Morning came too early. Having 9:00 am church didn't make it easier. By the time I was ready to go, Alicia determined that her migraine that cropped up was going to keep her from being able to accompany me.
Jody and Erik's ward has the meetings reversed. First is priesthood/relief society/YM-YW, then sunday school, and finally sacrament meeting.
I was only able to catch little bits of the joint priesthood/relief society meeting, but afterward Erik was able to fill me in. Apparently their bishop felt it was important to talk about early childhood development and had the patriarch's wife speak. She has been studying the topic for years and had a lot to say about it. Since I couldn't understand the language, I didn't hear how that related to the gospel, but I'm sure it was there somewhere.
In sunday school, the lesson was on the Garden of Gethsemane. One of my favorite lessons. I was looking forward to the new point of views. The class split into two groups, English speaking and German speaking. A brother from South Africa taught the English class and must not be used to leading discussions because it was mostly a guessing game to figure out what he wanted us to pick-up on. With only maybe 12 people, most tentative to respond because of the guessing game style, it wasn't as lively as I hoped. The discussion largely focused on the charge the Savior gave Peter, James, and John when he left them at the entrance to the garden.
After the sacrament, sacrament meeting was a fast and testimony meeting. They had translation headsets for English and that made it possible for me to understand the people in Jody's ward. She has some great people there. Many of the youth had just returned from school trips to other places in Europe. All talked about what it was like to be the only members of the Church of Jesus Christ in groups where drinking and carrying on was the standard. Each one talked about how grateful they were that gospel standards protected them from undesired consequences. It was great to see such strong youth.
It was also nice to hear Jody's testimony. She didn't have a translator, but I think those who couldn't speak German got the message. Here is a recording of the testimony she gave: Jody's Testimony
After church, Jody and Erik arranged to borrow some tools from their friends the Flannigans so they could put together their Ikea purchases on Monday. Their friends also said they were going to come over later and bring some food for a joint Sunday dinner.
At home we started preparing a quick lunch, assembled some ingredients for dinner later, and Alicia and I started planning our trip to Prague. We decided to leave in the morning and get to Prague in early afternoon. I arranged for a nice hotel that overlooks the city at a pretty good rate.
The Flannigans came over later and they brought fixings for American burritos, including some dough to roll out tortillas (you won't those in the grocery store). Jody put together a fake cabonara sauce with a béchamel sauce that tasted great with some bow-tie pasta. I boiled some weisswurst with rotkohler, and also boiled some new potatoes. Erik fried up some little hot-dog style sausages and helped with the Mexican food. Before long we had a real Mexi-Italian-German buffet. It was all good.
The rest of the night we visited and talked of old memories, music, and favorite places in Europe. It was a nice day.
Tomorrow, Prague and The Czech Republic. We can't wait.
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