The members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were good citizens and appealed to the Communist government every once in a while for permission to go to the temple in Switzerland, or England. Because the people always returned as they said they would, the government usually allowed them to go. One time, however, the government officials asked the members of the church if they could build a temple in East Germany so they wouldn’t have to leave the country to attend the temple as they desired to do. What a wonderful and joyful suggestion to think that such a thing could be allowed. When the suggestion was relayed to the Prophet and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles they acted on it as quickly as possible.
Imagine having a temple behind the Iron Curtin! The Lord works in mysterious ways.When we arrived at the temple we took several pictures of the temple grounds with the chapel next to it and dorm housing behind the temple (a place for members to stay while going to the temple).
It was a beautiful day to set up for the Family History presentation the next day. Afterward we found our Bed and Breakfast place where we were staying for two days. It was a lovely old home remodeled inside to accommodate travelers. Since it was just around the corner from the temple, it was a very nice place to stay. That evening we drove around some of the old center of the town of Freiberg to find some dinner and see a bit of the place. 
It started to rain, so we couldn’t do much looking around, but we drove through some of the streets and took a few pictures. Sadly the battery on our camera was dying so we couldn’t take many pictures of the area. Much of the housing was still drab-looking apartment buildings. There were rows and rows of the same kind of houses. Some of the buildings were being remodeled, but many were still brown or gray. It was very depressing to see that the norm for the Communist era buildings was mediocrity. There didn’t seem to be any striving for excellence in their construction. 
The importance of sameness for everyone seemed to be targeted only at a mediocre level. However, things are beginning to improve economically and otherwise for Eastern Germany since the reunification of the East and West. We are so glad to see that.The Family History day was a success on Tuesday as we held 3 sessions of Indexing and New Family Search Training. The youth we were working with were from Salzburg and Vienna, Austria. They were alternated in 3 sections—some in a baptism session, some in the New FamilySearch class and some in our FS Indexing classes. Richard Walker, a colleague in our office, taught the New FamilySearch classes and Grant taught the Indexing classes.
Here you can see one of the classes of youth learning with Elder Howlett.
It turned out very well to keep the youth active learning how to read the old German script, how to do Indexing and begin learning how to use the New FamilySearch program. The Youth enjoyed it a lot, and so did we.
The next day we got a chance to do an 8 am session in the Freiberg temple. It was a little bigger inside than our Columbus, Ohio temple and they used lots of language head sets. That morning all the German and English speaking people had to wear headsets because the session was in Russian—a group had come in from Russia for a temple trip. It was a beautiful experience to see so many members of the church from different lands there.
We loved it.After the session we drove over to Dresden, a big city near Freiberg. Our friends, Richard and his wife, Elke Walker showed us around some of the sites in the middle of the city.
In this picture you can see the Walker family--Richard, Gary, Elke and Erik.
Elke grew up in Dresden, East Germany. Her family members were some of the faithful saints who weathered World War II and the Cold War in Communist Germany and her parents still live there. The city of Dresden used to be a beautiful city of the aristocracy of Sachsen. At the close of World War II, when Germany was divided between America, England and Russia, the Communists were planning to take over the city of Dresden as their headquarters in Germany.
However, the American and British leaders didn’t want Russia to get that city for their headquarters as it would have left them free to rule without any Western influence, so they bombed Dresden near the end of WWII. Much of the city was destroyed, and Communist Russia had to use East Berlin for their headquarters. What a shame to destroy such a beautiful city to prevent the Russians from having uncontrolled power over the people.Many of the buildings have been restored now,
and it is a beautiful city again showing how much the wealthy aristocracy had in comparison to the life led by the very poor peasants. But, Eastern Germany is now changing. 
Here is the Dresden Opera House today. We were told the Opera house in Dresden is one of the most famous places for opera in the world.
We appreciated the Walkers strolling around with us and describing things that day. The city has been restored a lot to its former beauty and grandeur.
To the right is a picture of Elder and Sister Howlett standing by some of the restored buildings along the Elbe River front. It was a great ending of another successful Family History presentation.
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