23 uli 2010 Trip to Temple

Everyorning at work, someone gives the opening prayer and the spiritual thought. Today was Elder Walters turn. He brought up a very interesting point, I will paraphrase his thoughts, "We have always heard that God chastens those that he loves." In other words, he is always challenging us to do better. Does he also chasten his Prophets? Yes he does. All through the Old Testament the Prophets were chastened and he also chastened Joseph Smith on a few occasions. First when he was young for his frivolities of life, when he lost the 116 pages of the manuscript and when he was not getting along with his wife Emma. In D&C 93:4 is says that he does chasteneth those he loves even the Prophets. Elder Walters made a good point, it just proves that Joseph Smith was a Prophet just like those of old. It really helps us to start out each day this way. Sometimes you get to feeling like you are just doing a job, but when you think about it, everything is spiritual to the Lord. We are helping the work go foreward.

This week has been a bummer for me as my back is starting to catch up with me. I come home exhausted each day but amazingly I am able to go forward to another day. Tonight we go to the temple (so grateful for that). We both need that extra spirituality. We get a chance to relax and meditate on things other than this world. Then we will be socializing with the other Missionary couples. That always puts us on a high. It will be steak and fish tonight.

Before going to the temple we had a little time to see parts of Bad Vilbel that we weren't aware of before today. We saw the cutest little houses that actually had back yards. In every yard was a garden. Germans love flowers, hanging and in pots, in their windows, by their doors. It is delightful to see. The houses that had farms attached to them are used completely. No land is left fallow. They grow their own wheat which are hanging low because of all the kernels in them. They grow all kinds of vegetables. If you do not know what asparagus looks like, you need to find some growing. The plant looks like a fairy plant. The Germans grow a white asparagus that is more tender than the green variety and is served with white sauce, YUMMY!

Saw a field of sun flowers, they grow them for the seeds. I thought Dawn would like it because she loves sunflowers and unique looking doors. All my adventure pictures are for my Daughter Kim, she loves nature and hiking. Of course I include fashions because my daughter Rachel is majoring in that, and all the castles and war articles are for all of my boys. I'm sure they all feel they were misplaced when they were put in this century.

We were asked to be the witness couple at the temple, for those of you who go to the temple, you know what that means. My back was hurting before we went so I said a prayer that I would be able to do what was required of me and the Lord blessed me. My back didn't hurt until we got home that night. The Lord sure watches out for us. After the temple all the couple missionaries met at the Stadt Berlin for supper. We went there once before but this time I took a few pictures of the group so you can see our friends now. You do get to know them well since we go lots of places together. It makes it easier to be away from our family and friends. All went well, everyone was served their food except you know who? The big Kahuna, Gene. He waited for a long time and they never brought it. We just got it to go and to make up for it, they gave him two steaks and a huge patio, so it worked out okay. I have to say, I don't know if I would have been so patient. It rained like crazy which was a relief from 2 days of extreme heat, but it will really be humid once it starts getting hot again. They say July and August are the hot months and then it is great again for the Autumn. Winter is pretty long here. It starts getting cold in Nov and stays cold until March and into April. Well we shall see. A new couple came today, the new doctor, we got to know them pretty well, I guess we know who will be their best friends. Back in bed at 11:30, looking forward to blessed rest.