Week 44

Last Sunday we began a determined effort to walk every day in order to strengthen John’s legs and I’m happy to report we have done something daily. His Nordic Walking Sticks have been a boon in helping to stabilize him so that he doesn’t always feel he is going to topple over. We think it can’t but be good for him (and me!) and with consistency bring about some good benefits to both arms and legs.

John and his "sticks"

Some of our outings have just been through the interesting neighborhoods, and others have been with a destination in mind—like Vivaldi for Indian dinner Thursday evening with the Schmidts. They like to go with us and don’t mind our slow pace. We walked down through the Tierpark (quasi zoo) in a beautiful clear, cool day, and chose to sit outside under their canopy since we figured it would be stuffy inside. 

Schmidts (from Austria, Austrailia, Canada, and Lehi) and John

The owner, from Punjab, India, waited on us and brought us wonderful lentil soup, tomato/mozzarella salad (Italian—not Indian) before we shared a curry chicken dish. It was all yummy and a fun outing. While we were eating it began to rain and poured down torrents! I love this kind of weather—as long as I am under cover but we were a little concerned about getting home! We visited and ate and then the rain cleared up and we walked home. How’s that for timing? Lots of blessings!

Yummy!

Today we walked through a close-by neighborhood and found an old DDR path overgrown with wild flowers that we followed until it led us back out onto our street. I am proud of John’s having the courage to persevere in doing whatever it takes to keep moving. I don’t doubt but what it would be much easier to give up and go to bed.

We have been busy at the temple with another project for the president to organize books with all the documentation on both sealers and temple workers, putting together a page tracking each one, with a picture, that can be reviewed when someone is coming to serve their shift that he doesn’t know—especially useful with those from out of country (the Russians are coming again next week!).  I have also made spines for all his binders so that they all look the same rather than the mishmash he inherited from his predecessors. It is always fun to work together with John. I do a lot of the work but John helps me when he can and he has the vision of design that helps a lot in making things look great.

Sometimes Saturdays can be very slow at the temple and as workers we often joke about needing to have einen Bus come so we can fill the temple! Well yesterday a real bus did come bringing saints from the Erfurt district and things were hummin'. It was exciting. I helped out in an initiatory session quickly put together to ease the numbers in the endowment room.

We have been greatly enjoying our assignment in handling the sealings for the temple. Yesterday was a particularly choice experience when a young couple came from Erfurt to attend the temple, doing the endowments for her grandparents. They asked if it would be possible to have a little sealing session after the last session so they could do the sealings for the couple and for their son—her father. John had attended the session to observe his newest trainee on his first time being the session leader so didn’t know about the extra sealing until he came off the session and got word to go directly to the sealing room so he could be the son.

We love our temple!

We had some difficulty in printing the sealing card for the couple and so were delayed for half an hour. Our sealer was Brother Beer, from Berlin, who had been very willing to stay to perform the ordinance, though it was delaying his long drive home. Nothing was working and we just couldn’t get NFS to let us print. I finally prayed that we would be able to find some way to do this important work for which the couple was so anxious. At the last minute the patron, quite new to temple service, realized she had a yellow card, but didn’t understand that that was precisely what we needed to go forward. Finally we were able to get everything together and Brother Beer spoke to the couple, who were so embarrassed for holding everything up, with tears in his eyes of the joy he felt in being able to perform this sacred ordinance, and that the grandparents had been waiting for it, and a little delay on our part was no problem. We all felt a great outpouring of the Spirit as they were proxy for her grandparents and then John stood in for her father to be sealed to his parents. It was awesome. Afterwards, everyone hugged everyone, and the young couple extended loving invitations to John and me to “Please, please come to Erfurt, and visit us there.” We won’t likely be able to make that trip, but they will return in October before we leave and we will look forward with joy to seeing them again.

Saying Goodbye from Germany to Springville. We love you, Pop!

 We have been closly following along from a distance while John’s Dad draws ever nearer to “graduating” from his mortal experience. We have been able to call and talk with him and Mom every week or more often, but in the last couple of days his systems have been shutting down and he is soon to leave us. Lorenz and Crystal have sent pictures wherein we recognize how similar he appears to my Mom when her “turn on earth” was nearly over. Today the family fasted for him that he might be released to go forward. This evening after having our prayer to conclude our fast, we called hoping to talk with Pop—he has been unresponsive for several days now, but we knew that, even so, he would be able to hear us.  John’s brother Paul was there at Becca’s and captured this sweet picture of our having this last change to tell him tell him goodbye and that we love him and to thank him for the wonderful example of love and commitment he has always been to us and our family. We are so grateful for his legacy.

It has been a wonderful week for us. Highlights have been coming home Friday to three letters shoved in our door from grandchildren and in receiving today a wonderful email from our Adam in response to Grandpa's wonderful legacy! We hope your week has been full of good things too.

Love, John & Sue

Week 43

We’ve had a lovely week full of good things though John continues to struggle with feeling less then in the pink. Thanks to some help from a couple of very special people he is doing considerably better though and is ready to face another full week coming up at the temple. We got to counting up the weeks remaining before we head for home and have only 12 weeks left! Considering how fast time flies we are almost on our way.

As you well know, Tuesday was July 24^th—Pioneer Day! And about noon, while I was talking with the president, I commented to him that I hated to see the day go by (as July 4^th nearly did) without being acknowledged. He responded, “Well, what do you have in mind?” Thinking quickly, I answered that we ought to have a potluck with the missionaries, talk about our pioneers, and then watch 17 Miracles, a movie about the Willy and Martin Handcart journey. (I knew he and Sis Husz had it here with them). He said “Let’s do it,” and told me to get the word out.

Part of our invitation for our 24th of July celebration

I notified the missionaries, and then after the last session I threw chili together, made invitations as a reminder, and ran them around ½ hour before our 6:30 get together—mostly so I could help some of those not from pioneer ancestry to still feel included. We had a great time and only one missionary couple chose not to come. I was surprised that the turnout was so great. The potluck was a well-rounded yummy spread (I think we should never plan one differently!), the stories we heard about pioneers—sometimes about the missionaries themselves and sometimes about their ancestors—were great, and the movie was inspiring and humbling to see again.

Yummy potluck

The next day John and I and the Chidesters were invited to dinner at the Huszes' to plan what we want to do in Vienna on the days we are with them during the shut-down in September. Chidesters have a lengthy list of things they are anxious to do including shopping, museum visiting, etc. etc. John and I are amazed at the energy that some folks have. We will likely take a city bus tour (our best way of seeing a lot in a little time without expending much energy), and learn from Sis Husz how to make her seasoning that she uses exclusively in soups etc. It is very tasty and apparently stores well. She, with all her health issues, has to be very careful about what she eats and doesn’t eat so has been creative in devising what works. She shared with me a pot at Christmas time and we have enjoyed using it too. Learning to make it will be fun. They are very hospitable to open their home to us to stay with them. While there, John will also see her Chinese doctor who has been so helpful to saving her life.

Dinner at the Huszes'--I loved her hand-crocheted placemats

 For dinner she made delicious Monte Cristo-type cheese and ham sandwiches and salad. It was a fun visit.

Dipped-in egg, like French toast--yummy

Early in the week I went downtown seeking an Erzgebirge wood-carved Pyramid or Bogen for my friend who was in Xi'an, China, with us last year. She had gone pearl shopping for me and wanted me to find her something from here. It is difficult for me to shop for someone else since tastes are aways different but I was happy to do it and it was fun to get a couple of things packaged up and shipped off. Nice too to have checked an item off my “to do” list.

Checked off my list!

My favorite. Charming and wonderful quality

 For once we had a hot summer day and I left my umbrella home. In the center of town children (and adults too!) were having fun in the bubbly fountain the reminded us of Gateway in Salt Lake City. 

Besides doing our assignment as sealing coordinator and assistant, I have been very busy the past couple of weeks getting all sister ordinance worker information put on the computer, complete with their pictures. Heretofore the assistants were keeping up on what each worker did each time she came to serve by putting little hash marks on a separate sheet of paper for each worker. Theirs was a time-intensive process and I was not looking forward, when they arrive, to training the new assistants on keeping it up. I proposed an electronic file approach which the assistants will keep updated. I printed out a full set for the matron, however.  I had originally envisioned doing this just for the out-of-country workers who are trained each time they come, since it is often a year between visits, but decided it would be great to also have all the German workers in the file too. The project came together quickly and Sis Husz is delighted with it and the current assistants are adapting to the change.

When Sis Husz showed the president what we had put together he then dragged out what he had inherited for the brethren.  It was a sorry hodge podge. I asked if he wanted something for the brethren workers and sealers similar to what I had put together for Sister Husz. He did and now I have landed ourselves with another project. It is a bit more difficult to capture the past performance for the brethren but we are getting there and in another week or two we should have everything organized. The process will not only give the president a nice ready reference on all his workers but will also provide John (and whoever follows as trainer) a great way to keep track of those being trained.

Saturday we enjoyed another impromptu get together with the missionaries and watched My Fair Lady on the big screen in the missionary room. Only a handful joined in but it was fun for those of us who did to relax after a very busy week.

That about wraps up our week except for our latest health interest: Every now and again, John and I get on some kind of health kick to pull ourselves back in alignment when we get to not eating quite as well as we should. We do pretty well generally speaking but there is always room to improve. I found a program that made sense to me online—not a diet, but Beyond Diet—a healthy way to eat that avoids so many dietary pitfalls our modern world offers—without having to buy expensive packages of anything and still maintain good health and the weight level we want. I emailed my sister Kathy about it and she and her husband checked it out and got started ahead of us. We have often had fun sharing one kind of kick or another. This is another in a long list over the years. John says one of these days we have to make a list of all the funny things we have done together. But he doesn’t mind since the end result is usually good things to eat that are good for you! 

Wishing you a healthy, happy week. 

Week 42

This is a week full of good things. Monday we did our usual get-ready-for-the-week activities, like laundry, cleaning, and shopping.

Tuesday was my 66^th birthday and the morning began with a knock at our door at 6:40 am with the “surprise” greeting, song, and gifts of fruit and flowers from all the missionaries—it is a part of the missionary culture here. It was fun, the fruit was wonderful and the flowers lovely. Our cute neighbor had decorated our door with a Chinese theme to make us feel at home.  Later in the day our Munich friends called to Begrüssen me with birthday greeting, along with a package that arrived. They are givers! John tells them they are like Heavenly Father--no matter what we do we can't keep up with their giving to us!

 After the temple John had a nap and then we walked down to Schwannenschlößchen for an early dinner—John’s gift to me along with a new cream-colored massage table, sent to our home in SLC to be there when we get back.  Ours here, we are going to give to a wonderful Hungarian brother who is a sealer, and a patriarch in Budapest. He and his wife share our interest in self-help treatments. We are pleased to have found a good home for it when we go. Everywhere we live across this wide world we leave a massage table behind us. They are too expensive to ship home and not very expensive to purchase for the value we get from them in being able to do therapy on our backs and legs.

We enjoyed the walk down, John making good use of his Nordic walking sticks, which really help him walk better. It was a little longer than he normally goes but he wanted to take me and I was happy to go. The weather was lovely and cool when we left but I have learned to always take our umbrella and a jacket along. On our way back up Hainichener Strasse to the temple our bishop (and temple recorder) pulled over to see if we wanted a ride. We gratefully accepted and arrived back home just as the rain came down in torrents. A serendipty for sure!

In the evening we enjoyed phone calls from Adam and Patrick and a birthday email from Chi.  Contact with our kids is always a highlight to our lives. We also got some little letters from some of our grandchildren. It was so fun! I agree with our Kimmy that getting mail is the best! Today, John has been writing to those who have written to us, as well as to others of the grandkids. Between our "Fabulous Famboly Newsletters," phone and SKYPE calls, here and there we get a little contact with those we love.  John calls Pop and Mom Laing every few days and it is always great to hear their voices. How grateful we are for family.

At the temple I worked a lot with the ones replacing me on doing the daily plan and by the week’s end they were flying solo and I found I didn’t miss doing it at all. Instead I am in full swing with designing and inputing into an electronic system for the matron a record (with photo) of all the sister ordinance workers in order to keep up to date on training and performance history. It is a big job, but I think it will be really useful, especially for the new assistants who will be coming soon. It is part of my getting materials ready to work with them to get them oriented to their new responsibilities. If I can complete this quickly enough I want to help John do something similar with his training records for the brethren. 

I have also been helping John in his new role as sealing coordinator. He is enjoying that a lot as well as continuing to train. Life is good. John continues to struggle with his mobility but rests as he can and courageously does his best.

Today we enjoyed our ward conference. I still don’t understand a lot in our meetings, though I do much better at the temple—probably because the Spirit helps me more there. I taught our English Sunday School class on Alma 13–16 and John went to Primary to observe before taking over next Sunday in his new calling as Primary pianist. He will love that! 

After our meetings we had a ward luncheon outside with a super buffet of soups, salads, and desserts. It was a lot of fun.

Life is good and we are happy and grateful for our many many blessings.

Week 41

I continue to pray for rain for Utah and other areas that have had such hot temperatures this year resulting in many fires in so many areas in Utah and else where leaving behind great destruction. I don’t know when the picture below was taken—whether this year or another—but we found it our box at the temple with the following note on it:

The glowing Oquirrh Mountain temple amid darkness and fiery flames, stands holy and strong, a witness of protection and safety when the storms and tumult of the world rages—if we remain faithful and obedient to our covenants.

On the other hand, our weather here continues to be unusually cool, in the mid to high 60s.  We enjoy it very much with its soft breezes and intermittent rain showers, or downpours. We are most grateful that we have had such a pleasant summer since our temple was never air-conditioned.  As we understand it, it was built with the idea that it would not be open on an ongoing basis, but would be used only for a while for living ordinances, then closed until the next generation grew up and was ready for it. Of course that was before the Berlin Wall came down and missionaries were allowed to begin preaching again.

This week other Hungarian saints came and next we will have more of them. They far outnumber the Germans. They come so faithfully, I don’t doubt they have great longing for a temple of their own in Budapest, though without them and the Czechs our temple here would lack for numbers.

This week we have enjoyed visits of various sorts.

One of the regulars at the temple day-in-and-day out is Sister Uta Meyer who is a widow. When not at home in Northern Germany, she lives in a tiny one-room apartment she maintains here in Freiberg so she can be nearby the temple. She asked us to come to dinner, where we visited and saw pictures of her husband of just eight years before he died four years ago. He had been married many years before but had been alone for 30 years when he met her—in the temple; they then married and were sealed here.

Thursday evening we met with the missionaries with a young man from China who had lived for 11 years in Xi’an, where we were last year. He and his wife and son live in Freiberg where he works at the university. We don’t get many opportunities to proselyte but we tried to help out the best we could and will meet with them again when we get the chance.

Sunday we played dominos and visited with the Despains, missionaries from Montana. It was fun to get better acquainted with them. Don used to work for Yellowstone Park and there dealt with many forest fires and has some interesting views about them.

In the evening we went to dinner at another missionary couple’s apartment who are converts to the Church, originally from Austria but who have since lived in Australia, later in Canada, and now (when not serving a mission) call Lehi, Utah, home. We enjoyed the dinner, and enjoyed the people even more.

At the temple we have been busy training for our new assignments, John as the sealing coordinator and me as his assistant, though much of the time this week I have been working with our replacements assigned to do the scheduling for the ordinance workers. The learning curve on that task is steep but they are making progress and in another week or so I think they will be fully up and functioning. John and I are also learning everything we can concerning the roles of counselors and assistants to the matron since those now here will be leaving in the next couple of months—before their replacements arrive.  We have been assigned to assist in training the new ones coming. 

We feel very blessed to have this opportunity to serve this mission together in this beautiful part of the Lord’s world.

We hope that you are enjoying your part too. We love you all. Sue & John  

Week 40

Once again the week has flown by leaving us spinning by the weekend. Each Saturday as we leave the grocery store the clerks always wish us a Schönes Wochenende (a beautiful weekend). I love that expression because I always feel happy to have successfully completed our assignments for the week and now have the Sabbath and then Monday to look forward to ahead before beginning Tuesday morning to do it all over again.

This week was Czech week and the temple was humming with their interesting and difficult language. How grateful we are for those who speak a little (or a lot) of English . . . or even German—at least it sounds familiar. I had to laugh with one of our assistants to the matron when she said, after helping at the conclusion of several sessions, presenting one sister in Mongolian! and several in Czech and then finally in German, how nice it was to finally be able to relax and speak German! It seems to all be perspective. She doesn’t speak a lot of German but at least for both of us it has a much more familiar ring and we do feel very comfortable in speaking it in that sacred setting.

When groups come like this from out of country one of their workers is assigned to share his or her testimony in each morning preparation meeting before the temple opens to patrons. It is quite an experience since they speak in Czech, then are translated into German (and then some of us hope for the gift of the interpretation of tongues to get something from the German!). Even when I don’t understand it, I feel their love for the temple and am often put in tears from the outpouring of the Spirit. I think of Brother Sindylek Friday telling us that three weeks after he was baptized he made his first journey to the temple to participate in baptisms for the dead. One year later he received his endowment and has been coming every since. His face glowed as he spoke of his love for the temple.

It is really wonderful for us now to have them come because we have seen these folks several times when they have made earlier temple trips.  It feels like seeing old friends as they come up the steps dressed in white with huge smiles and their greeting of “Dobre Rano” (good morning).  It is fun to respond in kind—even though that is the only Czech phrase most of us have learned. It is something and they are appreciative of our least effort.

When we ask for help in pronouncing the ordinances in Czech (or Hungarian or whatever we are working on) so we can become more useful we get rave reviews for our least effort. Pres. Harper, our second counselor in the temple presidency, told me that after practicing his pronunciation with one of the Czechs, he was told it was “Just perfect!” to which he replied, “But, it can’t be; you know I am speaking with an accent.” To which the Czech brother graciously replied, “But, there are many, many different accents in the Czech Republic; you are just using one of them.”  

We are always sorry to seem them leave. But we have Hungarians coming again next week—with the Leipzig Germans to fill in here and there! Hurrah; we love the Hungarians too.

As you know, Wednesday was July 4^th and we couldn’t let the day go by without some kind of a little celebration. Our neighbors had brought two small American flags from home when they came 18 months ago. They had mounted them on their door and it was so good to see the stars and stripes as we walked down the hall. (They leave this week and today delivered the flags to us to use in our remaining months.)

 

We played patriotic music up as loud as our little speakers would go (which wasn’t all that loud), made a little pot of homemade ice cream and had the Despains (from Montana) down to celebrate. Not having a real flag I found one waving on the internet and we enjoyed seeing it wave at full-screen size as we stood for the Star Spangled Banner then visited and ate ice cream and nut bars. It was fun and we were glad we had not allowed the day to go by unrecognized.

Saturday was the brightest spot of our week when at 9:00 pm in the evening we got an anticipated SKYPE call from our family. All our kids and grandkids were together at Chi’s house for a one-day reunion and they called so we could be a little included in it.

We were amazed at how much each child has grown in the time since we saw them last and it made us so happy that they had made the effort to gather together.  Having the next generation begin to take responsibility to organize and plan things together really is a happy thing for us to observe.

We hope to be able to repeat the fun—in person—at Thanksgiving with everyone in Utah at our home at Trevi Towers—exactly one week after we get home.

We appreciated Patrick, Tessha, and the kids going by to visit Grandpa and Grandma Laing at Rebecca’s, likely the last chance they will have to see them. Though who knows? Grandpa continues to hang in there. Maybe he will still be there when we return home!

All we know is that family is what counts and we are grateful for each one who is part of ours as well as the friends who feel like family, too.

May your week be full of joy!

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.