The Wurst Experience and what we learned

As I said, May 1 is a holiday.  We were planning to have a barbeque for Institute that evening and our assignment was to bring the wurst.  One student had requested Thuringer Rost bratwurst so I had checked the prices in several stores to find the best price.  We had found that a store located conveniently on the way to Zwickau had the best price so we planned to buy the wursts on the way to institute.

Dave got up that morning and realized that BECAUSE  it is a holiday all the stores are closed and we hadn't bought the wursts....We forgot to remember that German holidays close stores unlike most holidays in the States.

I was reminded of the parable of the Ten Virgins: although I thought I was prepared, I had forgotten one essential thing.  How many of us will find ourselves in that situation when it is too late.  Perhaps that is why the scriptures so often remind us to remember.

After driving around looking for a (miracle) store to be open, we stopped at a freeway rest stop where a kind lady in the restaurant sold us a package of bratwurst.  Needless to say, we paid a high price.  I call that stupid tax (doof steuer).  But we now have another funny story to tell.

Hexenfeuer and May Day

May Day is a big holiday in Europe.  for some it a a military celebration but here it was just a day off work and time to party.     Locally, Hexenfeuer is also celebrated.

Hexenfeuer means witch's fire.  Most small villages in this area will have a bonfire and the community gathers together that night to drink and visit.  Some place will still burn a straw effigy of a witch.  The custom dates from the Middle Ages when people believed they could banish evil spirits and such things.

We had a little dinner with the Hemann family and then we all walked through the fields and under the freeway to a neighboring village where the bonfire was blazing.  We visited with one another, bought some wursts, and then walked home.  We saw no witches or evil spirits, and didn't even trip in the dark.

      

The next day we visited Oberkotzau for their maypole raising and watched as a group of about 20 men put the 65 foot pole upright in the town square.  It was quite a process.  First they laid the pole in place and anchored the butt in a special metal armature.  Then they added the decorated rings and topper.  Next, with the use of lifting poles, they raised it bit by bit until it was upright in the armature and secured it.  Later they placed the crests which represent various town societies in brackets on the side of the pole.  I think the pole stays up most of the summer.

 

 There was quite a town gathering with live music and the normal beer and wurst.  A normal size serving of beer is about a quart.  We bought potatoe pancakes with applesauce and an apple soda.  Much safer.

Easter Sunday April 20, 2014

A few weeks ago we finally bought the Bavarian jacket Dave had wanted since Christmas so we decided to wear our 'costumes' for Easter.  The Merkel family did as well so we were a bright and cheerful group.

Chinese Spring

  One of the blessings of serving a mission is getting to know other people from other lands.  Wenjie and Dean are from China and have lived in Hof for many years.  They are both teachers and are attending the Elders English class.  We always have a fun time in class.  They offered to come over and make Chinese food for us.  Chinese dumplings are very labor intensive.  Dean says he learned to make them from his father.  The families would get together to celebrate the Spring Festival and make dumplings together.  While they coked and ate they would talk and laugh and visit, so that is what we did.

The dumplings can either be fried, steamed or boiled.  Wenjie cooked while Dean rolled the dough and filled the dumplings.  We had enough for an army so we could enjoy them the next day as well.

The first missionary from Branch Hof

          Sophie Merkel has been called to serve a German speaking mission in Hawaii at the Laea visitors center.  We were privileged to go to the temple in Freiberg with her family.  We also plan to pick her up in Salt Lake and take her to the MTC in Provo so we get to act the "mom and dad" part later as well.

                           
                                 Later we went into Freiberg for lunch and a bit of sightseeing.

April 2014

We decided before we leave we need to play tourist one more time so we signed up for a historic tour of Hof by the "night watchman".   We stayed for about half the tour then walked home.  The problem was neither of us could understand his accent so we were missing more than half the sense of the tour.  The weather that evening was beautiful so we wandered about town for a bit.

The members in our little branch here have been meeting in rented hotel rooms and have been trying for over three years to find an acceptable place in Hof for the church to meet.  We have looked at several possibilities as have some of the members.  They had a contract once while we were here but that had to be recinded as it was too costly to install a fire escape.  Finally they have found another place, one they looked at in the beginning three years ago.  It is in the city center on Sonnenplatz 2 where the yellow banner is on the building.

On April 14th Brother Schiebold from Freiberg, Brother Merkel, the electrician, and the rental agent met to discuss several items about the renovation.  It should be completed by the end of this summer but, unfortunately, we will not see it.

Later that same day, Dave and I drove to Bayreuth so he could have surgery to fix a torn tendon in his right elbow.  He tried to arm wrestle one of the young adults in Institute about 5 weeks ago and they both heard a 'POP'.  It took several weeks to get an appointment for an MRI but the surgeon was quite quick to make a date for surgery.  While I waited for him I had the chance to enjoy the lovely gardens in one of the palaces in this Baroque town well known for its music.  There is an intact opera house dating from 1744 currently undergoing restoration.  Below is the new palace.

We didn't get home from Bayreuth until about 10 and early the next morning we went to see the doctor again.  The special arm sling allows some movement as the injury heals.  He should have it off about the time we get home.  Next week he will begin physical therapy to regain mobility and strength.

Later that day we enjoyed a pleasant visit from Arnika and Hebert Kaulfersch who we had previously visited in Nördlingen.  Sadly, the weather and the surgery made it impossible to do anything outside as we had planned.

Peoples

It is true.   Missionaries love the people they serve, even if they are annoying peoples.  Guess that is just like in a family, they love me even when I am annoying!

Here are some of the people we love.

 Family home evening includes the young missionaries and Sisters Ernst and Schultze.  We provide a meal and then we take turns teaching a lesson and then we play games.

 We visit members who are unable to attend our meeting like Theodore Muller, a retired painter and artist.

 He lives with his sister in the family Bauerhof in a little town nestled between freeways called Brunn.

 On Wednesday evenings the young Elders teach a free English class in our little apartment to whoever they can get to come.  Frau Reidel, in yellow, is married to a German but is from the Check Republic.  We also have a Chinese couple, Dean and Wenji.  The Chinese couple have been in Germany for some time and wanted to brush up on their English. After the political problems at Tiananmen Square they left China for better opportunities elsewhere.   She teaches Chinese and he teaches Chinese calligraphy.

Michael is in the German Army and needs to improve his English because in his training for small arms repair the foreign trainers from Sweden don't speak German so they both try to communicate in English.  There is always a lot of laughter on Wednesdays.

And of course, we greatly love the people who serve us, President and Sister Kosak.