View of the Elbe River from the Koenigstein Fortress

Today we traveled east for a little more than an hour to Koenigstein Fortress.  Wow!  This is one of the almost 100 pictures we took.  It was a little cold today and overcast, so it is hard to imagine how beautiful it would be on a clear day in the spring or fall.  The workers were preparing for big Christmas Market there so the area was full of workers, but we still enjoyed it very much.

This past week at the temple we had patrons from Hungary and Poland, as well as all of our German friends. It is always exciting to have more than two languages.  These Saints are so dedicated and fill the Temple everyday. I have made good friends with a sister from Hungary who is a Temple Worker. She doesn't speak English and I don't speak Hungarian but we can still communicate. It is probably pretty funny to watch us! Occasionally we get a “translator” to help us - I am so grateful for all of the translators who come to the Temple!  Many of them actually work for the Church and they speak excellent English.

A new missionary couple arrived on Friday – Kent and Janice Jones – from Colorado. They are very prepared and have been serving in the Denver Temple for three years. They will be a great asset to the Temple. He was a high school Music Teacher and plays the organ and piano and loves to sing. We are looking forward to getting to know them better.

Last Saturday we decided to go back to Dippoldiswalde and go to the Museum. It was actually a leather-making museum, but it also had great Christmas displays including some things we hadn't seen before. It was interesting and fun. We then decided to go to the town Markt and maybe go to the Castle Museum – but it was going to close in about 45 minutes so we didn't go. However, the Church is right next to it and we began to hear Messiah music – awesome – and went to investigate. Sure enough, there was a full Handel's Messiah performance scheduled that evening. The orchestra was from Dresden and the Choir was the Dippoldiswalde Kirche Choir. They were rehearsing some of the numbers. We were contemplating staying, but it would have been pretty late because it was the complete work – 2.5 hours worth – so we just listened for a minute and then headed home. Maybe next November......

Display in the Dippoldiswalde Museum

Dippoldiswalde Kirche

This past Sunday was the Primary Program for Sacrament Meeting. I cannot explain in words how watching these precious children touches my heart.  All the familiar melodies only sung with big voices by young German saints.  A cute little 3 or 4 year old girl sang the first verse of A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief – Acapella!  It was amazing.  I was blessed to accompany a few of the songs for them.

Speaking of Christmas, it is celebrated here in Germany in a BIG way!  I look forward to posting here on our blog as we enter the Holiday Season!     

Koenigstein Forstress

LEGOS, LEAVES, AND CHANGES

Hansel and Gretel in LEGOS

Scharfenstein 

This past Saturday ReNae and I drove to a town called Scharfenstein to see the old castle built in 1280 AD. Most of it has been rebuilt and turned into a museum. There was a section of the castle that featured a Lego display of fairy tales from several different countries. We recognized several from Grimm's fairy tales, It was an especially pretty trip as we traveled along the rolling hills of forests and trees displaying their autumn colors. 

This last week we had a change in our temple presidency. President and Sister Husz served faithfully for three years and will now return to their home in Vienna, Austria. We enjoyed their sweet spirits and strong testimony of the Lord's work. They taught us many things that will help us to continue our work here in the Freiberg Temple. They were replaced by another Austrian couple, President and Sister Erlacher. They've only been here two days and have already made some pretty big changes.We'll see how the changes work out as time goes on. 

It is now November and is the beginning of the slower season for temple attendance. The winter weather will make it more difficult, especially for the elderly and those travelling from other countries. Winters here in Freiberg, so we are told, can be very different from year to year.  We were given a picture recently of the Temple grounds on December 1, 2012.  There was a lot of snow - so much that the missionaries were unable to even move their cars from the parking lot for quite a while. We are hoping for one of their "mild" winters this year.

There is a tree in the front of our chapel that stands about 30 feet tall. It is a different tree than all the others planted here within and around our temple grounds. When I asked about it, an older member said he helped plant the tree and then told me the story behind it. Sometime in the 90's, during the winter, they had a real cold spell. It was so cold that it froze most of the plants here in the surrounding area. It even froze the plants in all the green houses in the nurseries. When Spring came, it was soon apparent that the only place where the plants were not frozen were on these temple grounds. The nurseries discovered it and came to the church asking if we would sell them some starts from our plants that survived. The church leaders said," No, but we will let you have some for free". After they collected some plant starts, they gave the church that tree as a token of their gratitude. Even though it stands out as a different type of tree, it means a lot to the members and it reminds them of that winter miracle every Sunday as they pass by it to the chapel doors. 

The Scharfenstein Castle

The Tower

View from the top of the Tower