Week 39

Today after Church, I left John home to write his family newsletter while I walked downtown to watch the parade celebrating Freiberg’s 850-year anniversary. I found a bench to wait on and watched the people gather before spotting the Huszes, who also came to watch the festivities. I lasted from the 1300s until the end of the 1700s with their many bands, horses, and carriages before bailing out and walking home in a downpour. Fortunately I had had the foresight to grab a jacket and umbrella before walking down.

850 year history. Can you imagine!

It’s amazing to see how old things are here. In Utah we think buildings are ancient if they’re 100 years old. I already told you about Brother Gottfried Schmidt, whose family has lived within 20 km of this place since about a.d. 1300.

Medieval Era Freiberger Miners

We just received a Church headquarters news item about the Church joining other Utahns in praying for a reversal of the weather there, and the safety of all the firefighters who are battling the many wildfires throughout the state. We are sorry for all the heat and fires but are glad we’re not there to “enjoy” it with all of you, which we understand is pretty universal throughout the U.S.

We, on the other hand, are having fabulous weather here, without any real summer heat to speak of. The temperatures have been in the mid- to upper-70s for the past few weeks, plus we’ve had some beautiful summer thunderstorms, with loud noises (Donner and Blitzen) and downpours in the middle of both day and night that are really fun to experience. I love summer rain! 

Wild storms. Kind of exciting 

This week we had another farewell as we celebrated the conclusion of Maaika and AJ Kingsford’s 18-month-mission here. AJ has been our assistant recorder and they are headed home after serving back-to back missions, first to Family and Church History in Salt Lake (they were in the other branch than the one we served in) and then coming directly here. We will really miss them being our neighbors across the hall.

Pres Husz, Sis Husz, AJ & Maaika Kingsford, and Peter Schönherr (our recorder and bishop)

I mentioned in my last entry that we were shortening our extension of our mission since John’s mobility isn’t great and he hobbles around holding on to staircase banisters, walls and chairs, or me, his “human crutch” (as our neighbors have dubbed me). We’ll now head home about a month later than our original mission call’s end, meanwhile doing the best we can to keep filling our assignments till we leave.

To avoid the long flight to the states that would be so difficult for John, we will again sail home and hope to spend our time on the way cleaning up our Laing family genealogy in our computers and working on personal histories, before going to NIH in DC for evaluation with John’s doctor, then flying home from there on November 14. The missionary couple who are taking care of our condo will leave in mid-October, so the timing is nearly perfect.    

Our "flight" home by slow boat not to China

 At the Freiberg Temple, we continue to have great experiences in recent weeks with the East European Saints. Two weeks ago we had the Romanians here, which was a first for us. Romania had belonged to our temple distric t years ago but was then transferred to Kiev, and now they’re back. It was really nice to meet them, and for John to train their new ordinance workers. The Romanians had to drive about 19 hours to get to the temple—which is better than the 30 hours they were driving to get to Kiev. Even that is less challenging then the 8-day journey that the Saints in Manaus, Brazil, were traveling to São Paulo before their temple was recently dedicated. This kind of commitment and sacrifice humbles us.

A favorite photo of our temple

This last week we’ve had the Hungarians here, again. In fact, they’re scheduled for eight more visits before we leave! It’s amazing to us how they come as families, with the children who are over 12 participating daily in baptisms for the dead, while the younger ones are cared for at the apartments by one parent or the other while the other is in a session. Then in another six weeks they come back and do it all over again. What a great way for kids to grow up with a love for the temple!

Our “mission” to China seems to be bearing a little fruit long after we’ve been gone. We get emails fairly frequently from former students who express appreciation for the things we taught them that they find are now part of the fabric of their personal character—things that had little to do with writing. Here’s one example of an email John recently received from John Lu, a former student with whom he is now carrying on a very interesting email exchange about what life entails, about eternal families, etc.

John Lu

These days I start to read Bible with some Christians. They are all kind-hearted persons and help me to live a peaceful life. I realize that life needs higher meaning, not only about money, better living conditions, fame and so on. They are all temporary, but love lasts. I thought of the music that you played in the writing class and they are all talking about the eternal love. One of them is "The Touch of the Master's Hand", and I shared it with my Christian friends and know that we all have ordinary bodies but we're honored because of the love from God.

I think it's an important year for me, because in China it's said that people tend to suffer more when they're at the age which is the multiple of 12 and I'm 24 year old. I need to learn more about life and myself and the world. I know it's tough but it's worth doing. No matter how hard it'll be, I can practise every day just like you told me before.

Thank God for bringing you to my life! You are an amazing gift from God.

I think John is an amazing gift from God to me too! I am so grateful for all our bonus years.  Enjoy your week.

Week 37

This week has been a very big one for us for multiple reasons so I was unable to write until today—Tuesday, 19 June! No way was Sunday possible. Can it really be mid-way through June already?

It has been wonderful to be past our flu and colds and feeling a little more “normal”—though normal is definitely a relative term these days. I suppose it is a good thing to get really sick for a bit and thereby feel really grateful for doing better.   

Nearly done with our projects!

John and I have worked long hours during and after our shifts at the temple to complete projects for the president and matron. Last night we put nearly the finishing touches on months of work and did the final printing and collating. It has been a combined effort with John’s incredible organizational vision and meticulous attention to detail, Bruce Harper’s editorial skills, our Giesela Metzner’s translations into really wonderful German, and my initial drafting, leg work, and follow through. There are a few small remaining items but the bulk is completed and delivered this morning.

Look how far Romania is from where we are in Northern Germany!

This week we saw our first visit of the Romanian saints. Formerly they had been  assigned to the Kiev temple. They traveled for more than 17-19 hours to get here (formerly it took them 30 hours to Kiev--but they went!) and then last night five of them—one couple and three single sisters were set apart as ordinance workers in our temple. John began training Br. Geambasu this morning—who fortunately speaks good English, while the assistants and matron worked with the sisters! It is a wonderful thing to help them in any way we can.

Saturday we welcomed our friends, the Primases, here from Munich. They arrived in good time for the last Saturday session and are staying until Friday to enjoy a week in our temple. It has been fun to get together with them for dinner and long visits about old times. Our first stop was to go to Kaufland--we rarely get there because you need a car so it was a treat for us.

Shopping at Kaufland!

Antje brought her scrapbook from their combined South German mission years and it was fun to see John as a 19-20 year old missionary—that Antje assures me was a bit of a rebel! That doesn’t sound like John to me! But who knows. Funny memories for them both to remember.  Norbert also knew 

John, very unlike a missionary, goofing off in Germany 1964

Sister Antje Koschmieder (now Primas)

Norbert & Antje 

John at the time since he was a construction missionary working on one of the buildings where John spent his P-Days. Antje can’t help but shower us with German goodies—we call her Mrs. Santa Claus—at any time of the year. They brought us my favorite wurst—only made in Munich—fresh peppermint tea, and on and on. We are so happy to think of being able to leave them all our 220-volt electrical appliances and other items we have purchased here that we won’t take home.

Speaking of which, we had, you may remember, requested a six-month our mission until next March but in the last couple of months John feels like his mobility and general health has seriously declined so we have spoken with the President today about shortening that extension, projecting a return before the end of this year. Though it is sad not to be able to complete what we had anticipated we know that all things are in the Lord’s hands and we will leave the future to Him and meanwhile enjoy our remaining months here and do our best to serve as well as we can for as long as we can.

Arriving at the hard-to-find Meissen Branch building

Sunday we had a nice experience, quite different from what we expected.  This coming weekend the Dresden stake has a temple weekend and the numbers for the youth baptisms we were getting were a bit puzzling so Pres. and Sis Husz asked John and me to come with them to Meissen to meet with the priesthood advisor over Aaronic priesthood, who had charge of the baptismal groups.

We thought we were just going up to the 7:30 am meeting and then would shoot home for part of our own meeting block, but we ended up staying for the whole block in the Meissen branch and thoroughly enjoyed our Sunday School, taught by an English fellow who is married to a Meissen girl as well as the Young Women sacrament meeting program.

Beautiful Meissen near the Karl G Maesar house with Pres and Sis Husz

 When we finished the meetings, President Husz arranged to have Br. Ortlieb take us to see where Karl G. Maeser was born. I thought the house was absolutely charming. It was beautifully kept with its lace curtains and well-kempt yard.

Karl G Maeser House

Afterwards take us to see where President Thomas S. Monson dedicated East Germany for the preaching of the gospel. It was a place we hadn’t hoped to get to, since it is rather remote. The location is stunning, just at the base of a huge picturesque water tower located in a sacred-grove-like setting overlooking the Elbe just at the juncture between Meissen and Dresden. 

Peaceful site of dedicatory prayer.

Even better to hear the prayer read on site

Plaque on wall re the Church

While there, Pres. Husz read us the journal account and remarkable dedicatory prayer that President Monson pronounced on that ground in 1975. What a wonderful thing to have been privileged to see and hear. The walk into the area taxed John’s energies to the limit but we both felt it was well worth the effort and we were grateful for the umbrella that provided a convenient walking stick for him to lean on.

The only downside to the day was that we were to have Primases to dinner right after our morning meeting block, having assured them we were just zipping up and back for the meeting, not knowing ourselves what our day would consist of. Having no way to phone them and let them know what was happening, we just had to hope they would go ahead an have a bite to eat and we would get together in the evening.

We finally got home about 2:30 pm and had Antje at the door worried that we had had an accident or something. All was well, John crashed for a long nap while I fixed dinner and we could continue our delayed plan for the day.

Monday while Primases went to Leipzig to see friends and visit our mutual dentist, John and I finished our printing and collating project. When they returned we went to dinner together at a fun Freiberg restaurant then came home to crawl gratefully into bed!

Dinner with Primases

We are thankful for the Lord’s multitudinous kindnesses to us in so many ways. We are content to put our trust in him for whatever he has in store for us in months ahead. May you have a wonderful week. 

Week 36

John and I have not had our most exciting time this week since our flu bug made an  unwelcome and lengthy visit for the entire time! The memories we will hold onto, however, are those of the kindness from missionaries around us who kindly shopped for us, hauled out our garbage, brought us soup, flowers, berries—natural “Vit C”—and just stopped by to tell us we were missed. We have felt wrapped up in love and kindness. At one point we had so many bouquets of flowers John and I laughed about having taken up residency in a funeral parlor—fitting for how we felt! Then yesterday President Husz and Jim Chidester showed up at our door from the temple in their whites to give us both blessings.

 

Desiring to learn more of the process of “exercising faith” that we might claim the promised healing led us to spend our Sabbath on a joint study, which we found so worthwhile it was worth the week of misery. 

Since we have little else to report I thought I’d share a thought or two from our study. If not interested in spiritual meanderings, feel free to skip to the end and catch us next week.

In our blessings great things were promised each of us, but what was our role in reaping those promised blessings (so often given according to the faith of the recipient)?

Desiring to claim the blessings promised me, in the misery I still was feeling, I struggled to understand just how to go about “exercising my faith” to bring about those blessings. I focused on that principle of faith and ideas began to come.

 

In the early hours of the morning, my attention was captured by the words “faith without works is dead.” Through the night I had been repeatedly seized by uncontrollable coughing fits, making it necessary to sit up in order to get any sleep—despite my receiving a blessing to be healed!

What role did this scripture play, “faith with out works is dead” in the process of my being healed? Where was my faith in the Lord’s servants who had used His priesthood power to anoint and bless me? What was the “work” I was to do?

I decided my work was to act on my faith in the Savior’s power to heal even by returning to bed, lying down, and concentrating my thoughts on the healing commanded in the blessing, all the while holding the idea in my mind that I was doing the work of faith. I felt that if I could just stay focused and not doubt, not allowing thoughts like “Oh no, I’m still coughing, and I can’t seem to shake it, no matter what," the blessing could literally be fulfilled now.

Instead I came to view each coughing spell (already diminishing as I did so) as only part of the last vestiges of the flu, and I said to each one that surfaced, “Okay, there you go; you are out of here; good riddance! I’m through with you now.”

What was the result of my baby steps of exercising a particle of faith? I stopped coughing almost completely and I began to feel I was being healed from within.

I have learned a lesson from this little event. Most of the time when I receive blessings, the elders go home and I am left passively waiting for promised healing to arrive. But, I recognize that I have not always done my part of the work. Work, is an active verb. Passively waiting for miracles to occur has little to do with faith, I think. Passive trust, even in the Lord Jesus Christ, is not faith, nor will it qualify us for promised blessings. I don’t think it meets the criteria as exercising active faith in Him.

This view has application to blessings we have received in the past as well. President Packer’s blessing, for instance, just prior to John’s spinal cord surgery, included a mandate that we “savor every day,” yet somehow, we haven’t always recognized that we had to do something to realize that gift. Savor is also an active verb and suggests that we must choose to "savor," not just wait for some savory appetizer to be handed to us on a silver platter. So as the challenges come, and the going is sometimes tough, what is there for us to savor?

So very much, for we are greatly blessed! Our glass is nearly full, not almost empty as we can sometimes childishly think.

This week, as she faces challenges I can’t comprehend we received the following in an email from a precious loved one that made us very conscious of our own need to be ever more grateful. 

I have been thinking about how blessed I am. I have never had a single day in my life when I went hungry, or was without a nice place to live. I have never been cold or without clothes and a nice car to drive.  I have never been all alone. I have always had family that loves me and cares about me.  I have never been without the Gospel of Jesus Christ in my life.  I have always known who I was and why I am here and where I want to go.  I have always been so blessed.  

George Durrant has it right when he says, no matter what he’s facing, “This is my best day.” That’s the crux of savoring every day. It’s choice, not fate. The marvelous additional blessing that comes to us as we so choose is that we not only feel happier, more blessed, more grateful—even in the face of life’s hard things—helping us become even more capable of happily accepting the commandment to “thank the Lord . . . in all things.”

And if our difficulties go on longer than we might think they ought to, maybe we can come to, in faith, accept the Lord’s timing and look to him and say, “I understand; I just require a little more polishing.” Well here’s to polishing.

Through this week in just a tiny way we have had reaffirmed to us that "all these things shall give [us] experience, and shall be for [our] good." (D&C 122:7) 

Enjoy your week of being "polished" in whatever way He knows you need!

Week 35

This has been a week of highs and lows, the latter of which we are still struggling through. But this too will pass. John has been really ill since Thursday with a flu bug and a rotten cold following hard on its heels. Since we are such a team, I decided to join in with the fun with my back slipping out on me and then catching John’s cold. We have been pretty miserable today. But that is the way mortality goes sometimes. If we always felt terrific we would likely take it for granted and not be as grateful as we should be.

We are glad that we still have a day and a half before we are scheduled to return to the temple Tuesday morning, and hope, by then, to be up and going again!

On our way! Don't we look energetic!

Saturday after we went to the temple for the first session so we could get Tuesday’s plans put together—we have Polish saints coming in Monday night—we left for a president-approved-get-away for our 44^th wedding anniversary.  We had originally thought of going to Berlin but it just seemed too much so chose instead a charming country hotel and spa near Seiffen, just next to the Czech boarder.

Land Heidelberg Hotel, Seiffen, Germany

Wedding party along our way.

This area is, of course, Erzgebirge country with beautiful rolling green mountains and quaint little towns dotting the landscape and tucked in among the hills. The area has no train service so we took a wonderful German bus and were there in just over an hour, passing along the way one wedding party in a carriage and seeing another celebrate at our hotel. When we arrived we checked in, ate a delicious bowl of soup, had a nap and reported for our massage appointments—our anniversary gifts to each other. The best part of that experience was sharing the gospel with the massage therapist, who was anxious to hear about it. John also gave her a pass-along card, which she was very eager to receive. It will be fun to see what she thinks when she emails him.

Hannalore Massage and Missionary contact

We enjoyed the charming room with its lace curtains, the vistas around the hotel and the wonderful dinner before turning in to nurse our miseries. When we woke up this morning I was much worse and John still felt pretty miserable so we decided to abort and head for Freiberg. We caught an early bus and arrived grateful to be home.

This area is known for its woodworking and Bogens

If we aren’t up to doing anything fun we figured we might just as well sleep in our own bed, soak in the deep, handicapped tub upstairs, and rest up to recuperate. We are always happy to be together, whatever the circumstances are. In many ways, that is how our marriage has been for all these years—highs and lows, health and sickness, joy and sorrow. So ist es! At least we have been able to enjoy our whole life’s journey together.

Stoking up the fires at Freibergsdorfer Hammer

Last Monday we had a delightful time with our missionary group by going to an old waterwheel-run blacksmith’s factory that began operation in 1607 and continued until 1974. Now it is a living museum and fascinating to see. John and I thought much about Nephi’s challenges in finding ore and forging it in order to make tools to be obedient to the Lord’s charge to build a ship. Wow! That was no easy assignment. Just watching the process we were grateful for his faithful obedience in the face of a hard assignment, very glad it wasn't us since neither of us could have even lifted the hammers used.

We have talked with John’s dad this week and continue to be amazed at his determination to endure well to the end, despite great pain and substantial loss of ground. He is anxious to move on from this mortal world and as a family we are fasting today that he might be released and for Becca and Carl to continue to be strengthened in their wonderful caregiving. Theirs is a remarkable family. It is a sweet thing to be part of a good man’s making the transition between the mortal and spirit worlds. When we called Thursday we could only leave our love to be communicated to him.

Charles W Laing--96

One of my favorite monthly emails I receive is from Colleen Whitley, one of my former H200 teachers at BYU. She is a giving, woman, and a terrific writer in the process. I received her May letter today with its wonderful report on the new Kansas City Temple and the events that led to its being built—that area figured so heavily in the early days of the Church and she captures important developments, then and now, a tiny portion with which Colleen had personal experience:

Kansas City Temple--#137

Last month the Kansas City Temple was dedicated, the 137th in the Church. But in addition to being the most recent, this temple stands on ground that was hallowed by enormous sacrifices and great suffering by the early Saints.

The temple is in Clay County in Western Missouri, very near the area the Lord designated as the Garden of Eden and the gathering place for the Saints in the last days when Adam will return and address his posterity (D & C 116 – the only section of the Doctrine and Covenants where the Lord basically tapped Joseph on the shoulder to give him a revelation; in just about all the rest, Joseph was either studying something in the Bible and asked for clarification or prayed with a question either he or another member had raised). The Temple is only six miles from Liberty Jail, where several early Church leaders, including Joseph Smith were imprisoned and where Joseph received the revelations now contained in the Doctrine and Covenants as Sections, 121, 122, and 123. Independence, where the Temple Lot for the City of Zion is located (D & C 57), is now a suburb of Kansas City.

Moreover, the new temple is also near Far West, where the early Saints laid the cornerstones for a temple and where many of them are buried. Only a short distance away is Haun’s Mill, where in 1838 a mob attacked the 30 Mormon families living there killing 17 men (some of them quite young men, one really still a child) and seriously injuring 13 others. The women and children fled into the surrounding woods and hid until the killers left, then returned to bandage wounds and help bury the dead. The Church has recently been able to purchase much of that historic property.

So, while 170 years ago the Saints were persecuted, raped, murdered, and driven from their homes, we are now being welcomed back. In 1838 Governor Lilburn Boggs, issued an extermination order saying any Mormons who would not leave the state should be killed and authorizing local officials to increase their forces as necessary to accomplish those ends. That order was not officially rescinded until 1976, when Governor Christopher S. Bond nullified it, “Expressing on behalf of all Missourians our deep regret for the injustice and undue suffering which was caused by the 1838 order.” A few weeks ago Missouri’s current Governor Jay Nixon visited the Temple during the open house and said the opening of the Temple symbolized “a time of healing.” Indeed it is. It is also helping to bring about the fulfillment of a great many prophecies concerning the City of Zion.

Independence Visitor's Center

I encountered one of the miracles involved in the process of that fulfillment over 40 years ago while Tom was in graduate school at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. The Central States Mission at that time covered all of Iowa and Missouri and parts of Nebraska, Arkansas, and Minnesota . . . we frequently traveled to the mission headquarters in Independence.  On one of our trips there, President Black showed us a fascinating map. The Church had just acquired a piece of land on West Walnut Street, between what was then the Mission Home and the Reorganized Church's Auditorium. They wanted to build a Visitors' Center and had talked with the local zoning and planning officials and received clearance for a building of rather exacting dimensions—it had to be a specific number of feet back from the street and could only contain so many square feet, and so on. Having done that, it occurred to someone in the planning group to look at Joseph Smith's plans for the City of Zion, to see what he had designated should go there. Those plans showed a building in that location of almost exactly the proportions the zoning laws would allow, but there was no label indicating its use. Since the rest of the plans for the City of Zion accounted for essential things, like the temple, they decided to go ahead and build the Visitors’ Center. It is still functioning very well.

What an astounding Church we are blessed to be part of, led as it is by living prophets, to guide us.  Certainly the building and operating of temples is at the center point of so much that matters most. We are grateful to be a part of it and grateful to those of you who have been helping us do the temple names for ancestors we have been finding in our off hours. It is a great work to have a small part in!

Enjoy your week. We love you all.

  

Week 34

Our week began with a Monday missionary outing with a walking tour of Freiberg.  One of our sealers at the temple is Gottfried Schmidt, whose family has lived in Freiberg and surrounds since the 1300s. He loves this little Stadt and knows a lot about it that was wonderful for us to learn.

Freiberg tour with Bruder Schmidt 

He told us that Freiberg—free mountain—founded in 1186, was overseen for centuries by unusual aristocrats who owned the area's rich resources. Silver was found early on and rather than hoarding its rights, they opened it to any and all willing to dig for it. The town developed around a principle of cooperation and everyone worked together to help build a wonderful place to live—and there were “no poor among them.” Given that background it seems a fitting place for a temple of the Lord to have been built. 

Lunch at Stadt Wirtschaft Restaurant

We met in town before the tour and enjoyed lunch together at a wonderful old restaurant then met at one of the towers, still standing, in the old wall, only a part of which is still there. We love this little town with its clean streets and window boxes and flowers. 

Clean Freiberg with its flower boxes

John and I only joined for the first part of the tour—his energy and walking ability is pretty limited, so we got only a taste before turning towards home. We were most grateful when we were only two blocks into a long walk up Hainichener Strasse when Jim Chidester’s little blue car pulled up along side us offering us a much needed ride home.  We are grateful to be able to participate here and there though mostly we just conserve energy for our work in the temple.

Our work at the temple continues to bring us joy—as one of our elderly brothers, Bruder Müller says, “Ich bin immer Gesund wenn ich im Tempel bin.” (I am always healthy when I am in the temple). John echoes his view. Mornings are tough for him to get up but by the time we are dressed and headed into the tunnel he sets aside how he feels, focuses on the work at hand, and does feel better than any other time of his day. I think he is enormously courageous to be here serving given the way he feels and with his struggles with mobility.

Saturday we enjoyed some large groups of Czech youth who came for baptisms so things were hummin’. The rest of the week we also had a baptism every day, put together for just one young man who was baptized three weeks ago and who had traveled from Vienna to Freiberg to spend the week in the temple.  He arrived first thing each morning to participate in a baptismal session which required two workers as witnesses, one baptizer, and two others to record and confirm. Five brethren were there to help one young man have a wonderful experience each day.  The rest of the day he spent his time in the waiting room off the front entrance reading the scriptures, leaving only when the temple closed after the third session every day. On Friday night he came back, just to sit, feel the Spirit, and be in the temple (waiting room). Tomorrow he is going to Frankfurt to see that temple and to spend another week before heading home.  What a nice way to begin your new life as a member of the Church.  

Schw "Blue hair" Harzt

Sunday, one of our ward members, Schwester Harzt, invited us to join her and her non-member husband for dinner. We had a lovely time sitting in their garden before enjoying a nice dinner. John said the experience reminded him a lot of being on his mission.  Schw Harzt is a charming lady who is a very pretty but rather unique in having blue hair—not a bluish grey, but actual blue! 

Relaxing on a Sunday afternoon

Brent would have loved this yard with its gardens and trees. We enjoyed sitting and relaxing while our hosts fixed dinner.

Sister Harzt is a fun person who was born in the Church in about 1938, was sealed to her parents in the Swiss temple before the wall went up, and is very musical. Her father was a counselor to Henry Burkhardt, the first temple president in Freiberg.  She married her husband hoping he would accept the gospel. They have everything in common and are very happy, except for the fact that he has “keinen Glauben” (no belief). My heart goes out to her. Hopefully some day his heart will be touched with a desire for more.

Dinner and conversation

We are enjoying these lovely spring days with a hint of coolness in the air, beautiful billowy white clouds in the blue, blue sky. We received some pictures from John’s brother Mark from Cody Wyoming where they had just had snow! And were doubly grateful to be here.

May snow in Cody, Wyoming!

Hope you are happy wherever you are in your little corner of the world.