Frankfurt, Germany Temple Trip

I am really excited to write about my trip to the temple in Germany!! First of all, I was in Germany!!!!! We crossed the border about 1 am, and soon after we had a 45-minute break where Heather, Kari, and I took a picture (the one where it’s all black in the background!) We took an overnight charter bus, and left the Wien Südbahnhof at 8:30pm on Wednesday. It was really a challenge to sleep on the bus the entire night, and when we arrived in Friedrichsdorf, Germany at 6:30am Thursday we were all really tired. There were twenty of us on the bus, and I think a few more met us at the temple. The temple is in a small town called Friedrichsdorf, which is twenty minutes outside of Frankfurt am Mein. The church owns a small dormitory building, which is right next to the church building and about 100 feet from the temple itself. It is interesting now that I think about that because it really was sacred ground, and I could feel the sacredness when we arrived. It was a really neat experience, because now I know what it feels like to live 8 hours away from the closest temple, and to make the journey on a bus overnight, and then spend three days on holy ground.

So, the baptismal sessions were split into two groups, so I was in group A and we had to be in the temple at 7:30 am, an hour after we arrived. So, we ate breakfast, changed our clothes and immediately went inside for our temple session (oder Taufsession). Although I was kind of tired, I had a great experience being in the House of the Lord. It was really neat to hear everything spoken in German, and we were able to each do 15 names each session that we were in. I am so grateful that we have the opportunity to do the work for those who have passed on from this life to the next life. In our session on Friday morning, the temple worker told us that in our session with only 7 girls, we had done the work for 96 names! And that was only one of the sessions! It really was a great experience to be in the temple for three days in a row!

So Thursday after the two baptism sessions, a group of twenty of us took the S-bahn into the city of Frankfurt. We went to a character museum that was filled with comics from one man, I guess he is a famous author…??? I really have no idea, I just know that in order for me to understand most of the comics I either used context clues form the picture, or asked one of the native speakers that were with us. Anyway, I was just really excited to be in Frankfurt, the same city that I had learned about when I was in my German class in high school. I was also really excited because I never planned on going to this temple trip until about a week ago, and it was a really great experience to have! I was so blessed to be able to go and to experience what it is like to be a European! And, we were with the Austrian YSA (auf Deutsch JAE) and to learn from them. This trip was also a great way for me to feel closer to the native Austrians because we were interacting with them so much, and I was practicing German, and they could help me, and they were also practicing their English and we could help them. It was really just a neat experience all around!

Thursday night after dinner, we had a Fireside give by one of the members of the Frankfurt temple Presidency (I think) and it was about temples and how we are in the last days where the world is getting more and more evil, but more and more temples are being built which helps us as members to strengthen our faith (Glauben) and our testimonies (Zeugnis) of the gospel of Jesus Christ (das Evangelium des Jesu Christi). After the fireside, we had a testimony meeting (Zeugnisversammlung) with just the YSA (JAE). This was a powerful experience. Of course, each testimony was auf Deutsch, and I was absolutely amazed at how the Holy Ghost works! I could understand so much of the German, and I really felt the power of the gift of tongues. The spirit that was present in this meeting especially touched me. Testimonies were shared from the heart. The gospel of Jesus Christ is true no matter what language you speak. I also had the opportunity to share my testimony auf Deutsch. Although my vocabulary in German is small, I was able to speak from the heart, and as I was speaking I thought, “wow, this is how the power of the spirit works.” It was truly an incredible experience. That experience also helped me to just open my mouth and start speaking German. So now that I am back in Wien, I am going to just open my mouth and the words will eventually come. Ich weiß dass Jesus Christus lebt. Er kennt mich personnlich. Ich weiß dass das Evangelium wahr ist. Gott ist unser Vater. Er hat ein Plan für uns. Jesus Christus ist mein Erlöser. Er hat alles für uns getan. Er liebt uns. Ich bin sehr Dankbar für Christus und für Gott. Sle helfen mich mit alles dass ich tun. Ich sage diese Dinge im Namen Jesu Christi, amen.