Dresden

Procession of the Princes

Frauenkirche

What a wonderful week we had. We were invited to attend a work seminar with the ICS team.  Those are the people we work with in the Europe Area Office.  The seminar was held in Dresden, Germany.  We stayed at a beautiful hotel in Altstadt Centre (translated: Old town central).  During WWII a large part of Dresden was destroyed.  This section of the city has been restored with its original buildings.  The building on the left has a mural called  Fürstenzug, the Procession of the Princes.  It was originally painted in 1876.  In 1907 the picture was covered with 23,000 individual tiles over a 335 feet in length and 34 feet height to weatherproof it.  Each tile is 8 x 8".  During the bombing raid in WWII there was minimal damage.  To see a video of some of the sights we saw go to https://youtu.be/89pPe4AUXi4.

Steigenberger Hotel de Saxe

The hotel we stayed at was originally a smaller hotel built in the latter 1700s.  It was demolished about 100 years later.  It is believed to have been torn down to make room for progress during the industrial revolution.  A post office was erected at the site.  On February 13, 1945, bombing raids destroyed the post office.  This new building, Steigenberger Hotel de Saxe, was completed in 2004.

Later that evening our team went on a river boat cruise.  The hillsides with the beautiful architecture of restored older churches and historic buildings was amazing.  However, what was really great was to have the time to talk to some of our co-workers.  Something we don’t always have time for.

The Seminar was fantastic.  It wasn’t focused so much on technical education as it was on the spiritual side of what we do.  Every presentation was uplifting and helped the attendees to feel renewed.

Looking back on the entire Seminar it was obvious that all the presenters were led by the Spirit.  Just like at General Conference when each of the speakers plan their own talks and do not coordinate with other speakers, yet each conference tends to have only one theme, that was how this seminar went.  Diane and I offered to do a brief presentation.  Not knowing anything of what the others had planned to speak about, I wrote a 15-minute skit which had some comedy, but mostly conveyed how we need to involve God in all that we do.  Before our performance, the topics in the seminar turned out to be a great segue into our portion and our skit turned out to be a great segue to the rest of the topics.  What demonstrated to us that the Spirit was involved is that I was able to write up the skit in less than 2 hours.  It just came together in my mind as I was writing it.

Breakfast

The first morning the hotel provided a continental breakfast.  The quality of the food was like eating at a 5-star restaurant.  On top of that, the morning so beautiful and warm we decided to eat out on the balcony.

Freiberg Temple

To end the conference, on Thursday we drove to Freiberg where we all went through an endowment session together at the Freiberg Temple.  Freiberg is not a large city but it seems to have a clean, quiet, atmosphere.  I don’t know if that is because the temple is there or if the temple was built there because the atmosphere was already there.

Neumarkt Platz in Freiberg

What a marvelous seminar it was and the people we work with are so wonderful.  This time we’ve had together has allowed us to become much closer.  Each had unique stories to tell us about their conversions and the trials many of them have.

Entering Frankenstein

On the way back home we passed through the town of Frankenstein.  All I have to say is that we didn't see one monster.

We’ve remained in close contact with the younger missionaries, talking to them frequently, communicating with the some of the people they are teaching.  These missionaries continually thank us for being so involved.  Little do they understand that we are not doing anything different than what we normally do.  Besides, wanting to sharing the Gospel with others is the main reason we came on a mission.

We appreciate all those who are following our blog and love to read your comments.  We sincerely love you and miss you.  May the Lord bless you and your families as you serve others within your reach.