Our children left on the 6th of April, we enjoyed general conference while cleaning and moving out of our apartment into the apartment of Anne Osterloe in Fredericksdorf. Anne went to visit her children in the states for the month of April and offered her home to us for the next three weeks. It was a very busy weekend with all we had to do. We finished up on Monday. Then on Tuesday the 9th, we went to the airport to pick up our replacements, Elder and Sister Stay. We spent the next two weeks training them. They were great people and fast learners. The only problem we encountered was illness. Susan got the Flu that the children brought and struggled with Pink eye as well. I spent several days in bed. Susan (I) has not been that sick in a long long time. But I lost a few pounds which was one benefit and did recover quickly.
On Sunday the 21st of April after sacrament
meeting we drove down to Klingen for a Leonhard family reunion which is
normally held every 3 years in November.
However they changed the date to April so we could attend. The event was held at Gerhard Leonhard’s
winery and Gasthaus and the small Lutheran church in the village where the
family attended and some still attend church.
A member of the family ( a Lutheran minister gave a small sermon, and
then we listened to a special music number sung by members of the family. The church was full and I would guess there
were about 50 of us there. At Gerhard’s
Gasthaus we enjoyed a lovely meal and I had the opportunity in German to
explain about our mission, the Church, and why we were living in Germany for
these past 2 years. It was a special
experience to be with some of our German family, and they were interested to
see someone from the branch that had left and immigrated to America. Hilde Koehler and Erwin Leonhard 5th
or 6th cousins spearheaded and organized the reunion. The small villages of klingen and Heuchelheim
have many Leonhard relatives living and buried there.
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| Chapel in Klingen, Family Choir, directed by |
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| Meal served at Gerhardts Barn in Heuchelheim |
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| Hildi and John with other family members |
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| Beautiful Desserts made by the Ladies |
We left klingen and drove into the Erzgebirge region of
Germany from which many of the famous wood carvings came. The prime industry here was silver mining,
and in the winter when the mines were not worked as much the miners started
carving wood figures and Christmas ornaments and other Christmas decorations
e.g. The Christmas pyramid etc. We were able to drive to one of these famous cities and view the creation of some of these items in their workshops.
The city
of Freiberg is located in this region, and it is here that the East German
Temple was dedicated in 1983. The temple
had just been renovated for the 2nd time and they were having a 30
yr. celebration of the temple. We got to
enjoy this celebration as well as attend a session. Here is an interesting
note we learned at the temple. When the
temples was originally constructed the Elder Monson was asked how are we going
to keep the temple ceremonies sacred (expecting the temple to be bugged by the
East German government)? Elder Monson
responded ours is the responsibility of build the temple it is the Lord’s
responsibility to keep it sacred. In the
early 2000’s after the Berlin wall had come down the temple was renovated and
enlarged they found that the original building had no “bugs” which was unheard
of for buildings built during the communist era.
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| City Center in Freiburg |
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| famous church in East Germany |
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| We had a lovely time in the Temple. We were able to attend a special meeting in the local chapel to celebrate the anniversary of the building of this temple, the first to be built behind the iron curtain. It was great meeting. |
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| Our Hotel in Freiburg |
On our return, we drove back to the city of Dresden which is
a beautiful city, and before the war it was unique and especially beautiful. We spent a couple of days walking and
enjoying the beauty of the city. At one
time Dresden was the capitol city of one of the Kingdoms that was eventually
unified into the country known as Germany.
The art of working with ceramic porcelain and making beautiful and
intricate porcelain figures was highly developed. Dresden Porcelain is still world famous. Before WWII Dresden was an artisan city, and
had no real military significance, but was bombed at the end of the war by the
British in retaliation for the bombing of Coventry.
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| Cathedral |
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| Sempfi Opera House |
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| A group was practicing the May Pole Dance for the up coming holiday |
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| Dusk in Dresden, |
We returned to Frankfurt and stayed with the Blacoes a
couple of days until our flight Home on 30 April, 2013. Oh how we miss Germany! We were met in the Airport by Owen and a
surprise to us – Heidi and Gavin. As we
drove past Ft. Collins it started to snow a little bit. The snow grew heavier
the closer to Cheyenne e we got. We were
relieved that the road had not been closed yet because of the snow, but the
driving was treacherous the last 20 or so miles. Owen spent the night because of the
snow. When we awoke the next day (May 1st)
there was 18 inches of snow on the ground.
Owen helped me shovel the driveway and walks while we waited for the
road to Wellington to open so he could get home. We got to enjoy Heidi and Gavin for a couple
more days before they drove back to Kansas.
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| special friends came to wish us well, Ron and Cynthia Newsom and Diane Merrill |
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| Our Boss, John Mulligan and Richard and Ruth Ellen Wood |
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| John, William, and New employee |
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| Don and Marsha Livingstone, the Woods, and Elfie |
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| Part of our welcoming committee |
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| Sister Livingstone and Me |
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