This
past week has been an eventful one. On
Monday evening we celebrated Independence Day by having a picnic with the other
senior missionaries. The weather was beautiful,
the food was delicious, and we enjoyed the company.
Every
Tuesday evening for one hour Sister Engers who is a native German teaches a
German class for the senior missionaries.
She always is creative in her approach, and it isn’t threatening for
those who have challenges with learning a language. This past Tuesday we went
to Sister Enger’s garden. In Germany
there are large garden plots in a community area where families can rent a spot
for a year for a nominal cost. These are
no ordinary gardens. I believe just the Enger’s garden is 300 square
meters. It is large enough that there is
a little house/large shed complete with a cot inside, and there were 10 chairs
outside for us to rest on while we visited.
It was obvious that Sister Enger finds great joy in her garden. She has
about many different kinds of fruit trees, 6 kinds of berries, lots of vegetables
and a multitude of blooming flowers. We took a tour of the garden looking at
the German labels, which she had placed throughout, identifying each thing in
her garden. It was quiet and peaceful as any kind of electronic items in the garden area should not disturb the neighbors .
It was a beautiful place to relax and enjoy the marvelous creations God has
given us for our enjoyment.
After
our visit to the garden Sister Engers took us on a short walk to visit her
husband’s gravesite. Brother Enger
passed away last fall at the age of 61 after a short battle with cancer. She misses him terribly and told us how much
they used to enjoy their garden together. I (Eileen) appreciated her
willingness to share a very personal part of her life with me.
Wednesday
we did our first video conference call with the couples in the Europe
Area. We talk individually with them,
but often times we are repeating the same counsel to the missionaries. We
thought it might be a good idea to have a monthly video call with updates on
current Welfare issues, instruction on various subjects and to have one of the
couples discuss one of their projects.
On this our first call we had Gilles Francois, the Area Welfare Manager
talk about the Area Presidency’s priorities for the welfare/humanitarian
efforts in the Europe Area. We had 6 out
of the 10 couples join us, plus Gilles who was traveling in Macedonia. The
others made the attempt but had some technical challenges connecting. Following
the call we have spent time helping those who were not able to connect in and hope
to have all participate next month.
Thursday
Eileen and some other senior missionaries visited a refugee camp to celebrate
the end of Ramadan. There were many Germans
from the community who came. We all brought treats of some kind or another. Much to our surprise some of the women who
lived in the camp brought out food that they had cooked themselves. They were
very proud of being able to share some dishes from their respective countries.
Despite the language barrier it was fun to see a celebration that spanned
several different cultures. I wished
that I could speak Farsi, Arabic, Turkish and German so I could communicate
better with the families. The best I
could do was to use their children to translate. I would find a person that
spoke English, who would then translate to the children in German. The children
would then translate to their parents in their native language. At the end of
the party one of the sisters from our ward sang in German to the visitors at
the party. Melissa’s brother is visiting Germany as a member of the Mormon
Tabernacle Choir. They both sang “God be with you till we meet again” in
German. A man from the camp introduced
Melissa and her brother in Farsi and explained the significance of the song. I
always love to hear this song. In our church we frequently sing this song at
the conclusion of a conference or other important event.
Saturday
evening we had the opportunity to attend a concert presented by the Mormon
Tabernacle Choir. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is composed of 360 volunteer
singers ages 25-60. They practice and
perform weekly and were accompanied while in Frankfurt by the Orchestra at
Temple Square. We have known individuals
who have been a part of the choir. The time commitment is very demanding and
some travel long distances to attend the practices and performances.
Frankfurt was one of the many stops during a three week trip for the Tabernacle Choir. This is the first time they have performed in Frankfurt for 25 years. In his greeting to the audience, Brother Newell noted that the
choir and orchestra members are all volunteers and that they trace their roots
through Europe. To demonstrate, he asked all the performers to stand who had
family connections or roots in Germany; it appeared that there was about half
that stood. He then asked how many had roots or family connections in Europe;
all of the performers stood.
The choir did a tremendous job.
The acoustics in the performance hall were excellent, but either there
was no air conditioning or it wasn’t working.
It was extremely warm. We empathized with the choir members as they
stood during their whole performance.
The first half of the concert was music which was very intricate and
difficult. They performed pieces from
Handel, Bach and other composers. Most
was sung in another language, perhaps German or Latin.
The second half of the concert seemed lighter. There was a Nigerian folksong complete with a
variety of percussionists. Also included were some American folk songs. My
favorites were the arrangements of LDS hymns; Come Thou Font of Every Blessing
and Come Come ye Saints.
The choir received a standing ovation. In closing they sang God Be with You till We
meet again. This was sung in German and
is entitled "Gott sei mit euch" It was a
lovely ending to the evening. I saw several among the audience wiping tears
from their eyes. I have posted a video of the choir singing the song as the last picture below.
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