Wednesday morning was by far my favorite morning of the
trip. What better way to wake up than on the temple grounds? And then go into
the temple? I couldn’t have asked for a better start to my day. Brother Minert
brought tons of family names (that we barely had time for. I think the temple
workers were getting a little anxious to get us out of there) and the 3 boys in
our group got to baptize/confirm us so that was a really neat experience.
Heavenly Father brought me some personal miracles and revelations while I was
in the temple so it was an especially unique experience.
One
of the men working in the temple told us the cutest little story while we were
all there. When he has a very young boy he lived not to far from Lagoon. Every
week on Wednesday he would buy a two-way ticket for the public transportation,
play/swim in the park all day, buy a hotdog, then go home. All of this cost him
$1, which is all the money he got each week. One week, however, between the
rides and the pool, he misplaced his ticket for the return ride home. He said
that he was probably close enough to walk home, but he was young and he
wouldn’t even begin to know which way to go.
So he sat at the streetcar stop and
just cried, thinking that this was it, he would never be able to see his family
again. When the last street car of the day arrived and everyone boarded the
driver got off and came over to this little boy. He put his arm around him and
asked what was the matter. So he explained to the driver everything that had
happened. Kindly, the driver said he believed that the boy had purchased a
ticket and that he would take him home.
After the story I’m sure we could
all guess what he would say next, but he likened this streetcar driver to us,
and himself to our ancestors that have passed away without the ordinances
required to make it home. It is our responsibility to go to the temple and do
the work for these people because they want to make it home, they just don’t
have a ticket! So I thought that was such a good story (it didn’t hurt that I
think old, spiritual men are just the cutest ever) and it really topped off the
wonderful experience I had in the temple!
After the temple we hopped on the
bus and departed for Berlin! When we arrived we stopped by a piece of the wall
that had kind of an outdoor museum. There was some background information about
the wall itself but the exhibit focused mostly on Germany during the war. It is
crazy to me all the messed up beliefs the Nazis were able to plant in the minds
of the Germans. I learned that Hitler made his own birthday a national holiday.
And it was a big deal. How do people not see that as an obvious sign of an egotistical
power-hunger maniac? I would never celebrate somebody’s self-proclaimed
birthday-holiday.
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| Escaping East Germany |
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| Brainwashed Citizens |
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| My Leader (The children say): I know you well and I love you like a Father and Mother I want to always be obedient to the Father and Mother When I am big, I will help you like a Father and Mother And thou shalt look on me as Father and Mother |
After
the wall we went to the Check Point Charlie Museum. This museum was especially
interesting and taught me a lot about the Berlin wall and what it was like to
live in the Soviet occupied territory of Germany after the war. People were
trying desperately to escape the lives they led under those extremely stressful
conditions. They had life-sized dolls crammed into impossibly small containers
to demonstrate what great lengths people went to to escape Soviet-occupied
territory. It's the kind of thing that makes you think about everything you
have and appreciate how good our lives really are.
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