Week 8—Erntedankfest!

We have had a lovely week beginning with an early Thanksgiving celebration on Monday. Germans don’t celebrate our American Thanksgiving, of course, so the temple was open on Thursday and we were there serving while you were all enjoying your holiday.

Thanksgiving . . .  early

Pies a plenty!

But Monday we did our best to capture the joy of the day together with our missionary group, the president and matron, the young sister missionaries in our ward, and a small handful of Hungarian sisters who had arrived to stay at the Herberge for a week of temple work. Sharing the preparation among our eight couples made it easy. 

One of our number who had worked for the government and who had commissary privileges drove two hours to the nearest PX and returned having filled our shopping lists, buying us two small turkeys among other requests. I cooked a turkey as well as making yams with apples, thanks to my sister’s sending me her recipe.

The temple recorder had given us permission to use the Herberge kitchen with its dishes, three ovens, and two dishwashers rather than our having to cook our assigned items in our apartments and carry the food downstairs. A couple of sisters made a bunch of pies and the matron a couple of yummy strudels. We sang songs, heard a presentation on the pilgrims and ate. I actually didn’t overdo it for a change but we all enjoyed being together.

It was fun to include any who happened to arrive early. It was truly a fest as we thanked the Lord for all our blessings. Goodness turkey and gravy sure tasted good.

Resident visa application process

Tuesday the Chidesters, one of the missionary couples who rent a car, drove us out of town to the office where we apply for our visas and there we were fingerprinted and signed the necessary paperwork to get things under way. If all goes well we should get our official resident cards, good for two years, before Christmas. It will be nice to have that important step behind us.

Setting up Christmas

On the way back home we stopped at the largest shopping market in the area, where the Chidesters had some purchases to make and where John and I went looking for a little Christmas tree. We found one for 5,00 euros that is pint sized and just right for our little apartment. When we got home John followed our annual tradition of setting up our tree the day after “Thanksgiving.” It is pretty cute. I frankly don’t know where a larger one would fit!

Pint-sized Tannenbaum

Our weather continues to be a glorious late autumn, which allowed me to ride my red bike every day. John went a couple of times too. Wednesday we rode downtown for a little exercise after the temple to try to find a new cartridge for our much-used printer. We found one in a little computer store near the post office. We then attempted to eat dinner at the Schwannenschlößchen—a delightful restaurant that sits at the edge of the lake. It was packed with patrons already celebrating Weihnachten (Christmas). We decided not to wait the hour but go home to enjoy soup and salad at our cozy apartment and try again the next day for lunch—for our own actual Thanksgiving celebration just for the two of us.

Schwannenschlößchen's reflection

"Thanksgiving" Lunch

This week at the temple we closed and opened twice which meant we also got off early the days we opened early. Thursday was the first of those. After changing clothes we headed down the hill to town. Though Schwannenschlößchen was still busy we had no difficulty getting a little table for lunch and enjoyed a yummy stew and a Rahmschnitzel (cream sauce on thin fried meat, to die for). It was fun to get out and explore one of the many restaurants in Freiberg. We are determined to sample them all while we are here. Prices are very reasonable and since we always end up splitting it works out very economically while also keeping us from over eating. Both good things.

Unfortunately on the way back up the hill to the temple, John hit his bike pedal on a curb and that threw him off balance and he ended up in the street. Almost immediately one man came to help pick him up and he was soon joined by two young men who crossed the street to help out too. They picked John up, getting him untangled from the bike.  I was so sorry to see him fall again but was very grateful that he wasn´t more seriously injured. A car could have so easily hit him given where he had fallen. The bike he was on still worked so we headed home, not a lot the worse for wear.  At home we set up the massage table and worked on his back and shoulder. I think we will have him stick to traveling on foot and buses for a bit. Two falls in two weeks is enough. We feel very blessed for the protection he has had but don´t think he should press his luck!

Friday night for the first time since we began doing the daily scheduling at the temple we led the session and that was fun. Usually we are tied up with scheduling or training so really enjoy the occasions when we get to actually take part. 

The temple is now lit up for Christmas in its understated German way. It is beautiful without being showy. There is nothing in the lightening that dims the every-day lightening of the temple itself.

Temple at night with Christmas lights

Because we were early again on Saturday we had the extra two hours at the end of our shift and John came home for a good nap while I rode downtown again to buy a few needed items. Riding through the center of town, I discovered that the Christmas Market was now open with all the fun in the air. I didn´t do more than admire it as I tried to make my way through the crowded streets knowing that John and I would come together on Monday to get a thrill of Christmas.

John and the Krauses watching wood carving

Sunday after our meetings we meet Günther and Magdalena Krause, the delightful couple from Dresden whom we had met at the Swan Lake Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia, last July, on our way home from China. John has corresponded with Günther several times since then and we were happy to have a chance to get together. They picked us up in their little two-door BMW to go for lunch and then to take us to see a little dorf that specializes in carving wooden snowman figures (Schneemänner). It was fun.

Wooden Snowman Bogen (bow)

They were good sports trying to communicate with my smattering of German and theirs of English. John was the bridge between us all.  Günther is a retired professor of physics. Magdalena was a student of his when they met. They grew up in East Germany, of course, and spoke of those days, as many do, as times when, though they could buy next to nothing, families were close. They have good memories because of the things that really mattered that they did have that, unfortunately, are now starting to wane in this more westernized society. We saw similar losses in China as the worst of the west brings greater prosperity and, with it, the world.

This area of Sachsen is noted for its wood carving. There are many wooden items produced locally but none more well known than these wooden bows that are placed in the windows. In previous years when this area was mined for silver and then coal the miners, returning in the dark, found their way home by the lighted bogens in the windows. Later when the mines dried up and were no longer productive, these resourceful people turned to their crafts and took up carving as a means to support their families. 

It was a windy day but fun anyway

John shared with the Krauses a copy of a wonderful talk we had had in our Relief Society and Priesthood meetings about families and having a Christ centered home. I always print him a copy in Deutsch and me one in English. During the classes I study the materials and try to guess at what is being said. It works.

We are grateful to have been able to talk with several of you this Thanksgiving week and want you to know that we feel very blessed to know and love you and to be able to be here serving together in our lovely little temple. Truly it is das Haus des Herrn.