Freiberg Temple Trip

Temple Trip to Freiberg.

Going to the temple had been our dream since we arrived in Bulgaria. President Bennett readily agreed and told us to go with the group of members going in the Fall. It turned out that all four Sr. Couples went and we had a wonderful time. We left Sofia on Sunday morning at 9 a.m. and arrived at the temple 26 hours later. Sleep was the only real issue and some of us did not get any. Monday, the temple was closed so we walked through beautiful "Old Town" Freiberg. Tuesday through Friday we spent in the temple doing ordinance work and witnessed a wonderful young couple's sealing. Tuesday evening, the 4 Sr. Couples cooked dinner for the Bulgarian group, which consisted of 28 of us, and Thursday night the Bulgarians returned the favor and cooked for all. Because of the size of our group and other groups who were also attending the temple, housing at the temple complex was limited. In order to accommodate all of us, the couples were separated, even the newly wed couple, into various rooms; the men to one set of rooms and the women to others. Great experience to get to know the faithful Bulgarians as we shared rooms with each other. It was also a time to renew acquaintances with our good friends, Neil and Rosemarie Spencer, from Anchorage, Alaska. Neil served as Bishop of our ward, and John was one of his counselors. They are working in the temple as missionaries, and they just radiated with love and happiness. They are doing such a great job as missionaries. They treated us to dinner one evening, and drove us around the area of Freiberg, it was so good to be with them and to reminisce old times.

Germany has the most picturesque countrysides and hamlets of all the countries we travelled through. We drove through 6 countries to get to the temple including Bulgaria.
Old Town Freiberg has typical 16th to 19th century architecture. This is in one of their squares in old town. They were celebrating the opening of a mineral museum claiming to have the largest display of minerals in the world. We were pleasantly surprised to see this parade go by as we ate lunch in one of the restaurants in Old Town Elder and Sister Mace, Elder and Sister Jorgenson, Elder and Sister Andersen, and Elder and Sister Jewell. Four lucky Sr. Couples posing in front of the temple. Notice how handsome the Andersen's are.

The spire of the temple at 8:00 a.m. just before we embarked on our 24 hour trip back to Bulgaria, and another 24 hours without sleep

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2008

We woke up today to a blustery, rainy day. I had not been in the best of moods. Yesterday was a slow, boring day as had several days been these past few weeks. Add to that the discouraging news we have had this past week: One branch still had not received their material, due to neglect from a few sources and a missionary who doesn’t have his head screwed on right; a branch president called 2 people to teach the S/I class and was turned down twice - so missionaries will be teaching that class; two of our area supervisors have new jobs and don’t have time to be of much help to us. There were several other things that really got me down.

Fifteen minutes before we were to leave for church, the rain stopped and the sun shone in a part of the sky; this wonderful rainbow appeared in our view from our apartment window. WOW. I grabbed my camera and snapped a few pictures. I call this my
PICTURE OF HOPE



Off to church and conference. Most of the speakers spoke to my moody feelings and especially to my desire for Hope. What uplift. What a call to repentance and to shake myself out of my negative feelings. Wake up; smile; laugh; there is a principle of compensation for every tear of sorrow will be replaced with 100 tears of joy; there is hope at the end of the depression; God never leaves us alone; “come what may and love it;” trust in the Lord; we can believe and expect a glorious future with, and because of, our Heavenly Father and Savior. What wonderful messages of hope for those depressed; no, for everyone. We hope all listened with their heart and soul to our prophets of today. The Branch had a wonderful lunch prepared for those of us who attended the first session (we got the Saturday morning and afternoon sessions), and it made the second session so much more enjoyable to sit through. We'll see the remaining sessions next week.