During my mission, I lived in Simbach Am Inn (Germany) from July to November 1987. Simbach is a beautiful city on the banks of the Inn river. The Inn river forms the border between Austria and Germany. Braunau, Austria sits across the river from Simbach. We would travel across the river on a bridge to visit Braunau.
I served with two different companions in Simbach: Elder Young and Elder Miller.
Before I arrived in Simbach, the missionaries met a man named Freddy Habermann (his first name was actually Alfred but he used Freddy). Freddy was a blacksmith. He moved to Simbach from Czechoslovakia a year or so before the missionaries met him.
The missionaries had taught Freddy some of the missionary discussions. As far as I remember, Freddy attended church every Sunday while I was in Simbach. He would even share his testimony on Testimony Sunday. We continued to teach Herr Habermann and at one point committed him to baptism. However, he did not get baptized before I left Simbach. We visited his house often for meals. His wife was a great cook.
We would frequently stop by to visit Freddy during the day at his blacksmith shop. Freddy was working on a project to build a number of large chandeliers for the cathedral of a small church building. He did not have any employees.
Because I grew up on a farm/ranch AND my Great Grandpa Cook had been a blacksmith AND I had always been intrigued by blacksmith work, I asked Herr Habermann if we could work in the shop sometime. He agreed and invited us to come when we wanted. We helped him out on two or three different occasions.
One day, Elder Miller and I were working in the shop to help make metal balls. The basic process was to start with a metal rod. The rod was about 1" or 1.5" in diameter. Elder Miller and I cut the rod into 1" or 1.5" lengths and placed them in the forge.
Herr Habermann would remove the heated rod pieces from the forge with a pair of tongs. Then, he would use a power hammer to shape the rod into a roughly round ball (see a video of a power hammer in action). After the ball was completed, Freddy would dip the ball in a bucket of water and lay the ball on the counter to cool.
While we were working, a customer entered the shop and watched Freddy get a glowing piece of metal rod from the forge, form a metal ball (metal still glowing), dip the ball in the water mixture, and place the ball on the counter. Then, the man walked over and picked up the very ball Freddy just made with his bare hand. Of course, he immediately dropped the ball and jumped back, exclaiming "heiß!" (translation "hot!")
As the deadline for completing the chandeliers got closer, Freddy hired two temporary workers to help him get them finished on time. He also invited us to come by more frequently. We helped by drilling holes in the balls and using a tap to add threads; mounting the balls on the chandeliers; and painting.
One day, Freddy invited us and the two temporary workers to come home with him for lunch. We started lunch with soup. It was very tasty. Elder Miller, the two hired hands, and I all had a couple bowls of soup. Frau Habermann at one point asked us if we wanted more. One of the hands commented about how good the soup tasted and asked what kind of soup it was. Frau Habermann replied, it is "Schneckensuppe" (translation ... snail soup!).
After that comment, none of wanted any more soup!
The two pictures below show me helping to load the completed chandeliers on a trailer so that Herr Habermann could deliver them to the church and install them.
Sadly, I never saw the church where the chandeliers were installed.
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| That is me on the right. You can see Herr Habermann's back (blue shirt) behind the chandelier. |
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| My companion Elder Miller on the right. If you look closely, you can see me behind Elder Miller. |
SIDE NOTE: As I was preparing this story, I decided to search the internet to see if Herr Habermann still had an operating blacksmith shop in Simbach. I found Freddy's Wikipedia page.
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