atheist. I was impressed, and he emphasized that he thought he was living a good life but felt no need for the concept of God. I explained to him how many evidences and witnesses there were that God does exist and how much more he could do with his life once he found that out. I talked a little bit about the Book of Mormon, how it was written by a young man about his age with no formal education and could be a great evidence for him that God existed and was interested in him. The Lindsays were organized enough to get a few names and email addresses so they could follow up while the rest of us just encouraged them to look for young men or ladies wearing name tags like mine. All in all, it turned out to be a delightful Sunday experience and perhaps the best we’ve ever had at that location.

The fellow on the right in the lighter blue shirt was the one from New Zealand and his girl friend is behind the glass on the left. The atheist is wearing the white shirt in the middle. The sun was directly behind us and washed out the back row a bit!

Mom: Sometimes its strange how experiences change and turn out. As we approached the Dedication site these young adults were drinking and acting a bit crazy, as young university students sometimes do. The spirit about them, and their music wasn’t conducive to us reading a spiritual dedication and having a spiritual moment, so we moved through a little archway around the wall and read the dedication prayer. However, after we moved back around the archway we felt like we should move to the overlook and take some pictures. Immediately the rowdy atmosphere changed, their music changed to American Oldies, and the students became helpful and wanted to talk with some Americans. They were mostly engineering students with some studying teaching and psychology. We found out that when they have a school break they go out hiking and stop to drink alcohol with mineral water at certain points along the way. They were actually very nice and friendly and enjoyed talking with us about what we were doing in Germany and about the Freiberg Temple. I’m sure we were there for someone in that group that needed to be touched by religion.

It was fun and challenging handling such big endowments groups, but there is such joy and love in all who come to participate. It really is a holy work and we’re glad that we are able to participate. While there were many times where the brothers outnumbered the sisters this week, on one session we had 39 sisters and 5 brothers, just making things able to come together from all procedures. Loved it. Hopefully, the weather will remain somewhat nice and people will still be able to travel long distances to come to the temple.

Come to the temple is ever our call.

Love, prayers and hugs,

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

October 14, 2018

Record Setting Temple Work!

It has been a very busy week. We had a very large youth group from Hamburg come for the entire week. The largest part of the group did baptisms on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, three sessions a day, while many of their leaders also performed initiatories and participated in many other ordinances. They were extremely well organized with the names of many their deceased loved ones to complete and we found out at our prayer meeting yesterday morning that the temple exceeded their previous greatest number of ordinances performed in one day. If I got the number right, I think it was 2,163 ordinances performed in one day, not bad for a small to average size temple!

We had it a little bit easier, being assigned to the intervening two of five endowment sessions, the 9 AM and 11:30 AM sessions and it seemed like the big groups were on the 8, 10:30 and 1PM sessions with smaller “leftover” groups on the sessions we were coordinating. But we all got involved in just about everything whether we were coordinating or helping out on the other ordinances as we were needed.

A lot is happening in this next couple of weeks. Our current presidency’s term is fast coming to an end and we will be commemorating them as they prepare to leave. President and Sister Wagner, the current second counsellor and matron will be providing us with an evening this coming Tuesday to discuss the history of the church during the DDR years and the history relating to the building of the Freiberg Temple. Then on the 30th, a farewell evening is planned to say goodbye to the Erlachers and Wagners who will be finishing up not just their terms in the presidency but many additional years of temple service as well. We will also be saying hello to President and Sister Wadosch, previous first counselor and matron who are currently in Salt Lake receiving training as they take on the presidential responsibilities for the next three years. That all officially takes place on the first of November.

We will also be losing three missionary couples. The Mosses leave on the 31st of October to return to Rexburg, Idaho and the Ashby’s leave two weeks later to return to Draper on the 16th of November. A previous couple, the Bonners from Midway came back in September, not as missionaries but simply as temple workers but they’ve had some problems at home that necessitate them leaving again, so they’ll also be leaving in early November. We do have two new couples assigned, the Stapleys who will arrive on the 19th of November, and the Fiedlers who will arrive in late November. So, for two to four weeks things might get a little hectic as we’ll be down by a few but somehow we’ll get through it I’m sure.

Today was our Fast Day and our branch met at the same time as the other ward in the building to have the sacrament and hear testimonies from the Branch President and the Stake President who lives in the ward. Then we all had the opportunity to hear the Sunday afternoon session of general conference from last week. Later on this afternoon we finally finished listening to the Sunday morning session of conference which we heard while we were in Poland but we listened to that session in German as a help to the Erlachers who were with us. We got a bit more out of it by listening today in English. As I’m sure you all recognized, the talks were powerful and revelatory and seemed to me to be just what was needed in response to the times in which we live. Enjoyed Connor Clark’s post where he noted that he guessed he wasn’t a Mormon anymore. I guess we’ll have a couple of weeks here in Germany to try out the new 2 hour church sessions before we get home but it sounds like we’ll have 10 minutes less to fill for our homecoming talks!

We haven’t been having typical conference weather here this past week. Whereas earlier it was really getting chilly, this week the temperatures have been running in the 70’s pretty consistently. Our days are definitely getting shorter and the sun rises after we’ve already started in the temple and it’s setting mostly before we’ve eaten dinner. But we have had the time to take a couple of long walks through the forests and parks around here which are really getting gorgeous as the leaves are finally changing colors.

Last night we attended an organ, violin and soprano concert with the Ashby’s, who drove, recommended by one of our German temple workers who was distantly related to the performers and we just loved driving through all the beautiful Saxony landscapes en route to the church where it was being held. So today we went for a bit of a drive along the same route. As we really looked at the map to decide how to get there, we discovered that it was very near to the “Christmas City” of Seiffen where we’ve been before but never realized how close it was to the Czech Republic border. So, we had a lovely drive through lovely but very narrow roads and went right along the border. I would’ve stopped to take a few more pictures but we decided there wasn’t a lot of time, so you’ll have to make do with the ones above which are around here in Freiberg.

I guess we’re getting used to some of the unique things here in Germany. There are never baggers provided at the grocery stores. You have to put it all back in your cart at the check stand and then bag them up yourself. If you didn’t bring your own bags, you can purchase them at the check stand, but you still have to bag your own.The other thing that was quite interesting was the car we rented when we traveled to Scandinavia last month. It was really quite nice, but the engine shut off whenever we came to a stop sign or stop light. As soon as you take your foot off the brake, it immediately started up again, but it was very unique. Great on mileage (or perhaps kilometerage)  and probably keeps air pollution to a minimum. Anybody seen that in new cars in the States.

I did have the opportunity of reading the new church history book. “Saints”, which is available for free on Gospel Library. I thought that it was very good and covers a few items in a much more open fashion than perhaps previously. I remember that one of you was concerned once about the many different versions of Joseph Smith’s first vision as it was related to different audiences over the years and those differences are taken into account as it is related in the new history. I’ve also taken the time to look at the new resource, “Come Unto Me” as it will be used in our homes, at Sunday School and in Primary. Sounds like we’re all going to have more responsibility for teaching ourselves and our families at home than we used to have.

Mom: Interesting, that even temple work can become routine. The differences come with the  groups of people who come from so many different places and countries and the sweet personal experiences we have with them. There is so much love and joy that is shared each day. I noticed that a number of times we were admonished by apostles to go to the temples, to help our ancestors and to find peace and inspiration for ourselves. Truly the prophecy of “temples will dot the earths” is coming true before our very eyes.

I also, love the Book of Mormon and bear testimony of its truthfulness. I have felt its power in my life and the need to read it consistently. After having taught Relief Society for the past few years, I have felt that the Lord and church were trying to prepare us to be more faithful disciples, and families. Now, I can see why, in preparation for our new prophet and the many revelations he has received for the church and moving us forward to thinking more on the second coming of the Savior. I loved conference and every speaker seemed to have an important message to share. I hope you felt the inspiration and encouragement for your personal life and are looking forward to the new programs.

   Our love and prayers are always with you, no matter where you are in the world,

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