Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Just a few weeks left


I can't believe this time has come- there is less than a month left here in Vienna! Can you believe I have lived in this beautiful city for two whole months?! I can! It has been amazing and I am sad the end is fast approaching. I still have so much to see!

Here is the excerpt about grulitz i promised. Sorry if it doesn't make sense, I wrote it really fast for class...

Place: Old and new LDS Meeting place
Location: Gurlitz, Germany
Cost: free

In the little town of Gurlitz and very nice man met us and showed us around the building that the church use to meet in. His name was Brother Leahman and he is currently the Branch President and he spoke the most beautiful german, I could totally understand him, it was great!  So the building he showed us was originally a mechanic factory but the church rented the top two floors.  They met here all during the war, all the way until 1995 when the new building was built.  They were in this same small building for more than 60 years! I cannot even imagine having to meet in places like this in Utah. Sure people did meet in old building in Utah, but that was like 100 years ago, so to learn that the German saints are still meeting in old buildings was quite a perspective shifter.  I sure am more grateful for the beautiful building I have been blessed to meet in my whole life.  In this old building I was able to see the pulpit, it is still there!  This was special because this is the very pulpit from which President Monson made his prophesy about the german saints, that if they would remain faithful they could receive the blessings that all saints enjoy- a temple.  I could see in Brother Leahman’s face the importance of this building, how special it was for him to be there as a little boy when Monson came.  But the more exciting part of the story is that Brother Leahman was again able to meet President Monson, this time when he came in 1995 to dedicate the new church building in Gurlitz, and Brother Leahman was now the Branch President.  We entered the new church building and sat in the chapel.  Brother Leahman told us all about when President Monson and Elder Uchtdorf came for the dedication.  We sang two hymns, Hark all ye nations- Monson’s favorite german hymn and Auf Wiedersehn, and I felt the spirit.  There really was a miracle that took place here in this little town in Germany, and it was amazing to hear it from a man who got to witness the whole cycle first hand.

A few more pictures of me in this great city will be coming soon! I'm currently having internet uploading difficulties...

No comments:

Post a Comment