OCTOBER 27, 2008 MONDAY

Two things happened today that were significant. First, we visited Sis. Roffler and her daughter for lunch. It was a very nice visit and lunch was great. Second, we had dinner at the Locher’s with Suki, Elders Eland and Evans Heinz and Lily Locher and us. It was kind of a celebration for Suki completing the Quit Smoking program. After that we attended the FHE at Jurg Moeller-Russo’s home. Those who attended were Pres. & Sis. Bolt, the AP’s, Joerg & Ilene Moeller-Russo, Naeide Graf (investigator), an Italian friend of Joerg’s, Fabian Streit, Suki Ehrensperger, and us. We had a lot of fun. It tried to rain all day and it finally made by nightfall. We walked home in the rain. The only other thing is we washed our clothes this morning.

OCTOBER 28, 2008 TUESDAY

This morning we were prepared to wait between 10:00 and 3:00 p.m. for our dryer to be delivered. We were just getting into our study mode when the doorbell rang (8:30 a.m.) It was the delivery of our dryer so we didn’t have to wait after all. So the rest of the morning was taken up with unpacking it and setting it up. Of course it makes our kitchen small because we had to put it in there by a plug and it wouldn’t fit anywhere else. We put it where the utinsels cabinet was and now that cabinet sits in front of the cleaning/vacuum/ironing board closet. When we pass each other in the kitchen, we already had to suck it in, so to speak, to get past each other. But, it’ll be good to have a dryer. Since wash day was yesterday, I hung out my shirts to dry. I tried putting them in the new dryer to heat up to see if the wrinkles would come out so I wouldn’t have to iron them. Well, they didn’t so I ironed most of them today before we had to go out. I’ll do the rest tomorrow.

By 2:00 we had our map with addresses plotted out and we went forth to find even though it was raining. Our efforts produced two addresses where the members had moved and one who wasn’t home. After the first address we walked to the second one because it was warmer walking and we were standing in the rain anyway. After the 2nd address we walked to the 3rd one where the member wasn’t at home. We left a message and an invitation to the Halloween party. We walked down to the next bus stop, but, you guessed it, the bus only ran twice in the early afternoon and no more runs all day. So we back tracked to the stop we’d passed getting to that address and, you guessed it, the same problem. So we back tracked to the next stop and picked up the bus going the wrong way to the end of the line. We just rode it around till it was going back the right way to a connecting stop for a bus to the Stettbach Bahnhof. There we caught our beloved Tram 7 and went home. We got home just in time to make a pit stop and then back out to church for the English class and Institute. Sis. Wachter was not at English class again tonight so we’ll have to take an invitation to them tomorrow. Diana and I ended up being the only ones left in the class because Sis. Frioud had to leave early. The Elders taught us German. The institute class we went to was one on world religions taught in English. We finally got home a little after nine and finally had time to fix dinner, a can of Ravioli. Tasted good anyway. We also had some of the cake and ice cream we bought for last weeks’ FHE.

On our way out to do our finding, Elders Pine and Middleton got on our bus; I assume they were going home for lunch. It’s always good to see the Elders. I forgot to mention something about FHE last night. The opening prayer was in English, the discussions, lessons, games etc. were in German, Swiss German, English and Italian, and the closing prayer was in Italian. Kind of gives you a flavor of what it’s like over here.

OCTOBER 29, 2008 WEDNESDAY

Today began as usual with our prayer at 7:00 a.m. and the other normal stuff. This morning was a little different because our weekly district meeting began at 9:30 instead of 10:30 and Diana had the assignment to give the spiritual thought. We don’t know why they call it a thought because it’s more like a 5-10 minute talk. The DL Elder Pine never gives much notice so Diana was up late last night and up early trying to get the thought prepared. She worries so much and feels more comfortable if she has more time to prepare. But she always does a wonderful job and this time was no exception. Her thought, more like talk, was on the theme of this meeting which was “Faith.” She used the verses in James “faith without works is dead”, the Articles of Faith especially #4 and the story of the Brother of Jared in Ether. I had the game assignment again because I had one I wanted to do last week, but the four Elders that had to leave kind of postponed the game I wanted to do. So this week the game was/is “bigger and better” in which each companion pair was given a little tea candle. They have until next district meeting to trade up as many times as they can and see who can bring in the biggest and best item. Members are off limits. I wanted us to be excluded and just have the young missionaries do it, but Diana said we also have to participate. So, we’ll see.

It was snowing hard most of the day and when it wasn’t snowing, it was raining. It’s also pretty cold now, but we can’t tell how cold because they use Celsius. One day we’ll have to learn how to convert degrees to Celsius. So we spent some time preparing the new member lessons for the couple being baptized Saturday and also looking for ingredients for caramel for the caramel apples and treats for the Halloween party Saturday. Treats, of which there aren’t many to choose from other than chocolate, cost a lot over here as do the ingredients. One can of condensed milk is 3.20 sfr. which is about $3.00. One cup of cream is about $2.20 on sale so that makes a gallon about $37.00. So, if the Elders actually find corn syrup, these caramel apples are going to cost a fortune. We say “if”, but it won’t matter because we’ve bought all the stuff already so we hope they find the corn syrup. Diana continues to make the bean bags by hand for her game Saturday.

As we were riding on the tram we talked to a young man and, of course, brought religion into the conversation. He had heard about the Mormons, but didn’t want a BM. He said it was good that people had their religion, but he wasn’t very religious. However, he accepted a pass along card with the LDS website and an invitation to get a BM.

Diana got her absentee ballot last week, so she voted and mailed it off. I got mine on Monday, but kept forgetting to mail it. Diana reminded me to get it mailed today, so I did.