Week 46

Tuesday we welcomed 20 plus Polish Saints for a week in the temple and worked to greet them with Dzien dobry and thank them with Dziekuje. It is always fun to see their smiles in response, graciously assuring us that our abysmal pronunciation was “Pearfect.” We said goodbye on Saturday to the last ones, giving Brother Zalewski a hug after exchanging email addresses.

Saturday afternoon was a bit slow after they left but it was ok—it gave us a breather before the Hungarian flood of 91 arrive Monday night. Oh, we do love the Ungarns! Seeing these out-of-country groups return is like having family come. We have truly grown to love them.

A walk around Freiberg's wall

Last Monday we had a delightful missionary outing, walking around the old wall in Freiberg before going together to Himmel und Hölle (Heaven and Hell) for lunch. 

City Wall with our Missionary Group

It is a delightful restaurant near the Nicholaikirche. There is an interesting story behind its unusual name, but I can’t remember what it isL.  

Heaven and Hell

President Husz, who really doesn’t much like to walk, was happy to oblige John and me by driving us down to the wall and we were happy to be his excuse for getting to drive down. It was a fun day and even with the ride down and back we still got in about two miles of walking around the wall and to the restaurant. 

A wonderful cool day that was fun to spend together

Tuesday our doorbell buzzed after we got home from the temple. John went out to the front entry to see who was there and found one of our temple workers who had offered to help a tall, rather scruffy man with the modern-unshaven look and earrings, looking for all the world like a member of a motorcycle gang. Learning he was looking for us, Brother Schlüter escorted him to our building. It took John a moment to recognize in him our friendly Zollant (customs) man who had kindly brought us a package that had been delayed by customs, sent to Leipzig, and then returned with permission to send on to us. He choose to bring it to us personally since he lives somewhere in Freiberg. There are good kind people every where, aren't there. 

A fun walk, good food, and good company

We have been enjoying the new couple who just arrived from Coalville, Utah, Louette and Doug Geary. They are the youngest of our missionaries and have lots more energy than we do, but we don’t mind. Yesterday we walked to a Gasthaus restaurant tucked down the end of a lane just off the forest, where we enjoyed dinner together as well as talking with the proprietor. He is German, she is Polish, so I demonstrated my remarkable expertise with Polish with my four Polish words of greeting. It was a kick. We walked over (John sporting his Nordic sticks, of course), ate dinner and walked back, a total of 2.29 miles. We were pretty impressed with him for making it. This daily walking has to be helping strengthen his legs. We discovered that I have my pedometer with me so it has been fun to clock our mileage daily.

Our friendly proprietor!

It has been a wonderful week of hearing from friends and family by email with little tributes to John's wonderful Dad for his life well lived. We have loved having contact with so many.

My favorite picture of Pop!

 After our meetings today we went for a shorter Sunday stroll, just so we didn’t break our consistency. It was actually hot! It felt like August for the first time. We cut our walk short and came home, fixed and ate dinner, then watched the wonderful birthday tribute to President Monson on LDS.org. It was a joy to see. What an amazing thing the Internet is with the good things it can bring us.

Golden Days--A Celebration of Life

Happy Birthday, Pres. Monson!

We look forward to the week ahead, with Grandpa’s funeral tomorrow that we hope to listen to through someone’s cell phone if someone has unlimited minutes, and think of all our kids's being able to represent us by attending. We so appreciate Patrick’s flying down to be there for it, after just having got back with Tessha from her grandma's funeral. We are grateful for each one who is part of our immediate and extended families and friends, wherever you are in this wide world. We feel very blessed because to know and love you.