Stephen and Elaine Biddulph: 29 FEBRUAR

Bern Tempel (Zollikofen)

This week was hi-lighted by our trip to Bern, Switzerland and a visit to the LDS Temple in Zollikofen. I spent Monday through Wednesday doubling up on missionary phone calls so that I might have less of a load while I was on the trip (Reise). In addition to phone calls, on Monday afternoon I drove Elaine out to Br and Schw Delpin's home for visiting teaching - about a 30 minute drive one way. On Tuesday, we had our early release council meeting to discuss missionaries who might need to return home for medical or mental health reasons. Tuesday evening our friend, David Lay, came to stay with us for 2 nights. We first met while students at BYU and then spent 3 years in Marines together in artillery. He was in England and Germany for business meetings with his company. He stayed with us Tuesday and Wednesday nights and left early Thursday morning to catch a plane back to Utah. On Wednesday I taught the Book of Mormon class for the senior missionaries on Ether Chapters 1-4.

Elder and Sister Biddulph at Temple

Thursday at 9:30 a.m. we met five other senior couples at the train station (Bahnhof) and caught a train to Basel, Switzerland. At Basel we changed trains and arrived in Bern about 3:30 p.m. It was colder there than in Frankfurt and overcast, but the train ride was very nice as opposed to driving 5 hours in traffic. We caught the S-Bahn from Bern to Zollikofen (about 15 minute ride) where we stayed two nights at the Bahnhof hotel near the Bahnhof and the Temple. We attended temple sessions Friday morning and afternoon. The first session was in English and the afternoon session was in Italian, but I listened on headsets in German and enjoyed the session very much. We met there a member of our little Offenbach branch (Gemeinde) in Frankfurt who is serving a temple mission with his wife in Zollikofen - Bernd und Petra Stadtmüller. Great people. We wanted to participate in temple sealings on Saturday morning, but I had missionary phone calls that prevented that.

Zollikofen Tempel

The temple in Zollikofen was dedicated in 1955 and was the first temple outside the USA to be built. As a 20-year old missionary I visited the temple in 1965 with other missionaries serving in the Berlin mission, and again with Elaine in 1979 at the end of a military operation in North Wedding-Bold Guard in Germany, Denmark, and Shetland Islands. The temple is still the beautiful structure it was with forest behind and nice landscaping. The inside of the temple, especially the celestial room is very beautiful. However, Zollikofen has certainly changed. Many more apartment buildings.
Saturday it snowed a wet snow and drizzled all day long. We caught the train from Zollikofen back to Bern and spent the rest of the day walking around Bern. The city proper is formed within a horseshoe of the Aare River. Bern burned to the ground about 1400 and was rebuild. As one can see in the photos, much of the inner proper is constructed of the same cement bulwark and looks very

Flea Market Bern with Bundeshaus in background

similar. We assembled at the Bahnhof in Bern at 15:30 (3:30 p.m.) and caught the 4 p.m. train direct to Frankfurt. Well, actually it made short stops along the way in Freiburg, Karls Rhue, Baden-Baden, and Mannheim. We arrived back in Frankfurt about 8:00 p.m. and were home by 8:30. All in all, it was a delightful trip.
Sunday, we were up at 6:30 a.m. getting ready for church. We drove to Offenbach and got the doors open, lights turned on, heat going, song books distributed, sacrament prepared, and everything ready to go for sacrament meeting. It was fast Sunday and we had good testimonies. Stephen bore his testimony auf Deutsch. Elaine led the singing. Stephen gave a short talk to the children in Primary (PV) on prophets and Elaine played the piano for the children singing and also did the sharing time presentation. Stephen issued a call to a member for a primary position and we then attended ward council (Gemeinderat). Monday evening Stephen gives a talk to the Young Adults in the Friedrichdorf Gemeinde on his Vietnam

experiences. So, we stay pretty busy and out of trouble. We are planning for a trip to Dresden and Berlin the end of March on general conference weekend. We will watch conference as we can and get caught up upon our return. We are both excited to get to Berlin. Stephen served there on his mission 50 years ago and hasn't been back since. Much has changed. We are also interested in seeing Dresden.