Sunday, June 29, 2008



BACK TO SALZBURG

Two weeks ago I met a guy at the the church whom I had never seen before. After talking to him for awhile I discovered that he is a Hungarian who was being taught by the missionary assistants to the mission president (the AP's) and who would be baptised that coming Sunday in a different ward.

Fast-forward to this past Friday... as I explained in my previous post, I was walking down the busy tourist street in downtown Munich and I ran into several people I knew from Utah who would be singing that night in a concert at the LDS stake house. While I was vaguely aware of this concert previously, I had not planned on attending because the stake house is kind of far away for me. However, after learning that these acquaintances would be there, I decided to go.

Towards the end of the concert the Hungarian man I had met previously grabbed me by the arm and took me over to the AP's. He said to them, "this is the who I was talking about." They looked at me and said, "you speak Hungarian?" I replied, "Yippiddy dippiddy" which, in Hungarian, means absolutely nothing. (Ok I didn't really say that, but my narrative was getting boring.) They explained how there is a Hungarian couple living in Salzburg who don't really speak German, but are getting baptised on Sunday and they wanted to find someone who speaks Hungarian to baptise them. I said I would gladly do it.

So on Sunday the AP's picked me up and we drove the hour and a half to Salzburg. We were well on our way when I realized that I had forgotten to bring an extra pair of underpants! Woops. At least the scenery was pretty....



We finally arrived and I chatted a bit with the Hungarian couple and the missionaries. They had been using the help of another Hungarian member living in Salzburg to translate for them from Hungarian to German.

The Salzburg church building has a nice view of the Salzburg fortress



So we had sacrament meeting and then right afterwards was the baptism. One of the missionaries had the idea for me to wear a pair of smaller baptismal clothes underneath the normal-sized pair of baptismal clothes. It worked but it was uncomfortable. Nevertheless, the baptism proceeded wonderfully. The man has only one leg so one of the missionaries had to stand behind him in the font as a support.

Here in the picture are the missionaries, the couple, the other Hungarian member and her baby, and myself.



I had to change quickly so that the AP's could high-tail it back to Munich. You see, their new mission president was arriving in a few hours and they had to run to the mission home and pick up the out-going mission president and his wife (President & Sister Rakow) so that they could get to the train station on time to pick up the new president and his wife (President & Sister Condie.) So I tagged-along with them since the train station is near enough to where I live. It was kind of funny actually. I even followed them to the platform where the new president was arriving to meet him and his wife and help carry luggage. They were a little confused as to who I was and what I was doing there, but it was fun to see part of the "passing of the baton" as it were.

So what a fun day... I'm glad that I decided to go light bulb shopping last Friday.


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3 Deep thoughts:

Anonymous July 01, 2008 6:39 AM  

We're glad that you are worthy to be part of serving others and experience some tender mercies.

Anonymous July 01, 2008 6:50 AM  

You are welcome in my beautiful Austrian valley anytime, but please quit stealing my parishoners!

Wendy July 10, 2008 1:23 AM  

Hi Nate. This is the first time I've tuned into your blog while you have been in Germany. Fun story! I hope to have time to read more. Pres and Sis Condie were on the cover of the Church News a couple weeks ago (I happen to still have it sitting right here) Be good. Love Aunt Wendy

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