On September 26th John and I left for our 12-month mission to the Freiberg Germany Temple, in former East Germany. Kathy and Brent kindly hauled us and our luggage to the airport and sent us off again into the wild blue yonder. We arrived in Newark NJ without mishap, collected our luggage and went to Iceland Express to check in for our next flights--to Reykjavik and on to London. We had carefully packed and weighed our big bags and both were exactly the maximum of 44 pounds. So far so good. Our hand luggage was, however, another matter. It was too heavy and we were required to check it, and pay for it too. $180 later we were on our way to our gate feeling relieved at not having to pull so much weight. Our flights to Iceland then London were smooth and we cheerfully went to baggage claim to collect our four bags. There we waited and waited until a fellow passenger came to tell us that all the bags in Newark had been overlooked and had not been loaded!
We filled out the requisite paperwork to have them forwarded to us in Germany and then took a bus from Gatwick to Heathrow and another to our lodge, where we had arranged to spend the night, prior to our flight to Dresden the next day. John, always so careful not to neglect having extra garments, toiletries, and meds along, had a hard time believing that in the rush to meet the airline's demands to check our hand luggage he had not bothered to pull even so much as a toothbrush from his suitcase, let alone his meds. It was an interesting experience in having absolutely nothing!
We enjoyed our dinner at an English pub as well as our stay at Heathrow Lodge before our flight the next day on Lufthansa. We did call the Temple President and his wife, President and Sister Apel, and the recorder, the Apels' son-in-law, Bishop Schönherr (brand newly called as our bishop) to alert them that we would have no luggage to wait for in Dresden. They laughed and said they would not need to bring the big car then. They were there with welcoming smiles and hugs as we came through the gate and we enjoyed our ride "home" to Freiberg, some 30K away.
When we arrived on Wednesday we were introduced to our new home--apartment #6 at the Temple Mission Housing--die Tempelherberge. Sis Apel had outfitted us with an orchid plant on our table, groceries in our fridge, and a fruit bowl and German chocolates on our table.
Over the next several days we spent our time emailing back and forth with family, shopping to get accustomed to the grocery stores available, and trying to get stocked up so we would feel like I could actually cook here. It is a challenge but less so than in China. I at least have John to ask things of. One of our fellow missionary couples is Bruce and Jean Harper (He is a former missionary companion of my brother George's), and they offered sweats so we wouldn't have to live in the missionary attire we wore on our journey.
We did find that our boxes from China that we had sent with our winter clothes had arrived and I spent Thursday pressing and putting those things away. It was also lovely to be reunited with my stick blender and pressure cooker we had sent on ahead. I also did a little cooking to warm up to my kitchenette. It is going to work out fine, I think. We actually love our little apartment. It is wonderfully efficient and charming.
Our apartment is part of "temple square," so to speak, with a tunnel for us to enter the temple, and our chapel, just off from our apartments. It is so convenient.
Thursday evening another mission couple, Carl and Margaret Larson, invited us to go to the cathedral in Freiberg to attend an organ concert. We willingly did so and it was marvelous. A young organist from Holland who had determined at age five that he would be an organist.
It wasn't until Saturday midday before our luggage was finally delivered. When it came I was out for a walk and another shopping expedition to try to see if I could manage without John. He hauled it all in one piece at a time and then I spent the afternoon before our first session of conference (at 6:00 pm) ironing and putting away all our clothes and other things--so nice to finally have all our supplements, toiletries, books, clothing, and--most important--our temple clothes! We went to the chapel for the conference session, came home had dinner and I began ironing again--right through the second session. It was from 10 to 12:00 midnight. Wonderful way to plow through our ironing. We finally turned in after the session with everything stored away in the commodious cupboard space that our tiny apartment is outfitted with. We are very happy with our setting.
Sunday we slept in but then had brunch and John went to priesthood at 11:00 and we both went to Sunday "morning" session at 6:00 pm before coming home to try to turn in early to get ourselves back on sync with our internal clock. I did fine but John had a rough night with little sleep.
October 3, Monday, was a holiday for the Germans--it is unification day in 1990 when East and West Germany were reunited after all those years of separation by the Berlin Wall. I have been reading Garold and Norma Davis's book Behind the Iron Curtain: Recollections of Latter-day Saints in East Germany, 1945-1989. It has been wonderful to get a sense of all that the early saints in this area endured for all those years. It has been fun too to read of Uncle Joel Tate's service as mission president in Berlin during the early 1960s, just as the wall went up. Uncle Burtis Robbins and Aunt Edythe were here before that as well. I felt a personal connection because of their service.
Tomorrow we begin what we came here to do: to serve the Lord in one of His beautiful houses. We are grateful for the opportunity to serve a mission in this way.
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