Week 53

1st Presidential debate

We will see what the outcome is.

John and I, just before leaving for Berlin and then Vienna, were able to vote in the upcoming election by means of the overseas electronic ballot option. From Utah online resources we had read what we could about the candidates who are running and had also called and talked with a friend who is very much involved in the political scene there and knew the folks running first hand. We appreciated his providing added background and insight that helped us to make wiser decisions before marking our ballots. We are grateful for the freedoms we have and pray that each American will not overlook this privilege whatever political persuasion he or she holds. We hear much about the dreadful things readily available on the Internet and don't doubt but what there are, but we are personally so grateful for the good things available that allow us to keep informed.

I was mistaken in thinking the Hungarians were coming this week. They come our last full week in the temple. It was a German week and our numbers were few—but for baptisms. Perhaps that was a blessing given the new team we are now working with. We had three sessions a day in the baptistry, though, compared to our usual one. A youth group from Northern Germany was here in full force and kept the Taufe really busy. 

Things went well with the new counselors and assistants as they are learning all their multiplicity of assignments. We have quickly grown to love them and think that they, with the Huszes, will be a wonderful new team to carry on.

We received word that Sister Husz’s surgery was successful and she would return home by train on Wednesday and be in the temple Thursday morning. Unfortunately she had also caught her daughter’s really rotten cold—not good on top of a surgery! But still, we are so happy to have her be coming home to Freiberg.

John on our outing. Keeping 'im walking!

Monday John and I walked downtown and enjoyed the crispness of fall in the air, a serendipitous Umpah band playing, and dinner out at a lovely little Gästhaus we discovered after getting lost looking for the restaurant we were hoping to find.

Umpah band in town

It is fall in Freiberg

Earlier in the day, thanks to Pres. & Sis. Suckow’s willingness to haul it to the car (and both it and me to the post office), I got our second 20-kilo box shipped home--However does one acquire so much junk? We have only two more to go. I enjoy the thinning out process as we pack away and give away in preparation to leave.  I find it interesting, however, that as as we go forward packing up, I do not feel ready for, or anxious about, leaving. When I am at the temple, I feel fully engaged in the important work that goes on there. I will miss being here!

Last Sunday evening we enjoyed a SKYPE visit with Chi and her gang with followup emailed pictures—which we love! And had a wonderful phone visit with Adam and Kimmy. We love hearing from our kids. They are what makes it bearable to leave this wonderful experience. I hope in the years to come that each of them with their wonderful companions, have the opportunity to serve the Lord together in some portion of His extensive world-wide mission-field. What a wonderful blessing this has been and still is in our own lives.

Our happy Perry Posse kids

Tuesday morning John and I opened the temple early so left after getting the sealing session underway in the third session. I came home to putter while John went with Brother Adolf, our high priests group leader, and Sis. Schlüter to Dresden to visit her husband at the hospital--where he had been for over two weeks, unable to walk! 

Br. Adolf and the Schlüters

Hans Jürgen is in our ward and is a favorite ordinance worker as well.  John was happy to go, hand carrying the card President had assigned me to gather signatures for and to try to cheer him in his lengthy ordeal. They had a wonderful visit and John came away convinced that Hans Jürgen was suffering from sciatica, though the doctors have been unable to help him.

Hans Jürgen and John

When he is finally allowed to come home we will have them come for a visit and teach them the marvelous technique that Sis Cyr taught us before China that has allowed us to help each other so much with this same misery. We are very grateful for the wonderful natural forms of health helps others have taught us over the years that have blessed our lives and, through us, blessed others.  

Thursday morning Sis Husz was in the temple, but not for long. She looked so pale I told her to go back home and go to bed (at my bossiest best), assuring her that her assistants were doing fine and we needed her to get well! She went (leaving me with her Minerva Teichert biography to read) returning in the afternoon for presidency meeting, but at least she got some rest.

Suckows and Kochs

Thursday evening we had our missionary Family Home Evening with the new counselors and their wives as our speakers—each telling about themselves and how they were led to be here at this time and place. We loved hearing from them. Their backgrounds are vastly different but each couple is committed to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Both of these men have gone through a serious accident with resultant physical injuries that threatened their ability to ever walk again, and which caused them to confront where their hearts were set and led each through a crisis of faith. Through their experiences they came to more fully turn their lives over to serving our Heavenly Father. They are an interesting pair whose engineering backgrounds will prove useful but whose love of the Savior and willingness to serve is even more important. Pres. Suckow was a bishop and in top management at the VW Corporation and Pres. Koch is a former Area 70 and worked 40 years at a steel manufacturing plant, also in management.  We are so happy to have them and their delightful wives as part of our missionary group. We will miss serving longer with them but feel blessed to have these weeks working together.

Our early-morning birthday ritual!

Friday morning we belatedly celebrated Pres. Husz's birthday with the usual early morning song--a tradition for the missionaries. Later at the temple I gave Pres. Husz some Purification (essential oil) blended with olive oil for Sis. Husz’s racking all-night cough and asked him to tell her to rub her throat down before trying to sleep. She wasn't there all day Friday but was planning on coming Saturday for a scheduled live sealing.

Our temple was to be closed all day on conference Saturday but somehow a live sealing got scheduled so John and I (as sealing coordinators) went over at 10:00 to prepare for it. Sis Husz came, asking me as she walked in, “What was it you gave me? I slept so much better!” I was glad the oil helped. I also offered to come and do an essential oil “raindrop” therapy treatment that Sylvia taught me. I had brought essential oils with me from home which we use frequently.   

We set up for the sealing and then waited. The bride and groom were there and ready, their guests were waiting in the chapel—singing hymns to keep themselves occupied, until finally, over an hour later, the bride’s best friend, after a car breakdown, and getting lost, arrived with her husband and we were able to proceed. The event ended happily and everyone went home.  

At 3:00 Sis Husz called asking me to come and do the oil therapy for her. I was glad, knowing it would jumpstart her immune system. I took my massage table along. After I finished I suggested she go to bed and let her body recuperate.  I left her apartment smelling heavenly, from all the layering of oils.

President Boyd K Packer

After dinner, John and I were able to watch the Saturday morning session of conference. It was really wonderful to us to have that time together to focus on the messages of our leaders. How blessed we are to have the technology that makes such rapid transmission possible. We loved all the talks but Pres. Uchtdorf’s message about living so as to not regret when our own short turn on earth is over was especially important to me, underscoring as it did, the counsel of another prophet, Elder Boyd K Packer, who had told John in a blessing to “savor every day.”

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Pres. Uchtdorf counseled us:  Let us resolve to spend time with those we love. Resolve to become the person God wants us to be. Resolve to be happy today. Follow the Savior today.

We can’t go back and change the past but we can repent and move forward. 

I like that! May you enjoy your day, remembering that we can choose to be happy (or not), no matter our particular set of circumstances?