What a wonderful weekend. The good news is no snow. The better news, we had two tremendous experiences. On Friday night, we attened the Tiergarten Stake Christmas program. Several hundred people attended. The concert lasted about an hour and thirty minutes. Debbie sang in the choir and the choir was great. So were the other performances. I met the Stake President's daughter Flur. She is about 11 or 12 and plays the fiddle. The Germans call it a violin. She played a Christmas solo and nailed it. She was a joy to watch and hear. The other perormances were equally as good. The Germans love Christmas and classical music. One of the Sisters is a professional singer. I thought she was going to blow out the building windows.
On Sunday we went to the Barsch home for dinner.They live in a pre WW11 apartment complex located about 500 meters from the Berlin wall in what was East Berlin. Dinner was great. (ich bin Zot, I'm full!). The conversation was better. Bishop Barsch's famiy have been members of the Mormon Church since the early 1920's. After WW11, they lived in Dresden a city nearly totally destroyed by an American and British firebomb air raid. Over 100,000 people died that night and one of Euorpe's prettiest cities was leveled. Bishop Barsch's father served in the Wermacht (army) during the war. He fought in France, Russia, and Czechoslovakia. At the end of the war, he was captured by the Czechs who let him escape as the Russians approached. He made his way back to Germany only to be trapped behind the iron curtain where he lived for over 30 years. Bishop Barsch was involved with the building of the Freiberg Temple behind the iron curtain. The Temple was open and operating during the cold war.
I was touched by both events. The LDS Germans are a wonderful people whose dedication to their religion during an impossible era of history is admirable... Dan
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