We have had a fantastic week at the temple that resulted in many ordinances performed and many happy souls as a result of the efforts of the Stakes that came from Germany and the Netherlands. The German stakes brought temple workers who had been approved to work in this temple ever since their temple in Frankfurt closed to be renovated almost 4 years ago.
It all began on Tuesday the 16th with a baptismal service that began at 8:00am and continued throughout most of the day. They had a big busload of youth that were rotated between activities at the Zoetermeer church building and the temple. They coordinated a laundry crew that worked out fantastically. The ordinance workers had their training meeting and then all the adults joined in endowment sessions, initiatory and sealing sessions which rotated through about every 2 hours until about 5 pm. There were even a couple of young people who came to receive their own endowments.
On Wednesday the first part of the German group arrived at 8:45. These were the temple ordinance workers. They wanted to have an hour of training which included instruction and training films that the Temple Department provides for all temple workers to see. At 10:00 the ordinance work began including endowment sessions, initiatory sessions, and sealings beginning every 2 or so hours until 7 pm. This day included a sealing of a husband and wife who live in Layton, Utah. The Brother used to live near Dortmund, Germany and after his 1st wife died he met this Sister from Utah. They got married and moved to Layton. When they planned to come to visit his family in Dortmund they also planned to get sealed here so his family members and friends could join them.
Thursday is a day when the temple is scheduled to be open anyway so our patrons that day were almost double what we normally have because of the extra stakes from Germany. The Endowment sessions were scheduled to begin as soon after the previous one as possible throughout most of the day and we again had a couple of young sisters who received their own Endowments. We also had the youth from Germany on the same all day rotating schedule that was used for doing baptisms on Tuesday. This also makes for lots of laundry but as on Tuesday, they rotated that job into their schedule as well which sure lightened our load.
On Friday several of the German saints had already gone home. Those who stayed did one more session in the morning and then went home. We had Endowments, initiatory, sealings and baptismal sessions scheduled for the rest of the day with youth groups and families from here in the Netherlands so neither the baptistry or the laundry had any reprieve this day either.
Saturday always brings enough patrons to fill all areas of the temple but with it being Easter weekend a wonderfully enthusiastic bunch of people were here from many parts of the world. With the flowers in full bloom many are attracted to come to the Netherlands but many who are the Saints of the Church of Jesus Christ, also want to come to the temple. We were happy to have them come.
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