Elder Glenn Johnson: Livin' the Dream in Berlin, Germany: Die Woche des Tempels

I’ve talked about the temple in like my past 3 weeklys, but technically none of you can complain, because complaining about the temple is borderline blasphemy. Well, this week wasn't really the week of the temple, but we did go. We can speak more about that later.

We had an unexpected/unplanned appointment with our fav Arabic family when one of our appointments fell through and they happened to be home, that was great. We actually had a sister from our mission call in and speak to them to kind of explain a little better what we do in a language they could understand good. We also played some good ole European football (soccer) with the kids and destroyed them like usual. I'm not even sure why they even try against me, they don't understand how much soccer I placed when I was 6.

We actually didn't even eat once at our apartment the whole week, just filled with eating appointments and being in Freiberg, so I’d say that’s neat. We ran into a group of African dudes who were speaking English very loudly in the Bahn, and it was nothing less than humorous. One of them was telling his friend that his mom is excited to see him because he doesn't eat KFC, but makes him and his friends all eat corn and rice, so they've all lost weight. The original also told him he was going to go to KFC right then and just eat it right in front of his face, it was quite the situation to witness. Gotta love those angels.

Well, let’s just get on with it and get to the craziness of getting to the temple. Well after a night of not too much sleep, we wake up bright and early to head on over to Berlin very early. On our ride all the way through Leipzig, Chemnitz, and then to Freiberg, we didn't run into any problems which was quite surprising. No delays—nothing. Until we got off the train in Freiberg, I pat my pockets making sure I have everything, and don't feel the phone. Can this really be? We ran back on the train before it left and checked our seat and, phew, it wasn't there so it had to be with us somewhere. But no, we checked all through our things and there was no phone to be found. So it must be on some train somewhere in Germany just riding around. So we had no phone, no way to contact anyone if something happens, but nevertheless we made it to the temple in time to be in the endowment session with Sister Musehold, as she does it for the first time. It was a very sweet experience for all—these worries of not having a phone and whatnot just go away in the temple and just live there in this place away from the worldly things. We did two back to back sessions which was quite tiring but very worth it. The House of the Lord is definitely the coolest place to be it was great to be able to go again after 8 months without being able to.