Week 28

Easter has come and gone, leaving in its wake an increase of gratitude for our Savior and the doors he opened for us—from the grave, delivering us from death through the Resurrection, and that leading to Eternal Life, if we choose to do what is necessary to walk through that one. What magnificent blessings are ours!

Easter Pussywillow tree with wooden eggs

I enjoyed the German celebration of Easter, lasting as it does from Good Friday through Easter Monday.  It gave us the opportunity to think more deeply on the great gifts of the Savior. We have enjoyed seeing the Church’s new Bible video: “He is Risen” and others that are available. It is great what the Church is doing in an effort to reach out in this way. These make great little clips for FHE, classes, or just personal uplift. They can be viewed at Bible-videos.org. 

Pot luck contributions!

Herbert and Heidi Zymla

Monday we celebrated with a missionary gathering pot luck—super food, good company, and lots of laughter. I made celery, avocado, and shrimp salad, as well as a wonderful Italian Lemon Chicken pasta dish. (Thanks to Dreamfields Low-Carb Pasta, we have really been enjoying an occasional pasta dinner. I’m not paid to advertise for them but we really do love it, and so did everyone else. It is fun to have a mix of cultural backgrounds to pot-luck with. The Germans and Austrians among us always bring what I call “German” food—Spätzle, Klöße, Wurst, etc. They don’t seem to do much with other cultural foods as Americans more frequently do. But that said, it all tasted great.

After dinner the Zymlas, our new couple from Switzerland, introduced themselves. They have been married only 5 years after meeting at the temple in Zollikofen where she was serving a mission. They “dreamed” about each other that night and soon after were married, when he joined her on her “mission.” His first wife had been very focused on the world and the things he could provide—furs and jewels. But then she disappeared, taking with her all their goods and money and leaving him destitute. It was after that, that he heard the gospel message and joined the Church. He married again and that wife later left him for another man. We are happy to have them among us, especially since he is a baker by trade and showed up with an onion tart that was to die for!

Rolf & Gisela Metzner at FHE

Thursday we got together again, this time for our monthly FHE with the Metzners in charge. Pres. Metzner is the first counselor in the temple presidency. They are due to go home in July.  The evening focused on having everyone review their favorite conference talks. It was a nice event. Rolf speaks little English but Gisela is awesome.  

President Ernst and Sch Marikka Husz

Just after the temple opened following our maintenance closure, President and Sis Husz had the opportunity to have all their children come for the sealing of their daughter, Sandra, to a returned missionary from Canada. The president performed their sealing in English. His English is really very good. It was fun to see them with their two sons and their wives and a bevy of Austrian friends and Canadian visitors as well. Now after the young couple’s honeymoon Sandra and Eric are headed to Canada, where they plan to live for now. Yesterday, the president drove Sis Husz to Vienna (a seven hour trip) to put her on the plane with their children to go to Canada for a reception and to spend a few days there. President Husz drives back to Freiberg on his own on Monday. We will miss our tiny Oberin (matron) while she is gone.

We were grateful to have the chance to talk with John’s folks again this week. John’s dad is wasting away to nothing with his cancer but his voice still perks up when we call. We are so grateful for the tenderness that Carl and Becca and their family provide. They are a marvelous example of true charity in their care giving.

John and I are continue to enjoy our separate scripture study each day. He is focusing on learning more concerning the laws and ordinances of the temple and I am continuing with my close reading, and writing about, the Book of Mormon. We especially enjoy sharing the week’s efforts with each other on Monday evenings in our FHE. We are so blessed with the gospel of Jesus Christ!

We went this morning to our church meetings, arriving to find that the first two hours were to be spent listening to the Sunday afternoon session of conference, followed by fast and testimony meeting.  Since they did not have a room set up to listen in English, we came back to our apartment with Sis Tollefson (who speaks no German) along with us, to watch it in English over the Internet. By skipping the music we got through all the talks and walked back into the meeting just as the Tabernacle Choir was singing the last song. It was great to again hear the talks that way. The Internet is truly a blessing to us between the Church’s sites, New Family Search, and Ancestry.com. 

John's drug of choice--it gets him through his day! We are grateful for it.

The week ahead should be a fun and challenging one with the Hungarians arriving Monday night for their week in the temple and with Elder and Sister Despain, from Bozeman, Montanta, coming to join our missionary ranks. They served in the Billings Montana Temple with Mark and Sylvia. We look forward to meeting them (and collecting from them the BIG bottle of Excedrin they are hand carrying for us—it is not available in Germany!)

May your week be wonderful with no headaches two Excedrin can’t quell. We love each one of you.