Freiberg Tempel

I went to the Freiberg Temple for Temple Day (no, I didn't misspell it in the title, that's how "temple" is spelled in German). Let me remind you (or inform you) here that this temple was truly a miracle as somehow permission was granted for it to be built behind the Berlin Wall! What a blessing to have it here, then and now. The whole experience turned out wonderfully. It was one of those days where I realize I feel the spirit when I take one of those deep breaths of total contentment.

In my late-night stupor the night before, I set my alarm clock for later than I should have. Bryan fixed it all by calling and arranging for me to get picked up. Then as we were driving, the car kept making hopping motions. Then it started snowing (the first snow I've seen here). I noticed that the exits were not the ones I thought they should be for the direction I thought the temple was in, but I decided that maybe I had a false perception since I had never been there and I said nothing. Eventually we got clear to the airport when our driver realized that she had been going the wrong way. Whoops. Exiting and finding the way back to the freeway was interesting, especially since she had to do something to the engine (Tanya, it reminds me of your truck).

Finally we were on our way to the temple. The weather was awful, but we drove into hilly country with buildings you would expect in a charming children's tale. Sure, we got off on the wrong exit, but I enjoyed everything we saw on the detour to the temple.

We made it an hour late and with four inches of snow on the ground, but we were there and everyone had waited! The temple was lovely, and it was great to see so many ward members there. Even though they've got obviously different ideas of privacy in the dressing rooms, the baptisms went very well. The senior missionary in charge there had German that cracked me up. I hope my pronunciation is a little bit better. If you know the difference between "merglick" and "möglich," you'll know what I mean. I don't know if I've written before about how I've noticed that every baptizer is different. Every time I did baptisms in Salt Lake, I'd have to adjust to whoever was baptizing. Some dunk you quick and rush through the words. Some get progressively worse in their pronunciation of your name and let you do your own baptizing. I thought I'd seen every style. Well, I got the surprise of my life. When I went into the font, my friend Markus was doing the baptizing. He put his foot on top of mine and explained it made it easier to pull me back up. (I talked to him about it later. They all do that here.) It worked brilliantly, especially with all that chocolate I've been eating!

I waited for a few hours after the baptisms while Bryan and Uta went through a session. During this time, I discovered that I had dark blue tights on with my black shoes, I talked to the temple president and a few ward members and missionaries, and I did a lot of reading and contemplating. (P.S. Have you seen the article in the Ensign of what President Faust was going to say in conference if he had lived long enough? Cool.) I had so much peace I didn't mind waiting. On the way back home, I slept a bit in the back seat. Suddenly the sun was shining in my eyes, so I looked out and saw the most beautiful sight. The sun was visible as a burning circle from behind some amazing bursts of clouds. A big group of birds was flying over a field that was beautifully white on top (with snow), and amazingly green on the bottom. The contours of the land as well as the colorful trees and turning windmills that we were passing really left an impression on me. I dug around for my camera but I couldn't find it. There wasn't any snow left in Leipzig when we got back, so you'll just have to take my word for it.