The Week Before Christmas, And All Through Our Lives...

At work this past week some things seemed to have slowed down which was great, because outside of work, we did so much more than usual.

Tuesday afternoon for our German Culture class, we met at Sister Enger’s apartment. This sister lives 55 stairs up and there is no elevator. She is close to our age, but in the next 10 to 20 years from now, I wonder how hard it might be for her.

Weihnachtmann

About 13 of us senior missionaries attended.  All were Sisters, except two of us.  Near the beginning of the meeting, as per Sister Enger's request, Diane and I played our recorders. Diane did one German Christmas song, "Morgen, Kinder, wird's was geben" ("Tomorrow, Children, You Will Receive Something") with a lead into another which you would be familiar with, "O Tannenbaum" (“Oh, Christmas Tree”).  We were no more than 15 minutes into the class when the doorbell rang.  It was der Weihnachtsmann.  He came in with a large but thin book and a sack.  In German he read each of our names and told a little something about us. He then asked us to do something and gave us a small gift.  For me he talked about how I make great chocolate zucchini bread and share it with others.  He asked Sister van Hoff and I to play a song with the recorders. We redid the “Oh Christmas Tree” song.  For Sister van Hoff, he said how well she speaks German and knows computers. Because she played the recorder with me she didn’t have to do anything else special.

It was so cool hearing him describe the different things about each of us. The other people were asked to recite poems or sing songs. We all helped with all of those. He surprised Sister Enger by presenting her with a gift, also.  What a wonderful evening.

Wednesday afternoon we left work early. We had invited the sister missionaries over to our place to teach a man from Ghana.  It turns out that he was not able to come, but we still were able to meet with him and teach him--using FaceTime.  What was notably interesting to me were the impressions I felt during our meeting.

Heart Attack (ours is the right door.)

When we first connected, we could hear a lot of noise in the background; talking, clattering.  It was hard for him to hear.  The sisters and Diane and I were in the same room, each couple with their own IPad monitor.  The impression I felt was like we were in a peaceful, spiritual atmosphere projecting out to Daniel, but much of it was being lost.  It was when he decided to put on earbuds that everything changed. I could feel that suddenly he was within our circle of protection and able to feel the peace and comfort of the Spirit, bringing all of us into one large extended room. It was as if the world was shut out. He was more focused and engaged. Quite an unusual experience.

That night after seminary, we helped the Young Women deliver secret Santa gifts to each of the missionary couples in the apartment complex.  As they prepared their deliveries, I went over to the apartment complex to mark the doors of the missionaries. Diane accompanied the leaders and helped the girls make their anonymous deliveries.  I was home baking when the doorbell rang.  I opened the door to find a small gift basket of cookies and candy and the door covered from top to bottom with paper hearts taped to it.  

The next day one of the missionaries said, “We were heart attacked last night.”

There was a wonderful baptism today--a family from China. They were so excited to be baptized. I’ve been to many baptisms, but the Spirit that was there while they were being baptized was so strong. What a wonderful addition to the ward they will be. During the baptism the member of the bishopric who was conducting told the father to write down how it felt today. After the baptism Diane and I were talking to him and he told us how the Mission President called him last night. The Mission President told the father that he should not be baptized because of his relationship with the missionaries. He assured the Mission President that he was solely doing it for himself and his family. I told him that he should write that down, also.  I told him his kids would want to read that. I told him that his grandkids would also want to read it. He looked as if he went into a deep thought and then said, “Yea, I never would have thought of that.” His kids are still very young--2 and 4.

Our Schwibbogen

We bought a Schwibbogen.  It was made in the Erzgebirge region of eastern Germany.  When we went to the temple (in this region) the other week, we saw that nearly every window had one. The first Schwibbogen was made in the mid 1700s by miners. It was made for Christmas. The original Schwibbogen had 11 lights as does ours. (It varies nowadays.) The lights signify what the miners missed during this time of year.  Working underground during the day, and with extremely short days, they almost never saw sunlight. Typically it was made out of one solid piece of ore or wood.