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