On Jan. 2-4 our Graz Ward youth and YSAs were invited to attend the Temple in Freiberg. We are in the Frankfurt Temple District but that temple had no reservations for youth baptisms this entire year and Freiberg did. It is about an 8 hour car ride to either temple and our Bishop got permission to take the opportunity to travel to Freiberg. He asked Elder Tew and I to attend with them to help. We left from our church at 6am and arrived here at the temple in good time for the scheduled Baptism session for that day.
This is the Temple Complex which consists of the Temple on left, Stake Center on right and the hostel in between. Since people come from alot of the eastern block countries and travel is expensive, the church has built these places to stay which accomodates singles, couples, and families.
There are under ground tunnels which connect all of the buildings together. For example, we did not even go outside from the hostel to the temple sessions. We did go for a short walk outside later to enjoy the sunshine.
Our room was great. The beds here in Europe are a bit different from ours at home.
Oops, Sister Tew had a little difficulty fitting the Federdecke inside the cover. haha
The common kitchen works beautifully with each room assigned certain shelves in the massive fridges and cupboards to put your food in that you will cook for the time you are staying. There is a convenient grocery store not far from the temple to buy food. There is a small fee to stay which covers the upkeep and laundry of the linens.
The YM & YW who were able to come. They are playing a game here in the dining room.
After one of the baptism sessions for a photo.
Anna Sinitsyna on the far right of this pic is our new convert from Russia and this was her first experience at the temple. She was just baptized herself in October and now she was able to participate in 4 Baptism and Confirmation sessions. She was really excited. Later she told of this experience in a Sacrament Meeting talk.
Bishop Thomas Lex and Anna.
Part of our walk included taking this picture of the sign indicating where we are.
The Wrightson's are a senior Missionary couple from Idaho Falls and serving in Slovakia. They came to the Temple with this great faithful lady, her husband and children for the same 3 days that we were here. The great thing about staying at the Temple hostel is that you get to know all of the patrons attending with you because not ony do you see them doing the ordinances with you but you are cooking and eating along side of them also. This great Sister is a translator for the church there in Slovakia and translates all of the conference talks and church magazines. She has 2 others who work with her and they have translated the Book of Mormon (which took 6 years) and have completed the D&C. (which took a year) They are presently working on the Pearl of Great Price.
Our entire group as we are packed up and are ready to start out for home. In the partial 3 days we were here, our group performed over 730 Ordinances. This includes the Baptisms, Confirmations, Initiatory, and Endowments but that is not counting the hundreds of Baptisms and Confirmations that Elder Tew, Bishop and Bernhard performed for other youth from the 7 countries represented there at the Temple at that time.
We stopped here in Haag Austria for a potty break and leg stretching. Regina, the Bishop's wife grew up living here but she was not able to come with us but 3 of their 6 children did. Notice the Catholic church at the end of the street. We had 18 of us which fit into 3 vehicles. Thank you Bishop, Kobers and Aylin Knapp for driving. It was a great, spiritual trip.
