Freiberg Germany Temple Trip

Sunday, October 19 - Sunday, October 26

We were able to go with a group of missionaries, the mission president, and members to the Freiberg Germany temple. We rode on a bus for just under 24 hours and through 6 countries to get there. Here's the timeline:

•Left Sofia, Bulgaria at 9:15 AM
•Arrived at Serbian Border at 10:15 AM
•11:57 AM we finally clear everything at the Serbain Border and get back on the road
•2:13 PM I woke up and we were finally on a freeway – but a bumpy one
•Arrive at Serbian/Hungarian Border 8 PM to 8:22 PM to clear – not bad
•Sometime before 2:30 AM we crossed into Slovakia.
•5:21 AM we are 4 KM from Prague, Czech Republic
•6:40 AM we are on the side of a city street waiting to rendevous with a third driver.
•7:05 Am we got our driver and we are back moving again. We did refuel this stop.
•7:30 AM we are in Germany

the German countryside

Monday:
We arrived at the temple at 10:30 AM, and we stayed in the Temple Hostel. Carol had to share a room with 6 other women, all sharing the same bathroom. Charles says he is glad he didn't have to deal with that! Since we arrived on a Monday and the temple was closed, we went into town and ate a good lunch at a pub and saw a parade going through the city. The parade was celebrating the town's mining heritage. After the parade, we toured the city and saw some great architecture and a Subway (as in the restaurant). We all did our own thing for dinner on Monday night, even little Ivan :-)

The temple hostel

Inside one of the rooms in the hostel

Marching band

mining museum

Tuesday:

We went to the temple and did two sessions, as well as Todor's and Rosi's (two members) sealing. We also had a planning meeting. We had a great time at a spaghetti dinner (prepared by the Senior American Sisters, Carol included) on Tuesday night, but the picture taker of this pair (ahem, Charles) was too busy feeding his face to document it.

the planning meeting

Wednesday:
We spent Wednesday working in the temple. Some of us worked in the baptistry, some in endowments, and others were temple workers. We worked in the baptistry. That afternoon, the bus was scheduled to take us to the city of Dresden (1 hour away) to do some more touristy stuff, including Charles' favorite: The Flying Moroni! (see below) It was raining, but it was still beautiful. That night, the Bulgarian sisters made a meal for us out of the leftovers from Tuesday night.

Dresden, Germany

Thursday:

We did more temple sessions all day. For lunch at noon, we went into Freiberg to eat at Subway (we were in heaven!) We had a testimony meeting that day also.

testimony meeting

Friday:
Carol got to babysit little Ivan (see pic about Monday) from 6 AM to 9:30 AM while his parents were temple workers. Carol had a blast getting to play with a little one, even though he didn't want her to pick him up out of his crib. Everytime she would try to pick him up, he would say he wanted to get back in his crib. So, she improvised and played games with him through the crib. We ate lunch in the basement of the hostel, and then we walked to Freiberg to do some shopping and then we went back to the hostel to get packed up and ready to leave the next morning.

Here we are in front of the temple.

Elder and Sister Mace

The whole group.

The senior couples

We headed back to Bulgaria at 8 AM on Saturday and arrived home at 7 AM on Sunday. Germany was absolutely beautiful, and we loved getting to see some more areas. It went by too quickly.

Elder and Sister Mace (so glad they don't have our blog address!)

The end.