Friday night and I'm headed to Freiburg, Germany for a Stake Leadership meeting! I get in the car with Alison and she says, "Did you remember your passport?" I laugh as I think of heading to a meeting which is usually a few blocks from my home, and which I see as a regular part of life, like stopping at the grocery store ,is now a passport worthy adventure. The 'regular' meeting bit of church life abroad is different...
To sum it up--- begin at 5:00 with a two hour drive, two hour training meeting, an hour of food and chatting, and a two hour ride home.. arrive home at midnight!
It was a beautiful drive. Green rolling hills, villages with a church with it's tall steeple in the middle. I don't get tired of that. We pick up two other sisters and some of the talk is in English and some is in German. I look out the window as I listen to this new language and after a bit Alison turns to give me a brief synopsis.
We arrive a few minutes late and I look for the room where the Young Women leaders are meeting. I walk in the door and the meeting has started and the Stake President is speaking....not a good way to make an entrance. He pauses as they quietly ask my name and then find someone to sit by me and translate. I am the only English speaker. In my world of going to church and needing translation must be kind of like always being the one to give and then be willing to have someone do for you.. It is a beautiful thing but is humbling. I balance between two states in those meetings. One where I am part of the discussion, planning, learning... but one the other had observing the things I believe through another language and culture. The doctrine is the same but the way it is done is different. Seeing with new eyes.
The food after was delicious! Different kinds of breads, cheeses, and German traditional deserts. All can be categorized as my comfort foods! It was 9:00 and no one was racing out the door to get home even though they had already given so much time to be there. I left thinking how when you live so far apart from other members that you value your time with them so much more. I thought about how it really isn't about providing the perfect food after but the food allowed people to connect, which is the most important piece... I thought of the times I had been to stake meetings in Utah and slip out the door after skipping the food and now thinking I missed the point of that part of the meeting... connecting.
I arrived home a little stunned that I had just spent 7 hours for a Stake meeting and thinking that I will never again complain about another church meeting I have to go to. As opposed to me I was in awe that this type of 7 hours stake meeting was their 'regular.' To these strong women 7 hours is what is expected and they were happy to be there... I was taught that night, not just with words...
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