Bike + Friends + Temple

As most of you know, my bike isn't just any bike. It's been described as "that's your bike?!?" "rusted out," "piece of junk," "a grandma bike," and as having "a certain amount of charm." Ha ha.

Here she is. Pick a bike, any bike. I'll give you a clue: it's the one that none of you would want if you had your choice. And I'm not sure why the seat is all skeewompus. But it was 30 Euros. And it gets me places.




Good thing I rode my bike for over an hour to do some visiting teaching on Thursday, because it conditioned me for today, when everything went wrong on the way out the door to catch the train to the temple. The result: I've never, ever ridden my bike so fast without a break. And good thing I had jeans on under my dress, because I was chaos flying down the road.

The train was to leave at 7:30. I am not kidding you, I locked up my bike as fast as I could at 7:31 and BOOKED it through the train station. As I approached the platform, I thought, "It's too late! The train's going to pull away as I run alongside it!" But as I turned the corner, I saw that all the doors seemed to be closed but one: Mike was standing in the door closest to the station, with one hand and one leg in, one hand and one leg out. He said he'd called me and heard me running and had asked the conductor when the train would be leaving so they knew he was waiting for someone. Yes, I stunk, and my hair was crazy from the helmet that was half-on, half-off, but the train didn't leave without me. Moni was waiting in the train, where we talked with a guy there about why the gospel makes us happy. Andy picked us up in Chemnitz. It is good to have good friends.

We got to join our YSA friends from Hamburg, which was a treat. I read through Doctrine and Covenants and got some good insights about what the Lord wants me to do in relation to my thesis. One of the temple workers reflected my excitement as he spoke of the fact that Joseph Smith had been in prison before the revelation about proxy work to free spirits was given, so he personally felt the excitement of freedom from prison. The people I was confirmed for were born in Holland around 1703.

There's nothing like two righteous guys, dressed up, at the temple.




Moni's first time going to the temple.




Visiting the temple again was so lovely, my cheeks hurt from smiling.