Juni 5, 2010 Onward to Darmstadt

We got up early and set out for Darmstadt. We went to the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) and took a comfortable train, not anything like the U-bahn we are use to riding. We saw lots of open country on the way and crossed the Main River. It took us about 45 min to get there. After an hour Gene noticed we were walking in the wrong direction so we turned and walked the other way. Six miles later we were getting very discouraged. Gene said, "Are you sure you are not too tired, we can go back?" I said, "No, we are almost there." When we got to the Waldfriedhof we talked to a lady in the Blumen(Flower) shop and found out that the office was not open on Saturdays (Nicht am Sammtag). I was really discouraged because I thought the man in charge could just look at the cemetery records and find out if their were any Stange's buried there. We had such high hopes of finding something for Richard.

I took a few pictures of the Waldfriendhog crematorium and the chapel there. I felt the need to pray and so I did. An overwhelming feeling came over me. I know the feeling, I get it when I hear someone give a sincere testimony, I started to cry. I kept saying, "Please help us find someone here (thinking we might be guided to a tombstone we needed to find). As we got to the entrance I told Gene, "I want to go in and look around, for some reason I feel we need to go in there". I kept crying and I knew something was guiding me." Gene said we should go and see what we could find. As we were looking around I had the feeling we should look in the oldest part of the cemetery as most of the graves had birth dates of 1890-present.

The following is in Gene's words. After finding out the office was not open I told Sister Walters that I wanted to leave for Frankfurt. She refused, so we looked at several walls of boxes of cremated remains with their names. We prayed for help to find someone. After an hour of futile searching we saw an older man cleaning his wife's grave. Sister Walters asked him "Entshuldigung die bitte. Kann sie helfin mir? (excuse me can you help me?) He spoke a little broken english and asked what we wanted. We asked him where the oldest part of the cemetery was because most of the dates we saw were in the early 1900's. He told us that this was a new cemetery. We talked for a little while and he noticed our Missionary badges, "Oh he said, you are the Church of Christ, I went to the US and visited Utah. " He said he was there cleaning up his wife's grave and I felt extremely happy that we were talking to him. He told us that his wife had died and he was taking care of her. We talked about alot of things and then we told him we should try to get to the Old cemetery before it got too late. After walking a few hundred yards down the road I noticed someone walking up close behind us. The man we had been talking to, asked in broken English if we would like a ride to the Alte Friedhof. We said yes but first he wanted to give us a tour of the cemetery. We had no idea what was there.

He showed us the monument to the unknown soldier (Unbekannt or Vergessen) It is a beautiful circular garden now but in 1944 a huge hole was dug there and bodies from under the flattened buildings were brought there by horse and wagon. Day after day the bodies came. The bombs had destroyed them so completely that no one could identify them. On the metal plaques on the walls were the names of several thousands of citizens who were missing. Nancy found several Walter family names on it. We begin to feel very comfortable around this man and I asked him his name. I had him write it down because his English was like my German. While he
is writing his name down, I see Nancy mouthing the words, "Get his address, we want to send him a Book of Mormon." So I had him write that down also. I gave him my address in Germany and told him whenever he comes to the USA, he can come stay with us. He looked surprised.

He then took us to the center of Darmstadt and gave us the royal tour. He showed us the Rathause (Court house), the palace where Duke George lived. We saw statues of George and his son Phillip who helped protect Martin Luther while he was on the run from the Catholic inquisitors. their were huge statues of four girls who were the daughters of Phillip. The castle had high walls and originally a wide moat surrounded the Castle. It was a great site to see. It was the first German castle we have entered since coming here.

We did eventually get to the Alte Friendhof but after looking around for an hour we found no Stange's there.

I stopped crying when I started talking to Adam Pfiefer. That was his name. He was 77 Years old and had lost his wife for many years. He told us he had no children. He must have been very lonely because he wanted to spend the whole day with us. He told us what a wonderful time he had. I know now why we were led to that cemetery and why we needed to talk to Adam about the gospel and what we believed. We got his address and told him we wanted to see him again. We are going to send him a Book of Mormon and the church DVD called Finding Happiness. The worth of a soul is great in the site of the Lord. I Love the Lord and feel he is watching over Gene and I. A good day to be alive.