East Germany

Our Weekend in East Germany

Saturday, October 31, 2015 -- We were invited to assist one of our Helpline Advisors, Maria Scheible, a psychologist from Spain but now lives on the border of Germany and Switzerland, in presenting an all-day Marriage Workshop for the Dresden Stake. It was a long day, beginning at 10 am and concluding at 7 pm (19:00).

The Stake Presidency had wanted to divide it into two presentations, one for the younger couples, and one in the evening for the older couples. He explained that the young couples would feel intimidated by attending a meeting on this subject with their parents. However, we felt that the material presented was applicable to all ages. Oh well. We do what the Priesthood leaders want for their people.

 Maria is able to speak at least five languages (Spanish, Italian, French, German, Enlish) fluently, so it was no problem for her to give her presentation in German, but this was Ken's first experience of speaking for a lengthy time with an interpreter, so he often forgot to wait until David was finished. I'm sure it was quite a challenging experience for David to keep up.

They alternated throughout the 7 hours of presentations, speaking about such topics as communication, undrstanding and adapting to the personality styles of others, differences in marriages, emotional fidelity, and anger.

Maria is quite expressive, in case you can't tell. 

We were warmly welcomed by many people, even several who couldn't speak a word of English to us.

My new friends weren't very fluent in English, but the Gospel is all the connection we needed! 

Actually I often feel quite embarrassed to expect others to speak my language.

Several people mentioned to me that the members are different in East Germany.  When I heard this I wondered what it meant. One sister told me about her grandmother who had been part of a group of Saints who had hand copied the Church manuals in West Germany. Then she carried them over the border in her apron.

The Stake President & his wife presented us chocolates as a thank you. 

One of the couples who came up to meet us at the end of the day was Elder and Sister Hubrich from Centerville, Utah. Their missionary assignment, which began in April, is at the Freiberg Temple as the Construction Manager. We told them we’d planned to visit the Temple site the next day, on Sunday afternoon. They immediately invited us to dinner and said they would show us around.

I recognized this statue from the window of the cultural hall!

 Karl G. Maeser was in the parking lot! 

Go ahead and read it; you'll probably be able to figure out a lot of this.

This monument was in front of a school building in Meissen, a nearby town where he was born. Someone decided they didn't want a religious figure at the school, so they offered it to the Church. 

FYI: The letter A with the "umlaut" (dots) above, is pronounced "ae" so apparently he changed the spelling when he came to America.

Sunday, November 1, 2015

After attending Church meetings (with interpretation...headphones in Sacrament Mtg and a kind person sitting next to us in SS and RS), we left directly for Freiberg, 45 minutes from Dresden.

We were so excited to see the Freiberg Temple! What a humbling feeling to actually be there where so many miracles had taken place!!

Years ago, we had attended firesides given by Peter Czerny who risked his life many times in getting Church materials over the border. We had followed the stories that were printed in the Ensign about how this Temple came to be.

When we arrived at what the local members call, “Temple Square,” (includes the Temple, Church building, Temple Missionary housing, Temple patron housing, with one parking lot for all), the Hubrichs came out to greet us. 

They are the only ones living on the grounds right now in a teeny tiny studio apartment. (No, we won't complain again about our apartment being too small!) 

We began to learn about some of the most enthusiastic and fun people we’ve ever met! (Notice the framed picture on the wall behind her.)

A side note:  Saturday night, after they had invited us to dinner, they were in a bit of a panic as they tried to find an open grocery store on the way home. Everything was closed because it was a holiday. They were out of food because of the busy week they'd just had, four days of feeding missionaries from the Berlin Mission, both leaving and coming. They finally found a gas station that sold bratwurst, so they gladly took it! They served us a simple but nicely presented meal of bratwurst, fried potatoes, cooked carrots, rolls, sliced apples and ice cream. 

Another side note: The mission president, Pres. Christian Fingerle (also an Area Seventy who had worked with us in our office up until last June) has decided to have a major focus on the temple, even though it won't be opened again for some months. When teaching someone, they should picture them in white two times, once for baptism and once in temple clothes. When new missionaries come, the first place they go is to the Temple; when missionaries are leaving for home, the last place they visit is the Temple. It was interesting to hear about this from the Hubrichs' standpoint. Just two days before, we had just heard these same things from our good friends, E/S JC & Sandi Cook, who had just finished their mission in Kiel, Germany (about as far north as you can go). They had been part of the group of missionaries who had just been there at the Freiberg Temple before being released. 

Elder Hubrich was born in East Germany and had crossed the border with his family as a young child, eventually coming to Utah. He has beem able to see his two living cousins in the area who are not members. He and Ed Dittmar have similar histories and both families escaped from East Germany about the same time. They think their parents knew each other. 

By profession he is a construction manager, and has always wanted to work on a temple. He was particularly interested in the Freiberg Temple’s original construction and was disappointed to not have been chosen at that time to help with it.  Now they are thrilled beyond measure to have this assignment!  It was obvious to us that Elder Hubrich’s entire life’s experiences have prepared him for this mission assignment. It is truly a dream come true for them! "We feel so blessed to be here," they said.

There is a general manager over the workers, who oversees the work, including safety procedures. He is not able to be on site all of the time. The missionary Construction Manager is on site all of the time and takes it up a notch by introducing the standards of the Church, all of which must be followed on the property. 

He tells them that this job is the culmination and epitome of all of their skills and work experience. They are building a holy Temple and are expected to not just do their best, but to make it perfect.  Elder Hubrich’s purpose is to keep the 30 workers focused on the real purpose of the Temple. They know that when they see him walking around, he is not looking for their mistakes, but for how well they are doing.

His instructions to them include, “We hope you will be so proud of this work that you’ll want to bring your families to see it.” In the week previous to when we saw them, three of the workers had asked for copies of the Book of Mormon. "The project manager is now meeting with the missionaries! We can see the light in his eyes.”        

They shared with us some of the history of the city of Freiberg, (interestingly, the name means “free Mountain” which is the place where the Lord would meet his prophets of old), the Church in East Germany, and the Temple.  Freiberg used to be on a trade route for salt dealers going from Leipszig to Prague, and is the oldest mining city in Europe. The city recently held their 800 year celebration! 

The members would have to make application to leave the East in order to attend a temple. They were not allowed to leave as a family, some had to stay behind so they would return. As soon as someone was allowed to go to the temple, another person would submit an application. The government officials became tired of these constant requests, so one of them finally said, "Why don't you build a temple here?" So when permission was given to build a temple, the Church leaders thought it best to build an endowment house first because the government officials had a right to enter any building. The members gained a reputation for being a model group of people, very trusted, so the officials left them alone. Eventually plans were begun for the temple!

Many, many miracles occurred to make it possible for this Temple to exist. These miracles continue even today.

President Monson's book, Faith Rewarded, a record of his journals, gives some information about East Germany. Elder F. Enzio Busche's book, Yearning for the Living God, tells more about it. Before there was any possibility of a temple, one of the daughters of Elder Busche insisted that she would not be married anywhere but the temple. She stuck to her goal, and it turned out that she was one of the very first to be sealed in the Freiberg Temple. Her husband is now the Bishop of the Freiberg Ward as well as the Temple Recorder and helps out a lot with the reconstruction projects. 

Can you believe that at one time, the highest number of Latter-day Saints, second only to Utah’s LDS population, was found in East Germany?

When the Temple was completed people from all around came to see it, saying they wanted to see “their Temple.” No advertising had been done because it was not allowed. There were 40,000 people living in the city of Freiberg, but over 80,000 people came to attend the Open House. People slept in their cars in order to be there early. They didn’t mind waiting in line to see it…they were used to waiting in lines.

The Young Sister Missionaries came to meet us, two lovely very tall girls, Sister Henrie from Delta, Utah, whose grandparents, Richard & Marsha Henrie, are from Minersville and know my sister, Michelle.  The other was Sister Ruchauer from Stuttgart, a cousin of Elder Ruchauer who served here in Frankfurt...both families are very unusual for Germany, with 9 children each and his family, at least, is very musical. We find connections everywhere! They gave us a nice presentation that they had developed for visitors.

All of us wearing our missionary uniforms.

Before we drove away the Hubrichs had changed into their missionary uniforms: hard hats, boots, and florescent jackets & pants, in order to make their regular rounds of the construction sites. Sister Hubrich, a photographer, has been assigned to record the building process through photos and a journal.

Less than 24 hours before, we just met this couple, then were guests at their table, and students at their feet as they shared many touching experiences with us. How blessed we were to get an inside view!!!

I’m quite certain that when they are released from this assignment, they will be willing (and eager) to give firesides on this experience. They literally glow with love and enthusiasm for their work!

We’d heard several people say that the members of the Church are quite different in Eastern Germany.  I think I now understand this better. The members knew that the Gospel was the very thing that would get them through the difficult situation in which they were living. They had to stick together, they sacrificed much to preserve the Gospel and their opportunity to worship, even though it was under cover. They were so focused on living the Gospel and in keeping it hidden, that they became very close to one another as well as very strong in devotion to their faith. One sister told me that in those difficult times living behind the Iron Curtain, the Church was #1, family 2^nd, and jobs 3^rd. She is sad that priorities have changed now: jobs come first, family second, and the Church third.  

By now it was about 3:30 pm (15:30), and we saw that the sun’s light was beginning to wane. We took off so we could visit the rededication site before dark. Radebeul was about ½ hour away, in an area between Dresden & Meissen where President Monson rededicated the land of East Germany for the preaching of the Gospel in 1975. We barely made it as the sun was going down but what a beautiful sight it was, overlooking the valley in the sunset! 

There is a small plaque with the inscription written in German, to commemorate the occasion of the rededication.

For further study on the subject, Google, “Where did President Monson dedicate East Germany in 1975” and it is surprising how much information comes up!