Reflections from Deb

Can you believe it?  We have been in Germany for a year.  In some ways, it seems like yesterday and in others, it seems like we have been here forever.  When we arrived, the weather was cold, as it is now.   The trees were bare of leaves and it stated getting dark about 4 pm.  That is how it is now except the trees are not quite bare.  There are still yellow leaves to fall off.  As I think of the past year, I see things a little differently.  Riding the trains and buses are not as frightening now.  If we get kicked off a train, we just sigh and try to figure out where we are and find another way to our desired destination.  A year ago when this happened, I would panic, especially if it was dark.  I did not like being lost in Berlin, unable to speak the language, and not having a clue as to what I needed to do next.  More then once, I wanted to come home where I knew my way around , had a car, and was not cold and wet.  I've grown.  Now I just shrug my shoulders, get impatient with the transit system here and move on.  I still don't like Deutsche Post, but that is a whole other story.

One of our first trips here in Germany with the YSA's was to the Freiburg Temple.  I remember feeling awed by the fact that I was in East Germany at the Freiburg Temple looking up at the Angel Moroni.  Yesterday, when we went to the Freiburg Temple with the YSA's, I still had that feeling of awe.  I was in a place that I never dreamed of going to in my life time, and I have been there 3 times.

We have made many friends here in Germany, both with the YSA's and the members of our Gemeinde Tiergarten.  I will be sad to leave these wonderful people yet happy to see missed friends and family.  I have not learned to speak the language, but I do understand a lot if the people speak slow.  There are too many people here that speak English.  The people here get frustrated with our slow German and after a few sentences they switch to English so we can have a intelligent conversation.  Dan is doing much better then I with speaking German, but he studies more then I. 

Our Mission is not exactly what I expected.  We do so much cooking.  Sometimes I feel that is all we do, but then there are those times when spirit whispers to me that what we do is important and needed.  It provides a  place for the YSA's to meet together and share fun and ideas.  It is rewarding when the young people come and ask for advice or just need to talk and have someone listen.  And the HUGS are the best.  Everyone here comes into the kitchen and give us a big hug and hangs out while we are cooking.   It is great to see the spiritual growth that take place.  So when I get tired and discouraged, I just think back to those times in the kitchen when someone needed me to give a hug or just listen about their bad day, or bounce ideas they have off me.  It is then that I know that we are in the right place at the right time. 

As I look forward to the next 6 months, I am afraid it will go too fast and too slow.   I love being here and I want to come home.  I am not looking forward to another winter, yet when spring comes, this 18 month mission will be over and we will have only memories of these wonderful people that we serve and have grown to love left.   Thanks to a loving Heavenly Father, I know we will meet again in the next life and be able "catch up" on each other's lives. 

The pictures are of us at the Freiburg Temple yesterday.  The only thing that has changed from last year is the date.  Everything else is the same.  Oh , and we know what "Templekleiderverkauf" means.