Sunday - Halle & Leipzig

Freiburg temple where Dave's parent's are serving.

We drove to a city that Dave served in to attend church.  Dave recognized a few members.  We had a chance to see the confirmation of an entire family of 5 African people.  Then a missionary attempted to translate the meeting for me.  It was nice to have a small idea of what was going on, but I didn’t get most of the meeting.  I felt like a new missionary all over again.

After the meeting, many members came up to say hello to Dave.  One family in particular remembered Dave.  Dave had played basketball with their 3 young boys (who are now return missionaries themselves).  One said he remembered Dave being one of the best missionaries to ever serve in Halle.  This kind family invited all four of us to dinner with them.  I loved being able to experience a real German home and meal.  I also loved to be in a Mormon home listening to the love of the gospel and the love of family (even if it was in a language I didn’t fully understand).  I was surprised how much I could figure out based on body language and hearing just a few words that were close enough to English I could recognize.   We had so many German dishes (sourkraut, rotkohl, knodel, asparagus (it is white in Germany),  pork, mixed vegis, gravy, plus desserts of jello, cookies, pudding and fruit and crème.)

After such a wonderful meal and experience in their home, we drove around the communist housing blocks that Dave had tracted in.  So many apartments with absolutely no style or interesting things to look at.  What a crazy communist world!

We headed to Leipzig.   We saw a large train station with a mall built in underneath.  

We found the Volkerschlachtdenkmal (Monument to the Battle of the Nations).  This was an amazing, massive memorial to those who lost their lives fighting against Napoleon.  We hiked the 500 stairs to the tip top of the memorial for a fantastic view of the skyline of the city of Leipzig.  The statues in the memorial were symbolic of all the sacrifices made to make the people strong.  It was a very different and impressive memorial. 

Driving home view from the back seat.

We headed home to eat with the Harper’s and planned more of our trip (since we didn’t plan much before we got here, we have to plan more now that we are here.)  I think I am still getting over jet lag since I took 2 or 3 naps in the car as we drove and I am still tired and it is only 8:00 p.m.  We have some VERY busy days planned for the next 3 days in a row (with lots of driving) so we need to get lots of sleep now.


Links to the rest of the trip:  Getting there  Saturday    Sunday    Monday    Tuesday   Wednesday   Thursday     Home