Blessings of the Reformation and the Restoration

We ended our week in Wittenberg, the location where Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses against the selling of indulgences on the door of the Castle Church 500 years ago.  That was the beginning of the reformation.  Because of that courageous act to follow his conscience, the world began it's preparation for the restoration of the gospel in these latter days.  This week we have been able to participate in the joys of that restoration, including our last visit to the Freiberg Temple and the privilege to listen to living prophets in our General Conference.

In front of the door to the Castle Church in Wittenberg.  The 95 theses are written  in Latin on the Bronze Door, which replaced the original wooden door.

We have continued this week in full preparation for upcoming training trips and the transition with our replacements, Elder and Sister Carroll, who will arrive later this month.  As always, our days and evenings were full of meaningful activities.

On Tuesday we had our monthly Zoom meeting with our SR missionaries.  We were blessed to have Elder and Sister Carroll join us from Australia, third row from the top and far right on the photo below.  We also were able to hear farewell testimonies from Elder and Sister Pettit (right above the Carrolls in the photo).  They will finish their mission the day before our next meeting.  Their replacements will be in the MTC with the Carrolls. 

Also in this meeting, we were able to have Elder and Sister Bradshaw, who are serving in Hungary, share their recent experiences.  They have gotten a wonderful start on their mission.  They have now trained every young missionary in their mission and they all started a weekly companion self-reliance class with the My Foundation lessons.  The young missionaries are now wanting to invite their investigators to participate in SR groups.  This could lead to the most successful missionary implementation of Self-Reliance that we have yet seen.  This is with the full support and encouragement of the mission president.  What a wonderful story to share.

On Tuesday morning, we were able to ship three boxes of personal belongings.  This came after we repacked the previous box.  This also included all of our family history notebooks and papers. This made it possible for Elder Rueckert to clean his "office" while Sister Rueckert was at Relief Society that evening.  The amazing results is a clean office, for the first time on our mission.  Miracles never cease!

Clean office, without the clutter of family history and other papers. 

 Also on Tuesday afternoon, we were able to have a Zoom meeting with the stake specialist of the Austria Salzburg Stake and the bishop of the Innsbruck Austria ward.  This meeting also had our SR manager, Günter Borcherding and our new SR missionary couple, Elder and Sister Kitterman.  The Kittermans have just been trained in Self-Reliance in Salt Lake and will go to the MTC next week.  This meeting was to prepare for a My Path Devotional in Innsbruck on November 11.  The Kittermans will play a large role in this Devotional and the follow-up.  It is so good to have a missionary couple that can speak German!  We left this meeting fully enthused about the future of Self-Reliance in this stake and in the German speaking stakes.  This ward is the ward that we visited on a personal basis in July and is the home to some of our friends from Brazil and their family members.  Hopefully they will form a strong nucleus to help this ward take a positive step forward with the Self-Reliance initiative.

This week we were also able to meet with the SR missionary couples (by Zoom) that just arrived in London, England and Seville, Spain.  We will be visiting and training these couples in the next weeks.  We are finding the missionaries are arriving in Europe on their mission incredibly ready to make  a difference.  This brings so much joy to our hearts, it helps offset the sadness of leaving our mission.

On Wednesday morning we had our last German language class.  This has been so very helpful for us.  Even though we don't often speak German in our assignment, it is helpful in our shopping, cultural, and family history experiences in Germany.  It has also become a source of satisfaction as we have seen our abilities grow.  We are far from being able to converse successfully, but we have a much improved vocabulary and understanding of written German.  We are thankful for those who have helped us in this journey and those who have learned with us.

Right after our German class, we had a farewell luncheon for the five missionary couples that will be leaving the Europe Area in the coming weeks.  That was followed by our weekly Book of Mormon class, taught this week by Elder Lear.

Pot luck lunch, always good food.  Elder and Sister Swenson at the end of the table are one of the couples going home.

After the luncheon, Elder Proctor handed out the farewell booklets to each of the couples.  We then heard from Sister Burt who shared her testimony.  She had not been able to share her testimony in the previous Zone meeting.

Handing the farewell book to the Burts.  The Healys, at the end of the table, were the first to go home, the following day.

Sister Burt sharing her testimony with the other missionaries 

That evening we had one more session with our returned missionaries.  Only Amy was able to attend this time, so we got her caught up on the lesson that she missed last week.  Sometimes the one on one time with individuals is the most meaningful.  We really enjoyed our time with Amy.

We had decided to make one more visit to the Freiberg temple and include with it a visit to Wittenberg, which isn't too far away.  So Thursday, after work, we drove to Freiberg.  This is normally a 4 hour drive.  Due to some difficult traffic conditions in the first 100 kilometers, we were delayed.  We did make it to our hotel by 10:00 pm, in time to go to bed and be prepared for a day at the temple on Friday.

We have really enjoyed the Freiberg temple.  We went to the open house of this temple and participated in the dedication (by video while in Frankfurt) a year ago.  This was our fifth visit to the temple, counting the open house.  We have gotten to know several of the temple missionaries and feel right at home.  As we normally do when driving a long distance to the temple, we try to take advantage as much as possible.  We were able to do a couple of endowment sessions and initiatory work for several of our ancestors.  

While in the temple, Sister Rueckert prayed for guidance to know what more the Lord would ask of her.  Her answer came back in three words, "Let It Go".  She considered that to be meaning for her to let go anything and everything that gets between her and her Heavenly Father, including stresses and anxieties that she often feels.

In front of the Freiberg temple on a beautiful and sunny day

We left the temple a little after 3:00 pm with the idea to take a quick trip to Poland, that was just over 100 kilometers away.  We thought that we would have dinner there and then continue back to Wittenberg, where we had a hotel reservation that evening.

As we left the temple, we were uplifted by the spirit of our experience and the beauty of the day, including beautiful autumn weather.  We saw several autumn leaves that just add to our love of the German countryside.

turning leaves mixed with shades of green

In the yard of a home

Vines over the walls are all turning a beautiful red

As we  arrived at Highway A4, which would take us direct east to Poland, we came upon a significant traffic stoppage.  Our GPS told us that there was a 90 minute delay and suggested a detour.  We accepted the detour and went north, only to end up in a different traffic stoppage.  The GPS then told us that it would be better to go back in our original route.  Thus we ended back up at Highway A4 almost two hours later.  At this point we decided to give up on Poland.  It was a chance for us to see one more country on our mission, but we decided that it was not meant to be.  Through this process, Sister Rueckert was as calm as could be, letting it go, as we struggled with difficult traffic situations.  We believe that the counsel from the Lord is very meaningful for her life, but certainly it fit immediately into our struggles of that day.

One of our traffic stoppages.  It took almost a half hour to move 100 meters.  Finally we turned around and went back the way we came.

We then decided to head towards Wittenberg, which would get us in around 8:00 pm.  We decided to stop in Leipzig for dinner.  This was our first visit to Leipzig during our mission.  We had been told by Sister Rueckert's brother before our mission that we would need to get to Leipzig to resolve some of her family history challenges.  We have been blessed with much help with her family history and now we have been to Leipzig.

The cathedral that we drove by in Leipzig as it was getting dark

We looked for a restaurant based on the GPS.  As we neared the location, we found more road construction and were unable to get to the restaurant.  We tried another which was no longer at that location.  Finally we just stopped at a restaurant on the side of the road and had a wonderful dinner.

Restaurant Ofenrohr in Leipzig.  We ate on the second floor.

After leaving Leipzig, we found another traffic stoppage on the Freeway heading north.  Once again we were forced to find alternatives.  Unfortunately, when the GPS doesn't know about the traffic condition, it will always try to send us back to the location of the stoppage.  This is when we use our phone GPS and try to navigate different directions.  We finally succeeded and arrived in Wittenberg at about 9:30 pm.  Our hotel reservation was for a ship hotel, which we thought would be an interesting change of pace.  However, when we got to Wittenberg, the GPS took us to a location that was not the hotel.  After asking directions a few times, we finally arrived at out hotel, once again at 10:00 pm.  We felt really good about our decision to abandon our trip to Poland.  Sister Rueckert's counsel in the temple was really needed in the challenging 7 hours since we had left the temple.

Although our time on the ship hotel was just overnight, we had a very positive experience there.  The rooms were compact but well organized and the breakfast the next morning was delightful.  The ship was docked, but apparently does make some cruises during some times of the year.

Compact and functional bathroom

Our ship hotel home after a difficult 7 hours of driving

Entry and door to the bathroom

Eating breakfast with the Elbe River outside of the window

In front of the Junker Jörg Ship Hotel in Wittenberg

The Junker Jörg on the Elbe River

After a pleasant morning we headed into Wittenberg to see where the reformation began.  This was our last major "Luther" site to visit while in Germany.  This is where Martin Luther went after leaving the monastery in Erfurt.  Here he continued his doctorate in theology and preached at the Catholic Castle Church (Schlosskirche).  This is where he nailed his 95 theses against the selling of indulgences on the Church door on October 31, 2017.  He also sent the 95 theses to his superiors who forwarded his grievances to the Pope.  After being tried and excommunicated in Worms, he escaped to Wartberg where he translated the New Testament into German and later returned to Wittenberg.  Here was his home while the Reformation took hold.  Here it is that he got married.  In fact, we learned that while he was in hiding at the Wartberg Castle in Eisenach, he took on the disguise and name of Junker Jörg, which was the name of the ship where we stayed. 

We could have spent days here, but we enjoyed all that we could in a few hours.  We visited the Schlosskirche and saw the bronze door with the 95 these engraved in Latin.  This door was established in the 1800s and was a replacement for the original wooden door.  

In front of the door of the Schlosskirche

The 95 theses in Latin on the Bronze Door

Explanations of the famous door, in German and English

The Schlosskirche

We also went to the St. Mary's church where Luther did most of his preaching while in Wittenberg (after leaving the Catholic Church).  

St. Mary's Church and the town square, statues of Martin Luther and his friend Philipp Melanchthon

Alter piece of the St. Mary's church included this painting of the Last supper with a figure that was to be Junker Jörg serving one of the apostles

Luther Statue in the town square

Sister Rueckert by the Martin Luther statue

We finished our time visiting a special display of 95 Treasures and 95 People related to Martin Luther and the Reformation.  This display was created specially for this year, celebrating the 500 years of the reformation.  It was held in the Augusteum building which is one of the original college buildings from the 16th century.  It is built next to the Luther House, which is where Martin Luther resided while living in Wittenberg.  After going through this display, we had increased understanding about Martin Luther, his courage and convictions and the impact that he had on so many people in this world.

Explanation of the Lutherhaus

Special Luther Display for the 500 year anniversary, no photos were allowed inside

In front of the Lutherhaus

 We finished our tour and left Wittenberg by1:00 pm, ready for the 4 hour drive home so that we could participate in General Conference by 6:00 pm.  We only had one 20 minute construction delay and were home by 5:30 pm and at the Church by 6:00 pm for conference.  Nothing was ready for conference in the Church so we went home and enjoyed the two Saturday sessions in our living room.  On Sunday morning we got up and watched the Priesthood Session.  Soon we will be enjoying the Sunday sessions.  We love General Conference and are so thankful to hear from our prophets and leaders.  We will have to give a better report on conference in the coming weeks.

Watching the opening session of conference.